kiwilove

Before Star Raiders you had the Star Trek computer game. I did not play any of these Star Trek games, but I think they were text driven in which you commanded the Enterprise. It was not obviously running in real time. Then when Star Raiders appeared on the market, you have the updated version of the Star Trek game in real time 3D. And so it always amazes me that it was not stated plainly how much of a killer app this game was at the time. Plus of course, no other computer system had anything like it, until some years later. My first impressions when playing Star Raiders for the first few times, weren't all that great. In that it took a while to get comfortable with the game and it's environment, and that the numbers displayed actually do have meaning to them. And it was so action packed and fast moving. Graphically, it didn't look that impressive because the graphics were not in high res. You would assume that it was because of memory constraints and of the fast speed needed that this medium graphics mode was made use of. And so it is when you really know what the game is about and how to make the most use of the numbers on screen, like when your computer is damaged or destroyed you soon get use to manually looking for and docking to starbases without the aid of the computer. It always amazes me of how Star Raiders was created? How imaginative Doug was and able to deliver such a wonderful game. It should have been popularly called 'the Star Wars' game because the cover art seems to imply this without hesitation. Would more Atari Home Computers have sold more with Star Raiders had Star Wars fans knew about Star Raiders? Also the same applies to Star Trek fans, of course. Harvey

Here is a sample of some of the hidden target locations ...

I couldn't see the text entry area for starting this new topic, so I just have to start it off here. I do have suggestions for anyone up to the task of making the Hawkquest game more playable, and more fun to play. They go from in-depth hacking into the game, to the simpler quick hack, which I'll list at the very end. I do suggest using the latest hack update to the game, that is the Joy 2B updated one, in that topic header, that is games hacked to using the Joy 2B, 2 button joystick. In depth hacks. Main Game. It would be nice to have the cursor able to detect the hidden targets present in the landscape. I don't know if this is possible with the hardware limitation present? It'll require special programming for this to be possible, if at all? Hitting/bombing the hidden targets are essential in order to reach the very end of the screens, that is the entry to the Secondary Game. Secondary Game. A nice addition/modification would be, that at around 10 lives remaining it would be helpful to know this. So maybe have the lower text window flashing Yellow? And when down to 3? lives for it to flash Red. Perhaps a pause needs to be added for when you are hit because you don't want to lose lives in quick succession. Quick hacks. The most obvious one is to have extra lives at the very start of the game. Unlimited lives as such. A nice hack would be for the lives counter to count off how many lives you are using, so that you'll have some idea of when you are getting better at playing the game, by knowing how many lives you are taking up to reach the end. The same kind of hack for the Secondary Game because you do need a ton of lives in order the solve the maze you have to go through and pick up the essential items to complete each level. The programmer did think about someone hacking into the game to make it easier, and to make it not so easy for them to do it. I did make available a playing guide, which I think is still available at hawkquest.tripod.com Harvey

Doing Zaxxon very well on the Atari 8-bit hardware would seem to be near an impossible task? For some research look at the it's graphic tiles via MAME of the coin-op, and recreating the Synapse C-64 conversion may be a possible goal? But you would want to make use of what can the Atari hardware do to assist. While it may be possible to outdo the C-64 conversion? There is simply a ton of work that is involved and problems aplenty to work through. It would be a big challenge to take on but a small plus would be, there's always Super Zaxxon left to do afterwards, to make the effort worthwhile. Harvey

Another Bunten game is Cytron Masters, this is about the only Bunten game I could get into playing and enjoying. Harvey

OK, my wish is for a so-called 'original' homebrew that combines various elements or games together to give you that 'Never the same game twice' feeling through most of it. If you know your mathematics about permutations and combinations - add some of that in it. To have some random elements or waves (attacks) that may or may not happen. Have their behaviour possibly change at times. eg. They may or may not shoot? They may or may not drop something behind (which may be good or bad?) and so on. Most levels will have the same waves in them but have them changeable in their order - which can be random or preset. Make the most of the 7800 hardware. Have animations for almost everything that is possible to have animation present. 2, 4, 5 or 8 frames possible. Make use of a 'hit' frame when an enemy is hit, which adds to the finesse of the game overall. Have some nicely animated explosions! While this is more easily done within a shooter format. The same idea could be applied to other types of games to add some variety and spice to them? I'm no programmer but just work on graphics designs and have been a shooter fan from way back. Demos or end of game sequences can benefit from some of these ideas? Harvey

For me, it was the illusion of speeding through space at very high speed that Star Raiders enabled, and you can vary this effect in increments. I loved it so much that I would leave it in this mode until you eventually hit an asteroid. One thing I didn't like in Star Raiders was when the screen turned green with shields enabled. I would have liked instead, that the bottom part of the screen turned green, to remind you of this, so that you could have a black background for the stars, etc, during combat. I always found the green screen offputing. The ace in Star Raiders were the numbers in the instrumentation had meaning to them, and you had to rely upon them when your scanner was damaged or destroyed. That you had to rely upon your own visual orientation and view to find a much needed starbase out there with the aid of those numbers. That Star Raiders was delayed until it was released, I guess the programmer had the time to add the spit and polish to the game that made it stand tall against others. Harvey

I am surprised that no one has so far mentioned Blue Max? I've been a long time lover of the coin-op Zaxxon and never liked the A8 conversion, which looks perfectly fine compared to other conversions done - Colecovision anyone? But for Zaxxon coin-op purists it is severely lacking. There was little there, for me to like. I'm hard to please because graphics is my interest, but I wanted playability also. Many years later on I had to go over to the C-64 to play the Synapse conversion and play it, and can say it's the best home conversion of Zaxxon done. Although I haven't played others. Sega did market their own conversion? Couldn't find a video of it but I'll guess it'll rate poorly along Synapses' seeing that it is not easily found. But BitD, along comes Blue Max - and it has all the hallmarks of a Zaxxon game in spades. While graphically it is rather plain looking, but it's graphics are effectively done for functionality. I can't fault this game much. It's not easy to get into the city and even harder to bomb the required targets there. Equally impressive to me, was Encounter. I had a brief chance encounter with the programmer and was able to view the game before it was released. It's truly immersive and gave you the realism of being in that world. For platform fun, it was Miner 2049'er for me, getting use to it's quirky platforms and jumps required. Donkey Kong was not fun at all for me maybe because I never played the coin-op game much at all. Also fun was Bristles in which you can safely fall down or be knocked down. The control was a bit quirky to get use to, but once use to it, it's more than OK to play. Harvey

The only large game I am aware of, that does run on a stock Atari 400 16K, is AtariBlast! on a 8mbit Atarimax flashcart. That I tested and ran alright. Back in the day, I do remember transferring 16K games from disk to tape for a newly found friend who had a 16K Atari 400, who quickly moved onto an Atari 800 48K machine because he soon ran out of the 16K games that he could run on the Atari 400. Of course the 16K ripped Cartridge Atari games could never run on 16K machines. I don't know the technical reason for this - was it the load/run addresses were changed to run on a disk based system? Could they have been changed back then, to run off tape for 16K users? Harvey

Yes - I'll agree there is nothing like the original coin-op, when playing it via MAME. I haven't played consoles past PS2, that's when my interest and money ran out. My memory of playing R-Type games on SNES BitD, an affordable home system that did satisfy your coin-op cravings. Harvey

I'll make some comment about 'R-type for the 7800'? Why do it? For various reasons, such as copyright hassle, and the hardware being so very different. I'll say it'll be better and easier to work on some R-type variant - like Armalyte was for the C64. That you would work on a game heavily influenced by R-Type but take advantage of the hardware you are working on, and use it's strengths. Another example is R-Type III on the SNES. If you really want to play R-Type on a home system - you can't get any better than playing it on the Sega Master System, or PC Engine or the SNES. Sure, if you had a programmer and graphics artist who would gladly put in the time and effort to deliver R-Type on the 7800. Fine, go for it. But I would rather see them taking advantage of the 7800 and deliver what they think they are better capable of in a game inspired by R-Type. Just my two cents. Harvey

Sad to hear of these recent and not so recent exits from this life. You should aim for past 100 if you're on a healthy diet, do some regular exercise and train yourself for high quality sleeping, along with good genes of course. We all get recycled (like old computer hardware) whether you believe in this concept or not. See the story about Dorothy Eady which can illustrate this. Enjoy your hobbies is another driver for a long life as you begin to wonder how far can you travel in time and how small can things get before they cannot shrink even more? Harvey

This is certainly not a game I expected to see converted across to the A8 hardware - though seeing the previous beginning of a port, did illustrate how it is indeed possible to. Of course seeing such a project continuing onto completion is what every old Atari fan wants to see done again and again. Especially when it is done to such attention to detail, as you have done. Sadly this particular game I don't have the desire to play through again, having played the SNES conversion in it's day. I'll gladly watch someone play through this entire game and appreciate the quality of work involved and executed in it's creation. I do wonder what your next game project will be? Or other ones further down the line. There is one particular game I like to see fully done, but won't mention the title here. It's probably on a lot of players' most wanted list - and is known to be doable now. Harvey

Haven't checked out the prior pages here - only the recent comments. But it looks like it may be 'Chopper Rescue' - can't remember it myself, though I did play it. Youtube videos show it to be what is described here. Harvey