A closer look at: UFO!

[BassGuitari]

A closer look at: UFO!

[accousticguitar]

I've only played this game to try it out and didn't really get it. I'll have to give it another try. I have a hard time believing it's better than KC's Crazy Chase or Killer Bees though.

[BassGuitari]

I don't mean to make any claims that it's the best Odyssey 2 game, but I think it deserves to be ranked among the top.

 

Which game is the best depends on what you like to play.

[+Darrin9999]

Love that game! one of my favorites for the Odyssey 2.

[Pixelboy]

Thanks for the link to the article. It allowed me to take a closer look at an interesting game for a console I'm not terribly familiar with.

[BassGuitari]

Love that game! one of my favorites for the Odyssey 2.

Thanks for the link to the article. It allowed me to take a closer look at an interesting game for a console I'm not terribly familiar with.

 

Glad you enjoyed it!

[desiv]

Yep, one of my favorite O2 games.

I do remember taking a while to like it tho, because I was having a bit of a hard time getting used to the "aiming" system..

At first, it drove me crazy.

But once I "got it" (and by that I mean I didn't totally suck; I was never great), it was right there with the best O2 games...

 

Thanx for the review.

 

desiv

[potatohead]

Great review of a good game. Dang, I need to port this to something.

 

As for the death sequences, weren't many O2 games written by the same guy or team?

 

IMHO, the aiming system makes this game what it is. A nice, simple, fun strategy element is introduced because of it.

[BassGuitari]

I remember thinking the aiming was weird. I figured if you can rotate the reticule clockwise, you must be able to rotate it counter-clockwise too; when I never could, I though I was missing something.

 

Then I found a manual.

[+pboland]

UFO! is definitely one of my favorite OD2 games. I prefer Attack of the Time Lords as I see that as being the best arcade like game for the system.

[GrizzLee]

Always wished that this and Dogpatch (Bally) would have found their way on the 2600. You are correct, a real gem on the O^2.

 

 

[darthkur]

One of my O2 favorites too. Took a bit to "master" the controls but after I figured it out I've had lots of fun with it. Definitely has re-playability.

[potatohead]

I'm coding up this game for Propeller right now. (it's a micro-controller I like)

 

Somebody above noted the O2 does not typically flicker. I didn't appreciate this machine until I started digging into UFO! Just on the surface, it's a killer little game, and my favorite from the O2. Been tempted to get one repeatedly just for that one game. I won't though, but I always kind of want to.

 

Anyway, the display system is really interesting. The reason the O2 doesn't flicker is because it has 12 characters that can be selected from the internal group of 64, and those 12 can be placed at any screen position, not in a grid position like just about every other system I've ever seen or worked with. Additionally, they can be placed on top of one another. The sprites are definable, and they too have free screen placement, and there are things known as quad characters too, which move as a group. The grid lines are hard wired in too, and can produce filled squares, or just grid lines, or platforms, whatever makes sense.

 

In UFO, what I've found out so far is interesting and not at all what I expected. The normal enemies are just the multiply sign and the add sign animated together so they toggle every few frames. I think this is 5 or so. Need to run emulation and or watch a movie or two to count, but that's the idea. Don't flash 'em too fast or they seem like flicker, just change them often so the person sees this thing that moves and catches the eye. When they combine into a seeker, the ball character is drawn, with the animated plus and multiply characters on top! This forms the spinning ball looking thing, and I always thought that looked very cool.

 

The ship appears to be a sprite, so that's easy. Next comes the shield. Now that thing does flicker, but it's intentional. I've not yet sorted out how it's drawn, but it looks for all the world like the period character is simply drawn three or 4 times, each one at a quadrant of the oval shield shape. Draw one each frame, and the flickering thing together looks like a shield, where the flicker actually adds to the effect, making it look like it's zooming around the ship, or glowing! The aiming dot is probably one of the other sprites, or a period drawn every frame.

 

O2 programmers had to get creative! And that's the distinct look the console has!

 

The ship bullets are the slash characters, animated in a straight line too.

 

From my reading around the net, some games redefine stuff part way down the screen the way we do on the 2600 (VCS), only the trade off with the O2 is more movable things, much less background capability, and fixed images to be used for most things, leaving a distinctive sprite or two unique to the game program itself.

 

UFO! is one of those great classic games that just kind of fit the console it was built for, and I thought I would share some of the stuff I saw so far.

[mtshark7]

Oooohh I <3 UFO!

One of my favorite games I grew up with

 

With they would re-make this game...

 

Thanks for sharing the article!

[+atari2600land]

 

 

Anyway, the display system is really interesting. The reason the O2 doesn't flicker is because it has 12 characters that can be selected from the internal group of 64, and those 12 can be placed at any screen position, not in a grid position like just about every other system I've ever seen or worked with. Additionally, they can be placed on top of one another. The sprites are definable, and they too have free screen placement, and there are things known as quad characters too, which move as a group. The grid lines are hard wired in too, and can produce filled squares, or just grid lines, or platforms, whatever makes sense.

 

Actually, if you get a character overlapping another character, garbage comes up on the screen, so I guess most programmers take a lot of care to not make this happen. As for the one guy who created most Odyssey 2 games, his name is Ed Averett. I think Killer Bees is the most impressive game on the Odyssey 2, I don't really have a favorite one though, most of them are fun.

[RickR]

Good review. It is a great game. The aiming system is hard to get used to, but once you figure out that you need to play "defensively", it gets easier. Also, what is it with O2 games and only one life? And the low scores??

[potatohead]

If characters cannot be overlapped, how is the ball combined with the "X" and "+" symbols?

 

Perhaps one of them is a sprite then.

[+atari2600land]

If characters cannot be overlapped, how is the ball combined with the "X" and "+" symbols?

 

Perhaps one of them is a sprite then.

The ball flickers between the X and + symbols.

[potatohead]

Interesting! (and thanks!)

 

Looks like I've got to setup emulation. The videos I watched didn't quite convey that, and I've not yet reached the point where I can read a ROM... Probably won't either. Too much work to get the game mechanics I'm looking for.

 

I'll draw both ways and see which looks better on modern devices. Might not be worth it to be totally exact. I'll move this discussion to my blog where I can post an update when it makes sense.

 

Somebody seriously needs to do this one for the 8 bit computers. Such a fun little game! More people should play it.