Astrosmash Remake

[ophelius]

Hey fellows,
first I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Justin and I am new to this forum. I'm a computer programmer, musician and I love old video games. I wanted to get into the video game industry but I'm not attracted to modern games. They lack character in my opinion. But maybe it's because those were the ones around when I had my childhood imagination and of course those will stick to you most.

Anyways, I thought I can start by showcasing my newest creation. It's a remake of the classic intellivision game astrosmash. I kept the same feel, but added some new elements and made it more arcade-like. There's a leaderboard at the site, so if you beat a highscore, follow the instructions to submit your score. Here's the link:

www.astrosmashproject.com

Hope you enjoy it!

[Greg2600]

I don't have much familiarity with the Intellivision to judge, but you should also post on Atari Age, lots of old school gamers there.

They recently added an Intellivision forum (http://www.atariage.com/forums/forum/125-intellivision/)

[ophelius]

Thanks for the tip ;)

[Logicdustbin]

loved Astrosmash!

although I could never beat my mom's high score :P

[ophelius]

I wish my mom would play video games with me. Do you remember her high score?

[Red Warrior]

I remember watching my father score over a million on this game when I was a kid (he was and is my hero). I tried to do the same later on in life. However, I stopped after I went over 500,000. I still had over 100 lives, but my friends were getting bored watching me play, so I just turned it off so we could do something else. It takes more than skill to reach 1,000,000. You gotta have time and patience as well.

I'll definitely try out this remake tho when I get the chance. Looks great! An updated Astrosmash is something I've always wanted, but never knew it till now.

[houstonlibrarian]

Astrosmash was without a doubt one of my two or three favorite games for the Intellivision. It was right up there with Snafu.

[ophelius]

Version 0.9.3 is out:

New updates like Shield Upgrade, Auto-fire option and more.

http://www.astrosmashproject.com

[Arkhan]

astrosmash is my favorite game on the Intellivision, and this is a damn good remake :)


What did you code it in ? :)

[ophelius]

Arkhan:

Language: Freebasic compiler 0.20.0
Game Lib: Allegro 4.2
Sound Lib: Fmod 3.7.5

Glad you like it ;)

[Arkhan]

ah! i suspected it might use Allegro :)

wasnt expecting to hear BASIC though!

planning on any other intellivision remakes?

[ophelius]

Arkhan: Freebasic is a relatively new open-source compiler for the 32-bit environment. Check out the features here: http://freebasic.net/index.php/about?section=features

I might be remaking Lock 'n' Chase with better police a.i. and more features, but who knows.

[ophelius]

Bug alert: If anyone is still playing version 0.9.3 which they downloaded before this post on March 3, 2010, please re-download. The bug is that the UFO never appears again if it shoots you. To get him back you have to reset the game. This bug is now fixed in the current version. I didn't want to wait until the next release.

[BHvrd]

I remember watching my father score over a million on this game when I was a kid (he was and is my hero). I tried to do the same later on in life. However, I stopped after I went over 500,000. I still had over 100 lives, but my friends were getting bored watching me play, so I just turned it off so we could do something else. It takes more than skill to reach 1,000,000. You gotta have time and patience as well.

I'll definitely try out this remake tho when I get the chance. Looks great! An updated Astrosmash is something I've always wanted, but never knew it till now.

Awesome story and AWESOME REMAKE.

If it's one thing I can't stand about remakes it's that they never feel authentic, this feels authentic!

[ophelius]

Version 0.9.4 is out.
It now has Joystick support and a new configuration application to tweak your game settings the way you want.

www.astrosmashproject.com

[ophelius]

Arcade version released!

-New retro arcade-style title with rotating demo screens. Feels like the real thing.

-This version is ready to be put into a custom PC-based arcade cabinet. Just re-route the keyboard keys to the joystick, pushbuttons, coin slot etc using a JAMMA board or similar. If you already have a MAME arcade cabinet, let me know so I can send you a custom game with the Keys you specify(because your 'Fire' pushbutton might not be linked to the game's 'Z' button, etc). I guess I'll come out with a config tool to map out the keys how you want.

Let me know if you actually use this game in your arcades

www.astrosmashproject.com

[ophelius]

Just another note, for the arcade version you now have the ability to map out which keys are for which actions. That way, for those with Mame arcade cabinets, the game can be customized to match your arcade controls. Read the 'Key Map.txt' file for more info.

[ophelius]

Major Update!

Version 1.0 (Current)

-Released March 24, 2010

This version has been transformed from the ground up. It includes major bug fixes, improvements, face lifts, and changes.

[New] - The game is arcade ready, which means it can easily be ported into an existing PC-based arcade, or put into a dedicated one.

[Changed] - Before there was the PC version and the Arcade version of this game. There's only one version now which can be suited for both worlds.

[Fixed] - Major syncing issues. Before I was relying on the system clock to control timing such as item spawn delays, monitoring events for recoding/playback, etc. This means that if the game ran on machines incapable of achieving 60 FPS, then you would start noticing unwanted timing behavior(too many items would spawn at a time, bad recording playback, etc). To use the system timer to control the game's timing was simply not the right approach to use. The game now uses a Frame-based counter to regulate everything. A game played on a slower machine will now only have the disadvantage of a lower frame rate. Because of this, the game, including demos and recordings, can be played perfectly on any machine.

[Added] - Mouse support!

[Added] - Replay Mode, which can playback a game you've played as if it were a video. Look at the Readme file or the About page to read more about it.

[Added] - A lot more options in the config tool.

[Changed] - The game overall is a bit more challenging.

[Fixed] - a lot of minor bugs, too many to count

www.astrosmashproject.com

[ophelius]

Someone found a strange bug where if played in Hardware mode the game doesn't cap at 60, but goes as fast as possible(he was getting 140 FPS). He said it capped at 60 FPS if he ran it in Software mode.

If the game seems too fast for you, you might have this problem too. In the Config tool, check 'Show FPS' too see how fast the game is being ran at. If it's higher than 60, try changing the Rendering option to see if that fixes it. I'll see what I can do to solve it. Let me know if you experience this as well. Thanks

Edit: I added a 'Force 60 FPS' option in the Config tool. This allows you to force the game in 60 frames per seconds if it isn't doing so automatically. The only reason the game wouldn't cap at 60 I found out is if you have your vsync settings turned off in your video card settings. For optimal game play turn on your vsync instead of using this option.