Xero - The Last Hope for Mankind

[DonaldEKnuth]

Nice entry. Though the slow up/down movement makes the game less fun, there is a reason that none of the "famous" shoot'em ups do this. Still, it's opinion and you choose how your game should work. Overall it's still nice!

[jojoh]

Cool game, enjoyed it quite a bit!

I am quite surprised that there aren't more shootemups in these compos, since it's always fun to play these. I haven't had the time to play it all that much yet, but I felt that the badies comes in VERY uneven bursts. At start of level 3 it seemed like it was just as many badies on the screen at once as it has been all together before in the game... Thinking that gradually see more and more badies that early in the game would be nice. Maybe I'll change my mind after a play a bit more, haven't made it past boss.

Nice looking and like the rate of bullets, makes you feel powerfull     Nice high pace and definitly good Andreline Booster 

[jbanes]

Though the slow up/down movement makes the game less fun, there is a reason that none of the "famous" shoot'em ups do this.

Actually, the best shoot'em ups of all time (e.g. Galaga, Zaxxon, Space Invaders) don't allow vertical movement at all!

I think if you go back to most shooters, you'll find that the vertical movement *is* different than the lateral movement. The only difference is that forward is usually faster than backwards. (Xevious, for example.) After the first comment,.I did try to accelerate the vertical movement slightly, but I wasn't happy with the results. Trust me, the game is more fun this way.

I am quite surprised that there aren't more shootemups in these compos, since it's always fun to play these.

There have actually been quite a few. Kapta's Alpha Shot 4K comes to mind. The second year saw a vertical vector graphics shoot 'em up, a twist on space invaders, a 360 degree "Spritey Shootey Game", and a loose clone of Defender. The catch is that they're much harder to fit in 4K than it would seem.

Nice looking and like the rate of bullets, makes you feel powerfull Nice high pace and definitly good Andreline Booster

Ah, good to see that the Adrenline Booster(TM) is in full operation. Just wait until you find the hidden heat seeking missiles!  (I kid, I kid)

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Malohkan]

Well I got on my Windows box and played it, yay!  I agree with the comments about the forward/back speed.  If you're going for the effect of already being at max thrust, well then why can't we hit the brakes and at LEAST go backward quickly?  I've seen games do that successfully.  Being limited so strongly just really takes away from the gameplay imo.

[jbanes]

FYI, there's a new version up on the server. This version includes a health bar for the boss. I had just enough space to add a special effect to the life bar, so all y'all will have to tell me what you think of it.

I've also ever-so-slightly tweaked the vertical thrusters. They aren't super-powerful like the lateral thrusters, but the changes might make them feel a bit more seamless.

[swpalmer]

Cool, but too fast, too hard.

[x30ice]

The boss bar is great!
Now the up/down movement is better too.
I past the boss with 1st live but then there are too many enemies imho (they took me all the lives without any pause).

ok,ok. You can stop looking for them. I just wished there are some...

LOL! That was actually pretty funny. Poor x30ice was probably looking frantically for them.

Well, if not homing missiles at least a double shot   

[Hansdampf]

welcome to da club!
where is the V.I.P bar?  hello Playboy Bunnies!

[Hansdampf]

by the way, I think you can kick the side movement completely - it is useless cause you can't move diagonal.
maybe that saves space for a smart bomb?

edit: oh! you actually can move diagonal... didnt use it.

[jbanes]

Finally! A player worthy of fame! Check the High Score Club in the manual, Hansdampf .

If you get a better score, feel free to report it, and I'll update your entry.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[DonaldEKnuth]

The game feels more fun now when veritcal movement is slightly faster. If there only were a PowerUp which made the ship move faster and one which game the ship more powerful bullets. Well, you can't have it all in 4k I guess.

[Morre]

Worked fine after restarting. Great game!

[jbanes]

If there only were a PowerUp which made the ship move faster and one which game the ship more powerful bullets. Well, you can't have it all in 4k I guess.

You can't? 

[Markus_Persson]

Very, very nice. =D

Hard, though. Or I suck.

[woogley]

tihs game is great! it's so polished and runs smooth. can we get this on Java Unlimited? I'd love to see the download count!

[jbanes]

Very, very nice. =D

Thanks, Markus.

Hard, though. Or I suck.

The next revision will contain a few minor tweaks that should help players keep in the game a smidge longer. It should also combat the Level 5itis of dying right after the big boss.

tihs game is great! it's so polished and runs smooth. can we get this on Java Unlimited? I'd love to see the download count!

I'll get it on JU soon. I need to prep a screenshot as well as a proper homepage, then I can submit it. These will probably wait until after the next release, which is Real Soon Now(TM).

BTW, I tried looking up JavaUnlimited the other day and it simply wasn't there. What happened? Now that it's back up, it looks like you're getting a few entries from non-JGO members. (e.g. Daleks4K, Road Kill, etc.) Considering the quality of some of these, you may want to get that link up to the Wiki page. See if we can't get these other competitors up to speed on what's possible.

[woogley]

ah, I almost forgot about the WIki. will link tonight you can go ahead and submit the game now, since you can just provide the homepage url later

[jbanes]

you can go ahead and submit the game now, since you can just provide the homepage url later

Alright. I've submitted it then. We'll see how it does.

[woogley]

well, I helped it out a little bit by changing your links in the first post to link to the download counter

(if that's fine with you)

now it'll be tiny bit more accurate. you might want to link it this way from your site just to see how many downloads its really getting

[jbanes]

well, I helped it out a little bit by changing your links in the first post to link to the download counter

(if that's fine with you)

That's fine. I was planning to do it myself anyway. A lot of people use JU's stats as a sign of how "cool" a program is. So anything to inflate them is good.

now it'll be tiny bit more accurate. you might want to link it this way from your site just to see how many downloads its really getting

I have those stats from my server. As of this post, there have been 222 downloads of the JNLP file, and 19 downloads of the JAR file. It seems the game is quite popular.

[size=20pt]New Release[/size]

I've just uploaded a new release to the server. This version has a variety of little tweaks to increase survivability in the game. i.e. I've slowed it down slightly and changed the difficulty of several of the ships. The changes are mostly minor and won't affect gameplay, but players might notice that they're surviving slightly longer. See the manual for exact details.

I've also added a powerup of sorts. Every time you defeat a boss, your refire rate will increase. This will allow you to hit more targets in a shorter time, as well as nail more enemies when you sweep the screen. (Don't you hate it when you sweep by an enemy and miss? Yep, that was intentional too. ) So let's see if we can get everyone out of the Level 5-itis, and get a few more entries on the High Score Club.

Webstart
Download JAR


P.S. Try playing the game with Cowgirl by Underworld playing in the background sometime. That'll keep the blood pumping!

[tom]

Highscore: 57820

Found the boss to be easier now. Great game btw.

[Markus_Persson]

A lot of people use JU's stats as a sign of how "cool" a program is.

Damn right! ;-)

[Malohkan]

Woo!  I like the update a lot.  It's much more playable for me now.... and although I still didn't get 50,000, I at least had a lot of fun

[f.l.x]

still unplayable in linux with 1.5 jvm 

[jbanes]

Tom, check the High Score Club in the manual.

Woo! I like the update a lot. It's much more playable for me now.... and although I still didn't get 50,000, I at least had a lot of fun

Glad the upgrade is having its intended effect. Did you get to the boss?

still unplayable in linux with 1.5 jvm

This surprises you? The fact that it's taken Sun two versions of Java to finally produce a fix (which still is only in 1.6 betas) is what surprises me. 

[Markus_Persson]

Tiny, tiny bug:

When there's an explosion thingie on the screen, the Score: and Life: texts also fade from white to black.

[jbanes]

Tiny, tiny bug:

When there's an explosion thingie on the screen, the Score: and Life: texts also fade from white to black.

That's actually not a bug. As we talked about earlier in the thread, I thought it was a nice attention-grabbing effect (it happens to coincide with your score updating), so I left it in. I asked if others thought it should stay or go, but no one responded. So I figured that it was a good effect. Never too late to give new feedback, though.

[Markus_Persson]

One of these days i really should start READING threads.

I thought it was intentional until I saw that the level text faded as well. :-)
Not exactly a showstopper.

[zulo]

I tried the game on my dads laptop first and it didnt get any playable fps..maybe 2fps

Its a Ferrari 3200 laptop with ati radeon mobility 9700 gfx card..

Anyway, I tried it on my own computer and it works very nice

Could you make the controls flow better, i think they were still a bit slow, and I think it would be better if we could choose the fire button..my space button is
pretty bad

*edit* space is good, didnt know i could just hold it in )) hehe

I noticed the bullets doesnt always hit the enemy ship even when it looks like it should have hit..and the enemy bullet always kills the player when he gets hit..maybe you could turn it around so the player has a very small hit rectangle or what you use..and the enemy always get hit..this way you can add more enemies and more explosions = more action without increasing the difficulty

[jbanes]

I tried the game on my dads laptop first and it didnt get any playable fps..maybe 2fps

Its a Ferrari 3200 laptop with ati radeon mobility 9700 gfx card..

Did you check the Speedstep performance stuff? I've noted on Apple Macs that they can be VERY slow if they're in battery mode. The Mac has a standard control panel that allows you to change the performance even on battery. I believe most PC Laptops, however, tend to handle the speedstep settings through a systray icon. (It's been awhile since I've used a PC Laptop, so I may be misremembering.)

Thanks for your feedback!