Invaders From Space - demo

Community Forums/Showcase/Invaders From Space - demo

dmaz(Posted 2007) [#1]
Actually a beta demo...
This little project started because a friend of mine wanted to write a game. he's an Oracle and Java programmer but this would be his real first attempt at a game with java. I asked him if he wanted to do a Java exercise or write a game. He said game... I said, get BlitzMax. He went "baaah", and started trying to do something in Java which he is very good at. So he started with this tutorial for an Opengl Java lib and played with it for a week and showed me the results. ok, good start but I told him if you want to make a game get BlitzMax! To prove my point I wrote the basics of this demo which included the aliens moving,firing and death. the player shooting and death. the particle engine too. that was done with Max from scratch (no extra libs, I didn't use any of my premade stuff(although I did have experience he didn't) in about 4 hours (including the first set of gfx) He was impressed and Mark got another sale!

Now it's about a 2 months later :P and I added a lot to it... the final 20% always takes the longest! I'm looking for any comments but mostly play performance. It does run a little slow right now on my test box(old duron laptop with S3 gfx)... I am in the process tuning the gfx and expect to make good progress with that. the only extra libs I now use on this are FMOD and a tweening lib I wrote for my other stuff.

so here it is... only 2 levels for this demo
cursor keys - move base.
space - fire
F5-F8 - modifies updates per second. F7=default.

Download

BTW: I am aware of the problem with the bonus screens...that screen is not finalized yet.

Most of the gfx are hand copies of the original Space Invaders. Most of the sound effects were taped (found on the net) from the original.



"Invaders From Space"


GregBUG(Posted 2007) [#2]
on my Vista box (intel core 2 duo + 2Gb ram + Intel 950GM)
don't works then GFX part ... (it open a windows and but only square gfx appear ... :( )

... nice music !!!...


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#3]
@GregBUG
it is only OpenGL at the moment. does your box run have good opengl drivers?


GregBUG(Posted 2007) [#4]
installed the last from intel...

on my notebook with ati x700 works perfect!!! (wow nice job dmaz!!!)


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#5]
Greg, here is a debug DirectX version. Please try it on your Intel 950GM. it does run slower though.

Download DX version


MGE(Posted 2007) [#6]
woo hoo! AWESOME! Love the old skool stuff. OGL version run sweet on my intel integrated piece of goob.


Billamu(Posted 2007) [#7]
Brilliant work!


Who was John Galt?(Posted 2007) [#8]
A nice update on the original... and well done on flogging a copy of Max. I'm always trying to convert friends.


Siopses(Posted 2007) [#9]
I like the new additions to the old game.


andy_mc(Posted 2007) [#10]
This game is really good. I love how some of the ships actually fall down towards when you shoot them. And the boss is a nice addition too.


Rob Farley(Posted 2007) [#11]
I killed the boss only shooting 7 times! And somehow got 8 hits on it which gave me an accuracy of 114%! Result!

Very cool though, although I have to say, I would prefer to play this full screen.

And from a traditional invaders point of view, the invaders should only move one at a time, i.e. start at the top left and cycle through each invader moving it, this gives the original game the sort of invaders shimmer across the screen, likewise it creates the speed up automatically as you are cycling through less invaders each time one is killed and therefore they update faster.

I must say, this is a lot of fun, although you're going to have to add more bosses and stuff to keep it interesting.


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#12]
thanks everyone for the great comments!

I know of some problems but 8 hits with only 7 shots... ooops I'm going to have to find that one. I did think about duplicating the processor/graphic limitations, but I decided to stick with the now more standard bit. some of the later levels will have galaxian and galaga style waves and hopefully a good selection of bosses too.


JoeRetro(Posted 2007) [#13]
Excellent remake! The title screen with the awesome music really gets your attention. The effects really make you want to play round after round.

Suggestions:

- full screen option :)
- change invader positions per level
- add bonus levels (Be creative)
- add more special weapons for the user and aliens
- take a look at Titan Attacks for more ideas

I really like what you done thus far!! Great stuff!!


Rob Farley(Posted 2007) [#14]
Suggestions:

Right at the beginning there's a little guy walking along, I assume you're going to have a 'protect the citizens' level?

Also (sorry purists) a bit of inertia on you ship, would just make it feel a bit more modern.

Meteor storm level

Hard ass invaders that take multiple shots

Upgrades - Double shot, laser, rapid fire (more than one shot at a time), rebuild defences, fast ship, shield


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#15]
@Joe
fullscreen, well I wasn't planning on it but since you're at least the second to ask... bonus levels, yep. alien special weapons, yep
Titan attacks - dude, why did you have to show me that! ;)

@Rob
well, I was really only planning on having them (the little guys) as eye candy down below in the tunnels. they would be working on upgrades and new cannons. I was thinking that during the bonus phase they would come out and rebuild the bunkers but that just might take too long...

as for upgrades and levels;
yep, plenty of more badguys... some already in... different paths instead of just side to side.

rapid fire, cannon speedup are in just need to create the animations.... I don't think you will actually need to do anything special to get them.... the current plan is the little dudes will build them below on the right and push them up when finished. I still need to play test that though.


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#16]
oh yeah... Mac version runs great too. no demo for that yet just because I haven't had time to test the fmod on the mac yet.


OldNESJunkie(Posted 2007) [#17]
OK, just d/l & tried it.
One word........

AWESOME

Can't wait to play the final version.


Blitzblaster(Posted 2007) [#18]
nice new version from the 80`s version. I like this game. The music comes from my friend Achim. He has many cool and free music tracks on the webpage.

Good luck with this game!


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#19]
thanks again...

yeah I only put SoftworXs as the credit for music only because I couldn't find any names at all on the site.

http://www.softworxs.de/e_music.html

well, I must have glossed over it the first time.... I'll change SoftworXs to Achim Tober - softworXs.


Achim(Posted 2007) [#20]
@dmaz

Great game ... reminds me of the "good old days" some decates ago :-)

CYA !


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#21]
Thanks Achim... I just updated the exe with the proper credit. (the only change at this time).


Grey Alien(Posted 2007) [#22]
Hey this is neat. Nicely done. Good explosions. More fun that standard invaders and the boss battle is cool too (great explosion). The % accuracy gives a weird +- of 65000ish which is weird.


smilertoo(Posted 2007) [#23]
doesnt work for me, runs for a few seconds then crashes.
The slower dx version works, very nice.


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#24]
thanks Grey... ya there is still a lot of work I want/need to do yet.

smilertoo: when you say runs for a few seconds... do you see any gfx? can you tell me your graphics driver version?


GrayKnight2k(Posted 2007) [#25]
This is really awesome. I love your particle effects and title design.


smilertoo(Posted 2007) [#26]
The game fully runs, i can get past intro into game...then it crashes. Dx is fine.

93.71 drivers


dmaz(Posted 2007) [#27]
thanks for the comments GrayKnight...

smilertoo: if you have a second in the game before a crash, press F10 to turn the LIGHTBLEND off and see if that makes any difference?