Thursday, 23 March 2023

Super Xevious post mortem.

I've finished testing the Super Xevious transcode additions.

I can only say that Super Xevious was a half-arsed, almost apathetic exercise that couldn't have taken more than a week. The main enhancement is the increased difficulty (table entries), and the new objects don't really add much to the gameplay experience at all. In fact, you should actually ignore all of them except the Galaxian.

*** WARNING: some spoilers here, though they're really not that exciting...

  • Galaxian; technically worth 150 pts but you can't actually hit it. Always spawns away from the Solvalou, and will turn away before you can get under it. Shoots at you though.
  • Jet Taking Off; appears once (area 10). Unique in that it is a flying enemy, but shooting it results in a crater on the ground. You can't get close enough for it to hit the Solvalou before it leaves the screen, Don't shoot it - you have been warned!
  • Jet; the most pointless addition. Appears once (area 15). Flies down the screen at a random (relatively shallow) angle but is completely and utterly benign. It can't hurt you, and you can't destroy it. What was the point?
  • Helicopter; appears once (area 14). Don't bomb it - you have been warned!
  • Tank; appears once (area 8). Don't bomb it - you have been warned!
  • Bridge; appears once (area 15) and is purely cosmetic (completely benign). 'Allows' the Domograms to cross the river. 
And that's it really. To be fair, there was very little free ROM space available (they had to remove some copy protection routines) but I feel they could have done more than that. There are existing object handlers that aren't used - they could have (re)used them too?!?

As I mentioned, the code base now builds both variants.

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