shenandoah returns!!!

[derSammler]

New teaser video:
[ Show youtube player ]

Enjoy!

(sorry for the audio quality, accidentally recorded from mic instead of wave)

[derSammler]

Originally Posted by vitux

not find it on aminet
I would like to see this demo

Amiga demo incl. source code uploaded to the zone. Enjoy.

[vitux]

Originally Posted by pcGTW_Webmaster

Amiga demo incl. source code uploaded to the zone. Enjoy.

Wow! I just realized!
Amiga version in the zone,

[derSammler]

Originally Posted by Marcuz

Just out of curiosity, as far as you know, will the two versions be different, have different content?

After seeing the new screenshot they just posted:
http://modestystudio.tumblr.com/image/86490273285

I can now clearly say that the games will be totally different. Seems like Krister changed everything - colors, enemies, level setup, even the weapons. This has nothing to do with the game he had in mind back in 2009.

[derSammler]

Small website now available at http://shenandoah.retro-net.de

[Marcuz]

Well at least there's that, it would have been nice for them to inform you of their plans for the game, if they knew you were working on your release.

[Adrian Browne]

Its weird alright but at least there is this version which is closer to the original.

[derSammler]

Yeah, I think there's no problem having two versions in the end. He might have had reasons to start developing yet another version of the game. Still, he could have told me.

[Adrian Browne]

Playing this with an afterglow x box 360 pad now. Its a good shooter.

Initial impressions are that it is quite difficult. It feels like the ships gun is not powerful enough and does not have a wide' hit area'.
Unless I am missing something? I picked up some items and a power-up icon? I did not see any change to the ships weapon though?

The amount of smart bombs seems too little considering that the enemies take quite a number of hits before they die.
The enemy movements seem tight, fast and smooth though.

[derSammler]

Thanks for your feedback!

Yes, the game is quite difficult. But if you play it a couple of times, you can easily beat level 1 without losing a life. Level 5 in the demo might not be beatable at all, since you get there without playing levels 2-4 and not having collected enough credits to buy a better ship or powerful weapons.

Anyway, the ship's gun is quite weak because the game is centered around buying extra weapons. The gun can be upgraded in-game by collecting a power-up bonus item (the one with the pulsating light). Picking up one will make the gun 50% stronger, picking up a second one will double its power. Whenever your ship is destroyed, you lose one power-up. So you really need to buy extra weapons to survive.

As for the smart bombs, there was no concept for this. I made it so that you start with one and get an additional one after each level. No idea how this was originally meant to be. Maybe I can use some of the unused graphics and create a bonus item out of it so that smart bombs can be picked up in-game.

[Adrian Browne]

Originally Posted by pcGTW_Webmaster

Thanks for your feedback!

Yes, the game is quite difficult. But if you play it a couple of times, you can easily beat level 1 without losing a life. Level 5 in the demo might not be beatable at all, since you get there without playing levels 2-4 and not having collected enough credits to buy a better ship or powerful weapons.

Anyway, the ship's gun is quite weak because the game is centered around buying extra weapons. The gun can be upgraded in-game by collecting a power-up bonus item (the one with the pulsating light). Picking up one will make the gun 50% stronger, picking up a second one will double its power. Whenever your ship is destroyed, you lose one power-up. So you really need to buy extra weapons to survive.

As for the smart bombs, there was no concept for this. I made it so that you start with one and get an additional one after each level. No idea how this was originally meant to be. Maybe I can use some of the unused graphics and create a bonus item out of it so that smart bombs can be picked up in-game.

For the smart bombs; you could perhaps give the player say 3 per level if it does not hurt game balance. Easiest thing to do may be Turrican 2' style wherein it is placed on-screen in a difficult area and upon collection the smart bomb immediately activates. The turrican 2 style makes balancing much easier, imo, as you just place as many bombs in any given level as is needed.
Or like you said, simply available as a pick-up in-game and activated by pressing spacebar.

I will play it again this evening and see if I can get further. The shop can only be accessed between levels, I take it?

The game froze for me on level one but after say 10 seconds it resumed. Also sometimes I cannot exit the shop before level one starts. Perhaps it is normal and I should have selected something?
Anyhow it seems that to begin, there is not enough money available to purchase any items in the shop?

[derSammler]

I think on-screen smart bombs like in Turrican 2 wouldn't work that good, as unlike in T2, you can not move freely and so you would be forced to fire the smart bomb during a very short time frame anyway. Being able to use them later gives the player some sort of tactical value. (hint: use the smart bomb when the grey mother ship appears mid-level; destroy it with some more shots to gain an extra life)

I may do the following: start with 2 smart bombs and gain one with each shop visit and whenever picking up a gunfire power-up. I always thought the power-up looks like a smart bomb anyway.

Yes, the shop can only be accessed right before a level starts. In later levels, you enter the shop through beacons, which could be placed mid-level, too. But that wasn't proposed in the original game design, as far as I'm aware.

Could you perhaps tell me at which section of level 1 it froze? Some enemies use a helper sprite which is not pre-loaded but loaded on-demand. This can cause a very short lag when the enemy appears for the first time. It shouldn't be in the range of 10 seconds, though, more something like 20ms at most.

Also sometimes I cannot exit the shop before level one starts. Perhaps it is normal and I should have selected something?

Not sure if I understand this correctly. Level 1 can't even start until you left the shop. You don't need to select something, just click on EXIT. But you must own a ship. If you sell your ship, you must buy a new one, otherwise you can't leave the shop. But I guess that's not the problem here. Also note that in 2-player mode, the shop appears twice before the level starts, one time for each player.

Anyhow it seems that to begin, there is not enough money available to purchase any items in the shop?

That's correct. It was different in older builds, in which you started with more credits but no ship. You could then either buy a medium sized ship with no additional weapon, or a small one with one additional weapon. I think, however, that it's better if the player has to earn money first before being able to buy weapons.

[Adrian Browne]

I may possibly have sold my ship and then could not leave the shop.

I cannot recall when the game froze but it was for a sustained period of time and several ships appeared on-screen prior.

Sounds like a plan for the smart bombs.

[Adrian Browne]

So with further playing, I really like this game. There is a good rhythm to the game-play and reflex actions are always needed.
I see that pressing the fire button rapidly, emits more bullets, and this is necessary to kill enemies.

There was a one or two second pause when some ships appeared on-screen. The ships that appear in the minefield. It did not affect game-play though.

The enemies movement patterns are quite smart; I like the way that the ships in the minefield compensate for the player ships movements, if the player moves up or down.

[derSammler]

Glad you like it.

Did you reach the end of level 1 yet? The endboss is quite cool. And coding its movement pattern gave me nightmares.

Can you tell me the hardware specs of the PC you're playing the game on? Might help to tweak the system requirements.

[fryguy]

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesblade...cle18654446.ab

Google translated:

In the summer of 1993, four guys from Alingsås ready to - after two years of unpaid hard - release their debut game and finally achieve international fame.

Then something happened that put an end to everything.

21 years later decides one of them that there is to stop that. There is a game to finish.

And there's a strange story to tell.



The basement was a moving box and moving the box contained everything.

It contained the story of four teenage boys who once sat in a small town and dreaming big dreams. It contained pencil sketches of extraterrestrial mountain ranges and unknown creatures. It contained disks filled with starships and large quiet planets. It contained the game they almost did, that no one ever got the chance to play.

"Shenandoah" was a shooter that was developed in the early 90s to the Amiga home computer. It was long awaited time, but now was the year 2013 and it was forgotten for decades. No one had even looked in the drawer for years.

It was then Krister Karlsson decided to clean up his basement.
Unfulfilled dreams

When he came up to the box, he could not keep. He opened it and poured out memories. He remembered the time when "Shenandoah" - and those he created it with - was his whole world. He remembered the boy's room, he remembered Alingsås, he remembered the English publisher who would publish the game, the international newspapers that wrote about it, he remembered the day when they would release it, get money and establish a professional development team.

And he remembered why his dreams never came true.

Krister still could barely grasp it. Of all the things that can happen.

Of all the things that can put an end to a game project.
"A shoot 'em up in space"

It's August 1991, and the light from the summer's last days fills Alströmergymnasiets corridors. Fall semester has begun, the doors have been flung open, the rushing stream of students have begun to fill the halls - and on the bulletin board on the wall sits a patch.

"We are two graphic designers seeking programmers for our Amiga game project that we call the Shenandoah. It's a shoot 'em up in space, and we have started a little bit with the graphics. We named Krister Karlsson and Douglas Kalberg and goes on Natural and Technological line here at the school. Please call the number below if you think it sounds interesting. "
Amiga changed everything

Krister and Douglas lifelong friendship had been about two things: the cartoon together and they played Space hooters on their home computers together. But then came the graphics program Deluxe Paint for Amiga, and their two interests merged into one. It was not long before they began started traveling around to different copy parties - the forerunners of today's LAN - to compete with the images they created on their computers.

Finally it occurred to them. They had learned to create game graphics. The only thing they needed to actually be able to make your own, real game was someone who could get their graphics that move. They needed a programmer.

Internet was not available. Internet forum where people could come in contact with the programmers were really not. But the notice board in Alströmergymnasiets corridor existed.

Oddly enough, it was all they needed.
The goal: "Maxa concept"

After just a few days phoned Kim's phone. On the other hand, the receiver told a guy that he had seen the note on the bulletin board, was able to program - and happened to walk in Douglas class. He also had a friend who also was able to program and went in Douglas class. The two programmers not named Jesper and Pierre, but this is a story of a sensitive nature, so we can call them that.

The four met when the next day's lessons were over, and then they rode together towards the terraced house where Kim's parents lived out in Alingsås idyllic outskirts. Kim's mom picked up pastries for them, and then they sat down to talk about the game they would do.

Krister's and Douglas's idea was to make a standard side-scrolling shooter, but "maximum concept" - fill it to the brim with weapons, enemies and vehicles. Jesper and Pierre said they could fix it. And much more was there to talk about. They moved in all their computers in Kim's room, decided that they were a development team called Exceed - and began work.
The pieces fall into place

Let us peep into that room, in the terraced house in Alingsås, during those years in the early 90s.

We are a bed and three desks, artwork on the walls, lots of computer equipment in gray beige plastic. We see Krister - oldest, most driven and project leader - who sits and paints his own sci-fi universe on one of the screens. We see it more reclusive Douglas, in the process of handing over their graphics files on disk to Jesper and Pierre - sitting next to each other and sigh over his colleagues' naive view of what really is possible to do with the code.

We see how the seasons pass.

Summer vacation when they work from morning to night, and then cycles down to the lake Mjörn for swimming and barbecuing. Evenings when they take the train to Gothenburg to see the latest sci-fi films in the cinema. Bowling. Billiards. Hot Dogs in the kiosk in the square. Douglas blue Volvo 240 as the wires around on the back roads in the forests around the city. Time when they run into a gravel pit and get stuck with the car. Time, when they go down to the station to take photographs of themselves to the game's closing credits, the way they throw themselves into and out of the photo booth to manage to get four different portraits of the same strip.

We see four teenage boys coming closer and closer together.

And we see a game that - against all odds - is increasingly ready.
A springboard - Stöde

During development, the second year they make a playable demo that they send out to potential distributors. Or rather, they send out a VHS tape containing a film where they play through the demo. (They often did so at the time, in fear for one's work would be stolen if they started spreading it in raw form.) In the demo, they play four at the same time, which should not be possible on an Amiga. But Kim's dad is an electrical engineer, and he has built a custom adapter to his son's game. It is probably this that gets gaming companies to become interested. In a copy party in Skövde 1992 hits the representative of the British game publisher Black Legend - and sign an agreement. "Shenandoah" is a publisher.

Things are really now.
Dice shows the way

Back home in Alingsås see Krister Report on the Digital Illusions (later Dice) - derived from the same party-copy soil that Exceed - make worldwide success with his "Pinball Dreams", and think that maybe we could be in a year. Via the publisher gets big UK gaming magazines like Amiga Format and Commodore User wind of the game. Krister, Douglas, Jesper and Pierre goes to press stop-shop in Gothenburg and read the lyrics together.

Their games are. As it is in the papers that it will soon be released. Their big dream - to become game developers, to make a living creating games - is so close now. You can almost touch it.

And then it came to put a stop to all that.

Since this turned into a love story
"It appears serious"

One evening, Krister home and learns that Jesper been there and inquired for him. It's summer. Krister has just graduated. Almost two years have passed since they put that note on Alströmergymnasiets board and was called by someone who gladly helped them to program their shooter. By now, all courses and enemies and objects pre-designed. The only thing that remains is a little programming.

- Seems to be something serious? he asks.

- Yes, it seems to be quite serious, answers his father.

That evening sitting Krister on an office chair in Jesper's room. Opposite him sits Jesper in a brown sofa. He goes straight to the point.

He says he is in love with Pierre.
Pressing pause

Krister tries to think of something to say, but does not succeed. His thoughts go to the game project. Is "Shenandoah" in danger?

Jesper continues. He just told Pierre. Feelings are not answered. He told me about his orientation for the parents too. They seem to have a hard time accepting it. Krister listens and nods and goes to the end from there with my head buzzing of thoughts.

The day after he talking with Douglas. They feel that there really is a time to gather the team right now. They decide to pause development in about a week, until everything settled down.

It will never start again.
all blackens

It is at this point in our story that the ink suddenly flow out over the sides and makes it impossible to decipher how it continues. Man tries to catch sight of the scene where the four friends together decide to cancel the work that they dedicated two years of their lives - but that's impossible. And it seems to be because it never happened.

Because this is a story of four teenage boys who once sat in a small town and dreaming of big things. They were young, they were naïve, they were not forced to take much responsibility for anything - and this allowed them to pour down all their passion in the game they created. But it also meant that they did not know how to handle it when reality crashed into their boyhood. They never managed to speak about it, they did not continue or discontinue its big game projects. They managed just let it fizzle out.
Never came back from the USA

This article tells us nothing about the anguish that must have plagued Jesper. It can not disclose what was going on in his head during those years, nothing of secret keeping, self-denial, or gigantic courage. Nothing about how he hoped for love but instead lost his best friend. It is not a story about how he, when he came out, chose to withdraw from the crystals and the others. It also can not tell you anything about what was going on in Pierre's head. It does not explain why he - just weeks after Jesper told of her feelings for him - traveled to Seattle, never to come back.

There, however, it can tell you about is how Kim's game developer's dream was shattered in the most peculiar of ways. When he and Douglas found himself without a programmer, they could not complete the game. They could not imagine that anyone would want to jump on their projects to pick up the free-hanging code snippets. They did not even try to find any replacements. Bitter and disappointed they picked down the computer equipment, disks, sketches, star cruisers and planets in a moving box.

And there they be.
Reborn - with new title

20 years later picks Krister finally up the pieces of his shattered dream of the box. He gets started demo. He is surprised. It looks really good. He notices that he knows things about this.

Behind him he has a long and impressive career as an animator and graphic artist, with his own company that house up there in one of Kungstornen in Norrmalm. He sees "Shenandoah" as his failure, the project he never completed.

And suddenly he decides that he can not leave it like this. It does not matter that the trend has been down since 1993 - he must take up the baton where his teenage self dropped it, and finally, after all these years, to go in goal. He should hire programmers and turn the game into a downloadable PC title named "1993: Space Machine" - but otherwise nothing will change. It'll be retro for real. A game created for the actual limitations that existed for developers in the early 90's, though issued 2014 will be released as it was supposed that it would be released.

The story of this game, namely, a love story. And all love stories must have an ending.
Johan Martinsson

[Adrian Browne]

His dream comes through twice...theres two separate and distinct versions of this game.

[fryguy]

The game is released for Nintendo Switch now, there's also a timed demo available.
The game feels like a mix of all older shoot em ups.

[albino]

is there any amiga demo?

[albino]

I find it.....