New Game - Invasion of the Zombie Monsters!!

[mr_lou]

Don't feel obligated to give new games a high rating. Although, generally I must admit that I rate any new CPC game higher than any new game on any other platform. But this is of course because I just LIKE CPC games more, so it's still a fine and honest rating.

If a new CPC game disappoints me, then I don't hide it.

If a new CPC game really catches my attention, then I make sure I either donate to the authors, or buy the game.

I've been playing Invasion of the Zombie Monsters a bit now. It sure is difficult!!! Not my favorite style of game either, and movement IS rather chunky - but not the worst I've seen. Framerate is still rather high, and that helps a bit.
Graphics and music boost the rating a lot I think.

I'll give "Invasion of the Zombie Monsters" 7 stars out of 10.
For comparison, "Teodoro no sabe volar" and "Dead on Time" both gets a 10/10 from me, and "Star Sabre" a 9/10 and "Subhunter" a 8/10.
(Still haven't played "Orion Prime" enough to rate it).

P.S.: I don't rate games on what technical skills the coder have. I rate them on how much fun I think they are to play.

[Optimus]

I did enjoy this one more than some other Spanish games like from Mojon Twins for example. It's still a bit hard for my taste but at least you feel that you are getting somewhere, from left to right and finishing levels. Most of the Mojon Twins games, while they have nice graphics, they weren't something I could play today. While I like exploration games, in the MJ games (which is same engine scrapped with new graphics/scenario) where you are both lost in a big world and you die easily and then you have to start a new game from the very beginning. I prefer save points even if that would be too casual for some hardcore players. Anyway, just my personal opinion, too many releases from some teams but not a single one I could enjoy. But this new game from the other Spanish company, maybe I could learn and enjoy. I agree with the speccy article  but I don't agree difficulty was too easy or I am too old anymore and prefer easier experiences. Then a big game like Blackland or Orion Prime which however let's you save and not having to start for the nth time from the start would be preferable to me.

[TFM]

Yepp, and finally this one got scrolling - bad scrolling though - but at least scrolling.

[Puresox]

I don't see that it is particularly bad scrolling for Amstrad standards?


One thing that annoys me for replay value is the fact that the enemies , appear at the same time every time ! There is no randomness to it , which makes it a little predictable  , and flawed in my eyes. That said it is a great little game and I appreciate the effort people have put in to develop it for our machinw!!

[MacDeath]

Could someone explain to me why this games has 2 double/redundant colours in the palette?

According to WinApe (find graphics) the palette include Red and White twice each... WTF ?

it could have used more orange per example.
At some point it even use 3 times the BightWhite (during the intro sequence).

Could certainly use more "Grey" as well.

can anyone tell me if there's a sprite sheet(s) available for this version?

the tiles are easy to see in winape, but I don't have time to do it at the moment
[attachimg=1]
I couldn't see where the pastel green is used...WTF?
Sur 3 extra colour could be used, or more subtle colours here and there.
(pastel yellow and pastel cyan? orange? some grey too? seagreen or lime green instead of plain birght green? and no pastel green at all (we all know the CPC can't do proper 3 shades green gradiants.)


As red and white are used by the player's sprite, no use to reserve 2 slots for the letters/numbers.
Explosions (flames) could use some orange (also the trees)


After all the engine is quite good, could just use some extra loadings (disk version) or even some extra RAM to store more stuffs (be it only cinematics graphics).
Looks like there is not even a complete Alphabet/letter set, to save some space.
And those red letters could use some dark red to have more relief, so as the white numbers could use  a few Grey dots...


I had the same problem when RickDangerous128PLUS was done.
We found out the whole game used one unique palette, and actually didn't used the whole 16 inks most of time.
To have the PLUS' 4096 to choose from surely helped a big bit, but to really put palette changes between levels and fully use the whole ink set was also quite an improvement to begin with.


Good point : graphics are coded in native Mode0 (i guess) but I also suspect them to be stored compressed when not used (other levels, cinematics) so it could please a Tape 464 config.
BTW not bad at all for a 64K game...


As for the intro page (and cinematics) they surely could use some STE86 awesomness. 

One thing that annoys me for replay value is the fact that the enemies , appear at the same time every time ! There is no randomness to it , which makes it a little predictable  , and flawed in my eyes.

not unlike R-Type...




so the question : was this production slightly rushed to fit the Retro Madrid Deadline?
(that's quite probable...)


But I guess it could easily get a slightly better "multiloading Disk" version art worse, or even a proper "extra RAM" version as well.

[TFM]

I don't see that it is particularly bad scrolling for Amstrad standards?

Hmmm.... if you only consider speccy ports...   So seriously, there are games with liquid, not jerky scrolling.

One thing that annoys me for replay value is the fact that the enemies , appear at the same time every time ! There is no randomness to it , which makes it a little predictable  , and flawed in my eyes. That said it is a great little game and I appreciate the effort people have put in to develop it for our machinw!!

See, that's what I like about the game. Everytime I play it, I can come a step more forwared, because I can lear what will come ;-)

The # of lives suxx though.

[trocoloco]

I dont care if the game isn't perfect, if it doesn't have the best use of palette, rutines ,scroll or what have u... what I appreciate is that a group of people took the time and effort of porting a game for the CPC after 3 years of its release, even tho, some of them are doing it out of their main plataform. So thanks to Relevo Videogames for porting this nice game to Amstrad

[arnoldemu]

I dont care if the game isn't perfect, if it doesn't have the best use of palette, rutines ,scroll or what have u... what I appreciate is that a group of people took the time and effort of porting a game for the CPC after 3 years of its release, even tho, some of them are doing it out of their main plataform. So thanks to Relevo Videogames for porting this nice game to Amstrad

I agree. To make the perfect cpc game, in my experience, takes time, patience and  experience.

We need to remember that making a game is more than just making an engine, it's making the screens that fit it all together, making the game logic for both player and enemy, tweaking it and tuning it to make it feel right, packaging it all together into a dsk/cdt/cpr/rom, fixing many bugs and releasing it.

For example: Prehistorik 2 engine is a tweaked Super Cauldron engine. Before this Elmar made Zap T Balls and demos and learnt much from this. Prehistorik 2 is not his first game

For each game I make, I add improvements and use more of the cpc's power where I can.

A lot of making games is a learning experience, and needing a strong will

[arnoldemu]

My feelings on this game:

I think it's well presented with nice mode 0 graphics, nice sound, some nice screens joining it all together. It's commercial quality.

I agree with mr_lou that it should support joystick throughout so you can press fire to continue, it's something I'm working towards in all my games (where control only by gamepad/joystick is possible), but it's only a small thing.

Scrolling is chunky but perfectly good.

I found it hard to play, but I may have been playing it at more than 100% speed 

EDIT: I am not saying "do not give your opinion of this game" or "always say it's great".
I hope their next one will be better with joystick. Perhaps their next one will use some extra cpc features like raster/mode splits?
they are the next easiest to add to a game.

[mr_lou]

I agree with mr_lou that it should support joystick throughout so you can press fire to continue, it's something I'm working towards in all my games (where control only by gamepad/joystick is possible), but it's only a small thing.

When developing games for cellphones, there are a ton of stuff like this to consider. Some phones only have hardware keys. Some phones only have touchscreens. Some have both.
Some phones have a dedicated gamingpad, while others allows for one to be connected. Such gamepads have dedicated START and SELECT buttons.
Some people prefer to play in landscape mode, and others in portrait mode. So the DPAD controls may have to be adjusted.

The game has to be developed in a way so that everyone can use it. That is something I spend a lot of time on, when developing our 4th cellphone game, which is being developed for Android and JavaME simultaneously.

Developing a game for the CPC should be much easier in that regard. I can only think of the input issue. In my opinion, any CPC game should support both joystick and keyboard input, or allow redefining keys. It should also support the FIRE 2 button for gamepads. Maybe the player character needs to be able to jump, and then UP is used for this. And that is ok. Just don't forget to include the FIRE 2 button for jumping as well. There's no reason to leave it out.
One should also think about, that the GX 4000 doesn't have a keyboard. So all menus and such should be possible to select using a gamepad. Not necessarily ONLY a gamepad. It could be selectable with keys as well, like 1 2 3, or arrow keys etc.
If you need the user to select a game-speed in the beginning, then let him choose it with the gamepad. Not only keys.
(This of course also benefits people who's using an emulator on their keyboardless Android phone).

If anyone can think of more CPC-game-development-guidelines in this regard (not for technical aspects such as coding tips'm'tricks), then maybe a dedicated thread should be created for it.

[Optimus]

See, that's what I like about the game. Everytime I play it, I can come a step more forwared, because I can lear what will come ;-)

The # of lives suxx though.

Yes, for some reasons I prefered this predictability. Because it makes it possible to learn it despite it's difficulty. Maybe with some randomness, the gameplay would have to be tweaked (energy bar or armor like in ghouls and ghosts) and it would be still fine.
Yesterday I replayed it again and again, could reach 5th level with some effort. The difficulty is just right for my taste. Finally, another CPC game that I can personally enjoy and replay! (and that's a rare)

[arnoldemu]

If anyone can think of more CPC-game-development-guidelines in this regard (not for technical aspects such as coding tips'm'tricks), then maybe a dedicated thread should be created for it.

I think a thread or wiki page for this would be good.

I agree with being able to control all with just joystick, my sudoku game and blue angel 69 support this.
My 16k game entry allows you to start with either joystick or keyboard. Press fire or space.

for gx4000, p should pause so that you can use the pause button on it.

recommendations for key controls is also good, possibly with choices of different layouts.

I agree fire 2 should be used where it makes sense.

I would also like to see analogue joystick on plus selectable, even if it's being used as a digital joystick, especially in 2 player games where keyboard clash could be a problem.

I would also say that it should be possible to choose no sound, music, sfx, or both (where this is possible in the design of the game).

we could also add the screen size for overscan games and a suggestion to allow the user to centralise the screen when this is used.

[TFM]

The intro tells a nice story. And it still fit's into the same 64 KB, right? Nice compressing!

[MacDeath]

concerning the "new standard control setings" I can only agree...
Also AMXmouse and "Bryce USB mouse" could be great.
And the PLUS/GX4000 analog port deserves more love from hardware makers... where is my dual joy converter to plug a PS/Xbox paddle (or even modern USB paddle) on both the digital and analog port? (could plug 2 of them I guess...) so you have the dual paddle with both digital and analog paddle + nice amount of fire buttons...
Or even a Digital to Analog converter-doubler so you can connect 2 normal digital joysticks on the analog port (hence 4 joysticks...)


I'm even sure the analog port could be used for a nicer mouse thing... provided with the proper converter (USB mouse to analog port converter?). (it has a +5V ?)


Yeah, the intro is nice for a 64K game...
many monocolour characters/tiles (so a reduced tile set), also "small" area... this helps but still, good they could fit this, so many games had nothing in the past.


Concerning the scrolling, it is character based, as it is a game where you run straight, the fastness make it pass betterly than so many "flip screen" shits.
Still would be great to have such thing but with "half characters" instead. would perhaps need a 128K RAM to run betterly.


I will play this game more properly, with my good old speed king, this week end.



And yeay, i love the story...
A nerd, a hot nerdy chick, monster of the week comes to take down earth and rape the hot chick, Geek saves the day and connects the hot chick's router.
This thing always make my days... (lack of beer though)

[mr_lou]

And the PLUS/GX4000 analog port deserves more love from hardware makers... where is my dual joy converter to plug a PS/Xbox paddle (or even modern USB paddle) on both the digital and analog port?

Apparently we also need a "CPC Project Ideas" page somewhere on the Wiki. 

[AMSDOS]

Not sure why people get carried away with things like Scrolling. True there's good scrolling and bad scrolling and then there's Prehistorik 2/Super Caldron. When I play Zombie Monsters I think it's like Wonderboy which is listed here as Hardware scroll, which I think is more than adequate.    Lets face it, if it was Scrolling Horizontally like Street Gang Football, I think people would agree it would be unplayable. 

[Gryzor]

I moved the rest of the discussion to its own thread, it was off-topic but still useful. I just don't know whether to place it under Games or Programming...

[AugustoRuiz]

Relevo has published a new version today with:

Improved performance
Support for 2 button joysticks
Smoother gameplay

It's worth the download!!

[mr_lou]

That's awesome! But why don't you post the link to the download in such a post?

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink...............

[AugustoRuiz]

Sorry about that. I posted that from my mobile phone...


Invasion of the Zombie Monsters | Relevo Videogames

[mr_lou]

Thank you. :-)
Stored in my storage folder so I won't forget to check it out next time I have the time.

Which reminds me, I need to put the latest BB4CPC in that folder too....

[Gryzor]

Ok, let's get playing


(booh! On the page the CPC link goes to Wikipedia!)

[AugustoRuiz]

There are two links: One with the download, and one with a (?) sign, that takes you to the Wikipedia...

[Gryzor]

Yup, that's what I'm talking about

[AMSDOS]

Relevo has published a new version today with:

Improved performance
Support for 2 button joysticks
Smoother gameplay

It's worth the download!!

The only improvement I think this game needs is how those space ships come out at random heights, I died more times as a result and it's so irritating. I don't think Smoother Gameplay is gonna make the game any better and I just think it's so frustrating when you get some space ship which is hidden behind the layout that you cannot shoot and end up dying because a small piece collides with you.