GALAGA ( Cancelled )

Sabnock

Member
A remake of an absolute classic.

one of the most successful arcade games of all time Galaga is a vertical shooter in the vane of space invaders but on steroids.

- cursor keys left & right
- space fire
- R restart room
- 1 or 2 jumps to that stage.
- ESC exit game

update 28/10/2016

done a fair bit of work on this over the last couple of weeks.

it now has

- fully functioning deployment engine.
- fully functioning tractor beam and capture routines.
- you can now have 2 ships.
- updated dive and path routines.
- a lot of old code ripped out and replaced with finite state machines.

all in all quite a bit of progress & re-coding has been achieved.

let me know what you think


LINK : http://www.mediafire.com/file/7k5muy8bmb4fuln/Galaga_AW.zip

Gal_1.JPG Gal_2.JPG Gal_3.JPG
 
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TheRaven81

Guest
is there any other way to test this out besides an exe? My PC keeps thinking it's a virus, none of the browsers will download it, the download fails due to virus detection... :(
 

Sabnock

Member
is there any other way to test this out besides an exe? My PC keeps thinking it's a virus, none of the browsers will download it, the download fails due to virus detection... :(
Mmmm, not sure what is going on there as my work and friends PC's have not had a problem with it. Out of interest what virus checker do you use and have had this issue with other files?

I will look into getting it onto html 5
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Use the ZIP option rather than creating a single runtime. Windows does NOT like the single runtime (although you can simply ignore the message and run it anyway by clicking Show Info and then Run Anyway).

As for the game, looks nice and plays well, but it needs more! After defeating the initial wave nothing happens... :(
 

Sabnock

Member
Use the ZIP option rather than creating a single runtime. Windows does NOT like the single runtime (although you can simply ignore the message and run it anyway by clicking Show Info and then Run Anyway).

As for the game, looks nice and plays well, but it needs more! After defeating the initial wave nothing happens... :(
Thanks Nocturne. It's still very early in it's development and I have lot of levels and features to add.

I am very pleased with it so far and should have an updated version over the weekend.

This will most likely be the last clone I do as I will have completed all the games I dreamed of making when I was a kid and have plans to start making a game of my own.

Andy
 

Roa

Member
This is one of the few classic iconic retro games I never could replicate well. The flight patterns are so tricky and I can't ever get out of my normal mindset on how to map them
 

Sabnock

Member
This is one of the few classic iconic retro games I never could replicate well. The flight patterns are so tricky and I can't ever get out of my normal mindset on how to map them
Hi Roa,

I 100% agree with you. Getting the patterns and speed right is key to making this game. I am studying the original closely ( read as playing galaga at work a lot ) and hope that I have made a good start. I'm a persistent sod and I have promised myself that I won't be beaten . The alien deployment code is in It's 3rd iteration already.

I have already completed the lay out for level 1 which I'll post later if anyone's is interested and am now working on the diving alien side of the game.

Thanks to all for the comments.
 

Sabnock

Member
This is one of the few classic iconic retro games I never could replicate well. The flight patterns are so tricky and I can't ever get out of my normal mindset on how to map them
I'd be interested in seeing what you did achieve and discussing how you went about doing it?
 

Sabnock

Member
lots of relative paths and maths put into timeline events. Two of the fewest resources I use, used at one time lol.
I started with maths and timeline but decided I was over complicating things so it now uses paths and an array. I build the array and pass it on to a instance that deploys the obj's stored in the array along a path that is also stored in the array along with other data such as speed etc. This then starts another instance that makes them settle into their designated spot in the pack which in turn creates another instance that is the main enemy. I also used place holder sprites that you can't see as targets for the swirling aliens to head towards and these get destroyed as the alien settles into it's position. Phew bent my brain lol.
 
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TheRaven81

Guest
got it this time! I used to play Galaga a LOT so some suggestions:
- see if you can make your target X's invisible(for the end of the bug's flight path)
- in the original arcade you were able to have 2 bullets on the screen at once, and yours is only allowing one.
- The star background should start already on the field, so it doesn't look like it comes down from the top covering a black background
- the ship doesn't look normal, it looks WAY too skinny, like it was scaled smaller on the x axis or something? This is the sprite from the ship in the Arcade version(@8x, since the sprite is 16x16, which is tiny and you'd strain your eyes trying to see that here):

It doesn't look the same as yours. The enemies have that effect too, in one of the animation frames - I understand it's supposed to be their "flapping wings as they move", but somehow it doesn't look right.

In general, though, it looks like a good start and I look forward to seeing the end product!
 
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Reactions: Roa

Sabnock

Member
got it this time! I used to play Galaga a LOT so some suggestions:
- see if you can make your target X's invisible(for the end of the bug's flight path)
- in the original arcade you were able to have 2 bullets on the screen at once, and yours is only allowing one.
- The star background should start already on the field, so it doesn't look like it comes down from the top covering a black background
- the ship doesn't look normal, it looks WAY too skinny, like it was scaled smaller on the x axis or something? This is the sprite from the ship in the Arcade version(@8x, since the sprite is 16x16, which is tiny and you'd strain your eyes trying to see that here):

It doesn't look the same as yours. The enemies have that effect too, in one of the animation frames - I understand it's supposed to be their "flapping wings as they move", but somehow it doesn't look right.

In general, though, it looks like a good start and I look forward to seeing the end product!
Hi TheReven81,

Thank you for the feed back. it's a classic game and i have spent hours playing it as well so i really want to respect it and get it right.

- The X's are only temporary so that i can see them to work with during development .
- good spot on the 2 bullets i will put that on the list of ever increasing number of things to do. and trust me its a big list :D
- same with the star background. its current form was just me testing how many sprites the game could handle without lag as every star is a sprite object. i will change it out once i am near completion.
- i agree on the ship and aliens. i think i am suffering from screen stretching with full screen mode and the aspect ratio has gone out of wack. the sprites match the originals pixel for pixel. another fix i need to sort.
- i'll study the animation and see where it is out. the animation is incomplete though and i need to put in the breath code so that the aliens move like the original which had the aliens expanding and contracting away and towards each other so maybe that is why it feels wrong.
 
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TheRaven81

Guest
- The X's are only temporary so that i can see them to work with during development .
ah ok, that's understandable.
- same with the star background. its current form was just me testing how many sprites the game could handle without lag as every star is a sprite object. i will change it out once i am near completion.
It's probably not a good idea to do it that way in the final version though - maybe you could make each layer a big scrolling Background image, and I know the stars "twinkle" or flash, so maybe there's a way to turn the visibility for that on and off with a controller and an alarm, maybe the same controller that you'd use for the score(eventually)? There's only... 4 colors (I think?) for the stars, so it'd be 4 scrolling images vs. so many instances of a star that is only serving as a background.
 

Sabnock

Member
ah ok, that's understandable.

It's probably not a good idea to do it that way in the final version though - maybe you could make each layer a big scrolling Background image, and I know the stars "twinkle" or flash, so maybe there's a way to turn the visibility for that on and off with a controller and an alarm, maybe the same controller that you'd use for the score(eventually)? There's only... 4 colors (I think?) for the stars, so it'd be 4 scrolling images vs. so many instances of a star that is only serving as a background.
Definitely, will be swapping it out for a more traditional background soon.
 

Sabnock

Member
got it this time! I used to play Galaga a LOT so some suggestions:
- see if you can make your target X's invisible(for the end of the bug's flight path)
- in the original arcade you were able to have 2 bullets on the screen at once, and yours is only allowing one.
- The star background should start already on the field, so it doesn't look like it comes down from the top covering a black background
- the ship doesn't look normal, it looks WAY too skinny, like it was scaled smaller on the x axis or something? This is the sprite from the ship in the Arcade version(@8x, since the sprite is 16x16, which is tiny and you'd strain your eyes trying to see that here):

It doesn't look the same as yours. The enemies have that effect too, in one of the animation frames - I understand it's supposed to be their "flapping wings as they move", but somehow it doesn't look right.

In general, though, it looks like a good start and I look forward to seeing the end product!
Fixed what you suggested. thanks for the feed back.

Andy
 

Sabnock

Member
The ship and enemies still look distorted
Yeah, i'm struggling to fix that. i may have to review the sprites but as i said the sprites match the original pixel perfect so it may be a aspect ratio thing even though i have keep aspect ratio ticked in the windows options.

anybody got any ideas on this one?
 
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TheRaven81

Guest
Yeah, i'm struggling to fix that. i may have to review the sprites but as i said the sprites match the original pixel perfect so it may be a aspect ratio thing even though i have keep aspect ratio ticked in the windows options.

anybody got any ideas on this one?
ah ok - well it still looks good so far, I noticed the bullets fired from the ship changed to the actual ones, though the enemies are firing them too - which is not right.
 

Sabnock

Member
ah ok - well it still looks good so far, I noticed the bullets fired from the ship changed to the actual ones, though the enemies are firing them too - which is not right.
thanks, I have lots of temporary sprites in the game at the moment I will put the correct ones and the sounds in near the end.

I am currently working on the dive routines. I have the basics of one coded already but it needs lots of work. I've updated the link with what I have done so far.
 

Sabnock

Member
updated,

done a fair bit of work on this over the last couple of weeks.

it now has

- fully functioning deployment engine.
- fully functioning tractor beam and capture routines.
- you can now have 2ships
- updated dive and path routines.
- a lot of old code ripped out and replaced with finite state machines.

all in all quite a bit of progress & re-coding has been achieved.

let me know what you think

Link : http://www.mediafire.com/file/7k5muy8bmb4fuln/Galaga_AW.zip
 
J

jackhigh24

Guest
wow this is so well put together i love it, sure does fell like im back in the old days but plays even smoother, top job.
 

Sabnock

Member
wow this is so well put together i love it, sure does fell like im back in the old days but plays even smoother, top job.

Thanks Jackhigh24.

I know that currently it is too much a clone but i intend to make it as accurate as i can and then swap out the graphics and patterns and call it something different.

Not sure if i am going to release it or just use it as exercise in learning. i have learned a lot about GML, GMS and programming structure from doing it so it has that going for it.
 

Sabnock

Member
ok, have decided to scrap this clone as there seemed to be little interest.

I am using the base code for something that is similar but hopefully of a little more of interest.
 
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Cloga

Guest
Hey Sabnock - any chance you could re-upload the files please?

That mediafire link is dead and knowing what you've done to create the enemy movement paths would help my understanding heaps.
 
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