Fractalus 0.6.0 alpha build is now available for download from the Fractalus project page.
Here’s what’s new in 0.6.0;
- Terrain is no longer quite so steep
- HUD redesign (Wing clearance, Enemy lock-on, Dangerous Altitude, More accurate to original HUD)
- Options have been added (Inverted Y, Dust, High-res terrain, Screen settings)
- Ship now auto-levels while flying
- Returning to mothership now aligns your ship correctly before boosting
- Turrets now use beam weapons instead of bolt weapons
- Turrets can now lock on to you to get a more accurate shot
- Turrets no longer attempt to fire through terrain
- Turrets now only spawn on high points on the terrain
- Targetting scope/viewscreen now has a constrained FOV like the original
- Added flying saucers that appear in the distance, chase you and attempt to crash into your ship
- Camera jitter added, for extra impact with explosions
If you have any thoughts, comments or feedback, head over to the forum and post them!
Enjoy!
[…] the original 8-bit game has aged somewhat, a remake is currently available as a playable alpha that does a faithful job of recapturingย the spirit and gameplay of the Atari original. The […]
I have fond memories of the original and I appreciate you remaking it. I ran into a couple of things that I thought I’d point out:
1) When you crash, is there anyway to resume without hitting ESC and restarting level? Seems like it takes too long to get going having to restart completely each time.
2) It would be nice to get a confirmation prompt when hitting the button to return to the Mothership. I accidentally hit it and had to wait for the whole animation when all I really wanted to do was play.
3) It would also be nice to have a button to skip some of the animations, in particular the whole starting sequence. I like it and it is cool, but I would prefer to get back into the game and not have to watch the sequence over and over.
Overall I thought this was very cool!
Hey Dan!
1) From what I recall of the original, crashing resulted in having to restart the level. As I’m keeping this remake faithful to the original for now, I’ve implemented it the same way. On taking too long going through the sequences, I agree it can get tedious if it happens too often.
2) In the original you could only use that option when the mothership was in range, which I haven’t yet implemented in the remake. I should add the ability to cancel returning to the mothership once it has been initiated though.
3) I agree on having a button to skip the sequences. Truth be told, while I’m working on the remake I actually have a button that speeds them up so I can get into the game quicker to test changes ๐
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll add these items to the list for the next build ๐
– Luke
[…] There’s even a fan in Australia who is working on his own modern remake for the game and has an Alpha release out for […]
I’m impressed! Great job. Same quiet suspense and mystery as the original.
hi.. i have windows 8 64bit..
AMD PHENOM II X4 3GHZ
4GB RAM
ATI RADEON HD 4250..
extreeeeemly slow… :/ – in 1024px..
Hey w1k,
I haven’t yet had a chance to test on Windows 8 – this might be a factor in the poor performance. I’ve tested on graphics chips in a similar class to the HD 4250 and found the performance to be acceptable, though quite suboptimal. I haven’t tested on a recent ATI/AMD chip though (the most recent Radeon I have is a 9800XT from 2003), so there may be some hardware-specific issues that I haven’t been able to test for.
Beyond the hardware, Fractalus’ implementation certainly has room for optimisation on the graphics end (terrain LOD-ing, for example), so future builds should see some more optimised rendering ๐
Thanks for the feedback!
– Luke
hey, thanks for reply..
i dont know if its problem with rendering terrain, or else.. complete game is slow, main menu too..
good luck ๐
i cant wait.. its my favourite game.. i have atari 800xe ๐
Hi,
It runs smooth on my Asus G73 (ATI5870M).
At this time, the only “complain” I could tell is that the launch after landing is very strong.. quite often I eat the cliff and crash ! ๐
I’m really looking forward to the improvements you’ll add in the next version (for example, a more realistic atmospheric entry ?)
Never thought about making a dev diary ? I find this always interesting.
Anyway, thanks a lot for your work, it’s great !
Hello,
when it goes on with the project?
Are there any difficulties or there is no more desire?
Regards
Tom
Hey Tom,
The project is still being worked on as my time allows, and there is certainly still desire to work on it. The only difficulty is in finding time.
– Luke