last starfighter

[googlefest1]

for the people that have seen the last starfighter movie

was that arcade ever a comercial product or was it just a movie gimick

i thought i saw it once as an atari product - but im not sure

[googlefest1]

ok - i should have looked it up on the net first

it seems it was never made - but atari did work on it -- mabey i dreamed playing it HA HA

[Flack]

Although the auction is long gone, the mock up cabinet from the DVD sold on DVD a year or two ago. I got outbid.

[98PaceCar]

Although the auction is long gone, the mock up cabinet from the DVD sold on DVD a year or two ago. I got outbid.

You bid on it? Let me know next time you are in Dallas. I can take you to where it is!!

Atari did do some work on it. They actually went as far as having the voices for the game recorded.

Go here for pics of the cab and some more info about what Atari had done..

http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/last_starfighter.php

The screenshots are a wip from the guy that owns the cab. He's into making games that only existed as ideas or in movies. Kind of a hobby of his, but he's damn good at it! I don't think the most current build is available, but it's going to be a fun shooter when it's all done!!

[googlefest1]

that guys hobby is pretty cool

whats DB? would be cool if he completes the games

[98PaceCar]

that guys hobby is pretty cool

whats DB? would be cool if he completes the games

Dark Basic. I don't know a whole lot about it, but it's apparently a pretty good coding language for writing simpler games. I've played some that he's done and they seem to work pretty well!

So far, he's done a rewrite of Death Race and Space Paranoids (from Tron). Both are a blast, but Space Paranoids is best played in the custom arcade cab he put together. The controls are perfect!

[googlefest1]

ive tried the space paranoids game - on a laptop so i know its not the same

it seemed to run faster than the game did in the movie (probably relating to speed of cpu im guessing) - the enemies seemed to have a real simple AI - and i felt the tank sound effects should be louder

i skimed the synopsis for the game and i didnt understand the idea behind the strobing effect - just seemed to be anoying at best - he said that the strobing effect was a comon thing in 80s games but i dont recall any such thing. It bothered my eyes.

but other wise a fantastic creation

does the cabinet version he made have controls for the canon (i used only space bar and arrow keys.

-- its nice to see something like that released for everyones enjoyment
i was thinking that in a few years i would try to do something with last starfighter after finding out that it didnt exist but someone already started it and looks like it will be pretty cool - a relief

are there any plans for sales of these cabinets for the psudeo movie prop market?

[Lady Jaye]

Atari did work on console/computer games based on The Last Starfighter, but none for the arcade market. The Atari 2600 version was shelved when the crash occured, only to be released in 1986 as Solaris. And according to the site below, Tod Frye too was working on another Atari 2600 game based on The Last Starfighter, but the project never was completed.

The Atari 5200 prototype was never released, while the computer version was eventually released as Star Raiders II.

http://www.atariprotos.com/5200/software/tlsf/tlsf.htm
http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/tlsf/tlsf.htm

[98PaceCar]

ive tried the space paranoids game - on a laptop so i know its not the same

it seemed to run faster than the game did in the movie (probably relating to speed of cpu im guessing) - the enemies seemed to have a real simple AI - and i felt the tank sound effects should be louder

i skimed the synopsis for the game and i didnt understand the idea behind the strobing effect - just seemed to be anoying at best - he said that the strobing effect was a comon thing in 80s games but i dont recall any such thing. It bothered my eyes.

but other wise a fantastic creation

does the cabinet version he made have controls for the canon (i used only space bar and arrow keys.

-- its nice to see something like that released for everyones enjoyment
i was thinking that in a few years i would try to do something with last starfighter after finding out that it didnt exist but someone already started it and looks like it will be pretty cool - a relief

are there any plans for sales of these cabinets for the psudeo movie prop market?

I'll have to see if I can get Doc over here to better address your questions. I know he'd be happy to know that you rare enjoying his creation though!!

The cab does have cannon controls. Makes it much easier to play that way!

[Sniderman]

Games seen only in movies, eh? I'd like to see his take on "The Bishop of Battle" seen in the movie "Nightmares." :evil:

Description of the game play (http://www.calarts.edu/~nstrum/macmame/reviews/nightrev/nightpgs/bobpages/bishop2.html)

http://tinypic.com/280co8
Pic of the cabinet.

[98PaceCar]

Games seen only in movies, eh? I'd like to see his take on "The Bishop of Battle" seen in the movie "Nightmares." :evil:

Description of the game play (http://www.calarts.edu/~nstrum/macmame/reviews/nightrev/nightpgs/bobpages/bishop2.html)

http://tinypic.com/280co8
Pic of the cabinet.

It's on the list of games to do!! I know he's been collecting sound bytes and movie caps of it for a while now. The current project is Last Starfighter, but I'd imagine Bishop won't be too far behind!!

[googlefest1]

there was link for some kind of demo for bishop of battle but it didnt work

sucks how movies back in the day teased you with these games

but still i could have sworn i saw and played the starfighrer game - i couldnt have been dreaming - mabey it was a similar game

[eaviii]

Hi- I'm Doc- Very very cool to see interest in the site and the prop cabinets-

- I am glad folks like the Space Paranoids game. I probably overdid some of the strobe effects but it was my first gaming foray. Depending on which effect you mean, the strobe may look pretty different on some machines (more glitchy than strobe). The game is definitely more fun with a dual joystick format. I wound up with a Happ topfire on the left and a standard trigger JS on the right. The most recent version on the site should include turret movement and a radar. Update soon with saved game settings and the startup/shutdown screens for a cabinet simulation.

- The Starfighter game is coming along slowly. There is a long thread on Replica Props Forums detailing the inexorable forward movement with lots of pics-
http://www.rpf.invisionzone.com/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=46549
Just got the asteroid level working and am writing the flight patterns for the scout ships.

- As for the Bishop, I am really looking forward to that. I have dissected much of the movie footage and pulled a bunch of sound. I wrote a very simple subroutine simulating the game start with just the flash and floating glowing head with voice-over. The download has not made it up on the site yet but soon will. I found a great article in Gameroom magazine with a thorough cogent explanation of gameplay (the switches above the spinner on the left had me stumped). I have started collecting some pieces for the cabinet but I figure the Nixie tube digits may be a bear.

http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=196&in=1969&t=i


Again, very cool to see interest in the projects and thanks for the kind words-

Doc

[eaviii]

Brief update- Starfighter continues to move along and should be able to post a playable demo very soon- Been working on the scout ship level over the asteroid-

http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=16596&t=i

http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=16595&t=i

Also met with the fellow doing the Bishop of Battle models- A couple of the in game enemies underway-

[eaviii]

You asked for updates.Very productive fortnight indeed- Just got back from a 2 week tour of WWII pacific isles- Great trip but tons of down time (almost 7 days at sea)- Guess what I did with much of the cruise sleep/eat time. That's right, I finished a working demo of Starfighter. I am mailing out the site update CD to Gawker (my webmaster tomorrow). We will hopefully have the demo for download within the week at www.roguesynapse.com.

The demo is a 3 level playable demo with light targets, the scout ship/asteroid level, and the fighter level. Currently, the demo repeats the fighter level over and over until the player dies. Since the last update, I have included ALL gauges (all weapons, player damage, target damage, and lockon warning). The 3d scanner works pretty well and is actually essential to gameplay. All player weapons work including the proton bolt (a seeking missile). The player death scenes and weapons recharge rates are incorporated. There is of course the updated intro and between level transition screens.

The most notable absence is SOUND. The intro dialog plays but beyond that I did not have the software I needed to dissect the audio for the game so that will be next I suspect. I did incorporate false MAME boot screens so it looks like an arcade machine booting up (you guys will recognize one of the included screens as a modified Defender boot). These cover the rather long loads for artwork, models, and arrays. The program stands at 234MB uncompressed right now but I suspect that will improve somewhat when I filter through the bulkier bitmaps. The game may run slowly on older machines (I have a 6 year old pII 128ram anntique vid card Windows 98 which runs it but it takes a long time to boot and stutters during heavy bitmap shuffling- Still, it runs). I suspect the slow down will improve when I get it into an installer and decompress/decrypt the current format. It is currently a DarkBasic FULL executable which is self decompressing each run and a little slow on older machines.

Ultimately, the software is coming along very very well (I have crossed the great master array hump that unites all subroutines). I am posting a number of screen caps in the meantime.

Doc


http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17406&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17418&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17407&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17408&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17409&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17410&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17411&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17412&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17413&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17414&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17415&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17416&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17417&t=i

[98PaceCar]

Hey Doc!

Glad to hear you survived the cruise and welcome back to civilization! Hope you and Liz had a good time!

Wow, you did make some progress! Game looks great! Can't wait to play it!

Darren

[Stingray]

Feeling a very strong urge to build a dedicated Starfighter cab.

-S

[eaviii]

Just a heads up- The site is still being updated (Gawker is fast by God) but the download is available. Just double click the banner "The Last Starfighter" at http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/last_starfighter.php. You will also need the Usuzi free font installed. Remember there is no sound :D after the intro dialog. Hope you like it- still needs polish and a few more levels. Working on an infinite frontier for a meteor gun level.

The Starfighter model is Miniaturizer Ray's (this is obvious because it is far superior to my stuff). The asteroid and starfield are freeware.

An aside, the site update also has the little Bishop of Battle demo (just the talking head, no game play), a Death Race portion is being added, and Space Paranoids/Daphne cab/other stuff being added.

Hope the wait is worth it- Still working on things-

Doc

[eaviii]

Just a few more screengrabs and update stuff- Things are still moving along. Fixed a few things in the demo already (missile explosions now always visible)- I got a wireframe starfighter from Miniaturizer Ray and placed it in a new scanner (I hated the distorted textures on the spheres)- The scanners look 100% better now. :D
Also redid the light targets to match the ones in the movie.
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18130&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18131&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18129&t=i
A new Xurian scout model . . .
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18132&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18133&t=i

The Frontier . . .
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18122&t=i

Some meteor bombs from the meteor gun and a rough working model of a meteor gunship . . .
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18123&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18124&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18125&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18126&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18127&t=i
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=18128&t=i


All in all coming along . . .

Doc

[Hovoc]

thanks for the updates, i was wondering how this was coming along

[googlefest1]

simply just WOW!

[eaviii]

Cool- I had forgotten about the Subroc Superman thing in Superman 3 (Robert Vaughn the bad guy?)- I would love the World Domination game from "Never Say Never Again"-

A couple updated screenshots-
New frontier pieces (closer to the film) and went with the command ship for the meteor level- The frontier is a parallax model that extends visually beyond the distance limit of the software (pleased with the look)-

http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=20826&t=i

And another . . .
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=20827&t=i

And a little model fun for Bishop of Battle-
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=20828&t=i

Doc

[Klendathu]

Wow I just can't believe it. Very nice work Doc.
I DL'd the demo of LSF. Nice work. Keep up the good work

[googlefest1]

i just realized that the joystick is on the left hand side of the arcade cab

the actor must have been left handed

that would take alot of getting used to if it was in the arcade

[eaviii]

Agreed on the left handed issue- The right controls the reticle I guess kind of like Robotron- The game is still coming along though slowly until now due to work should have some uninterrupted time to finish out the gameplay and start on the sounds- Folks have been working on Replica Props Forums and BYOAC on the arcade blueprints- Also may start getting some machined controls done (will carefuily remove and frame or box the originals)- Some photos of the cab at:
http://www.fotoheap.com/gallery.php?on=207&an=1940

Otherwise Vegas Vader from the RPF did the vectorized emblem-
http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=1940&in=23975&t=i

Will post on RogueSynapse soon for download-

Doc