Huge and ugly status panels

[Codetapper]

I'm looking for some really dreadful examples of status panels. You know, the ones that take up 1/3 or more of the screen. They often have the name of the game in huge writing just in case you forget what you're playing. Sometimes a massive company logo. And often contain absolutely useless information that was probably put there to shrink the display size so the faults of the game engine were not exposed so easily.

Here's a few I can think of, but there must be some other classics out there that I've forgotten!

Notice that the same developers seem to crop up time after time! Here are the list of games from left to right, top to bottom:

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade from Tiertex
2. Guardian Angel from Iron Byte/Dinamic
3. Rolling Thunder from Tiertex/US Gold
4. Dynasty Wars from Tiertex/US Gold
5. Strider from Tiertex/US Gold
6. Thunderbirds from Teque/Grandslam
7. The Flintstones from Teque/Grandslam
8. Army Moves from Dinamic

Honourable mention to Running Man from Emerald/Grandslam which didn't quite make the final 8.

Can anyone think of some others? I'm sure someone knocked up a fake panel once that had an enormous Tiertex or US Gold logo on it, that was well done!

[s2325]

Dreenshar: http://hol.abime.net/4391/screenshot
Dynamite: http://hol.abime.net/5185/screenshot
Heliosfera: http://hol.abime.net/3999/screenshot
Lasermania 2: http://hol.abime.net/4593
Lazarus: http://hol.abime.net/4389/screenshot
Secret of Amber Room: http://hol.abime.net/4612/screenshot
W Potrzasku: http://hol.abime.net/4469/screenshot
the biggest: http://hol.abime.net/4031 or http://hol.abime.net/5090/screenshot
and the most useless: http://hol.abime.net/4591/screenshot

[Sektor 83]

Tiertex

I don't think I've ever played many Tiertex games that have been worth playing beyond a cursory look

[viddi]

My Backbone games!

[dlfrsilver]

Ghouls'n'ghosts and sly spy !!!!

[Codetapper]

Ghouls 'n' Ghosts isn't too large - at least the game is PAL so you get a full NTSC game above the panel.

Sly Spy Secret Agent on the other hand is enormous! But again it's saved slightly by the fact it's a PAL game to start with.

[Predseda]

Barbarian - almost all versions

[viddi]

I do like the Sly Spy panel, though.

[Leffmann]

Plutos
Into the Eagle's Nest
Fire Power
Vampire's Empire
Gold Runner
Gold Runner II

Plutos in particular has a really bad looking panel. The one in Vampire's Empire is not too bad, but the noisy blue texture is not easy on the eyes.

I like all of these games though they are some of the very first ones I ever played on Amiga.

[TCD]

Prospector In The Mazes Of Xor

[Amiga1992]

It could be worse, you could be a Megadrive and get "Fastest 1":

[s2325]

I forgot about Steel http://hol.abime.net/2115 Corona Magica http://hol.abime.net/5857 1st Person Pinball http://hol.abime.net/561 Power Pinball http://hol.abime.net/5115 Time Scanner http://hol.abime.net/1436

[JudasEZT]

Banshee and also the unreleased Raiden
They aren't biggest nor the ugliest,.. but in 1994 arcades like those, doenst fit with scorepanels ala 8bit game.

Please, excuse me if my english is rare..


another, Killing Game Show Well, to tell the truth its good looking. But I would preferred the play area bigger. Do you think that would been possible?? or there would been problems with slowdowns??

[s2325]

I think Killing Game Show/Fatal Rewind on MegaDrive have same size playfield and that was game machine, not computer. For some reason they removed mirror effect on rising acid.

[Predseda]

wasted half of the screen

[Mrs Beanbag]

Oh why are so many Amiga games such excellent examples of how not to design a game? Even by people who you'd expect to know better. And how did US Gold manage to get so many contracts for conversions and film tie-ins? Did nobody ever look at their previous work before signing them up, or were Factor 5 too busy?

The logic seems to be that they can't get smooth frame rates at full screen, so they have to fill the space with something, but if you put a panel at the side you either have to use up valuable hardware sprites or do away with hardware scrolling. But to be honest it seems to me that most of these programmers never even heard of hardware sprites or hardware scrolling. Then again the Bitmap Brothers managed without and didn't do too badly. But "M. R. Chudley" knew well enough to get good nearly-full-screen performance on Wiz'n'Liz so I don't know what his excuse is for Killing Game Show.

Not even a free practic makes up for it.

[s2325]

Just wait for action.

[Predseda]

I now feel proud of relativelly tiny status bar ere

[JudasEZT]

Originally Posted by s2325

I think Killing Game Show/Fatal Rewind on MegaDrive have same size playfield and that was game machine, not computer. For some reason they removed mirror effect on rising acid.

The reason is that that reflection effect is much more suitable for Blitter capabilities.. meanwhile its not an easy effect to plan with the sprites system of Megadrive.

Anothe game with that nice effect [ Show youtube player ]

[discomeats]

another dinamic success of small screen

http://hol.abime.net/2784 Grand Prix Master


I remember there was a vertically scrolling game in which you drive a car around various obstacles, I forget its name

it seemed to have a 320x100 playing area and a 320x100 panel at the bottom of the screen, it made the game pretty much unplayable as vertically scrolling not much made it hard to see all things in the way.