Xevious demo 1

[Shockman]

Beta 6

F1 for keys.

C or CTRL - shoot
You can bomb either to the left with the Z key or to the right with the B key, or ALT, whichever you prefer.

You can also use a joystick

Keypad + will jump to the next area, and back to 7 after 16, but turn off high score saving.
Keypad - will go back 1 area, but turn off high score saving.
I on the title screen, will give you invincibility, but turn off high score saving.
L on the title screen, will give you infinite lives, but also turns off high score saving.
F5 on the title screen, will show then hidden tower locations during the game.
F6 on the title screen, will show the hidden flag locations during the game.
F7 during the game, will turn off the background sound.

Download at YoYo games
http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/200751-xevious

[Shockman]

Most notable,

- A 5 ship game now.
- Where you die on a level determines where your next ship will spawn. If near the end of the area, you will spawn at the start of the next area, otherwise you will spawn at the start of the area you died in and all objects will be re-set.
- P to Pause.
- Defaults to a window (448x640). You can drag it bigger or smaller, but the play-area will maintain it's aspect ratio. F4 to toggle window/full screen.
- Added custom icon and loading bar.
- more sounds, more text presentation, more animation.
- speed adjustments

Area 14 is my object testing grounds, so you never know what you will find there.

[Shockman]

Mostly interface work. Making it more playable.

- The problem with the closest objects is sorted
- Proper scoring values, except the dynamic elements that are not yet in
- Extra ship every 25,000 points
- Flag positions are now random (on their fixed plane)
- 5 seconds of invisibility at re-spawn. This because the starting point is at the start of the level instead of a full-screen forest.
- High score saved. No table yet, just one high score.
- Pressing L on the title screen will give infinite lives.
- Made the Andor Genesis sound stop when it should.



I'm currently working on paths for the Domograms (the circular tanks), the Grobdas (tanks), and some of the flying units.

I am drawing a blank in my search for level maps past 4. I'm thinking though that I might just start over on the level lay-outs and make all original levels.

[Shockman]

It's up at YoYo, as a finished game. There is still more to do, but it is playable as a full game as it is.

- I got the roving tanks moving correctly on the road.
- Added the shooting stars, and the Brag Zakatos (the black balls with a red center that shoot 8 shots at a time).
- More animations.
- Every object is in this game except one, the squares that flank the ship and then split and move up.

Hopefully the difficulty progression is logical. Every level after 5 is completely original. Moving ground targets (the two types of tanks) are not painted by the cross-hairs, but I intend to devise a system that will do that. I also need to create a lot more flying object paths for variety. Most noticeable is the re-spawn which should put you at the bottom of a full screen forest in relative safety, but instead puts you at the start of the level. That's why I give a 5 second invincibility at re-spawn. I do intend to see about adding that forest, but if not, there is no forests that big on the map anyway. Maybe I will put you at the top of the level before, below the transition, if there is enough safety there.

Intentional changes, besides those that I had to make, include tank tracks the animate up and down depending on the direction of the tank, and a smoother animated Sol tower with a simi-transparent shadow. Even if I could re-create the game arcade perfect, I think those things would remain.


http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/200751-xevious

[Shockman]

I re-uploaded it. I fixed a problem with the high-score, made it not work if you have skipped levels, and added a function to clear it (F12 at title screen).

[Ike Savage]

i'm a big fun of SHMUPS, and this is close to the grand-daddy of them all. maybe it really is the very first vertical one with elaborate sequences of enemies and stages.

i mean, "eagle," "astro blaster" and "astro fighter" were from around the same time (1982) but were all far simpler IMO.

"tac/scan" had similar complexity, vector-style, but may or may not have come first. what do you guys think? kristian?

anyway, thanks for sharing, and i'll check it out tonight. right now i think i'll head over to bob's BBB to chat, if you or anyone else is around...

[Shockman]

Tac Scan was also '82. I have no idea which was first.

A mod. at YoYo, who is also a friend, gets a 'Unexpected error' message with this. I have tested it on one other computer and there was no issue, except the background for the title page, which is just a solid color, was lighter on his monitor.

I have managed to add target painting for the moving ground targets (the targeting reticle flashes). I also added 3 more patterns for the Toroids. I also found level maps for the whole game, though the 7800 version, it seems to be laid out the same as the arcade version, and have the ground targets laid out to level 7. The problem with going farther is the off road patterns that the circular roving tanks make on some levels. I can replicate the patterns, but can not yet get them synced as a group. If I can work this out I can clone the levels, not that that is the best idea.

I still need to create correct paths for most of the other flying units, put hot spots on the big ship so I can shoot out the guns, as well as bring it down, and it needs a better path too, and make shooting the Zolbaks have an effect on the AI of the enemy.

[StevOz]

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

i'm a big fun of SHMUPS, and this is close to the grand-daddy of them all. maybe it really is the very first vertical one with elaborate sequences of enemies and stages.

i mean, "eagle," "astro blaster" and "astro fighter" were from around the same time (1982) but were all far simpler IMO.

"tac/scan" had similar complexity, vector-style, but may or may not have come first. what do you guys think? kristian?

anyway, thanks for sharing, and i'll check it out tonight. right now i think i'll head over to bob's BBB to chat, if you or anyone else is around...

Defender wins hands down...(1981), although not vertical, it was just so much more advanced, with no 2 games ever playing the same.

Defender sees a single player charged with the mission of protecting the Humanoid race - who are currently stranded on an alien planet - from their alien abductors in this legendary, side-scrolling shoot-em-up. Each of the game's levels are occupied by a large number of aliens that will try to capture the Humanoids from the planet's surface and take them to the top of the play area; if an alien succeeds in carrying its victim out of the level and beyond the player's range, the captured Humanoid will mutate into an alien and join them in their assualt on mankind. If an alien is destroyed AFTER it has captured a Humanoid but before it reaches the top of the play area, the Humanoid will fall towards the ground and must be captured and returned to the planet's surface before they fall to their death. An on-screen scanner aids the player in showing the location of the many aliens and their ships in relation to the player's current position.

The challenge becomes more intense as the action progresses, with fighter ships (Bombers) and mines further testing the player's skills. A direct hit will destroy a mother ship (Pods) but will cause it to break into a swarming mass of mini-ships (Swarmers) which also must be destroyed. If the player does not act quickly enough, the Cosmic Baiter will attack. As well as the ever-present laser, the player's ship is also equipped with a limited number of 'Smart Bombs' - although their power is limited - and a 'Hyperspace' function, which will warp the player's ship to an unknown part of the level. If all of the Humanoids are abducted, the entire planet will be destroyed.

- TRIVIA -

Along with Namco's seminal "Pac-Man", Defender shares the title of 'Highest Grossing Video Game of All Time' and to date has earned more than one billion dollars. It's interesting to note that when the now-legendary shoot-em-up was first shown at a 1981 Chicago arcade machine trade show, it was deemed to be a flop due to its high level of difficulty. Arcade industry insiders confidently predicted that both Defender and "Pac-Man" would be commercial flops and that Namco's "Rally X" would be the next major arcade success.

Defender's attract mode for the game was programmed in just five hours.

Defender was noted for both its superb sound and visual effects and, moreover, for its extremely demanding gameplay. This didn't, however, stop players from accumulating millions of points when playing the game. Just minutes after the opening of the AMOA - an arcade industry trade show - Eugene Jarvis and his team - Defender's creators - were burning new ROMs for the game's display due to the fact they plugged the first burn into the board BACKWARDS and fried them. Due to the intimidating controls, hardly anyone at the show played the game and there were even rumours circulating suggesting that both "Pac-Man" and Defender would flop and that Namco's "Rally X" would be the next big hit. Not only did Defender have the highest number of controls (five buttons, in addition to a two-way joystick) but it was also the first video game to feature an artificial 'world', in that game events occured OUTSIDE the on-screen viewing area presented to the player.

[StevOz]

Although if we must go vertical, I'd select Exerion (1982).

[Ike Savage]

yep-- horizontal meant vertical, and vertical meant horizontal, and trapezoidal meant rhomboidal, and thousands of mathematics professors became excellent stephen hawking research fellows, only that i still don't understand a godamn thing that they say... teehee!

[StevOz]

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

yep-- horizontal meant vertical, and vertical meant horizontal, and trapezoidal meant rhomboidal, and thousands of mathematics professors became excellent stephen hawking research fellows, only that i still don't understand a godamn thing that they say... teehee!

Then I select Time Pilot (1982).

[StevOz]

Ah Ok I'm guessing you mean vertical scrolling shooters?

In which case I'd have to say Xevious was worthy of a few games, still never really felt it worthy of more then a few plays. Never liked rope leant games move here shoot that and do it in the right order and it will be exactly the same next time you play..

I'd argue Space Invaders was a far better game as a vertical scrolling shooter, although a few rope learned techniques could be applied, it would take a lot more skill and I doubt even the best of players had 2 games that played exactly the same.

[Shockman]

The most Xevious playing I ever did was the last two weeks, for observation as a resource. As I said, it was not a favorite of mine. However, attempting to recreate these things gives an intimate knowing. Though the exact same play will have the same response, Xevious does have an adaptive AI system. It's just that the exact same play will trigger the same responses. This is true of many games. If you get to the point where your Xevious games are exactly the same, you have probably had your fill of Xevious.

You might be surprised how much I have used a random command in this game. Many games of this era had their random number generators seeded, as you know, 'Oz, making the game intentionally as you described as roped. I doubt that that was always a wish, but instead a necessity, because a game first and foremost has to be fair, and balanced. It would be nice, don't you think, if one of the standard MAME cheats was a re-seeding, or elimination of the seed.


The latest I added is another random element. The Zoshi, which are the round enemy with the cogged ring, which I had coming straight down, now come in at a random vector and change direction at a random time. I also added more paths for the Torkans, and the right sound for the indestructible 'mirrors' being hit.

I go to great lengths to avoid having to seed the generator. Only two game I have made so far have this. Anyway you cut it though, not seeding puts an element of unfairness in the game. It's nice to have variety in your games, but it is not nice to have variety in our games, as the high-score table would then be meaningless.

I'd argue about Space Invaders with you for sure, on every point, except it being better, that is too subjective, but it is not my belief. As far as less roped, I think they have about the same amount of element to address this, but by design are both roped, and the best players, I don't know, they certainly can play the same game, if they want to, with exception of some dodging, but Xevious the same.

The Sol towers for example, they are not randomly placed, but at the beginning it is certainly a random process of finding them, and they score 4000 points each, if you destroy them. Flags are randomly placed and score 1000 points and give an extra ship unless set to give 10,000 points. This is a lot of points considering the most common enemy, the Toroids, are only worth 30 points each.

Xevious was a ground breaking game. The graphics are very detailed and pseudo light-sourced. It had detailed background above anything else, and add the dynamic AI, color cycling, and animation, and Defender, a great game, Space Invaders, and most of its' contemporarys could not touch it, in my opinion.

[Shockman]

The next version will have a large amount of additional animation, and variety in the motion.

- The 'mothership' (Xevious had the first 'boss' that I know of as well) moves damn near arcade behavior.
- The Grobdas are pretty much dialed in. There are 4 types of behaviors. 1) Static, 2) Static that change to moving when painted, 3) Moving at start that dodge the targeting by stopping or moving down, and 4) Static that attempts to dodge the targeting by moving up and down.
- Toroids now have a very subtle speed randomness.
- Zoshis as mentioned is very close.
- Tarkans exit at any direction.
- The Jaras have their subtle arc.

- Some of the patterns for the roving tanks that they do off-road are done.
- Added the Zakato pattern where it comes straight down. (this is the usual behavior when they are not protecting the Andor Genesis)
- Added the Brag Zakato sound.
- Sol towers redesigned to come straight up.
- Boza Lograms redesigned from a single unit with multiple hit points to a central unit and actual Lograms. This leaves the joining stem when a Logram section is destroyed.

[kristian]

Xevious is the most legendary vertical shooter without a doubt... it created an entire genre. It was the first and foremost... and the graphics were sensational for its era... it had a HUGE impact.

It's completely crazy and ignorant to claim that it doesn't have any depth or lastability... I remember when a guy in our arcade first get to 1st Detector Domes and the big explosion (before 2nd mothership)... it was amazing. That Peruvian Nazca landscape created a lot of "mystique" too. I completed the game just recently... now I have a high score of over 1.000.000 points (clocked the game twice) with the default dip switches... but that took years of playing to achieve it.

It still has a huge cult following in Japan... and those sequels (that still come out) prove what kind of effect it had on gaming. They even made an opera based on Xevious...

Ok... Defender is in the same league (along with Stargate)...but mentioning Exerion in the same sentence with Xevious... come on...!! Space Invaders was revolutionary... but it was revolutionary like a T-Ford.... can't be compared to a '65 Fastback Mustang.

Wikipedia (Links)

Xevious

PS Shocky: How do you redefine the keys for this? Shoot button should be in LEFT CTRL, bomb in ALT. It's completely unplayable for me with those crazy shoot/bomb keys.

And here's the amazing XEVIOUS music & background sound for you... how can you NOT love it?

ゼビウス　ナãƒ*コ（１９８４） xevious namco - YouTube

[Shockman]

I don't have a key mapping routine in this yet. You must have big hands. CTRL and ALT is quite a spread for my fingers. Besides, I don't understand how C and B would make much difference. I'll add the layout you like as well on the next release though. I had already planned to make addition keys work, including a left hand set in case anyone was more comfortable moving with the left and action on the right.

What rom revision have you played? All that I know of will not roll over, but gets to 9,999,990 points. Or by clocking do you mean cycle through the 16 levels twice? I don't think you can get to 1,000,000 point that way though, you would have to cycle through the map a few times for that.

I added a boat. I can not make an arcade perfect version in a year, so I thought I had licence to do that. It is a fast boat, but putts along until you paint it, then it speeds up. It matches the graphics well being modeled mainly by the Grobda's body. It's called an Ogto.

I also added a score listing (two screens) to the attract mode. They're animated, and have sound.

I added CTRL and ALT and corrected the spelling of Citadel.

[kristian]

No... I meant that I cycled 2x 16 areas... and you get about 500K per round.

Area 16 is very tough... I usually lose about 5-6 ships there... and sometimes I lose ships also in the 3rd mothership (after the 2nd sea).

I have played all standard MAME shooters with CTRL/ALT.... I simply can't play Xevious with other buttons...

[Ike Savage]

1366x768 seems to mean that some of the top and bottom of the xevious PF goes off my visible screen. for example, if i push down on the arrow keys, the ship disappears below the edge of my laptop screen. instead, could you force the game to pick the res it wants?

second- the ship is gliding around too fast. unfortunately i don't have xevious working with my working MAME version to absolutely confirm, nevertheless i'm pretty sure the ship responds more quickly in all directions than it did in the original. perhaps just measuring current movement against the movement on a xevious youtube video would be sufficient to calibrate. *shrug*

[Shockman]

The resolution is 448x640. Did you try pressing F4? That toggles window and full-screen. It uses everyones monitor resolution to set up that the correct aspect ratio stretched to fit usually top and bottom. My understanding is if you had a VESA monitor it would fit to the sides. Anyway that's how it is suppose to work, and does in testing. I have not tested on a lap-top, or anything other than a 16/10 for that matter. I could understand if i was using a larger drawing surface than the display, like with Lunar Gravitar, but I expected no problems using a stretched low resolution. I will see what I can do. Your aspect ratio is 16/9 then?

The ship is a bit faster, but only a little. I made is as slow as I like already, but I can address this by variable, or another build.

Possibly off point, I sustain a constant 60 FPS throughout and a display that is updating at 60, and i will double check, but I believe I have this set to sync to the refresh whatever it is. It may be enough to just force the 60 refresh. Am I correct that all displays would accept this?

The time line is set by the cycles and no real time calculations in this dev. kit. If I set the games time function to 30 it would run exactly half speed, for example.

A new version will be out soon. Maybe today. It will mark a crossroad in this development. Everything that will be missing will be things that are very difficult, or impossible for me to implement. This means attack patterns will be off, some placements will be off, AI and some other things as well.

[Shockman]

Version 2 is Up at YoYo Games.

Besides what I mentioned above it has a shooting delay if the keys or buttons are held, but you can fire as fast as you can press/release/press.

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/200751-xevious

[Shockman]

My apologies, especially to Ike. The keyboard routine had fell behind and had slower settings. I use a joypad and did set the keys to match, but it looks like that build did not get a make.

The speed is fixed and up. I will address the display issue such as Ike has as soon as I get a clue.

The new version also has a game-play demo as part of the attract mode now.

[Shockman]

Damnit, I had the shooting stars setting the score to 100 instead of adding 100 to the score. I figured that out when I had a good game and a score of 2500.

Fixed that and took the sound out of the demo mode. Also slowed down the bullet speed on quite a few objects. It's still too early to tell if it is too hard, but I'm pretty sure it is not too easy.

[Ike Savage]

actually, i really like the increase in speed on a personal level. was just commenting from the POV of authenticity. the original always did feel kind of molasses-like, which was definitely kind of annoying.

tried F4 windowed mode and the ship is still allowed to go way down off the screen. i was so far down that only the sprites for the shots and bombs were visible at the very end of their exploding sequence. weird, huh? somehow on this system / graphics card i guess the ship is allowed to break the lower Y limit, or something. again, i don't mind at all as a game-player. it was purely a comment from the software-tester side.

side-question: how did you manage to recreate all the plethora of buildings and enemy positions? that seems like such an ungodly huge chore that my hat's totally off to you. if it was me i probably would have saved sanity and created some kind of randomisation routine to place the stuff.

btw, i just realised you should be able to get tonnes of exposure / feedback / plaudits if you send your stuff over to a couple of key sites in the recreations / retro remakes scene. try this one, for a start:
http://retroremakes.com/nostalgia/

seriously, your innovative lunar gravitar game in particular is bound to fascinate that community in particular. no idea why that didn't occur to me earlier, since i used to follow that scene religiously five years ago or so.

[Shockman]

We can determine if the ship to dropping too low, or if the screen is cropped. Can you see the ships icon that show the remaining ships? There is a row of 4 to start with at the vary bottom of the screen. Can you see the red namco logo below the white copyright line on the title screen? Also at the title screen you can press I or L and that letter will appear at the very bottom right of the screen. There is also a way to get 'Shockman' to appear on screen (at the bottom) but I would not make that public.

IKE,
I think the version posted here would be worth a try. I tested it on 1360x768 (by setting my monitor to that. It is set to keep it's pixel format. No scaling is done on it and it is a window (448x640).

I briefly considered randomness, but it would require way too many bounding boxes to avoid the water, roads, and forest. I have a you tube video of a complete game that I use for reference. I also have exact maps of the ground targets, less towers and flags, for the Atari home console version and the placement appears to be the same. Air units are a guess, but a close approximation based on observation.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. I think I have been to that one. It depends on how much of purists they are if they would like these or not.

Beta 3 changes,
- Max lives increased to 22. This fills the bottom width of the screen with extra ships.
- Andor Genesis. You can now shoot out each gun port. The center still takes them all out as well as brings down the ship.
- Fixed bugs in high score.
- Switched the targeting to the same routine I made for the moving targets. This eliminated the need to put a trigger the exact distance below each object. It will also make a level editor for this game easier, though there are other bridges to cross.
- More area layouts changed. As far as ground objects, they were changed to the arcade layouts. 1-8, 14, 15, and 16 have correct ground layout
- Terrazi. Doubled the paths for that. It now leaves the screen (after shooting) while gaining altitude. It's a nice looking flight

Edit,
.b, I went to that site. They all seem to have a twist to them. They might like some of my work, I don't know.

[Shockman]

Kristian,

Am I correct in assuming that the ground targets are laid out the same each time the map cycles, and the air targets change?

[Shockman]

I reconstructed a big part of the engine.

The area played is approximately 75,000 pixels vertically (Each area is about 4700). The way it continues as smoothly as it does is that each area will scroll to the end then switch to a new drawing surface. The first part of the new surface is identical to the last part of the previous one. The objects that share in this transition are drawn in each (on both surfaces). The new routine that handles this uses much less code and far fewer objects.

- Most levels besides a couple have approximately correct ground object layout.
- The boat fires a homing missile. There is just one in the game. It will detonate after a time, if it does not hit you.
- Many tweaks to objects paths, speed, animations, and fire rate.
- Changes to demo mode.

Posted here in first post in this thread. The final will be the next to be published at YoYo.

[kristian]

Originally Posted by Shockman

Kristian,

Am I correct in assuming that the ground targets are laid out the same each time the map cycles, and the air targets change?

Yes.

Also the hidden towers... they're always the same. S-flags are in the same place every time.... but their exact location is chosen randomly.

PS: The game doesn't work for me... it pauses the game in every 10 seconds and I can't even quit it.... I had to quit it through task manager 4 times before it closed down... it also runs in a window for me.

[Shockman]

Strange. Is it an actual pause (with the word 'Pause' in the middle of the screen)? If so something is sending that key code to your system. Not that it would help this, but pressing F4 will switch to full screen. It's reading a joystick, even if you are not using it, but they would not send the phantom stroke I think.

If the game is actually performing the pause function on it's own, it could probably be fixed. If it is locking up, maybe not. The most common problem of this sort is a usb device I think.

The only two machines I have tested it on are AMD 64 running Win 7 64. I have 8 gig ram and the other test unit has 8 as well. It maintains the target 60 FPS on both.

[kristian]

Yeah....pressing F4 fixed it....!!

Nice work with the animations.... the game looks good.....however I'm not sure if I like the "floating" ship physics. It's very difficult to make exact ground target shots when the ship is moving like it was controlled by a drunkard.

[Shockman]

I don't understand. It moves for me exactly as it does with MAME. I use a steelseries rumble pad for control.