The Year 1989
River Fighter (playable, unfinished)
River Raid was always a game which Frank fondly remembered from a friend's Atari console in the early 80s, and also the C64 version was quite some fun. The game iteself seemed easy enough to try an own version. Again it has no music, but just a few sound effects for explosions, shooting and the engine. There is also a level editor, which had been used to design four test levels. Most of the game was already working, including a huge, scrollable high score table. River Fighter is one of the first games which accessed the custom chip hardware directly instead of using the OS functions.
Graphics by Gerrit.
Development tools used
SEKA assembler, DPaint III.
Dragster (playable demo, unfinished)
Dragster is about winning a drag-race against your opponent. It was intended for two players, but also a computer enemy with various difficulties was planned. There were eight different cars, and the goal was to earn money by winning tournaments and buying better cars from that money. The technical highlight is a soft-scrolling split screen where every half centres on the other player's car. To win the race you have to start and shift your gearbox at the right moment, without blowing the engine. No music, but a few sound effects. The OS is only used for loading, otherwise direct hardware access.
Graphics by Gerrit.
Development tools used:
Aztec 'as' assembler, DPaint III.
Luftkampf (unfinished)
Luftkampf (Air Combat) was an early Commodore game on Datasette for the VIC-20, which was Frank's first computer. The playfield showed a grid, which probably represented the canyons between skyscrapers, where you have to fight with your plane against several enemy planes. Additionally to the VIC-20 original the Amiga version was planned to get some new features, like a two-player mode. It was also a last attempt to display game graphics with the OS, by using the graphics.library GELS system - which failed. There is really not much to see, as the main part crashes, but Luftkampf was the first game which included a player for tracker music. Gerrit did the title- and game-over music for it.
Graphics and music by Gerrit.
Development tools used:
Aztec 'as' assembler, Soundtracker, DPaint III.
Fussball Bundesliga 2
Frank and Gerrit have always been football fans and players, especially at a time where football was not as commercialised as today, with clubs that had tradition, showed interesting matches and created alternating champions. This was the attempt to do another football manager, which has lots of details.
Graphics and music by Gerrit.
Development tools used
Aztec-C compiler, Soundtracker, DPaint III.
