Ziriax 100% (Ultimate Edition)

[ross]

Hi all, i'm proud to present "Ziriax - Ultimate Edition":


It's a 100% ADF working version of the 1990 game by "The Whiz Kidz", trained and enhanced.
Actually is the only full working version existing.


All is born in this thread:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=88891, from message #5 onward.

There is also some old posts about it:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=78527, http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=66749
and an interview with the original programmer:
http://www.abime.net/interviews/view/interview/id/74

Now game make use of the 2nd joystick button for the weapon selection and
use memory above 512kb to cache data and cut down loading time.
A complete trainer option screen [+6] is at disposal with a selectable new "max power-up",
start level, invincibility and other cheat.
Finally a proper end of the game can be reached.

Fixing this game was a fun journey, i've discovered even some bugs not directly related to the game .
Yes, there was several bugs.. Anyway the game engine is really good!





More significative patches:
- support all Amiga (ocs to aga, 020+, every memory configuration)
- do not crash anymore on level 3 or other "strange" situation
- end of game/credit part is reachable
- high scores table works properly
- standard 880k ADF, fast loading
- use extra-memory if available

The history of this game has been very troubled, so it deserve to be properly preserved.
A big thanks to all involved (credits in the initial intro).

In The Zone! Enjoy!

[DamienD]

Oh yeah!!! It's ready!!!

Thank you kindly for this ross; the one game in my collection that I knew wasn't good but no real alternative...

Until now

[StingRay]

Nice and polished release, neat little crack intro/trainer menu too. Well done.

[malko]

Whaou !! Screenshots looks great ! as your description of the work done !
As a shoot'em up liker I will give a try for sure !
Thank you ross !!

[Galahad/FLT]

Good work, I know how long it takes to get some releases right.

The updated trainer menu looks better, simple logo that looks good, and you took my advice on being "adventurous", and look where it got you? A perfect release

[Amiga1992]

Awesome work, ross!! Thanks so much.
This game looks really good, will give it a try.

The cracktro/cheat-tro looks fucking great!

[ross]

Thank you all for the praises!
I appreciate it a lot.

[ross]

Originally Posted by Akira

The cracktro/cheat-tro looks fucking great!

Try it on AGA: quarter pixel scrolling at best
(i remember your questions in another thread)

Noticeable on "far stars" and on "slowed" spaceship.

[Shatterhand]

Awesome! When I got my A600 again I tried this game on WHDLOAD while I was randomly trying out games, had never heard about it and I was impressed by it. Most people complain the game is too hard, but from what I played it looked like a pretty solid shoot'em up, better than what most shmups on Amiga are.

Adding 2nd button support is *great* and a really welcome adition, that's something the game badly needed. I surely will be trying this 100% version soon

As the original developer of Ziriax, a zillion thanks to Ross for resurrecting this game!

Around 1989, Ziriax was "lost" by a beta tester... So an unfinished buggy pirated copy was spread. This copy crashed in level 3, and had other little bugs.

After that, while working on the game, my hard drive failed, and all my floppy backups were also corrupted, most likely because of static electricity due to new insane carpet that gave us an electric shock whatever we touched. So Erlend (graphics) and I (code, levels) lost 2 years of 14 hours/day work, and the final version of the game was lost forever.

But today Ross gave the game a second life!

I'm soooo grateful, I have no words for this.

Thanks a lot,
Peter Verswyvelen

[DamienD]

Heya Peter,

Welcome to EAB

Thanks for all the effort with the game and the background story

[Amiga1992]

Seems like Peter had lost his previous account due to inactivity. If I remember correctly, there is a way to circumvent that from happening. Also maybe it'd be best to merge his old posts that now look like "guest" posts with his new account.

Anyway, welcome back Peter and I am glad this makes you happy. I for one think you have made one of the best shmups for Amiga and it is a shame its past had been clouded by so much corporate fuckery, and that you got scammed for it. At the very least, we can now play it and be sure that we are very grateful for the 2+ years you put into this game. I hope this sort of, at least partly, makes up for the bad experience of the past related to Ziriax.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Akira

Seems like Peter had lost his previous account due to inactivity. If I remember correctly, there is a way to circumvent that from happening. Also maybe it'd be best to merge his old posts that now look like "guest" posts with his new account.

...then Peter needs to PM bossman RCK as he's the only one with magical powers to possibly make this happen

[malko]

Nice to meet you also Peter.
I'am happy that ross's work made you back in EAB .
May I ask you if your old friend So Erlend is also in the neighbourhood ?

Originally Posted by DamienD

Heya Peter,

Welcome to EAB

Thanks for all the effort with the game and the background story

Originally Posted by Akira

Seems like Peter had lost his previous account due to inactivity. If I remember correctly, there is a way to circumvent that from happening. Also maybe it'd be best to merge his old posts that now look like "guest" posts with his new account.

Anyway, welcome back Peter and I am glad this makes you happy. I for one think you have made one of the best shmups for Amiga and it is a shame its past had been clouded by so much corporate fuckery, and that you got scammed for it. At the very least, we can now play it and be sure that we are very grateful for the 2+ years you put into this game. I hope this sort of, at least partly, makes up for the bad experience of the past related to Ziriax.

Thanks!

Well, I actually tweaked Ziriax for my friends and myself, most people find it way too difficult ;-) We all played games like Nemesis, Salamander, Vulcan Venture, Thundercross, Flying Shark, etc in the arcade halls, and we wanted to make something similar on the Amiga (and yes, you can see the influences ;-)).

Of course due to my limited programming skills at the time, and maybe also because of hardware limitations, I couldn't get the Amiga to draw that many moving elements as the arcade machines, but thanks to some tips from Kris Clynhens, I was able to squeeze more out of it. Many thanks Kris!

I believe this old generation of machines were the best educational creative systems ever made. Actually if you watch the documentary "from bedrooms to billions - the amiga years", it becomes clear this was intentional: the designers had a dream, a mission, to make creative computing accessible to everyone. They really shaped an industry, but not only that, a lot of strong friendships were formed around these machines. The systems were made with the strongest form of "energy": pure love and passion. Steve Wozniak had the same goal with his machines, I'm not sure if the other Steve shared his vision ;-)

My company is actually developing a creative programming web-app for young children (6-10 years old) and teachers called ViKiD, I hope to contribute a similar joy to the current generation of kids

We are looking for web developers in Flanders for this app, so if anyone wants to join our team, please give me a sign

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Ziriax

Well, I actually tweaked Ziriax for my friends and myself, most people find it way to difficult ;-) We all played games like Nemesis, Salamander, Vulcan Venture, Thundercross, Flying Shark, etc in the arcade halls, and we wanted to make something similar on the Amiga (and yes, you can see the influences ;-)).

So you're an arcade junkie like myself; honestly who wasn't / still is?

"Arcade" had the games that every computer / console tried to mimic for decades

...classic "golden age"; what an era!!!

I'm sure you've been loving MAME since 1997 as much as I do then

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Ziriax

Thanks!

Well, I actually tweaked Ziriax for my friends and myself, most people find it way to difficult ;-) We all played games like Nemesis, Salamander, Vulcan Venture, Thundercross, Flying Shark, etc in the arcade halls, and we wanted to make something similar on the Amiga (and yes, you can see the influences ;-)).

Of course due to my limited programming skills at the time, and maybe also because of hardware limitations, I couldn't get the Amiga to draw that many moving elements as the arcade machines, but thanks to some tips from Kris Clynhens, I was able to squeeze more out of it. Many thanks Kris!

I believe this old generation of machines were the best educational creative systems ever made. Actually if you watch the documentary "from bedrooms to billions - the amiga years", it becomes clear this was intentional: the designers had a dream, a mission, to make creative computing accessible to everyone. They really shaped an industry, but not only that, a lot of strong friendships were formed around these machines. The systems were made with the strongest form of "energy": pure love and passion. Steve Wozniak had the same goal with his machines, I'm not sure if the other Steve shared his vision ;-)

My company is actually developing a creative programming web-app for young children (6-10 years old) and teachers called ViKiD, I hope to contribute a similar joy to the current generation of kids

We are looking for web developers in Flanders for this app, so if anyone wants to join our team, please give me a sign

Hello chatterbox of BS1 Good to see you again aboard on EAB

The publisher in fact did a nasty thing to you. Other people than you were credits in the game manual.

i was astonished when i discovered this when i bought the game in original.

[TrainerFreak]

Absolutely fabulous... ross

Thank you soooo much for your Effort


Big THX from TrainerFreak :-)

[ransom1122]

A big thank you to Peter Verswyvelen for creating such a wonderful game. And Ross for resurrecting it back to life..

Thanks a lot!