Guntech - an indie developer launch title for Atari VCS - (In VCS Store)

[justclaws]

1 hour ago, 82-T/A said:

But the music is pretty bad... at least in the early levels.

Ha, that's funny, because I love the music! ? Janni is Finish... 
This is the winning Eurovision song from Finland; it was a SURPRISING win! ?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0O74TlCuJA)
 

 

[82-T/A]

17 minutes ago, justclaws said:

Ha, that's funny, because I love the music! ? Janni is Finish... 
This is the winning Eurovision song from Finland; it was a SURPRISING win! ?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0O74TlCuJA)
 

 

 

Hahah... I definitely like this... but that's not exactly how it comes out on the VCS!

 

[82-T/A]

Just wanted to add, I spent a lot of time playing this game, and it gets better the more you play it. I just got the new advanced controller... and it's an adjustment... but seems to work a little bit better. Game is absolutely a lot of fun... totally worth getting it. It's also spectacular on 4K.

[markofwolves]

6 hours ago, 82-T/A said:

Just wanted to add, I spent a lot of time playing this game, and it gets better the more you play it. I just got the new advanced controller... and it's an adjustment... but seems to work a little bit better. Game is absolutely a lot of fun... totally worth getting it. It's also spectacular on 4K.

4K in VCS work bad. Need a future fix.

[82-T/A]

On 2/28/2021 at 6:18 PM, markofwolves said:

4K in VCS work bad. Need a future fix.

I haven’t had any issues with 4K. No skipping, perfectly smooth. I have 16 gigs of ram in my VCS.

[+SabertoothRetro]

I downloaded a demo from the store yesterday and played through the first few available levels.

 

First thoughts:

During play it looks great but the style is a bit of a mishmash when considering in-game graphics, menus and end of stage awards (XP, stars, etc.).  It took me out of the game a bit. 

 

So far I have only used the Classic Joystick and ship handling is a mess. It would be great if the paddle function was used to rotate the ship similar to the implementation in Thrustlander (which is excellent). I'm going to play again with the modern controller to see if it improves the experience.  

 

[justclaws]

The direction for the support ship does indeed use the rotary function of the classic controller,
but the main ship does not, but I am used to using the modern controller for Guntech so far.

I think control schemes are very subjective generally, so I love it when games allow customisation.
e.g. lots of PC games allow WASD as keys, but I prefer WAXD. I always struggle with down on the S.
Maybe my hands are too big, ha ha. I can touch type but whenever I have to use WASD, I despair! 

Jani's still very responsive to feedback, so it's probably worth dropping him a message directly!
He added the multi-player after demoing the game with his kids - see a video that's on page 1. :-)
 

[+SabertoothRetro]

It's definitely better with the modern controller. I wish there were button mapping options. The right stick function can also control direction without thrust. This is exactly how I would like the left stick to behave. So I'm forcing myself to play with the right thumb but then thrust, steering and fire are all in the right.  Button mapping would definitely change my impressions. 

[justclaws]

For anybody who wanted Guntech, but was put-off by the developer's higher price,
there is good news for 1 week. Jani posted this message on the Facebook VCS group.
(* Normally I'd not be so keen to report a sale, but this is the first sale item for VCS.)

Jani Penttinen
AtariVCS Fans - Official, Yesterday at 00:32  · 

I have *excellent* news for everyone who has been wanting to buy Guntech but has been holding off because of the price:
Guntech special sale for just $14.99 for one week only!
We're running the discount on Steam to celebrate the launch of URG on Linux, and in anticipation of launch of our next game Utopos, so we decided to extend the offer to VCS as well!
Remember: Utopos launches for the VCS on March 30. It's based on the same universe as Guntech, except this time you get to play against other people online. This is an excellent chance to improve those rocket-flying skills before hitting the Utopos arena!

[Mockduck]

If you do pick up this game, I strongly recommend not using the Classic with it but using a Modern style controller instead. It works quite a bit better. 

 

Also, might be a good chance to pick this up and hone your skills for Utopos next week, which is a multiplayer arena deathmatch game using essentially Guntech ships and combat. 

[MarcelM]

I downloaded the free demo, really like it so far, but I experience a lot of lag, slow screen build up which makes it unplayable. First time I experienced this I blamed it on a download I was doing in parallel, but yesterday that was not the case and it still was unplayable. I will try by connecting a network cable but could it be wifi related? 

[justclaws]

7 hours ago, MarcelM said:

I downloaded the free demo, really like it so far, but I experience a lot of lag, slow screen build up which makes it unplayable. First time I experienced this I blamed it on a download I was doing in parallel, but yesterday that was not the case and it still was unplayable. I will try by connecting a network cable but could it be wifi related? 

Are you playing the game in 4K resolution?

The game is written to be played in 1080p, and in that mode there should be no lag.
(He said he never anticipated people would be playing his game in 4K resolution at all.)
Jani does not force the resolution to 1080p, which is bad decision IMHO. However, Atari
do have an update expected for 4K acceleration, and with that mode the issue may go.

WIFI should have no impact, because after download the game does not operate online.
Cheers, Richard.

[MarcelM]

Wel that is what I would think too, but today I connected the ethernet cable and worked just fine. No, not in 4K mode. 

[justclaws]

19 hours ago, MarcelM said:

Wel that is what I would think too, but today I connected the ethernet cable and worked just fine. No, not in 4K mode. 

That's a useful bit of information! Maybe Jani left some network dependency in the code which he overlooked.
Great to hear that it works fine now!  

[justclaws]

OEB-Pete made an interesting review of the game, discovering the joys of a VCS!
It would be great if does more VCS reviews, and introducing a wider audience too.
Give him some encouragement to do so with a comment! ?
 

 

[justclaws]

Guntech 1.83 just released, as described in the image.

[tripled79]

There's a weird bug on one level where the gravity is ridiculous. Full throttle in the opposite direction and I'm still getting pulled into the ground. Becomes less a game of skill and more of a chore respawning and slowly making progress across until you inevitably blow up again against the unfair gravity force...

Then there's that level where if you don't eliminate the virus's at the speed of light, they become "lost" and you'll never find them or complete the level.

[justclaws]

On 5/17/2021 at 3:24 AM, tripled79 said:

There's a weird bug on one level where the gravity is ridiculous. Full throttle in the opposite direction and I'm still getting pulled into the ground. Becomes less a game of skill and more of a chore respawning and slowly making progress across until you inevitably blow up again against the unfair gravity force...

Then there's that level where if you don't eliminate the virus's at the speed of light, they become "lost" and you'll never find them or complete the level.

If you're not on the Utopos Discord, I fully recommend it. 
You can interact with Jani directly, most of the time, and he's still developing both Utopos of course,
but the bonus is, he pushes improvements retrospectively into Guntech/URG, and is still maintaining them actively.
It's really refreshing, and he's a great guy. :-)

[Mockduck]

There was a recent game change where the playfield as it were is now more zoomed out than it was previously, and while it does make your ship a little smaller, it has helped a lot in terms of being able to navigate around the map and have a better sense of what you are doing and where you are going. Jani also added the "buchu" cannon gun as a secondary weapon and as in Utopos it is useful for close face to face combat. Game's getting better!