Galaga for 8-bits?

[Mclaneinc]

Like Phoenix, like Galaga but like Gorf a lot more....Wish our Gorf had the speech...Yeah I know, a lot to ask

 

Until these arrive MAME will suffice..

[+Stephen]

2 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Like Phoenix, like Galaga but like Gorf a lot more....Wish our Gorf had the speech...Yeah I know, a lot to ask

 

Until these arrive MAME will suffice..

Speech would be doable, the 5th level would be nice too.

[Mclaneinc]

Would be nice

[Ely]

I always preferred Galaxian & Galaga over Gorl or Phoenix in the arcades they always seemed much more polished to me. Gorf esspecially is glitchy and flickery as though the hardware was being pushed too far. This Galaga demo on the Atari 8-Bits looks amazing!

[Mclaneinc]

Never liked the Atari own version of Galaxian, Galactic chase did the job far better..As for Galaga, I'd never really played it until I got a PSX and it was the loading game on Ridge Racer

 

Two games I think could be done are Astro Wars and Astro Blaster, Threshold is a damn good go and shows they could be done, neither games are stunners but fun and playable..

[AW127]

12 hours ago, Rybags said:

Phoenix has that certain bit of mystique about it but IMO the graphics and gameplay fall well short of others such as Galaga and Exerion.

 

You mean when comparing the original Arcade versions of "Phoenix" and "Galaga" and not any ports, right? On the Arcade, i also like "Galaga" a little bit more, but the Atari-2600 version of Phoenix, which is little different in gameplay than the Arcade version, i really love. From the first day on, when i get this game-module as a kid, this was the case. I would not exchange this game-module for any other Atari-2600 game-modul somebody would offer me.

 

But with games it's like with music, often a matter of taste, what people prefere.  

[Awch]

5 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Never liked the Atari own version of Galaxian, Galactic chase did the job far better.

Galactic Chase was the first game I bought for myself back in the day. It came on cassette in a thick ziplock bag with folded instructions. We were shocked by what a good Galaxian clone it was. Played the heck out of it on our 400!

[kiwilove]

There's nothing wrong with Phoenix for it's time.  Which I rated as being in the average department.  But when Galaga appeared it was in a class of it's own.  Cutesy graphics and sound with that challenging and addictive gameplay.

I suppose it would be asking too much for an Atari version, that has been missing for so long - to have some extra nice touches to it?  Like with the starfield for example.  Can't remember if the coin-op did anything special with it?  Something like - the direction changes between levels?  Or something like this.

It would be nice to see the programmer put their own stamp on it - instead of delivering something bog-standard.

 

Harvey

[Rybags]

Part of the beauty of Galaga is the formation arrival differences per level, the badges for levels, stuff like that.

 

It's a game when porting that you should try and mimic, not really bothering with "improvements" as it doesn't need them.

Though that said, nothing wrong with putting enhancements in that can be turned on and off.

[Heaven/TQA]

Played Galaga In the arcades and on nearly every console I had starting with Ridge Racer....

 

it’s hard to play and harder to

master.... the challenging stages to get perfect, collecting double shoots with the thrill not to hit your own ship when captured... etc.

 

not sure if homeports have the “bug” where you can play forever when standing in a corner for a while and they stop shooting?

[Rybags]

I don't think any of the legacy system home ports replicated that.  Though plenty of vintage arcade packs on modern consoles/computers that are commercial relesaes just use an emulation layer with the original Rom in which case such behaviour likely is present.

There's a good explanation around somewhere, what happens is the bullets get stuck in a sort of in limbo coordinate/velocity situation so can't hurt you, don't get removed so can't be reused.

 

As for the exploit - I tried it with a mate once and we looped the thing back to Stage 0 where the machine crashes and restarts.

From memory it took at least 90 minutes, the score was something over 2 million.  And we asked for our money back!

 

Without cheating at my peak I was able to get through to stage 30+, to the point of the challenge stages having gone through the full sequence more than once (?)

Not sure what scores I could get, probably near 500,000.

Edited December 18, 2019 by Rybags

[Heaven/TQA]

Ah nice to know... Even nice when captured and your ship is rotating youn can shoot diagonal stuff... so they implemented diagonal shooting just for that few seconds...

 

for me Galaga is one of my top #3 arcade game. 

btw. Dig Dug had those batches, too... love it as well... in my top #3 as well... hmmm too many in my “top”.... Asteroids, Centipede, Moon Patrol, Crazy Kong (not Donkey Kong), Jungle Hunt, Joust, Pole Position, Lady Bug, Gyruss, 1943,...

 

not counting Williams Pinball machines... T2, Whirlwind, Fun House, Adam’s Family, ... 

 

good old Arcade days...

Edited December 18, 2019 by Heaven/TQA

[Mclaneinc]

That's why I believe there should be a law that says any retro household MUST have a MAME setup in there

 

Seriously, MAME isn't perfect but its great for reliving the old games, the only wish for it would be for the devs to go back and look at the non perfect drivers instead of adding daft things like mechanical games that have zero use at all.

 

Oh well, back to playing Gorf on my old Atari..

[+Philsan]

I always liked Phoenix round 3 and 4 birds with breaking wings and round 5 mothership, controlled by an alien creature sitting in its center you must hit.

 

As written by AW127, Atari VCS conversion was incredible at the time.

 

 

 

 

[Heaven/TQA]

2 hours ago, Philsan said:

I always liked Phoenix round 3 and 4 birds with breaking wings and round 5 mothership, controlled by an alien creature sitting in its center you must hit.

 

As written by AW127, Atari VCS conversion was incredible at the time.

 

 

 

 

Yeah I liked Phoenix in Arcades and the 2600 version. The artwork was great, too. And of course shooting first wings and then the rest...

 

reminded me one of the Buck Rogers (?) movies with the wing riders.

[Keatah]

8 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

That's why I believe there should be a law that says any retro household MUST have a MAME setup in there

Absolutely. There should even be a MAME school. A weekend-long traveling seminar on how to setup and configure things. Covering basic noob topics through more advanced studies. In the meantime there's a PDF that'll get ya'll started.

 

Some people have even referred to MAME as it's own standalone platform. They'd say, "Has this <insert game name> been ported to MAME yet?"

 

Ported to! Hahahah!!

 

8 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Seriously, MAME isn't perfect but its great for reliving the old games, the only wish for it would be for the devs to go back and look at the non perfect drivers instead of adding daft things like mechanical games that have zero use at all.

Mame lost its way some 5 or 6 years ago. The bloat has been coming on heavy since then. I mean they really DO USELESS STUFF LIKE Point of Sale registers & terminals. What'll it be next? IV pump controllers? No.. wait.. ECMs for cars! Or those blood pressure machines. Don't configure it right it'll tighten too much and explode your arm off!

 

Yes. Think Windows is bloated? Pfaggh, doesn't hold a candle to MAME.

 

[eegad]

On 12/17/2019 at 1:58 PM, Mclaneinc said:

Never liked the Atari own version of Galaxian, Galactic chase did the job far better..As for Galaga, I'd never really played it until I got a PSX and it was the loading game on Ridge Racer

 

Two games I think could be done are Astro Wars and Astro Blaster, Threshold is a damn good go and shows they could be done, neither games are stunners but fun and playable..

I'll second that vote for Astro Blaster... That was one of my faves in the arcades back in the day.  Have long been hoping for  an 8bit or 2600 version.  Astro Blaster is my 2nd most wished for game on 8bit,  right behind Phoenix,  which I pumped a whole lot of quarters into in the early 80s. 

[Rybags]

OK, off topic time so may as well join in.

 

Mame lost it's way a long time before 5-6 years ago.

 

The problem with it is that they're more concerned with purity of emulation in an execution sense than having the games actually work.  They'd often do new releases with driver changes that fixed one game at the expense of breaking 3 others.  And being a public project, subject to the normal squabbles over control.

 

I got a point release probably 12 years or so ago, and just stick with that.  Some people do the update thing to the point of obsession running Rom scans every few weeks then going through the pain of inserting new dumps etc.

 

Re pinball - I played Metallica on a real machine about a month ago, great game which I'd put into my top 10 machines.

And even though it's not all that old, it's been dumped and engineered and can be had on Visual Pinball X.

[AW127]

17 hours ago, Heaven/TQA said:

btw. Dig Dug had those batches, too... love it as well... in my top #3 as well... hmmm too many in my “top”.... Asteroids, Centipede, Moon Patrol, Crazy Kong (not Donkey Kong), Jungle Hunt, Joust, Pole Position, Lady Bug, Gyruss, 1943,...

 

 

Good listing of old and great arcade classics, which i also like all. "Pooyan", "Track & Field" and "Xevious" i would also put there, when it would be my list. "Pooyan", for example, is also superb in gameplay and i played it over and over again in all those years. But there is no game in the Arcade, which i played as often as "Mr. Do's Castle". 

 

12 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

That's why I believe there should be a law that says any retro household MUST have a MAME setup in there

 

Good idea, i support this. Best would be, when directly included in a real Arcade cabinet with great Sanwa, Seimitsu or Hori joystick and buttons and with a good display. ?  I dream since a long time from having my own cabinet with hundreds of choosable games. Problem is my current flat, which is to small. I have not really a good place for it. ?

Edited December 18, 2019 by AW127

[+sramirez2008]

3 hours ago, eegad said:

I'll second that vote for Astro Blaster... That was one of my faves in the arcades back in the day.  Have long been hoping for  an 8bit or 2600 version.  Astro Blaster is my 2nd most wished for game on 8bit,  right behind Phoenix,  which I pumped a whole lot of quarters into in the early 80s. 

Another vote for Astro Blaster.  I loved playing this BITD as well. Fortunately, I own the 7800 version and it is excellent! PRGE had an amazing collection of arcade cabinets and Astro Blaster was one of them. What a treat. ? 

[Kyle22]

16 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

That's why I believe there should be a law that says any retro household MUST have a MAME setup in there

 

Seriously, MAME isn't perfect but its great for reliving the old games, the only wish for it would be for the devs to go back and look at the non perfect drivers instead of adding daft things like mechanical games that have zero use at all.

 

Oh well, back to playing Gorf on my old Atari..

Paul, think of it this way: If there aren't any regulations or laws preventing it, why would you want to increase the bloated bureaucracy by adding a new law?

 

The best way is grass roots word of mouth. Show us how great MAME is. I have been waiting for 10 years for MAME to get the audio right on CarnEvil.

:)

 

[Keatah]

5 hours ago, Rybags said:

The problem with it is that they're more concerned with purity of emulation in an execution sense than having the games actually work.  They'd often do new releases with driver changes that fixed one game at the expense of breaking 3 others.

 

Their blatant proclamation stating emulation accuracy above direct usability isn't a problem. And I'm ok with one thing breaking something else. Keeping several versions of MAME tends to alleviate issues. And maybe there's a gray/legal reason they say it.. Well..

 

I sometimes think we shouldn't complain too much because MAME offers so much that IS playable already - who could possibly get bored? If MAME development were to stop 100% dead today most of us would still have years of exploration to enjoy.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Keatah

[Mclaneinc]

Yes maybe we should not complain too much, it is already a wealth of goodness but it always seems a shame when you load up a game from 1977 and its says that the emulation is incomplete and yet there's games from 2006 that run like treacle because of the way its written and are barely even working more than 50%. I so wish they would revisit the old stuff.

 

Anyway, this really should be about getting these old favourites on to our beloved Atari, I'd love to see some of these unfinished games finally finished or the code made public so someone could give it a bash, I also love the way the C64 scene takes old games and gives them a workover, fixing bugs, improving graphics and so on, I'd love to see more of that on the Atari but there so many less scene groups Atari wise which is a shame but we do have a huge set of incredibly talented folk as individuals who use  their spare time to forge away at stuff, it would be nice if the old group mentality was about to link the folk up so there was a gfx person, a music person and a main programmer all chiming in.

 

Sadly spare time is becoming a rare luxury as those in work find, the tyrannical bosses demand more and more, there's queues of grads out there willing to do the same job for less and with the growing demand on the workforce health factors start becoming worse, mental health issues are at an all time high and stress and pressure push on......Free time is truly a luxury, can't blame folk for using that rare treat for themselves and or family.

 

Maybe, just maybe some time can head the Atari's way and some of these wonderful games can end up on our 8 bits..

[DearHorse]

On 12/11/2019 at 9:15 AM, Philsan said:

I don't think a demo has been released, isn't it @DearHorse ?

not from me Philsan

as all my A8 sources where destroyed about 10 years ago (graphics survived), and after a long long discouragement period, I rewrite part of code from memories time to time (but using the wudsn, by now and with the writing of a more powerfull tool that is not yet completed at this time).

best wishes

Edited January 29, 2020 by DearHorse

[+MrFish]

15 minutes ago, DearHorse said:

as all my A8 sources where destroyed about 10 years ago (graphics survived)...

 

Man, that's a bummer.

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by MrFish