Work in Progress

Cybernoid

18

Jeanmilost 2022-12-10 20:39 (Edited)

Hello the community,

Some time ago I started a project to port Cybernoid, a game orinally written by Raffaele Cecco and published by Hewson Consultants Ltd on 1987, on the LowRes NX console.

Cybernoid was one of my favorite childhood game, which I played on my Commodore 64, it’s the reason why I based my port on this version. I would be very happy if I can play this game again on my LowRes NX console one day, it’s the reason why I started to port it. Also I was curious to know if a such game could be ported successfully on the LowRes NX console, and the answer seems be: Yes 🙂 Finally it’s my way to preserve the memory of the 80’ games, because many of them are forgotten today, and worst, their source code are lost forever, which is a shame.

Of course, in its current state, this project is far to be terminated, it’s the reason why I publish it as a pre-alpha, showing what Cybernoid could become on LowRes NX. On this first version I received the precious help of Nathanielbabiak and McPepic, which I sincerely thank for their work.

About the future, I’ll continue to work on this project, so probably one day it will become a real and complete game. But I have a family life, and sooooo many other projects which require my attention… For that reason, if someone is interested and motivated to continue, please tell me in the comments, or better, don’t hesitate to make it yours. Anybody with motivation is welcome, even to just add a small functionality. You may do that and publish your work in the comments, I’ll then validate it and put your version in the official releases.

The v0.1 version contains:

Hope you’ll enjoy, and once again, I want to thank Natanhielbabiak and McPepic for the kind attention they gave to this game project.

I would be very happy if one day it may become a real game 🙂


Awsa 2022-12-10 23:12

WOW IMPRESSIVE


Timo 2022-12-11 17:11

Excellent graphics and even more excellentest music!


SP4CEBAR 2022-12-11 17:37

I love the music!


G-9 2022-12-11 18:17

the text would probably be the biggest challenge here lol


GAMELEGEND 2022-12-12 17:34

Oh I can't wait until this comes out!
I'm usually very patient when waiting for a game to come out but not this time.


nathanielbabiak 2022-12-13 05:39 (Edited)

I've got a version from a few months back, mentioned it here.

Here's the thing I can't figure out, the thing preventing me from finishing it...

In the game, the enemies always seem to spawn along the edge of the screen where you need to travel. How do you pick the random spawn point without killing the ship? On youtube, it seems like there's twitch-perfect players recording themselves at this game, but it's really tough to get a balance of fun/challenging when it's so easy to be frustrated by the sequence of random-spawn then death...

I just can't find a spawn pattern that feels right... :-(

...Disregard that - I think I might just be bad at the game? I'll upload what I've got in a few days...


Jeanmilost 2022-12-14 22:20 (Edited)

Thanks to all for the positive returns 🙂

@G9 yes, but it is mostly resolved 😄

@GAMELEGEND glad you like the project. I'm going to work on this game as much as I can, but I cannot give a release date at the moment.

@nathanielbabiak indeed this kind of random spawn was one of the negative point I remember while I played to this game, however I suspect it was better acceptable on a C64 screen, as it is larger than the LowResNX one. On the other hand we may perhaps improve the concept a little and add e.g. a visual signal to show where the next enemy will spawn, giving thus a chance to the player to avoid it? I’ll also check the other versions (ZX, amiga, snes, …) to see if this issue was better handled on these systems.


nathanielbabiak 2022-12-22 15:22 (Edited)

The few weeks leading up to the holidays are usually a slow time at work, but this year has been kind'a crazy. I haven't had the mental enery I expected to polish off everything, but I'll post what I've got on the 28th. (Heck, I've had the sprite engine done for months, but polishing it has taken way more time than I thought!)

I've also got a few surprises in the mix too - more to come...


nathanielbabiak 2022-12-22 15:24 (Edited)

And, regarding enemy ship random spawn frustrations, that's been polished as of last week. The trick was to define a no-spawn area, centered around the player ship. I probably have it set too large at the moment, but the game isn't frustrating anymore.


nathanielbabiak 2022-12-28 06:47 (Edited)

Done.

Jean, any chance you're interested in adjusting the lower-case special weapon text? When I cycle through them, it's tough to read the "e", "n", and "m". The capital letters are also a bit tough in "PAUSED", and a few others in the title text, if this isn't too much to ask.


Jeanmilost 2022-12-28 22:40

@nathanielbabiak ok I’ll take care of that asap. I’ll try to do that in the new version you published.


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