Selling Out

As some of you may know, I also run the "Dan's Remakes" freeware games site (freeware games for Windows, OSX and Linux).

I've been toying with the idea of having some goodies to sell, and so have put together a little test site with Cafe Express to see if there is any interest in this.

So if you want to help support Dan's Remakes then head on over to our online shop and buy Buy BUY!

Ahem, sorry, came over all commercial there!

So far there are a couple of mugs and a t-shirt available - more designs and products coming soon.

Dan's Remakes February update.

The latest from Dan's Remakes.

First things first, RetroRoids has been updated to 1.20. This will probably be the final release of the game. It was partly a bugfix release, adding things like a joypad deadzone to allow XBox 360 controllers to work with the game, and partly a release to add the final "polish" to the game.



Following on from RetroRoids there will be another new game, based around an updated version of the game engine.

Gravity has been added into the mix and a new original game will be coming soon. Yes, that's right, original. Well, fairly original. It won't be directly based on any existing game, although it obviously bears some resemblance to Gravitar, Thrust, Space Taxi, Lander and probably others too.



Now onto Batty Junior. Although this game has been "on holiday" for a bit, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and finish off the single player game. In all honesty there isn't a lot left to do, so once I'll have to look towards finishing that bit off before moving on to the new (unnamed) game.



There may be some (minor) updates to some of my other games too. Chaos Caverns has had a bugfix release to add in a DirectX version of the game. There may well be another update to Chaos Caverns and RetroVaders later on this month to add in the deadzone for the XBox 360 joypads.

Released: RetroRoids v1.10 - RetroRoids Deluxe

RetroRoids 1.10 (codename: RetroRoids Deluxe) is now available for Linux and Windows. The MacOS version will be ready later on tonight.

So what's new I hear you ask?

Quite a bit. There are now two game modes: RetroRoids and Original.

Original mode is basically the same as RetroRoids 1.00 (minus the power-ups). As in the original asteroids there is a chance of the ship exploding when using hyperspace. The speed of the asteroids has been reduced slightly, and the ship rotates slightly faster.

RetroRoids mode is the new version of the game. The asteroids start slower (but increase in speed with each new level). Destroying the UFO (which now appears from both sides of the screen) drops a random power-up.

Clearing a level without loosing a life activates the bonus multiplier (x2 and x4 all scores).

After the first level as well as the standard asteroids you may also (but not always) encounter the Killer Satellite. Shooting the Satellite causes the fragments to home in on you - so make sure you've got somewhere to run to. . . .

There are other tweaks to the graphics and sound (and some bugfixes too) - check out the changelog for the full list.

Available to download now at http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.

Released: RetroRoids v1.00

RetroRoids, the second in the series of "Retro" games from Dan's Remakes is now available for download from http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.

Featuring asteroids, animated backdrop, power-ups and more. As with RetroVaders the look of the game can be tweaked from the options menu.

Currently available for Windows and Linux, with the MacOS X version following soon.

RetroRoids: Update 1

As promised, here are some more details on RetroRoids.

The game itself is pretty much the same as the original arcade game Asteroids. Shoot the large 'roids which split into medium ones, the medium into small. Clear all the 'roids from each stage to go onto the next. Each level has more asteroids than the previous one.

A bonus life is awarded at 10,000 points.

Every so often a bonus UFO will appear, shoot it for extra point and a bonus item. Collect the bonuses for shields (5 seconds worth), triple shots. (100 shots worth) or an extra life.

I may add in extra bonuses later.

Announcing: RetroRoids

Announcing: RetroRoids.

In case you can't tell from the title, this is my take on the old classic Asteroids.

Available soon for Linux, Windows and MacOS X from http://dans-remakes.sytes.net

More details soon. . . .

Batty Junior - Demo 1

Now that Christmas is over and the new year is nearly upon us, 'tis time to release a non-seasonal demo of Batty Junior.

"What is different from the last version?" I hear you ask. Quite a bit. Most of the power-ups are now in place, in fact only two things are missing from the single-player game - the gun power-up and the gravity distort.



I should be uploading this later on today (once I get home in fact). The Windows (DirectX and OpenGL) and MacOSX versions are ready to go, so I'll just have to get the Linux one ready.

The Pre-Christmas Lull

Well, here we are less than a week before Christmas, and over a week since the release of the Batty Junior Christmas Demo.

I hadn't been to sure if releasing the demo was a good idea, especially as the game is at a pretty early stage, but thankfully it seems to have been rather well received by the people who have played it.

As I expected the missing power-ups has drawn some comments, but they are being added and will all be there for the next release.

The next couple of powers have been added in (Thrusters and Multi-ball) and just need a little bit of a polish before I'll be happy with them. That only leaves the Extending bat and all the original power-ups will be there.

Updating the code to allow for multiple balls on screen was something that I wasn't looking forward to. Really I should have done that much earlier on in the process (if not from the start) and so having to retrofit the code to allow for this was, shall we say, a fun experience - if your idea of fun is breaking the game entirely, fixing it, followed by an hour or so of bug-fixing.

It has been well worth it though, as even with fifteen or twenty balls on screen the CPU usage is still very low and the collision detection works a treat. Even the ball-grab power-up was a doddle to upgrade to handle multi-ball.

I'm still going to have to go through and do a code-cleanup at some point in the near future, as things are pretty unoptimised thanks to the major changes I'd put in place.

So once that is done then what remains? Well, the gravity warp thingy is something that I've been saving till last, and also I'm going to have to see about adding some variety to the baddies as I've only implemented the UFO so far (the Bird needs to be added).

If you haven't played the demo yet then head over to http://dans-remakes.sytes.net and give it a shot. As it supports Windows (XP and Vista), Linux and MacOS X most people should be able to run it.

Free Game: Batty Junior - Christmas Special Edition

As it's going to be a while before Batty Junior is finished (another couple of months at the current rate of progress I'd guess) but the game is at a reasonable stage I've decided to have a bit of fun with the code so far and release a special Christmas themed mini-game - Batty Christmas!



Downloads for Linux and Windows (OpenGL and DirectX binaries) are available from the front page at http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.

The game will be removed after Christmas, so if you fancy a bit of seasonal fun you'd better get your skates on!

Batty Junior - Video Preview

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I wonder what a video is worth?



This is a short clip from the first level. The game itself is far from finished, but this gives a general idea of the current state of play.

(Remember kids - games seen on YouTube may appear crapper than they actually are)

A Very Monty Christmas!

Christmas has come early for us UK retro fans with the release of Trevor (Smila) Storey and Scottige's homage to Monty Mole - Monty Christmas!



For those of you unfamiliar with Monty Mole, he was the star of a handful of games in the late 80s (Wanted: Monty Mole, Monty On The Run, Aufwiedersehn Monty and Impossamole).

He also featured in a mini-game on Your Sinclair magazine called Moley Christmas. History has repeated itself with this Retro Gamer magazine instigated game. The plot (if you need one) is that Sam Stoat has stolen the pages of the Christmas issue of Retro Gamer, and you have to get them back.

The game itself is a typical 80s platform game - fast, unforgiving, difficult and fun, with graphics and music that would have been at home on a C64. There are plenty of tricky jumps to be made, items to collect and surreal baddies to avoid.



To make the game easier there are save points every 20 pages (press L on the menu screen to reload the last save point). So far I can only get 30 pages (out of the 100 needed to finish), but I'm working on it and thoroughly enjoying the challenge.

All in all this is a really nice game for us fans of the original Monty games, and will certainly keep me busy over the festive season.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Moley Christmas everybody!

The Name Game

Jeff Minter, The Man, The Myth, The Yak. A true legend in the annals of games programming. As far as the games industry in the UK goes, Jeff was there before there was an industry. He is unique in that he has remained untouched by the big business atitude to modern software and still writes games tailored to what he feels a game should be, rather than aiming for market share.

So the following livejournal post about the sales of his latest game on XBox Live Arcade came as a bit of a surprise.

"not seeing a lot of reason to continue even trying to make games, at this point, when a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games, can outsell Space Giraffe that we put so much love and effort into, by more than ten to one, in one week.

OK, we get the message. All you want on that channel is remakes of old, shite arcade games and crap you vaguely remember playing on your Amiga.

We'll shut up trying to do anything new then.

Sorry for even trying." - Jeff Minter, LiveJournal entry, November 2007

I can't say that I'm surprised that Frogger (a straight port of the original game) outsold Space Giraffe. Now before anyone gets on my case about this I'd like to make a couple of things clear.

1 - I like Jeff Minter's games. Always have. Probably always will.

2 - I haven't played Space Giraffe as I don't have an XBox 360, but would really like to, especially if it is anything like as good as Tempest 2000 was. Personally I would much rather play that than Frogger any day of the week.

So why do I think that Frogger would outsell Space Giraffe then?

Easy.

Hands up everyone who has heard of Frogger? Quite a few hands there. In fact, pretty much everyone. OK, now raise your hands if you have heard of Space Giraffe. Not quite as many hands there, much less in fact.

This is the crux of the problem. Frogger is a recognised name. It is available cheaply on XBox Live Arcade and could easily be an impulse purchase. Space Giraffe on the other hand. . . . .

The name doesn't really say a lot about what the game is. It doesn't immediately make you think "gosh, I'd better buy that as it is obviously a Tempest 2000 style game by the legendary Jeff 'Yak' Minter" does it ? Tempest 4000 would sell like hot cakes, I've no doubt about that. Even Jeff Minter presents Space Giraffe would probably do quite well.



Hopefully as time goes on and people discover how great the game is, Space Giraffe's sales will pick up and it will end up as the success that it deserves to be.

Batty Junior - Status Update

Has it really been a week since the last post? My word doesn't time fly when you're having fun?

So how is Batty Junior coming along I pretend to hear you ask?

Not bad is the answer. Slow progress, but not bad.



As you can see, the game is starting to come together. There is still a lot of work to do, but some important milestones have been reached.

• Lives work (so you can loose).
• Level transitions work.
• Scoring (and the high score) works.
• The first few bonus items are working including "bonus lives", "slow mode" and "smash ball".

So what's next? In order of priority:

• Finishing off the bonus items.
• Adding the extra game features (such as indestructable walls, regenerating walls, gravity changer).
• Adding new features (not telling what though)
  
• Adding the enemies.
• Completing the levels.

So as you can see there is plenty to do. I'll be releasing a "beta" release at some point when things are further along.

Arcadia Test 3 released for MacOS X

Pretty much every programmer has a guilty little secret, a game that was abandoned before its time, never to be completed.

This is the story of mine.



Many moons ago (back in 2002 in fact) I started work on my first games remake - which was of Imagine Software's Arcadia, a shoot-em-up from 1982. The game code (and pre-rendered 3d graphics) went quite well - up to the point where Windows 98 ate my hard disk and I learned an important lesson about the need to take regular backups.

In many ways this incident was a turning point for me, as this was what finally persuaded me to try going cold-turkey on Windows and run Linux full time. Initially I wanted to run Linux exclusively for a couple of months to see how it fared compared to Windows.

I never went back.

The only casualty of this switch was Arcadia. The source code that I found was out-dated, the pre-rendered graphics of the later levels was gone, and worst of all Blitz (which I was using to write the game in) didn't run on Linux. But there were rumours of a follow on to Blitz which would run on Windows, MacOS and Linux - Blitz Max.

So I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

When the pre-release version of Blitz Max became available to buy I pre-ordered it, downloaded the Linux beta and started playing.

Arcadia was the obvious choice to try my hand with, but unfortunately porting the game over was not as simple as expected. So I wrote an (unreleased) Arcadia style game, and used the knowledge from this to update the test 3 code to Linux.



I've always planned to complete Arcadia at some point, but to be honest, I don't think this will ever happen. I've finally updated my site to put Arcadia "on hold" and then realised that all my other games run on MacOS X apart from Arcadia. So tonight I've snuck onto a Mac and knocked out a quick port of the game. I'll be uploading this later on tonight.

The funny thing is that now that I've put it on hold I've got some ideas about what I can do with Arcadia to try and finish it off. I'll have to investigate some freeware raytracing software and see if I can get to grips with it.

This will have to wait until after the first release of Batty Junior.

RetroVaders 1.30 and Chaos Caverns 1.20 for MacOS X

I've finally managed to get my hands on a Mac to get the MacOS port of RetroVaders updated. This brings the MacOS version up to date with the Linux / Windows releases.

I've also created an up-to-date version of Chaos Caverns for MacOS as well.

Both of these will be appearing on Dan's Remakes sometime in the next 24 hours.

I'd also spotted a small bug in the RetroVaders screenshot code, which I've fixed. I'll be recompiling the Linux and Windows versions of RetroVaders to incorporate the fix (the version number will stay the same though). All being even I'll get that done tomorrow as well.

Wizball Remake released!

Those wonderful people at RetroSpec have just released their remake of the legendary Wizball. 20 months in the making, this is the best remake that I've seen in a long while, and a damn fine game in its own right.



For those of you who haven't played or were too young to have played Wizball when it was released in the late 1980s what's it all about eh?

The plot is some waffle about an evil wizard stealing all the colours from the world, and you as Wizball need to collect the colours and shoot the baddies to bring the colour back. OK, daft plot aside this is a tough horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up. Move around, shoot the baddies and gain power ups, such as the Catelite, which you also use to collect the colours.

The graphics have been scaled up to 640x480 and are smooth with a capital smoo. Mere words cannot describe just how damn good the game looks (the above video comes closer to doing it justice).

Your ears haven't been left out either, the excellent C64 soundtrack has been updated, rerecorded and has become a thing of beauty.

Of course, all this would mean nothing if the game play was wrong. The good news here is that the game plays like a dream. An especially surreal dream maybe, but a dream none the less.

(sorry, left to have another quick go)

Currently only the Windows version has been released, but Mac and Linux ports are due (hopefully) soon, the game does however play using Cedega.

Download from RetroSpec.

Announcing: Batty Junior

Well, I've had a bit of a play and have decided on the next game from Dan's Remakes.

It is sort of a remake of Batty, an Arkanoid clone that appeared on quite a few 8 bit systems such as the Sinclair Spectrum.


Batty - Sinclair Spectrum

I'm going to simplify the game a bit so as to appeal to younger players, which is why I'm calling the game "Batty Junior" rather than just "Batty".


Batty Junior - Coming Soon

I've no firm date set for when the game will be released - I'll have to see how it develops.

Choosing the next project

Now that RetroVaders (apart from the Mac port which will follow fairly soon) It's time to decide what game I'm going to do next. Having a look through my blitz directory there are five or six "nearly started" games. These are the ones that seem like a good idea, but haven't had any real work done on them, or are in the "messing about with" stage (such as my "Hungry Horace" test code).

Having a look through these one of them caught my eye. I honestly couldn't remember how far I had got with it - as it turns out I'd got as far as setting the screen mode before getting side-tracked. Out of curiosity I downloaded some screenshots of the original game, snipped out and upscaled some of the graphics and had a basic game structure running quite quickly.

One thing that surprised me with RetroVaders is how much my kids enjoyed playing it, so with that in mind this game will be another fairly straight forward one, and something that I hope they'll enjoy playing too.

I'm off work tomorrow to do the school run, but while the children are out of the way I may get some more time to play around with this.

What game is it? I'm not telling. Don't drive yourself batty trying to work it out, I'll post more once I've got a "proof of concept" demo version ready.

RetroVaders 1.30 released

RetroVaders 1.30 is now available for Linux and Windows at the usual place. The MacOS X version will follow shortly.

Retrovaders: Heading towards 1.30

I'm wondering whether to make an early release of RetroVaders 1.30.

There are a couple of reasons that I'm tempted to release it now. The main one is a bug in the invaders movement code which I'm not at all happy about leaving out there. The other is that there have been enough improvements (imho) to make it a worthwhile upgrade.

The downside to releasing now is that Mac users will have to wait a bit longer for their version (I don't have regular access to a Mac to compile it).

Let's have a quick run through of the new features and see what we have.

Bug Fixes:

UFO Scoring - Now works correctly between 50 and 300 (was going up to 310)
UFO Movement - Bug fixed that could cause the invaders to drop straight down the screen (I've only seen it twice and I've probably played it more than anyone)
Invader drop speed tweaked to ensure that they always land at the same height (there was a slight variance depending on which row landed)

New features:

Joypad support
Options Screen
Game options saved to disk
Multiple backdrops (Invaders, Deluxe Invaders, Retrovaders, None)
Multiple invader sprite sets (Retrovaders, Classic, Atari 2600)
Number of bunkers increased to four
Number of invaders increased to 50
UFO no longer appears if there are less than eight invaders on screen


I've still got some polishing of the options screen to do but I could release the next version this weekend some time once I've got that finished.

I'll have to think about this one.