URC Demo (PCE CD racing game)

[Arm]

The programmer Orion has released a racing game demo for the PCE CD with the help of Gregg (menu graphics and music) and myself (intro and ingame graphics.)
You can download it here (go to pce section and select games):

http://onorisoft.free.fr http://onorisoft.free.fr/retro.htm?pce/pce.htm

There's also a small video on youtube (although the sound is slightly out of sync, the capture having a low frame rate)



The game has been completely written in assembler by Orion. For the graphics, it took me around a week (2/3 hours per days) to create the tile set as well as the other in game graphics like the racequeen.
Anyway, hope you'll enjoy this small demo for the PCE CDRom

[ccovell]

Great graphics, but the road is zoomed in even more than the usual blind spot-prone racing game!

[Mishran]

Great job for a first attempt at a PCE game. I agree that the view is too zoomed to make gameplay comfortable, but I enjoyed it regardless. Nice one guys!

[Arm]

Thanks for the comments. Orion handled the programming and playtested the game. I tried a couple of time the demo and although the car's sprite is rather big, I didn't encounter much problem to avoid the obstacles.

[spenoza]

If you do plan on doing any further tweaking, may I suggest the ability to turn less than nearly 45% at a time (tap left or right and you only turn a little, hold and you quickly swing out to 45% after just a moment holding the D-pad) and a few additional car graphics so that when you turn it looks like you are turning rather than the car magically and instantly pointing at a 45% angle. What's already there is fantastic looking, and the sounds are good, too. I think just a tiny bit of tweaking and you'll have a fantastic finished product.

[Arm]

Thanks for the comment. I don't know if Orion will make further change to the demo, but I'll ask him.
Actually, I had thought about these details like additional frames for the car's rotation. There's also the problem of ram limitation according to Orion, so I'll have to ask him.

[SignOfZeta]

Its the China Warrior of overhead racing games! Seriously, I can't see anything but the car.

As far as homebrew goes though, its very impressive graphically. These are talented people.

[Arm]

Thanks for the compliment.
Orion told me that the ram limitation is a real issue which prevents him from adding more frames for the car. But he said he'll look when he has more time if he can change some elements in order to improve the game.
As for me, I had in the beginning lots of ideas like different kind of fx like smoke, detailed explosions and such, but the ram threshold was already reached with what we had.
For example, the car skidding animation is made of 8 frames which uses a lot of ressources. I wanted to add more things, but programming wise, Orion told me there's not enough ram.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Awesome, nice job!  The gfx are great, is Orion looking to make this a complete game, or is it to continue to be a demo?  I'd love to have a full game with case, manual, etc.

[Arm]

Thanks for the compliment. To my knowledge, there's no plan for a physical release. Orion wanted this to be a fun little demo for the PCE fans.

[Keranu]

Enjoyed it, the techno was quite good too! I actually like the zoomed-in graphics, it's not something you commonly see in old overtop racers and I don't think it really effects the gameplay that much here.

I agree about having more rotational frames. You can use TweenGen for some assistance.

[Black Tiger]

It looks very nice (the modern looking styled title screen and menus are cool to have in a PCE game) and the zoomed-in perspective is good for packing in detail, but it needs those warning signs from the intro to flash on-screen as you approach obstacles and turns.

Enjoyed it, the techno was quite good too! I actually like the zoomed-in graphics, it's not something you commonly see in old overtop racers and I don't think it really effects the gameplay that much here.

I agree about having more rotational frames. You can use TweenGen for some assistance.

That is an awesome tool, but it won't help for the car's frames, since it has 3D angles and not simply a spinning overhead perspective.

[Arm]

Yes, warning signs could be useful It wouldn't take a long time to create. Adding more element like frames and graphics would require more ram. I guess these could be included later if the programmer is willing to.

[Black Tiger]

Yes, warning signs could be useful It wouldn't take a long time to create. Adding more element like frames and graphics would require more ram. I guess these could be included later if the programmer is willing to.

They could be a 2 color black/yellow sprite about half the size of the car and simply flash/flicker on/off. Even if space is tight, that should add too much.

Some unusual ones with obstacle warnings like a picture of a giant hole in the road or puddle/oil slick could be fun.

[Arkhan]

The opening stuff is pretty awesome.

I'd much rather there be chiptunes in the game though.

Yay other people doing PCE homebrew!