[AMSTRAD CPC] Xyphoes Fantasy - Longplay & Review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bon0Jut2qnk&feature=youtube_gdata)
27 September 2011, 7:39 am | (http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bon0Jut2qnk/default.jpg) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bon0Jut2qnk&feature=youtube_gdata) | [AMSTRAD CPC] Xyphoes Fantasy - Longplay & Review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bon0Jut2qnk&feature=youtube_gdata)
My 199th video special! And well ... I thought I would finally do the game behind my name - Xyphoe's Fantasy on the Amstrad CPC! This is a French game (apparently there may be a UK and Spanish version but they haven't been found) so I'll have to translate a lot of this for you - but it's a truly spectacular game with stunning graphics and digitised music converted from the Amiga and Atari ST and 780k of data compacted! Plus 'overscan' pictures and in game action!! (Overscan is the use of the 'border' that is always present around CPC games, which you would see 'flashing' when loading from tape). Game description from back of the box - ==== For thousands of years the SKULL barbarians have reigned in terror over the kingdom of Norem. Their forces have captured your girlfriend in order to sacrifice her to their god. You set off in search of her on the back of your fleet-footed warhorse. In the couse of your quest you must face many monsters and cruel warriors. You must also be shrewd enough to find the trophies which once combined will lead to the destruction of the empire of the Skulls. Xyphoes Fantasy consists of more than 650KB of compacted data and is the first game which has animations and displays in overscan, digital music and sound effects from the AMIGA and the ATARI ST, and which makes full use of the 128KB on your CPC. ==== PLUS the full backstory I translated from the French instruction manual for you - gx4000.co.uk (c) Silmarils 1991 cpc-power.com Levels, Menu ... | From: Xyphoe (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Xyphoe) Views: 2 (http://gdata.youtube.com/static/images/icn_star_empty_11x11.gif) (http://gdata.youtube.com/static/images/icn_star_empty_11x11.gif) (http://gdata.youtube.com/static/images/icn_star_empty_11x11.gif) (http://gdata.youtube.com/static/images/icn_star_empty_11x11.gif) (http://gdata.youtube.com/static/images/icn_star_empty_11x11.gif) 0 ratings |
| Time: 40:07 | More in Gaming (http://www.youtube.com/videos?c=20) |
Source: Uploads by Xyphoe (http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Xyphoe)
An impressive realisation, sadly the balerine-like movement of Xyphoes is to much gayness for me... ;D
Anyway, the game features an impressive amount of big colourfull sprites, perhaps even too much for the game to be Smoother/Faster ?
Example : lvl3 : the Xyphoes sprites are bigger, sadly even less good looking animation (moves are strange...)
No wonder the game is so huge, he could have re-used the LVL1's sprite/size...
Sadly Fefesse was not a professionnal animator at Disney's... :D
Comparable to shadow of the beast on Amiga...
The kind of game to set the higher visual standards on a machine, sadly not gameplay-wise higher performance..
Silmarils game = most Awesomest graphics.
nuff said.
BTW this kind of game was quite typicall at the time on 16bits...
Ivanhoe on ST/Amiga...(cartoonish)
Wrath of the demon on Amiga(ST?) too I guess...(serious Shadow of the Best ripp-off)
they included the side scroll, Horse sequence and some Boss fight + graphic cutscenes with text or not.
Very refined/polished graphics and sounds.
The sad part is that this kind of game/realisation/production should have been a standard feature on CPC but nope, the cheap-trick speccyporters never used the 128K RAM nor a full Disk and no proper Graphic artist on CPC.
Rerspect to Fefesse, we shall remember you !
A great game and nice review Xyphoe.
Anyone know what happened to Fefesse...? Such a shame he died so young.
Quote from: redbox on 14:13, 27 September 11
Anyone know what happened to Fefesse...? Such a shame he died so young.
I always loved playing THE NOMAD SOUL! One of the greatest underrated games on PC ever! (Along with ANACHRONOX, of course!) The sequel was planned, but I've seen very little of it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omikron:_The_Nomad_Soul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omikron:_The_Nomad_Soul)
A great talent, sorely missed! (R.I.P.)
Yeah, at the time I was in Grenoble and I had a friend with a powerfull PC/3D card.
He bought the game Nomad Soul, we were quite impressed.
It was clearly an awesome production of its time, with a deep story and so on.
PS : hey Tastefulmrship, i didn't knew you were Italian...
He's not, that's the Irish flag :D
Bryce.
Quote from: MacDeath on 14:33, 27 September 11
PS : hey Tastefulmrship, i didn't knew you were Italian...
I like Italian people, the Italian countryside and Italian food but, alas, I'm just a humble Irishman... who likes computer games. And computer game music. And demos. And pretty 8-bit pictures. And girls and drink! And bricks!
QuoteHe's not, that's the Irish flag
>>implying it wasn't a joke...
Then whose stole whose flag ??? ;D
Nobody, The Italian Flag is Green-White-Red, the Irish one is Green-White-Gold (actually more orange than gold, but that's the official colour names). Although I admit, the Wiki Icon is a bit too red to distinguish Italy and Ireland. Doesn't France have exactly the same flag as Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Mayotte? Holland isn't that far off either :D
Bryce.
Thanks guys!
Glad you enjoyed ... a quick summary for me would be - absolutely fantastic production and presentation all round, but not great fun to play.
The comparison of this being the CPC's equivalent to Shadow Of The Beast on the Amgia is very good ... stunning graphics etc, but not a game to come back and play again and again. I thought this whilst playing, but neglected to make that observation in the review, oh well.
Oh and what happened to Fefesse? He died? Oh no, that's awful :(
What happened to Stephanie Saint-Martin too?
I never really understood the point in those three-coloured flags. Take the Swiss flag, for instance, or the Canadian one (ok, a bit silly), the Greek one etc etc, but three stripes of colour? Seriously? :D
Anyhow, we may not think the best of Xyphoe's Fantasy (what *was* the fantasy after all?), but do recall, back in the day it looked superb, and sometimes this was enough for us to enjoy a title...
Seriously nobody can question the music or graphics and it's obviously pushing the limits for a 128k machine, though the gameplay and collision detection bring this game down so badly. A simple jump to the platform above you doesn't even register and when you want to hop down to the platform below it won't let you! >:( And if you get too close to obstacles is does some stupid effect where you have to jump several times to get over it! :o This is one game for those people who think Titus The Fox plays badly or think Baby Jo or Wizard Willy has problems. Otherwise the animations work, maybe I'm just jealous that such a game can look so good that I decide to find fault, though sadly that's what I find! :(
Quote from: Gryzor on 08:30, 30 September 11
I never really understood the point in those three-coloured flags. Take the Swiss flag, for instance, or the Canadian one (ok, a bit silly), the Greek one etc etc, but three stripes of colour? Seriously? :D
Anyhow, we may not think the best of Xyphoe's Fantasy (what *was* the fantasy after all?), but do recall, back in the day it looked superb, and sometimes this was enough for us to enjoy a title...
The Blue and Red stand for the people of France that circle the White of Monarchy in order to control them.
Many countrys mottos or national values are based on three words (such as frances "Liberté, égalité, fraternité"), the three colours usually symbolise the three values.
@Gryzor: Aren't these three word mottos called "Hendriatis" (or something spelt vaguely similar :D ) which I think is actually Greek? Is it?
Bryce.
QuoteThe Blue and Red stand for the people of France that circle the White of Monarchy in order to control them.
Yeah, but also :
Blue : the sky (or sea)...freedom of open space.
White : all colours mixed equally. equality.
Red : blood... blood bonds... brotherhood...
Liberté, égalité, Fraternité...
I like this one.
8)
Quote from: MacDeath on 23:12, 04 October 11
Liberté, égalité, Fraternité...
I always thought that the current French flag was the product of the revolution and therefore stood for the above.
Didn't realise it was supposedly had links to the 'monarchy'.
We need better history teachers in English schools ;)
I think the "Monarchy / peasants" comment was meant to be sarcastic.
<Off Topic History Class>
The Monarchs of France used a white flag with yellow crests or with a single large family crest in the middle, white was considered the "French colour". The Revolutionary guards wore Red and Blue uniforms during the revolution and these two colours were added to the french white some time after the revolution, resulting in the flag they have today.
</Off Topic History Class>
Bryce.
<Register>
"redbox?"
"Sir"
</Register>
Quote from: MacDeath on 23:12, 04 October 11
White : all colours mixed equally. equality.
Hm, I usually get brown if I mix all colours together.
On the other hand:
White: the colour of the monarch's shirt
Red: the colour of the monarch's shirt after being dragged to the guillotine
Blue: the colour of the monarch's body before he's thrown into a common grave.
QuoteHm, I usually get brown if I mix all colours together.
You should try RGB instead of CMYK ;D
Huh, very interesting discussion. Wish people would explain other flags as well (yes, there's Wikipedia, but it's more interesting this way).
I didn't mean, of course, that there's no meaning in all the three-color flags; it's obvious colours have a meaning, it's not like people just liked these specific ones :D
@Bryce: oh gee, I hadn't heard this word in... well, I don't remember! I didn't know it applied to flags, but it makes sense. It comes from the words (thread fusion!) "ένα δια τριών", or "one through three". Meaning, one meaning comes through three words. Kinda difficult to explain, I had no idea the word existed in english*
*a word I had heard in a movie and I've been desperate to use but haven't found a use for it, so here it goes: thrasonical! :D
Flags?? Oh yes an AA89 Type-in featuring BASIC 1.1 :laugh: It also made it onto one of the Covertapes (AA90?) for those who didn't want to type in it's sheer size! :laugh: They forgot to do the Australia flag! ???
Quote from: CP/M User on 08:27, 16 October 11
They forgot to do the Australia flag! ???
10 USE BRITISH_FLAG
20 MAKE SMALLER
30 ADD SOME_STARS
40 PUT THE_BARBIE_ON
Quote from: Gryzor on 11:41, 09 October 11
Huh, very interesting discussion. Wish people would explain other flags as well (yes, there's Wikipedia, but it's more interesting this way).
I was considering responding to an earlier post about the Irish tricolour, but I decided not to as I do not want to start a flame war on this forum.
Quote from: Gryzor on 11:41, 09 October 11
Huh, very interesting discussion. Wish people would explain other flags as well (yes, there's Wikipedia, but it's more interesting this way).
Well, there's a legend about the Austrian flag (from top to bottom: red-white-red) and duke Leopold V. of the house of Babenberg (originally from Bavaria and the rulers of Austria before the Habsburgs).
At the siege of Akkon during the third crusade (ca. 1191) duke Leopold V. conquered a tower of Akkon and placed his flag there. King Richard Lionheart was angry at that and wanted the glory all for himself, so he tore it down into mud. After the battle Leopold's garment - originally white - was drenched in blood. He took off the broad leather scarf belt he wore in the middle that he used to belt up his sword, and it revealed the original white colour beneath it. His knights decided that this be the new flag.
Incidentally the tearing down of the flag was the reason King Richard was taken prisoner by duke Leopold in Vienna (not far from my flat) and taken to castle Dürnstein (now a ruin, but can still be visited).
Quote from: Gryzor on 11:41, 09 October 11
@Bryce: oh gee, I hadn't heard this word in... well, I don't remember! I didn't know it applied to flags, but it makes sense. It comes from the words (thread fusion!) "ένα δια τριών", or "one through three". Meaning, one meaning comes through three words. Kinda difficult to explain, I had no idea the word existed in english*
*a word I had heard in a movie and I've been desperate to use but haven't found a use for it, so here it goes: thrasonical! :D
Hendriatis doesn't really refer to the flag, it's the name given to three word mottos, such as the French motto "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
".
You want to use Thrasonical in a sentence? :D Well it kind of describes old with delusions of grandeur yet insignificant. How about: "I know the Spectrum QL is pretty Thrasonical, but I'd still like to own one"
@Nich: How could you start a flame war about the Irish flag? It's not like there is/was any controvercy about it? Or did I miss something?
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 09:41, 20 October 11
@Nich: How could you start a flame war about the Irish flag? It's not like there is/was any controvercy about it? Or did I miss something?
You probably aren't aware that I come from Northern Ireland. ;)
The colours of the Irish tricolour are green, white and orange. A lot of people in Ireland, for various reasons, like to think it's green, white and gold, but officially it's orange.
Oh, ok, you won't be able to start a flame war with me about that one. Most Irish (including me) will say it's green, white and gold (it sounds nicer to say), but I know it's officially orange to signify the followers of William of Orange. Anyone who really thinks it's gold needs to refer to some Irish history books instead of listening to their "Angry Uncle Tigh" for historical facts :D
Bryce.
Quote from: redbox on 10:07, 17 October 11
10 USE BRITISH_FLAG
20 MAKE SMALLER
30 ADD SOME_STARS
40 PUT THE_BARBIE_ON
Heh Heh Heh, yeah the Aussie flag has been a topic of debate for quite some time, maybe not a good subject to raise while the Queen is here! :) Though we do seem to have a couple of alternative flags! :laugh: Sports fans like the Boxing Kangaroo, Protesters like the Eureka Stockade and even the Pre-European settlement people have their own flag, just to name a couple! :)
Americans : ambitious europeans that no longer want to be european, but still are Europeans on steroids (and other cultures alongside) yet still somewhat originally British culture on steroids...
Aussies : British scums that wish they were still british yet traped in a land where every thing is abnormally venomous and dangerous... but never asked for independence because their country sucks even more than britain... (which is quite hard to achieve indeed)
Canadians : see canadian bacon, a sweet movie from mike moore... oh, and add some french in the addition...
Britons Rozbeefs : they wished they were'nt that french but hey... Dieux et mon droit... also, you are just a bunch of frustrated francophiles who never would have been anywhere if it wasn't to try to be as french as frenchies...but fail misérablement... c'est la vie my friends...
Others from UK : yes my friends, I hate britons as much As you as i'm french... cheers ! BTW they hate me even more than you...
Ulster : me... like... guinness... a... lot... hips...
Scotch : is it wiskey or Wisky ? (Bourbon ?)
Welsh : hahahaha... nobody likes you ! you are the scum of the Albyon world, you aren't even original, you are just Gaulish people who forgot they were french... Gaule, Guales, Gweles, gwelches, welches... see it ?
Also : Gordon Ramsey and Bear Grylls... enough said.
(something about swearing in french and drinking own piss...)
Seriously... the aAmstrad CPC is the only thing britania produced that was OK (ok Thomson would be better but they have no sound...) after all (yet Specy and speccy ports are so infamous that it doesn't count...)...
:) :D ;D
/Frenchtroll off
(ok, I love Games Workshop too, and Heavy metal, and... well...)
(what is considered animal mistreatment ? Beef wellington...)
Quote from: MacDeath on 03:23, 22 October 11
Aussies : British scums that wish they were still british yet traped in a land where every thing is abnormally venomous and dangerous... but never asked for independence because their country sucks even more than britain... (which is quite hard to achieve indeed)
It's true, people here are more worried about Snakes, Sharks, Crocs or Spiders. Maybe up Northern Australia you can worry about Crocs, Snakes and Sharks (even some Croc Hunter died from a Sting ray). Snakes around here generally run away, unless their trapped, cornered or people want to play with them while they appear dominant a couple from Country Victoria you have to worry about if you see them, though they require hot weather to come out and in Northern Australia there's one which is quite deadly. Around here the biggest threat at work for myself and others is Bull Ants, Jumping Jacks and European Wasps and people are more worried about a Snake which may not even exist because of Cats & Dogs. True Snake Bite requires treatment, though I've seen more Bull Ant, Jumping Jack nests and received more stings from them than a since snake (in fact I've seen none while I've been working at this place, and I've been there since the start of last year!) True Bull Ant or Jumping Jack stings may not requirement treatment, symptoms vary though and likelihood of having an anaphylactic shock is increased, which can be potentially fatal if you don't get treatment in time! Though Anaphylactic Shock is also associated with a number of things (Peanuts is another classic example), having an Epipen® can help, though in extreme cases hasn't proven to correct this reaction!
Australian landscape is messed up from what it once was, European meddling around, tip sites were placed on swamp sites. I know of a couple which are messing up the natural systems such as creeks in the area due to the leaching of chemicals and metals into the ground the water system. Wetlands drained for agriculture! :( The wrong kind of agriculture practices being used in the wrong area and wonder why it didn't work, people fearing bushfires and wondering why there's drought which creates large scale bushfire just to bring the rains back, people living in area prone to flooding due to man made levy banks being made to drain those areas, but not withstanding the natural forces when the rain wants to flush out the creeks and rivers and generate natural flood plains where people decide to live!!
Yep I reckon the people who run this country and pretty much aren't following the way it used to be managed and wonder why when their temporary systems cannot combat the forces of the environment! And people here sort of live obvious of the fact that fire has been a management process for thousands of years - Europeans have only occupied some 220 years of that which is a twinkle in the Well. In that time have totally rearranged the landscape - well done lads! >:(
Congratulations MacDeath, I think you've managed to insult 80% of the Wiki Members in a single post :D That's some achievement.
By the way, Guinness is from Leinster (Republic of Ireland) not Ulster.
Australia was the place where the brits used to send their Irish prisoners, until they realised that the weather was actually quite nice there, so it wasn't really punishment.
I'd also give you the foreigners view of the french, but I don't insult people online with lame stereotypes :D
Bryce.
Yeah, the amount of dangerous critters there is simply ridiculously impressive...
even a mundane barnacle or a little purple and yellow octopussy can produce enough poison to kill thousands men.... that's so incredible. ???
QuoteCongratulations MacDeath, I think you've managed to insult 80% of the Wiki Members in a single post
Well, I said nothing about Teutons, Spania...Spanish and Hellenikos agliagas...
History speacks for itself.
And don't worry, we french can insult ourselves betterly than you foreigner scums. ;D
We have this comical daily program : "les guignoles de l'info" (canal+ : some "muppet" news tv show) who are a lot into the "french white flag joke" theses days.
WTF : French bashing themselves like american would do... :o
The Monthy Pythons were good for that to (remember the Guy de Loinbar's french castle ? and something with a cow and a wooden giant rabit ?).
Ok, no more badtaste (peter Jackson) jokes...
But I think I forgot New Zealands...
let's wait for them Allblacks kiwis (an endangered speccy...specie) to get raped by the blues tomorow...
(ok not credible at all but let's dream a little bit)
BTW, how could this thread derail that way ? Sorry guys for this... :P
The only good thing is that the Amstrad CPC's "shadow of the beast" equivalent was "Made In France"... and guess what : it wasn't a speccy port at all nor the real official SotB... 8)
QuoteCongratulations MacDeath, I think you've managed to insult 80% of the Wiki Members in a single post That's some achievement.
Don't get me wrong there would be a lot of Aussies who probably wouldn't like what MacDeath stated about Aussies, people like me belong to small minority groups, I'm not necessarily correct and some of my feedback is assumptions, though there are facts I've read about from books about this place and part of my statements earlier appears to be common sense with humans intervening. I've recently had some ideas where I can get some of those facts from and draw conclusions from that information though! :)
QuoteAustralia was the place where the brits used to send their Irish prisoners, until they realised that the weather was actually quite nice there, so it wasn't really punishment.
Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) has it's somewhat famous Prison colony - Port Arthur (famous for the wrong reasons due to a masacure there in 1996 which claimed 35 people's lives), I was there in 1994 and the tour guite was spooky and talking about the ghosts and goblins, the place was quite isolated. Any escape? I'm unsure if anyone broke out, cause it was in a remote south corner in Tasmania, I think some prisioners managed to escape once to a nearby island, though were recaptured!
Quoteeven a mundane barnacle or a little purple and yellow octopussy can produce enough poison to kill thousands men.... that's so incredible. ???
That little Blue Ringed Octopus from what I understand has to really be taumented in order for you to get pecked, the poison comes from it's beak which is quite small, though people who play around Rock pools and love to handle Blue Ringed Octopus are asking for trouble, your more likely to walk onto a Stone Fish which is hiding amongst the seed weed, which has a series of spiked fins which inject poison into your foot if you walk on it. Around here around the coastline more people die from undercurrent because they don't swim in designed beach areas (between the flags), even some of our Politicians were caught swimming outside the flagged areas in recent times, one of our Prime Ministers died as a result (back in the 60s), they never found them again!
QuoteBut I think I forgot New Zealands...
...and the Tasmanian's (Van Diemen's Land),
QuoteBTW, how could this thread derail that way ? Sorry guys for this... :P
I don't know (something to do with Flags :) ), I'm still trying to come to grips as to why English isn't an official language in England, United States or Australia. I'm worried I'll walk into a shop one day try and purchase something and the store owner won't sell it to me cause I only speak English! :(
Quote from: CP/M User on 22:29, 22 October 11
one of our Prime Ministers died as a result (back in the 60s), they never found them again!
Ahhh, the original modern conspiracy theory. A favourite of mine :)
Bryce.
What an interesting (and off-topic, if there ever was one!) discussion...
Btw, Merriam-Webster defines "thrasonical" as: "of, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of Thraso : bragging, boastful". Cue interesting tidbits about the origins of the word. My, we do learn a lot here :D
Quote from: Gryzor on 11:34, 23 October 11
What an interesting (and off-topic, if there ever was one!) discussion...
Well there's always the sun! :laugh: