Here's a little surprise that I discovered while browsing issue 176 of Retro Gamer magazine, which was pushed through my letterbox this morning - a new cartridge game called BEARS! by the SOHDE Team.
[attachimg=1] [attachimg=2] [attachimg=3]
It seems the SOHDE Team took us completely by surprise! Did anyone else on here know this game was coming?
Anyway, it's a nice Christmas present for CPC fans. :) Here's the link to download BEARS! (http://www.sohde.co.uk/BEARS!.html)
Hmmm when I downloaded it flagged it up on the AV software as potentially carrying some sort of virus, never had this before, anyone else had any issues??? I shall not be opening it!
No problem from my side to download the game...
Sadly, it seems unfinished...
Quote from: tjohnson on 20:33, 23 December 17
Hmmm when I downloaded it flagged it up on the AV software as potentially carrying some sort of virus, never had this before, anyone else had any issues??? I shall not be opening it!
Avast Free Antivirus isn't reporting any issues on my PC.
NMPI APFA ACIP PPND
Quote from: Nich on 15:55, 23 December 17
It seems the SOHDE Team took us completely by surprise! Did anyone else on here know this game was coming?
Yes.
The author contacted me because the game was crashing unexpectedly on a real machine and asked for my help to fix it. I also provided templates for the manual, label and cartridge box sleeve.
Bears re-started the investigation with the interrupt acknowledge glitch on the plus (where the vector on the bus changes) because this was the cause of the crash.
I gave a few suggestions and later the author gave me both a version that crashed and a version where the crash had been worked around.
Quote from: Nich on 21:28, 23 December 17
Avast Free Antivirus isn't reporting any issues on my PC.
Thanks. I think there was some problem with my av as it started reporting issues with lots of downloads, not just this one. Not something it has done before so it got me worried.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Hi, this is my game. Thanks for covering it on your site Nich. I was waiting for it to turn up in Retro Gamer before I posted about it anywhere.
I promise the download on the website it is not dodgy ;D The file can be uploaded to wherever if any wants, I don't mind.
It is certainly not unfinished, I don't know what you mean there. The file on the website is what has been playtested thoroughly through to completion by several parties.
I've not tried that password that has been posted above but you can of course abuse the password system if you look at the routine in the code. But where's the fun in that? ;)
Other thanks, TMR for the decent score in Retro Gamer and Arnoldemu for the techy help he gave me.
Nice game! I like the humor!
I got killed by a squirrel the first time I played, but after a bit of effort I managed to progress far enough to get killed by a tree!
Yeah I suck at RPGs!
Quote from: keith56 on 01:10, 29 December 17
Nice game! I like the humor!
I got killed by a squirrel the first time I played, but after a bit of effort I managed to progress far enough to get killed by a tree!
Yeah I suck at RPGs!
Well I suck at bullet hell so I suppose we're even ;)
Quote from: keith56 on 01:10, 29 December 17Yeah I suck at RPGs!
Quote from: dthrone on 02:03, 29 December 17Well I suck at bullet hell so I suppose we're even ;)
I suck at both those genres.... so I guess I win! \o/
Quote from: mr_lou on 08:20, 29 December 17
I suck at both those genres.... so I guess I win! \o/
I suck as *all* genres, victory is mine!
That does not mean I don't have fun tho.
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So what inspired the bear theme for the game? it seems quite unique and unexpected.
Quote from: keith56 on 10:55, 29 December 17
So what inspired the bear theme for the game? it seems quite unique and unexpected.
I was avoiding the same-old fantasy settings you usually get in this sort of thing.
As a bonus, bears are also easier to draw than humans and use up a lot less colours ;D
Congratulations to the whole team! :) :) :)
Well, I did play it for hours and it's a lot of fun. Actually it's easy enough that even I can play it. Which is something I really like.
The code system for the cartridge is awesome too. It's as good as load / save with disc games. :)
Thanks a lot! It's a fantastic Christmas present. :) :) :)
Quote from: GUNHED on 17:33, 29 December 17
Congratulations to the whole team! :) :) :)
Well, I did play it for hours and it's a lot of fun. Actually it's easy enough that even I can play it. Which is something I really like.
The code system for the cartridge is awesome too. It's as good as load / save with disc games. :)
Thanks a lot! It's a fantastic Christmas present. :) :) :)
Thanks a lot, very kind words :)
In the grim darkness of the CareBears, there is only cuddle.
Can't wait for the pony spinoff... ::)
thumbs up for having this kind of game being released on PLUS/GX4000 at last.
Any footage of this game? :-*
Quote from: Sacrosanct on 13:05, 30 December 17
Any footage of this game? :-*
I've not made any myself and I'm not really set up to but hopefully something will surface on youtube or something at some point.
I was shocked to only recently find out there's a new game for the GX4000 of all things!! Wow!!
If I'd known I could have done news and previews on my YouTube channel and also on the gx4000.co.uk website!
I'm looking to do a live lonplay of this on my channel at some point soon, and I've been really enjoying playing it - well done!!
However unfortunately I keep coming across bugs and crashes - I've got fairly far into the game but I keep getting the game freeze up and go all 'white'. I don't know if this is a WinApe emulator related thing, or if it's because at earlier points exploring I set the speed to beyond 100% so I can move quicker through the game, but crashes get so regular now I can't progress :(
If I'm stood still it doesn't crash, but only when I'm moving and after a certain short period of time. Attached is a snapshot from WinApe (you'll need the .crt file loaded), load it up then try and move in any direction and it'll crash. Hopefully you can find what is causing it.
Quote from: Xyphoe on 08:44, 09 February 18
However unfortunately I keep coming across bugs and crashes - I've got fairly far into the game but I keep getting the game freeze up and go all 'white'. I don't know if this is a WinApe emulator related thing, or if it's because at earlier points exploring I set the speed to beyond 100% so I can move quicker through the game, but crashes get so regular now I can't progress :(
If I'm stood still it doesn't crash, but only when I'm moving and after a certain short period of time. Attached is a snapshot from WinApe (you'll need the .crt file loaded), load it up then try and move in any direction and it'll crash. Hopefully you can find what is causing it.
Hi Xyphoe, glad you like the game!
Believe me, it is thoroughly play tested start to finish on a real GX4000 and in Winape so I think it will be an issue with your emulator settings. I'll take a look at your snapshot in a min.
Certainly don't increase the speed, each frame has various sync-ings so I'm not sure if it would like that.
Back soon ;)
As personal experience, winape takes some liberty about cpc design. Sometimes it generate false bus data or not made checks that the plus do. That type of things, so try the game with the arnodlemulator, its more acurracy to the hardware. If a game work there work in original hardware if not no. No matter what tell winape.
Definitely a weird one. It's crashing because some of the RAM is corrupted in that snapshot. Whether that is because a) the winape settings like the speed increase caused the game to corrupt it b) the snapshot file itself is bad for whatever reason or c) there's some freak combination of things in the game I've overlooked that's caused it, I don't know.
Either way, I'll post you an up to date snapshot on here shortly that at least works on my Winape here ;D
But I shouldn't speak too soon because I have noticed a little bug, it doesn't quite count your skills for the HUD properly, schoolboy error :o So I'd better issue a new .cpr too.
Quote from: dthrone on 11:16, 09 February 18
Definitely a weird one. It's crashing because some of the RAM is corrupted in that snapshot. Whether that is because a) the winape settings like the speed increase caused the game to corrupt it b) the snapshot file itself is bad for whatever reason or c) there's some freak combination of things in the game I've overlooked that's caused it, I don't know.
Either way, I'll post you an up to date snapshot on here shortly that at least works on my Winape here ;D
But I shouldn't speak to soon because I have noticed a little bug, it doesn't quite count your skills for the HUD properly, schoolboy error :o So I'd better issue a new .cpr too.
Thanks for the reply and looking!
Oh and wow... unless I misunderstood... you can fix my snapshot file? :O Thank you if so!! Means I don't have to start all over again! :D
Hello again. I've attached a new snapshot that should have preserved where you are up to (apart from room count, sorry).
Run it with the attached updated .cpr just in case because this is the one I generated the snapshot with. My room count cock-up should be corrected in this version. I'll upload the new .cpr to my website next job.
Fingers-crossed you don't have any more problems ;)
oops, this .cpr
Great stuff! The snapshot is working like a treat!
Wonder if you can replicate the corruption by doing the speed up in the emulator? Might be useful to Richard (maker of WinApe) for future revisions :)
Will be looking to do a live stream or video of this game soon :)
Phew! :D
I'll have a go at reproducing it at some point. I think it's probably more a case of making a program suitable for speeding up rather than Richard needing to do anything :laugh:
That's really exciting about the steam/video, thanks a lot for the coverage!
Yep, I'll be doing a live longplay of this tomorrow on YouTube! :)
10pm (GMT) here - https://gaming.youtube.com/c/Xyphoe/live
(https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27752457_2100534006856990_7320739366454865779_n.png?oh=c48da0a5d3c624223cea6e939b91656d&oe=5B26146A)
Niiiiice! :D
So if you missed the live stream the full catchup video is here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqwHVU8JK_w
@dthrone (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=350) - unfortunately we got the crash again!! Just before the Spider fight at 2:22:50 :(
I didn't speed up the emulator at any point, but I did use a couple of snapshot reloads after a screw-up.
Just FYI when I do save in WinApe I select "Custom" for "Memory To Save" and we basically tick every box in "Custom Memory Configuration". This is what I always do when saving snapshots in cart / GX4000 games and not had any issues with them.
Quote from: Xyphoe on 11:34, 18 February 18
@dthrone (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=350) - unfortunately we got the crash again!! Just before the Spider fight at 2:22:50 :(
I didn't speed up the emulator at any point, but I did use a couple of snapshot reloads after a screw-up.
Just FYI when I do save in WinApe I select "Custom" for "Memory To Save" and we basically tick every box in "Custom Memory Configuration". This is what I always do when saving snapshots in cart / GX4000 games and not had any issues with them.
Well done on completing it! 8) I'll check out the full video tomorrow ;D
Yeh, something weird is going on with the save states. I've never tried the custom option before, I just use the first 64k option. That gives me something I can try anyway. The only difference between this and other cart games is the number cartridge pages in the .cpr file and I notice the custom option saves pages in sets of 4 (the total in the Bears .cpr is not a multiple of 4). The problem might be obvious to Richard or Arnoldemu if they spot this.
For reference, and I'll put this on my website, Version 3 -> First 64k work fine, no crashes were reported during testing using these.
haha, maybe the moral of the story is use the password system :P
Hi all!
Yesterday it was X-mas time for me. Getting home from work very early I took a look in the mailbox where I found an Cartridge from the very wonderful Bears! game. :) :) :)
At the time the game got out I played it quite often, but I had to immediately put it in my 6128 Plus and see if it works. Somehow it's still so addictive that I played it on and on. I wrote level codes on two pieces of paper and finally managed to finish the game the same day!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Bears! got such a high grab factor that I really love to play it again and again. Also it's quite fun to fight different enemies like the pumpkin, evil spider, the bird king or the octopus.
Actually the background gfx of the octopus is very astonishing!!!
Having the level codes allows to come back to the enemy you want, but be careful with these young bear ladies showing a bit of fun too much. :o
I really wished there would be more games like this on CPC!