Nov. 1st 1986. Do you know why this date means something ?
This was the day that Alex Kidd in Miracle World (and Alex Kidd himself) was unleashed upon the world. Today (Nov. 1st 2011) marks the 25th anniversary of Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
And to celebrate that, i decided to record the entire soundtrack of the game. The result is an EP, called "Giant Fists of Doom", which is avaiable right now, for only 2.99usd.
This was the result of over 2 months of learning, arranging and recording music for the resulting 20 minutes of aural badasscity.
I don't know much what to say about this album, this is truly an effort from me, in order to pay tribute to one of my favorite games of all time, because unlike my other favorite game which is also 25 years old, this one has music that i actually CAN play.
So, here it is, the Youtube trailer for Giant Fists of Doom :
And that's it ? Oh no, the EP features the awesome art of Lee Tatlock, be sure to check his works out. You can go here : http://l-tat.deviantart.com/ to see more of his art. What else can i say ? Well.. i think that's it.
The EP is out, the anniversary is celebrated, so that's it.
Oh yeah, there's my speed run gameplay of Mt. Eternal, after the jump.
Super Racing, is one of the rarest Sega Master System games, but one of the finest 8-bit top-scrolling racing games in existence, it's even better than some more advanced 16-bit games (Aguri Suzuki's came to mind).
Developed by Sega, Super Racing could be the missing link between Monaco GP and Super Monaco GP. It have the same top-down view of the predecessor, but already lives in the F1 universe, like SMGP. Maybe the Super in the name was a redisue from a different naming strategy ? Very little is known about this game, so it's hard to say for sure.
Released for the Sega Master System, in Japan only, not many copies were produced, probably because the developers felt that the lack of license from FOM (FOCA at time) was a deal breaker for most people. For me, it is the charm of the game. Driving a Fellari or Lotas, it's what it was all about back then.
The game supports the somewhat rare (outside of Japan and Europe) SMS Paddle controller, which is a dial controller for the D-Pad. But unlike some games (BMX Alex Kidd), it works flawlessy with regular control pad.
Featuring a bunch of track, none of which resemble their real-life counterparts in almost nothing, and having extra japanese tracks, which i'm guessing are fictional, Super Racing shines in the game engine. Fast paced, but intuitive and very fun to race, unlike many other 8-bit racers where you get bored after a race, Super Racing can have you playing the whole championship in one sitting, which is good, because the game features no save system or password system.
I don't know much about this game, but i do know that i love it, and i love the soundtrack, so for me, it's B.G.M mode always, because the Real Mode, just takes the music away for an annoying 8-bit engine sound.
Here's a video of me, playing the first 2 GPs and Practicing at MONAKO (not a typo on my part).
Turmoil, was released almost exactely 29 years ago today. It is a great little gem of the decentely sized Atari 2600 library. It's a VERY simple game, but the simple gameplay leads to hours of fun and replayablity. The graphics are really nice for the system and the controls are tight. It's one of my favorite Atari2600 games, and it isn't on almost anyone's list. Such a shame on them, really.
Still going on with the F-Zero theme. This time we have the lost Mute City from SNES, the Mute City IV, from the BS-F-Zero II for the SatelaVision add-on for the SuperFamicom. This was a Modem-cartridge, released in 1996 that gamers could download modified and exclusive versions of their favorite games, such as this one, the F-Zero II (there were BS-Fzero I too, equal to the one sold on carts), StarFox and Zelda were also slightly modified for the BS release.
Mute City 4 is a different take on Mute City I, and it's a really fun track to race.
I love F-Zero, it's one of the few games in my small SNES collection that i made a point in getting complete (with box, manual, and all paperlets and everything that comes with it). It's one of those games that i played over and over and over again, always enjoying it to the last bit of it. Amazing Mode-7 graphics, fast paced futuristic sci-fi plot, a racing game, with an absurdely wicked soundtrack. Is one of those things that one can't really not enjoy.
So, since i've been in a SNES kick, i decided to go with my favorite track from the game, Mute City (according to the manual, it was called mutant city. (Which i don't quite believe, since there's another track called Silent), but anyway, it's a great track, and i present it to you, in all 3 versions. Morning : Mute City I Afternoon : Mute City II Evening : Mute City III
Epic shooter, developed by Terry Cavanaught (from VVVVVV fame). Really fun and procedural (each play the enemies comes in different places). So you can't really memorize the games, which adds a lot to the replayability factor. It's really cool, it's free, so what's not to enjoy ?
So, i decided to carry on with that stuff i was working on the last post. I really need to focus however. I'm still working in #AS2 so i need to be focused on that. Instead of looking into #XNA or #Unity stuff.
Anyway, if you know me, you know that i HATE to rewrite code. But this time i am doing this. I was trying to keep the code extra simple, and it worked, up to the point where i want to implement some AI stuff. Now my simple code, is too simple, so i need to re-write in a more "complicated" way, but that will allow me to implement the different behaviours i am looking to implement.
I'm finally understand some stuff, like the .attachMovie property of a empty movie clip.
So i spent some good time last night, trying to make my enemy shoot towards the player. And i came up with this : As you may or not understand it is a simple function to make the enemy lock target into the player, and shoot at him, at a random rate. It adds a nice touch of AI, with only a couple of lines of code. As you can also see, it's line 585, my prediction is 4000 lines. Not bad.
It's been a while since i've done anything that is even remotely mentioning.
Lately i have been more focused into getting things done on work, than taking the time on my free time to expand and build my knowledge. However, i had this cool idea for a little game quite sometime ago, and it's been floating inside my mind for quite a while now. I don't know if i will be able to pull this off, but i think it is worth the shot anyway.
So, i started a new project folder on my desktop. As per last time, i will use Flash and AS2, but i hope this is the last time doing so, as i plan on moving to bigger and better engines afterwards. However, before i lose this idea, i decided to use what i know how to use. So, AS2 it is.
I started the project folder and started to gather the ideas. A simple and elegant way to organize the ideas is a .txt file. There i organize all the assests i might need for the project (sprites, frames of animation, music, etc), code samples and engine ideas, story bits, character names and design ideas. That was about.... 2 weeks ago, i think. Last night, i started the FLA project, and started coding. About.. 400 lines of AS2 later, i have the skeleton done. Nothing fancy yet, need to work on a small sample of the graphics before moving to anything else. This, will be quite a ambicious effort from me, especially since i'll be doing pretty much everything by myself. #foreveralone And i do not have much time to invest into this. There is not set release date, and no information on what it might turn out to be. It's not something THAT revolutionary, but it's something that i couldn't find one with exactly the same concept idea. So, i may have some trouble implementing some of the stuff. Hopefully it won't be too much of a drag. At least i know i like to work on small projects like these. Especially when i learn so much about it. I don't remember much of my geometry classes, so i had to google some radian functions in order to make the player move like i wanted to.
That is out of the way, so, i need to move on the interface, the player needs to be able to control the main character, and that's where this come from :
It's a simple mouse aim and lock system, that can be whipped up in less than 10 minutes, if done right, and not for the first time. I lost a little bit more of time, but it is optimized enough. Even though this is the test code, and the final code won't use the "onEnterFrame" events, since it will be a class, loaded into the main _root.timeline.
Anyway, i may update this with some more information on this project. Or not. I don't know if it will ever leave the project state. Only time will tell.
Lucasarts is the videogame company that belongs to George Lucas, the mastermind behind the #starwars saga. And it's from his company that comes this excellent game, which takes places in the same universe, however the plot starts between episodes III and IV. (And it was released before the Prequels). X-Wing, developed for PC (DOS) systems and released by Lucasarts in 1992, is the first of the Star Wars space simulators. The game is one of the last of what i call "pre-historic 3D", in the same vein as Stunts (which i already covered here) and Out of This World. So, you can't expect mind-blowing graphics in X-Wing, however the team that developed the game, made sure that everything else about it was top-notch, and this attention to detail sure shines in several places in the game.
The games mixes the 3D graphics with bitmap rendering of the ship's cockpit, which is where you'll spend most of your time looking at it. Cleverly rendered MIDI soundtrack and good digital sampled sound effects helps making the immersion into the game even easier, especially with the digitally sampled voices that appears every now and then.
But it is in the simulation aspect, the gameplay, that's where X-Wing really shines. Using the same premisses behind Flight Simulator, you have to learn how to operate one of the 3 starfighters available in the game. X-Wing, Y-Wing and A-Wing, where the X-Wing is the avarage fighter, not as fast as the A-Wing and not as powerful as the Y-Wing. The physics engine of the game is really good, the controls are responsive, and you never feel like you're stuck. With a steady and fluid framerate, X-Wing plays as good as any "real" simulator. I have no idea if flying an X-Wing would be this easy, but the game sure make you feel lost in space sometimes. With huge battlefields, you can easily be REALLY far away from the targets. One downside, to me, is that the controls are exactely the same for all 3 ships. However, they are immersive enough, with you having to control the radars, multi-view displays, power management, shield management, engine thrust, s-foils open or close, and still dogfight your way around the space, battling TIE Fighters, Star Destroyers, and even the infamous Death Star.
With varied and in-depth missions, you may see yourself stuck in situations where blasting everything is not an option, and recognize or just protect ships being the primary goals of several missions. Some missions can take up to 20 minutes, and given the vast sea of stars to travelling in, you will really feel like you are a part of the Rebel Alliance.
One of my favorite aspects of the game, is the interface, the game start with you boarding in the Flagship Independence, and each room there leads to a different aspect of the game, the Pilot Proving Grounds, which is the training facilities, where you can learn in a safe enviroment to control your fighter. The historical missions, where you can relive old battles of the past in the game, and the Tour of Duty, which is similar to a "career mode". The game have 3 Tours, each taking place in a variety of places, such as the space around Tatoonie or Alderaan and some unseen system as the Senex system. With beautiful cutscenes linking each ship or part of the game, you will really feel immersed into the game. Long mission briefings and de-briefs are available, and as the plot unveis itself, you will find right in the middle of classic Star Wars universe battles, including the famous Death Star battle near Yavin.
The game is not easy, however, it is not impossible, especially on the missions where your single objective is survive and kill everything in site. You will fear the Star Destroyers though, as they can make quite a impact on your ship. You have to be careful not to crash on the enemy fighters or even their debris, as you blast them and pieces can harm your ship. With an detailed damage model, you can lose one, some or all your lasers, have your torpedoes bay jammed, radar inoperative, power management fail, shields that stop recharging, engine or hyperdrive failures and lose your R2-D2 unit.
The in-depth of the game, is the best aspect, and as such and common at the time, the game came with a 30 page "Flight Manual", all dressed like an official Rebel Alliance document, with blueprints of the ships, technical data, and how to play and be a better pilot.
This is one of those cases, where you can find yourself lost for our, sailing through the stars of a galaxy far, far away...
The video below shows the intro of the game, and one of the Historical Missions (X-Wing Mission 2 : Wingmen are important).
I did this song for DoD, and despite having to take severe shortcuts due to the limited time to work on it, i am pleased with the result. So i decided to post it here. It's not something i do everyday, but i even included voice clips. And unlike most songs i do, this one doesn't feature in the majority my trusty M2, it's just my old Samick and the power of the Dimarzio HS-2. Great little pickup, sing like a few.
Released in 1988, Ninja Gaiden (Ninja Ryukenden), is the first of the classic Ninja Gaiden NES trilogy game, and the one that really spawned the whole series.
Ninja Ryukenden (translates to something like Story of the Legend Ninja Dragon Sword) follows the story of Ryu Hayabusa, son of Ken Hayabusa (Joe Hayabusa in the original japanese version), after the death of his father in a misterious fight, Ryu finds a letter that tells him to go see his father friend, in America. From there, a lot of things happens, and he is thrown in the middle of a plot, leaded by the evil Jaquio (The Evil Doer), some demon states and even the CIA.
The game is considered one of the hardest games on the NES library. While it is indeed hard, i don't find it as hard as the second one. But i can attest that after stage 5-1, it does indeed get VERY hard.
With one of the tighest controls in the NES (even better than the sequels, imho), some good graphics, kickass music, it's quite easy to see WHY Ninja Gaiden is one of the coolest games in the NES.
It is also the first game to introduce cut scenes to tell the story between stages, and even for the NES standards, the pre-rendered cut-scenes are very well done, they do use only a small amount of the screen, that's true, but the quality of the pixel art makes up for that, easily.
Some small curiosities :
While the box clearly says : The biggest arcade hit. Ninja Gaiden arcade as never a arcade hit, with clunky controls and a confusing story, it's not the best arcade game, and the NES version, has a completely different story, music and art-style, besides both featuring a sleeveless Ryu.
- Ninja Gaiden is a japanese expression that translates to "The Other Story of the Ninja", why that is the title and not the original "Story of the Ninja Dragon Sword" is beyond me, because the original title makes a lot more sense.
- Joe Hayabusa name was changed to Ken Hayabusa in the american version. I THINK this is a way of the translators to keep the Ryu-Ken (Dragon-Sword) plot somewhat intact. Other than that, i can't see a reason to change the name.
- In the japanese version, JAQUIO is mentioned as "THE EVIL DOER" and not by his name. JAQUIO is a romanized version of the japanese word : Jaki-oh (Jakio) : which means the Devil King (or Wicked Devil King, depending on how you translate), the game mentions that he was once known as Guardia di Meiux, which google-translating from French, means "The Best Guard". A curious fact about JAQUIO, is that in-game, the only has a fixed image, that floats around the screen. But, in the Rom, you can see (hacking through it) that he had some moves (basically hands and arms) drawn, but never programmed.
- The "alien" dogs of the first stage, are actually dogs in the TurboGrafX16 version. Maybe it was Nintendo famous censorship ? If so, why can you kill Leopards (Stage 3-1) and several Eagles and Bats (Stages 3-onwards and Stage 2-onwards) ?
- The whole trilogy was released with updated graphics for the SNES as Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, it allows saving (which isn't present in the original) but other than that, the game is pretty much the same.
- The PC-Engine also got a version with updated graphics, but this was a completely re-made game, and it changes a lot, such as timing and enemies positions.
About the gameplay :
It is a single continue run, up to level 5-2 (the game does up to 6-4), remember, this IS considered one of the hardest games on the NES (along side Battletoads).
Following last post's theme, what we have today, is a parody of Shinobi, called Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, released by #SEGA themselves for the Master System, in 1990.
There are many thigns about this game that links it to the original. The plot is pretty boring and weird, Alex is standing in a field of flowers with his girlfriend, when a dark ninja appears and takes her away. So obviously, Alex being the badass he is, just punch his way through the game, right ? Well....no. He actually starts to cry, and that's it. But then a white ninja appears, and give him ninja-powers (which are apparently a black suit and a sword), and he now is Alex Kidd in Shinobi World. Now, if you think, like me, that Alex wouldn't sit and cry, you are probably right. The thing is, this game wasn't designed as an Alex Kidd game. The original prototype name was Shinobi Kid. But i guess someone at SEGA decided to make use of the franchise.
Links to the original :
- Well, the stages, of course, are cute versions of the originals, but with different level design. The 2 level screen was dropped, and it's a regular 2D platform.
- Music : The music is a fast paced remix of the original Shinobi soundtrack and it actually sounds pretty damn good. Every bit as good as the original, if not better.
- Bosses : Remember the Ring of Five ? Well, they are now, the Ring of Four.
Kabuto (Ken-Oh), Heli (Black Turtle), Robster (Lobster) and Hanzo (Dark Ninja). Mandara was dropped. Poor Mandara, it is so misunderstood.
- Kabuto was not the original name of the first boss. Since it is based on Ken-Oh, SEGA designers drawned a Mario-like Ken-OH (with mustache and everything) and called Mari-OH, but for some reason, it was dropped from the final release.
- Robster is the japanese pronunciation of the word Lobster, which is the name of the Samurai boss in the original, here, however, he is a actual Giant Lobster, that throws slices of Lemon at you.
- You can't drawn or die by falling in water, just like the original.
- The "moon" powered sword idea was actually re-used in Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III for the MegaDrive.
In the end, what you have is a cute, short and VERY fun to play version of Shinobi, and one of the tightest platforms engine created for the Sega Master System, is very much worth a play.
About my play :
It's been a couple of years since i last played it, so i decided to fire it up and see what i could do with it. 1 Life only, no restart a level, no bull-shit.
What you see, is pretty much the whole game, minus the ending, considering i died at the very last boss.
And we've hit the big 3.0 version for this site.
Spent a couple of free hours during the week to build this new layout. I decided that i wanted something clean and something white with shades of greys, instead of the darker look of v.2 so, this got done.
You probably have noticed a whole bunch of changes, or perhaps you haven't noticed anything, because you don't visit this site. But anyway, if you want a more technical run down, i would recommend hitting the jump.
The main things are the featured posts, built with jQuery, random window titles and random Jimmy Lee spirtes on the left. All done using my (lack of) php skills and (real lack of) jQuery skills.
I wondered for a couple of weeks what to do with this place, because i wasn't sure if i wanted to keep this format, or not. I was almost decided on turning this into a online magazine, but the lack of free time, plus the fact that i do everything alone (including all graphical design along with the programming), so perhaps that idea will have to wait until the big 4. But, third time is a charm, right ?
Released in 1987 by #SEGA, originally for the arcades, and then for their home console, the Master system, #Shinobi, is a 2d Side-Scrolling action-platform game.
The plot is not very deep, but it's good, you take control of Joe Musashi, one of the ninja masters of the Oboro clan, who sets off to defeat the Ring of Five, the five ninja masters of the Zeed terrorist organization, who are kidnapping the children of the Oboro clan, in order to breed their own ninja army.
Ok, but really, #Sega ? A japanese ninja named Joe ? Joseph Musashi ? really ?
Oh well, the game's mechanics are very simple, all you need to do, is walk to the end of the stage. However there are MANY enemies who doesn't want to let you do that, as the saying goes, one does not simple walk into Mordor. so, you'll have to open and slice your way through the hordes of the enemies. They range from ninjas to military officers. The controllers are very traditional, one jump and one attack button. When in close range of an enemy, Musashi uses a different attack, which can vary from a kick or punch up to a sword, nunhucks or chains. When going from long range, Musashi's main weapon of choice is the shurikens, but you can upgrade to a knife or bomb. To upgrade all you need to do is rescue the children. They can also give you life replenishers or bonus points, and it's also through rescueing children that you can access the bonus stages, which is a cool "shoot the target" mini-game.
The Ring of Five is comprised of :
Ken-Oh : The fireballing Samurai
Black Turtle : The chopper
Mandara : The indian God
Lobster : The sword-master Samurai
The Masked Ninja : The true shadow master.
The game features 4 stages, each with a different theme. Some curiosity though, the "spider-man" ninja used on the stages, have been recolored for the XBOX LiveArcade and Wii Virtual Console re-releases, because SEGa lost the rights to use the Spider-Man image. The same can be said about the Marilyn Monroe pictures on Stage 1-2, they aren't there anymore.
This is the game that started the #Shinobi series back in the mid-80's. The series is on-going and still running. Which makes for one of the longest running video-game franchises.
The play :
Just a shoot-through the first stage in the SMS version. Pretty quick and dirt, but enough to showcase a little bit of this great game.
Starting the new year. I've changed a lot of things in this site, but you probably can't tell by looking at it. Mainly i changed the whole backend, from the original "StarscreamContentManager" to "FastCatPrototype" and now finally to MinBS, which i think is the best option, to keep it simple.
Anyway, this post is to talk about Soldier Blade, a pretty cool #shmup for the #TurboGraFX16 / #PCEngine . Released in 1992, it was developed by Hudson Soft, and it's a chapter on their on-going Star Soldier #shmup series.
It is quite a good looking game, with 16-bit graphics, but it isn't a TurboCD game, this is a regular HuCard game, so, don't expect to be the FMV gallore that some of the TurboCD games are. However what we have here is a clever game, with a really good level design, decent weapon system, simple scoring system, and a kick-ass soundtrack. It definetely worths a look, and a play, if you can find it, or get it on a emulator.
Moreover, about the soundtrack, you may or may not know by now, but i like to play videogame music on my guitar. And i have recorded a version of A City of Death, which is the third stage song from Soldier Blade. It was arranged and recorded in less than 6hrs, pretty much like my TF4 song, i guess quick songs and #shmups go along, then ?
Anyway, enjoy this nice, well written, uptempo song, and perhaps even my take on it.
Alright, after about 12 months, the end of the year, is here, again, like usual.
I was looking at this space and thinking, it's not getting a lot of movement, but i like my dark little corner of the internet. I need to completely re-write and update the #backend and i was hoping to do so during my #vacations. But my main thought behind it, .1s after i thought of it, was, do i really want to work on a project while on #vacation ? The anwser is an obvious and resounding no. So, i decided, i have some material ready, but untouched, and i thought, perhaps it's time to touch that material, and maybe finally do something with them ?
I dunno, i don't think anyone besides me, will anyone want to watch a full lenght 2hrs video playthrough of #Raptor ? I really don't know, and further more, my lack of peopleware skills prevents me from ever knowing.
However, i DID made a small change in the #backend of the end, and this aparent #useless post is only a way of testing it. Also, it's always good to make changes to live production website, it comes really in hand when practicing that for a more, "real-world", business application of such skill.
So, consider this to be version 2.1 of the website. Version 2.5 should come before the end of the summer. But no visible changes or at least not big ones, until i hit the big 3.0. #upgrading
After several tests, i finally set on a basic layout for the cms, so i like to do it while i still remember it. Perhaps i should start to take note of things. But who does that, right ?
Anyway, this post is pretty long as it is, and so far, i said absolutely nothing of interest, so, basically, i'll say this : Wait for next year. The milestones for this year have been achieved, so there's nothing more for me to do here.
The first update to the In The Walls of Eryx game as been just posted on #kongregate , i tried to address the bugs and improve upon it, mostly by adding features that are common to #kongregate games, but without breaking all the mood i was trying to create in the first place.
I added a mute button, but please, don't use it. Listen to my marveleous soundtrack and buy it, it's only a single dollar, totally worth. 100% of happy customers!
I added a restart level button, a level select screen, scoring system and save system.
Besides fixing typos (i always make at least one typo, it's amazing) and some small bugs. Mostly on Level 9 and 10, which where preventing the player from progressing through the game.
I finally feel like this game is finished or pretty damn close to it. And since finishing and releasing a game, and sell at least 1 copy of anything music related were two of my main goals (hobby-wise) for this year. I can breathe now and now that my job is done. It is a good feeling, i gotta tell.
In The Walls of Eryx, is my brand new game, coded in Flash, and based on a short story by H.P Lovecraft.
It's a "find the exit" 2d maze type of game, but with a small twist, like the Walls of Eryx, you can't see the walls, however, in order to make the game playable, i added a "flash" feature, press a button and you can see the maze, for a second only, and to three times max, per level.
There's some cool weather effects i added, and despite the quite simple graphics, i'm pretty proud of the small effort i made. At least i finished something, from the start, planning and developing 32 mazes, plus designing the sprites, coding everything, come up with weather effects ideas, writing and recording the music, and all that.
And i'm selling the OST, it's a full 7:30 minute ambient, acoustic piece, for the bargain price of a single USD! That's right, only a single buck for over 7 minutes of music. If you want to support the development of more games and helping out a guy, this is the way to do it. It's not a great value, it's simple a small symbolic version. You'll also get a 6 page PDF, with all my notes and designs while developing the game, hand-written and scanned by myself.
If you don't feel like spending a buck, that's completely fine, you can just play the game, full, with all 32 levels, right at Kongregate. Please rate high, if you liked it. And feel free to leave comments aswell.
The OST :
I decided that the game needed a little "noir" feel, so i went with a old-movie kinda feeling towards it, and this reflected in the OST, i think. All the music was designed to be soothing and short pieces, that follows the narration of the original Lovecraft's story. I used mainly my acoustic guitar, a old Crafter FX-600EQ, mic'd with a Behringer condenser mic, and my LTD eletric guitar through a POD XT. All synths are freeware VSTs. I'm not a music writer myself, i'm mostly a player, but i felt the need to do something different, special and i think i accomplished just that, i feel that the OST is as good as the rest of the game. If not better.
The music was heavily inspired by the books of Lovecraft, most specifically, The Tomb and Other Stories, from which i took the Walls of Eryx, but a small part of the music was also inspired by his Houdini story, which is every bit as awesome as Eryx. If you want to read classic horror and sci-fi stories that book is a great way to get into the genre.
Most of the music is pretty slow paced, fingered, arpegiatted and strummed chords, with few percussion elements and more harmony support than leads, but some of the pieces, have the melodies in the tradicional lead part.
Track list is :
01. The Discovery - 1:09
02. Swampy Roads - 1:18
03. The (Silent) Fate of Mankind - 1:15
04. Light Rays and Watery Ripples - 1:06
05. Gloomy Despair - 1:33
06. The Realization - 1:09
---
Total Running Time : 7:29
This is also the very first time i'm selling music, so please be gentle with a virgin dude, ok ?
Orders are being processed manually (i have never done this before), so please allow some hours to get reply, because i need to sleep, ok?
So, you think Codemaster's #F12010 is the BEST F1 game ever?
Think again...
Have you heard of #F1GP , #GP2 , #GP3 and #GP4 ?
Well, #GP2 is for many, many peoples, the pinnacle of F1 games on PC, and still is used, played and modded to this day, after 15 years of the original release.
Fantastic game, WAY ahead of its time.
Enjoy the 2010 Season #mod lap at Singapore Marina Bay track.
So, working on the new little project is coming along fine, although time to work on it has been pretty limited, specially since i got the excellent #DogFighter , by Darkwater Studios. Very fun little arcade game, reminds of #XWing, but with World War II (or would that be WWI?) aircrafts. Which reminded me, that i should do a #XWing review sometime soon.
Anyway, sometimes we got so involved into something, that we forgot about something else. For this new project, i'm working in #AS2 on #Flash CS3 by the way, i made a mc called block and put it into the _root, on almost all frames, so far 20, each frame representing a level. But since i also need the block mc to perform some other tasks, or at least i need it to be able to transform itself in something for a couple of seconds in one specific occasion. For that, i made a copy of block.mc, dubbed it lines.mc and started using it, for about 14 frames, which meant i spent around.. 2 days (coding for about 20 minutes a day) using this way. But then, i needed both movies to be synced, so, i putmy little to work and discovered.. that i didn't need to be copying the block.mc at all, i could transform it in real-time. I had a pretty big "well, duh!" moment there. But at least, this means, i can work to finish the project, faster. I'm already up to Level 14, and there's some more effects that i would like to implement, so i'm looking at a first week november completion, at worse.
Still need to finish the soundtrack, but that's the best part.
Released 25th years ago, the console that changed my life, the #Sega Master system.
Writing about it, is actually very hard, because despite being my favorite console ever, the #SMS is an underrated system for sure, so i always feel the need to point out every single great game the system has to offer, and to me, it's a whole lot of games, but before that, i have to mention a couple of things that makes the Sega Master System, my favorite system.
5. #Graphics : This of course, varies from game to game, but most games have a such a ingenuity and art style, that really captivates me, using more colors and bigger sprites than the NES, the SMS has some of the best 8-bit graphics.
4. #Sound and #Music : Sega on the late 80's, early 90's, has produced some of the best music to ever grace any game, ever. Guys like Hiroshi Mayushi and Yuzo Koshiro are responsible for that, from the greats soundtracks of Outrun, AfterBurner, Space Harrier, Fantasy Zone, to later works such as the Sonic games (which features exclusive music for the SMS) and Cosmic Spacehead.
3. 3D Glasses : This were at least 22years ahead of the time. In the SMS, Sega was experimenting with 3D Stereocopic effect, pretty much the same idea behind Digital 3D cinema nowdays, this has produced some of the best looking 3D effects in any game, to this very day, play Blade Eagle 3D, and you'll see what i mean.
2. Good to bad Ratio is good : The SMS doesn't have such a big library of games, as the NES, but this means that the good to bad ratio is very good, meaning that there is more good games than bad games.
1. #Playability : what it all comes down to, in the end, is playability, after all, what we need more than a game that plays good ? And there's tons of examples of games with polished gameplays on the system, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Phantasy Star, After Burner, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Shinobi, Psycho Fox, Wanted, Dead Angle, Outrun, outrun3d, Maze Hunter 3D, and many, many other games, which offer great replayabity as well, giving hours and hours of fun.
I've chosen some Youtube videos, to examplify some of my love for this great system :
Every time i start a new project, i get all excited about, and want to show the results as quick as possible, however, this often leads me to under-achieve what i was originally aiming and imagining in my mind, and due to general level of lazyness, leads me to being frustrated with myself. This can be said about many aspects of life, not only the one i'll focus here, which is Game Development, but the same truth is also valid, for the professional life or even the personal life. Sometimes the urge to impress someone can be the most fierce enemy one can encounter.
However, one of the best characteristics of a human being, is the hability to learn and adapt, and thus, i realized that taking new projects can be just as fun, and gives much better results, when planning and taking your time to develop the tasks and details, enough to get the desired results. It may sound cliche and i'm pretty sure it is a common-place, but planning can be the most important phase of any development project, because not only it avoids re-work, it also enables you to delegate tasks, in case you're the project leader, which can lead to quicker results and to motivated team members.
The main thing with planning is... how do you do it ?
Well, in case anyone reads this, it might noticed that i changed the layout/design of the site. For a sandbox-like site, the old layout overstayed its welcome, and it was time for a change. I usually go for changes in this exact time of the year, and i'm not really sure why, although i have a pretty good guess.
Anyway, opinions and comments on the new layout are welcomed. And if you don't like anything, there's usually a 'X' on the top-right corner of the screen, that solves most internet related problems, feel free to use, i don't mind, really.
Also, i added a search function, because search functions are really useful, and i added a silly #hashtag function, just for the heck of it. I don't see myself using #hashtag often, but who knows, right? It seems to be the #trendy thing to do.
Also, i realized that this place is over 1 year old, and that in the meantime, i haven't done a lot of the things that i planned to do with it. When i first started, i was thinking that most of my posts would be about the #Sega Master System and the #Sega Saturn, my 2 favorite consoles in the world, but so far, only a couple of Master System posts and none about the #Saturn. Mostly because i like to play my own games and record my own videos, and since i don't have a capture card, getting good quality #Saturn footage is quite difficult for me, but this happens, and i wil post some #Saturn material that i am finishing, soon. Also, i realized that i only posted 2 full #gameplays, 1 being a 5 minute flash game and the other being the very first full #gameplay video. I do intend to change that too, or at least post some more Express Playthroughs, i'm not sure. I do have a lot of material to post, but i don't know when i will get to edit it and post it.
But anyway, it's been over a year since i started writing here, and one of my goals was accomplished by this site, i am playing a lot more games, just to post something here. Otherwise i wouldn't even have touched stuff like Haunted House or Holy Diver, so, in a nutshell, i like this place, and i intend to keep it going, whether anyone reads it or not.
And since i try to link each post with a game, this time, is a short video of a Timed Arcade Play, of Tyrian. If you don't know Tyrian, you really should get to know it. It's according to many people, the greatest shmup to ever grace the pc, and its one of the greatest and more polished computer games to this date. Released a LONG, LONG time ago, its the kinda of game that aged very gracefully, and its a great game. I won't talk too much about it right now, i plan on do that on a different occasional, for now, just a new video, enjoy.
As usual, the higher resolution is after the #jump
Do you own Race07 ? Are you on Steam ? Did you know you have a free track upgrade, from Simbin ? Called The Andy Priaux Crowne Plaza Raceway, all you need to do, is go to the Steam Store and search for Andy Priaux, and install it.
Also,i have STCC and Race07, but i can only access the track from Race07 and NOT from STCC, but not a big problem, i suppose.
Here is a video of a lap on the track, both onboard and tv cams, using, of course, the Andy Priaux BMW from WTCC.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Mt. Eternal Speed-Run)
I was looking at this place and wondering, you know what this site needs ?
More MasterSystem, so i decided to take this old video, should be about 2 years old, of my Level 1 speed run of Alex Kidd in Miracle World, and post it here. I won't review the game or anything, just a quickie post to show one of my favorite games of all time, and that i should put a full-playthrough here, but not right now, as i am working on something else.
Because i almost don't like to play racing games, i decided to record this lap in my favorite racing simulator so far, SimBin's GTRē, it's quite old compared to the newest releases, but still features the best physics and simulations, rivalled only by SimBin's Race07 series.
This is a simple lap, onboard cam, with the GT Legends mod for GTRē, this mod is a conversion of SimBin's GT Legends game, for the GTRē engine, it's one of the best mods ever made, the cars handle extremely well, they are very challenging and fun to drive, and it's really easy to screw a lap in these machines.
Also, as usual, i try new things and technologies in this little blog, this time, i am trying the insertion of captions, in real time, in the video.
I decided to narrate the lap, via captions, in the video, to this, i am using the HTML5 track tag, in conjuntion with the video tag that i've been using for a while now. I am using the common format of SRT, and not the new WebSRT version, just to try it. It's interesting to see this working, especially since it's quite easy to change the language or the captions, being in a different file, saving bandwidth and hassle.
Anyway, onto the lap, on the fantastic Interlagos track, located at São Paulo, Brazil, this track has been in use for F1 since the 1970's, and after a hiatus in the 80's, has returned to the F1 circus in 1990, using this layout, shortened and redesigned with the help of 3 times World Champion and F1 Legend Ayrton Senna, enjoy this track :
TMNT IV Music - My Big Green Toe (Sewer Surfin' Cover)
This is a cover of the Sewer Surfin' song, from TMNT IV - SNES version, that i recorded for the Ninja Month theme of a online music competition. It song had be ninja themed, so what's better than recording a song from TMNT ?
Very few things, very few things, indeed.
So, i choose this great rock song, and decided to give it a more hard rock twist on it. It's a little faster paced than original, but still up-beat and lovely.
The keyboard parts were actually played on guitar, so that's why they sound a little extra funky.
This is also the first time, i'm using the new Audio tag from HTML5, so, again, no Flash is being used, and it's all HTML5.
Released back in 1992, The GG Shinobi II - The Silent Fury is the sequel to the very good Game Gear Shinobi game.
While it maintained the same structure and gameplay of the original, the sequel improved upon the original on many levels.
The main game is still the same, you have 4 ninjas to rescue, to form a party of 5 ninjas, each with different strengths, skills and magical technique (tech).
Each level contains a ninja, and a crystal, that is hidden inside the level. To rescue the ninja, all you have to do, is cross the level and beat the boss. The crystal is a item hidden somewhere inside the level. All of the crystals are hidden in passages where you must use a special skill to get through, so you can't really get the crystals, before rescuing the ninjas, there's a faster way through some levels, since you can choose the order of the levels, like the one i used on the video, which only repeats 2 levels, Building and Castle, and plays only once through Canyon and Factory.
After rescuing the 4 Ninjas and 4 crystals, it's time to rescue the red crystal, inside the enemy base, which is a labyrinth of rooms, and makes up for about half of the game. The rooms are all designed to make clever use of each ninja special skill and/or tech, so you will need to learn when to change the ninjas, in order to progress through the game.
The game features slightly improved graphics over the original, with Big sprites, detailed backgrounds, and some cool effects (the tech animation comes to mind), it is a rather good game. You can see that the ninjas sprites are based on the Genesis/Megadrive version of the Shinobi sprites.
The music is completely awesome, composed by Yuzo Koshiro himself, you can't expect less. The man who did Streets of Rage, Ys, Revenge of Shinobi and more, did once again, a impressive job, the limitations of the hardware are obviously when playing the game, but both the level design and the sound design team worked cleverly to develop a fun game, where you can travel through the levels easily and rewardingly.
The video shows an entire run of the game, played by myself on an emulator. However i do own the original game and i can vouch for it's re-playability, because for some time it was the only GameGear game i owned, so i become quite a master at it.
I apologize for the sound mix of the video. I did record a commentary track, however it turned out too low in the mix, and due to a fault DVD, i lost the original files (audio without video and video without audio) so there isn't much i can do.
I hope you can enjoy it nonetheless, this game is really good and deserve your attention, even if it's only for a couple of minutes. Sega did a great job with this little gem.
And the cover art is completely awesome. So Kickass Cover Award, and Epic Name Awards for this game.
A quick video to show the evolution of Indycar Simulators for PC over the years. Not much in the sense of play, just a lap around Laguna Seca and Indianapolis 500
From 1989 to 2005, lots have changed and simulators are getting more real by the minute. But the are a nostalgic value to those old ones, that will always hold a place in the history of the Simulators.
Little Wheel is a really short and sweet flash game, developed by the guys at FastGames.com.
It is a point-and-click adventure with a really unique, noir-like look and feel that really grabs your attention.
The details of the game are amazing, the animation is fluid and the art direction is pretty well done, with all the graphics being shadowy silhouttes over the beige background with the white lights turned on without flare.
The game ifself is pretty simple, being a less than 10 minute adventure game, in the vein of the old LucasArts adventures (like Day of The Tentacle or Full-Throttle), but it's short and sweet history combined with the great art direction makes up for a really fun game, you can play it at fastgames.com, if you want it, and i think you should.
The video is a full playthrough, so if you don't want to spoil your game, just play it first and if you get stuck, come back here and see how it is done.
(Hi-Res video after the jump).
Released on October of 1990, developed by Distinctive Software and published by Broderbound, Stunts is a racing game for the PC. It focus on Stunt-like racing, which means you have to learn how to drive through obstacles like a corkscrew and a loop. While it was published by Broderbound on most of the world, in Europe, it was published by Mindscape who changed the title to "4D Sports Racing" to make it a part of it's 4D series (along side the excellent 4D Boxing and not so good 4D Tennis). In September of 1991 a new version called Stunts 1.1 was relesed and fixed several bugs of the original release. This is the release we are going to express play today....
(High-res version and more text after the jump).
First released on Japan, May 22, 1980, Pac-Man (Pakkuman), is THE videogame to change all video-games in the history of videogames.
By the time of the release, the popular and dominant kind of videogames were the space shooters (Space Invaders and Asteroids). However upon release, Pac-Man changed the face of videogames forever.
It was one of the first games to introduce multiple colors on the screen, and different sounds, enemies and levels. While of the games at time where repetitions of the same level with upgrade difficulty, Pac-Man introduced the level design concept, and with it, the whole "game design" concept....
WARNING! Spoilers all around this review.
So proceed with care!
Ronnie James Dio has just left this world. And to pay my homage to this great man, fantastic singer and most excellent person. I decided to review this game.
Not many know about this game, which is named after Dio's most famous song. Which is also the title track for the game. Developed by Irem and released on April, 1989, Holy Diver is a side scrolling platformer, in the veins of Castlevania or Contra. It was scheduled to be released over seas (USA and Europe) but for unknown reasons, it never happened. So, it will always be a Famicom exclusive game.
Many things are unclear about this game, and internet research doesn't seem to help. In fact, i've never seem a manual scan for this game, which would probably solve many questions regarding this unknown gem of a game. But until them, everything is speculation and reference to Dio's lyrics......
Thunder Force IV - Stand Up Against Myself - On guitar.
I arranged and recorded this song,for a online festival called "PunchFest", the main thing with this festival is : The song has be arranged, recorded and submitted, in under 6hrs. The theme (in this specific case : "Sega Genesis games without Sonic") is announced a couple of days earlier, but work doesn't begin until you are logged in the IRC channel for the festival. I had a great time doing this arrange, while chatting to some very talented musicians and friends.
So, i decided to record a video of this song, to try out my new home "studio" video habilities. I'm still looking for the perfect position/lightning without investing too much money. But this specific video turned out to be a tad too much yellowish, in my opinion, but the next ones won't definetely be so yellowish. I'll make sure of that.
Also, i am trying to break into the world of HTML5, the not-so-new web standard for coding. So, i'm providing this video (and probably all sub-sequent videos on this site, whether it's music related or not) in Theora/Vorbis, using HTML5, which means that not only it's Flash free, but it's also compatible with a lot mobile devices. However there's still one big problem with HTML5 video, the codecs. Firefox/Chrome and Safari, supports Theora, and don't support H.264, while iPhone and iPad, it's the opposite way. So as a test, i am going to do this one in Theora, and probably the next in H.264. But anyway, too much rambling, let's shred a little bit ?
For those of you who doesn't know, Thunder Force IV (Lightening Force), is a shmup for the Sega MegaDrive system. It's held in high standards as the pinnacle of the series, and one of the best games of the genre for this system. It pushes the hardware a lot, using parallax scrolling and fake alpha-blending effects for achieve a polished look. The gameplay is solid, with multiple power-ups and upgrades, different stages and very clever bosses and bullet patterns. While it maybe not be as well known as Gradius in the general public, between niche fans it is a classic game. The rocking soundtrack is a beast on it's on terms, featuring blazing solos and beautiful up-beat melodies. This specific song is the 'staff roll' credits, named "Stand Up Against Myself" on the sound test. It's is a very cool, straight forward, moderately fast rock. Very good.
New version of this "demo game" made by myself on Flash CS3.
I added a lot of stuff into this new version, here is the change list of versions so far :
v.1f - 04/05/2010 - Public Release
- Finished boss of stage 1.
- Fixed "boss_health" meter bug (it was not being removed after boss was killed or boss killed player).
- Fixed sound bug. Boss song and stage clear fanfare were overlapping.
- Player bullets now removed from the field, once they hit the boss.
- Stage one complete! Everything seems to be in place.
v.1e - 03/05/2010
- Fixed bug with power meter.
- Coded bullet pattern for Boss 1.
- Source Code : Moved All frames into the same scene.
- Source Code : Added Comments on Stage 1 code.
- Added Stage Clear screen.
- Added Stage Clear Fanfare.
v.1d - 30/04/2010
- More work on boss, including:
- defined bullet pattern for boss 1, being 3 streams of bullets, 2 spread around the screen, crossing each other and other straight down the middle, but not constant.
- Defined boss health, boss hits and player being hit by the boss.
- End of Stage 1 screen added.
- Boss 1 is gonna be static on screen.
- Added Boss Theme Song.
- Added Boss Health Meter.
- Added Power-Up Meter (with bugs).
v.1c - 29/04/2010
- New power-up (Glowing Bullets)
- Power-up sound
- Bomb Code (3 bombs, and working on every enemy, except bosses, by choice)
- Bomb Sound
- Boss Placing Routines
- Boss Alert
- First Boss Prototype (still needs work on his bullet patterns, i want to add a spray/spread pattern into this first boss)
v.1b - 28/04/2010
- Power-Ups (2 level)
- Wide-Shots
- New key for Start (S)
- Gameover screen now static
- More speed (now close-ish to 40fps).
A new "demo game" in Flash CS3.
Not fantastic by any means.
But i finally finished a little demo shmup in Flash.
I've rewritten this at least 7 times, but get the code down to something fast, small and useful.
Now, it's pretty much done.
The demo shows :
- ship (slightly modifying the ship while moving left/right)
- 1 kind of weapon (no power-up yet)
- 1 stationary enemy that follows the player
- 1 random scrolling enemy.
- scrolling background.
- overlay "cloud" (the semi-transparent green box).
- music and sfx.
Like i said, nothing major, but just to keep in mind that i finished something.
Yes, i know that Flash is not a new technology, and i know all about the evolution of Flash over the past few years. But from a strictly retrogaming point of view, is flash the new golden era of videogames ?
The Macromedia created platform wasn't designed to be gamer-friendly, but that soon change, as programmers all around the world saw on Flash, a simple, yet effective media to deliver simple games. Since flash didn't a lot of flexibility and since the machines back then weren't powerfull enough to provide a steady framerate for elaborate stuff, the first games in Flash were very simple, mostly resembling those found on the NES and SMS. In fact many programmers ported stuff from the NES/SMs/Atari, into Flash. And a lot of fan-games started to appear........
Castlevania can be considered a oddball when compared to many sucessful gaming series of the 80's. Unlike most of them (Outrun, DoubleDragon, Gradius, Contra) Castlevania wasn't born on the arcades and then ported to a home console. Castlevania was originally released on the NES and the MSX (8-bit computer) as Akumajou Dracula (translates to : Demon Castle Dracula) in Japan and as Castlevania on the rest of the world. In 1988, Konami decides to backtrack the series to a origin, and released Akumajou Dracula to the arcades. It was released on the rest of the world as Haunted Castle (which was a more close translation of the original title), but it sounded odd to many fans around the world.
Express Playthrough is a new section here. These will be short video play throughs games. Nothing longer than 10 minutes. So it will either be short games (or speeded-up videos) or short sections of games.
For starts, we have OutRun 3D, a unique version of a classic racing game.
This version was released for the Sega Master System....
Sep. 9th, 1999, or simple 9/9/99, this is the symbolic date that the Dreamcast, Sega's lastest (and possible last) venture into the console market was unleashed upon the world.
The amazing console, featuring 128-bit processor and the brand new GD-Rom medias, was the follower of the Sega Saturn, and it's history, unfortunately, also have some similarities with it.
Some call it bad timing, some call it bad marketing, but a bit of both, mixed, made the Dreamcast be a kind of failure of sales. And i use the term "failure" loosely, because every serious games i knew has had at least 1 DC during this 10 years.
The thing is, despite the commercial sucess or not, the Dreamcast was a amazing machine. Capable of putting out great graphics and music, and with some cool experimental games and smash hit arcade ports, the DC had it all.
The weird VMU's with it's own little screen and extra information on controller was a charm yet to be beaten.
But a machine is pratically nothing without games, right ?
So, i decided to do a little Top-10 of my favorite Dreamcast games to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this machine.
The games shall remain unranked, because there's no need to rank them.
Ok, here we have the NES version of Double Dragon II : The Revenge.
This game is the sequel to the smash hit Double Dragon. And it carries on the same good vibes of the first, with several improvements over it.
The story follows the events of the end of the first. After Billy , who still hasn't turned into Bimmy and Jimmy Lee ended the reign of terror of the Black Warriors and rescued Marion (or Marian, depending on which version you're playing), the Black Warriors retreated and regroup. This time they want REVENGE. So instead of just kidnapping Marian and rapping the hell out of her, they shot her! And no, this is not a spoiler since it is on the very first screen.
You pick up from there, playing as either Billy or Jimmy or both, since the game allows for 2 Player to Co-Op, and now you want to REVENGE the REVENGE of Black Warriors. Which is pretty epic, if you ask me.
The game features a lot of revenging stages for you to get your revenge. After you get your revenge, you will get a end, which is nothing more then you feel like you revenged the revenge...
This is the opening theme of Street Fighter II, played by myself on guitars and bass. The drums were also programmed by me. Click on the "read more..." below to check the video out.
Here are two flash games i've written in the past.
First we have nanoid, which is a break-out clone, made in Flash, very, very, simple.
Also, we have 4 Cruude Duudes - The Search for The Lost Towel, a side-scrolling platformer also made in Flash. This was a very big project and a somewhat buggy too...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Arcade was my favorite arcade game ever for a long time, and my favorite NES game too. So, i thought that i couldn't do a fair review, but after playing with it and taking screenshots for this article, i saw that i really couldn't. I love this game. And for many many reasons, that it's almost unlikely that i can actually describe them here.
Being a turtle fan for so god damn long, i obviously bought into the hype, after all, being a kid in the early nineties, what else could i do? I had the TMNT action figures, i watched the cartoon show religiously, i bought the lunchbox, the sheets, the posters, went to see the movies, and most obvisouly, the videogames.
Welcome to this place, if you came here by accident, sorry.
This place is about my rants, opinions, media and more, all about the classic games (mostly retrogaming) that i grew up playing, and the new gems, that i discovered thanks to the magic of emulation.
Before i even start, let me state that no illegal files will be found here. This is more about text, pictures, videos, music than roms and emulators, hopefully that is okay with you, otherwise, you are free to leave.
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