Skyfox homebrew for A8 ever even started?

[oky2000]

I was doing some mutliformat review videos and Skyfox stuck out as a game that should have had an A8 port and it is a great game on most systems too, playable even on the Apple II. 

 

Along with Elite, Skyfox is one of those games the A8 would really benefit from. The games library is missing these 2 great games. 

[+videofx]

True Elite is a great game but the Atari did get Omnitrends Universe 

[Lostdragon]

1 hour ago, oky2000 said:

I was doing some mutliformat review videos and Skyfox stuck out as a game that should have had an A8 port and it is a great game on most systems too, playable even on the Apple II. 

 

Along with Elite, Skyfox is one of those games the A8 would really benefit from. The games library is missing these 2 great games. 

Annouced for the 7800, but never got beyond box art and single screen demo did it? 

 

Something I would of liked to of seen on the XEGS, couldn't get on with the ST version, which was put out at budget price. 

 

Maybe I had just spent so much time on the C64 version that I expected too much or maybe it was too simplistic for a 16-bit system? 

 

It just never clicked and joined Star Raiders on the ST as something which had turned out to be a crushing dissapointment ?

[Mclaneinc]

Oddly, I always thought of Skyfox as a bit rubbish... Unusual for an EA title back then... I actually remember when I got my C64 and was going through the million and one disks I got, seeing Skyfox and thought, oh, we didn't get this on the Atari and saying to myself, no loss... It's all personal..

Edited October 3, 2021 by Mclaneinc

[Xebec]

8 hours ago, videofx said:

True Elite is a great game but the Atari did get Omnitrends Universe 

The need for a hero has never been greater! 

[oky2000]

14 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Annouced for the 7800, but never got beyond box art and single screen demo did it? 

 

Something I would of liked to of seen on the XEGS, couldn't get on with the ST version, which was put out at budget price. 

 

Maybe I had just spent so much time on the C64 version that I expected too much or maybe it was too simplistic for a 16-bit system? 

 

It just never clicked and joined Star Raiders on the ST as something which had turned out to be a crushing dissapointment ?

Didn't really like the 16bit versions, problem is as a bit of C64 game design vs hardware goodies Skyfox was for us as Rescue on Fractalus was for my Atari 800 owning friend. I recently looked at Skyfox on Apple II, Sinclair, Amstrad and C64 along with ST and Amiga later releases. I even tested Skyfox on my CDTV and it worked fine but I couldn't be bothered to play it lol. For a 1985 C64 game that doesn't get much help from VIC-II beyond the quick and dirty 1kb character based screen mode it is very impressive on the speed and the A8 has an even faster processor so like Elite it should be smoother and look the same I thought.

 

I remember the 7800 advert with Skyfox shown and it was the C64 version so who knows how far that got in development. Rescue on Fractalus also never made it to 7800 but those should both have been launch titles for the already late launching 7800 console not things like Donkey Kong or Asteroids! 

[oky2000]

11 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Oddly, I always thought of Skyfox as a bit rubbish... Unusual for an EA title back then... I actually remember when I got my C64 and was going through the million and one disks I got, seeing Skyfox and thought, oh, we didn't get this on the Atari and saying to myself, no loss... It's all personal..

It is all personal of course, and worst of all tastes change over decades but as a kid who knew the C64 technically back in 1985 I was impressed by the 3D in Skyfox on a C64. Same way as Rescue on Fractalus game engine always impressed me on the Atari 800. 

 

I just think the A8 hardware would allow an even better version of this game that's all, faster CPU same sort of screen modes.

[Sinjinhawke]

I thought this game sounded familiar.  I was playing it this year on my old Mac Plus.  Very tricky game to figure out without a manual.  I was able to fly around for a while shooting tanks but that was all I accomplished.  Gives me a Dimension X vibe.

[Rybags]

I don't think I've ever played it.  My memory was seeing the great static shot and having that left out feeling as it was yet another doable game that we missed out on.

But ultimately plenty of such games weren't worth having anyway.  Likely we would have had the fastest and probably best version if they'd bothered to do an A8 port but in the modern day, why put a huge effort into getting something fairly mediocre over to our system with a high chance it won't be much better than what's already out there.

[nadir]

Never played the original, but played a lot of Skyfox II on the PC back in the day.  It was pretty impressive for what it did on that platform (8088 w/ CGA).

[Mclaneinc]

11 hours ago, oky2000 said:

It is all personal of course, and worst of all tastes change over decades but as a kid who knew the C64 technically back in 1985 I was impressed by the 3D in Skyfox on a C64. Same way as Rescue on Fractalus game engine always impressed me on the Atari 800. 

 

I just think the A8 hardware would allow an even better version of this game that's all, faster CPU same sort of screen modes.

Don't get me wrong, I think it COULD have been more than it was, clearly a clone of battlezone, it could have done all of it better, I just felt it was bland and after another go a min ago I feel just the same.

 

I wonder why it was not ported to the Atari, did they feel the same about it?  They (EA) clearly had Atari programmers in force at that time and I think every thing they did was joint Atari and C64..

 

Oh well...Just one of those things...

[R.Cade]

I think Skyfox was more of a cockpit demo that got made into a game as an afterthought, but that's just my opinion.

 

Who didn't make cockpit/flight sims in BASIC as a kid? I know I did it just with PRINT statements and PETSCII. Of course actual game logic was out of my league at the time, so it was "fake".

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by R.Cade

[Mclaneinc]

I must admit I didn't try to make games, well I started a scrolling  left to right thing as I'd learned how to smooth scroll but as always with me, it came to nothing.. I'd also have issue with the game logic... Rubbish coder

[+Larry]

I just watched YouTube videos of Skyfox for the Apple II, C64, Amiga, and ST.  To me, Skyfox looks very similar to several "shoot the tank" games released for the Atari-8 in the 80's. (Yes there are differences.) But recreating Skyfox for the A8 looks to be a lot of effort for very little difference in game play (IMO). I've got to say that it does look quite nice on the ST and particularly the Amiga.  

[youxia]

2 hours ago, R.Cade said:

I think Skyfox was more of a cockpit demo that got made into a game as an afterthought, but that's just my opinion.

Got a similar feeling. I've actually played it recently, it's not that bad but also not that great. I guess it looked impressive at the time, but controlling that plane is very cumbersome and thus the whole gameplay feels a bit random (something you could also say about Arctic Fox).

[zzip]

Skyfox came out during the period right after Atari was sold to Jack and a lot of publishers were taking a "wait and see" approach to Atari ports, because no one was sure about the future of the platform at the time.

 

But then in 1986,  EA President Trip Hawkins sent the following letter to Antic Magazine, which they printed in the Apr 86 issue.   It promised a number of new ports, including Skyfox for the 8-bit line.    Unfortunately only 3 of these games got released as far as I know--  Mail Order Monsters, Racing Destruction Set and Ultima IV

 

 

27 minutes ago, youxia said:

Got a similar feeling. I've actually played it recently, it's not that bad but also not that great. I guess it looked impressive at the time, but controlling that plane is very cumbersome and thus the whole gameplay feels a bit random (something you could also say about Arctic Fox).

I remember there being a lot of hype about the game in magazines.   I guess it's one of those games that didn't age well.

[oky2000]

Show me these A8 games almost as good as Skyfox that come even close to that game engine + arcade 3D shmup gameplay. Super Huey may look similar but it is like comparing Gunship with Afterburner II

 

C64 version + more palette options for day/night like Fractalus did and some display list stuff for depth cueing to horizon would be awesome It's not running on sprites as far as I can tell and I think you can have the same fat pixel 4 colour sort of graphics in the A8 character based mode (which is where all C64 games get their speed, just 1kb video ram to manipulate)

 

This is the best Skyfox video I know....

 

[Lostdragon]

9 hours ago, oky2000 said:

Show me these A8 games almost as good as Skyfox that come even close to that game engine + arcade 3D shmup gameplay. Super Huey may look similar but it is like comparing Gunship with Afterburner II

 

C64 version + more palette options for day/night like Fractalus did and some display list stuff for depth cueing to horizon would be awesome It's not running on sprites as far as I can tell and I think you can have the same fat pixel 4 colour sort of graphics in the A8 character based mode (which is where all C64 games get their speed, just 1kb video ram to manipulate)

 

This is the best Skyfox video I know....

 

Since people are comparing Skyfox to Battlezone, other than Encounter on both A8 and C64, i am really struggling to think of anything on either platform that came close. 

 

Artic Fox was slow and tedious on the C64... 

 

 

XEGS Battlezone was jerky, messy etc. 

 

 

Stellar 7 was probably as good as Battlezone got on the C64

 

 

[Rybags]

That looks half decent.

 

Stellar 7 is the game you should be pushing for.