Wednesday, the 4th day of rest..
Those expecting another Saturday filled with happy retro memories have a long wait.
I took the week off!
Mostly because coding 18 games within 3 weeks takes quite a lot out of you, but also ‘cos my DS finally gave up trying to hold onto the tiny shred of hinge it had remaining. (ie, it did that whole “R-trigger side snap” thing that DSLite’s tend to do!)
During this week, though, I’ve been thinking about Galaga.
On the one hand, it’d be nice to make a tiny retro version of the Amiga classic “Deluxe Galaga” along with attack waves, and powerups and all that jazz.
On the other hand, I could just add powerups to Invaders, and quite frankly that’d be decent enough. There’s already Invaders, Asteroids and Centipede. Surely that’s enough shooters, right?
But then, if I add powerups to Invaders, you lose the plainer version of Invaders.
What I’d need is some kind of extra option in the menu, somewhere, to let you switch between “Invaders” and… .. “Invaders Plus”
..
“Platdude Retro Collection : 18 Plus!”
That sounds a bit of a dodgy title! But I think that’s what I’m going to aim for.
So, over the next few days I’m going to be jotting down a few ideas, (I have my pad at the ready) and seeing if I can impliment some of those into the already existant games, to build up a collection of “Plus” versions for each.
Invaders, Centipede and Asteroids will be basic Powerups. As will, probably, Extract. (Hmm. Didn’t I already make Extract with power ups on the DS?! Why, yes I did!!)
Tetris’s “Plus” mode will more than likely be Bombliss, because I’ve been saying for a couple of weeks that I should make that.
As for Snake, Tron, Pacman, Frogger, Pong, Joust, Qbert, Spike Dodge, Missile Command, DotPop, Lights Out, 5-in-a-Line and Tune Tap….
Well, lets just say that Suggestions are welcome!
And, so’s nobody gets too upset. This is only an idea, and it could still fall apart.. If that happens I’ll just add some more games 
Oh, yeah, and here’s the logo from my Drunken Coders entry, if I bother to finish it..
Comments
Comment from Jayenkai
Time December 13, 2007 at 9:37 am
I like the Mines idea for QBert, sounds so simple, yet expands easily!
The Tron idea is so obvious I’m not really sure why I haven’t already thought of that!
I’m not too sure if the Missile idea would work, but I might as well try it to see if it plays well.
My main problem at this moment in time is trying to achieve enough graphics for all the pickups.
Pacman’s pickups would be fruit, but there’s no fruit sprites.
To keep things simple, it’d be easier to have colored blocks, with letters or numbers on them, like the ones in Snake. Simplicity being the key.. but.. could you tell what all the different pickups do, just from one single color+letter combo? Only one way to find out!
Comment from Acey
Time December 13, 2007 at 7:51 am
Thanks so much for your work on the Retro collection…totally loving it. Below are some random ideas for some of the “Plus” games:
Q-Bert Plus: allow dropping of 1 or 2 mines per level – if enemies or Q-Bert hits them, they die.
Missile Command Plus: be able to move your bases left and right using the control pad while defending them…maybe limit it to one or two bases?
Tron Plus: allow one shot per level to break through an existing line?
Pac-Man Plus: maybe implement the changes of Bally-Midway’s Pac-Man Plus? “The most significant changes in the gameplay is that eating a bonus “fruit” causes the ghosts to become vulnerable and invisible, doubling the score for eating them; and that eating energizers would often have unpredictable effects (such as turning only three ghosts blue or turning the maze invisible).” (Wikipedia)