Point & Click Competition
RR is kicking off another in our series of one-month mini competitions. This time around we’re looking for folks to work in the oft-ignored medium of point-and-click adventures. Graphical adventures have a long and rich history in gaming, from the early King’s Quest titles, to the theatrical output of companies like Cinemaware, right up to more recent efforts like Beneath A Steel Sky.
It used to be considered very polite to point (and click)
Now’s your chance to make your own contribution to the genre. Join in our competition here and knock us out of our collective chairs with a mini-adventure of your own design. The rules are minimal and the arena open, so have at it!
ReanimatoR
Fear the power of not one but two capital R’s - that can only be a sign of absolute cutting edge technology in this post. Everyone knows that all things good contain two capital letters… for example Gary Glitter, East Enders, HollyoakeS - you get the drift.
So, what is ReanimatoR and why does it concern you? Well, shock horror - its not a game. I know, I know, what the cocking hell is it doing on the front page then? The answer to this question is simple - because we really should have put it here ages ago but for some reason no-one ever got round to it and its only now I realise that I’ve never posted about it.
You can call me a duckbrain later.
I hate it when that happens :(
The incredibly talented RR forum member Mr Monster has been beavering away for an eternity on his own little dev package, originally beginning life as a framework for creating little Wario Ware style mini games and evolving into quite the beast as time went on. Its still a WIP, and has something to do with Java and XML thingies which are terms you’d best ask someone else about because I’ll just look at you dumbly and nod in your general direction.
And that ladies and gentlemen is probably what ReanimatoR is, how about having a gander at this forum thread here for more proper decent and darn sight more intelligent news on the package.
Bite The Bullets
Every now and then I sit down and think “y’know, if I ever see one more glowy styled game I’ll vomit” but to tell the truth, they’re little more than moments of madness. Because really, truly - I can’t get enough of a well done and well styled glowy game - be it with Cho-esque stylings or old school vectors. They make my pants bulge uncontrollably.
Maybe its some long lost nostalgia overhang from never owning, but still lusting after, a Vectrex or from being exposed to Tron as a growing boy - whatever the trigger for this bizarre obsession I should just resign myself to the fact that no matter how much I kid myself - they’re always going to give me the horn.
Is that an elephant in your pants or are you just pleased to see me?
Enter Ishi with his entry into the world of shiny glowing bullet ridden goodness Bite The Bullets. A non click accessible slice of bullet dodging mayhem. Using the mouse, guide your little glowing (phwoar) ship to shoot at the odd geometric shape that glows (phwoar) whilst avoiding the glowing bullets (*splut*) that are spat out in increasingly complex and retina burning patterns.
If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ve just messed…
Cave Story DS
Ok ok, it’s not exactly a remake and more like a port but this is still fantastic news I think. Beats the hell of of those commercial rip-off ports that don’t benefit the author, at least this one is made with love and coming out for everyone with a DS and flashcart to enjoy.
Enjoy! Very sorry it took so long to get this far, but actually between this demo and the last one I completely rewrote the entire graphics engine from scratch; the whole damn thing runs on the 3D hardware now. (Except the far backgrounds, anyway.) But it should look the same; this way just lets me use way more of Pixel’s original DirectX code without needing to adapt anything for the DS’s 2D core.
Anyway, major things we’re still missing: HP, guns, SFX, and scripts! I was tempted to add guns, but rather than open that can of worms I just released it as-is, they’ll be in the next one ;P Event scripts are a biggie, of course. Everything else is pretty minor and just needs to be implemented…
Very much a work in progress but there is a demo to be had of the current state of play. Go and grab it, if you have the equipment to give it a whirl.
Android 1 : The Reactor Run
Costa Panayi’s low rent Berzerk style game is currently getting the remake treatment courtesy of our IRC regular, Devlin. Not quite as heaped with praise as its big brother Android 2, Android 1 was always a little on the simple side. More a proof of concept and a taste of what was to come than a fully fledged game - however, it was still a reasonable piece of entertainment in its own right.
Heads you win…
Me? I’m a huge fan of people bringing the lesser known or slightly flawed stuff back to life, so its a project I heartily approve of. Indeed, I attempted my own version a few years back, but I’ve never been happy with the results and continually promise myself I’ll revisit it and make it the game it could and should be. From what I gather, Devlin is keeping it reasonably faithful to the original game so should be of note for those who complained that mine had very little to do with the game ;)
Keep an eye on it over at Devlsoft, or feedback the man over on our forums.
XCom DS
The DS is certainly getting some retro remake loving of late, surprisingly more so than the PSP (or maybe thats just because I don’t have a PSP, therefor don’t pay any attention…?).
And to keep up with the loving theme, I’m sure here’s a game that would cause Gollop lovers to pop their trousers in excitement - its a version of XCom being brought to the DS courtesy of Blue Knight.
In the future, all spacecraft come fitted with vibrator attachments.
It seems to be a good time for Gollop fans, what with Rich taking on Chaos and Blinky assaulting Laser Squad. Strategy fans have never had it quite so good.
Fingers crossed that XCom DS makes it to the finishing line. You can follow its progress on this here forum thread at GBADev.
