Delta's Shadow

[Andre Leao]

At last released!!!!!



https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... hadow.html

[Daren]

This is pretty awesome on the Next! Downloaded the playable demo and it's a surefire purchase. That's the first of my Xmas money gone, only €5.

[Ivanzx]

I just purchased it and look forward to playing it soon! Looks unbelivable!

By the way, would it be possible to play this game in a 128K normal Spectrum model like the +2A somehow? Maybe in a Dandanator?

[Turrican]

I just purchased it and look forward to playing it soon! Looks unbelivable!

By the way, would it be possible to play this game in a 128K normal Spectrum model like the +2A somehow? Maybe in a Dandanator?

If I understood, it is a TRD game. So you will need a divIDE.

[Ivanzx]

I just purchased it and look forward to playing it soon! Looks unbelivable!

By the way, would it be possible to play this game in a 128K normal Spectrum model like the +2A somehow? Maybe in a Dandanator?

If I understood, it is a TRD game. So you will need a divIDE.

Sometimes, some TRD games can be converted to TAP. ( I think Survivisection was) and also Dandanator has a higher capacity for storage (more than a +3 disk)

[Turrican]

I bought the game and played it a bit.
Great game.
On Spectaculator and PC Windows (here I played as Next and Classic Spectrum).
Need time to play well because there are too many buttons!

[cmal]

Thanks for posting [mention]Andre Leao[/mention] This is a fantastic high quality game. I played the demo but it's a definite purchase. Tried it on Spectaculator (Pentagon 128k or Scorpion model) and SpecEmu (Pentagon128k model selected) and both work fine.

The control and key response feels very good and the only small downside I would say is getting used to the keys. Default keys are WASD for movement and B & N for fire and jump. Redefine keys option is also available in Settings.

[moroz1999]

For me this is the game of the year

[cmal]

I purchased the game and I certainly don't have buyers remorse. I still haven't made it past the first level but having fun trying.
The Windows version is great too. Feels and plays exactly like the Speccy one.

[patters]

Just tried this out. They've done the same thing they did with Aliens Neoplasma - needlessly made too many controls. Why does jump need to be a separate key? Makes joystick control unwieldy.

[Alessandro]

Just tried this out. They've done the same thing they did with Aliens Neoplasma - needlessly made too many controls. Why does jump need to be a separate key? Makes joystick control unwieldy.

Totally agree. The game is fantastic, and more than worth its price in my opinion, but I wish they could map the controls so that you can jump and go up a ladder with the Up key (I did so myself for Sophia II), or at least let you assign the two controls to the same key.

[Daren]

I agree, it would be great if you could jump by pressing up. I read a comment from one of the team: There are separate jump and fire buttons so you can direct which way you want to fire. For example pressing up and fire fires your boomerang upwards. You wouldn't be able to do that if up was jump.

[Ralf]

I had problems with separate "jump" and "up" buttons too.

The default WSAD controls didn't work for me well. I guess I'm an old generation gamer coming from
times when WSAD as a standard was unknown

So my redefined keys are a variation of QAOP standard:

O - left
P - right
Q - jump (yes, instead of typical up it is jump as you use jump much more often then up)
A - down
Space - fire
W -up (here's the novelty, when I need to use up I use my jump finger and move one button right).

For example pressing up and fire fires your boomerang upwards. You wouldn't be able to do that if up was jump.

They could do it with one butto by "HOLD FIRE AND PRESS JUMP AT THE SAME TIME".

As for the game itself - yes, it's another recent megagame after Marsmare:Alienation and Wonderful Dizzy.
It has great graphics and lots of content.
It's not easy though. You can advance a lot and then instantly die through some stupid mistake. And then you have to begin from
scratch. It's a also a bit about memorizing the enemy patterns in each locations which isn't my favourite type of
gameplay but I can live with it as the game offers really a lot.

[Alessandro]

To be honest I am not very convinced by this explanation, I guess it would have been possible to make Nova shoot upwards when Fire and Up are pressed together. However it is just a slight flaw, the game is excellent and well worth spending your hard-earned cash on it.

[Ralf]

By the way, I would have a bug report.
I did something and the music became "damaged. I include the snapshot
https://www.sendspace.com/file/ou9jp7

I believe I was playing with game settings. Do you know what "graphics quality"
setting actually do? Maybe you can have high quality with music at the same time???


I also several time got the error of writing to the disk = "disk is protected".
I believe the game should warn you that it tries to save some data and
display own error instead of Tr-Dos error

[Alessandro]

I finished the demo before purchasing the full version and did not experience this problem.

Do you know what "graphics quality" setting actually do? Maybe you can have high quality with music at the same time???

"High" means that visual effects like debris or some moving parts of the scenery are enabled. Emulators like SpecEmu allow you to change the processor's frequency, 7 Mhz is enough to let the game run at the highest setting.

I also several time got the error of writing to the disk = "disk is protected".
I believe the game should warn you that it tries to save some data and
display own error instead of Tr-Dos error

Actually that's explained in the text file provided with the game:

When running on the emulator, do not forget to enable writing to the floppy disk, otherwise the game will not work!

Maybe the problem with the audio surfaced because of this.

[Andre Leao]

A few levels after the motorbike scene, whenever I try to enter a door for the next level,it runs out of memory. Tried in several emulators and even on Spectrum Next, and it happens the same all the time. Not sure what is happening...

[Pegaz]

Technically the game looks great but essentially, this is Alien Neoplasma on steroids, to me.
I only played the demo, so my impression is incomplete, but at the moment I think the new Dizzy has raised the bar pretty high.
btw, does the full version still require TRDOS support or can it be played on original machines in tap format?

[Alessandro]

[mention]Andre Leao[/mention] I have not seen that level yet. Which one is it? Did you try the game on a real Spectrum?

[mention]Pegaz[/mention] Personally I find Delta's Shadow much deeper and more satisfying than Aliens Neoplasma, which did impress me nowhere near as much as everyone else in fact. Anyway, the not-entirely-linear structure of the game means it could hardly be constrained in a sequential data format like .TAP.

[Andre Leao]

[mention]Alessandro[/mention] , nope, only on MIST, Spectrum Next and some emulators... I don´t know which level it is, but I was playing it for hours. I suspected I was near the end...

[Alessandro]

Mist? Is it that sort of box which emulates several retro computers?

I'll try the game on real hardware as soon as I have enough time on my hands (hopefully) to play it up to that point. I would suggest you to contact Aleksey at ZX Online and tell him about the issue (if you haven't done it already).

[Andre Leao]

Mist? Is it that sort of box which emulates several retro computers?

I'll try the game on real hardware as soon as I have enough time on my hands (hopefully) to play it up to that point. I would suggest you to contact Aleksey at ZX Online and tell him about the issue (if you haven't done it already).

Ref: Mist - yes, it is

[Luzie]

btw, does the full version still require TRDOS support or can it be played on original machines in tap format?

[mention]Pegaz[/mention] There was a note in the premiere video (at 4 min 7 seconds - just press "Play"): https://youtu.be/_923sqQo3Z0?t=245
where they mentioned there will only be a TRD-version because of the increased data they have used for the game. And there sure will be no TAP-Version.

[patters]

To be honest I am not very convinced by this explanation, I guess it would have been possible to make Nova shoot upwards when Fire and Up are pressed together. However it is just a slight flaw, the game is excellent and well worth spending your hard-earned cash on it.

To combat the annoyance of the vintage "up-is-jump-or-accelerate" joystick control schemes, I use a Master System pad which I wired up so that the second button activates the up direction too. Best of both worlds. Useless for this game though...

[clebin]

Really enjoying this game! The Next version looks beautiful but is still recognisably Spectrum-like. The classic version looks great too and both versions play like a dream.

I've noticed a few glitches in the controls. On the classic version I can't fire diagonally down-left, although I can fire diagonally down-right. I can fire both directions on the Next, but there's another little inconsistency... Whereas on the Spectrum version I can fire downwards while on a ladder, on the Next I can't - I have to be jumping. On both versions I can't fire directly down when I'm just standing, but this bit might be normal/expected.

I'm running the Next version on real hardware, and the Spectrum version on Fuse for Mac. I'm using Interface 2 keys + Space, ie: 6=left, 7=right, 8=down, 9=up, 0=jump, space=fire.