Skyhammer help wanted

[sirlynxalot]

I've gotten to the second mission where I need to find a data pod in a particular zone. I've spent a lot of time flying around the zone with no luck. What exactly am I supposed to be looking for? A small rotating sprite like an item? Or should I be shooting enemies to uncover it somehow? I never see anything show up on my radar that isn't an enemy or a shop.

For that matter, what does the small circle and the traveling dot represent on my crosshair? Are either of these supposed to point you to your objective? The manual didn't seem to identify their purpose.

My cartridge also has glitchy sfx/music, sometimes the sfx/music plays a blast of static, or else the music won't play at all in-game even though the music is turned on and the volume is up. Apparently this is a known defect with some of the cartridges - but not all, b/c I used to have a different copy of the game that worked perfectly. Is there any fix for this?

[Willard]

IIRC the dot leads you in the direction you're supposed to be going, then when you get within a certain proximity of the objective the dot disappears. Haven't played it in a long time. I've had 2 pretty serious issues that I think put me off of it: (1) sometimes the game crashes and your save gets erased. That really sucks. (2) Sometimes you are in a position where the objective cannot be completed. Like recovering a packet, but you just can't pick it up, or destroying something that won't blow up.

 

I've never had any issue with the audio though.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Willard

[+save2600]

Never had an issue with the audio either. Maybe it's not the cart/program so much as it's a motherboard revision issue?

[Austin]

Your audio glitch problem is a known issue. Surprised some haven't had it--It happened quite frequently with my cart.

 

Some objectives are hard to complete just because the pickups are so small, it's very easy to miss them. Not particularly good design, IMO.

[+Stephen Moss]

If there are enemies in the area I would try destroying them and see if that reveals it. Have not played for a long time but I seem to recall looking for something for ages only for it to appear once I had destroyed some enimies, not sure if it was just hidden amongst them blocking my view for anything other then a slow fly past or if it and an enemy were in close proximity and as a result of the enemy being bigger or possibly their position in the object list the enemy was drawn over the top of the object.

 

A little buggy and it plays havoc with my motion sickness but a nice game and shows the Jag can do texture mapped 3D objects.

[+doctorclu]

I kicked in the cheats to get the upgrades for a swifter more "Descent" feel.

 

Played it, liked it enough, but was not long term grabbing for me I'll admit.

[+save2600]

Has anyone here played G-Police for the PSX? Similar enough (in gameplay/concept anyway) to Skyhammer... gotta skip 3/4 into the vid before you get into the gameplay, but this guy has a lot of other vids with different missions too:

 

 

At $9 shipped (game is spread across two discs even!), is literally 1/10th the cost of Skyhammer.

[+Stephen]

Has anyone here played G-Police for the PSX? Similar enough (in gameplay/concept anyway) to Skyhammer... gotta skip 3/4 into the vid before you get into the gameplay, but this guy has a lot of other vids with different missions too:

 

 

At $9 shipped (game is spread across two discs even!), is literally 1/10th the cost of Skyhammer.

And triple the framerate and better resolution, etc.

[sirlynxalot]

And triple the framerate and better resolution, etc.

But it's not on Jaguar so who cares

 

I'm pretty impressed by Skyhammer as a cartridge game. Outside of the N64, you didn't see too many texture mapped 3d games on carts for the era since most other console manufacturers had switched to CDs as the medium by that point.

[Atlantis]

And triple the framerate and better resolution, etc.

Wow, PS1 must has been a real beast back then! That I learn more and more today, since back then I despised its hegemony, its gamepad and did everything to look in opposite way.

 

GP incredible stuff compared to lets say Skyhammer, but being a fumer and all I'm still more impressed by SH and the limitations of Jag. More fun that way, than just being impressed by hegemony and the obvious.

 

Interesting comparison anyway.

 

(Edit: quoted wrong guy, save2600 brought it to the table.)

Edited December 18, 2015 by Atlantis

[Willard]

Your audio glitch problem is a known issue. Surprised some haven't had it--It happened quite frequently with my cart.

 

Some objectives are hard to complete just because the pickups are so small, it's very easy to miss them. Not particularly good design, IMO.

 

It could also be said the people who haven't experienced the audio glitch might be surprised there are so many people who have I think the question is why this happens considering it's not consistent from cart to cart as it suggests some sort of defect. Wonder if it's one of those issues that affect certain models of Jaguar or something.

[sirlynxalot]

It Is unlikely it is based on the model of jag. I have owned two different copies of Skyhammer in the last two years and used them on the same jag. One copy had no problems, my current copy does have the audio glitch. Though now that I think about it, I didn't have the jag cd back when I had the first one so the first was always plugged into the system, whereas now I have a cd so the second copy has always been plugged into the cd unit.

Edited December 18, 2015 by sirlynxalot

[sh3-rg]

It Is unlikely it is based on the model of jag. I have owned two different copies of Skyhammer in the last two years and used them on the same jag. One copy had no problems, my current copy does have the audio glitch. Though now that I think about it, I didn't have the jag cd back when I had the first one so the first was always plugged into the system, whereas now I have a cd so the second copy has always been plugged into the cd unit.

 

So it could be a cart hardware revision issue, a Jag CD-related issue or something else such as Jaguar revision vs those issues or something else entirely.

[sirlynxalot]

I guessi could easily plug the new cart directly into my jag and that could rule out whether it is a jag cd issue.

[+save2600]

Wonder if it's one of those issues that affect certain models of Jaguar or something.

 

 

That's_what_I'm_thinking.

 

Could also be that some of us just haven't played the damn game for as long in one sitting, to notice the glitches. Probably the case with me.

[Trooper Galactus]

I've seen Skyhammer available from multiple sources consistently listed at $90 CIB. Is the game worth the investment? I'll probably get around to it eventually, but not sure if I should prioritize it more.

[sirlynxalot]

Considering it is a virtually complete game by one of the Jag's most capable third party developers, and there probably aren't that many copies floating around (maybe several hundred rather than several thousand - it was released by Songbird well after the Jag's commercial era), and it is full of texture mapped 3d graphics - something of a rarity for the Jag, I would say it is worth spending more than for a standard jag game such as Tempest 2K. If you are prepared to wait around for months and perhaps not receive a copy in mint condition, I'm sure you could do better than $90 through ebay or buying from someone via forums.

[Trooper Galactus]

Duly noted, thanks for the tip!

 

...just the tip.

[Atlantis]

 

 

the glitches.

Wouldn't it be possible to patch a game as this one via Jag-CD, much as the Protector SE with the Protector Resurgence disc, hypothetically?