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Geek Culture / Advanced Computing

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DivW
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Posted: 24th Nov 2003 23:30
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Rightyho, here’s the deal. I'm studying Advanced Higher Computing, as most of the regulars have already figured out by now probably, and I’m currently creating a massive portfolio of design for the game I’m making, Spaceman (which is part of why development is going so slow-I’m required to make a full analysis of the code, including what each and every variable and array is, it's size, format, etc. etc. etc...) and I’m currently writing out Game Theory. As part of this I’m studying old games, such as R-Type, and noting their involvement in the alteration of the old clichés of space travel from the late 70's to the more sinister danger zone it has been portrayed as since the 80's. R-type was a vital game in all this, as it had a small sleek spaceship, instead of the earlier Cliché of spacious silver rockets, and replaced the friendly exploration cliché with one where the characters are trying to destroy the alien invaders. What I’m posting about is for anyone with information, screenshots, or emulations of old games from the R-type era (Between 1981 and 1991 roughly...) could please post as much information as you can about them here.

Summarized: I need a list of games that revolutionized not only computer gaming, but the way we looked at space travel.

And to any smart-asses out there who just want to tell me to get on with it myself: As part of the folio I need to show an extensive list of sources of information, websites visited, and who helped me. So people who read this and don't post: You're making me fail computing! Boo Hoo.

So this one goes out to all those who love their classics.

By the way, anyone who tells me to download MAME may just get kicked. The software is too complicated! I don't know how the hell it's meant to work.

Thanks all, happy reminiscing

Your soul...it tastes like chicken

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 16:54
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Mame is very easy to use, you don't even have to unzip the roms, just stick them in with the Mame emulator. Anyhow about the topic.. there were games before R-Type with nice ships. Defender, Blood Money, Zennon(Something like that?), Sanxion, Was Delta before R-Type? Quite a few really! What R-Type added was the powerup weapons, and the drones that help you. Rtype also had the biggest sprites that could move around the screen.

Pincho.
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 17:19 Edited at: 25th Nov 2003 17:20
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Captain Blood was a pretty important game for a start, because a) you were dying and had to find clones of yourself, b) language with a planets natives was done through symbols and were generally peaceful. If I remember correctly nothing got killed., c) flying to find these natives could be hazardous because to could hit walls. However, they did seem to show that travelling from one solar system to another was safe (and rather pretty - ala 2001).

Plus, you didn't play a human.


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 17:22
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Elite was very important - aside from being the first major 3D game, it showed a hazardous side to space travel - pirates etc...


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Van B
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 17:52
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If it eases your pain, I could send you an Atari ST emulator and a copy of R-Type 1&2, very easy to use. I'd have to send it in a few hours though, still at work - or you could go hunting yourself at atari.st.

Personally, I doubt that R-Type's ship is that original, it's most likely based on the ship from the 'The Last Starfighter' movie, or something from the designers childhood. I reckon Defender had a bigger role to play in ousting the old fashioned rocket ships in games. One thing that is not fruequently seen is R-Types charge weapon, you could hold the fire button to build up the weapon then let it go to take out entire rows of enemies, I suppose that was pretty original and added a more strategic element.


Van-B


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Van B
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 17:55
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Ohh, Captain Blood was cool, you could kill people though, well, you could destroy planets, some aliens would ask you to wipe out an enemy planet for them. It was french, had music by Jarre and a title screen by Geiger - could it be any more artsy!.


Van-B


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:14
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Hey Van I think I did the graphics on the ST version of R-Type 2! I forgot that most of my Amiga graphics were ported to the ST. It should say Paul Michalak on the title screen.

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Van B
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:17
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Ooh! - I was just playing it the other day and wondered if you had anything to do with them! . I'll check the credits tonight.


Van-B


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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:22
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Ah - so you could kill people in Captain Blood. Never really played it that much (didn't like it much either).


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spooky
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:57
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I've got R-Type running on MAME and it is brilliant. Suggest you get windows gui version of MAME as everything controlled by a nice user interface. How anyone uses command-line version is beyond me.

The windows version also allows you to list games by year of release which may give you some help.

My favourite arcade games of the time were R-Type (naturally), Out Run, Gauntlet (one of the best multiplayer games ever), Star Wars, Starblade, Tron, Marble Madness, Frogger, Defender, Asteroids, Operation Wolf, Golden Axe. The list goes on...


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DivW
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 14:40
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Ok, lemme get my head around this...

1) I have an Atari ST allready. It was the more advanced version, allowing access to two 3.5" Disk drives, and worldwide hypertext. It came with R-type, but it wouldn't work properly So humm. Yeah i would greatly appreciate it if i could get an emulator for the Atari with R-type 1 and 2, thankee very much. Can anyone give me a direct link to the user friendly version of MAME? I tried those Windows editions but all it said was "This is not a valid WIN32 applience" and shut down. The Dos Versions don't work due to a filter that prevents users accessing DOS, although i could do it at home, but then i can't do it in School. Anyway, a list of the games u guys have given me...

Defender
Blood Money
Zennon
Captain Blood
Elite
Out Run
Gauntlet
Starblade

Thanks! the only other thing i need now...
1) Years for all these games, when they were released
2) The format they were released in: Arcade, Atari, Commodore, etc.

Thanks peeps i want to keep this thread open for all my computer stuff, so please keep checkng it back.

PS: anyone with emulated versions of the games above please contact me, thanks - Dave

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 14:45 Edited at: 27th Nov 2003 14:47
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Yeah Gauntlet, and Out Run aren't space shooters though. They aren't even space related.
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 15:01 Edited at: 27th Nov 2003 15:05
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Captain Blood came out on the Atari ST, Amiga, PC and C64, around about 1988
Elite came out on the PC, Amiga, ST, C64, BBC, Archimedies, NES and probably the Spectrum & Amstrad - probably around 1984, according to Ian Bell
Note : The different versions didn't come out at the same time, of course.


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spooky
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 16:18
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I completely misread request, sorry. Please scrap Out Run, Gauntlet,
Starblade

Defender was released in 1980 by Williams

Xenon - Released January 1988

The first game by The Bitmap Brothers, released in January 1988, Xenon was the first product that effectively showed how the 16 bit computers were capable of offering the game player a more challenging gaming experience. Through its combination of excellent graphics and a great sound track, Xenon set the standard for 16 bit games. After extensive coverage on ITV’s ‘Get Fresh’ it made history as the first ever Amiga game to enter the UK Top 40.

Formats: AMIGA - ST - PC - PLAYCHOICE 10 - ARCADE CABINET - C64 - SPECTRUM - AMSTRAD - MSX


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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 16:25
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Dont forget Asteriods - first vector graphic game (?) came out around 1980 (perhaps earlier).


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 17:29
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Quote: "first vector graphic game (?) "


Asteroids......hmmm tricky! ... could be.


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 17:32
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Found this......

When Cinematronics' Space Wars arrived in arcades in 1978, the new- born videogame market was given a boost by the machine's novel technology. (Larry Rosenthal, creator of Space Wars, is widely credited with having invented vector graphics. He later left Cinematronics to form a company called Vectorbeam.)

Space Wars was an imaginative, original game with its basis in a game created in 1962 by computer students at MIT. The game allowed two players to simultaneously battle each other in space, with ships looking very much like the Starship Enterprise and the insignia worn on its crew's uniforms. The game ushered in a new set of controls, like the thrust and fire modes and the ever-popular hyperspace option. Previous games had fewer controls (usually one or two.)

Cinematronics later went great guns into vector graphics games, releasing titles like Starhawk (reminiscent of the death-star trench sequence in Star Wars), Tailgunner (the first 3-D first-person videogame, which was also one of the few games that didn't use a timer), Rip Off, Armor Attack, and more. The same company also holds the rights to Cosmic Chasm, the first home-to-arcade license from GCE's Vectrex system and one of the few full-color vector graphics games in the arcades.
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 17:35 Edited at: 27th Nov 2003 17:36
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Also found this!

Space War 1978 Cinematronics First vector graphics game

Lunar Lander 1979 Atari's first vector game

Asteroids 1979 Atari's 2nd; smash hit of 1979

Tempest 1980 Atari First color vector game

Omega Race 1981 Midways's only vector game

Space Fury 1981 Sega/Gremlin Sega's first vector game(?)

Eliminator 1981 Sega/Gremlin The only four player vector game
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 18:17
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Asteriods was the second vector game then...


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 19:25
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3rd
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 27th Nov 2003 19:45
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true...


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DivW
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Posted: 28th Nov 2003 11:53
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Thanks a lot, u guys are seriously great. Where did you get all the info? Nice one. I'm going to try and elaborate on things a little:

In the 60's, as i mentioned, everything was Space Travel and Space Exploration. Ships were big and Silver, Rocket shaped, most often had 3 engines on the side of them, and almost always had the atom symbol on them (the one with 3 rings around a nucleus...you know what one i mean). Space was an empty opertunity, and early on people loved Space. Which led to games like Asteroids and Lunar Lander, which had no bad guys when you think about it. Then, there was the 80's, the year of Star Wars, Alien, and when Dr Who became a Craze. Games all turned towards the new sinister angle here, and most were about little people trying to save the world from alien invaders. There were so many of these games that people started to notice a distinct pattern, and thus the Stereotyped Space Shooter was born. I want to create a game based on the more high quality space shooter games. That's more or less the task i set myself at the start of the project. Now i have till Christmas to finish it all off and i have my Software Development Unit Check on 10th December and i havn't even started LEARNING, not Revising, the Software Development Course. So Argh. You guys and gals are making my life a lot easier, so thanks very much. Ok, here's a list of what i have so far:

Defender Atari ST,Amiga 1980
Blood Money ?
Xenon Atari ST,Amiga 1988
Captain Blood Atari 1988
Elite ?


And i hadn't thought of Tailgunner. That's a good example...ican use that one. That one had what you can only call very specific space battles so i can use that material in my Analysis and Design. Thanks all, if anyone has links to Emulators of these then i'd be much obliged if you could post a link. Thankee -Dave

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 28th Nov 2003 12:44
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Defender was an arcade machine before it was put onto the Atari ST and Amiga. A long time before!

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Posted: 28th Nov 2003 12:58 Edited at: 28th Nov 2003 12:59
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Indeed. Elite came out in 1984 by the way, on the BBC micro first.


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DivW
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Posted: 28th Nov 2003 18:28
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Rightyho...ammended list here:



I wanted to know if anyone minded if i were to post the Game Theory on the Forum, anyone interested in looking it over and making sure all the details are right? Was planning to use the design folio as a feature on my website, so having it checked over first would stop me from appearing like a complete fool if someting simple like saying Asteroids came out in 1999 instead of 1979 slipped through the net...onto the net, if you get my meaning.

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DivW
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Posted: 28th Nov 2003 18:28
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I really need to learn to break up my sentances.

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 28th Nov 2003 19:11
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Try Defender Williams 1980.

Williams made the Arcade machine.


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DivW
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2003 17:05
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Thanks Pincho. U've been a good help...i'm writting everything up now. If my laptop was plugged into the net then i'p load it so far, but it's defragging at the mo.

Goddam it i hate RM. their new computers don't allow users to execute EXE's, or copile, or ANYTHING, it's actually useless.

All you can do use use the internet, but not for very much stuff, because they have a stupid filter, and use MS office. I've really had it with them. Anyone got some info on bypassing the filter, or giving us all Admin Status, please post something here. Oh, and Shougster wants to know how to open SAM files, which contain passwords. That could allow us to execute EXE's and Run DB again.

I'm going nuts here. We're going to complain to the school tech. next time we see him.

Your soul...it tastes like chicken

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 00:43
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Let us know what marks we got for you...


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
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DivW
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 14:32
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I'll come back and tell you. But i gotta warn you, the info is only a paragraph in a project about 20-30 pages long. So dont be expecting greatness. But doing this for each project, a full feasability...in fact, i'm gonna make a new post, managering, have a look will you? But don't forget about this one, i'll post more on it as i have it..

PS: Malkavian, who does art for me, just designed the spaceship, it's frickin awesome. You're really gonna like it.

Your soul...it tastes like chicken

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