Serge Billault

Hello, There's only so much I can do to open the building of Super Zaxxon 2021 to contributors. If nobody register for building levels before the end of the month I will be forced to accept that reality, but since the game has to come to completion I will have to carry on. So far, and unless Redthunder cancel his participation the contributors registered would be... Redthunder.

Update: -------- * I have refactored the font auto generator and the game no longer have misaligned characters (webGL version have been updated). Levels building: ---------------- The time for involving contributors to levels building is getting near. Before I take a decision I will need to know: * Who is interested in building additional levels for the game ? * Who is familiar with Unity, and if you would prefer to be able to build your levels directly from the unity project inside of Unity ? * Who would prefer a separate tool from the Unity project for building levels ?

Update: -------- New units: * The new unit (enemy aircraft) have been added to the game. Its fire rate is 2 secs. Difficulty: * The missile launchers fire rate have been increased by 2 secs * The turrets fire rate have been increased by 1 sec

Update: -------- Enemy craft asset integration: I' m not sure yet about the colors but I can easily change them because I always put them into separate layers. Let me know if the current enemy craft colors make your eyes bleed (and dont hesitate to suggest new colors, if a consensus is reached I will adopt your choices)

Update: --------- I have finished a first version of the enemy cratfs (see attachment) and I will begin to code it in the game tomorrow. @tep392: Yep it certainly need tweaking, I will do this once I'm finished with the enemy crafts.

Update: --------- I have completed tha last task (4 of 4: Adjust enemmy fires) and started to model enemy planes (see attachment). Once this new unit is up and runing in the game I will make a new webGL build.

Hello RedThunder, It can be faster any way we like. But tastes vary from one player to another and It could be wise to try and reach a consensus by gathering the opinions of others on the subject. We can also imagine implementing a difficulty option, and speed would be affected by this setting. So it's open for discussion for the moment. To resume, until people massively express the same concern for an aspect of the game, I prefer to try an get an hint as to what would make the majority happy. To help building other levels is a little prematured given that there are a number of minimum polish I need to do. Otherwise I would tell you that you could start helping create level as we speak by producing documents with cells (tiles) that are all 4x4 units in size and can be duplicated across the scene to form a level. Then once the level is laid out, add the units (turrets, fuel tanks, radars etc) using icons in the document, and in a section at the top of the document, resume the different types of tiles used so that I know which one already exist, and which ones I will need to model. But as you can see, there are missing units (enemy planes for exemple) and other missing things that need to be added first. On top of that I may come with a tool for autogenerating a level using your documents, and until the specs are fleshed out, I cant entice you to start design levels only for you to find out that you have to start all over again to respect those new specs. A big thank you to you for your feedback and comments, and to those who contributed so far.

Macintosh Users: ------------------ In order to not penalize MAC users the new shortcut to pause and display options during gameplay is TAB. The shortcut is visible during gameplay in the top right corner of the game screen (see attachment). Should your tab key not work for any reason (old keyboard, physical accident, etc.), you can click on the button next to the shortcut hint.

Hello, This is the closest to SEGA arcade that I found on the site, and I apologize if it's not where this should be posted. Feel free to move this post or to point me to the right sub forum. In an effort to get the name of the gentleman who designed Super Zaxxon I have reviewed the history of SEGA only to find out that it was in fact a company named Gremlin Industries which coded Zaxxon. Going on from there I learned that by the time Super Zaxxon came out, Gremlin Industries had fallen with the 1983 video game industrie crash, suggesting that it might not Gremlin Industries which designed Super Zaxxon. I asked SEGA the name of the designer who worked on 1982 Super Zaxxon but they dont know anymore. Finally, thanks to the love and dedication of some video game archeolgists at segaretro.org I have been able to get some names (the full programmers staff and more) but from a document that came one year prior to the development of Super Zaxxon (see attachment). I desperatly need the name of the game designer in order to try and contact him (if he is still alive). If by chance any of you have a clue as to whom it might be I wll be grateful. SEGA/Gremlin Industries internal document - staff: https://segaretro.org/images/6/6e/Gremlin_EngineeringDivision_1981-03-06.jpg

Bugs fix: --------- Fixed the impossibility to remap controls from the options menu during gameplay.

I have added the possibility to pause and display the options during gameplay. To pause and display the options during gameplay use the pause key of your keyboard (it might not work with Mac keyboards that have no pause key, I will look into this). Tasks completed 3/4. Tasks list: ---------- [X] Add a camera offset in the options under a camera section. Find a better default camera offset so that the jetfighter shadow is more visible. [X] Add a gamepad configuration panel in the options [X] Find a way to improve players perception of their relative position to enemies (kind of... camera offset + I am in the process of joining the original 1982 game designer for its take on the problem) [ ] Adjust enemies fires

Update: I have added the options for the camera settings and music/sound fxs volumes (see attachment). The camera offset setting work as follow: slider at min: no change from what you are used to. slider at max: camera is positioned such that your jetfighter is at the center of the screen. @Keatah: There is a way to play this off-line, I maintain a desktop build that I keep to test the saving of player prefs while waiting for Unity to back-port their fix for player prefs not working in webGL. But I prefer to keep only the webGL build available to the public for the moment. Otherwise I will end up not knowing for which build contributors are reporting bugs & improvements. I anticipate that at some point you will want to be able to pause the game during gameplay to change the options (for the camera for exemple) and will look into adding this to a later build.

I have added the gamepad and joystick configuration. Task 1 of 4 completed.

If you agree with this my upcoming tasks will be as follow: Tasks list: ---------- 1) Add a camera offset in the options under a camera section. Find a better default camera offset so that the jetfighter shadow is more visible. 2) Add a gamepad configuration panel in the options 3) Find a way to improve players perception of their relative position to enemies 4) Adjust enemies fires

Thanks for your reports, There is no configuration panel in the options for the gamepad yet. But you can use one nonetheless. I tried to connect a Logitech USB gamepad, after the game had started, even, and the gamepad worked. But i had to try every button to find which one allow you to fire (it was the right trigger in the front of the pad). Gauging height vs enemies is definitely an issue. I could advance a little the player jetfighter so that it's shadow is always visible even when flying near the boundaries of the screen, I dont know if it will be sufficient. In the original game you had to continually fire in order to help you guess your relative position to enemies, we might have to come with an innovation on that aspect. You are also right that there a lot of enemy fires, which can be partly compensated as you get accustomed to the game but can be frustrating and I will also look at this.