Hello!
This afternoon I came over all nostalgic and fancied a game of Space Invaders :D which got me wondering which is the best original or clone of this epic game on the CPC.
I was aware that 'Super Space Invaders' by Domark is really very poor, however I was not aware as to how poor it is until I played it myself! It is utter cow excrement!
So from trawling YouTube and CPC-Power etc I have found 'Classic Invaders' from Bubble Bus Software and this is an excellent clone of the original game style. It's nice a colourful with plenty of speed and good explosion sounds and nicely animated mother ships. Even a nice little title tune.
The shields from the classic arcade machine are present but all too quickly blasted away LOL.
Does anyone know of a better Space Invaders clone than this?
Classic invaders is in the Converting games to ROM thread as a 1 rom game - and well worth the space in anyones x-mem.
CPC-Power Link: http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=572
Quote from: CraigsBar on 20:44, 23 November 14
Does anyone know of a better Space Invaders clone than this?
...no
But I programmed a clone in BASIC a couple of time ago. See attachment. Not very exciting. Just to have fun for a short while. :)
(It's still buggy - somewhere which I couldn't find. Debugging in BASIC is a pain in the ass.)
For a BASIC game this _IS_ pretty great work. :)
Theres this type-in from CwtA called Galactic Invaders. While not perfect, its a fairly decent implementation. It has motherships and increasing amounts of aliens, but no shields.
http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3130 (http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3130)
That, and the dire Super Space Invaders were all I had back in the day.
Bloody hell , that SInvaders in basic , looks the part for sure !Brilliant stuff.
Quote from: HAL 6128 on 22:44, 25 November 14
...no
But I programmed a clone in BASIC a couple of time ago. See attachment. Not very exciting. Just to have fun for a short while. :)
(It's still buggy - somewhere which I couldn't find. Debugging in BASIC is a pain in the ass.)
Very very cool. Nice work.
I raise you this:
http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=5239 (http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=5239)
Haven't played it since the 80's but I preferred it to the other game above at the time.
http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2141 (http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2141)
the graphics are strangely ported... feels like Atari ST graphics with lots of ditherings, ported automatically hence the full lines.
they just divided the horizontal resolution by two... and used the closest colours...
Proper dithering then becomes vertical or horizontal lines. I hate that...
while it was paiinfull to edit those in the past, these days you just fill/cover the dithered part with extra colours (with the mouse) then reduce the resolution into mode0 (devide the horizontal resolution) then fill the extra colours with the proper dithering combinaison again, voilà...
I did a version years ago called Electro Invaders (http://www.winape.net/download/invaders.zip)
Quote from: Executioner on 02:00, 26 November 14
I did a version years ago called Electro Invaders (http://www.winape.net/download/invaders.zip)
Here is the ROM version of Executioner's game.
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/8/8d/CPCInvad.rom (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/8/8d/CPCInvad.rom)
Cheers,
Shane
Does nobody rate the poor old Amsoft clone, Space Hawks? I was always partial to that version myself; although that may be because it was the first computer game I ever played.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. These early space invaders games all seem leaps and bounds ahead of 'super space invaders' I suppose it's proof that newer is not always better. Anyway I am now determined to get through all 4 waves of the bubble bus version before trying the others in any great length...
However as my Mac mini G4 power lead arrived yesterday I now have a 1.5ghz Mac mini silent upgrade with morphos to play with, I therefore see my upcoming gaming time being spent with 'duke nukem' rather than the invaders
Super Space Invaders was actually really good on other platforms. It just got screwed on the CPC. Try playing it on Master System/Game Gear to see what I mean, its a quality game on that system. It has all the bonus levels too, which I was really disappointed were missing in the CPC version, because they were mentioned in the manual.
I had the Amiga version of ssi and I agree here it is very good. I am hoping to get the morphos box running it via emulation.
Concerning Super Space Invader again...
Looks like the SegaMasterSytem uses a version with lots of similarities with Speccy and CPC....
Domark perhaps had some z80 code and graphics crossported.
Strangely they ported on the CPC with following way :
=The playfield is somewhat in surface the same, just adapted the colour palette (poorly) and pixel ratio (divided resolution by two horizontally)
=the HUD is the exact same, but "magnified" in Mode0 Pixels (and more limited CPC palette).
=sprites also use same pixel patterns, jsut oversized because large pixels.
so yeah, CPC seems to use a 320x192 sized screen... with freaking huge ugly HUD.
Speccy :
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/476386-taito-s-super-space-invaders-zx-spectrum-screenshot-the-game.png)
CPC :
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/535438-taito-s-super-space-invaders-amstrad-cpc-screenshot-first.png)
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/535443-taito-s-super-space-invaders-amstrad-cpc-screenshot-earned.png)
SMS
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/59538-taito-s-super-space-invaders-sega-master-system-screenshot.gif)
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/59532-taito-s-super-space-invaders-sega-master-system-screenshot.gif)
This one uses only half the background graphics, flipped/mirrored, perhaps to save Data on the cartridge...
Clearly one of the laziest Mode0 graphic port ever, IMO.
Last bit on the topic :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=77MRIelnYdo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77MRIelnYdo#)
Sad because with nice graphics the CPC version would have ended decent indeed.
The graphics are the least of it's problems, it plays so sluggish and laboured , no fun in the game play .
Bubble soft's effort has its own spotin my heart, along with Classic Axiens. A really nice effort and the little tune is lovely too.
@Hal 6128 's (love the blinking invader!!!) and @Executioner (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=17) 's efforts are really nice, I was genuinely surprised!