Xyphoe's Vids - [AMSTRAD CPC] UN Squadron - Longplay & Review (aka Area 88)

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[AMSTRAD CPC] UN Squadron - Longplay & Review (aka Area 88)
17 June 2011, 9:26 am

UN Squadron - review and longplay on the Amstrad CPC! One of the best 2D side srolling shoot-em-ups ever gets converted to the Amstrad! But *gulp* it's from US Gold and Tiertex! Which usually means it will be bloody awful .... however will it surprise us? cpc-power.com en.wikipedia.org	From: Xyphoe Views: 0 0 ratings
Time: 54:42	More in Gaming

Source: Uploads by Xyphoe

[Gryzor]

Wow, I had no idea it was so massive and impressive. And... Tiertex, too!

[redbox]

Yeah very big and a nice longplay, enjoyed it.

Shame about the scrolling (as always!).

[Gryzor]

I think the thing with all that's going on on the screen is you don't notice the scrolling, really...

[MacDeath]

And... Tiertex, too!

I think it wasn't their fault if they did this one well.
The coder actually did what he wanted for once.

Or actually aimed at a proper crossdev... not just doing speccy version then another guy have to run this on CPC in 3 weeks... but actually design this with both machines in mind.

And obviously at this era, tiertex got themselves a decent Mode0 Graphician...
Look : this game, and Strider2 thereafter...

Couldn't they hire those guys during the Black Tiger development ?
(Or just the Graphician for R-Type... Coder was ok, just too few time, lol)

http://www.cpc-power.com/images/jaquettes/2289_1.jpg

From the creators of Black Tiger and Ghouls and Ghost

... lol... nothing to be proud of !
and actually  a bad advertisment...

I mean, looking at the box, I see the TierTex name nowhere... So I think "hey this must be a damn good game according to the picture... but then "creators of Black Tiger and Ghouls and Ghost"... WTF ? oh no ! not again, you won't get my money this time, you scroodgy crappy crooks !

If they hadn't put the "by the same crooks that shat BlackTiger's sorry ass into your CPC directly from the shit-tier(tex) of the Speccy back catalogue"... perhaps I would have bought it and appreciate it.

Anyway, Black Tiger wasn't even good on Speccy.


hahaha...

anyway, to be fair Tiertax actually managed to releas a very few list (very very few) of decent productions...

Possibly because Capcom told them not to screwup their licenses that much again, be it even on CPC.

Damn, BlackTiger was perhaps one of the best Arcade Game of its year, turned into the worst... worst... worst...

Ok, no more dirty words.

(I apologize for the others)

So.

U.N Squadron (area 88... based on a Manga unknown in europe at this time (and still unknown but a few anime fans perhaps), hence the rename...)
Fairly awesome graphics... Mode0 at its best.

"Multiscroll" actually.
and fairly big sprites, numerous and even animated too.
A decent management of the bullets and missiles: your "bullets" are actually faster than you and are cute "real" designed sprites, not just white Mode0 pixel (Copter 172,27 anyone ?)...

And... Music and sounds too.
Also cinematics and stuffs like that, quite rare on CPC.

No wonder the game actually slows down that much.

Does it uses the extra RAM in 6128 config ?

   

Actually the kind of game that would definately perform well if correctly "PLUS cartridge" upgraded...

The HardScrol could really help to gain smoothness ansd some CPU ressource.

The Hardsprites would also enable to lighten some sprite animation (move) CPU weight... (perhaps not that much considering the Multiscroll with foreground elements... well  let's just say you then use the hardsprites to generate those foreground elements then... on some levels...)... or just the HUD's faces in square pixels too...lol...

The ROM format would enable to have it in complete 160x200 screensize perhaps more easily (RAM then less used to store Datas... full VideoRAM enabled... are the Datas compressed in RAM on this game ?)

And DMA sounds to gain again some bits of CPU too...perhaps...


Because as it is, the engine looks fairly well done, with real ennemy waves patterns and so on.
It is perhaps still just slightly a little bit too much for a CPC464 (old) config to have it faster.

Damn Sir Alan M. Suckar... CPCs should have been created and designed as CPC480 and CPC6160... not CPC464 and CPC128...



http://youtu.be/8k0SyHH3VHU

After seeing the ZX Speccy version, I fail to understand how they did it right for once...

Well, Speccy version is monocolour + Masked sprites...
This means that the CPC version can actually weight the same concerning sprites.
Perhaps they skipped a few animations or sprite variety to get this right...
The Jet thruster from the Speccy version's player's sprite is displaying some flames, not on CPC...

anyway as always, masked sprites on speccy done in Mode0 on CPC is good.

Needless to say, speccy is still a lot faster...

I don't know and can't tell from the Speccy video, but if some tiles are also masked (multiscroll with foreground elements... perhaps ?) this also explains why some tiles are not that much heavier on CPC.

Also the CPC disk version seems to multiload a lot... which is also good.
Was it released on tape ? oh yes actually (available at CPCpowers)...


mmmh. then cleverly coded I guess.

Must be just too fine on an overclocked 6mhz CPC...


But to be fair, the CPC and Speccy seems to include every features... CPC being only slowlier but looking better as expected.



Impressive.
If every Speccy ports from "Monocolour+masked sprites" games were like that, I would not complain about them.




Anyway, this is a proof that converting 1bpp graphics into Mode1 in real time is a bad way of life.
And that speccy ports with awesome Mode0 Graphics can actually make you forget about the slowlyness too (well, somewhat).

I think the thing with all that's going on on the screen is you don't notice the scrolling, really...

The slowdowns are just there for you to admirate the awesome graphics betterly...

Anyway, CPC's Mode0 is just great with Manga designs and big sprites...

Hey, it's summertime, music in the street everywhere in France tonight (and Work tomorow, erf...)

[Gryzor]

The Speccy version looks quite nice, actually, just like a B&W TV set!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k0SyHH3VHU&feature=player_detailpage#t=177s