What's wrong with Trevor Mcfur and the Crescent Galaxy? !?!?

[sh3-rg]

What I find interesting is that outside of Defender 2000/Protector SE, which I don't really count, another game of this type (at least that I can think of) was never attempted again on the Jaguar (the Native demo never made it out). You'd think it would have been a natural and an "easy" way of really exploiting some of the platform's audio-visual capabilities.

 

Shmups look/seem "easy" to make, but the reason there are so many half-baked homebrew/inexperienced/demo coder/whatever shmups out there is that people quickly realise (or should) that creating the mechanics is fairly trivial, designing compelling gameplay is another thing entirely.

 

Hence crap like Project One

[doctorclu]

Tried Trevor McFur. Wanted to like it. From what I experienced like a lot of Jaguar games you need to know what to grab and use and when. And like a lot of Jaguar games, it has a learning curve.

 

So far I find the game tedious but beautiful. Maybe in the future I'll get bored enough to keep playing this game till I master it and then it will be on my top ten games (like Cybermorph did) Who knows.

 

 

 

Here is a review of Trevor McFur that was made just days ago!

 

[Lost Dragon]

Lx Rudis:

 

"I can't speak for everyone, but Leonard was pretty old-skool regarding Crescent Galaxy. At one point I remember complaining to him that we needed more game design for the levels. His reply was that side scrollers were too dynamic to justify lengthy design, that the best way to do it was to toss a bunch of NPC scripts at the game engine, then test hell out of the results until the team and testers deemed the result 'fun'..."

 

http://www.ataritimes.com/index.php?ArticleIDX=282

[PeterG]

And then they forgot to test it

[LynxJagLunatic]

I remember wanting this game so bad when I saw the screenshots. It's not the worst in the Jag library but it's not very good either.

[Serblander]

I remember wanting this game so bad when I saw the screenshots. It's not the worst in the Jag library but it's not very good either.

I think that sums it up perfectly for me

[JaGamer]

Trevor McFur is a lot like Cybermorph. In that, it takes a long time to get good at the game and have fun with it. Steep learning curve. Almost impossible to beat the game. That is what puts most people off about Cybermorph and Trevor McFur. They get "game over" within about 10 or 20 minutes of playing. Nintendo was smart to make their games easier. Atari was too old school in making their games too difficult.

 

If you can manage to stick with Trevor McFur, learn about the special weapons, shield, etc. And actually manage to beat the game, its quite rewarding to beat that game. A real grind. Big challenge.

 

This is a big problem with most Jaguar games, simply too difficult for the average gamer.

[Bill Loguidice]

Trevor McFur is a lot like Cybermorph. In that, it takes a long time to get good at the game and have fun with it. Steep learning curve. Almost impossible to beat the game. That is what puts most people off about Cybermorph and Trevor McFur. They get "game over" within about 10 or 20 minutes of playing. Nintendo was smart to make their games easier. Atari was too old school in making their games too difficult.

 

If you can manage to stick with Trevor McFur, learn about the special weapons, shield, etc. And actually manage to beat the game, its quite rewarding to beat that game. A real grind. Big challenge.

 

This is a big problem with most Jaguar games, simply too difficult for the average gamer.

 

So it's all the unskilled gamers' faults who were apparently babied on Nintendo's teat? Bravo for taking "Jaguar justification" to new heights, something I didn't think was possible after all of these years!

[+save2600]

Real problem with Trevor and most of us seem to agree, is that there's not enough of a compelling game there to warrant investing the time getting better, let alone actually beating it. Not that I personally find it extremely difficult or anything. Difficulty for me is wanting to endure the mediocrity that is TMFitCG.

[Atlantis]

 

So it's all the unskilled gamers' faults who were apparently babied on Nintendo's teat? Bravo for taking "Jaguar justification" to new heights, something I didn't think was possible after all of these years!

Apparently? Can you quote EXACTLY where he said that...?

 

No worry, the average joes was never exposed to the Jaguar. Except a few guys...

[Cobra Kai]

Trevor McFur is a lot like Cybermorph. In that, it takes a long time to get good at the game and have fun with it. Steep learning curve. Almost impossible to beat the game. That is what puts most people off about Cybermorph and Trevor McFur. They get "game over" within about 10 or 20 minutes of playing. Nintendo was smart to make their games easier. Atari was too old school in making their games too difficult.

 

If you can manage to stick with Trevor McFur, learn about the special weapons, shield, etc. And actually manage to beat the game, its quite rewarding to beat that game. A real grind. Big challenge.

 

This is a big problem with most Jaguar games, simply too difficult for the average gamer.

Ever heard the term 'Nintendo-hard'? I don't think learning curves are much of a problem with the Jaguar. The very best titles baby-step you, but become insanely difficult about an hour into it such as T2k, Protector and D2k. And then there are some that are just bad, or even impossible to play without a cheat code (hello Highlander). I don't think Trevor McFur has has a steep learning curve (dodge objects and hold the fire buttons?), nor is it insanely difficult. It's just cheap, grinding and bland flavor wise.

[Major Havoc 2049]

Trevor McFur is a lot like Cybermorph. In that, it takes a long time to get good at the game and have fun with it. Steep learning curve. Almost impossible to beat the game. That is what puts most people off about Cybermorph and Trevor McFur. They get "game over" within about 10 or 20 minutes of playing. Nintendo was smart to make their games easier. Atari was too old school in making their games too difficult.

 

If you can manage to stick with Trevor McFur, learn about the special weapons, shield, etc. And actually manage to beat the game, its quite rewarding to beat that game. A real grind. Big challenge.

 

This is a big problem with most Jaguar games, simply too difficult for the average gamer.

 

Trevor McFur looks great in screen shots, but that's about it. I wanted to like McFur and thought Atari was onto something with the whole cat theme as it related to the Jaguar and Lynx, with Trevor McFur, General Patent (knowing Atari, this made me lol) and your side-kick Cutter the Lynx. The cool graphics and premise of the game was all wasted though as the gameplay in McFur is dull and boring and the lack of in-game music makes the experience even more dull. I agree that once you figure out the rhythm of the power-up progression, McFur becomes more playable and beatable. The trick is to stay alive early on and spam the power-up's until your main weapon is at max level, then rely on your main weapon and save the power-up's you collect from then on for the boss battle. I bought and beat McFur back when it first came out and about 10 years ago got good at it and beat it again just for the hell of it. The whole experience is mediocre at best and it has nothing to do with the difficulty level or skill of the gamer. And compared to other shmups, McFur isn't really that hard. It's just boring and people don't want to waste their time and finish the game.

 

Cybermorph wasn't that hard either, besides maybe a few boss battles and those damn centipedes in tight canyons. Again, Cybermorph was on the dull side, especially with its presentation. Cybermorph though has more redeeming qualities than McFur and there is some enjoyment to be found and some may even like the game. Cybermorph also had some fans in the media and amongst gamers when it launched who appreciated what it had to offer, while McFur was panned by virtually everyone when it launched.

[racerx]

This is a big problem with most Jaguar games, simply too difficult for the average gamer.

 

And here all these years I thought the big problem with most Jaguar games is that they just weren't particularly good.

 

[doctorclu]

I can say that for me Bubsy was a game that was colorful, cute, and deceptively hard.

 

The deaths were funny when playing with a friend's kids though. After a while the dying happened less and less.

 

If you asked my HONEST opinion on Bubsy I would say the game was about 90% polished. There are times the hit detection is a bit squirrely. Even the developer (when we asked him here on Atariage) didn't realize how difficult the game was. He really thought people were looking for challenging games so he made a challenging game.

 

Yes there was "Nintendo hard" going on, and in the 90's "EXTREME!!!111!!" this and that, the Jaguar in both advertising and game design were swept into the in your face advertising of "ARE YOU GOOD ENOUGH??!!" or "This system is for the best ARE YOU THE BEST?" as if slapping the gamer in the face with a glove and challenging them as a video gamer.

[Xgames]

I have to say i like Trevor it seemed at first a bit boring.But as i played and got used to how and when to use the special power ups it became allot more to me and oneday i may beat the game.I have came close but still havent beat this jag game.

[Atlantis]

Lots of games were hard back then, here's one to put it in perspective:

or, this Rick Dangerous clone in another genre than shmup:

Good games sold systems, and also good PR. Extremley hard games are often more bad imo, maybe the industry today knows that pulling people into playing their game over and over is not extreme challenge but small and repetative gratifications.

Trevor in PAL is not extremly hard, but has other problems like being too ugly, too wierd like lots of Jaguar games... and back then not showing us the next step.

[PeterG]

Never played viewpoint, nice music though:)

[Turbo-Torch]

Trevor in PAL is not extremly hard

 

How does the PAL version differ from NTSC?

[Atlantis]

 

How does the PAL version differ from NTSC?

PAL 50hz = slower and easier Trevor

 

NTSC 60hz = faster and harder Trevor

[Atlantis]

Never played viewpoint, nice music though:)

Yes, I'm at level 4 boss trying to beat "face four" but it will never happen...

[Turbo-Torch]

Interesting. I figured by the mid 90s game manufacturers would have compensated for that.

[phoenixdownita]

I figured that by 2016 people would have gotten over salvaging bad games just because. They didn't sell the system back then, they are no better now, we can look at them from a technical point of view as showing what was attempted, but fun .... not really.

 

-Would it have been possible to make TmF fun to play?

-Yes.

 

-Did they do it?

-No

 

-Is there someone that likes it anyway?

-Yes

 

-Is TmF a disaster?

-At full price Yes, at a hefty discount No

 

-Did you play it?

-Yes

 

-Did you enjoy it?

-Not a lot but enough to get back at it multiple times.

 

-Did you stick with it?

-I tried almost every evening for almost a month, I think it qualifies as "stick with it".

 

-Then what?

-I had an epiphany that I wouldn't enjoy it much more than that anyway.

 

-Then you didn't stick with it?

-I think I stuck to it enough.

 

-Then what?

-I used a cheat code to peek at later levels (especially past the 3rd)

 

-And?

-Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring, but nice graphics on more than one occasion.

 

-So you see it has some redeeming qualities!

-Have it your way, I'm done talking to myself it feels stupid.

 

-See, you never stick to anything!!!!

-...

Edited February 27, 2016 by phoenixdownita

[JaGamer]

I think video games started out tough as nails and got easier as time went on. Mainly, video gaming went from the underground hardcore nerds playing games in the late 70s to late 80s. But, by the early 90s, Nintendo became mainstream and they had to start catering to the masses with easier games. Nintendo and Sega were very smart to do this with their top SNES and Genesis games. Teenage boys are the main audience video game makers and sellers target. Make a game too hard, and they wont like it. Most of them anyway. Adult gamers is another story.

 

I feel the old school style arcade games were tough as nails. By the early to mid 90s, games became much easier, and more fun. I personally prefer an easier game to one that is overly difficult. The most popular Nintendo and Sega games are easy ones. The Mario games, Sonic games, DKC, Killer Instinct, etc. Why give people a hard time? Much easier to enjoy an easy game. This is what Atari failed to understand. This is the magic touch that Miyamoto gives Nintendo games. He makes sure people of all ages can enjoy a Nintendo made game. Atari did not pay enough special attention to difficulty level. Nintendo was so much better at guiding you through a game. Sometimes holding your hand too much, but still. I'd rather have that than have a game I can't figure out.

 

So many Jaguar games could be so much better if only they were a bit easier. Like Cybermorph, Dino Dudes, Trevor McFur. If Raiden had auto rapid fire. As great as Tempest 2000 is, I still see tons of people who don't like the game much. Its because of the difficulty, has a steep learning curve. Minter was too hardcore on the difficultly level. Look at the joke of the level 64. Its a game breaking level, just about making the game broken. Even the most skilled Tempest players cant beat that level. It takes a miracle to pass that level.

 

I could go on, but ya.

[Bill Loguidice]

I think video games started out tough as nails and got easier as time went on. Mainly, video gaming went from the underground hardcore nerds playing games in the late 70s to late 80s. But, by the early 90s, Nintendo became mainstream and they had to start catering to the masses with easier games. Nintendo and Sega were very smart to do this with their top SNES and Genesis games. Teenage boys are the main audience video game makers and sellers target. Make a game too hard, and they wont like it. Most of them anyway. Adult gamers is another story.

 

I feel the old school style arcade games were tough as nails. By the early to mid 90s, games became much easier, and more fun. I personally prefer an easier game to one that is overly difficult. The most popular Nintendo and Sega games are easy ones. The Mario games, Sonic games, DKC, Killer Instinct, etc. Why give people a hard time? Much easier to enjoy an easy game. This is what Atari failed to understand. This is the magic touch that Miyamoto gives Nintendo games. He makes sure people of all ages can enjoy a Nintendo made game. Atari did not pay enough special attention to difficulty level. Nintendo was so much better at guiding you through a game. Sometimes holding your hand too much, but still. I'd rather have that than have a game I can't figure out.

 

So many Jaguar games could be so much better if only they were a bit easier. Like Cybermorph, Dino Dudes, Trevor McFur. If Raiden had auto rapid fire. As great as Tempest 2000 is, I still see tons of people who don't like the game much. Its because of the difficulty, has a steep learning curve. Minter was too hardcore on the difficultly level. Look at the joke of the level 64. Its a game breaking level, just about making the game broken. Even the most skilled Tempest players cant beat that level. It takes a miracle to pass that level.

 

I could go on, but ya.

 

We'll just have to agree to disagree, then. There are tons of tough as nails games today. There were easy games then and there are easy games now. The fact that we have more games available now than ever before hasn't changed the mix in the slightest. In fact, thanks to today's technology, there are game types that just weren't possible in the past, where you can play against expert level humans around the world. So no, I don't agree with your thesis.

[JaGamer]

Well I should have been more specific, I am comparing 1980-1989 versus 1990-1999..

 

The Dreamcast and more recent era of games is a whole nother ballgame. Video games became Super mainstream starting with PS2. And the number of games just exploded. Easy and hard games, etc. Pretty sure PS2 has most games of any system by far, for example.