itch.io

Good update in V1.1. The somewhat jerky control of the falling pills, is now smoother. Only wished, there would be a possibility, to play against another human player (splitscreen) and also against a cpu player. That would be fantastic, especially the latter. Maybe sometime in the future in an upcoming V1.2? Nice puzzle-game for the C64 definately.

Just one question. Is this the final version now, or is the game still in beta mode?

A good puzzler in the "Puzzle Bobble" (Bust a Move) style. A possibility to play against another human-player and especially CPU-opponents would have been superb here. Maybe someday a DX-version of "Tiny Bubbles" can be released? On the Arcade-machine, but also on consoles like the Playstation or the N64, playing against strong CPU-players gives the most fun. More than always playing the levels alone. An updated version of this game, therefore would be really great.

Very interesting new tool, for producing C64-games. Good work!

Jess, because of the other point, i mentioned in my comment here, two months ago (this thing with the tight turns). Today a preview of a game was released, in which exactly this, works very well and which has a similar game-principle to Light 'Cycle Duel DX'. This one here:

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=247555

I thought I'd mention it briefly, maybe it can give some inspiration, in the point of "tight turns, that are easy for the user to implement (with no lines in between)"?

Best regards and thanks for improving this cool game. Especially the 4-player-simultan function (with 4-player-adapter) is great and a nice party-game, when friends come to visit.

Nice v1.1 update, the music is indeed better now.

I have a bugreport to V1.06. At the moment, this nice version of Galaga, is one of the games, that is being played intensively by several people, in a competition on the Forum64. A few of the players encountered two bugs in Galaga, that only occur relatively rarely, but are undoubtedly present. I will describe these briefly, so that they can possibly be fixed in a final V1.07 version.

(1) In rare cases, one million points are added to the current player-score, without a real reason.

(2) Also in rare cases, the game freezes, after a level and you are left, floating alone in space without a new level starting. At first it was assumed, that this bug only occurs, when a player has shot down all the enemies, before they can position themselves in the field. But this is not the case. It has been proven in the meanwhile (via screenshot), that it also sometimes occurs, when there are still enemies in the field. A screenshot was posted in Forum64, where two enemies at the top and the player's spaceship below, can be seen and the game froze (is no longer playable).

These are the two problems, that were discovered. Apart from that, this version is by far the best Galaga version on the C64. It would be great, if these two things could be fixed, so that you can use this game in competitions without any risk. At the moment, it's of course annoying, if you have a great score and then one of these two bugs occurs. They occur only rarely, but of course you never know, when.

Yes indeed, some of those Redux games even don't feel like SEUCK anymore. The special-edition of "Zap Fight 2" is my alltime favorite SEUCK game and a really good shooter for the C64. The later released trilogy-edition of "Zap Fight 2" looks even better (nicer score-display etc), but unfortunately this seemed to be at the expense of playability and less enemies are on the screen then. Therefore i like the special-edition of this game more. SEUCK Redux games are really interesting and a next step, compared to the normal SEUCK games, which can sometimes (not always) be a bit boring. Looking forward to a possible part 2 of "River Barrage". Maybe with a 2 players simultan mode? By the way, my favorite game from you is "Trance Sector Ultimate", a really good clone of good old "Solar Fox".

I guess, it could be a problem of the older VICE v2.4 version, the C64Mini uses. 

Really nice game. Good playability, nice gfx and great music.

Hy. That linked AI thing in Dig Dug is very interesting. Not only for playing this 3D version, i think it can also help, when playing the normal 2D version, because then i know before, what the enemies will do in their next step. Already now i have very high scores in the classic Arcade Dig Dug version and all their different home-ports (some of the homeports for retro computers/consoles, i can even play endlessly, because they are easier than the Arcade original in the vast majority and the ratio of lost lives and new bonus-lives always balances out, if i stay focused *lol*). I think with knowing this AI thing now, i can even increase my highscores in the Arcade original then. And it's also cool, that you made the audio-effects spatial in your game. I will have a closer look at this, when playing it the next time.

One question. I sometimes commute between my apartment and my parents' house, at the weekend. There, I have a somewhat older computer with a Windows 7 - 32bit system. I wanted to run "Dig Dug 3D" there too today, but it doesn't work, because the game only seems to be available in a 64bit version. Would it be possible, to offer a 32bit compatible version of it too? Or would too much have to be changed for that?

Okay, understand how you mean it with the learning-effect. I will play the game more often in next time, then i will see, if it works out, for constantly making correct tight turns in the gameplay, when i need them. Best regards.

*lol* I love the classic Dig Dug game and this here, really is a funny idea. Even though, the 3D-look obviously makes the game less playable, you can see the game from the perspective of the sprites now, when you are directly in the tunnels, which is really funny and also interesting (what a torture for the main-character, this whole digging is). So I think, this version is definitely worth it, because of this different perspective, that one can take here.

Nice improved version of this game! Thanks, for integrating the suggested 4-player mode, really a nice thing. So far, i have only played the game against the computers, but on the next weekend, i will play it with some human friends. The possibility, to choose a 4-player-mode (no matter if played against humans or cpu's) is definitely great. Nice work!

Two suggestions/questions i also have. I noticed something, while playing against three cpu's, when you don't have much space on the play-field. It's the following. If you want to turn really tightly, it doesn't always work out, as you want (even though I'm a good player). The turn is sometimes too big (if you steer to slowly) then the line is not directly next to the old line, or the player-sprite sometimes doesn't react at all (if you steer too quickly). The game seems to be a bit too precise with the timing here in tight turns, so it's not easy, to always pull off tight turns correctly, although you'll need them more often in the gameplay (especially with more than two players on the field). I compared this with some other Tron-like games on the C64 and there are some, in which this is not a problem. Therefore i wanted to ask, if something could be improved a bit, in this point with the turns?

Second thing i wanted to mention. The music, that plays in the game-menue, is not really nice (sorry to have to say it like that, but it's a bit of a pain in the ears *lol*). I really don't mean it in a bad way, I'm just being honest, about this music. Maybe it could be changed a bit, in a possible later v1.1 version? One suggestion, that came to my mind here. On the CSDB, for example, are a number of good musicians (such as Nordischsound, Linus, Jammer, Lman etc.) who have all made good game-music on the C64 in the past. Maybe one of them could be asked, if he would like to contribute a short melody to a new game? Just a suggestion of course and I could also understand, if you would rather do everything yourself in the game, also the music. But this idea came to my mind and I thought, I'd give it a go and mention it at least.

Best regards and go on, making games for the C64, especially if they are party-games that can be played by four people at the same time. I love this, because this mode always gives the most fun, when friends are there.

I think, that the comments here should mainly be about the game in question (that's why I mentioned the off-topic thing) and not about retro gaming in general etc. :) A quick last word on the numbers. Let's first take a look at the total number of games for the C64 by looking at GameBase64. There are currently around 30.000 games in the current GB64 v19

https://gb64.com/search.php?h=0

You can definitely subtract around 10.000 from that number, because these are only little basic-programs and not really finalized games, but the range of games for the C64 is definitely still very very huge then. I then searched the CSDB for all new games, released for the C64, just in the last 15 years and the search-engine found exactly 1.300 games, released since 2009 and many of them are also really good. You can also subtract some of these, because some games have different versions, but still the result will be over 1.000 new games then, since 2009. I have added this search-result as an image, because it doesn't seem to work, to directly link to the search-results of the CSDB's advanced-search-engine.

I don't know what the Spectrum looks like, but it's hard to imagine, that more new games have been released for it, in the same time. Possible is everything, but i don't think, this will be the case.

But whatever, now it should be about "River Barrage" again, I think. Otherwise Richard maybe will wonder, what this topic is all about here, on the site of his River Barrage game. *lol*

I like the game, it has similarities to classic-games like "Lady Tut" or "Lady Bug" and so on. The only thing, i don't really like is, that the player must reach over to the keyboard every time, to open certain doors. Maybe it would have been better here, to find a way, that everything could be controlled on the controller? For example in a way like this:

- hold down firebutton and move stick to the left = open green doors

- hold down firebutton and move stick to the right = open yellow doors

- hold down firebutton and move stick up = open pink doors

Or somehow similar to that. Important would be only, that the player could open the doors on his joystick/gamepad and that it does not affect the movements of his sprite, when he does this. It could be selectable in the game-menue, whether the player wants this new type of control, or the old one. What do you think about it, for a possible v3 of the game?

Yes, talking about retro gaming is always fun, also for me. I've been into this topic for a long time too, actually, since I got my first Atari-2600 back in the year 1982 (before i had a Philips pong-machine, but it had no interchangeable game-modules), then the first Commodore-64 in 1984, some years later an Amiga-500 and so on.

In the last 10 years, at least 500 games have been released for the C64, if that's enough, so i am sure, no other retro-system will come anywhere close. If you take a look at the website "Lemon64", for example, where newer C64 games have been added since the beginning of this year and the archive has already grown from around 4700 games before, to over 7270 games now. It's crazy. Looks like, the C-64 will soon be mainstream again. :-) *lol*

I'm just afraid, that this big retro-theme is going a bit beyond the scope here, because this page is actually about the new C64-game "River Barrage". So, maybe we should get back to the topic.

Okay. Then let's see, what will happen?

Nice. Activating the shield with "down" works now. Was Fire2 for the shield now completely removed?

By the way, when i played the game longer, i had it a few times, that the parts of enemy sprites, that had already been shot, were not always completely removed from the screen immediately. It takes a while and then, in isolated cases, you can still briefly see a part of an enemy, that has already been killed. Happens not often, but happened a few times here so far. Apart from that, this beta-version plays well, already now. Looking forward to the final release.

Very nice and addictive game. I could well imagine a 2-player-simultan mode in this one, when 2 players fight for most points (most color-matches). Or even a 4-player-simultan mode, that could also be big fun. Alot would be going on then, on the screen, but it could be a great partygame. 4-player-adapters for the C64, are available in different stores in the meanwhile and also already known in the scene.

It would have to be designed in such a way then, that the human-players could not hit each other, when they touch (because who would always get the point then), but only the cpu-controlled players were the targets. But it could also be designed in such a way, that the human players can touch each other (so they don't run through each other), because then you could also try, to push the other human player away or to block him, when he tries to grab the matching cpu-controlled color.

A playmode like that, could definitely be fun, especially with four human players at the same time. :) I think, there would be enough colors left, from the 16 color palette of the C64, even for 4 human players.

Nice game with good playability!

Yes, the "additional code" term in SEUCK games is something like a quality-seal, in the upmost cases, because only then, in my opinion, such construction-kit games, can be really good. When you look at the best SEUCK games so far, nearly all of them uses the enhanced engine and i really like, that these kind of games are getting better and better. The special-edition of "Zap Fight 2" still is my SEUCK number-1 game and a really good shooter on the C64.

About the number of releases for retro-systems. I think, C64 has the most ones, of all the older systems, because when you take a look at things like for example the C64 Scene-Database (CSDB), then really every day, new things for the C64 were released there. This can be pics, songs, demos, games or tools. Unbelievable, how many new and also often really good, new things come out, for the C64. It's really great, having such a computer at home since childhood and now to see, how much the system is coming back to life. I just wished, that for my other favourite retro-system, the Amiga-500, also more good new games would be released, but sadly that's not the case so far.

Good game with respectable graphics, which is nice to play.

The game is not polish, Richard is from the UK as far as i know.

( little joke that suggested itself, I couldn't resist ). :-)

Good game with nice graphics and great playability. Good work!

What do you think, nekoniaow and jotd666, could 1MB Chipram solve this slowdown-problem in Galaga500? One of my four Amiga500 was modded back then in the 90's and has a switcher, with which I can switch between "512kb Chipram + 512kb Slowram" and "1MB Chipram and 0kb Slowram". 1MB Chipram was great in tools like Protracker back then, because it allowed song-modules, to be much larger and there are also a few games, that only works correctly with 1MB Chipram. But mainly, you benefited from it, in a few tools.

I have not tried Galaga500 on exactly this A500 so far, because it's in my old room, in my parents house. Must try it out, how the game runs there, in the next week. Nevertheless, if it runs faster there, this is also not the ultimate solution then, because the vast majority of A500 users, will surely not have modded their computer in this respect, but it's definitely interesting to try it out.

Downloaded the newest version and tried it in WinUAE and Denise emulators. Looks like "down", to activate the shield, no longer works, even if you start the game correctly (by pressing "up") and without using Fire-2 button once, because then it's deactivated and would be correct, but no matter how I start the game, Firebutton-2 always works for the shield and the direction "down" never. Have not tested it on any of my real Amiga500, but WinUAE and Denise have a very high compatibility rate, I would be surprised if both emulators behaved differently than the original computer here in this point (but, possible is anything).

Yes, it's true, there are alot of sprites and they also move very quickly, which makes the whole thing not easier. But i think it should be possible on a A500, because even for the C64, a good Galaga port exists in the meanwhile, from Arlasoft. Of course not as good as the Arcade version, that's clear, because the C64 is a 8bit machine, but really well playable, i must say. Some 'tricks' were used there, because of the big number of enemies on the screen, but at last, it was implemented well (not perfect but well), which I would never have thought possible on a C64, because Galaga is not easy to port, especially for 8bit machines, i guess.

Sure, a 1-to-1 port of the Arcade version is a different story again, but a Amiga500 is technically much stronger than a C64 and there are alot of games there, running on a plain A500, that looks more impressive than Galaga. But you will definitely know more about programming on the Amiga than I do, i have only little experience with this. Interesting information about the Z80 and how it was converted.

Hardware sprite multiplexing could be a solution here, sadly i can not help (because Nekoniaew suggested that) in such points, since i haven't programmed a game on the Amiga yet, otherwise i would help of course. I only expressed my opinion on the game and things like the slowdowns can be mentioned, but that doesn't mean, that I think the port is bad. I think it's great, that you're actually doing the work, to port some of the best old arcade classics to the Amiga, and most of these ports are really good too.

Reply to the user nekoniaew - I already knew, that the A501 memory-expansion is not Fastram, because I had already written exactly that myself, in the first entry here. Back then in time, alot people called this memory Fastram though (I did too at the time), which was not correct, as it turned out later. Nevertheless, also the 512kb Slowram, which the A501 can deliver, was used in alot of good Amiga classic-games, back in the 90's, so also this memory can be used in a senseful way, maybe not here in this Galaga port, but in alot of other games. Buying an Indivision ACA board, only for a handful of newer games, may be interesting for some people, but not for me, because all the best Amiga classic-games work perfectly without such a board and only with the normal 7MHz and 512kb+512kb memory.

Hy, thanks for answering. I tried the newer version, but sadly it runs in the same slowmotion like the older version, on all of my A500 machines. I hope, that there can be done something, to speed it up, because normally, a Amiga500 with 1MB memory should actually be able, to run such a game in full speed, if you look at games like for example "Uridium 2" in comparison, with the very huge spaceships there, that the playership flies over and everything still runs in full speed and without any stuttering on 1MB A500 machines, that are equipped with a A501 memory-expansion.

By the way, i noticed one thing more, in the newer version of Galaga500, when i copied the image to a real disk and tried it on my Amiga. The floppy-LED stays always on, even when the game is completely loaded and the diskdrive don't stop working. This is not in the older Galaga500 version, therefore i guess, that you maybe have forgotten, to reset the _MTR-Signal in the CIA, or something like that, in this newer version of the game? Could that be? This should be changed, because i think, it's not good for real floppys, when the motor didn't stop and runs all the time, while playing the game.

Really nice for a SEUCKer. Graphics, music and gameplay, everything good. Found out, that it uses the enhanced engine of the construction-kit. I thought before it does, because it's better than the most other SEUCK games. Nice work.

Tried this game some minutes ago and it looks good. The playability is slow, here on all my four Amiga-500 machines. In the description here is written, when the Amiga has Fastmem, the gamespeed will be good. Which kind of memory is meant here exactly, because i have a A501 trapdoor memory-expansion in every of my four A500 machines, and back then in the 90's, we called this memory "Fastmem". Now it's called Slowmem und Fastmem is another type of memory. The A501 didn't help me, in the game here, when it comes to speed. Therefore i guess, that, when you wrote about "Fastmem" in the description, you not meant the memory of the A501 expansion, right?

I hope something can be done, that the game also runs in fullspeed on every normal 1MB equipped A500, because it would be sad, if you would need a AGA machine, to run it in fullspeed. By the way. Thanks for the good work, by porting all these classic Arcade games, that so many people love, to the Amiga now. Your "Galaxian 500", "Donkey Kong", "Bagit Man", "Moon Patrol" and so on, are all great ports. Good work, this is really cool!

Wow, nice version and already now, in Beta status, the game plays really well. Played it on two A500 Amigas, which both have Kick1.3 and 512kb Chipram and 512kb Fastram (Slowram, like it's called now, the well known A501 trapdoor memory-expansion) and the game runs good there. Looking forward to the final version of "Phoenix 500", because i loved this game on the Arcade, back then and having it now on Amiga too, is really great. Graphics looks like in the Arcade and playability is close. Good work.

Will try this out. Thanks for the tip.

Wow, sounds really great! Looking forward to this DX-version now.

Funny little game. Now waiting for part 2 of it, "Mike Oyer (Present Destroyer)" followed by "Mike Asher (Present Smasher)", before finally then the last part "Mike Gator (Present Exterminator)" will be released. But only for now, because several years later, "Mike Flyer (Present Nullifier)" will be released, which will then really mark the end of this series.

Haven't found the easter egg so far. Can you give a hint? :-)

Just saw the newest 1.1 version. Nice. Good game. Looking forward to the mentioned "Light Cycles Deluxe" now. Support for 4-player-adapter, or in other words, a four player simultan mode, could be nice, for the DX version. And a bit stronger cpu-opponents would be great too.

By the way, a fix name would also be good, because at the moment nobody can be sure, if the name of the game now is "Light Cycle Duel" (the name in the game itself) or "C64 Light Cycles" (the title on this page here) or simply just "Light Cycles"? For the recognition-value, of exactly this C64 version here, you should decide on one name, which is used everywhere then. Just a suggestion of course, but i think, it would make sense. Especially, if people search for the game on the internet, at some point later.

That would be superb. And for this third part, a selectable 2-player-simultan play-mode would be very cool.

I see it in the C64-game "SWIV", such a simultan-mode is big fun, especially when the rest of the game is very good and you don't have to worry about that, with the "Zeta Wing" series.

That would be cool. There are not so many 4-player-simultan games and the game-principle of alot games are also not really suitable, for having four player sprites on the screen at the same time. It's completely different here in "1nvader", where it would be very useful, as there are only a few enemies on the screen. You could then snatch points from each other, based on the motto - who of the four players aims most accurately and shoots the enemy the most often and the fastest. I think, this could really be fun. By the way, not all 4-player-adapters are wired exactly the same. In my opinion, the Protovision 4-player-adapter seems to be the model, that is most widely used meanwhile. You could then base your decision on that. This could then be used as a guide for the game, when integrating 4-player-gameplay.