RetroGaming Shorts Part 080 - Byter
Byter 1983? (ZX-81)
"Byter" is the best name for an 8-bit Pac Man clone. That is all.
#retrogaming
RetroGaming Shorts Part 079 - Camelot
Camelot 1983 (ZX-81)
Camelot is another sort of old school proto-CRPG, with a board wargame map of regions rather than a typical terrain map of squares. It has graphic adventure style graphics for showing encounters or non-encounters, resulting in sort of a hybrid between graphic text adventures (proto-point-and-clicks) and CRPG mechanics.
Anyway, it could be good game design inspiration for a hybrid point-and-click with CRPG mechanics ... even a graphical MUD or something ...
RetroGaming Shorts Part 078 - Black Crystal
Black Crystal 1982 (ZX-81)
Black Crystal is an example of old school proto-CRPG, with lots of death and only rare wins. It shows how you can do a CRPG with very limited resources.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 077 - The A Team
The A Team 1985 (Commodore 64)
This game is so bad. It is so bad. I pity the fool that payed for this game.
I feel like there may be some retrogame design inspiration somewhere in here ... or maybe just what not to do ...
... or maybe it's just a train wreck worth gawking at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3JG-xoYJYo
#RetroGamingShorts #RetroGaming #C64 #Commodore64 #Commodore
RetroGaming Shorts Part 076 - Binary Parasite
Binary Parasite 2023 (Atari 8-bit)
Some puzzle game design inspiration! These puzzles basically revolve around trying to add up powers of 2 into the target number. Pretty easy peasy stuff for those of us who grew up manually adding binary in our head for POKE data.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 075 - Just Yer Basic Missile Command
Just Yer Basic Missile Command 1991 (Amiga)
This PD Missile Command clone is the version I played the most. The graphics looked really sharp for the time - 640x400 interlaced!
I love the smooth fast action. It's the sort of game design where the programmer clearly played it over and over and kept bumping up the speed and numbers of enemies to pump up the difficulty to taste.
The result is usually a game that is WAY too hard for me. But in this case, the generously large explosions kept things manageable to me.
As a result of this game, most Missile Command ports/clones look really sedate to me.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 074 - The Outfoxies
The Outfoxies 1995 (Namco arcade)
More game design/art inspiration! The Outfoxies is a fighting game sort of, but it's got a crazy gonzo action flick sensibility. There's just a lot of nuts stuff in there that maybe you wouldn't have thought about just because ... well, you just never thought it.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 073 - Lost Realms of Murkasada Episode II
Lost Realms of Murkasada Episode II 2023 (Commodore 64)
This "RPG-lite" has lovely 8x8 pixel art. Lots of pixel art inspiration here! It may also serve as game design inspiration, showing how you don't really need complex RPG systems or even battle animation for a cool CRPG experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqEPzJYaQaQ
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 071 - Section Z
Section Z 1987 (Famicom/NES)
Section Z is an NES game nominally based on the arcade game, but Capcom dramatically redesigned the game for the home version. This video dives into the game design changes, and why the home version is much better and more interesting than the original arcade version.
Section Z mixes things up by having different scrolling speeds - some sections scroll so fast that you can do little more than dodge the terrain. Some sections scroll very slowly, turning them into endurance survival tests. Unfortunately none of the levels scroll at a rate of classic force scrolling games, like TRS-80 Sea Dragon, where you must judiciously use diagonal rearward movement and sprinting forward when you get the chance, to navigate the terrain. But, for a Section Z inspired game, you could add that into the design.
Another thing that makes Section Z particularly interesting is the way you choose the next section to go to. Unfortunately, it does not include any sort of "automap" feature, but if you design a Section Z inspired game, you can include this. Without automap, Section Z only becomes playable with manual mapping. Bleh.
I'm not sure, but I may use both ideas with Rivers of Impossibility. Forced scrolling with different speeds allows interesting different player challenges, while keeping the basic game engine and graphics assets the same. The non-linear choices of which section to go to next all for a feeling of exploration while automap should alleviate the frustration of uselessly going in circles. The basic idea is that you need to seal off all of the spawn points in a level, so a "single pass" scrolling paradigm won't do. The player must be able to circle around to redo any sections as needed to seal off remaining spawn points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPljIydOWOk
#RetroGamingShorts #RetroGaming #NES #Capcom #RiversOfImpossibility
RetroGaming Shorts Part 071 - Tank Wars
Tank Wars 1985 (Sony SMC-777)
This is a game mechanic you see more often in board games, even though computers are ideally suited for it - preplotted movement.
Basically, you enter a sequence of movements, rather than just one at a time. And then they play out ... hopefully how you intended, but maybe not!
RetroGaming Shorts Part 070 - Battle Shark
Battle Shark 1989 (Taito arcade)
More retro art/setting inspiration! Battle Shark wasn't popular enough to get home ports, so unless you happened to run across it in arcades you probably missed it. But the aesthetic is pretty interesting and different.
Submarine games were generally less common, but, say, the aesthetic of In the Hunt will feel familiar because of Metal Slug. Battle Shark's aesthetic is worth checking out.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 069 - Uchu Yohei
Uchu Yohei 2023 (MSX)
Art inspiration! Uchu Yohei has a quasi-vector graphics look. This aesthetic is suitable for all sorts of platforms, including just plain old modern "indie" games.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 068 - Beast of Eden
Beast of Eden 1985 (VIC20)
I love the cute 8x8 pixel art/animation of the beast and devil in this game.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 067 - Sea Route to India
Sea Route to India 1984 (Commodore 64)
A COMPUTE type in BASIC game of the Oregon Trail type, with nice little minigames, all in PETSCII.
I think it could serve as good inspiration for mobile game design and aesthetics. For example, the PETSCII map and travelogue "dot" movement gives a particularly effective feeling of scale and adventure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG5WvhyFp44
#RetroGamingShorts #RetroGaming #C64 #Commodore64 #Commodore
RetroGaming Shorts Part 066 - Coil Cop
Coil Cop 1985 (Commodore 64)
Thing on a Spring is a cute platformer where you control a cute cartoon creature with a springy pogo leg. Here in the USA, though, it was renamed Coil Cop and advertised by Epyx as part of its totally rad MAXX OUT series.
So look at the totally rad COP OUT magazine ad for Coil Cop. And then contrast with the cutesy gameplay. I still wish the game I imagined from the ad existed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwEiKJXPpMA
#RetroGamingShorts #RetroGaming #C64 #Commodore64 #Commodore
RetroGaming Shorts Part 065 - Mutants from the Deep
Mutants from the Deep 2021 (MSX)
This game has pixel art worth studying. The backgrounds and most bosses show ways to use pixel art where each 8x1 pixel tile is restricted to only two colors. There are numerous sprites showing how to do two colors sprites (two overlapping single color sprites).
RetroGaming Shorts Part 064 - Chopper Hunt
Chopper Hunt 1984 (Atari 800/C64)
Buried Bucks/Chopper Hunt is an interesting game with small sprites and a whole lot of pixel level terrain destruction. This sort of game design was never terribly common, but there's a lot of fun little possibilities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffoztcxOkB8
#RetroGamingShorts #RetroGaming #C64 #Commodore64 #Commodore #Atari
RetroGaming Shorts Part 063 - Ad Astra
Ad Astra 2023 (Commodore 64)
Ad Astra is a recent space trading action game, with an overhead view similar to Asteroids. It's deliberately slow paced rather than relying upon quick arcade action reflexes. The space trading genre, born in 1973, is one of the oldest computer game genres but it's still going strong.
It's a good place to try a game design, since the basic space trading framework gives the player a reason to travel different places and accomplishments to achieve by traveling around, without too much explicit developer effort designing "levels" or explicit missions. And it's not just the same game over and over again, since you can randomize which goods are more expensive where, as well as randomize prices rising/falling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzzNgZ-BUAo
#RetroGamingShorts #RetroGaming #C64 #Commodore64 #Commodore
RetroGaming Shorts Part 062 - Fire Town
Fire Town 1987 (MSX)
I haven't seen any info on Fire Town, which looks a lot like Rise Out From Dungeons. Basically like Lode Runner, but not quite. Puzzle platformers are pretty popular today, but it's also cool to look at real old school puzzle platformers for game design inspiration.
Fire Town and Rise Out show how small modifications to the "rules" and goals can really change things up compared to Lode Runner.