Sunday 26 October 2014

My greatest games

This was a tricky list to compile. The top half contains the true greats, and the bottom half is the runners up. I'm mindful of the fact that several games that I haven't played could well merit inclusion (e.g. System Shock Remake, Majora's Mask, Metal Gear Solid, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) but I'm restricting myself to games that I have played.

Two things ought to be mentioned regarding The Lost Vikings: firstly, that the Mega Drive/Genesis version contains five more levels than all the other ports, and secondly, that several good tribute games have been created, e.g. The Lost Kids, The Lost Snowmen, and The Lost Robos. And I'd like to add that No One Lives Forever (1) has the funniest dialogue I've ever heard in a game.

SNES
Donkey Kong Country series
The Lost Vikings 1 & 2
Super Mario World

N64
F-Zero X
GoldenEye 007
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

PC
Beyond Good and Evil
BioShock series
Deus Ex & Human Revolution
Half Life & Opposing Force & Blue Shift
Half Life 2 & Episodes
Halo: Combat Evolved & Reach
No One Lives Forever 1 & 2
Project IGI & Covert Strike
Red Faction
System Shock 2

Online/indie
Billiard Blitz Snooker Skool & Star
The Codex of Alchemical Engineering & Opuses
Into the Breach
Sokoban

And here's the second lot:

Non-PC
Chuckie Egg (BBC Micro)
Snapper/Pac-Man (BBC Micro)
Tetris (NES)
Super Mario Bros 2 (NES)
Micro Machines 1 & 2 & 96 & Military (Mega Drive)
Streets of Rage (Mega Drive)
Aladdin (SNES & Mega Drive)
Super Mario Kart (SNES)
WCW/nWo Revenge & WWF No Mercy (N64)

PC
Anachronox
Atlantis: The Lost Tales
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Midtown Madness series
Painkiller & Battle out of Hell
Serious Sam series
Worms Armageddon & World Party

Online/indie
Agar.io
Alien Growth
Electric Box 1 & 2
Illusion Trails Eternal
LaserTank
Light-Bot 1 & 2
Magic Pen 1 & 2
Quadrax series
Scribble
Sugar, Sugar series
Trilby: The Art of Theft
TRrBL & Swapblocks

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Potential new features for Creeping Angels

Here's a prioritised list of new features that could be added to Creeping Angels, none of which are necessary in my opinion. If you can think of anything else that's worth including here, feel free to share it via a comment.

1. Smoke. Whereas holey walls can be seen through but not passed through, smoky tiles can be passed through but not seen through.

2. Holes/trapdoors. Any sprite can fall down a hole, from which they cannot escape. Holes could be bottomless, or of finite depth, where in the latter case, once they're full, they become functionally equivalent to floor tiles.

3. Transportation. The player can teleport to a (safe?) random tile, or from one teleporting tile to another. Or more complicatedly, there could be tracks along which the player rides in a cart, or iced tiles along which the player would slide.

4. Doors/gates. Self-explanatory, with options such as remote opening-levers, keys, and whether they can be left open/closed.

5. One-way mirrors. Orthogonal mirrors that from one side are reflective but from the other side are transparent.

6. An observer. This would be placed on a tile, where it just looks ahead, locking any angels in its path. Could be a bird in a cage. Can the angels destroy it?

7. A decoy. Once released, the angels would be attracted to this instead of the player, and it can't lock them (i.e. it's blind). Would it be autonomous or controlled, and how long would it be active for?

8. Alternative angel movement algorithm(s). Many possibilities here, such as copying Mummy Maze, or allowing the angels to move three times per turn.

9. Player invisibility/cloaking. This would effectively induce the angels to skip their turns.

10. Exclusive tiles. A type of tile that only the player can go on, and a type that only the angels can go on.

11. Slow-down tiles. Tiles on which angels can only move once per turn.

12. Movable objects. Could make anything movable in principle, cf Sokoban.

13. Creatable and destructible objects. Self-explanatory.

14. Time limit. The player must reach an escape tile within a specified number of turns or within a specified amount of time.

15. New enemies. Cf the scorpions in Mummy Maze, which can move once per turn.

16. Blue-red flip. A mechanism by which blue angels become red ones, and vice versa.

17. Weapon(s). A ray gun, a pistol, or a rocket launcher, which temporarily or permanently disables its victims.

18. Turrets. Functionally the same as the above. Can they be interacted with?

19. Bombs/mines. Time-bombs and/or proximity mines, these could potentially kill sprites, demolish walls, and make holes in the floor.

20. Different heights of tiles. These would be connected by ramps/stairs, with the player able to drop down from high to low. Possibility of fall damage?

21. Multiplayer mode. Self-explanatory.