SEUCK: Shoot-Em-Up Construction Kit

Never really managed to do much with this but I loved the vertically scrolling shooter "slap and tickle".

Impressive utility considering the amount of well designed editors squeezed into a single load. Theres the sprite editor, character editor, block editor, map editor, sprite animator, SFX editor, attack wave editor, front end editor. SEUCK
s ease of use proved popular, this is backed up by the sheer number of released created. To some degree this was SEUCK
s downfall, as an awful lot of rubbish was made. For me personally it offered the opportunity to drawn and animate sprites without any programmer knowledge. It was a great moment seeing Shotaway Outtake II and Road appear on the Zzap! 64 cover tape. Later on Sub-Burner and Road Course would appear on Commodore Format Magazine. It was possibly the graphics, rather than the game play that helped all 4 games get published.

When SEUCK was introduced to me around 1992, it was SEUCK all the way from then on. It was a big sandbox to play about in and master, and something I could really sink my teeth into. It stretched as far as your imagination with its fully customisable sprites and backgrounds etc. Although its limitations became apparent, a little ingenuity could bypass many of those.

Seucks shit! All "games" made with it look the same, and the poor AI made your creations pretty much unplayable. I guess the reviewers at Zzap64 were paid off. There are several games with level editors, such as Rally Speedway, Lode Runner and Racing Destruction Set. Create levels/tracks within these games instead. This way, You'll actually be able to PLAY and ENJOY your masterpieces.

I spent waaay too much time on the Seuck - it's the reason I did so bad in my GCSE's back in 1988 !!

Awesome utility though

don't half miss those days though.

I spent hours making games with SEUCK. It was loads of fun actually getting hand drawn sprites to animate and work in a game. Then trying to get unique things to happen within the limited game mechanics framework was the real challenge.

Yes the games were a bit limited and samey, but the host platform was limited too.

Most people who actually used this app will see its value:

The fun was in creating not so much as playing.

Others, who never used it will miss the point. (see below)

Absolute kack.. The writers must have made a good profit on this one, I mean on the surface it seems quite possible that something good could be made from this.

Nothing halfway decent was made with this, don't fool yourself into thinking that you were an exception - all the things produced with this title smelt of SEUCK.

Even with the greatest of imaginations all you could ever do was create yet another SEUCKy game with absolutely no scope.

Quite frankly it SEUCKed donkeys balls.

Innovative! I remember starting on a couple of game-projects but I did not finish any of them. The game featured - Slap and Tickle - was very amusing!

SEUCK!! What an app! You can make really nice shmups with it if you have the talent, but SEUCK can be used for something else too: you can easily import the sprites and charsets from SEUCK to your own programs! Bonus points for that!

I never made any SEUCK games with this myself, but I have always enjoyed playing other people's creations. Particularly memorable for me must be Ryan Chenery's Sea Command, it came with Commodore Force covertape and I used to play it a lot..

One of the best games creators for the C64 when you require no programming knowledge - Unless you want to add music or new front ends to your games

Check out P. S's comments in the Zzap! 64 review...

I'm still waiting for that SEUCK GOLD MEDEL AWARD, MR P. S!!!

Great little program, I wonder if the Zzap review team were being a little unrealistic tho..

Boys and girls! John Wells have gone and done it! There now is a HORIZONTAL version of SEUCK! Get it here: seuck.gamesplaygames.co.uk/

.. If only sensible software had been able to release a follow up with more powerful features, such as enemy AI and extra weapons.

It had some frustrating limitations, but it kept me engrossed for months. In terms of hours of use, this title represented the best value for money around.

Got back into this for a while on an emulator, and have a new-found respect for all those guys who made 2 fixed colours + 1 variable colour into zombies, UFOs, gunfighters and what-not.

GB64 lists over 600 games, the bad news is most of them are garbage. A few are not, however:

Canals of Mars & Biowar are excellently drawn & very cleverly use SEUCK despite it's limitations.

Cats is one of the cutest SEUCK shooters

'Nukenin & Ronin' is another good-looking game, with very clever use of the player bulet parameters to simulate the slash of a katana.

As commented, this really is a program without modern parallel, although Mod editors in games like Quake, Half-Life etc come pretty close to the spirit of SEUCK.

Damn those rectangular pixels though, I think there's a reason the best looking shmups were horizontal scrollers

This program is the reason why I got into game making! I learned how to animate, draw sprites, make maps, and put it all together. I only made one game with this back in 1992, I still have it saved on a 5. 25" floppy. But I don't have a C64 anymore, lol. I'll have to get another C64 and upload it online one day. My favourite seuck games that I still remember would be Crazy Car, Land of Solaria, and Undercover Cop. I haven't played the ones Shaun made, but I checked the screenshots on GB64 and they look very interesting.

AH!! Happy Days!! This was one of my fave tools EVER! OK so it took ages to create anything near a game but I had a crack at a few. My most memorable attempt was controlling a penis that fired sperms at evil SEGA Megadrives A cracking programme. I just hope we get to see tools like this come out on modern consoles

What a superb commy tool, one of the best in my opinion! To create more than one type of shoot em up with 1 editor was quite a feat and they just about managed it. There are a few moans I have but aint gonna bore you with.

Whilst SEUCK is responsible for some truly horrible games, the fact remains that it is an excellent editor with virtually no flaws whatsoever.

I think there are some SEUCK fan pages around, but I'm not sure.

Something I was always unhappy with, was the case, where you could block a player sprite in the case of a background collision, but you couldn't stop a bullet sprite (I think they were called bobs or something). And off course, the drawback of not being able to do a horizontal shooter!

Still, one of the games/progs I used most on the C64. I made a LOT of games with it (I even started making one a few days ago!!)

This is not a game! But I have seen some great shott'em ups produced with this. I have seen some real stinkers too. That is why I rate this at 5.

Well it's a good laugh to play with, but I won't pretend I ever produced a game worth playing. And to a large extent, neither did anyone else

EXCEPTION: Check out 'Renovator'

It's all coming back to me now--I also made an Ikari Warriors rip off, "World Warriors", as well as a really horrible attempt at a Spy Hunter clone (I can't for the life of me remember what it was called). It turned out pretty crappy as you couldn't slow down or speed up the car--since the game scrolled at a constant speed. Man--I gotta dig all this up. Someone should start a SEUCK collection page.

Classic. Absolutley classic. I tried 'em all--Games Creator, Arcade Game Construction Kit, GameMaker... And this... SEUCK was my muse. I made a bunch of CLASSICS with it. Adventures in Stupidity, Adventures in Stupidity II: The Really Bad Ostrich Menace, and a game inspired by my favourite cartoon, Underdog. My final mastepiece was the unfinished Ninja Mission. I even had figured out a way to make Ninja Gaiden-style cinematic intermissions! I had started to work on it, but then got fed up with my lack of artistic ability (I was trying to make something almost Isometric-ish) and quit. I still have it somewehre though! I backed up all my stuff fairly recently. I should get them converted and put them up somewhere for downloading.

Everyone who've tried using SEUCK has an opinion on it. Yes, there were made a lot of crappy games from it, even more mediocre ones, but there were also made a few good ones. Shauns games are good examples of the better variant ... And yes.. I too, never quite understood why there never was a V2 with horizontal scrolling?

This utility is the reason I did so crap at my G. C. S. E's !!! I just couldn't stop using it! I think a new version should be released on the PC, I think it would do very well.

This tool hasn't stood the test of time well at all - download an assembler tutorial instead.

This software was so well designed & easy to use. Why oh why didn't they created Shoot-Em-Up Construction Kit II (allowing for horizontal scrolling???).

I was paid £50 by Zzap! 64 for Outtake II - £50 by Zzap! 64 for Shotaway

Outtake II was later improved & re_named to Sub Burner & appeared on Commodore Format Power Pack

Shotaway was later improved & released as Shotaway 1991...

Other game I created were: Fly Pig - House Case - Road Course (Commodore Format) ... Not released games included: Mixed Worlds...

... And my first creation using SEUCK was lost! >8( ... It's was the origianl version of Outtake II

SEUCK is a really good utility, to help people produce their own dream Shoot 'em up game. It features many facilities, that can help with their production. Most SEUCK games released were trash, but the games written by certain people are so amazing. It is possible to do a good SEUCK game with nice game graphics isn't it?

This was a truly amazing piece of software! I spent so MANY days and long nights designing levels, sprites and sound effects for the games I made with it! Absolutely shocking! Lost them all now of course, along with all my old speccy programs! I'd love to get a copy of this along with a C64 emulator and I could code, code, code all over again! Hahaha! 10 out of 10, without a doubt!

SEUCK was cool! I created a game called - " Phantom - The Mission " with SEUCK back in 1987/1988 and Commodore Disk User paid my friend and I £100 for our efforts! I have to admit that there were some really dodgy game made with this program! If only there were some really decent Game Creators Kits out there now for the imaginative with the knowledge of Coding. I can draw, but alas, I cannot code to save my life !

I remember, when I was young, waiting for the tape to load this program ... An hour or so, right ? ... Anyway, I was so impatient to try my new ideas on this program, entirely silly about it.

So many crap-games has been made with this shit that the fun of it is forever gone... Lamerthing !!!

This first was confusing when it first came out but after a while its quite rewarding making your own shoot 'em ups. I made some myself, but lost them as soon as I sold my C64. I wonder if they're out there somewhere.

I bought it when it was released. I learned, at least a bit (not very tough one). I never created my own shoot'em up, though...

This program and Mike Livesay's "Arcade Game Construction Kit" gave me more satisfaction and nostalgic memories than any game I had for the C-64.

I spent many wonderful days and nights designing and playing games with S. E. U. C. K. I even backed all of my games up as disk images and burnt them to CD-ROM so that I'll have them forever!

It has an intuitive user interface and many easy to use editors. Download this spectacular program now, and you'll be cranking out you own custom Shooters within a couple of days.

Highly recommended! ;-)

This was a fantastic and easy to use construction kit, if limited in the genre you could create. Just the other day I pulled out a 'star wars' game I made with some of popular places from the original movies, endor, bespin, and the death star. Apparently, my artistic skills were better ten years ago then they are now!

This was totally fantastic... I just used it again and again and again until the tape wore out! I loved it so much.

... And ignore the previous comment, the results did not all look the same. With a bit of imagination you could make almost anything you wanted!

Easy to use? - YES!
Good for beginners? - YES
Good fun? - YES!
BUT.. Most of the results look the same!

This was surely the best sprite animation utiltity on the C64. I used it to do all my graphics, for nonSEUCK games. The poster slash instruction sheet is funky - blue with chiselled boulder logo. All the hotkeys are laid out, and the guys who wrote it (who obviously rocked as coders) had a great sense of humour! (I have it hung on my wall. )

Great Game Maker.. Easy to use. Very fun to make your own Shoot emups. But it lacks Presentation and music. Score 8/10

Truly a greta invention. It's with games like this that you really can say "They don't make 'em like they used to". 'Slap n Tickle' was a great game in itself too...

Ohh, my heart bleeds! I created so many games, I even designed covers for the tapes, but now they are all lost.. (sob, sob) The very best utility ever for the 64. Has time-travel been invented yet? Let me know..

Essential utility for c64! My most treasured disk for c64 (so much so, i've backed it up 3 times). I even pulled it out yesterday (check the date) to knock something together on a rainy day. This thing is largely responsible for getting into graphic design. Used it so much there's not a hotkey i don't know... Erm, actually that's kinda sad. Forget i ever mentioned it. Please?

This is an all time favourite of mine, I spend weeks making games with this back in the 80's.

I remember waiting aaaages for this to come out. I wasn't disapointed.
you could really make a shoot em up. 10 out of 10

One of the best games makes ever - and I've used a lot. Even at 11, so easy to create a game. I once created an army type game on a black n white TV and when I played it in colour, I saw that my mans trousers were pink !