RetroGaming Shorts Part 045 - Morris.exe
This is a cute puzzle game of the "slide until you hit something" type ... see Old Tower (ZX Spectrum, C64), Boxy Moxy (C64), and so on. In this case, you control a cute worm.
This worm, Morris.exe is named after an infamous worm written by a student at Cornell University, incidentally at a time when I was attending. Whoops!
RetroGaming Shorts Part 044 - Spore
Spore is a puzzle/Gauntlet hybrid game that uses small 8x8 pixel tiles/sprites in a non-scrolling screen rather than the larger tiles/sprites in scrolling Gauntlet. The game and level design has more of a puzzle feeling than just straightforward action.
Certainly a game worth studying for game design inspiration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIcO5h7_iQI
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 043 - Nuclear Embargo
Yet another Star Trek/Star Raiders type game for me to study for Obligalore. This one's a bit different, with a Raid Over Moscow/Beach Head type feel with multiple minigames to deal with. The first person combat sequences are also very different in feeling from the typical Star Raiders type game. Instead of fighting enemy starships against a starry background, you look down on a planetary surface from orbit, and shoot it out with ground launchers. This totally kills the usual "3D" illusion, but it's at least ... different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIXUXkjMr7Y
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 042 - Perplexian Challenger
I think this is a basic Star Fire type first person space shooter, but there are a few things "off" about it, so it fails to provide a proper sense of motion. The stars don't move right - they expand away from your aim point without getting faster the further away they are. And the motion of the target ship doesn't seem affected by moving your aim point.
I guess it serves more as an example of some things to try to avoid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQVBpcl-4qw
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 041 - Pirat
Take Pirates and strip it down to the minimums, and program it entirely in BASIC (the original Pirates was mostly in BASIC).
The result is similar to old school sea trading games like Taipan. It shows how you don't necessarily need machine code graphics and action to make a trading game.
Still, I think that a space trading/Star Trek hybrid could use some spicing up with the action. Instead of simply exchanging fire, or aiming in straight lines (as in Star Trek), I like the idea of your cannon shells being affected by gravity. So, you have to try and adjust shell velocity and direction to take planetary gravity into consideration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpL6WIcX6Bw
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 040 - Dick Swanson II
I highlight this unremarkable graphic adventure game for only one reason - the pixel art style is distinctively Doodle. Doodle was a popular C64 bitmap drawing program with joystick control. Trying to draw with it was a bit like an 8 way Etch-a-Sketch. So, you ended up with very distinctive squiggles and/or you constructed images out of stuff like line and circle primitives.
If you're an old C64 user, maybe you drew stuff using Doodle. In which case, check out the video for that Doodle aesthetic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWfLC3S88AE
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 039 - Frantic Pengo 2
This might be the first time RetroGaming Shorts has featured the ZX Spectrum, somehow.
This Pengo clone features sublime 8x8 pixel art, with genius use of color attributes and surrounding tiles to make it look like more than just 8x8. Seriously, this is next level pixel art inspiration.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 038 - Drakkhen
More game design inspiration! Drakkhen is an early 3D CRPG with a hybrid graphics style not commonly used. You explore the world with a first person 3D view, but during an encounter it switches to third person. The party's characters come on screen, and the view is more like a beat 'em up.
This sort of hybrid approach could have been used more, but I don't think it really was. It could offer something a bit different.
RetroGamingShorts part 037 - Yu Yu Hakusho Tokubetsu-hen
Yu Yu Hakusho Tokubetsu-hen is one of the weirdest fighting games ever. It consists of ONLY cut-scene style "super moves". This video explains basically how the game works because otherwise you'll have no idea what to do or how to play.
The basic game design is so different from what you're used to, it could serve as good inspiration for all sorts of game design - not even just video games, but also perhaps card games or other tabletop games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C67cF0NE2cI
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RetroGamingShorts part 036 - Dark Fortress
Dark Fortress was written in the late 1980s, but only found and released in 2020. It's another Lode Runner style puzzle platformer, but with emphasis on a variety of enemies and disparate puzzle/action elements. It looks suitable for porting to other systems, although apparently the original code is an experimental mess.
Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLQGH_qsBFY
Programmer interview about the game: https://breakintochat.com/blog/2020/06/04/unearthed-dark-fortress-for-the-atari-st/
RetroGamingShorts part 035 - Rise Out From Dungeons
Another Lode Runner style puzzle platformer, but looks are deceiving. Despite the visual similarity to Lode Runner, Rise Out has very different tactics that revolve around figuring out how to guide the enemies in ways that let you get around them.
Unlike Lode Runner, the enemies simply try to head toward you, which greatly simplifies how to guide them, but also makes it difficult to do so in a way that you aren't trapped. Also unlike Lode Runner, you can't dig a hole right next to you, which is the usual way you escape your pursuers (you simply dig a hole next to you, so the enemy falls into it, and then you can walk over).
RetroGaming Shorts Part 034 Xonix
I think Xonix is relatively well known. It's a Qix type game, but with elements simplified in a way that makes the game easier to understand and program. Instead of the exotic creeping line effect and multiple enemies of the original Qix, Xonix simply has diagonally moving bouncing balls.
It's a fine example of simple mechanics resulting in a compelling fun game. It's a particularly fun programming project because there's no need to design puzzle levels.
More obscure is a C64 clone, Xolyx.
Xonix DOS 1984: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJCbKPNEnF8
Xolyx C64 1987: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhv29orR9jY
RetroGaming Shorts Part 033 Spacestation Pheta
This Lode Runner style puzzle platformer is perhaps not so well remembered due to it only being released on the classic Mac, but it's suitable for porting to 8-bit systems. Even BASIC will do, since there's no need to animate enemies.
As with most puzzle games, the big effort is designing puzzle levels. It can be frustrating to have a pretty good puzzle game idea, but there's almost no time left for good level design. So, porting an existing game can be pretty attractive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myS1xJ4kHqE
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 032 - Warrior of Ras Vol 3 - Wylde
Does anyone have memories of the Warrior of Ras series of CRPGs? They were sort of like Roguelikes more than "true" CRPGs, and I remember magazine ads showing the Atari 8-bit versions. However, I haven't found any gameplay videos of the Atari 8-bit versions. Generally, I find the wide characters/sprites of the Atari 8-bit versions, from the magazine ad, more interesting looking.
However, I link a video of the C64 version of Wylde. Wylde has pretty nice looking pixel art in the C64 version. Just look at the unusual mountain mounds, and the fantasy map style representation of the forest trees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgtvRUTdHHI
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 031 AE
AE is an unusual shooter but the reason for me highlighting it actually has to do with the swirling enemy formations and motions. Designed around an 8 sprite limit, only 6 enemies are shown at a time, but you get a feeling of a lot of enemies due to the way they zoom around quickly, disappearing and reappearing elsewhere.
I'm using it as inspiration for Obligalore ... I had been thinking in terms of multiplexing sprites, but I'm now thinking it should be good with just 8 normal sprites. Space combat is similar to 1983 Star Wars - not true 3D, but more accessible. The enemies only ever shoot at you when they're on screen, and they shoot relatively slow fireballs that you can shoot down or dodge. This simple sort of space combat does not require complex 3-dimensional dogfighting skills. Obligalore isn't meant to be a complex space sim, just a Star Raiders/space trading hybrid which is mainly about trading and light resource management.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 030 - Deluxe Galaga
This is one of the greatest Galaga type games ever, and worth studying if you want to figure out what makes for addicting replayability. There's something about its rich combination of power ups, secrets, bonus mini-games ... it's a lot more than its inspiration.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 029 Soccer
I'm highlighting this mediocre soccer game for its fantastic narrow pixel art. The standing players are only 2 pixels wide.
This pixel art/animation could be useful for all sorts of games. For example, it could be good for a Robotron/SMASH TV type game.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 028 - Jolly Jumper
Another simple 4K game - a simple jump rope game.
This one's all about '80s vibe, with the SID rendition of Jump, and Miami Vice aesthetic.
Honestly? This could be expanded into an awesome Pitfall type game. If you complete all the reps, the door opens to the next room?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LhKtxR7b0
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 027 - Skiddy
A simple 4K mashup of the first racing video game, Gran Trak 10, with Skidmarks physics.
You don't need the fanciest graphics to make a compelling racing game - in this case, it's all about the slippy physics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcsYQCP4Ivo
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RetroGaming Shorts Part 026 - Sir Arthur
PETSCII rendition of Ghosts and Goblins! This shows off a lot of nice PETSCII textures and patterns, and animation of explosions and such. There's really a lot of untapped potential with PETSCII, as it's possible to fit a lot more content in 64K than with normal pixel art graphics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Y6pF9Asmg
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