Oh Chute! now available for the GX4000/Plus, physical and digital!

[Cwiiis]

It took us long enough, but it's finally available! Thanks to @Xyphoe for helping us launch with his awesome livestream - and on his birthday too! What a gent!

Oh Chute! is an arcade-style game where you jump out of a plane, open your parachute and try to land on the various landing zones, avoiding the helicopters who are out to get you. As you make successive landings you get bonus points, but the helicopters get angrier and fly faster, making it harder for you to have your fun... Aim for a high score alone or compete with a friend with the 2-player mode.

Physical and digital editions now available. Digital is pay-what-you-want, physical is £35 + delivery, PM or e-mail me if you're interested.

Digital: https://cwiiis.itch.io/oh-chute
Website: https://www.teamgiraffe.co.uk/oh-chute/

[loftcat]

Looks amazing! Well done

[iXien]

Well done for this first game on GX4000! I just tested it and it's really fun to play. Overscan display is perfect, and gameplay is very smooth, a pleasure. And that music... 

Hope it will encourage you to start other projects to feed our beloved console 

Available on real cartridge ! And I love these small boxes. I can't resist! 

[XeNoMoRPH]

[cwpab]

Can someone briefly explain how the cartridges are made? Xyphoe said the plastic was 3D printed, but what about the cirtuitry inside? He said "someone else" had made it... I'm curious, who makes or sells that stuff?

[dthrone]

Can someone briefly explain how the cartridges are made? Xyphoe said the plastic was 3D printed, but what about the cirtuitry inside? He said "someone else" had made it... I'm curious, who makes or sells that stuff?

Don't know what Cwiiis' specific solution was but see for example https://overange.weebly.com/amstrad-gx4000-cpc-464-6128-plus-reflashable-flash-cartridge.html from @overange and previous boards produced by @Chinnery discussed on here.

[Cwiiis]

Can someone briefly explain how the cartridges are made? Xyphoe said the plastic was 3D printed, but what about the cirtuitry inside? He said "someone else" had made it... I'm curious, who makes or sells that stuff?

For Oh Chute, I designed the cartridge case in FreeCAD and had it printed in resin by JLC3DP (after prototyping on my own FDM 3d printer using PLA). For the PCB, I used Chinnery's design and had them printed at JLCPCB and soldered them myself. The components I got from a mix of places (caps and resistors from UK companies, though likely via China; the EPROMs a mix from a UK company and China, and by the looks of them, reclaimed from old hardware). EPROMs were flashed with a TL866-II. The cartridge stickers I designed with a combination of the GIMP and Canva, and printed at Fastprint on oversized stickers - each is manually cut to size.

[abalore]

Very beautiful project, both the game and the physical edition. I went through the same process for the Alcon shell, FreeCAD -> in-house prototype -> JLCPCB, so I can appreciate all the effort put into it.

I'll contact to get my copy!

[cwpab]

Thanks both! Very interesting. I'm glad you can still get those things. Funny you need help from China to make the PS5, but also to make GX4000 cartridges.

By the way, it's not often we can see both the programmer and the artist of a CPC game play together in a band. And even less in a country band. And even less in a country band from the UK. I think their music is even better than their games, probably because they've been doing it for many years. Check out these videos:

Bluegrass in Croydon, UK – Meet The Vanguards


Seagull Explosion feat. Paul Armer play The Britannia - Highlights 17-02-24

[dthrone]

My physical copy turned up today.  The little box is great with a high quality finish and nice foam insert, impressed!  The game is great fun and I particularly like the in-game font and inclusion of two player   

[Cwiiis]

Just a note that we are going ahead with a 2nd run as the 1st run sold out quite quickly and we have enough confirmed interest with the 2nd batch that we shouldn't lose out. So if you're interested, there's still a chance, get in contact (there are about 8 copies that haven't been reserved, I think - though people may drop out)

Also a quick note, if you like this and you want to share it with people, please share links to the website as listed in the top post, rather than sending people files. If you don't link back to me, you're removing people's choice to support us and that's obviously a shame for us. We've already had one pirate making physical copies for people who didn't contribute back in any way and I've seen that someone put it up on cpc-power without any details about where it came from. It's a small community, I'm providing the game for whatever price people want to pay. I'm ok with that being nothing, but please don't remove people's choice!

[cwpab]

I have a question and a suggestion to Cwiis.

The question: How did you discover the original game, Rip Cord? MAME or a physical coin-op?

The suggestion: Since both the coder and the artist are musicians, why not making a musical game next? Like "Banjomania" or simply another Beatmania style game for the CPC where you can play some notes for epic CPC songs, like Saboteur 2, just like Beatmania did this.

[Cwiiis]

I have a question and a suggestion to Cwiis.

The question: How did you discover the original game, Rip Cord? MAME or a physical coin-op?

The suggestion: Since both the coder and the artist are musicians, why not making a musical game next? Like "Banjomania" or simply another Beatmania style game for the CPC where you can play some notes for epic CPC songs, like Saboteur 2, just like Beatmania did this.

First played Rip Cord at a retro games night - it was on an arcade machine, but pretty sure it was a MAME-machine rather than the original or a replica (can't quite remember, it was a long time ago)

I used to be huge into rhythm games*, DDR, Beatmania, Guitar Mania, EZ2Dancer, PIU, Frequency, Amplitude... You name it - but I already have ideas for the next games and I think a single AY-powered music game would be ultimately disappointing. The GBC version of Beatmania is a fun novelty, but it really doesn't compare to the real thing, and at least the GBC has 4 channels (and a whole bunch more cycles per frame too...)

*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1-nmzitCTc

[cwpab]

Thanks for the answers! Yeah, one of my doubts was whether making a Beatmania style game for the Amstrad CPC or ZX Spectrum was possible or even if it was possible, whether it was worth it. I'm not sure these machines sound capabilities would allow for players to "play" one of the electronic sounds while the rest of the music consistently plays on the background.

The C64, on the other hand, has several music and dance games. Perhaps a dancing game would be easier for the CPC and Spectrum, as the music is always the same.

[DataPro]

2.15.0.0
I need to copy the DSK on real disk because my USB floppy emulator is only for my CPC6128.