What's Total Carnage like?

[Pink]

Total Carnage is amazing! Used to play it with one of my older sisters a lot growing up!!!

[JagChris]

I have been going back for just one more try...

 

I love this kinda shooter.

 

I like the random power ups and prizes.

Edited October 27, 2018 by JagChris

[JagChris]

Whoops my bad. Perhaps I should play my Jaguar more often so I don't forget where the pause button is. And in a lighted area so I can see what I'm hitting.

[JagChris]

Reviewer oversight.

 

There are different death animations. For instance get hit by a missile and you go up in flames.

[Isgoed]

Whoops my bad. Perhaps I should play my Jaguar more often so I don't forget where the pause button is. And in a lighted area so I can see what I'm hitting.

You got to be kidding!

 

I just fired the game up and pause works fine...... looked up this topic and read you post....

[Isgoed]

I found the game very difficult and I would imagine almost impossible to beat without some sort of code for lives on the Jaguar. I was only able to get far and eventually beat it by playing it on the MAME emator where you can keep hitting select for unlimited tokens and therefore I never had to worry about a game over. I couldn't imagine it to be beatable on the Jag with the # of lives given.

 

Before you start the game, have you set difficulty to "easy" in the options menu?

Also do you use the warps when they appear?

[JagChris]

I tried that. Personally I can't see a difference.

[doctor_shred]

This is on my Jag "to buy" list. I have it as part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 on the PS2 (which handily also includes Primal Rage as I can't find a Jag CD version for anything less than silly money).

 

On the PS2 the movement and fire controls are mapped to the analogue sticks and it feels very intuitive and responsive. I hope the Jag Pro controller manages something close to that with the extra buttons although two sticks ala Llamatron on the ST would be ideal.

 

I'm glad Songbird picked up the title and released it. It's a great title on any platform.

[+LS650]

I'm surprised to see this old thread of mine from 2006 revived....

At any rate, I answered my own question and bought a copy of Total Carnage. I played it a fair bit for about 6 months, and then sold it.

I found it a bit disappointing; the controls, even with a ProController, were just not that great for this game.

[Rick Dangerous]

Total Carnage is great; and looks great on the Jaguar.

 

Pro controller or no; the controls just aren't ideal on the system. It really benefits from a dual joystick setup. But you can manage well enough on the Jag if you need to.

[UHATEIT]

Am I the only one that felt Total Carnage was damn near impossible to beat? I could only do well on the MAME emulator with unlimited quarters. Otherwise you just die too much!

[+save2600]

I was sooooooo disappointed to find that the control scheme using a pro-controller wasn't better utilized. I mean, WTF? I too sold my copy long ago. Surprised it hasn't been tweaked for sensibility after all these years.

 

X - Up

A - Right

B - Down

Y - Left

 

...would be a much more playable game with this scheme. As the game sits... another curious, if not missed opportunity that makes a better display in your collection than a game playing experience IMO.

[Atlantis]

Am I the only one that felt Total Carnage was damn near impossible to beat?

Impossible in one player, beatable in two player mode on Jaguar.

[skip]

X - Up

A - Right

B - Down

Y - Left

This makes so much sense. I too have it on Midways Arcade Treasures 2 on Xbox and it's not too bad at all. Fun...dumb fun, but still fun.

 

I've been in the 'maybe' camp since release, but I've never managed to justify it to myself if the controls are awkward.

 

It wouldn't be too hard to wire up a dual arcade stick by hacking a Jag pad...just wire up the second stick to the relevant buttons / number pad keys (assuming each of the four main directions are actually mapped somewhere). I imagine it could / should work well, but it's quite a lot of effort for a single game. If I ever have the money, the time, and the inclination (three things that rarely line up lol) I'll do it for a bit of fun. I'm involved in running retro gaming museums at numerous conventions here in Aus, so it would definitely get used there...people would probably ask for two of them lol.

 

Thinking about it though, i'd probably get more playtime making a dual stick for Jag Llamatron...hmmm...

[UHATEIT]

Impossible in one player, beatable in two player mode on Jaguar.

I guess I need to go find someone else who wants to play Jaguar with me!

[Isgoed]

I guess I need to go find someone else who wants to play Jaguar with me!

Do you play TC with a Pro Controller?

[UHATEIT]

Do you play TC with a Pro Controller?

I sold the game a while ago so I no longer have it. I now own a Pro Controller but don;t have that game to test it out. But the game itself was hard in general as it is super long and with all the baddies coming at you, it seems like without a cheat code it would be impossible to beat it!

[Isgoed]

Ah I see..

 

I can imagine the game being very difficult to beat with a standard controller and yes maybe impossible.

But I only play/played it with a Pro, and while not optimal is fine to play through the game.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Isgoed

[UHATEIT]

You dont find that you die too much in the game still?

[Isgoed]

Yes, in the beginning I did, but after I got used to the game and got more careful about where to walk it got better.

A lot of the deaths are imo mostly my own fault for not paying attention.

 

As I said, the Pro makes it a lot easier and while the character dies often, the game gives enough continues.

I also make us of the warps to gather points, keys and lives.

I can not say if use of the warps gives more continues though.....

 

TC is a very frantic arcade-style shoot'em up and maybe the deaths are part of the "experience" but I never played the real arcadegame

 

I like the game very much, but it would've been great if there was some background music during gameplay

TC was the reason for me to modify two 6-button arcade-controllers for use with the Jaguar.

It makes diagonal firing easier.

[JagChris]

The game seems to also give bonus continues every so often.

[+Biff Burgertime]

Was this port (very) unfinished? I saw some video of it and it seemed like a big downgrade from how I remember the arcade version - even though the Jaguar could easily handle everything the arcade version did.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Buffalo Biff Burgertime

[JagChris]

I haven't been through all of it but it seems pretty well finished.

 

The above video compares arcade with all ports.

[Songbird]

It would have been difficult (but not impossible) to modify the button mappings for X Y Z on the ProController. First, you have to realize that those buttons are mapped -- by the existing Atari hardware -- to the 7 8 9 buttons, which is why they fire the way they do. To change the settings without breaking the game for non-ProController players, you'd need a special menu where the player could choose Standard or Pro, then only remap the buttons when Pro is selected. You would limit the remap X Y Z in this case; remapping A B C could mess up other things in the game. It's something I could consider doing as a custom Total Carnage ROM build if I get some free time and people are interested...

 

But honestly, I've played Total Carnage quite a few hours, and find just using "up" as the locked/default gun position, plus the two Pro shoulder buttons for left and right, is sufficient for most of the game. I find that catches most enemies, then occasionally X Y Z are useful to shoot downward, even though the button locations are counter-intuitive for that purpose.

[+grips03]

Any hints to beating the green dude at the end of level 1. I shoot his arms off but he still keeps coming. Do you shoot the head next?

 

Any code to give more lives or make easier?