We've been told that if you remember playing the 1984 game called 'XZAP' by Commodore Business Machines, which was released for the Commodore 16 and Plus/4. Then as of today you can download the Commodore Amiga version by Electric Black Sheep. A recreation of that classic game, whereby your objective is to destroy all the aliens on each level, and so progress through 140 different levels. To coincide with this news, provided below is the full details as well as the gameplay footage.
Here's the full details. "This project aims to recreate the XZAP shoot-em-up game, by Mark Wirt on Amiga computer. It was the first game we (EBS) ever played on a computer. The game was originaly released with the Commodore 16, Plus/4 in 1984 and has never been faithfully ported for any other platform. The graphics and the audio have been improved a bit, but only enough so that it doesn't affect the original gameplay. In the absence of the original source code, the interpretation of the gameplay is based solely on observation. So... despite our intentions, we cannot speak of 100% conversion, in this case either "our best guess". If anyone has more information about the game mechanics, please let us know."
Links :1) Source
This frantic shooting on the humble C16, finally getting some well-deserved attention!
ReplyDeleteThe implementation of the minefield effect misses the ‘rolling banding’ of the original
I'm not entirely sure what you mean under "minefield effect". :) Is it about the the explosions?
DeleteI'm not entirely sure what you mean under "minefield effect". :) Is it about the the explosions or the forcefield around the "mines"?
ReplyDeleteI mean the forcefields
DeleteThe original was updating the screen with colored, horizontal characters in a banding effect. This remake uses ‘flashing’. I think on amiga one can replicate the 2 chars in the forcefields using colorcycling
(Back in the day I made a somewhat working version in AMOS, so I can appreciate the work you’ve had to put in!)