Spectrum Game to play - StarQuake

hamster

Starquake is a classic that many of you played going back. I started this one because it's a lot easier to get started and we can measure your score and progress more easily...

Story:
The player controls BLOB (Bio-Logically Operated Being), whose starship has crashed on a planet. The crash destabilised the core of this planet, and you have to find its parts which are scattered all through the planet and fix it before it explodes. The natural inhabitants of the planet don't like your presence and keep trying to kill you.

The game features a large and varied play area, with 512 screens. The placement of the objects, and the identities of those needed to fix the core, are never the same.

Anyone got far into this before? Try either the speccie or C64 version.

hamster

My first attempt....

Adventure score 6%
Score 15,310

hamster

Another go....

hamster

Rather than post a new pic each time - I'll update the photo in thead no.3 -

Adventure score: 8%
Score: 24,995

512 screens ouch!

hamster

Fast and furious is this game!

I can't stop moving to think where I am going:

I collected several parts of the core - but no idea where the core is located. Nope, not going to use the map just yet.

Score: 75,840
Adventure Score: 21%
Time Taken: 22.13

See screenshot on thread #3 above.

hamster

Updated screenshot in thread #3

Got a bit futher, but the planet is still not familar - learning not to rush - creatures are not really that aggressive as say in Wizard's Lair (another similar game to Atic Atac).


Score: 92,475
Adventure Score: 20%
Time Taken: 18.52

Nearly picked up a yellow key but still no sign of visiting the core. Sigh! Nice game though.

I had this years ago on the c64 but never really got into it. Though I did complete Wizard's Lair and that was harder.

trout

hamster wrote:

I collected several parts of the core - but no idea where the core is located. Nope, not going to use the map just yet.

This is a great game ... to get to the core, you should use the teleporters ... each zone of the game has a name, made up of 5 characters ... if I can trust my memory, the core is called

quake

I finished this game back in the day, and haven't played in it several years ...must be time for a re-remake.

hamster

Thanks - going to have another go tonight - anyone else give it a go? The speccie version is very nice - I had the c64 version and a colorful blob is really the only difference I can really. Sound is identical bar the music....

I'll look at the core passwd later - want to have a good go at finding it first - found 2 passwords so far....

hamster

Well, to even things up - I loaded up the c64 version (yea!) and oooh I had forgotten this one is more nippy than the speccie version. The creatures are more aggressive and faster. And damn I'm sure those lethal crosses with spikes creatures appear far more frequently than in the speccie version.

Actually though... after a few tries I got really far into it... but most strangely of all... the inhabitants became solely (red aliens) - see the 1st screenshot? Every new screen had these guys. No more beaks or crosses - just these guys and that was easy enough.
Trout, does that seem odd to you? - This is the tape version of Starquake - I was sure they were always varied. It started out that varied though. Still looking for the core. Ha! Anyone want to join in without using the map?

Final score: 97,545 (beating the speccie score)
Adventure score: 31%



I notice the c64 version doesn't keep track of time spent... Must have been 30 mins.

hamster

I decided to go to town on re-mapping the c64 version since I was not remembering revisted locations - 1/3 way in now and the top half makes sense - ie you can remember it better since maybe areas only have 1 entrance for say 10 rooms.

I'm using a combo of Infraview and the gimp (could use mspaint):

In Infraview I got the snap and crop down to a tee (got it perfect now) - there was a gap between each join originally.

The good thing about the crop method is that it works at any resolution (laptop 1024x768) and home pc (1280x1024).

Crop (shift-c)
1. Print screen+alt with winvice focused (I have double scan checked)
1. 512x288 image size
2. start at position 130,215
3. Get rid of Blob
4. Paste into the Gimp. Repeat.

It's a real joy to map this thing... something evil about the fact the uncompressed bitmap is looking like 200Mb when the game could fit in 64Kb for 512 screens.

trout

If you are re-mapping, you may find this tip useful ... each 'new' screen you visit ups your score ... so if you hit a new screen, and your score stays the same ... you've already been there.

It's hard to check the score & screen and still keep an eye out for the creatures.

Still ... after several attempts, I finished the spectrum version just now

hamster

trout wrote:

If you are re-mapping, you may find this tip useful ... each 'new' screen you visit ups your score ... so if you hit a new screen, and your score stays the same ... you've already been there.

It's hard to check the score & screen and still keep an eye out for the creatures.

Still ... after several attempts, I finished the spectrum version just now

Nice one... actually I am mapping the C64 version. Amazingly there isn't a high resolution map for the commie. I was mapping it for fun anyway - I'm halfway through that now and the resolution is a stupifying 8200x8200. I'm using double scan in winvice rather than 1:1 and it looks lovely. Uses a whopping 768Mb as opened bitmap but I'll get that waaaay down when I'm finished and turn it into a .png. Using the gimp - using tile based memory - it's fast once loaded - viewing the whole map at say 100% or 50% or 25% normal size. Only slows down if viewing the entire map - and to fit that in the screen I'd have to zoom out to 15%.
Getting familar with the map - and you know it feels easy that wizard's lair! I think it will be easy enough once I am familar with it (after mapping). Those crosses though... they seem to appear more often than in the speccie version. I hate those guys - insta-death.

CiDeRmAn

Sorry lads, I never understood the attraction of these games, Sabre Wulf, Atic Atac, Firelord, always drove me nuts. My speccy back in the day was better out to work playing Quazatron and StarStrike3D, not to mention Academy and Tau Ceti.

trout

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Sorry lads, I never understood the attraction of these games, Sabre Wulf, Atic Atac, Firelord, always drove me nuts. My speccy back in the day was better out to work playing Quazatron and StarStrike3D, not to mention Academy and Tau Ceti.

I wouldn't put those games in the same bracket as Starquake ... they were isometric "arcade/adventure" games, and mostly slow and quite boring ... I never really liked them. Starquake is much more fast paced, a platform-shoot-collect-em-up ... give it a go, you just might like it

Quazatron is a really good game. I may have posted this link before, but it's worth a repeat ... modern PC remakes of many Spectrum classics, including Quazatron. http://retrospec.sgn.net/game-overview.php?link=quaz

You've inspired me with mention of Academy and Tau Ceti. There really were classics ... well worth a re-run ... scuse me while I fire up my emulator ... I may be busy for a while:rolleyes:

hamster

I'm off for two weeks now - so I will try to finish off the high res C64 starquake map.

Current stats:
8250 x 9700 Pixels (80.02 MPixels) display
If you were to print it: 291.0 x 342.2 cm; 114.6 x 134.7 inches
Disk size: 228.97 MB

When done - I'll change it to .PNG

It's a really really long way to the bottom. And I found the core.

trout

Wow ...that is some impressive commitment and dedication right there, bordering on the obsessive
How much time have you put into mapping this ?

Good luck with completing it ... can't wait for the finished image.

hamster

trout wrote:

Wow ...that is some impressive commitment and dedication right there, bordering on the obsessive
How much time have you put into mapping this ?

Good luck with completing it ... can't wait for the finished image.

Trout, really it's fun really - no real effort once your setup. I use Infranview (to grab each frame) and Gimp (to keep it altogether).

In infranview I paste the contents of the current screen in winvice, then I press shift+C to trim the top and sides to 512x288 at the same coords in the winvice window (130,215). Once trimmed, next I paste the trimmed screenshot into Gimp and repeat. Just at the start I had to mess a bit until the got the right framesize. It's different from game to game but the joins are perfect now. If I was doing it again, I might have not used double sized screen shots (it's reaching a crazy 300Mb for bitmap) - but makes the joins must faster to do and less zooming in etc.

hamster

I got some time to come back and finish the map - interesting enough though is this white door structure - what is used to open this? I have only seen this in two places on the map. The horizontal white doors I can smash from a height - but these don't seem to have any way through? I am thinking maybe you need one of the objects (key?) while looking for the core pieces. :?:

trout

They are a type of door. I think there are four of them in the Spectrum version.

There is a type of key that works in the Cheops Pyramid ... as well as the credit card... that's the key you need.
The problem is they only work once, and they are very hard to come by. Use them then drop them, so you'll know you've been there.

I usually ignore them ... you can always get around them, given time and teleporters. I think they are just there to frustrate you.:mad:

hamster

trout wrote:

They are a type of door. I think there are four of them in the Spectrum version.

There is a type of key that works in the Cheops Pyramid ... as well as the credit card... that's the key you need.
The problem is they only work once, and they are very hard to come by. Use them then drop them, so you'll know you've been there.

I usually ignore them ... you can always get around them, given time and teleporters. I think they are just there to frustrate you.:mad:

Thanks Trout, I just came across another one five minutes ago. (2 in the same area) and one about midway in the map. I am carrying the grey credit card with me since the start so I guess it need to be exchanged for a key of some sort - I did see a yellow key by the core - I'll see if I can find it again.

hamster

Nearly done with the map. Enough for today though. There are 4 more areas to do.

1. The bottom left corner. Have to figure out how to access. There is a teleporter at the other side. Must find a way to access this fairly

2. Centre bottom half. About 13 screens enclosed - due to one of those white doors. Must restart and get the key to see if I can open this area.

3. Bottom right. Need to climb up.

4. Top right. Need to open another white door from the lower areas... or slip through the light blue rock (4th screen down next to the blank area).

hamster

The c64 Starquake map is complete today! Now there is a c64 map to go with the speccie version. All 512 screens. Whew! Here is an overview of the map.



Actually, the best part was getting hold of all the teleporter locations and their passwords. This game is going to be rather easy to complete now.

Anyone wanting a copy of the map can go here and grab them. Interestingly, the full map size took a massive 300Mb (true color) while working with it. But once I reduced the image to 4-bit - it came down to 32Mb for the 16 color bitmap. I have this as a backup for any necessary mods. Finally saved it as a .png and it now only 1.2Mb while taking 36Mb in memory. Not bad for a 75Mpixel image.
Actual size is 8193x9213 pixels or physically 289 x 325 cms :P


I must take my hat off for Infranview for such a clean cutting tool and an excellent cropping mask tool for screen coordinates which made the job so much easier!

If anyone spots any errors let me know and I'll correct them.

hamster

The c64 Starquake map is complete today! Now there is a c64 map to go with the speccie version. All 512 screens. Whew! Here is an overview of the map.



Actually, the best part was getting hold of all the teleporter locations and their passwords. This game is going to be rather easy to complete now.

Anyone wanting a copy of the map can go here and grab them. Interestingly, the full map size took a massive 300Mb (true color) while working with it. But once I reduced the image to 4-bit - it came down to 32Mb for the 16 color bitmap. I have this as a backup for any necessary mods. Finally saved it as a .png and it now only 1.2Mb while taking 36Mb in memory. Not bad for a 75Mpixel image.
Actual size is 8193x9213 pixels or physically 289 x 325 cms :P


I must take my hat off for Infranview for such a clean cutting tool and an excellent cropping mask tool for screen coordinates which made the job so much easier!

If anyone spots any errors let me know and I'll correct them.

* one thing I noticed when color reducing was getting those annoying dithered pixels - I turned it off (Floyd-Steinberg) and the image remained spotless afterwards. More of a self reminder next time.