Asteroids Plus Deluxe

[Shockman]

Asteroids Plus Deluxe (arcade game)

One of my better recreations has been made better.

- Added a check for a joystick. This fixed a problem with some systems that slow down if a usb device is plugged/unplugged. Press 1 key to play with keyboard. Press button 1 to play with a joystick.
- Get Ready message at start of game.
- New wave will not start until UFOs and the mothership and it's elements are destroyed.
- Bigger ship explosion lasts longer.
- Shield damage increased per usage and impact. (weaker shields)
- Larger bullets.


This version is exclusive to here for now for testing purposes.

The manual will come up first run. Read the Control section.

DirectX and totally benign .exe

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wc2s6ps6i2qaetx/Asteroids_Plus.exe?dl=0

 

[spalmer]

Wow, awesome job!. I guess I have missed something. What other recreations have you done??

 

[Shockman]

Thank you.

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/users/Shockman

Some are WIP;
.Baseball (Too early to play)
.Galaga (Three levels repeat (one is a challenge stage))
.Asteroids Deluxe II (Roids crack and take multi hits to destroy. Plus crystal power ups (still simulated vector game))
.Vector Patrol (Too early to play. will be a vector based moon patrol)
.Omega Race (Too early to play)
.Sinistar (very early)
.Lunar Gravitar (early)

The complete ones are;
-Joust (One or two players. Not fully tested but very playable)
-Ice Cold Beer (The only game with a pinball)
-Space Invaders (Another close reproduction)
-Asteroids + Deluxe ..previous version.. (Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, and Asteroids Plus which gives the best of those first two)
-Canyon Bomber (With some minor enhancements)
-Buckle Up! (Head On)
-Space Zap (Getting update)
-Super Sprint (Graphic and sound is a total rip off, but gameplay is different)
-Sub Sinker (Based on a PC game Sink Sub Pro, which is based on Depth Charge)

My next game is going to be VPF. The scoring won't count, and if you miss, you will get kicked out of the game. So you can't win. I will credit PacDude for the programming.

 

[GSGregg]

Thank you.

My next game is going to be VPF. The scoring won't count, and if you miss, you will get kicked out of the game. So you can't win. I will credit PacDude for the programming.

 

[spalmer]

Thank you.

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/users/Shockman

Some are WIP;
.Baseball (Too early to play)
.Galaga (Three levels repeat (one is a challenge stage))
.Asteroids Deluxe II (Roids crack and take multi hits to destroy. Plus crystal power ups (still simulated vector game))
.Vector Patrol (Too early to play. will be a vector based moon patrol)
.Omega Race (Too early to play)
.Sinistar (very early)
.Lunar Gravitar (early)

The complete ones are;
-Joust (One or two players. Not fully tested but very playable)
-Ice Cold Beer (The only game with a pinball)
-Space Invaders (Another close reproduction)
-Asteroids + Deluxe ..previous version.. (Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, and Asteroids Plus which gives the best of those first two)
-Canyon Bomber (With some minor enhancements)
-Buckle Up! (Head On)
-Space Zap (Getting update)
-Super Sprint (Graphic and sound is a total rip off, but gameplay is different)
-Sub Sinker (Based on a PC game Sink Sub Pro, which is based on Depth Charge)

My next game is going to be VPF. The scoring won't count, and if you miss, you will get kicked out of the game. So you can't win. I will credit PacDude for the programming.

I will check out the rest of the games you have. Always looking for something new. You certainly have tallent. I think I will hold off on the VPF game. I don't like games you can not win.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

through the magic of MAME i've played most of these to exhaustion, but the vector moon patrol sounds cool.

vector still has some gameplay left, as i recently discovered with this really nice 'lander with tasks' game on android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dynamicentertainment.gravitrex&hl=en

 

[Shockman]

Yeah, these are far from new. In fact they either are, or are based on some of the oldest video games.

I could not have make this game without 'The Dude' Well I could have made it without his code, but by re-inventing it, and it was in the form of a lib. to share so I used it as support for the community. Actually I think all the function has been replaced though, the lib. hid the cursor, which I replaced, and did some rotation, which is also replaced. When I first made it though it was like an example made for 'The Dude's' lib.

IsmAvatar, wrote the key re-configure code, and I only have a 99% grasp of it but used it anyway. I am looking at another method though, which includes joypad.

The point is that that is why I am making arcade games instead of Pinball games with VP. Without the support and the ability to use the membership as a knowledge base, there is little point. I am lost with many of the new settings, and functions.

Anyway, Space Zap is getting updated with two player mode, Ice Cold Beer is getting the dark digit elements, a better animated ball feed, and an .ini file. Sub Sinker is getting a bug fixed with the ship going off the screen between levels, if you move it to, Joust is getting testing, it is missing only the birds coming to pick up the eggs, as it is the eggs hatch into birds instead of gladiators.

 

[kristian]

Lunar Gravitar?

Can you tell me more about it... and do you have screenshots?

Here's how to play the original. Awesome game...!!

CA Extreme 2010: Gravitar High Score - YouTube

 

[Shockman]

I will prepare that for a demo. It will take a couple of days. The version at YoYo does not work (Controls are whack).

Think of Lunar Lander, but instead of a scrolling scape, a big asteroid. Right now though the hills and valleys and landing pads are on the top though. You do not see inside. This part looks like Lunar Lander, but have a fuel tank. Anyway you need to land on all the pads leaving a flag. Then one will open and you go inside. This is Gravitar part with tunnels turrets fuel tanks etc.

My dream is to have gravity to the center of the rock so landing could be up and down, sideways, or anything in between. Even if I have to stick to the action on the top it will be a fun game with missions. Lunar Lander outside on the surface and gravitar for missions where you go inside the asteroid.

The inside is weak now with just tunnels, fuel tanks, and one turret.

The fighting between areas and above with the two pesky aliens is the weakest part of Gravitar in my opinion. I intend to make that mor enjoyable.

I'll post screenshots and a demo when I can. I lost the source code with my last computer, so I have to decompile the .exe at YoYo (which answers the question of why would someone upload incomplete versions)

The second screenshot is the quick draw of the subterranean part. Just one tank and one turret, both misplaced. I will probably speckle the rock to show the tunnels better.

I made a few of these, but this was the first and worse. I did not get the later ones uploaded. I even incorporated the vector patrol game into the bottom of one asteroid with a big open cave all over the bottom. It would shoot at you while jumping holes.

Gravitar is an awesome game. Always has been on my top 5 list.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

they should have ported oids to windows. that was the ultimate gravitar sequel. lunar gravity does look interesting, though.

 

[kristian]

Oids and Thrust were great games... I played Thrust a lot in C64... completed the whole game which was pretty easy actually.... but neither are even close as good as the real thing, which is pure perfection. 100% skill, tactics and absolutely every detail in that game has been thought to the extremes.

Mike Hally is pure genius... he also programmed Atari Star Wars which is among the best arcade machines ever made.

Here's Hally's interview:
http://www.cooganphoto.com/gravitar/interview.html

@shocky: Lunar lander flying motor isn't very attractive, imho... it's too sloppy and unresponsive. Can you hack Gravitar and re-design the planets?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

cool... i love those interviews with the early game-designing greats.

thrust in particular was great because it had such nicely-rendered graphics and physics. in the hands of many others it would have been just a crap-ordinary C64 game.

IMO oids was the best (are you saying you actually played it on a mac?) because it had lots of cool new options, like a huge variety of missions, teleporters, gravity wells, and IIRC, new weaponry. you could also design your own levels and share them, something i never saw in any of the other gravitar-inspired games.

the atari 2600 gravitar is partly hilarious and partly a surprisingly effective version. if you haven't played that, you should definitely give it a whirl sometime. unfortunately it's not vector, but how could they have pulled that off on 2600? there's the download and screenshots:
http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=223

there was one other utterly fantastic game i remember playing in college on my mac plus, around 1987. similar to shockman's WIP, it was a combination of a lunar lander-style module versus moon terrain filled with enemies. idea was to go on missions, criss-crossing the surface of the moon (or mars or whatever) at high speed, dodging enemy fire and looking to take out important targets. so it was also kind of like activision's laser blast, if you remember that. really, really cool game. if i can ever figure out what the title is, i'll wear a dress down main street or something like that...

 

[kristian]

Yeah I've seen the 2600 version of Gravitar and even played it on a 2600 emulator. Pretty brave effort... that's all I'm going to say. :D

2600 was a great machine though... some conversions were great, like Dig Dug, Defender, Phoenix... I also completed Raiders of the Lost Ark with my cousin... which was probably the first adventure game for ANY platform. We played it for WEEKS...!! Some conversions, like Xevious, were absolutely horrendous though.

I sold my 2600 to buy a Vectrex... worked my ass off in a moving company for the whole summer to finance it. It was worth every cent... Vectrex was great...!!

Oids on a MAC? Hmm.... I think I played OIDS on Atari ST.... I'm pretty sure it was OIDS.

The beauty in Gravitar was that it didn't have any gimmics... like Thrust... I never liked the fact that you had to bring that... well... thing.... from the caves. Thrust was a great substitute but Gravitar is pure tactics, aim and skill.... and Gravitar is a vector game. There's still something awesomely unique about the vector graphics... can't explain it. You'd better check out the AAE emulator... it's the best substitute for the original vector screen...!!

Here's the whole package with ROMs.
http://www.mediafire.com/?a4e12st2gbd423i

PS: Right now I'm playing Star Wars... trying to find good mouse analog settings... what a great game it is. 1.600.000 points so far... the arcade game with yoke I played 30 mil... honestly... I was able to play it as long as I wanted. It's very difficult on a mouse... but 2 mil should be possible to achieve. I have to play it on MAME though... mouse doesn't work for me on AAE.

Damn these old classics will never get boring... playability is what makes them so good. Like old movies... no amount of special effects will help if the script is crap.

PS2: Speaking of Star Wars... have you already played Star Wars Trilogy on a Supermodel emulator? For me it runs full speed... fully playable. It's a nice game.

[ARCADE] Star Wars Trilogy Arcade - Longplay (Supermodel emulator) - YouTube

 

[Shockman]

I still have subsequent development on my broken computer. I don't know if i will rescue the files on the hard drive or not. Not much left i need at this point and the stuff I did with Lunar Gravitar was not optimized, but instead playing with ideas. Kind of a storyboard process using the development kit.

One version had vector patrol integrated, another, asteroids. The pad that the fuel tank is on on the first pick had a Gravitar ship on a plat I put beside it, that you would switch to for the subterranean part by landing beside it with the lander. The opening had a plat that opened up, when you switched ships. For the second screenshot I added a key that would jump inside, because the controls are too messed up to get inside. The inside was never set up for a game, but it did have a few turrets and fuel tanks. The tractor is in and works fine (you don't just pick up the fuel, you hover while the tank drains, so you could leave tanks with some fuel and get it later). I can get up to where I was in a week or two, and have a game in a few months.

I had a Thrustmaster flight stick that worked perfectly with Star Wars on MAME. But it's in Oregon. I play with a mouse now. Not the same. I was not really good at it anyway though. One of my favorite vector type ports was Omega Race on the old Vic20. You could use keys, joystick, or paddle. The next level did not start until a music was over and you could clean up mines during that time. That does not work in MAME.

I made Asteroids because in MAME I do not get smooth gameplay with that or 'deluxe, and don't think I did since v0.35

I sure do wish AAE was never abandoned.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

kudos on the raiders completion- if i was forced to solve stuff like that, ET or riddle of the sphinx i probably would have gone insane. i agree the second version of defender was amazing. as mediocre as the first one was, "defender II" was unbelievably professional. i can only wonder how many other of their early games could have had that level of quality if atari weren't in such a rush to produce them.

i did play through the 2600 collection not too long ago and it was pretty rough. at first all nostalgic and interesting, but it got pretty painful pretty fast. so many awful games made for that thing, and not because of poor graphics- just lousy game play. having said that, some are still pretty strong- mrs. pacman, pacman junior, reactor, marauder, warlords, etc. warlords might just be the only game in history in which the 2600 version is more fun and playable than the arcade version! the 2600 thrust is actually pretty solid, too.

i remember the story about you saving up for the vectrex. we all had some pretty fun emulation conversations on the old VPF. i tried the AAE emulator just now (thanks) and it's okay, i guess. looks like a lot of games weren't running yet, and joystick / gamepad wasn't supported either- not real good news for me in particular.

re: star wars,
i was just going to try out some of the remakes of that and the empire strikes back games. never saw the sega 1998 game- looks nice! probably runs kind of slow on this little 2ghz laptop, though. i need to buy a gaming laptop one of these days so i can run stuff like that and the new VP9 tables smoothly.

re: omega race,
best sequel i ever saw was omicron for the C64. it had different kinds of barriers the enemy dropped which made the game very interesting. also the gameplay was slightly streamlined to make it faster playing and with more bosses at the higher levels. pure mayhem, and for some reason more fun to play than the original, even though the original was far more prettier. there's an info page and download if interested:
http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=5381&d=18&h=0

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

speaking of MAME--

anybody know where to find the older romsets outside of torrents and newsgroups? i spent a lot of time recently looking through the rom hosting sites, but could only find the latest versions.

 

[kristian]

Yeah... the years haven't been merciful to most 2600 and C64 games... but some are still nice. Warlords is a funny game for me... never saw the original arcade machine. For some reason it wasn't available in my country... it's strange considering it was quite popular and we had most of the Atari stuff here.

How old romsets you're looking for? I have some very old MAME sets.... like 0.35, burned on a CD... back then it mostly operated from the command line... without a frontend.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Uh... can we include newsgroups? This has been posted lately:

MAME.0.145.Full.Roms.Set.Collection.Including.Extras.and.CHD.Rom

I haven't downloaded or updated my MAME or roms in years... I've got the late 70s to mid 80s arcade I've always wanted, so I haven't test-driven this post except to notice that it's 10-frickin'-DVDs worth! That must be every videogame ever made!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Yeah... Warlords is a funny game for me... never saw the original arcade machine. For some reason it wasn't available in my country... it's strange considering it was quite popular and we had most of the Atari stuff here.

Wow, one of my favorites! Sorry you missed out on the original. I only remember it as a cocktail table game, not sure if they did a standup of it or not. Really works best played as a flat-surface game... just not quite the same any other way.

 

[kristian]

Most of the new MAME stuff is flat out useless... new games require CHD's and the current machines are unable to run them at decent speeds. I totally understand the approach though.... one day they will be playable when the processors take the next quantum leap forwards... but not now.

From the players' point of view old MAMEs are everything you need.... I have 0.135 MAMEUIFX (which has the unofficial hiscore.dat support).... plus TX-1 and Buggy Boy. I don't think they have released anything worthwile since that.

Raiden Fighters is an excellent series though.... but I never grew to understand the appeal of all those fighting games... I just don't get 'em... I'm probably wrong generation. Karateka (C64) and The Way of Exploding Fist (C64) covered the genre for me.... the newer ones are just the same old joke repackaged.

I gotta play Warlords on MAME today.... thanks for reminding me.

 

[Shockman]

Warlords had upright and cocktail models. Spinners too, paddles, which nothing works right. A wheel would work, but paddles had no centering. The mouse works best if you do not have a paddle. I would like a paddle, in the form of a Pole Position wheel.

I have looked at warlords for a remake. While I usually stick to original style graphics, this one would loose nothing with enhanced graphics. Personal, it's far down my list of favorites. Well programmed bots though. Not too talented, not too stupid. For me it is another game I don't win. I have played the arcade machine with friends, but at the time we were not much impressed, Same year as missile command, berzerk, centipede, asteroids deluxe, and defender.

 

[Shockman]

Lunar Gravitar,

I have the dual analog controls working for the lander, I have to work on the keyboard thrust vectors though.

If you have a dual analog stick, Gravitar i would love for you to test the lander while I work on the Gravitar ship physics.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

re: MAME,
i do have sets from around .33 backed up somewhere. was looking for something around .65 - .67 to go with the last working set i have, and also corresponds to the last kailera MAME, which i'm using with friends online. steveoz once showed me a site that archived prior versions of roms, but i think it eventually went down.

also, maybe, this is an issue clrmame could fix? can it create older versions of roms from newer versions?


@SW, ESB,
think i might try the minionsoft re-creations next. not as nice as the one you showed, kristian, but small and should have lag issues. couple screenshots:
http://www.minionsoft.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/StarWars-3.jpg
http://www.minionsoft.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Empire-3.png
http://www.minionsoft.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Empire-4.png


@dual analog stick,
yea, got a couple of logitechs. btw, too bad MAME or some other simulator can't use the mouse scroll wheels in place of dials for warlords and cutie-q.

 

[Shockman]

Ok then.

These are just tech demos, and not for everyone, but those involved in this thread at least I would like to try them and give feedback and ideas.

A dual analog stick works best for Lunar Gravitar as the tractor and rotate is on the r-axis, but the cursors also rotate. Press button 1 on the pad to start if you have a dual analog and press the 1 key on the keyboard if you have a single joystick. Y axis is thrust and r is rotate. z which should be on the same stick as r (down) is the tractor beam. Collect the fuel to so inside, or land on the flat parts to place a flag.

-------------------

the zip folder also includes early wips of Omega Race, and Vector Patrol and a read me. But just try the z and c keys.

 

[Shockman]

...
@SW, ESB,
think i might try the minionsoft re-creations next. not as nice as the one you showed, kristian, but small and should have lag issues. couple screenshots:
http://www.minionsoft.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/StarWars-3.jpg
http://www.minionsoft.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Empire-3.png
http://www.minionsoft.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Empire-4.png
...

These are pretty cool. The mouse seems throttled back too far on starwars, and it feels just a little slow, though the frame rate is great. Nice remakes though.