Awesome Slam Siblings Infinite - A Super Smash Bros Tribute coming to the Commodore 64 and it still looks super!

We always try to get the best in retro gaming updates on Indie Retro News for our readers, as we've just found out while looking through the Commodore 64/128 Facebook group, that Søren Trautner Madsen is not only still working on his upcoming Commodore 64 Super Smash Bros tribute game of 'Awesome Slam Siblings', but as of today there's some new footage of the REU-only level of the game contained within the new name of 'Awesome Slam Siblings Infinite'. As in his words "Actual Gameplay vs AI on the REU-only Ghosts'n Goblins level."

The REU is only needed for this Bonus Level. The rest of the game runs fine without.

Here is what the creator says about the game via the video description. "A complete unedited match between a human player and an AI opponent in Awesome Slam Sibs Infinite. - and Yes, I have changed the game title slightly to make it even more insane".

"For the longest time I did not want to make an AI for this game, since I always find that fighting games only REALLY work when it is human vs human. And especially for a Smash Bros-like game. The Single Player in Smash bros is just immensely boring while playing 2-, 3- or even up to 8-player is some of the most fun gaming I have ever had. But that is a bit unfair, since I recognize that it can be quite difficult for us c64-enthusiasts to convince all the normal people to come play with us :-D. So I will try to do my best to give you an AI opponent that is as interesting (or at least: "As non-boring") as possible..." 

"Apart from showcasing the current state of the AI, this video also showcases my newly created Ghosts'n Goblins playfield. Thanks to Robert Wilson for the graphics for that. (Though I drew the mountains myself)."

"The screen actually consists of 2 seperately scrolling screens, each using their own character set in Extended Color Mode (ECM). One screen for the mountains and one for the rest. To achieve the parallaxing effect in 2 dimension this level needs to use the "Ram Expansion Unit" (REU), since the entire screen pretty much needs to be redrawn each frame, and that can only be done with the super fast memory-copy facilities of the REU. As an interesting note, though, it is only the vertical scrolling that causes the need for all this data copying. It would absolutely be possible to make a purely sidescrolling parallax effect with the mountains without the REU, if the scrolling was slow enough to allow for a few frames of preparation. So something very close to this effect would be achievable on a "vanilla" commodore 64."

And that's all we have on the game so far, so watch this space for further updates!

19 comments:

  1. Where can we get the REU memory?

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    1. Googling comes up with this in regards to another game that can use REU "Important information for NTSC users: The NTSC version of Sam is only available on disk and requires a REU (any size) or a REU emulation (e.g. 1541 Ultimate or Turbo Chameleon 64)." Thankfully I have a 1541 Ultimate lol

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    2. Take a look at RAD, pretty inexpensive cartridge that emulates REU using RPi (hopefully inexpensive soon): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtG9yBAag_I

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    3. Best recommendation is the awesome 1541Ultimate 2+ from Gideon in Holland, which besides being a near perfect 1541 floppy drive emulator also offers RAM expansion of various sizes (plus a lot more extras). And they are available again at the moment. :-)

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  2. I think this level has turned out really nice. Once me and Søren agreed on the layout for the level I constructed the graphics in EBCM - my first piece of EBCM work at the time! The level graphics had a few tweaks here and there, but I didn't need to touch Søren's mountains as he'd drawn them previously and I couldn't improve on them so I said to put them in as they are. I am now working on another level for the game. I hope people will enjoy the finished game.

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    1. It's a bit muddy it would be better in monochrome

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    2. No it wouldn't - Ghost 'N Goblins in monochome? They didn't design it like that.

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    3. Yes it would monochrome games are the bomb

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  3. i'm impressed!!! of course this would be even cooler on a stock c64 but anyway holy cow.

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    1. Søren Trautner Madsen8 June 2023 at 08:30

      It does. The REU is only needed for this Bonus Level. The rest of the game runs fine without.

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    2. Hi Soren! I've updated the article "It does. The REU is only needed for this Bonus Level. The rest of the game runs fine without." under the video. Even I wasn't sure. Thank you for making that clear. Game looks AWESOME!

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  4. Looks like complete Hires-GFX. Very nice!

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  5. I would find this game much more endearing if the designers would limit themselves to purely 8-bit pc characters and drop the overused nintendo mascots.

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    1. Agreed
      C64 mascots all the way

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  6. So, I had this idea a long time ago about an 8bit Smash Brothers type of game, but instead of using the Nintendo + extras roster, that it used well known 8bit characters: Miner Willy, Agent 4125, Monty Mole, Sabreman/wulf, Arthur Pendragon, Lunar Jetman, Eric & Headmaster etc.. from Skool Daze... etc.. stuff like that.

    Anway, seeing as someone's actually making a serious go of this, and doing a fantastic job at it, I thought I'd mention it in case it was an idea worth pursuing..

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    1. Søren Trautner Madsen8 June 2023 at 08:29

      Don't worry. The final game will also include Commodore characters.

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    2. Yes!! There are a lot of characters from the c64 Age!! The ninja from " the last ninja",Bren McGuire from "Turrican",the barbarian from "barbarian 1&2",Clyde from "creatures",the main Hero from "draconus",bub &bob,Rastan,Tiki the kiwi,Wonderboy,Jack the nipper and so many mooooreeeee

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    3. @Søren Thank you, I wish you the greatest success!

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  7. Awesom Hire-GFX !!!

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