X-Quest 2 — Tardis.dk Remakes

Nine months without new games. That’s about to change.

October 2, 2012 By Sokurah

After what seems like a long time without any notable news, or new games, I’m finally at at point where I can safely say that “Yes, there will be more games…and soon” 🙂

Over the last month I’ve been working on 4 of my games in progress. That would under normal circumstances be crazy, but they’re all so close to completion, so while I’m waiting for the final graphics, music or some feedback one one game I can usually tweak something on another game.

First game to be finished will be Black Widow. It’s basically finished but I’ll wait the rest of this week to see if I get any feedback that needs attention, then compile the final version during the coming weekend. It should be out next week.

My third Christmas game, Buggerman, is also largely finished – I just need to tweak the music a bit, but as it’s a Christmas game I’ll hold its release off until December.

Hopefully I’ll also have X-Quest 2 done before the end of the year. The coding is mostly done and bar some small tweaks here and there all it needs are new graphics and some better sounds. I can do the sounds myself and I’ve found a guy that wants to do the graphics, but he’s a tad busy at the moment. I’m really hoping he can find the time soon, so I can get this game out there.

Finally I’ve also been getting back into my vector Invaders game, Neon Invasion Earth. The last time I worked on this was in January 2011 when I began adding a “classic Invaders mode”, and I’ve been finishing that over the last couple of days. Yay. That still leaves the main game to be finished, but this is also mostly done with mostly some smal bugs and a whole lot of gameplay tweaking and testing left.

So there it is; my roadmap for the immediate future – two games already finished and two more very close to completion, so check in again soon …there’s a good chance that there will be something new to download. 🙂

I’ve also decided to open up the site for comments again, without registering as a user first, but if the spam gets to bad I’ll put that limitation back. But let’s see how it goes for now. 😉

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Black Widow, Buggerman, Neon Invasion Earth, X-Quest 2

Hopelessness

April 12, 2012 By Sokurah

Okay, not quite as bad as it sounds (the title of the post) – I’m not about to kill myself, but today it’s been exactly 3 months since my last update and I don’t have a lot to show for it. I just haven’t been inspired much to do any big chunks of programming the couple of months. I’ve done a little, though..just not a lot, and it’s frankly frustrating the hell out of me. Still, it’s a creative process and I’m not getting paid for this so luckily I can just lean back and relax. The alternative is to force it but then I wouldn’t be enjoying myself. Better to give my inspiration the time it needs. 😉

However, I have made a bit of progress on my Christmas game in these 3 months, and not a lot is left to do really…but inspiration (and time) only comes in small chunks, but hey – I’ll release it when it’s done – I won’t wait until Christmas. 😉

And the artist I’d hoped would help me out on X-Quest 2 disappeared off to make his own game, but now it seems he’s putting the finishing touches to that and he’s been in touch to tell me that he will have more time again soon, and I have to say that I’m quite exited about that. That game is (also) almost done and would benefit immensely from what he can bring to it. So I’m looking forward to that. 🙂

I’ve also done a bit of Z80 programming lately – but again…not a lot, but I hope to finish a new Spectrum sometime later this year (although I haven’t started on anything yet). I have no specific plans about what to make yet, but it’ll probably be an original game and not a remake.

Basically I just wanted to say that I’m still alive and let you know that I’m still working on my games (or at least trying to ;)). Just keep your eyes and ears open – suddenly there’ll be something new here.

…and because I wanted a picture to go with this post – I found this. It almost fits…but my name is not Sakurah, so it WILL happen. 😉

Don't know who that guy is, but I can assure you - more games WILL happen. 😉

Filed Under: Misc, Rant Tagged With: Buggerman, Spectrum, X-Quest 2

Dreams, Delays and Dingos

August 31, 2011 By Sokurah

Time flies and it takes long between releases because I seem to start more games than I can manage, and then put them on hold when they’re almost done. This year I’ve been working on my Circular Invaders Game but the guy who helped me fine-tune the gameplay suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth so I put that on hold temporarily.

Then I resumed work on X-Quest 2, which is basically done now but only needs new graphics, and I’d found an artist who seemed really good, but he only delivered one frame and now he’s stopped answering my mails. Not good – especially after just being mentioned in issue 93 of Retro Gamer Magazine. Oh well, it’ll get done…only with a delay.

Before them there is a string of other unfinished remakes, but I’ll get to them in time. Slowly, perhaps, but I’ll get to them. I’m especially looking forward to getting back to work on Black Widow and Psycho Pigs UXB, but I can only work effectively on one game at the time.

All these WIP’s, and the stress I’m putting myself under just by thinking about them, is probably the reason I woke up this morning – stressed over some unfinished tank game (no, I’m not working on any tank games, so who knows why :)). That’s the third morning in a row that I’ve woken up with a dream like that. Can you see why I would really like to finish all my unfinished WIP’s? 😀

Of course, all these delays frustrates me and I decided to put that frustration to good use and channel all that energy into making a new game (typical…see how easy it happens? 😉 ) so I started working on something I’ve wanted to do for almost 30 years – making a new ZX Spectrum game.

And that was the birth of Dingo – a “lost Ultimate game”. I’ve already remade this arcade game back in 2008 for Windows and in 2011 for Mac, but now I’m remaking it again in z80 assembler for the ZX Spectrum. It only took me about a month to make the game and I was lucky enough to atract the attention of Mark R. Jones – who used to work for Imagine and Ocean back in the 80’s – and he has done all the stunning new graphics for the game. The game is currently finished, playable and works as it should, and according to Mark its “stupidly addictive” so I must have done something right. 😀

That being said, the game could still use a bit of spit and polish. I’m currently working on improving the sprite routines (3rd day in a row, argh) and it also needs music and better sound effects, but the plan is to have it completely finished and presented at the retro event, Replay, in Blackpool in November.

You can read more about the development of the game here, and below is a picture of the game.

The Spectrum version of Dingo

Filed Under: Misc, Rant, Remakes Tagged With: Black Widow, Dingo, Neon Invasion Earth, Psycho Pigs UXB, X-Quest 2

Progress report: X-Quest 2

June 22, 2011 By Sokurah

Again it’s been ages since my last update…well, just under two months to be precise (However, I usually post updates to Twitter several times a week, so you might consider following me if you want updates more often).

I may have been very quiet but most of that time I’ve been steadily working on my remake of the old DOS game X-Quest 2 (which again is a remake of an old Mac game called Crystal Quest). I started this remake in december 2007 so it’s been a work in progress for about 3½ years by now (…and man, I’d really like to see it finished soon). 😉

Obviously I haven’t been working at it constantly and I’ve done many other games in the meantime (and a lot of blank staring at the screen instead of actually working on it when I had the time), but now the programming is almost completed and the game will hopefully be released in the near future.

I have a guy who’s agreed to make some original music for it, that I’ll be contacting very soon about it, and because it’s currently re-using the graphics from the original game, I’ve found an artist who has agreed to work on new graphics for it, so hopefully the game will look and sound fantastic, when it’s done. I can’t wait to see the finished game, myself.