Wolfenstein VCS - The Next Mission

[pocketmego]

After, making it known how brilliant I thought Hunchy 2 was, it would be most shameful of me not to mention the other title I picked up from Atari Age. So here is the review I have already submitted to the Atari Age store...

 

When I played the original Wolfenstein VCS, which was little more than a Venture Hack, I thought it was a glitchy piece of crap.

 

At this point you should be thinking, "I'd like to see you do better!"

 

However, the reason I used such strong language in describing what I thought of it was that the problem was it retained too much Venture and not enough of what this game really needed, its own flavor.

 

The idea at its core is very brilliant, use the Venture engine to create a gaming experience similar to that of the classic computer game Castle Wolfenstein (not to be confused with Wolfenstein 3-D by ID software). Plus it takes a very insightful person to remake a 20 year old computer game using 30 year old hardware.

 

I am thrilled to say that as of the newest rendition of this game, Wolfenstein VCS: The Next Mission is everything I would have hoped for in the original and THEN SOME!

 

The gameplay is smooth and not at all glitchy as with its predecessor. In fact sprite collision and movement is so smooth that I once almost got caught by one of the big SS Icons on the main screen and was able to avoid capture by the fact that the little dot that represented me just fit in the small space where the icon is clipped to make a square a circle on the VCS. That, my friends, is numbers perfect collision detection.

 

The colors and movement of the icons really make it feel like a very tense scenerio your facing. I could totally play this game with the Great Escape playing in the background, because it makes me feel just like Steve McQueen as I am sneaking through the darkend halls of this old castle, ever watching my back for the next Nazi menace to grab me from the shadows.

 

A fun adventure, with great atmosphere, and obviously created with a lot of love and care for the finished product.

 

Wolfenstein VCS: the Next Mission is a MUST for any 2600 collection and a Future Classic.

 

 

-Ray

[Lord Helmet]

Yea, I love this game as well. Venture privides a pretty nice "engine" to be hacked. I love Venture II also.

[ATARIPITBULL]

[godzillajoe]

Hmmmm.... this may have to be my next homebrew purchase

[pocketmego]

Hmmmm.... this may have to be my next homebrew purchase

 

I beat the game last night and I have to say the last couple of levels do get pretty freakin' intense. I was sorry to see it end, I am definately hoping for another installment.

 

-Ray

[neotokeo2001]

Hmmmm.... this may have to be my next homebrew purchase

 

I beat the game last night and I have to say the last couple of levels do get pretty freakin' intense. I was sorry to see it end, I am definately hoping for another installment.

 

-Ray

 

You haven't truly beaten the game until you discover the secret floor with four new rooms. You must beat the normal game to find it, But don't reset. I think that is the most obvious clue ever posted to find the secret floor.

[Robert M]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Scott and I enjoyed working on it. I feel I should point out that the collision detection is the one part of thte code I didn't touch from the Venture code. What you see is the same as the original. The key is that the game flickers at 30 Hz. It draws 3 sprites and the ball every TV frame. If the same sprites|ball are drawnon the screen together, then the pixel perfect hardware collision detection is used. If the sprites in question are drawn on alternating screens, then the game uses overlapping rectangles for collision detection. So its about a 50/50 chance you will get the pixel perfect collision detection or the sloppy rectangle collision detection.

 

Have you found the secret level yet?

 

Cheers!

Rob

[pocketmego]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Scott and I enjoyed working on it. I feel I should point out that the collision detection is the one part of thte code I didn't touch from the Venture code. What you see is the same as the original. The key is that the game flickers at 30 Hz. It draws 3 sprites and the ball every TV frame. If the same sprites|ball are drawnon the screen together, then the pixel perfect hardware collision detection is used. If the sprites in question are drawn on alternating screens, then the game uses overlapping rectangles for collision detection. So its about a 50/50 chance you will get the pixel perfect collision detection or the sloppy rectangle collision detection.

 

Have you found the secret level yet?

 

Cheers!

Rob

 

Apparently not $%%#@^%$^%.

 

 

Just kididng, it should be fun as hell playing through until I do find it. In any event, everything else that makes this game cool (because I don't like Venture much at all) is all you guys and I really do want y'all to do another one. Perhaps your take on the original sequel, Beyond Wolfenstein VCS.

 

-Ray

[Robert M]

Perhaps your take on the original sequel, Beyond Wolfenstein VCS.

 

-Ray

 

I almost had the hack so that when you touched an enemy you took a point of damage, the enemy died, and gameplay kept going. It was much more like the original game. There were some quirky bugs introduced by the changes and I didn't have the patience to iron them out. Some day I will make an adventure game based on what I learned from Wolfenstein. It may or may not be the same genre, but it will be the real deal. I know that starting from scratch I could pack at least 128 different room layouts into an 8K catridge. I would also be able to add features like the uniform and guards that can shoot from the original game.

 

Cheers!

Rob

[pocketmego]

Perhaps your take on the original sequel, Beyond Wolfenstein VCS.

 

-Ray

 

I almost had the hack so that when you touched an enemy you took a point of damage, the enemy died, and gameplay kept going. It was much more like the original game. There were some quirky bugs introduced by the changes and I didn't have the patience to iron them out. Some day I will make an adventure game based on what I learned from Wolfenstein. It may or may not be the same genre, but it will be the real deal. I know that starting from scratch I could pack at least 128 different room layouts into an 8K catridge. I would also be able to add features like the uniform and guards that can shoot from the original game.

 

Cheers!

Rob

 

 

Rob you are such a tease. If you have any intentions of making this, I'll pre-order right now.

 

-Ray