I have Source Code for the Fractal 3D Engine of Rescue on Fractalus

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by VladR

Of course, if you had Amiga back then, you can't really relate to that as there were plenty games which allowed you to fly over the terrain freely, so I suppose it makes no sense to you.

Nobody had an Amiga in 1984... the first Amiga was an A1000, which was released in July 1985

[VladR]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Nobody had an Amiga in 1984... the first Amiga was an A1000, which was released in July 1985

Well then - that casts a whole different light on Fractalus as there were no dozen action games on Amiga that let you fly over the terrain, in 1984. Meaning, it must have been impressive in 1984 (unless there were some other 16-bit systems already - it would take half an hour to research that on wiki).

I personally got Atari 800 XL around ~1988, still behind Iron Curtain, so I only played it in 1988.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by VladR

Because in 1984 it delivered a WoW factor like no other game on 8 bits.

You're presuming I never had an Atari 8-Bit back in the time that Rescue on Fractalus came out. Well, I did.

Of course, if you had Amiga back then, you can't really relate to that as there were plenty games which allowed you to fly over the terrain freely, so I suppose it makes no sense to you.

I would say that Paul Woakes' Mercenary had much, MUCH more depth than Fractalus EVER did, and that worked like the Amiga games you describe, just in the 1980s.

To me personally, Fractalus belongs to Top 10 games of all times.

Fractalus is just a glorified tech demo with shallow gameplay.

And I should point out that my fractal landscape program above, Neo Geo (the MS-DOS one) is fast enough to run almost in real-time. That's why there are so many controls to it listed on the main menu. The number of times I've played God on my worlds by raising the sea level just like that is immense.

[Gryfon]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Why are people so obsessed with the Rescue on Fractalus engine?

A fun to play experience with outstanding music, sound effects and compelling replay value. That’s what I saw in the original game. Tell me what’s wrong with wanting more of that?

I’m no programmer that’s for sure. I simply believe the that my favourite platform, the Amiga, is the format I would want to see it on, it’s certainly more than capable.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by Gryfon

A fun to play experience with outstanding music, sound effects and compelling replay value. That’s what I saw in the original game. Tell me what’s wrong with wanting more of that?

Then stick to the original platform for it.

I’m no programmer that’s for sure. I simply believe the that my favourite platform, the Amiga, is the format I would want to see it on, it’s certainly more than capable.

I'm sure it is, even on a bog-standard A500.

[LoadWB]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Fractalus is just a glorified tech demo with shallow gameplay.

Seems a fair way to describe what its own developer called a "throw-away game."

[Gryfon]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Then stick to the original platform for it.

Blimey - you can get near photo-realistic experiences on modern systems. Is that a waste and time and resource? Some might say "yes we've lost something with these modern FPS experiences" - others will rave that nothing beats a modern COD or GTA. One could argue both points. My point still stands - a RoF experience on Amiga could be a wonderful and enjoyable thing; I personally couldn't give a stuff if you're pushing the system to it's limits or not to achieve that.

[VladR]

Originally Posted by Foebane

You're presuming I never had an Atari 8-Bit back in the time that Rescue on Fractalus came out. Well, I did.

I haven't yet met Atarian with your attitude against Fractalus.

Till now. There's a first time for everything, indeed.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by Foebane

I would say that Paul Woakes' Mercenary had much, MUCH more depth than Fractalus EVER did, and that worked like the Amiga games you describe, just in the 1980s.

Mercenary had a 100% perfectly flat landscape and wireframe structures both inside and out. Yes, it had more depth in gameplay, but that's not what's being talked about here. Besides, Mercenary saw an Amiga release, so its engine has already been ported.

And I should point out that my fractal landscape program above, Neo Geo (the MS-DOS one) is fast enough to run almost in real-time.

That's great to hear. I don't get the relevance. I know of flight simulators that can do it in real-time, does this mean your landscape program is now pointless? "Almost in real-time" doesn't sound good enough to me.

[Angus]

I love 3D games, always have. Mercenary, though, left me pretty cold. Essentially a wireframe adventure (kind of) with sort of shooty bits. I got bored with it after an afternoon on my C64.

Rescue on Fractalus on the other hand, WOW! And Koronis Rift. They were games with atmosphere and immersion. It's not a coding thing, it's a feeling thing. I felt I was on another world. They weren't perfect but will forever bring a smile to my face and a warm glow to my soul.

[VladR]

Originally Posted by Angus

I love 3D games, always have. Mercenary, though, left me pretty cold. Essentially a wireframe adventure (kind of) with sort of shooty bits. I got bored with it after an afternoon on my C64.

Rescue on Fractalus on the other hand, WOW! And Koronis Rift. They were games with atmosphere and immersion. It's not a coding thing, it's a feeling thing. I felt I was on another world. They weren't perfect but will forever bring a smile to my face and a warm glow to my soul.

Same here. I tried getting into Mercenary more than dozen times. It was just impossible. Extremely sterile game.
Somewhat pretty tech demo, though.

Not many Atari 8-bit games conveyed feeling of flying over mountains, let alone the way Fractalus did. I'm thinking of games like Solo Flight, Tomahawk, etc. but the best feeling of flying was in Fractalus/Koronis Rift (that I know of). Perhaps some later game did it better, don't really know...

If we pushed 7 MHz 68000 to its limits via bare metal banging, kept the same framerate as on Atari (to have as much CPU time as possible), Fractalus could look pretty neat, given we have so much more RAM and advanced gfx modes (docking, space station, atmosphere entry via 32 shades, etc.).
Still a lot of work for one person to do over weekends though...

[Foebane]

I'd rather play a deep and thought-provoking game with vector-line real 3D, than a mindless shooter with more-detailed but not quite real 3D.

In any case, I was terrified as a young teenager by the aliens who would bang on your viewscreen, OK?? My peers at school laughed at me about it.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by Foebane

In any case, I was terrified as a young teenager by the aliens who would bang on your viewscreen, OK?? My peers at school laughed at me about it.

Falling out of your chair in terror when the Alien bashed in your airlock door is almost as iconic as hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks appeared in Dr Who.




VladR: "sterile" is a perfect description for Mercenary.

[TymoDEV]

Could You send link to archive with source code [PureBasic]?

[CCCP alert]

I have no doubt had Loren Carpenter been given an Amiga to do the conversion it would have been the most amazing Amiga 3D game to this day. Watching four colour filled polygon 'landscapes' on Amiga is less impressive than flying through canyons. He invented fractal computer graphics. All the ports are horrible and slower than they should be simply because that 48 hours of coding by Loren is something nobody truly gets.

With an Amiga you could easily do 4-8 colour depth cue, add a copper list to various colours and the sky and a bit more detail and it should still run at the same speed as the Masterblazer tech demo.

The original Atari release is 1985, the heavily pirated demo called Behind the Jaggi Lines is 1984. The game say in development hell as the Lucasfilm Atari thing collapsed thanks to Irving Gould's shennanigans in 84.

If this game is a tech demo then so is every other 3D game, including Braben/Bell's Elite to be honest. It does what it set out to do, Choplifter with 3D fractal graphics. Far more impressive than any other 8bit game ever created too IMO.

As for remakes, there is so much more you should be adding to the original core gameplay of 1984 final prototype. Different worlds with different colour schemes for a start, different missions like finding a prototype advanced fighter an ace pilot crashed that needs to be recovered, toxic atmosphere giving you a time limit to get the downed pilots along with the risk of game over if you don't boost to the mothership before it moves out of orbit, different worlds with different palettes but also different handling like quicker/slower descent and top speed, chasing enemy fighters through the canyon like Stringfellow Hawk in a top notch episode of Airwolf blah blah.... Just doing some unreal engine simulation of just the original game does not impress me, even with the latest fabby updates to that engine. No point leaving the 1984 32kb RAM gameplay intact for an i9 32gb Windows PC 'remake'.

[Angus]

Expand the game to include Koronis Rift so you had Rescue and Tech recovery. :-)