A.R.T.I. [WIP]

[+Muddyfunster]

A.R.T.I. (Archaeological Rescue Team International)

 

 

A.R.T.I. is my take on a port of the classic 2600/C64/A8 game H.E.R.O. by Jon Van Ryzin. H.E.R.O. along side Keystone Kapers was another of my favourite 2600 titles.

 

This adaptation for the 7800 is based on the 2600, 5200 and C64 versions and closely follows the level layout of all three, with the plan being to add extra levels beyond the originals.

 

Objective

 

You are Arty's new apprentice. A bunch of explorers and adventurers have got themselves lost in South America and you need to go and rescue them.

 

There are additional on-ROM instructions accessible from the title page. 

 

Controls

 

Left & Right - run / fly left and right.

Up - enter activate the Gyrocopter backpack

Fire 1- Laser

Fire 2- Dynamite

 

 

Scoring 

 

Rescuing a lost explorer or adventurer will earn you 1,000 points.

Destroying a wall is worth 75 points

Killing any critters or beasties is worth 50 points

Bonus points are awarded for each stick of dynamite remaining and for remaining power, when making a rescue.

 

An extra life is awarded at 20,000 points

 

Demo

 

A demo will be available soon!

 

Plans

• All original version screens
• 50 or so Additional screens (extra levels)
• Themed rescue zones.
• SaveKey + AtariVox support for hiscore saving.
• POKEY musical score.

 

 

 

Credits & Thanks

 

@sramirez2008 @-^CrossBow^- @Trebor for their testing and feedback - fantastic as always!

 

@RevEng for help with compression and answering my never ending stream of questions!

 

@ZeroPage Homebrew for showing the demo on the stream

 

Media 

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1477067248

 

 

.

 

[Cousin Vinnie]

Tee hee hee

[Cousin Vinnie]

Something about the dialogue and look reminds me of the book Heart of Darkness.

 

can HERO be beaten? Or does it trip levels? 

Edited May 7 by Cousin Vinnie

[+Muddyfunster]

  

12 minutes ago, Cousin Vinnie said:

Something about the dialogue and look reminds me of the book Heart of Darkness.

I'm not familiar with that one. For the character, his dialogue is very cheesy and over the top "stiff upper lip" parody dialed up to 11.

 

12 minutes ago, Cousin Vinnie said:

can HERO be beaten? Or does it trip levels? 

I think after level 20 it just cycles screens from levels 12 onwards but randomly.

[+Muddyfunster]

Also thanks @Andrew Davie for pointing out the spelling error on "archaeological" !  

Edited May 7 by Muddyfunster

[bikeguychicago]

This looks amazing! It looks like C64 or Amiga game vs. a 7800.

 

I'll need to give this a go on my Concerto once the demo is available. 

Edited May 7 by bikeguychicago

[+Philsan]

Awesome, I was bored to rescue only miners...

[Cousin Vinnie]

Will your version have an ending Lewis? 

[+Trebor]

@ZeroPage Homebrew reveal and preview of A.R.T.I. here:

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1477067248

 

*Plus - review/playthrough of T:ME Salvo.

[+Muddyfunster]

1 hour ago, Cousin Vinnie said:

Will your version have an ending Lewis? 

Nothing set in stone yet Vinnie. My current thinking is when you finish the classic levels, you unlock the "plus" levels which will be the all new levels. I'll also likely add in a level select feature like the original.

[Jinks]

This game looks amazing.

Toodle pip. 

 

 

[+Karl G]

I'm watching the stream archive on Twitch, and this looks pretty amazing! I'm looking forward to seeing a demo.

[+TrekMD]

Oh wow, that looks awesome!

[Andrew Davie]

5 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

Also thanks @Andrew Davie for pointing out the spelling error on "archaeological" !  

You're welcome!  The game looked amazing.

I have one suggestion - during the transition to a dark screen (I saw this when J. went off the bottom of one screen, into a "black" screen). I thought it might work if you started a fade-to-black on the first screen when the player gets below a certain point but before the screen switch. In other words the lower you go the darker the current screen gets (but never fully dark), and then you switch to the new screen.  I don't know if this would work (and of course the same going back the other way).  But i thought it worth mentioning.

Congrats on the swell piece of work; I loved the mayan-feel of the artwork.

[+karri]

I loved the graphics and the several tile levels.

[+Pac-Lander]

This looks awesome!

 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

8 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

Credits & Thanks

 

@sramirez2008 @-^CrossBow^- @Trebor for their testing and feedback - fantastic as always!

 

@RevEng for help with compression and answering my never ending stream of questions!

 

@ZeroPage Homebrew for showing the demo on the stream

 

Thank you so much Lewis for letting us debut A.R.T.I. on ZPH last night, the controls and visuals are already incredible. I can't wait to play it again on the stream further into development!

 

- James

[+Muddyfunster]

15 hours ago, Andrew Davie said:

I thought it might work if you started a fade-to-black on the first screen when the player gets below a certain point but before the screen switch. In other words the lower you go the darker the current screen gets (but never fully dark), and then you switch to the new screen.

Thanks Andrew, that's actually a really neat idea. I'm not sure how well it would translate in game but I'll give that a look. 

[Coleco]

Amazing work. Always thought a big boss monster at the end would be cool to rescue the last miner. Thanks for your work. Looking forward to seeing it progress.

[Cousin Vinnie]

I watched the ZPH twitch feed. I love the fact that the trapped explorers sometimes look like famous peeps like Indiana Jones and Lora Croft. 

Jolly good show. 

[+Muddyfunster]

10 minutes ago, Cousin Vinnie said:

I watched the ZPH twitch feed. I love the fact that the trapped explorers sometimes look like famous peeps like Indiana Jones and Lora Croft. 

Jolly good show. 

The similarity between these wayward souls and other famous peeps is purely coincidental, Vinnie old chap

[Cousin Vinnie]

Indiana and Ms. Croft wouldn't be bested by spiders and bats... we know this. These are clearly amateur copycat imitators. 

 

This thing looks beautiful. Nice jorb. 

[+sramirez2008]

 

[Cousin Vinnie]

23 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

 

you got me

[+jgkspsx]

Looks really amazing. It even has more personality than the SH-1000 port, which was previously my favorite. Looking forward to it!