Great game with some of most fantastic and best presentation on the Amstrad .....
.... but did anyone actually ever complete level 2 (bridge shootout) and level 4 (train station/pram)???
I've tried it so many times now... I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong it just seems impossible, ruining what should have been a 'Master Game' as Amstrad Action once rated it as ...
I don't know the game, but I think many games from the good old 8-bit days are impossible to complete. That's just how many games were made back then.
And if you let a kid from the present try out one of these games, they'll lose interest within 3 seconds. :)
Yeah, I finished those levels, and the game. I liked the presentation too, quite cool, and I generally liked the game overall, but I wasnt so keen on the graphics and some of the levels, so I haven't ever revisited it. That bridge shoot out level, I recall that being appallingly sluggish. But you put up with that stuff when you've spent money on a game!
Oh yes, one of those mode1 games monochrome in Blue...
Like, er...
Blues Brothers, Hudson Hawk, Heroquest...
Prohibition was perhaps a but like this one too concerning the video mode (yet in Grey and red...) and theme (20's and 30's prohibition...FPS...sort of...)
It's a typical kind of game where the mode1 is actually excellent because it does the Black and White era feeling (retro to the core...).
SWITCHBLADE is a Mode1-Game too.
It looks really nice.
Best it looks on a CPC+
(http://cpc-power.com/images/ecran_jeu1/3578.png)(http://cpc-power.com/images/ecran_jeu3/3578.png)
Quote from: Axelay on 14:15, 24 May 10
Yeah, I finished those levels, and the game. I liked the presentation too, quite cool, and I generally liked the game overall, but I wasnt so keen on the graphics and some of the levels, so I haven't ever revisited it. That bridge shoot out level, I recall that being appallingly sluggish. But you put up with that stuff when you've spent money on a game!
Really? Ah damn you and your gaming skills! ;D
Can you offer some tips for level 2? It is very sluggish but I seem to be constantly taking hits and energy draining :(
Would love to see a longplay video of it on YouTube *hint*
I was going to make one myself, I don't think I'm a bad gameplayer and with enough practice on tougher games/levels....but I got too frustrated with those two levels and gave up!
Concerning difficulty: it has been said before, but games were really too short back then, by necessity. So you had to crank up the difficulty level in order to offer more playtime for the money it cost it buy the game... Like Chiller, mentioned in another thread: it was so damn hard and its game design was horrific , but I played it for an unbelievable (for its quality) number of hours...
Quote from: Xyphoe on 23:21, 24 May 10
Really? Ah damn you and your gaming skills! ;D
Can you offer some tips for level 2? It is very sluggish but I seem to be constantly taking hits and energy draining :(
Would love to see a longplay video of it on YouTube *hint*
I was going to make one myself, I don't think I'm a bad gameplayer and with enough practice on tougher games/levels....but I got too frustrated with those two levels and gave up!
Unfortunately, I havent played it in around 20 years now, and I cant really remember anything as specific as the best approach to the level! But... I just gave it a go then, I almost finished that second stage a few times, but not quite :-\ Anyway, for what it's worth, I did notice that if you cant get out of the way or shoot the guys before they've thrown those 'bombs', you can line up with the predictable trajectory and shoot it in flight to save yourself from taking the hit, but it's easier said than done of course.
Just dug out my copy of the game, and checking the instructions to the game, I see you can change the character before they die by shooting the flashing corner of the portrait that appears at the left and right ends of the map, and they'll apparently heal a bit when not in use. I also discovered some screwed up half unreadable hand drawn map of that very level that appears to contain (or used to) the sequence the barrels appear in, so I guess I found it to be a tricky level back then too!
Quote from: Gryzor on 08:21, 25 May 10Like Chiller, mentioned in another thread: it was so damn hard and its game design was horrific , but I played it for an unbelievable (for its quality) number of hours...
Because we weren't spoiled back then, as kids are today. Those extremely difficult games were all we had, so we played them. :)
Quote from: Axelay on 16:34, 25 May 10
Unfortunately, I havent played it in around 20 years now, and I cant really remember anything as specific as the best approach to the level! But... I just gave it a go then, I almost finished that second stage a few times, but not quite :-\ Anyway, for what it's worth, I did notice that if you cant get out of the way or shoot the guys before they've thrown those 'bombs', you can line up with the predictable trajectory and shoot it in flight to save yourself from taking the hit, but it's easier said than done of course.
Just dug out my copy of the game, and checking the instructions to the game, I see you can change the character before they die by shooting the flashing corner of the portrait that appears at the left and right ends of the map, and they'll apparently heal a bit when not in use. I also discovered some screwed up half unreadable hand drawn map of that very level that appears to contain (or used to) the sequence the barrels appear in, so I guess I found it to be a tricky level back then too!
Targetting is a pain in the ass - yea I reaslised you can shoot the molotovs in mid-air which helps, but if an enemy runs in front of you whilst shooting they get hit first, then there's a slight enough delay (bug) for that damn molotov to fall down and land right on top of you! grr!
ANYWAY
Guess what? With a few snapshots and reloads...I completed level 2! I got all excited ... then it flashed up with the GAME OVER screen!
??? huh? wtf?
I found and read the instructions -
"Certain members of the Untouchables must remain alive for specific sections. The Movie may give you a clue."
I guess cause 3 of my guys died then!!! Didn't all 4 of them survive this part of the movie? So it probably means none of them can die or something .... BAH I give up!!!
Yes, all four survived the bridge sequence in the movie, but Stone needs to survive so he can deal with Capone's thug in Level 5 while Ness needs to save the baby in Level 4 and deal with Frank Nitty in Level 6
(in the film, Wallace is murdered after the bridge scene and Malone is killed just before the train station sequence)
Well guys I finally did it!!! :P
Sheesh, that took some work!
I took Axelay's advice for level 2 and made a map of the barrel locations and sequence - http://gx4000.co.uk/misc/Untouchables_barrels.png (http://gx4000.co.uk/misc/Untouchables_barrels.png) (sorry for using the Speccy version!)
And straight away it was much easier - I actually did it on my first go then with the map and working out 'I need to use Ness for the first 11-13 barrels, then Stone until barrel 20, etc"
Level 4 just took a bit of perseverence and practice once you work out the best thing to do is push the baby to the far left and leave it in the centre of the screen, act as a human shied for bullets and hope and pray you (1) make it to the next staircase to pick up energy and (2) the computer places an energy pickup on the far left so the baby picks it up because once you've nudged it over that way there's no way of nudging it back over to the right.
QuoteBest it looks on a CPC+
Switchblade GX4000 really use the PLUS the way it is designed to in Mode1.
"Rasters" (easier on PLUS) and the Hardsprites are actually coloured tiles instead of animated sprites.
Just it could have been using the palette betterly with those sprites perhaps.
Back to untouchable :
the blue palette could have benefit from a little more contrast perhaps, but anyway the graphics are really good looking and the varied scrollings and sprites seem quite well animated.
"can't touch this !tum tududum, ding ding...Hammertime !"=MC Hammer
I gave up on The Untouchables early cause I was playing it on an Emulator using the Emulated Joystick via the Keyboard. In general I found I could complete many games on my CPC using the proper Joystick as opposed to Emulated Joystick via the keyboard - Rainbow Islands is another one of those which is easier to complete using a Decent Joystick cause you need quick responce times which a Joystick will always be better at accomplishing over some keys. Though I dare say you were still using a Joystick and gave up on the Untouchables?
Well sadly all I can say is I must of completed "Wizard Willy" a million times, and some people who decided to review it couldn't finish it! :o
Quote from: Devilmarkus on 18:56, 24 May 10
Best it looks on a CPC+
(http://cpc-power.com/images/ecran_jeu1/3578.png)(http://cpc-power.com/images/ecran_jeu3/3578.png)
Actually despite Switchblade being my most favourite 8 bit computer game of all time I'm really not that keen on the Plus versions graphics. While it's nice having the enemies pop out more and have different colors, the level graphics look much worse to me because they look like they've been coloured very randomly with seemingly no real thought or consistency at all and kinda screw up the atmosphere of the game.
I quite agree.
Those "HardTiles" (sprites used as tiles) simply seems too random with no real thoughts behind the colours.
Thats quite bad because with a proper inking this would really contribute to the game.
Even Atari ST version don't have this.
But the Raster sky is great.
Just too bad the moon wasn't done better (in Hardsprites per example).
But anyway a Mode0 game could have worked well too.C64 version uses wide pixels but due to the quite severe limitation per attributes combined with poor palette (Not that poor considering the C64 range of greys...) it just doesn't work well.
As CPC/PLUS can get 16 colours with no attributes, there is a possibility to get something as good looking as RickDangerous PLUS.
But then this would need a proper Graphician to work on this only with no possibility to port such grap^hics on other 8bit platforms...
Yeah, the very similar Stryker & the Crypts of Trogan used extra colors in Mode 1 far better than Switchblade did even on the gradient skies which are smoother and have far more interesting color ramps than the one used in Switchblade. I seem to remember it didn't come out on cartridge though so often was overlooked as having Plus enhanced features.
Just a silly question perhaps, but why is that game often referred to as "Stryker", when the game itself (Intro Screen) spells it Striker?
Bryce.
Not a silly question. I'm not how that started actually. I know I always preferred 'Stryker' because I thought 'Striker' was more to do with football (I think it was the name of a newspaper comic strip about football and also a SNES video game about football) but you're right the ingame text does state Striker so not sure where it started getting called Stryker elsewhere. The rom name refers to it as Stryker too.
Just noticed I also keep referring to it as 'Stryker & the Crypts of Trogan' when it's actually 'Striker IN the Crypts of Trogan'. Oh well.
edit: Just looked up some stuff and it says there was a game called Striker on CPC as well. Perhaps that relates to the name confusion too. I could be wrong but I very vaguely recall something mentioned about this possibly in Amstrad Action around that time. I can't get to my old issues at moment though to check.
Quote from: Bryce on 15:05, 17 August 11
Just a silly question perhaps, but why is that game often referred to as "Stryker", when the game itself (Intro Screen) spells it Striker?
Bryce.
The inlay (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=jaquette&num=2098). Wonder which one it was 'meant' to be.
I would assume it was meant to be Striker as the inlay was likely printed after the game was complete and they changed it for some reason. I prefer Stryker myself.
By the way has anyone got a copy they wouldn't mind selling? I've had it on ebay searches for a lil while (under the Stryker name which should be fine as it's what's on the inlay and what sellers would probably use when listing) but haven't seen it.
@Axeley: Thanks, that's solved the mystery (and created a new one :D )
Well you can download the Dsk file, if it's just to play. Or are you a collector of original tapes/disks?
When you say "rom name", did some convert it to rom? Because it was never released as a cartridge.
Bryce.
I meant rom as in in the general use of the term in emulation referring to the game file made. I know it usually refers to console cartridge games but it's often used broadly to mean many types of emulated game file. I know here it's usually used to refer to something else, so sorry for any confusion (I'm not a CPC techie)
I've played the game a lot of times over the years via emulation and I just want the actual casette to play on my Amstrad CPC. I'm not a collector of real game media on old systems (I hate clutter) but I do like to try my favourites on my real CPC especially if I hadn't owned them when I was a kid. I only ever got to play the demo on Amstrad Action's covertape. Never found the full game for purchase.
QuoteJust a silly question perhaps, but why is that game often referred to as "Stryker", when the game itself (Intro Screen) spells it Striker?
If I remember correctly this game used to have multiple pages in the Wiki because no one knows how the dawn hell to spell this blooody game !!!
(neither I to be honnest...) ;D
Well, this game was done by the same guy who did Amstrad's Switchblade and is obviously the same engine.
He just improved a little bit the use of the rasters so they are also used playfield wise on CPC(old) too, which is great too.
But sadly the PLUS version jsut use a few extra colours, and no hardwired sprite if i remember correctly, but i may be wrong.
By the way (and maybe this should go to the Megaglash thread, but anyway), how difficult would be for someone to make a program to convert programs to ROMs? Probably a silly question itself, and I would guess it's a case-by-case job, but still I was wondering...