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Geek Culture / Lunar Lander - Would a Remake Work?

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soapyfish
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 01:52 Edited at: 24th Sep 2005 02:04
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Hey all,
I've been trying to think of a decent game to do a really nice remake of, hopefully I'll get this one finished.

I was going to do Juno First but was having a scrat around the internet and found Lunar Lander, now then, anyone whose played this game you'll know just how great it is.

The idea behind the game is simple. You have a small spaceship which, using only rotation, thrusters and a limited fuel supply you have to land on one of a few designated zones, the smaller the zone, the more points you get.

Here's a screenie



It looks, and sounds, simple but believe me, and I'm sure anyone who's played it will agree, those few simple lines command an amazing amount of tension and suspense as you see your little craft float gently to the moons surface and there's nothing better than a dollop of tension to make a game fun (IMO).

My question is, would a remake actually work. I've just played Lunar Lander for the first time in years thanks to MAME but am I the only person who still enjoys this kind of game. Are gamers to-day more interested in blasting as many aliens as possible in as shorter time as possible, or are games that require patience still greeted with open arms? And does it WANT to be re-made or is it the simplicity of the graphics that go towards making it so much fun.

Please note, I wouldn't be making it fully 3d, at most 3d from a 2d perspective.

I still haven't worked everything out, for example, in the arcade version as your fuel ran out you could feed more coins into the machine whilst playing to give you more fuel. This is a great idea but, because of the absence of coin slots, I'm going to have to work out a different method for my remake. And this, I'm sure, will be one of the deciding factors on whether or not anyone likes it.

Opinions welcome. Thanks in advance.

EDIT:: He he, just as I pressed the post button this months newsletter appeared in my inbox including a short article on retro games and re-making them. Ah well, I'll stick with Lunar Lander for now anyway.

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Louiz ofRohr
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 02:04 Edited at: 24th Sep 2005 23:27
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Quote: "are games that require patience still greeted with open arms?"


I love this kind of game.. but only when it makes me spend not so long time..
I liked lander.. ^^ And I think you could remake it with success.. But you must add more
difficult things.. yep.. people actually rather play games with many things happening
at the same time.. so you could put some enemies.. and only one target to land on
well.. items to collect.. shooting..

I don't know.. remakes aren't for me ^^
But would like to play the remake of this one..

.edit.
you know that 'new' doesn't mean good..
I still play that old windows Ski game some times ^^
did you remember that one? That's really funny
.edit.
I said Sky instead of Ski lol

good luck

The worst foe lies within the self..
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soapyfish
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 02:07 Edited at: 24th Sep 2005 02:08
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Quote: "people actually rather player games with many things happening
at the same time.. so you could put some enemies.. and only one target to land on well.. items to collect.. shooting.."



Hmmm,
I could include two modes, one could be old skool with just the simple fly and land objective and then there could be a second mode with moving platforms, targets to shoot (for more fuel maybe) and other things.

Y'see one person replies and I already get more ideas. Thanks Louiz ofRohr

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 02:34
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I always kinda hated Lunar Lander I thought Thrust was a much better variation of it - try using some of those elements too perhaps?

The best game of that kind ever was Oids by FTL. But also Grav and Grav 2 were great. Erf.. so many memories

People don't quit playing because they grow old.
They grow old because they quit playing.
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Benjamin
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 02:35
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Quote: "
The best game of that kind ever was Oids by FTL. But also Grav and Grav 2 were great. Erf.. so many memories
"

Yey, Grav 2 was a great game.

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soapyfish
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 15:08 Edited at: 24th Sep 2005 15:14
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Thanks for your input.

I've tried an on-line version of thrust (and liked it ) but have had trouble finding either an on-line or downloadable version of both grav 2 and oids. If anyone can help it'd be much apperciated.

EDIT:: Ooh, I think I've just found oids

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Me!
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 15:44 Edited at: 24th Sep 2005 15:45
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I remember the original lunar rescue, same plot as lunar lander but you had to set down on these "pads" and then people ran over to the lander, got in and you had to fly to the top of the screen and dock with a mothership to offload em, they where all waiting at the side of the screen to be rescued with "help" flashing on and off above their heads.

later levels had enemy ufo`s, fuel pickups, meteorites, clouds that hid the ship, astroid belts scrolling across the screen etc etc, with inertia and limited fuel it could get pretty tense, I spent hours playing that game.



to avoid the consequences of global warming, get into a car and join millions of other people in burning millions of gallons of fuel in a huge traffic jam.
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soapyfish
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 15:54
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Thanks, I've just tried Lunar Resuce.

There's certainly nothing wrong with any of the games but I don't think I'll be able to fit all the aspects of every game into a single re-make.

I think it's best to make the main game and then take whatever ideas I couldn't fit in and make mini games out of them, to un-lock as you play.

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geecee3
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 16:00 Edited at: 24th Sep 2005 16:01
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soapyfish, lander rocks. you should remake it. go for it.


BTW, i pwn at juno first

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
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Jeku
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Posted: 24th Sep 2005 23:15
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I love Lunar Lander--- I play every version I come across I especially liked the one on the game The Dig by LucasArts. Your astronaut dude had a wrist communicator that had the lander game built in. The cool thing was it started zoomed out, then when you got close the mountainside it zoomed it.

I also agree that Oids is perhaps one of the best games out there, but it's not anything like Lunar Lander. I love the fact that in Lunar Lander you have to gently land, at less than a certain speed, to avoid crashing.

And just my 2 cents, if you're going to remake the game, you shouldn't place enemies in them. Part of the fun was just navigating to the platforms and trying to conserve fuel.

When I first got PlayBasic I was working on a remake, myself, but only got as far as controlling the ship. It's also wireframe-like graphics like the original.

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 25th Sep 2005 01:28
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I think you need to revamp the game a lot. Maybe make it into some sort of an 18 hole golf course...

Just an idea...


Pincho.

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soapyfish
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Posted: 25th Sep 2005 01:34
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Thanks to everyone for the input,

I'm pretty certain now that the finished game will have 2 modes, one will just be a game almost ideantical to the original, no flashy graphics or alternative objectives, the second will have some decent graphics and maybe the odd moving obstacle, no enemies but maybe targets you can try and shoot for extra fuel, stil haven't planned everything. And if I have the patience, absolutely stacks of mini-games.

This two mode type game is the sort of thing I always plan for my remakes, but never got round to finishing them because I run out of enthusiasm after a few weeks.

Anyway, enough talk. It's about time I actually coded something with this strange object you people call darkBASIC. I think it looks like this ->

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