Space War - Opinions of "Space Shuttle" games

[Agent57]

Sorry if this has been covered already...

 

Ever since I was kid, I enjoyed playing the Space Shuttle games in Space War (ex. Game 14). For some dumb reason, I always thought it was incredible fun (and sometimes frustrating as hell) to try and match my ship's angle and velocity and dock with the "shuttle." I don't think I've ever met anyone else who shares my opinion of these games!

 

Anyway, I'm most curious as to how you guys feel about these games...am I alone here, like the guy in another topic who enjoys the Star Ship cart?

[Nukey Shay]

It's not bad...as time-killer if you've got no player 2. The problem is that it doesn't have much depth, so I would get bored with it pretty quick.

[Rob Mitchell]

Back in 1978, I enjoyed the Space War docking shuttle game as a single player version of SW. Of course you gotta play it in "expert" mode ..

 

Of course now I play Gravitar and Thrust .. (which are single player versions of SW).

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Scott Stilphen]

I played it quite a bit back then. It was a great "trainer" for later games like Asteroids and Omega Race. FYI: the ships are referred to as star ships (and not space ships)- somebody was a Star Trek fan

[Godzilla]

Man that takes me back :-) I remeber that being my favorite game on Space War too, I played the heck out of it as a kid. I havent played it since though.

 

Read my Star Ship thread for a similarily themed 'old game most think is crap that I love' bit.

[NE146]

Being one of the first games I had for the VCS, my brother and I played Space War a LOT. We'd have battles all the time, but I never really played that docking game.. sorry but even back then it was stale-o

 

One thing that's always bugged me about the game was the background was GREEN. What the heck was up with that? So what I used to do on my old tv was turn the brightness way down and the contrast way up. This essentially made the background a nice black-as-space look (the way it should be) and gave the ships a bright luminescence. Worked great! But I think on modern tv's if you turn the brightness down it just dims the whole damn thing

[Godzilla]

yea i do that all the time with vic omega race, cause the rf interference is really bad. If I lower the brightness and contrast, i can get a nice clean glowing display without interference tho :-)

[ubersaurus]

I still love Space War, it's one of my favorite games, atari, vectrex, arcade, or even the old pdp-1 version (emulated obviously). I just wish the gravity was stronger on the atari version. It barely makes a difference in the game.

[NE146]

there are several improvements that could be done to Atari 2600 Space War (I think we listed them before.. black background, options like no momentum, different ship graphics, gravity, etc.). Maybe a new homebrew version is in order (or at least a mod to the existing version)

[ubersaurus]

How about bullets that don't go zooming around the screen 3 times? There's alot of changes that could be made to Space War...isn't it only a 2k game? That would leave a relatively good amount of room for change I suppose...

[Cupcakus]

List the changes you want here... and when I get some free time, probably this weekend I'll rewrite it... I need a flash cart break anyway :-)

[ubersaurus]

Well, let me think of some of them offhand here...

 

Black Background. Green is just...weird...for an outer space game.

 

Stronger Gravity. It really isn't even a concern in this version as it stands. It barely affects you! Obviously, this would only deal with the sun/invisible sun games ;p

 

The Bullets, they move too fast and too far. Slowing them down a little and having them go 3/4 to full screen before vanishing would be nice.

 

Also, slowing down the top speed of the space ships would be nice. Hard to shoot the other guy down when he's going 756486594276549564762 miles a second.

 

Agree with the option of no momentum, for folks who don't want to build up speed and then try to slow back down.

 

New ship graphics would be nice, ones that match the arcade or the original computer version, but that's low priority as far as I'm concerned.

 

If it's at all possible to make hyperspace actually randomly place you on screen like it does in asteroids that would be cool too, but again, not a high priority as far as I see it.

[Cupcakus]

Well, let me think of some of them offhand here...

 

Black Background. Green is just...weird...for an outer space game.

 

 

Stronger Gravity. It really isn't even a concern in this version as it stands. It barely affects you! Obviously, this would only deal with the sun/invisible sun games ;p

 

The Bullets, they move too fast and too far. Slowing them down a little and having them go 3/4 to full screen before vanishing would be nice.

 

Also, slowing down the top speed of the space ships would be nice. Hard to shoot the other guy down when he's going 756486594276549564762 miles a second.

 

Agree with the option of no momentum, for folks who don't want to build up speed and then try to slow back down.

 

New ship graphics would be nice, ones that match the arcade or the original computer version, but that's low priority as far as I'm concerned.

 

If it's at all possible to make hyperspace actually randomly place you on screen like it does in asteroids that would be cool too, but again, not a high priority as far as I see it.

 

This all seems really easy... And unless I try something silly like adding a star field or something, it should maintain it's 2k size.

[NE146]

Not only lack of (or decreased) momentum, but also perhaps quicker acceleration as well... to sort of approximate the gameplay of the Cinematronics arcade game I guess

 

Allow more than one bullet to be fired? Allowing two quick Asteroid type shots might be kind of cool.

 

Allow your ship to take more than one shot (much like the arcade game). also, "Damage" affecting manueverability (again like the arcade game) would be nice, but probably not realistic in a quicky hack.

[ubersaurus]

]

 

This all seems really easy... And unless I try something silly like adding a star field or something, it should maintain it's 2k size.

 

haha Expensive Planetarium?

[Rob Mitchell]

The Vectrex version of Space Wars: Each player has 25 shots and 25 units of energy .. And the player ship can shoot multiple missiles.

 

Faster action .. and be able to turn on a dime and thrust the other direction .. wrap around screen ..

 

Game ends when someone reaches 10 kills ..

 

Occasional floating asteroid can kill ..

 

Variable Gravity (selectable with the bw/color switch?)

 

A real sense of death when you blow up!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[ubersaurus]

Oh yeah!

 

I'm all about the inclusion of an asteroid option (difficulty switch?)..indestructable of course. And the restarting of positions ans supplies after a death is cool too, I almost forgot about that. Keeps people from holding the lead for a while.

[Scott Stilphen]

Here's a version with the ships in vector-like graphics.

 

Btw, what are these coded graphics(?) for?

 

[Cupcakus]

OK, here is what I understand from your suggestions, feel free to add more today, but I will work on this tomorrow. on my "day off".

 

Black Background

Stronger Gravity in Sun games

Slower bullets, and decrease time on screen

Slow top speed of ship

No momentum option

Ship graphics, that resemble arcade

Random placement for hyperspace.

Quicker Acceleration option

Damage affects manuverability, takes more than one shot to die.

Better death animation

After death, restart positions

Add random floating Asteroid

 

What I can't do is add the option to shoot more than once... it may be possible with trickery, but that is a wee bit too much effort. The 2600 is only capable of one missle per player.

[Rob Mitchell]

OK, here is what I understand from your suggestions, feel free to add more today, but I will work on this tomorrow. on my "day off".

 

Gravity affects missile trajectory .. ??

 

Screen wrap around (no banked shots).

 

Use the whole screen for gameplay .. (make the players count their missile use and make them anticipate that they are about to run out of fuel).

 

Display the score only between rounds.

 

Limited energy and limited missiles per round. (balanced so that action and missiles are both needed, used and depleted in order to survive or die).

 

Rounds only end if someone is destroyed or both players run out of missiles.

 

Missiles can only reach halfway across the screen.

 

Sound announcing the beginning of the round.

 

Sun destroys ship and results in a point for the opponent.

 

Reach score of 10 to win.

 

LRHTF compatible.

 

Arcade-like animation is not necessary and probably not doable on the scale of SW. I'm for leaving the ships as they are in tribute to the SW we all grew up playing.

 

If the ship is partially destroyed and having trouble maneuvering, then it cannot go into hyperspace.

 

Random starting positions and orientation at the beginning of each round.

 

If you feel compeled, you might program more than one version of SW. Maybe a PDP version too that simulates the original?

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Inky]

Here's what I would like in Space War...

 

True 3-D polygon graphics

Voiceover by James Earl Jones

Ability to read one's mind,

 

And the most impossible...

 

Fun..

 

[Rob Mitchell]

Here's what I would like in Space War.... And the most impossible... Fun..  

 

Hehe! Well the guys in the 1960's had years to develop and program Space Wars on the PDP series mini computers! (Remember what a Mini and a Micro computer are?). Cupcakes is trying to do this in .. one day! Whew!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[ubersaurus]

So how's this project coming along?

[Cupcakus]

Bah! :-)

 

What you guys suggest is less of a hack and more of a brand new game... It would be easier anyway :-)

 

And as a brand new game... it's not a very interesting game... :-) Maybe I'll try it again when I get a chance... I did make a few of the changes mentioned... I may just upload what I did and you'll have to be satisfied with that :-)

[Rob Mitchell]

What you guys suggest is less of a hack and more of a brand new game... It would be easier anyway :-)

 

And as a brand new game... it's not a very interesting game... :-) Maybe I'll try it again when I get a chance... I did make a few of the changes mentioned... I may just upload what I did and you'll have to be satisfied with that :-)

 

Well you asked ...

 

I look forward to seeing your hacked changes ..

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA