Hypernoid Zero

[rexbeng]

Anyone wondering what Bitplane Technomantes have been up to lately? Check this out at Pouet. Released at Revision 2024 game compo.

DSK & PDF with instructions: http://www.roudoudou.com/export/cpc/hypernoid_Zero_v1.2.7z

[flibblesan]

Saw this on the Revision stream. Looks absolutely fantastic. 

Great work everyone involved! 

[Saberman]

Awesome game. Gameplay:

[rexbeng]

@Saberman : I forgot to include the instructions' PDF! As with Cybernoid, you change secondary weapons with numbers 1-4.

Get file including PDF at http://www.roudoudou.com/export/cpc/hypernoid_Zero_v1.2.7z

Emulator gameplay recording that was screened during the compo. The emulator used is ACE-DL by Roudoudou.

[Anthony Flack]

A Cybernoid-em-up! This was unexpected. You guys and your sneaky developments, haha. No teaser trailers for Bitplane Technomantes. Ghost NOP looks fantastic as well. 

Damn, I was supposed to be programming today.

[lmimmfn]

This looks amazing, well done all involved, can't wait to try it.

[XeNoMoRPH]

Hi @rexbeng  !!!
First of all, congratulate the development team for this fantastic game... I think it deserves a physical edition. 

[dodogildo]

Looks juicy!
Can't wait to try it on real hardware! 
I don't want to spoil the moment on emulation 

[Gryzor]

Just wow. Must definitely find some time to play this!

[HAL6128]

Nice piece of art & sound! Just watched the video and it looks so professional programmed (smooth movements) and lots of graphical details (explosions, barriers, background, sprites), fitting music... that is fantastic!

[Xyphoe]

Absolutely stunning! A lovely surprise and treat - wow an absolutely brilliant production, amazing to see Axelay / Rexbeng / TometJerry back together again! <3
The Amstrad community thanks you!


Just to clarify ... this is an early demo version right? Not the full completed game? (Hence "Zero" in the name)

Some places online are reporting it as a whole new game.

I had a little play and reached a room that had no obvious exit - just 4 powerups and no enemies, and I couldn't progress further.

[rexbeng]

Thanks all for the good words. We won the third place in the Revision gamedev compo, which I think is a first for CPC (then again, Ghost Nop won 1st place oldschool demo compo which was also first!).

@Xyphoe is it a room with 'directional markings' on the wall? Look around for how to change their direction.

Also, guys, dont jump to assumptions. Hypernoid Zero is exactly what it is. A game that was done to participate in a compo.

[dodogildo]

Finally played it today on real hardware. A real gem! But have to admit: it's quite hard even in the easiest difficulty setting. 

[Gryzor]

Finally played it today on real hardware. A real gem! But have to admit: it's quite hard even in the easiest difficulty setting. 

Yup, when people complain about Cybernoid just show them this... 

[VincentGR]

3d place? What was the competition?
Do they know what they saw?
Smooth scrolling and sprites on backgrounds on a CPC   

[Gryzor]

Yeah I wanna see #1 and 2...

[rexbeng]

Errrr... what... scrolling..?

[Shaun M. Neary]

Welcome back! Looks like this was worth four years!

[VincentGR]

Software sprite scrolling.

[Anthony Flack]

The game is fantastic. I never got into the original Cybernoids for whatever reason, but this is great.

Interesting to see BT doing something a little bit more tactical and puzzley rather than a pure shmup for a change. All aspects of the presentation are obviously top quality, the coding is beautiful as always and Rexbeng once again works magic with the CPC's garish colour palette and manages to make it look tasteful. I can't think of anybody working in the retro scene right now with a more immediately identifiable art style, and it looks even better on a real CPC. Paul's design work as always is more than equal to his coding skill, which is why a new BT game is always something to celebrate.

It doesn't seem to like my RetroRadionics two-button joystick, though. In three button mode (on an original 6128) , button 1 fires, button 2 fires your special, and EVERY input on the joystick (up/down/left/right/fire1/fire2) advances your special selector. Looking at the stick inputs in BASIC the stick seems to be functioning just fine, up-down-left-right-X-Z, no button 3 triggering. So I don't know what's up there. It could be a longstanding issue and this is the first game I've played that has tried accessing the third button I guess.

Putting the game in one-button mode, everything works fine; actually button 2 still works for firing the special. This would be perfect if I didn't keep accidentally firing the special by holding down button 1 for too long. Apart from that, and a small typo on the instruction PDF (enemy fire options are listed as heavy/standard/heavy instead of heavy/standard/light), it's hard to fault.

How great does that status panel look? Colour splits everywhere, very clever. The way the counters work is really cool too.

[rexbeng]

@Anthony Flack,  thanks for the nice words. Appreciated.

In fairness, BPTM crew has worked on a "more tactical / non shooter" before, albeit not under the BPTM label (link). I just made the connection and, funnily enough HZ is a '40 years anniversary' release for the CPC, while MB was a '30 years anniversary' (even if it missed the year mark by 1 month) release. So perhaps it's something about 'anniversaries'..?

Thanks for the input on controls, we are taking notes.

The control panel is in EGX mode. Per line swaps between mode 1 and mode 0.

[rexbeng]

Solid performance by Metr; He only explored about half the map though!

[roudoudou]

Solid performance by Metr; He only explored about half the map though!

Amstrad Maniaque finished the game in a few minutes ^_^

[rexbeng]

Cool! Good job at revealing the BPTM logo at 8:55! Still there's a few rooms he missed! Great opportunity to make another video!

[Anthony Flack]

The control panel is in EGX mode. Per line swaps between mode 1 and mode 0.

Ah! I guess this must be one of the only in-game uses of this trick we've seen besides the (extremely underrated) Imperial Mahjong. It looks superb.