Choplifter remake
Community Forums/Showcase/Choplifter remake
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| Hi all, EDIT: The game has been released. Here's a new video: The game can be downloaded from my blgo: http://devdef.blogspot.nl This is a video of the alpha version: |
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| Very nice! I like the parallax effect! I don't know if its intentional but when you die the shadow of the heli is still there where it crashed lands. |
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| This is brilliant - the sound is already superior to the old C64 version. The helicopter shadow looks a bit odd as it stays fixed vertically regardless of where the aircraft is. For some reason, the first time I blow up anything after takeoff from the start there is a huge slowdown - from then on everything is ultra-smooth. Great stuff! |
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| Thanks guys. Keep the comments coming, I am in the home stretch here =] I tried to make the shadow go up or down with the heli but it looked kinda... wrong. I'll try a different technique later today. Thanks for that insight. |
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| Nice gameplay after so many years! Good job! (I DON'T like the 'sounds' - but it's a touch of story!) |
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| This is AWESOME!!!!!! The only minor points are- -Agree the shadow is a bit weird in fixed position. A bit of alpha on it would also look nice and I don't think it would kill the retro feel. -Love the sound myself, apart from that one constant pinging effect which seems a bit intrusive. Like the effect, but don't think it's a good choice for something that occurs so frequently. |
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| Thanks again. degac: what is it you don't like? Maybe I can fix it. john: thanks! I already use alpha but I'll play with it. The saucer sound is a bit intrusive. I'll tone it down. Like I said, I am working on the sound mix, joining sounds from different sources and time. |
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| Nice remake! :) I know it's retro, but a couple more colours on the helicopter would be good...Kinda jars because of the colourful background in comparison. And could you turn the mouse pointer back on after you select to quit the game? My virus checker tripped as I exited from a full screen game back to windows and I couldn't tell it to ignore the false positive because I had no mouse pointer! |
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| Hi Steve. I've tried adding more colors to the heli, but it didn't look right. And good tip about the mouse pointer. I'll fix it! Thanks. |
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| I know what you mean about the colours, a tricky balance...Maybe just one colour then - a shade of green that gives enough contrast with the background. No probs :) |
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| Love it. Watched the video to the end. It reminded me so much about these days back then. About the shadow, how about the higher the chopter is, the bigger the shadow is. Plus less visible, less alpha. |
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| Yes, I already changed it so that it moves down when the chopper goes up. Not too much because that looks weird... A bit more alpha seems like a nice addition, I'll look into it. Thanks Mike. :) |
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| Nice! Maybe a few subtle greys on the chopper to add a little detail, a bit of depth and a bit of selfshadowing like the tanks - they look a wee bit out of place with the solid colouring. As has been mentioned, the shadows need a bit of work as reflection of the chooper sprite doesn't look natural. Maybe a slight x and y offset the higher you go with the same slight offset applied to the tank shadows etc.. for consistency. Looks like you've already done this for the flag on the base. |
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| Love it. |
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| Stevie: True... I'll see if I can arrange that. Damn. I made a whole game and everyone is all about the shadows =] What's up with you people? James: Thanks! |
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| Looks great, very Atari-400-ish! |
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| Cool love it. I think I played it on a monochrome apple 2 many years ago. I was never any good at it....but I was just a kid. |
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| Well done! Some quick thoughts: - I coudn't destroy jets with my gunfire? Wasn't that possible in the original? - An option to set a custom base flag would be nice. ;) |
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| @about sounds: ... I really don't miss the 'computer sounds' of '80 era :P - that's all! |
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| Ian: Thanks. It's from the same era, so it's a nice 8-bit game example. Matty: Time to really play it now then =] Grisu: you must shoot the plane when it is swooshing in. After dropping the bomb it flies away and is out of your reach. Custom flag: hehe. Nice idea... degac: I get ya =] |
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| Damn. I made a whole game and everyone is all about the shadows =] What's up with you people? Don't sweat it- it's a testament to the fact that the rest of it is so good. Always a grind to add that last bit of polish, but worth the effort IMO.Now it's been mentioned, I agree the single colour chopper looks out of place. Maybe green body, keep the skid and rotor white? Didn't the stars twinkle in the original? Was there a moon in the sky? May just be my imagination. |
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| Yes John, I was only kidding ofc... I may play a bit with the colors of the heli, but I've tried it before, and it didn't look the way I wanted. Yes, the stars twinkled... I might add that. There was no moon in the version I've played (c64), but some other versions did have it. All other comments have been judged and implemented in some way. Thanks so far! :) |
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| The original arcade machine had four levels if I remember Mountainous Desert in day light Sea with battle ships and submarines at sun set Caves with lava pools. You start out side in day light City sky scrapers at nigh. And you could squash the hostages if you landed on them. There's a YouTube video of the Sega arcade version. |
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| Yes, I am aware of that version, I have played it in the arcade when it was released and I have it here on MAME... I don't really like it though, so I went for the original home computer version. Adn you can land on these hostages as well of course! |
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| That pretty neat Wiebo. Good job. :) |
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| Very good, if not brilliant. |
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| Well, I don't know about brilliant, but thanks anyway!! :) |
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| Pretty damn good, great stuff. ;) |
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| Thanks Steve! I've been working on adding more color to the helicopter. I've got a scheme I'm kinda happy with. Now to add it to all frames in the animation, argh! =] |
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OK, here's a shot of the new heli. I kinda like it myself...  I also added subtle flickering of the stars, and tweaked the small stuff you've so kind brought under my attention. Thanks again! Almost there! |
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| This is a lot of fun. Helps with my 80's flashbacks. |
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| Thanks again! Almost there! Looking good, hurry up ;) |
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| I'm a slow worker, especially with real life happening etc.. But I'll get there. |
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| No probs, I understand. |
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| Well, it's released. You can get it from here: http://devdef.blogspot.nl/p/my-pc-games.html I hope you all enjoy it. And now on to the next one.. |
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| Congrats. The little tweaks finished it off nicely...Anything in mind for the next one? |
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| Yes, something like an Ultimate Play the Game kinda thing... I loved those adventures... It'll be an original game, I think. |
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| Very nice - love the changes/improvements. Congratulations. |
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| Nice loved this game on me old c64 and many many other old machines :) Brings back fond memories of when computers were about fun and imagination :) |
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| Well done mate! Another great release! |
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| Thanks all :) |
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| And now on to the next one.. something like an Ultimate Play the Game kinda thing. Cool. Good luck with it...You've inspired me to do a remake of my own. :) |
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| Man it's rock hard to stop the little men getting blasted after the jet appears... |
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| @Steve : Cool. I'm looking forward to it. :) John: Yes it is. Someone posted a pic on reddit of a 64 men saved game though. I usually have one or two casualties. The trick is to not let the men wander off too far. Pick them up fast. |
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| Thanks, it's a bit of a project though because I need an engine to run it - the graphic style is very different to the original. My current engine is going to change a few priorities lol. Ultimate Play The Game and a Wiebo remix...Sounds awesome. I experiment with code and graphics techniques, but you come through with the goods with these remakes - you and Foppy. |
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| @Steve: Now you've made be curious :) Thanks, I love Foppy's stuff as well. Too bad he's concentrating on youja (how's it spelled?) now. I've been doodling on paper for a days now... I think I will use the code I made for a Boulderdash clone I've written in Monkey for the map and animation stuff. I'll go doodle in Graphics Gale now. Love that program. |
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| lol ;) I've been searching for a graphics style - for several games actually, then you re-ignited my interest for a remake of some sort. Map and animation stuff - and doodling...Seems you're well into the design for the next project. Graphics Gale. Never heard of it, but googled. Animation huh. I guess you'll have more tricky animations than Choplifter in this project. Sad about Foppy going to the dark side, as less people will see his work. Although it is more suited to his arcadey games. |
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| Totally awesome fabulous remake, but it is a bit easier than the original c64 version. That one used to beat my A$$. I don't think I'd ever seen the "end" of the game before playing your version. The readme file indicates your own game engine "Game2d" is open source. I looked around on your website for the code, but I didn't see it. I'm new to this community, so I might not be looking in the right place. I was wondering if the code was available publicly for this game or for Game2d. |
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| You can find more info on his game engine here : https://code.google.com/p/noisycode/wiki/game2d and the source is available via here : https://code.google.com/p/noisycode/source/browse/#hg%2Fwdw.mod |
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| Oh yes, thanks Brucey... =] I think I will be moving all my stuff to github though... I don't know how long Google Code will remain. There have not been any changes or additions to the site since, what? 2010 ? |
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| Wow, haven't tried the game yet (!) but the video looks great! It's like the original only better and more spectacular. I'm making a few games for Ouya with AS3 now, because I don't have to worry about screen resolutions, which was why I just used windowed mode in my most recent Blitz Max game. After my Ouya adventure I may have to look into "Game2d", I read it also features virtual resolution/aspect ratio code! |
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| Yes Foppy it does support all that. It uses code by James Boyd actually, it works really well and the framework simple lets you choose full of windowed mode. The resolution in full mode will be the desktop resolution, and the game is scaled accordingly. Lovely piece of code, I only adjusted a few things to make it work inside my framework. I can publish the source for an asteroids clone for reference. |
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| I can publish the source for an asteroids clone for reference. I wouldn't mind some of that, thanks. :-) I'm looking to test some different projects on 64-bit. |
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| OK. let me conjure up a zip file. I'll post a link here. |
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| @Brucey: ok, you can find a zip here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12644619/test/game2dasteroids.zip It contains mod folders and a project folder. Compiled mod is up to date for windows, linux will have to be recompiled. Let me know how it works out, ok? |
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| Thanks :-) |
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| A little status report Asteroids demo. Got it to run on 64-bit Linux ;-) There's a problem with fullscreen mode if you have multiple monitors. It grabs them both, and you end up with a mirrored display when you quit... this appears to be an issue with BlitzMax's GLGraphics. I then dropped in my new SDL backend (GLSDLMax2D) to replace (GLMax2D), and the fullscreen/window switching worked perfectly - going fullscreen on one monitor and leaving the other alone. (this is much how you'll find Linux Steam games are working - given that Valve pushes SDL as the recommended backend). The only thing game-related I had a problem with was sound. OpenAL wasn't playing anything here. Switching to the built-in freeaudioaudio module fixed that. This may be a 64-bit module issue. I haven't really tested OpenAL yet on anything. Other technical issues were with 64-bit FreeType and the compiler, which I've sorted out now. Otherwise it works a treat :-) (which bodes well in the grand scheme of things) Gem of a little engine! Are you using this to drive all your games? |
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| Hi Brucey, So the game is displayed on both monitors, and when you quit the game you end up with a desktop also on both monitors? I have no idea what is causing that. Also, I only have a laptop here running Linux Mint, so I cannot troubleshoot that.. Bugger. Sound is fun on Linux... :| I am running my Choplifter clone here on Linux Mint, and sound is working ok. I am getting an 'AL Lib FreeContext ' error though when I exit the game. Trying to fix that now. Thanks!! Yes, I intend to run my games in this little engine from now on. It's got all the front-end stuff I need and I'll add new things as they come up during development of new games. What it needs now though is a pass on the code to make common tasks easier to do... It's a little rough around the edges. =] |
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| Hm Brucey.. Which audio driver would you use as default? Freeaudio or Open AL?? Right now Open AL is my default audio driver for Linux games. |
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| I'd probably go with OpenAL - with the caveat that not everyone may have it installed. (again with the Steam example, I think it comes as part of that) - though it's not difficult to install. I haven't used it yet with the new compiler, so it may need some tweaks (especially for 64-bit) I am running my Choplifter clone here on Linux Mint, and sound is working ok. I'm sure it would run fine on my Linux too, using the main compiler. But a lot of the work to get stuff working on 64-bit was removing the assumption (from *many* of the modules) that pointers are the same size as an Int. Things don't work so well when you try to cast a 64-bit pointer to an int ;-) ************ Here's the 64-bit asteroids demo : asteroids_linux_x64_sdl.zip 3.2 meg I'm still building with (gdb) debug on, which is why it's a reasonably large binary. It's built against a recent Ubuntu distro, so it may not run if your Linux isn't up-to-date. |
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| OK, I'll leave it on for default then. I still have not found a way to get rid of the AL error when I close the game. We'll see how this continues. ohh. I don't run a 64 bit linux atm so I have to take your word for it! :) Good to see though that the thing is running. :) |
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| I'll try to do some more OpenAL testing this evening and see if I can't get it working properly. If it throws the same error for me, I'll try and fix it. |
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| Cool. I gave up =] My Linux knowledge is not sufficient I guess. |
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| Is the zip file still up - I get a 404 error when clicking on the link at the top of the thread? |
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| No, that was a test version!! The release version can be found on my blog. http://devdef.blogspot.nl I will edit the first post, thanks! |
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| Thanks Wiebo. Just played it. Easier than I remember as a child - but I was very small when I last played this on an Apple II. I picked up about 12? people and put them in the HQ, and had 4 dead people. However I couldn't work out how to get the game to continue after I found these people. I explored to the left and ran out of space...ie it wouldn't let me go any further left. I tried going right but it wouldn't go much more than a single screen past the HQ. Am I doing something wrong? I killed most of the tanks and there were a few shadows of aircraft but I never saw any. |
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| BTW Bruceys-SDL build has way less problems on my extended linux desktop (original one stretched its full screen to [black|lefthalf] | [righthalf | black]). Also as suggestion: check if the .ini-file is still valid. I do not use a FullHD-Screen, so I was not able to run Bruceys version without looking awful) Means: if the current desktop does not allow the ini-given-resolution, fall back to the default one. Also odd: you cannot switch to fullscreen while in-game (you have to go to "ESC"-Menu first). Of course soundoutput relies on your sound architecture. If you have PulseAudio, you need to use that in your binary too - else you only might get sound played when no other sound source/application is playing something already. Shame on me: I tried to quit with "9" - albeit I thought "wth, 9?" until I recognized that it is the same char then the "q" in "quit" right of it :p. bye Ron |
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| You have to blow the houses up to get the survivors to come out. Use a single shot or you'll toast them. |
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| @Matty: RTFM :) There is a readme file included in the zip. @Derron: I will add a check to see if the current full screen resolution is valid. If not, the game will go to windowed mode. Thanks for the tip! Switching is only done through the menu, nothing odd about that, or is it? [edit] ooh I get it. You thought that the options in the game menu are always available... No that is not true. The font in this game is BAD, but it was the only 8 pixel font I could find, haha. |
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| If I read "shortcut" I assume it works everywhere ... same for a "q"uit key... bye Ron |
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| Yes, I realised that now... Anyway, that is not the case. :) And as I recall, shortcut is not mentioned anywhere so I don't know where you 'read' it. |
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| Watching the video and reading the game instructions helps Matty lol :) |
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| Sorry, it wasn't printed in the game, maybe I got confused because of the brackets ... which implicate a key on the keyboard and hmm dunno what I could find as explanation. Think I wont be able to exculpate myself now. bye Ron |
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| Hm... OK, maybe I will change something about the layout of the menu's. Thanks! |
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| I was wondering what C64 game would make a good remake and I thought of two; Commando or Who Dares Wins which are quite similar in design. This was not a suggestion, just thinking out loud:-) -Henri |
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| I liked those games! Not remake material for me though. |
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| No problem :-) Sometimes memory is better then the actual deal. -Henri |
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| Oh true... Commando on the C64 wasn't very good to begin with... Lots of bugs etc... |
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| @Brucey: I also added the source code for my Scramble game to Github, so you can try to compile that one too if you want to :) https://github.com/wiebow |
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| I will release a new version soon. Made in Monkey 2, fixes the Linux issues I had before and adds gamepad support. OSX version will be released as well. |
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| Cool. Great gameplay. |
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| Nice one, with all the features from the original (crunching men, destroying buildings, jet attacks). I didn't see the tanks fireing rockets at my helicopter when I'm flying too low, is it implemented? I really love it! You really caught the spirit of the original. And if you're underemployed: make a remake of another classic from 1982: Astro Chase. |
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| This looks great shall ch-ch-ch-check it out when I get home (tried to make a helicopter sound, think I nailed it). |
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| Well, what you've been downloading and playing now is the OLD version :) I fixed some bugs and ported it to Monkey 2, will release new version in the weekend I think! @Krischan: the tanks fire, but only when you get lower than a certain point... Make them a bit more aggressive in the new version.... |
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| OK, the new version is now uploaded. http://devdef.blogspot.nl/p/my-pc-games.html This adds linux executable and gamepad support. I also fixed small bugs, and the game is a bit harder now, so watch out :) |
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| Good job! And yes, it is more difficult :) |
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| no mac version in zip file! |
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| Can you compile for me, Adam? I have no Apple device in this house, and probably never will :) |
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