Astro-Storm : New game release

[+Sporadic]

Hey everyone,

Today i'm releasing the final version of my new game Astro-Storm. It's primarily a shoot 'em up where you must blast away rocks before your shield runs out. Every couple of levels you are faced with a boss to kill and a navigation sub-game.

Something i've always wanted to do but never had the time was to make games for my Jaguar. But this never happened, primarily due to the steep learning curve just to get something playable. Fast forward to earlier this year, I stumbled across the brilliant Raptor Basic+ by Reboot and started creating straight away! What an excellent toolset they have created. It's like being a kid again, hacking away at basic and making cool things happen on the screen. If you are interested in the development progress, you can see it here.

Gameplay

Rock Levels

Shoot all the rocks to move on to the next level before your shield runs out.

As you advance each level, the rocks get faster and your shield drains quicker.

The top left monitor on your HUD displays a suggested coloured rock to shoot next. Following the suggested colour sequence will provide bonus points at the end of the level.

The 5 red lights on the left show your gun temperature. If it overheats, you cannot move for a short period.

At the end of the level, you are presented with points earned that level including hit bonuses (don't spam that fire button).

Every two levels you are faced with one of three bosses to kill. Each has its own way to damage or slow you down, draining precious shield. They protect or hide the rocks from you so must be killed in order to finish the level.

Navigation

After each boss level, you must navigate to the next wave of rocks.

Whilst flying you must try and pass through the green navigation markers. Doing so, will replenish part of your shield and award points.

Beware, there are also rocks out there you must dodge!

If you shot all the rocks on the previous level in sequence then you will have more health markers to collect, otherwise there will be more rocks to dodge.

Controls

B = Fire

D-PAD = Move Crosshair

PAUSE = Pause / Unpause

*+# = Chew on a grenade

When paused you can pick 3 sound detail levels:

0 = Mute

1 = Most sounds

2 = All Sounds

Highscores are saved on memory track if you have one (must burn game to CD first!)

Please Note:

Whilst the game is playable in Virtual Jaguar, it doesn't quite run at full speed.

For your best enjoyment, please play on real hardware.

Whilst making Astro-Storm, I also played around with other little projects here and there which I also hope to release in the not too distant future.

Many thanks to Reboot for making this possible. Now on to the next game!

Use the .abs file for a quick download and upload via Skunk or download the attached zip file and extract the .cdi image to burn straight to CD.

AstroStormV143.abs

AstroStormV143_jiffi.zip

Edited December 24, 2015 by Sporadic

[sh3-rg]

Well done, AFAIK this is the first raptor BASIC+ feature-complete game release!

 

Thanks for sharing and good luck with your future projects :0)

[+Saturn]

Awesome work Sporadic! Thanks!

[+Sporadic]

Awesome work Sporadic! Thanks!

You're welcome. Hope you enjoy

[Felyx]

Thnak you for this release: the Christmass of my Jag

[+GroovyBee]

Very polished! Just played it once. Hit "B" again, fired a few shots and this happened :-

 

 

I could still move the cross-hairs and fire shots but they weren't registered as hits on the meteors. Both the star field and the meteors were still moving.

[+Sporadic]

Very polished! Just played it once. Hit "B" again, fired a few shots and this happened :-

 

AstroStorm_bug.png

 

I could still move the cross-hairs and fire shots but they weren't registered as hits on the meteors. Both the star field and the meteors were still moving.

hmm. Do you mean you pressed B to play again and it jumped straight back to level 2 and remembered your score?

 

What the screenshot is showing, is the first boss and his force field over the rocks. You cannot shoot the rocks at this point, you have to kill the boss. This will then drop the his force field over the rocks and you can shoot them again.

 

If you pressed B though and the game started fresh from Level 2 then that's a bug

[+Saturn]

Level 6 boss is difficult..

 

..with the controls like that! Love it

Note to self: To clear the faster moving rocks on level 7+, move horizontally only and wait for them to come to you

 

Edited December 24, 2015 by Saturn

[+GroovyBee]

hmm. Do you mean you pressed B to play again and it jumped straight back to level 2 and remembered your score?

I'm pretty sure that "B"" was the only thing I pressed when the shutter came down.

 

What the screenshot is showing, is the first boss and his force field over the rocks. You cannot shoot the rocks at this point, you have to kill the boss. This will then drop the his force field over the rocks and you can shoot them again.

Thanks for the explanation. It looked like it had crashed but I haven't played any WIPs for quite a while. Perhaps a different visual cue might emphasise the boss more? E.g. dim the cursors and cross hair when you are over a meteor and a "gun failed" noise if you hit fire.

[+Sporadic]

Thanks for the explanation. It looked like it had crashed but I haven't played any WIPs for quite a while. Perhaps a different visual cue might emphasise the boss more? E.g. dim the cursors and cross hair when you are over a meteor and a "gun failed" noise if you hit fire.

Yeah not bad thoughts, if I do a point release to fix anything then I might think about doing something like that.

 

Don't want to make it too easy for people though (imagine you are back in the 90's) Play around and see what works

[+Sporadic]

Level 6 boss is difficult..

 

..

Yep, that's how I kill him

[+GroovyBee]

Don't want to make it too easy for people though (imagine you are back in the 90's) Play around and see what works

How about a simple one off "Boss is here" sound effect?

[+Saturn]

My best game of the day (so far)

 

[sh3-rg]

You kids should check out his newly-released "Not Out-Run" preview in the programming section...

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247091-wip-not-outrun/

 

[Atlantis]

this seems very cool

i''ll try to make my fiance's brother to hack this onto a cd (oh wait my children ruined all cd-r:s darnn)

(maybe i'll try to put in an order)

merry x-mas all!

[+madman]

Nice work!

[ggn]

A bit late from me but Sporadic already knows what I think about the game! Good effort and congratulations for finally releasing it!

 

Also a big thanks for making stuff with rb+, your input really helped adding some good improvements to the system. Now onwards for new and better stuff .

[+CyranoJ]

Watching RAPTOR being used out there by other people completing projects - fuzzy warm feeling.

 

Roll on into 2016!

[rayik]

 

What the screenshot is showing, is the first boss and his force field over the rocks. You cannot shoot the rocks at this point, you have to kill the boss. This will then drop the his force field over the rocks and you can shoot them again.

 

 

I did not undertake that was the boss shield until reading this. Maybe this should be explained somewhere.

[sh3-rg]

I did not undertake that was the boss shield until reading this. Maybe this should be explained somewhere.

 

I agree - in a manual, in a box, with an official release... are you listening, Sporadic? :0)

[+Sporadic]

 

I agree - in a manual, in a box, with an official release... are you listening, Sporadic? :0)

Never say never

[Atlantis]

Never say never

A CD release wouldn't hurt either.

 

A question: is it possible to beat the game, or is it an endless game/points?

[+Sporadic]

A question: is it possible to beat the game, or is it an endless game/points?

It is currently endless although I doubt anyone would get to around level 30 as things get progressively harder.

 

It is more to do with getting the best score you can

[82-T/A]

Stupid question, any chance this will make it to a dedicated cart? I have the flash-cart, but would like to buy a dedicated cart.

[+Sporadic]

Stupid question, any chance this will make it to a dedicated cart? I have the flash-cart, but would like to buy a dedicated cart.

Thanks for the interest! It's not a stupid question

 

I really don't know yet. I would love to release a cart but it's much more involved and expensive than a CD release. So if anything, it would more likely be on CD.

All i can say is I haven't decided on anything yet!