Target Renegade

[Havie]

Originally Posted by lmimmfn

Im really looking forward to this, Target Renegade is in my top 5 Amstrad CPC games, fantastic game!

No pressure then!

[lmimmfn]

Originally Posted by Havie

No pressure then!

Haha, im sure youll do a great job.

[Havie]

Here's hoping!!!

[Havie]

So, unsurprisingly, missed deadline for AmiJam but game is still coming.

Have rewritten baddie AI and now working better (but still not quite right). Scrolling is working (mostly) and added the biker on his bike.

Very close to a new video...

[acidbottle]

Really looking forward to see your progress on this. Never realised there was a NES version either until very recently, barely anything like the spectrum/CPC/C64 versions.

[Havie]

Hello all - been a while! Work has got in the way quite a lot...

Anyway, here is the latest (very buggy) build video just to reassure you all that this is still a work in progress.

In the video you can see - bikes, lifts working, scrolling sort of working and a reworked baddie AI (still not hugely happy so will probably rewrite again). Was playing Golden Axe on the Megadrive yesterday and it was interesting how the AI worked so got me thinking (again).

[ Show youtube player ]

[dreadnought]

It's looking good overall but, yeah, the enemies seem to be kinda peaceful sort

[Havie]

Didn't want to make it too difficult

[saimon69]

Music is going at 75% speed included pitch -_- Intentional or a bug?
(ok i seem to remember you did not fix that yet)
As an upside the title music sounds more 'serious' badass, might try a variation on that key too

[Millsy]

Apologies for bumping this thread and possibly making people think that something new has been developed for the game. I've read through the thread and watched the videos and decided to join this board to follow the progress of the game and pass on my best wishes and praise for your efforts.

I'm currently developing a version of Target Renegade which I intend to be a "What If..?" as in, "What if Technos developed a version of Target Renegade for the arcade in 1987/88". Either around the time of Double Dragon or between the development cycle of Renegade and Double Dragon. I'm intending to work with the OpenBOR (Beats of Rage) engine as my own programming knowledge is somewhat limited.

My development cycle has been somewhat similar to your own, Havie, albeit it a couple of abandoned attempts previously over the course of (something like) 7 or 8 years. Wednesday just gone (the day I decided to sign up and post) was the 5 year anniversary of my cousin's death, and I've been putting this game together in his memory because of the many happy times we spent playing this game together. I felt a bit daft, writing a game for somebody who'll never see (never mind play) this game but having read this thread I can see that I'm not alone and it's heartening.

I understand that this board is for Amiga games so I won't post too much about my own game plan other than to touch on stylistic choices. Graphically, I've decided to take inspiration from the arcade game Renegade with potential enhancements increasing the colour count from 8 colours to 16 per pallete. I originally starting working with the Double Dragon style but I think Renegade is a better fit. Unfortunately, there are no decent sprite rips for Renegade so I'm having to rip the sprites myself and edit and/or re-draw accordingly and it's very time consuming and taking up most of my time. This is where I'd like to reference some of the points within this thread.

There has been a lot of arguments about the graphics, mostly from Amstrad users who are making some frankly outrageous claims (such as the bug in the music being a 'feature'?!). The Amstrad version has sacrifced (significantly) resolution for colour. The Spectrum version has the resolution, but not the colour. It is certainly easier BY FAR to recolour sprites than to redraw coloured sprites. Going down that route, you might as well not base your graphics on either version and redraw the sprites from scratch. I'm not saying it is easy to recreate and recolour the sprites and Swainy has done an excellent job.

As for what Imagine would have done, there is no telling. Software Creations ported the original version of Renegade to the Amiga and it was a terrible port. They also developed the NES version of Target, so it's entirely possible that an Amiga version may even have been a port of that game. Who knows?

So to close off, apologies for the long post and please be supportive of this project. I'm sure when I finally release some clips or footage of my game I'm going to get a lot of flak for my stylistic choices too and it's not really warranted. If you want a different game, make your own. If you're unwilling to do so, be thankful for what Havie, Swainy, Saimon and anyone else involved in this project have done for the game and the community to this point.

Peace out.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by Millsy

I'm currently developing a version of Target Renegade which I intend to be a "What If..?" as in, "What if Technos developed a version of Target Renegade for the arcade in 1987/88".

I don't see a problem with the two project coexisting: you could call yours "Target Renegade Arcade Edition"

[Havie]

Originally Posted by Millsy

Apologies for bumping this thread and possibly making people think that something new has been developed for the game. I've read through the thread and watched the videos and decided to join this board to follow the progress of the game and pass on my best wishes and praise for your efforts.

I'm currently developing a version of Target Renegade which I intend to be a "What If..?" as in, "What if Technos developed a version of Target Renegade for the arcade in 1987/88". Either around the time of Double Dragon or between the development cycle of Renegade and Double Dragon. I'm intending to work with the OpenBOR (Beats of Rage) engine as my own programming knowledge is somewhat limited.

My development cycle has been somewhat similar to your own, Havie, albeit it a couple of abandoned attempts previously over the course of (something like) 7 or 8 years. Wednesday just gone (the day I decided to sign up and post) was the 5 year anniversary of my cousin's death, and I've been putting this game together in his memory because of the many happy times we spent playing this game together. I felt a bit daft, writing a game for somebody who'll never see (never mind play) this game but having read this thread I can see that I'm not alone and it's heartening.

I understand that this board is for Amiga games so I won't post too much about my own game plan other than to touch on stylistic choices. Graphically, I've decided to take inspiration from the arcade game Renegade with potential enhancements increasing the colour count from 8 colours to 16 per pallete. I originally starting working with the Double Dragon style but I think Renegade is a better fit. Unfortunately, there are no decent sprite rips for Renegade so I'm having to rip the sprites myself and edit and/or re-draw accordingly and it's very time consuming and taking up most of my time. This is where I'd like to reference some of the points within this thread.

There has been a lot of arguments about the graphics, mostly from Amstrad users who are making some frankly outrageous claims (such as the bug in the music being a 'feature'?!). The Amstrad version has sacrifced (significantly) resolution for colour. The Spectrum version has the resolution, but not the colour. It is certainly easier BY FAR to recolour sprites than to redraw coloured sprites. Going down that route, you might as well not base your graphics on either version and redraw the sprites from scratch. I'm not saying it is easy to recreate and recolour the sprites and Swainy has done an excellent job.

As for what Imagine would have done, there is no telling. Software Creations ported the original version of Renegade to the Amiga and it was a terrible port. They also developed the NES version of Target, so it's entirely possible that an Amiga version may even have been a port of that game. Who knows?

So to close off, apologies for the long post and please be supportive of this project. I'm sure when I finally release some clips or footage of my game I'm going to get a lot of flak for my stylistic choices too and it's not really warranted. If you want a different game, make your own. If you're unwilling to do so, be thankful for what Havie, Swainy, Saimon and anyone else involved in this project have done for the game and the community to this point.

Peace out.

What a lovely post and I for one am looking forward to seeing what you have been up to.

TR has stalled for the last few weeks due to work but I have half term coming up so intend to get going again...

[Millsy]

Originally Posted by Havie

What a lovely post and I for one am looking forward to seeing what you have been up to.

TR has stalled for the last few weeks due to work but I have half term coming up so intend to get going again...

I may start a twitter account to document my progress at some point.

Best of luck for a productive week. This time next year Target: Renegade turns 35. There's a target right there for completion. Certainly been a long time coming.

Then we need someone to make a proper Renegade III.

[Havie]

Originally Posted by Millsy

I may start a twitter account to document my progress at some point.

Best of luck for a productive week. This time next year Target: Renegade turns 35. There's a target right there for completion. Certainly been a long time coming.

Then we need someone to make a proper Renegade III.

Wash your mouth out - TR 3 is unmentionable...

[Millsy]

Originally Posted by Havie

Wash your mouth out - TR 3 is unmentionable...

By which I mean the game we all wished for and deserved, not the pile of crap we actually got!

[Fiery Phoenix]

Just wondering if this is still progressing as 6 mths since last post

Probably one most looking forward to as I did not relaise how good the ZX one was before this thread.

[Havie]

Originally Posted by Fiery Phoenix

Just wondering if this is still progressing as 6 mths since last post

Probably one most looking forward to as I did not relaise how good the ZX one was before this thread.

Fear not - still in progress just life and work (and BB2 Jam) has got in the way. I just have to add player two to my Space Invaders Arcade and then that will be fully complete (spent about two weeks tracking down a game destroying bug) and I'll be back to this.

Little Havie will not let me start anything new until this is complete!

I know I have promised before but will try and get a demo out sometime around Christmas. Sorry for the long wait...

[saimon69]

(thumbs up icon)

[Havie]

Then everyone can hear Saimon's great tunes properly (as they are too slow on YouTube video - is this and NTCS v PAL thing I wonder?)

[Fiery Phoenix]

Good to know still on - I know you had a family bereavement too. At the end of the day it's done when it is done, but good to know not abandoned