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Galaga for 8-bits?


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galaga? hmmm ... and for a8
cool.

 

I think me and many others would kill to see a faithful conversion of Galaga on the A8! An all time favourite of mine.

I guess an arcade port is out of the question xxl ;) .. :D that would be a tall feat with 3x Z80's in the original arcade spec!

The 7800 version was so so but something along that line would be have been cool to see on the A8.

 

I suck at Galaga now, I used to be able to get perfect on all the challenge stages :ponder:

 

there is a Galaga clone for the 8bit and it's not bad at all (except the sound is irritating so turn it down). It's called Hyperblast, I attached the rom and a screenshot.
I've never seen this before. Interesting. Edited by Tezz
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there is a Galaga clone for the 8bit and it's not bad at all (except the sound is irritating so turn it down). It's called Hyperblast, I attached the rom and a screenshot.

Oh good lord, that's not even close to Galaga. It's more of a Moon Cresta clone, if anything.

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there is a Galaga clone for the 8bit and it's not bad at all (except the sound is irritating so turn it down). It's called Hyperblast, I attached the rom and a screenshot.

Oh good lord, that's not even close to Galaga. It's more of a Moon Cresta clone, if anything.

 

It's as close as the 8bit gets... Satans Hollow is another one although it reminds me of Phoenix more than Galaga.

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I appreciate the link Warriorisabouttodie. I hadn't heard of that one, but I will try it out. I've got Satan's Hollow but I wouldn't really compare it to Galaga either.

 

Anyone know why Atari didn't release this back in the day under their XE line? Was it a licensing issue or just never planned? Seems like there was alot of titles bought out & re-released in the XE packaging and alot of crossover between the 7800 & XE not to release this one.

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Possibly a good thing it didn't come out.

 

The 7800 is non too impressive, and Galaxian on the 8-bit had shocking gameplay and probably the worst sound effects of any game ever made by Atari.

 

Real reason? I think the licence fee for that game might have been huge. It was a pretty popular game, and even now is still being remade.

 

And, technical hurdles too. I think that for Galaga to be done properly would probably require a lot of space. Lots of pre-shifted data, unrolled loops and some thoughtful programming would be needed to do a version that does the original justice.

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Real reason? I think the licence fee for that game might have been huge. It was a pretty popular game, and even now is still being remade.

 

Plus, the 7800 version was done and ready to go by Warner Atari. Even if they had extended the license to other systems, Tramiel would have had to pay for development of it on th 8-bits.

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..And, technical hurdles too. I think that for Galaga to be done properly would probably require a lot of space. Lots of pre-shifted data, unrolled loops and some thoughtful programming would be needed to do a version that does the original justice.
Yes it would certainly be a difficult project without a doubt, it's deceptively complicated to recreate and one game that would receive a lot of critisism if it wasn't done well I would imagine being such a big classic. It's certainly not impossible but it would need like you say I thoughtful programmer. Perhaps it is best that it wasn't attempted unless one of the top guys in the scene were tackling it
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I do think you have to acknowledge the hardware limitations - that made 'Galaga' impossible? to be programmed for the Atari 8-bit computers - look at the number of independent sprites used in the original game - and compare that with the best example done so far on the Atari 8-bit Computers - Galaxian?

What tricks did Galaxian use? If you do the observations and the maths comparisons - this shows clearly the reasons why. If the programmer of Galaxian - was asked to program a Galaga version - could he have done it?

I was always a big fan of Zaxxon - and was sorely disappointed with the Atari version of Zaxxon. Ron Fortier did the best he could - but it was a poor result. Look at the C-64 version by Synapse, to see how it could have been done better? And it still lacked the punch of the arcade version.

 

Harvey

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I do think you have to acknowledge the hardware limitations - that made 'Galaga' impossible? to be programmed for the Atari 8-bit computers - look at the number of independent sprites used in the original game - and compare that with the best example done so far on the Atari 8-bit Computers - Galaxian?

What tricks did Galaxian use? If you do the observations and the maths comparisons - this shows clearly the reasons why. If the programmer of Galaxian - was asked to program a Galaga version - could he have done it?

I was always a big fan of Zaxxon - and was sorely disappointed with the Atari version of Zaxxon. Ron Fortier did the best he could - but it was a poor result. Look at the C-64 version by Synapse, to see how it could have been done better? And it still lacked the punch of the arcade version.

 

Harvey

 

 

I think Galaga could of been done on the 8-bit but there would of have been sacrifices. If done properly by someone that really knew the hardware, it could of been very good but not arcade perfect like on the NES. A better solution for purists would of been a Galaga style game which could of been similar but then they would have the leeway to custom fit the game to the atari 8bit's strengths and limitations. Look at Sidearms or R Type, neither game could really have been done perfectly on the 8bit atari, and yet Zybex which is similar to both games is a really fun game.

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What about Bandits - I loved that game, and I think it moved around a ton of sprites as well..

The BBC model B had a good version of Galaga - using a bit map screen twice as large as the A8, so I dont think it would have been impossible

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It's as close as the 8bit gets... Satans Hollow is another one although it reminds me of Phoenix more than Galaga.

I imagine Satan's Hollow is supposed to remind you of Satan's Hollow.

 

Also, the awful 5200 Galaxian should not be used as a benchmark of the 8-bit's abilities for this sort of thing. As I keep pointing out, Galactic Chase is superior in almost every way.

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xxl... is it possible to write a "how to convert"-faq or tutorial to get BBC stuff over to A8? I mean i guess it can not be sooo hard, or? ;)
hmm why is the BBC screenshot showing in Atari800Win+ .. do you have something to tell us xxl?
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