Trying to identify a game

General software. From trouble with the Banyan Tree to OCP Art Studio, post any general software chat here. Could include game challenges...
Post Reply
zxade
Drutt
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 12:14 pm

Trying to identify a game

Post by zxade »

I'm desperately trying to identify a spectrum game I watched someone playing live online recently but after an exhaustive search on google and many other places I've not been able to track it down to find out what it is called.

Visually it looks a bit like the spectrum versions of jackal/ikari warriors/commando due to having the same yellow background and was also military themed. It was monochrome, with an overhead view and with what looked like 8-way pixel or smooth scrolling. It was the quality of the scrolling that caught my eye so it may be fairly recent and maybe by an Eastern European developer with a few tricks up their sleeve from the demo scene, but that's just a hunch. The bit I saw had you driving a jeep around the desert where at one point there was a tank moving around and firing at you from higher ground and a helicopter flying around trying to drop bombs on you and you needed to dodge the explosions. Also at some point there was a popup box that appeared which referred to "assembling a key". The control/status panel was in the bottom third of the screen and the word damage stood out in the middle of it, that's about all I can remember...

Does anybody have any idea which game it might be?
Hank Scorpio
Manic Miner
Posts: 532
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:11 am

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by Hank Scorpio »

Might be Jackal?
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by R-Tape »

It's unlikely to be Stonkers then.

This doesn't tick enough boxes, but here's a couple of long shots in case memories have played tricks:

Komando 2
or Komando?
zxade
Drutt
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 12:14 pm

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by zxade »

Thanks for the ideas [mention]R-Tape[/mention] but it's very much a live action rather than strategy type game so not Stonkers or similar games. Just took a look at Komando II which I hadn't seen before and it's got a similar style of look except you drive a jeep or vehicle of some kind around. The scrolling precision is similar also except that it also scrolls the screen horizontally as the map is not just a vertical strip.

[mention]Hank Scorpio[/mention] it is similar to Jackal but it's not that, though it's possible someone may have been inspired to make a new version of that but with smooth scrolling rather than character scrolling.

It one of those situations where when you see the game you are trying to find you'll instantly be able to say yes that's it. I've scoured through ZXDB and looked at loads of screenshots and it seems like trying to find a needle in a haystack when you realize how many spectrum games have actually been produced!
User avatar
Alessandro
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1908
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:10 am
Location: Messina, Italy
Contact:

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by Alessandro »

Sounds pretty much like Mask to me. Even the key assembling part fits in.
zxade
Drutt
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 12:14 pm

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by zxade »

Hurray! yes that's it!! thanks [mention]Alessandro[/mention], 'Mask' by Gremlin Graphics https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3042

So it's not a new game after all, nor from our Eastern European buddies, but a quality looking one nevertheless that I somehow never played back in the day. There's a great satisfaction to have finally found it! I suspect many of you know that feeling...

Apart from wanting to play this game I am thinking of writing a game that will use a similar type of scroll and wanted to take a closer look at how they'd implemented it...so this is a great result :D
User avatar
djnzx48
Manic Miner
Posts: 729
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2017 2:13 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by djnzx48 »

From what I can tell, Mask uses per-pixel scrolling vertically, but the horizontal scrolling is only done in 8-character blocks. That isn't nearly as difficult as pixel scrolling in all directions, as the screen bytes can just be shifted around. It also helps that the HUD is quite large, so the actual scrolling area can be reduced.
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by R-Tape »

zxade wrote: Fri May 31, 2019 8:54 am Thanks for the ideas @R-Tape but it's very much a live action rather than strategy type game so not Stonkers or similar games.
Looks like you need to read up on your CSS folklore! I was doing a riff on the "definitely not Stonkers" thing. (I didn't say it was funny... :mrgreen: )

Anyways—glad you've found the game.
User avatar
Alessandro
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1908
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:10 am
Location: Messina, Italy
Contact:

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by Alessandro »

I am glad I was of help to you [mention]zxade[/mention] :D
zxade
Drutt
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 12:14 pm

Re: Trying to identify a game

Post by zxade »

One thing that grabs me is that the inertia on this game feels really good for a game of this era. The speeding up and slowing down are well implemented and feel right for this type of game. The main vehicle and enemies continue to move smoothly even when you go near to the side of the screen and the next 5 chars of the map are character scrolled on (fooled me into thinking it was a fast pixel scroll).

Also you when accelerate upwards the vertical pixel scroll speeds up and eventually become a character scroll yet it feels seamless.

Looks like the actual playing area is 20x20 chars which helps with reducing the number of pixels that need pushing around, though I wonder if there is any scope for increasing that without loss of speed? Guess it all depends what else is going on at the time with redrawing the active game sprites. Will need to look at the code and experiment to find out.

I wonder if when developing this type of game the final size of the play area is determined late on in the process in order to arrive at an acceptable frame rate once all the gameplay and sprites are in place? Then the control panel etc are padded out in the unused screen space.
Post Reply