[Grav - Atari ST, complete playthrough with comments]

15 hours ago, Zolaerla said:

As much as I hate the "Lunar Lander"-style of games, I loved this one BitD, esp. because of the fun (severe annoyance?) dealing with the repulsors/attactors making it extra challenging. Thanks for the playthrough!

Yeah I was the same. I never got very far when I used to play it on the ST but I always enjoyed it. Playing now as an adult, by far the most difficult enemy in the game is the homing bomb launchers. They can only be destroyed when they are open and firing. There is some logic to when they fire (usually when your ship is not facing them) and if there is a logic beyond that it really escapes me, other than RNG. 
It is a shame that these types of games never became very popular.

[Grav - Atari ST, complete playthrough with comments]

For a long time I have wanted to do a complete Grav play-through for the Atari ST. Please find it here:

Most videos I found on Grav seemed to be beginners or people just getting started with the game, I am not claiming to be a Grav master but if you have ever wanted to see the whole game, this is your chance. :-)

If people are interested I am also thinking of doing a Grav 2 play-through. Please let me know. :-)

 

[ThrustLander - retro-inspired cave flyer (in VCS Store)]

On 11/12/2022 at 8:58 PM, tripled79 said:

Playing this game today. Does anybody know how many levels are in this game?

I know this! There are 128 destroy missions and 128 retro missions with unique maps. So 256. It is a little more complex than that though. The destroy missions have x4 variations of the map rotated at 90° increments. Then there are 128 timed missions which utilize the same map. That means to complete the game in its entirety (100%) you need to beat 768 levels!

 

Generally on the easiest setting you are travelling up and on the hardest difficulty you are travelling down. Timed missions are a great way to learn how to fly and show just how fast you can go once you get comfortable. The retro missions are great palette cleansers and are heavily inspired by 2600 era games.

 

20 minutes ago, justclaws said:

I'm fairly sure the developer @Rob Capper does!
This game is a real challenge which should not be overlooked...

This is very true. The game is extremely challenging. I highly recommend playing on the easiest setting to begin with. The best advice I can give is to get comfortable flying the ship. Timed missions can be a great way of doing this because you do not need to worry about enemies. Treating encounters strategically is also a great piece of advice, think about the best angle of attack for your ship that gives you the most opportunity and puts you in the least danger. You can also equip the ship with different loadouts to suit your individual playstyle. 

 

I have a gameplay video which breaks down some of the game elements and loudouts.

 

Thank you for buying the game, I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it!

[Jeff Minter / LLamasoft (and Atari VCS?)]

On 7/30/2021 at 8:39 PM, joeatari1 said:

 

Copied from Jeff Minters' Twitter.  I hope the latter means he has finished whatever game he was working on and is ready for tea now.

 

This is a very famous teapot in 3D circles called the "Utah" teapot. I have one of these at home too. ?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_teapot

 

 

 

[Announcing - Gravitic Mines]

This game looks fantastic! Well done to everyone involved. ?

[ThrustLander - retro-inspired cave flyer (in VCS Store)]

21 hours ago, swlovinist said:

I love this game!   #1 For me on the VCS for me.   I am having an issue and do not know if this is just a controller issue for me or something else.   When I try to play Thrustlander with a wireless modern controller, The controller cannot move the menu on the title screen.   I have to hook up the modern controller with a USB cable and play that way.   The controller works fine on all other games that I have wireless.  

 

1 hour ago, swlovinist said:

Thank you for looking into this.   I love the game and am currently playing it today on my day off.   Also there is a menu overlap in the game...menus of two different screens overlap.   I am sure he is aware of this bug but just a heads up.   

Thank you! I always love to hear when people are enjoying the game, it means a lot when people take the time out to post about it. ?

 

The controller issue should be fixed for the next release as is the overlapping UI issue. I always appreciate any bug reports so if you encounter anything else, please don't be shy in letting me know.

 

30 minutes ago, justclaws said:

Yes, I reported that bug too, he has already fixed that one, and it will be fixed in the next update!
@Rob Capper (FYI)

Thanks! yes you are quite right. Should be incoming! ?

[Which game would you want reimagined for the VCS?]

On 6/7/2021 at 7:29 AM, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

I don’t know about reimagined but I’d love Atari to bring Tempest 4000 to the VCS’s  Atari OS I’ve literally no idea why it’s not on there at this point it should be easy to port the windows version to Linux. I’d actually love to see Cybermorph brought to the VCS for laughs with a larger draw distance and at a higher resolution. 

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to post (please feel free to remove if it is not) but I actually have some early concept shots of a Cybermorph style game I was prototyping. These are purely landscape generation tests.

 

There is something I always loved about the Cybermorph style landscapes.

 

Structure test

 

Overall landscape shot tiling test

[History: development of Centipede]

8 hours ago, justclaws said:

This video is very good in covering all the history of the game, and mentioned it being an elf.
It also talks about Millipede, and how in that update/sequel, at least the arrow looks like one. ?
 

 

This was a great watch. Thank you for posting!

[ThrustLander - retro-inspired cave flyer (in VCS Store)]

The Atari joysticks (especially the Classic Controller) are definitely challenging to implement from a developer perspective. Getting the joysticks working as expected from just a raw input perspective is one thing but after that there are a lot of decisions with the classic controller on how to process that data and use it in a game. I have had a few developers reach out to me and I have shared my approach with them. It is oddly a new challenge (even though paddle joysticks are so old) to handle the paddle functionality. For Barrage Blocks I have added settings to handle acceleration with the paddle joystick which take some getting used to from a player perspective but then allow you to be very precise over short distance which is great for a block-breaker. I think as time goes on the best methods of wrangling the data will be figured out and shared more, it is just going to take some time.

 

Thank you everyone for the kind comments about ThrustLander. It is very gratifying to hear that people are enjoying playing!

 

 

[ThrustLander - retro-inspired cave flyer (in VCS Store)]

18 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

I just want to point out the irony of a game being developed by a Canadian for hardware that is not (yet) available for retail purchase in this country. 

I don't know the intended rollout schedule by Atari for different countries but I do know that the current set of developers are from many different places in the World. I don't think this is uncommon for many systems, past and present.

 

17 hours ago, leech said:

Sweet!  Did they fix the cart issue so we can order more than one game at a time?  That is what I have been waiting for.

My VCS is set up in development mode so I cannot test this unfortunately.

 

[ThrustLander - retro-inspired cave flyer (in VCS Store)]

There is a new review of ThrustLander by Retr0rob

 

 

[The 4K Experience (and trouble-shooting)]

I was also under the impression that the 4K is just for streaming. ThrustLander is in no way made for 4k output on the VCS.

[ThrustLander - retro-inspired cave flyer (in VCS Store)]

Thanks for all of the replies to this. I apologise for the late responses. I have subscribed to the thread and I will check in more often.

 

On 12/28/2020 at 2:59 PM, joeatari1 said:

Thanks for making this Rob.  The visuals look great.  I will have to check it out when my VCS arrives.

Thanks, I hope you will enjoy the game!

 

On 1/9/2021 at 10:20 PM, Mockduck said:

New Atari VCS Game Review by me - Thrustlander

 

This was a great review, thank you for making it. I agreed with everything you said and I have been following your other reviews with interest. ?

 

On 1/10/2021 at 8:13 AM, Cine4Home said:

 

Hi Rob,

yeah, some levels are really, really difficult to master, but actually, that is what makes this title so addicting, at least for me.

When you miss a level over and over again, it really angers one and causes new ambition to try it again "once more". 

 

And the paddle-steering is just great also. 

Thanks for that great game, I hope many others will appreciate it also.

Regards,

Ekki

Thanks Ekki. I am glad you are enjoying playing. The steep difficulty level is the number one piece of feedback that I get about the game. It tends to be quite polarising.  I am glad that you enjoy it though and you are finding it addictive, I find it the same myself.

 

I understand what you mean about getting angry when losing a mission. In my 'let's play' video I had to play one of the levels three times due to lapses in concentration. Generally, I tried really hard to reduce randomness as much as possible, so failing a level would seldom be due to random bad luck. That is why all the turrets have fixed firing arcs in the game, so the player can plan around situations. The goal was to make it so deaths would be less on the frustrating side and more towards trying a different approach, different tactics, using alternative ship weapons etc. At least, that was the aim! ?

 

On 1/16/2021 at 6:44 PM, Atarishawn said:

I have downloaded this for atari vcs and i can get neither my xbox one controller or my Nintendo switch controller to make it respond. They are both hooked up via usb  on front of console

Hi Shawn. We chatted briefly on twitter. I appreciate you reaching out about the controls and I am sorry you are having difficulty playing. Like I mentioned (and for anyone new reading this) the two supported controllers are the Atari Classic controller and the Atari Modern controller. I am sorry for any confusion caused with third party compatibility expectations. Having said all of this, I do actually have a new internal build in the works with increased third party controller support as I am sure this is going to come up again in the future with other players. It is currently getting debugged/play-tested. If all goes well I should be sending it to Atari soon.

---

 

The latest build of ThrustLander should be live on the Atari store. It fixes the known bugs in the game, some balance issues and has some visual improvements, specifically aimed at helping new players and distinguishing between enemy projectile types. If anyone encounters any bugs/issues or of there is any other feedback, please don't hesitate in letting me know! ?️

 

Cheers,

 

-Rob

 

 

 

 

[ThrustLander - retro-inspired cave flyer (in VCS Store)]

Hi everyone,

 

I am the developer for ThrustLander. I just put together a let's play video for the game. I wanted to show a higher difficulty level and how the ship controls after more time in the pilot's chair. I play using the Atari Classic controller using the paddle functionality. I also showcase retro mode, timed mode and a selection of weapons for the ship.

 

I don't want to take away from CranberryFo's video at all. They put together a really nice video of a first play experience and you should check it out above too.

 

ThrustLander let's play link

 

I think ThrustLander is a really nice fit for the Atari VCS and I am hopeful that there will be people who get enjoyment out of the game, whether it is from playing on unfair or a more relaxed easy mode. It's quite a niche genre of game as well as being a high skill level game to play, so I know it might not be a game that resonates with everyone.

 

There are some planned bug fixes and updates coming in the new year if you already own the game, so please bear with me. Things have understandably slowed down a bit over the holidays.

 

If anyone has any questions at all about the game, please let me know!