A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps SHMUP

[Ast A. Moore]

Not an amazing score by any means, but from memory it was 1430.

I find that, while being somewhat counterintuitive, actively chasing after the planes not only gives you a much better chance at getting a high score, but also reduces the amount of time you need to master the flying. So “the best defense is a good offense” adage is fully applicable in this case.

[Ast A. Moore]

Ahem, not to brag, but . . .



(That’s on hard, obviously.)

[Juan F. Ramirez]

(That’s on hard, obviously.)

[catmeows]

Nice parallax scrolling, I have to give it a try. Can we have Shadow of thé Beast 2&3 ?

[Ast A. Moore]

Nice parallax scrolling, I have to give it a try. Can we have Shadow of thé Beast 2&3 ?

Heh. I don’t do remakes.

[RMartins]

Nice parallax.
Nice Inertia in the movements physics.
Very smooth game [mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention] .

[Ast A. Moore]

Thanks, Rui!

[presh]

FINALLY!!!



(ok, so yeah it's on easy... and I I may have saved it just before the boss... but I did try it a bunch of times all the way through first, and it still took about 10 goes with the save!)

[Ast A. Moore]

Ah, it’s always so satisfying to see the winning screen of Yankee posted by someone. Congratulations on making it to the end!

Now that you’ve become familiar with the controls and inertia, you can afford to be more aggressive and try to get a higher score (on Normal or even Hard) by hunting the planes instead of dodging them. This tactic gives me the most points.

[Ast A. Moore]

Well, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Spectrum, I’m releasing a small update:

Version 1.3.3, 4/23/2022

Improvements and optimizations:

• The standard loader size has been reduced by 8 bytes
  The turbo loader has been slimmed down by another 6 bytes

Visuals:

• The length of the top-right horizontal line in the HUD has been adjusted
  The transition to the Redefine Keys screen now uses a fade to avoid unsightly picture tearing

Misc.:

• The random routine has been reworked to generate slightly more random values
  Several instances of code optimization

Download link and instructions: A Yankee in Iraq.

[beginner]

Small unsolicited feedback :
I noticed that the missiles won't cause any damage to the ground buildings and the bombs won't damage the planes.
I think it would be a bit more realistic if they would cause some damage .

What do you think?

Cheers!

[Ast A. Moore]

Small unsolicited feedback :
I noticed that the missiles won't cause any damage to the ground buildings and the bombs won't damage the planes.
I think it would be a bit more realistic if they would cause some damage .

Any feedback is always welcome!

You’re not the first one to suggest this. At some point in the past I thought about adding these elements but ultimately decided against them. I am of the opinion that it would actually diminish realism (if there’s any to begin with). The front-mounted gun’s bullets are unlikely to cause much damage to buildings, and I’ve never heard of falling bombs exploding planes! (I’m sure statistically it’s bound to happen, but I don’t think it’s a regular occasion in combat.)

I might consider adding the former, though, even though that would men that the ground units would be completely defenseless.

Thanks for the suggestions, though. I really appreciate them!

[Pegaz]

I recently played the game again on the zx-uno and I can only say that it is excellent!
At the same time, it was very useful for testing different Spectrum cores, which will help us to improve their accuracy.

[Ast A. Moore]

I recently played the game again on the zx-uno and I can only say that it is excellent!
At the same time, it was very useful for testing different Spectrum cores, which will help us to improve their accuracy.

Thank you kindly, sir! And I’m happy that it helped with improving the accuracy of emulation! It’s no gold standard by stretch of the imagination, but just the fact that it uses the floating bus on all Spectrum models should make testing that much easier.