|
An incredible 22 years have passed since I wrote this game. It was developed over several months through 1985 (I think I missed most of Live Aid because of it).
I've just disposed of my C64 but before I did, I played some old games, making mpeg recordings of some highlights, and my old game ACE was one of those products.
A brief inside story:-
ACE started life as a very simple air combat game for the VIC20 and C16 - the decision was made by Cascade (yes, those people behind Cassette 50) to produce a full C64 title. I was giving a lot of creative freedom, but driven by one of the directors to add more and more (refuelling, ships, 1 bit speech) and I have to say that his project management was spot on. The game eventually was completed in September 1985 (I think a July completion was originally planned).
Playing the game 2 days ago - for the first time in more than 10 years - I was actually engrossed by my task - to video the refuelling sequence. It took me ages, and I kept getting bounced by enemy fighters. I eventually crashed whilst landing, almost out of fuel!
The graphics are crude by any standards. I wanted a bitmap gameplay area, with sprites for planes etc but in the event we used a character screen to get a high speed. I'm no artist, but I did the helicopters, trees, planes and most of the cockpit panel. We brought in an artist to help with the latter.
We never pitched it as a flight sim - fun was the order of the day.
The sound is adequate I feel - the speech does add to the feel of the game, and of course the quality is accurately poor.
The refuelling sequence took ages - I think that the refuelling pipe was linedrawn into a sprite, as I recall - but I always felt it was the best looking part of the pseudo-3d.
I think I can be reasonably objective after 22 years to say that the gameplay whilst repetitive can also be engrossing - the battle to stop the map turning red. I experienced the anguish of having my first airbase overran by the enemy.
I cannot believe we used the phrase "enemy planes" rather than "enemy aircraft". I think the box said "100% machine code" too!
We did a Plus/4 version in 1986 - which was great fun to do - purely because a mistake on an advertisement implied that there was a fully functional Plus/4 version. The threat of action by the Advertising Standards Agency forced a Plus/4 conversion.
I've awarded some scores trying to be as objective as I can.
I stayed with Cascade for a couple of years after ACE, and we did some other games, including a couple of sequels, but none as much fun as ACE. Cascade folded in 1990.
Downloads: Music, Speech, Advert 2, Advert 3, Advert 4, Advert 5
|
|
|
|
| GRAPHICS - 5/10 |
Basic out of the window.
| | SOUND - 6/10 |
Some nice jet noise, and the speech is about right.
| | PLAYABILITY - 7/10 |
Can be absorbing.
| | OVERALL - 6/10 |
Good fun.
|
|
| COVER |
.jpg&w=206)
|
|
|
; "Click to zoom!")
