The Battlecruiser Dilemma (Dreadnaught Factor clone)

[jbanes]

"I'd certainly nominate [The Dreadnaught Factor] for remake status. With some visual upgrades, it would make a great XBLA download." -IGN Review

 

"A cheapo remake [of The Dreadnaught Factor] on XBOX Live Arcade would be a blast..." -flojomojo

 

"Would also like to see a remake of an old Intellivision game called 'The Dreadnought Factor' (also on the atari 5200)" -Andifferous

 

 

This needed doing. So I did it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85j1Agw6Zgw

 

The current version is just a prototype for the CREATE Jam contest. The prototype runs on generic Android hardware with an attached game controller. (e.g. Ouya dev hardware, an MK808 stick, or a Nexus 7 tablet) The game is ultimately going to be developed for the Ouya and GameStick game consoles.

 

If anyone is interested in trying the prototype, let me know and I'll post the APK file.

 

Note that I need your support to progress in the CREATE Jam contest. Please support me in the contest by liking the video below!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpLWWQ85VuE

 

Hope you like it, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[0078265317]

cool

[jbanes]

Thanks 0078265317!

 

Someone pointed out in chat that the art isn't as good as it could be. I should probably mention that the contest I created the prototype for required me to finish in 10 days. What you see in the video is where I ran out of time.

[BrutallyHonestGamer]

The Dreadnaught Factor is my favorite 5200 game. I would love to see a remake, but I don't know if I could get used to it being side scrolling versus vertical scrolling. I can tell by how the ship moves though that the game play is accurately recreated.. nice work.

[jbanes]

Thanks for the feedback BHG! I went back and forth on whether to scroll vertically or horizontally. Both were accurate reproductions considering that the original Intellivision version scrolled sideways. Ultimately it was the 16:9 display that swayed my opinion. Going vertical with 16:9 would prevent the player from seeing very far ahead while giving him a far less useful view of the breadth of the battlecruiser.

 

As you pointed out, I put a lot of work into the mechanics to make them feel good. So I think you'll like it in practice. If you don't, you know who to chase down and hold at gunpoint until it gets fixed...

 

P.S. Don't forget to

! I won't get very far in the contest without more likes...

[BrutallyHonestGamer]

done and subbed

[jbanes]

Thanks man! I appreciate it.

[Draugr]

I'd love to see this as a full release. You know growing up loving cartoons like Star Blazers, and Robotech, I always loved the idea of the small fighter jet taking on the huge capital ships, and their forces. Perhaps some interesting future additions to a remake of the Dreadnaught Factor might be....

 

1. Multiplayer capable so that a small squadron of players can attempt to take on the Dreadnaught fleet.

 

2. The ability for certain Dreadnaughts to have flight decks on them where enemy fighters can launch and then defend their Dreadnaught from the attacking player(s).

 

3. The ability for the players to upgrade their fighters with better guns, shields, greater speed, more powerful bombs (carpet bombing, or bomb pods that open to drop a group of lesser powerful bombs within a small area), and perhaps various missiles like heat seekers, swarm pods (think Robotech), etc...

 

4. Now seeing that I mentioned Star Blazers & Robotech, you can't expect me to NOT mention beam weapons, or Main Guns like the Argo's (Yamato's) Wave Motion Gun. Perhaps once the Dreadnaught gets within range you might see the front of the ship start to glow and twinkling lights (gun energy) forming around the main gun chamber, then a loud energy sounding hum and the large beam of light (beam weapon) would shoot forth and rip into the planet either destroying the surface, or exploding the planet completely.

 

5. Another idea that just came to me. Perhaps you the player starts by defending your home world, but once destroyed, if the player(s) racked up enough points the game doesn't end, but moves on to the next chapter which would be the players again flying their fighter ships, but instead of defending their home world which is now gone, they are defending their fleet, or their last capital ship of their race whose mission is to now find a new home world to live on. Hell, you could probably have the story take the player(s) and their fleet to the home world of the attacking Dreadnaughts. Once within range the player(s) can decide to take over and colonize the planet, or obliterate it as revenge for what the Dreadnaughts did to the player(s) home world. If the Dreadnaughts get within firing range of the player(s) capital ship, the Dreadnaught would fire it's Main Gun / Beam Weapon and either severely damage, or rip the player(s) capital ship in half, thus ending the game.

 

6. Within the chapter where the player(s) defend their capital ship from the invading Dreadnaughts, the game could get even more dangerous in that the player(s) not only have to stop the advancing Dreadnaught, but they have to fight off the Dreadnaughts own fighters, and bombers to keep them from damaging and possibly crippling, and destroying the player(s) capital ship.

 

Wow... that is a lot of ideas, but again I LOVE the Dreadnaught Factor and since back in the day have wished for a remake or continuation with some if not all of the above ideas featured. I don't think a game with features like I just mentioned has ever been written. Would have been awesome to see some of those in the original game.

 

Sorry for the long post.

 

John

Edited April 14, 2013 by Draugr

[jbanes]

@Dragur - A lot of good ideas here! I'll have to nick a few of these...

 

4. Now seeing that I mentioned Star Blazers & Robotech, you can't expect me to NOT mention beam weapons, or Main Guns like the Argo's (Yamato's) Wave Motion Gun. Perhaps once the Dreadnaught gets within range you might see the front of the ship start to glow and twinkling lights (gun energy) forming around the main gun chamber, then a loud energy sounding hum and the large beam of light (beam weapon) would shoot forth and rip into the planet either destroying the surface, or exploding the planet completely.

 

I see you and I think alike! That's sort of the same thing I was thinking of when I created the main guns on the Dreadnaught. You may notice that they flicker a warning beam before rapidly expanding and blasting you into oblivion!!! MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

Expanding into planet killing? Maaaaayyyybbbeeeee....

 

I just got the Gamestick Mark II prototype in the mail, so you can see the Create Jam version of the game being played in this video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dX_cfTs77Q

 

 

Edit: As I said, you and I think alike....

 

Edited April 22, 2013 by jbanes

[Draugr]

Any news on this project? I was thinking about it earlier and searched the web which brought me back to this post.

[zylon]

Cart release or possible A8 version?

[Coleco]

Multi-player coop or dog fight would be cool similar to Raiden in coop mode? And different perspectives in dogfight mode?

[Flojomojo]

Whoa. I've got a bit of Intellivision fever lately, reading about the new Flashback console, potential new multicarts, and began listening to the Intellivisionaries podcast, and wondered if maybe I couldn't remake this myself using a toolkit or something. Imagine my surprise when I saw myself quoted as wishing for a Dreadnaught Factor remake on this board long ago ... by someone who is actually doing it!

 

I have an OUYA and would love to help test this if you're still working on it. That game was really neat and the trailer you posted looked to be very faithful to what has come before, except with bright/crisp/smooth modern graphics.