Would this have made a better ET?

[bradhig1]

This is a game from the 09/1985 issue of Compute's Gazette called Friendly Alien. You have to gather candy pieces to make the phone appear while avoiding the flu bugs. Soda cans make you drunk.

 

[Shawn]

Hell no.

[+Stephen]

That is beyond terrible - 2600 version is vastly better game.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

No. For all it's many flaws, at least E.T. was somewhat deep and offered unique gameplay. This is lame even for a type-in game.

[Inky]

As I've said previously, had they replaced the pits with trees or shrubs in which the phone parts were hidden behind, that alone would have made the game a lot less frustrating.

The way it is, I think its still a good game, however.

[Video]

Oh god the color choice. Thought that was an early CGA (eew) game. The 64 is capable of so much better. WTF?!

[bradhig1]

I can't stand the colors either. Makes it hard to see the yellow candies. I thought maybe people would prefer collecting candies to falling in pits all the time. I like ET on the Atari 2600 too.

[Video]

Don't know about the gameplay, I'd have to try it, but if I found it, the first thing I'd do would be to hack the BG to black, or at least not white. Its hard to tell from a video if I'd find the game fun, the premise is better IMO, collect candies, and avoid soda, kind of koolaid man, actually, and I did enjoy that more than et.

[pacman000]

That constant beeping would have to go.

[bradhig1]

Don't know about the gameplay, I'd have to try it, but if I found it, the first thing I'd do would be to hack the BG to black, or at least not white. Its hard to tell from a video if I'd find the game fun, the premise is better IMO, collect candies, and avoid soda, kind of koolaid man, actually, and I did enjoy that more than et.

Colors are bad because all the c64 emulators were made by euros who used PAL color palette rather then NTSC color palette

[Video]

Is it different color in NTSC? Our 64 only has 16 colors, I think.

 

Yeah, that constant beep would have to go too. Considering its a basic game, I'd say it looks pretty good. I never could get info on how to change colors on 64, to heck with add a custom sprite. All I'd ever get when asking was "do it in assembly" mother f#$@%r if I knew assembly, why would I be trying to program in basic?

[bradhig1]

There is also a version on the VIc 20.

[Jinks]

Aside from the cool planet or mothership sound it sucks bigtime.

[bradhig1]

Vic-20 version

 

[Video]

As ugly as it is, its easier to see at least LOL

[MissCommand]

It does make me miss my C64! I think I vaguely remember playing that game! I use to spend hours typing in those silly programs.

[MissCommand]

Is it different color in NTSC? Our 64 only has 16 colors, I think.

 

Yeah, that constant beep would have to go too. Considering its a basic game, I'd say it looks pretty good. I never could get info on how to change colors on 64, to heck with add a custom sprite. All I'd ever get when asking was "do it in assembly" mother f#$@%r if I knew assembly, why would I be trying to program in basic?

 

The game looks like it does a very common mechanism for those type-in games... redefining the character set instead of using sprites.

 

Changing colors is super easy, you either poke a background and/or border color, and just use the standard color codes when printing the "redefined" characters to the screen.

Edited November 3, 2017 by MissCommand