Berzerk MMX

TBCVIC · Post by **TBCVIC** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:41 am

He's just slacking here I guess, he's made some posts on another forum today.
Hm, seems he hasn't posted here for a month? Strange, I'll reprimand him

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:58 am

TBCVIC wrote:He's just slacking here I guess [...]

That's not it.

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:22 pm

Wow, what a flurry of feedback! Thanks.

For the 16kb version with voice, I decided to reduce the word count from 9 to 6 (the other 3: attack, charge, and shoot sounded the worse to me), re-sampled at a higher rate of 5760 instead of 4000, and reduced the volume level for sound effects from 15 (highest) to 3 (low). There is a startup message hinting to turn your volume control up high, then you must press any key to continue.

I think the quality of the digitized voices are only slightly improved, but for 8kb worth of 4-bit samples, I can get used to it over nothing.

No changes except for the startup screen display of the Release #03.11 -- not part of the filename, sorry. I also updated the High Scores page to reflect Mayhem's awesome milestone.

Enjoy!

P.S., I demand someone to write this game, "Where in the world is Carlsson?"

Post by **Jeff-20** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:42 pm

He's on every message board. Has he posted elsewhere this month?

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:53 pm

Jeff-20 wrote:Has he posted elsewhere this month?

TBCVIC wrote:He's just slacking here I guess, he's made some posts on another forum today.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 3:02 pm

What is your point Gklinger - cat got your tongue?

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 3:10 pm

Thankyou so much for this port Robert. It is a thing of genuine beauty! I've been trying to think of words that aren't over-used or trite but I can't! You have totally blown me away with this game, it is a masterful piece of work... Indeed, a masterpiece. Well done bloke, well done.

PS: When are you starting that Missile Command port?! :p

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:13 pm

Vic20-Ian wrote:What is your point Gklinger - cat got your tongue?

The quotes suggest that Jeff's question has already been answered by TBCVIC.

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:37 pm

Just got my new SD reader from NewEgg and have finally copied the new MMX+ version over to a real VIC -- woot!! The voices are improved, it just needed the volume cranked up with the crackle from the 1702 monitor speaker.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:16 pm

Tried the updated speech version, definitely a better balance now between speech and SFX

Post by **Jeff-20** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:46 am

hit reply before i got to the next page. it happens.

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:18 am

Once simple variance needed to make this clone a step closer was to vary the voice playback enough to make it sound like different robots speaking -- the 16kb program and its source has been updated.

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:10 pm

Very cool!

Off topic, I've always found Berzerk to be rather aimless. I suppose that's because my first experience with this style of gameplay was the awesome Cybertron (Mission) on the BBC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ0rGboeOL0
(It gets more interesting after level 1.)
You can play it on-line (with screwed up sound) here:
http://www.drobe.co.uk/micro/
Click Eject Disk, Load Disk, select CybertronMission.ssd, then click on the game window and press Shift-F12.
This fits into 10k on the Beeb. It's not a fair comparison because the Beeb is clocked at 2MHz...

Post by **Jeff-20** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:03 pm

Kweepa wrote:Off topic, I've always found Berzerk to be rather aimless.

I agree. I didn't get to play Berzerk as a kid on my Atari 2600, but it seemed to be far less claustrophobic than pacman and all the games of the time where action took place on a single screen. Or even the wrap around play fields of games like Defender.

By the time I finally played it, years later, it didn't have the same effect. I wanted to feel like I was trying to escape or at least find something. I made Spy Mouse with this idea in mind, but it still felt too cramped. Then I thought it could have something to do with the similarity of the rooms. I guess Frenzy tries to fix that, but I never played Frenzy more than a few seconds. It's way too hard.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:33 am

The new version's great, it makes a big difference. Thanks!

To continue the OT: I kind of agree regarding the aimlessness of the game but that's what it's all about I suppose. I quite like it for that in the same way I like Gauntlet et al (which I'd love to see on the Vic!). I would still like to see this idea (Berzerk) expanded into something akin to Alien Breed though! Jeff, why don't you expand your zombie/ghost games - I'd love to see that!