Edge Grinder released (really - DKS inside) - NEW GAME! WHAAAAAA!

[Gryzor]

(from Oldschool Gaming, minutes ago):
Paul Kooistra, developer of much shooty goodness for the Amstrad CPC, has just finished his version of Edge Grinder. The game, started as a collaborative competition at Oldschool Gaming's sister site Format War, is a caravan-style horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up where the challenge is to rack up the highest score possible.
Here!
Now, where's that dsk?

[redbox]

OMG.

It's awesome.

Wonder if the R3 scrolling will work with my modulator?

Now, where's that dsk?

Here:

[norecess]

Congratulations to everyone involved in this game. This is actually quite a good surprise to discover it !
Gameplay is really fun and addictive. It's also very hard to beat it !!!!    Can't wait to get myself deeper in this game.

[TFM]

Beautiful, fluid, great game. But way too hard, and just 3 lives is nothing.
I suggest an autofire joystick, without one, you're done :-)
 
Is there an emualtor, which is capable of autofire? Markus?
 

[norecess]

But way too hard, and just 3 lives is nothing.

Actually, I found difficulty was well balanced.


Cybernoid, Rick Dangerous... they are good examples of hard but good games.

[ervin]

Technically STUNNING, and a great game too!
I guess the difficulty is kinda the point, considering that it is a simple score attack game (from what I can ascertain).
 
Who woulda thought - super smooth full-screen horizontal scrolling on a cpc!

[TFM]

Cybernoid, Rick Dangerous... they are good examples of hard but good games.

Well, Cybernoid was easy for me. And RD was easier than EG, because there is no time pressure. But maybe it's just due to changing times...
 

Who woulda thought - super smooth full-screen horizontal scrolling on a cpc!

It's not full-screen.

[ervin]

It's not full-screen.

Indeed. Perhaps I should have said "full-ish" screen, or full-width screen.
(Of course it's not full-height).
 
Having said that, I've just taken a closer look, and the playing area seems to be 156 mode 0 pixels wide, instead of 160. Interesting...
 
Regardless, an amazing technical achievement.

[MacDeath]

It's not full-screen.

Yeah but it looks like it is in almost "normal 320x200" which is far better than so many speccy ports or even spanish games in "256x192"... or even less...

and the playing area seems to be 156 mode 0 pixels wide, instead of 160. Interesting...

One character to get the scrolling erased properly ?


Anyway, I have too few pictures to compair but it clearly looks more coloured on CPC as usual.

C64 :



CPC (yet not the same part)


Sadly the few visual are clearly ported from the C64...
I mean, to get a gradiant going from Dark Red (=brown) to Cyan or Green is clearly C64ish ports.

But I'm OK with this, still look saucy and juicy good.

While some tiles (= most) on C64 has only 3 colours+black, the CPC looks like being in 4 colours + black.

Every thing is +1 colour thx to the No Attribute limitation stuff... sadly the Palette on CPC can't always handle this so well, but hey, the 16 colours max limitation per rasterzone is also a brake.

And to redo graphics while respecting original design is such a paiu in the A$$ wen you port from C64 to CPC...
Still certainly a lot of job to add the Extra ink on every graphics... well done.

And I haven't found the Sprites and Tiles sheet on CPC version... which would be quite interesting.

Just a question : is there any Raster for the HUD ?

Probably as I can count 13 colours for ingame window and 13 colours for the HUD only but total 17 colour on the full screenshot (the CPC screenshot already posted here)...

[SuTeKH/Epyteor]

Stunning game... on both formats! Our graphics are a lot more colourful, though; the C64 sprites seem a little washed-out.
Also, the C64's collision detection is a lot more forgiving than the CPC version, which is why I can hardly get 40,000 on our version but easily get 70,000 on the C64.
 
 
Oooh, and we get a cool loading screen, too!
 

[TomEtJerry]

Hello,

Beautiful, fluid, great game. But way too hard, and just 3 lives is nothing.
I suggest an autofire joystick, without one, you're done :-)
 
Is there an emualtor, which is capable of autofire? Markus?

The game is not too hard, you just have to play a little bit with.  I am not an ace with shooters and I manage to
finish it. That's just a question of memory in fact :-).

Hope there will not be like on C64 a ridiculous hack with infinite lives as the game doesn't need it at all...

T&J/GPA

[MacDeath]

Oooh, and we get a cool loading screen, too!

sorry guy but nope.jpg...

Please : Never put any JPG for pixelart or you only get a mix of a screwed up picture...

pic reposted, I took it from Winape and corrected the colours into theoric CPC colours.


And yeah It rules, good intro page, colourfull, well done, completely CPCish in a good way.


And yeah as always with Paul Kooistra, impecable fluid Shooter with apparently impossible level but just a few time on it and it become a bit of a slight of a little easier (but not that much)



From what I understood, you must be grinding the background's edges to get a properly powerfull weapon powerup or else you must dodge the waves ?
I agrre that a good autofire is quite needed, my joysticks are old and won't handle this, I hate to change microswitchs too...


And now : where is the Speccy version
 

[SuTeKH/Epyteor]

Hope there will not be like on C64 a ridiculous hack with infinite lives as the game doesn't need it at all...

The location of the 'lives' (03) and the DEC (HL) are not very well hidden. If I can find them, then everyone in this forum can do the same... just infinitely faster.
However, after a bit of practice, it's not too difficult to finish.
 

sorry guy but nope.jpg...

Please : Never put any JPG for pixelart or you only get a mix of a screwed up picture...

Don't shoot the messenger... that's how it comes out in PHOTOBUCKET.

[HAL 6128]

Hello,

The game is not too hard, you just have to play a little bit with.  I am not an ace with shooters and I manage to
finish it. That's just a question of memory in fact :-).

Hope there will not be like on C64 a ridiculous hack with infinite lives as the game doesn't need it at all...

T&J/GPA

Not to forget... the music is also rather good!

[MacDeath]

Don't shoot the messenger...

I wouldn't shoot at a guy with a brick...
 

Sorry I wasn't meant to be rude.

[McKlain]

The game looks great, my problem is that I'm not able to shoot fast enough to destroy all enemies on a wave 

[SuTeKH/Epyteor]

I was testing my 'infinite lives' theory and noticed that you get points for flying through the scenery!
(Just thought someone might be interested in that)
 
 

EDIT: I also have ONE SHOT KILL if anyone else is interested! ^_^

(... how sad am I?)

[TotO]

Great C64 port. Perfect work. 
May be, the choice of colors stay disputable.

[Axelay]

Thanks to all for the feedback! 


Sorry I wasn't able to clarify earlier, but:

Now, where's that dsk?

The disk and tape version is found under the 'object code' link.  The tape version is 128k only just like the disk version.  I have included it only because I want to provide as many options as possible for people to try it out on their real CPCs, and I know there are a few people out there who have no way of transferring disk images to their 6128s.


I would also love to hear from anyone who happens to try it out on the real thing, how it looks (does it work), and what their setup was.  Edge Grinder is using the 'CRTC register 3' method to get the fine scrolling, as was used in a handful of commercial games.  The issues this can create are well known, but I'd really like to know how common screens that produce acceptable results are.  I already have two slightly different acceptable results on my two CTMs, and two different kinds of failure on modulators.

Having said that, I've just taken a closer look, and the playing area seems to be 156 mode 0 pixels wide, instead of 160. Interesting...
 

Using register 3 in this way means the screen moves to the right by half a character width, so you lose a half character on the left.  To maintain a 'centred' screen, I opted to lose an additional half character on the right.  You can try the game in Winape with interrupt highlighting turned on to see it.

And I haven't found the Sprites and Tiles sheet on CPC version... which would be quite interesting.

Just a question : is there any Raster for the HUD ?

Probably as I can count 13 colours for ingame window and 13 colours for the HUD only but total 17 colour on the full screenshot (the CPC screenshot already posted here)...

The graphics aren't stored in a linear manner.  There are some AAS screens in the source download that have the background characters & sprite frames in them.  As to your question, from memory it is 2 or 3 colours changed between the two screens.

The location of the 'lives' (03) and the DEC (HL) are not very well hidden. If I can find them, then everyone in this forum can do the same... just infinitely faster.

 
Hidden?  Well, the source code is available... 

I was testing my 'infinite lives' theory and noticed that you get points for flying through the scenery!

 


Yep, apart from surviving to the end, you can "Grind" your ship against the background for bonus points.

[redbox]

Hi Axelay,


Thanks for the great game, am really enjoying playing it.  Can't wait to show my mate who's C64 mad the different versions 


The scrolling works fine on my 6128 Plus with CM14 colour monitor and the screen is nicely centered and the CRTC offset not noticeable unless you really look for it.


Haven't had a chance to try it with my S-Video modulator as I'm at work and it's at home...

[TotO]

MEGA NERD ? 

[SuTeKH/Epyteor]

MEGA NERD ? 

Not quite... I hit 100K about an hour ago, I can post that screen up if you want! ^_^

[TotO]

I trust you... It's just what I read first ! 

[Devilmarkus]

Really nice and fast shooter!
Congrats to the people who made this piece of code & gfx & sound!

[Devilmarkus]

I really love the C64 loader! Why don't a few coders do the same for the CPC version?
http://cpc-live.com/edge_grinder_c64_loader