Lets talk or play... Breathless

[runequester]

In one of the AGA threads, a few people jumped in and mentioned they really enjoyed Breathless. So do I, and I am playing through it currently, so I thought it'd be nice to have a chat about it.

The ground rules:

Any comparison to Doom is forbidden. Thank you. That is all

So to kick things off, it ran okay but pretty sluggish on my old accelerator (030/25, 8 megs RAM). With my new ACA1230/56, it runs really well. Max screen size is still too slow but you can get a good size one or two steps below, and 1x1 pixels and still play at a good pace.

[runequester]

Yep, I loved Breathless too. I'm going to flaut your rules about comparing with Doom though. Yes Breathless was a very different game: techno-action rather than horror, so had a totally different atmosphere. But I never thought it would run on my 040 A1200 after trying Doom and finding it unplayable and ugly.

Nonetheless I took a chance and bought the floppy version of Breathless in a sale, and I was totally blown away. Great graphics, amazing huge levels, smooth movement in full screen, and proper 3D with looking!!! Breathless was one of the few games I played all the way through as I was totally gripped by it.

As I mentioned in the AGA thread, the only think that disappointed me about Breathless was that all the enemies were robots. Robots destroying other robots doesn't quite have the same atmosphere as humans killing aliens/demons/other humans I wonder if anybody could mod Breathless to change the enemy graphics?

Sorry for the Doom comparison, but I think it was necessary in demonstrating the technical achievement of Breathless.

--
moto

well, okay I wanted to avoid the "wah wah doom killed the amiga" garbage. So you are okay mate.

And I agree, the graphics are gorgeous. Very crisp and sharp, which is an area where AB3D and Gloom definately had room to improve, great as those are.

The music is amazing too. The game really reminds of the Terminator movies.

[runequester]

I think that Breathless quite clearly proved that the Amiga was capable of its own Doom. So I don't think Doom killed the Amiga at all.




I completely agree, the graphics in Gloom are terrible. Though it was fairly fun to play for a little while, due to its speed. Breathless wasn't as fast IIRC, but it didn't need to be; I remember it being more a creeping around game rather than a running-around-making-crowds-of-skinheads-explode game


IIRC I played without music. I'll have to dig out my copy of Breathless and reinstall it on my A1200

--
moto

The thing with Gloom is.. its basically a 2D shooter like Chaos Engine, but in 3D. Its fun, but its a straight up blaster (with lots of guts).

And yeah, you're right. You can dash in Breathless but you really need to take it slow, get the drop on the enemies a few at a time, and avoid getting cornered.
I love that they'll come after you too, if you bail. No mercy from the robot overlords

[runequester]

We could use a few SA-style Let's play-threads. I was thinking about making one about Genetic Species.

I would LOVE that. I need to reinstall that game, and see if I can get AHI to work this time around.

[runequester]

Unfortunately I never got Genetic Species to run at a reasonable speed/quality, even on an 060+RTG, which was a shame as I'd read amazing things about the graphics in that game.

--
moto

When I had it installed on my old system, it didn't run too bad. Was playable in any event, but since I couldn't get sound to work, I ended up deleting it.

[runequester]

Set the window size to one or two steps below the max, and it should run pretty good on an 030. At least it does for me

[runequester]

If you do start a series of threads discussing separate games, can you please not act like every 13 year old on the internet by copying an internet meme like "Let's Play" and think of a more original and less annoying title?

Harsh
 
I think its safe to say that there's no 13 year olds on an amiga forum
 
I wasn't thinking a "lets play" as such, but rather to see if I could get a few people into playing the game while I do. Talk about the levels as we play through them, share tips etc.
 
Anyone up for it?
 
Doesn't matter to me if its emulated or "amiga for reals". I'll be happy to start my current game over, and we'll see if we can fight our way through the game together.

[runequester]

its all good, don't worry.
 
i did want to do threads on a few others, notably Gloom and AB3D, so we'll find a catchy tile for the series

[runequester]

I didn't get a chance to play as much tonight, since I was getting a few adventure games installed.

A few observations though:

I really dig that you can upgrade each weapon to a "double shot" without using more energy per shot.

Some people might fuss that using the same ammo for everything is lame. I kind of like it though.

Running around everywhere will get you chewed up.

The enemies will come after you if you try to retreat.

Strafing is an absolute must, to reduce incoming fire.

THe big beasties get pretty scary. They can soak up a lot of hits.

You can actually buy keys in the intex style computer, but its wicked expensive.

Looking up and down is nice, though its a bit awkward as its all by keyboard.

You only get a password every 5 levels. Holy shit.

[runequester]

Testament sort of looks like a PD Wolfenstein clone

I liked that there was a map viewable while playing. For some reason, its super buggy for me. Maybe its just a bad version.

[runequester]

So I played through the first 5 levels of Breathless yesterday. Almost finished the 6th level, but then it crashed... Not a bad game I must say, the actual experience is not that far off from the game-that-we-shall-not-mention. The graphics is not bad and it has more variety than I thought (besides the opening stage). I'm playing on 060 in 1x2 full screen and with mouse control it seems fluent to me (1x1 was playable, but mouse was a little jerky).
I found the game quite difficult in the beginning, but I once I got the rhythm it was actually quite simple to blast through the levels - mouse control and strafing help a lot.
The gripes - I want to see my weapon, it does a lot for the atmosphere. The level desing isn't great - a lot of huge empty rooms that don't make sense, but that's normal for a 1st gen FPS. I'd like more variety in enemies, sfx differing in volume (when I activate a switch the opening wall sounds like it's right behind my back even though it's on the other end of the map).
 
Overall it's not bad for what it is.
 
Still it's hard for me to understand why would anyone want to play 3D games on Amiga (especially AGA) and why would anyone want to play 1st generation FPS regardless of platform today (maybe with the expection of.... DOOM...). This is a genre that has really evolved and improved a lot.

Its an acquired taste I enjoy a lot of those old FPS games, both amiga and PC (games like Alien Trilogy and Blood f.x.).
If I had to pick something, its nice to have a change from ultra realistic looking (space) marine dudes that tend to dominate the FPS genre, and I like a break from my usual poison of UT2004

Thanks for giving it a shot though. Too bad the game crashed.

There are quite a few different enemies in the game but only 3 types or so per "world", so you have to blast through 5 levels of the same 3 guys before meeting new ones. A bit disappointing but maybe it was easier on memory limitations back then, who knows.

I do agree it'd be nice to see the gun. At least you get a nice big cross hair.
It seems the hit boxes are pretty wide, so I rarely have trouble hitting a target.

[runequester]

I'll play some more next week (I'm leaving town for the New Year celebration tonight...). How many levels does the game have?
Also you mentioned something about getting access codes only every fifth level, but when I played I got them after every single level, what did you mean by that?
 
Btw, I'm desparately looking forward to Indivision MK2 shipping, because currently I'm using composite out -> VGA box and LCD and the output is pretty bad. A proper scan doubler will make using my A1200 much more enjoyable...

Does your version say 1.1? I believe the patched version gives you codes every level. THe original only gave them at the end of a "world".

If I remember right, there's 20 or 25 levels in total, but I could be remembering wrong.

I have an external scan doubler that I got for a hundred bucks, which works pretty well. A tiny bit of ghosting in workbench but nothing bad at all.

[runequester]

http://www.ambery.com/rgbcgatovgac.html
this is what I use, along with a simple amiga monitor port to VGA adapter, you cn get from vesalia or amigakit for a few bucks.

I'll see if I can take a few pictures of how it looks, but basically good. On black backgrounds, you see some slight vertical lines, but I've heard people get that on indivision as well.

It works great with an LCD, which is what I use daily.

[runequester]

Correct, DOOM didn't kill the Amiga, instead it gave it yet another target to aim for and it passed with flying colors! Genetic Species is another great example of this.

I installed Genetic again last night and it is aaaawesome. I can't believe how quick it runs on an 030, and still looks so great.

[runequester]

Moto - Its a 1230/56, and 64 megs of RAM, the new ones from Individual Computers. I dont know if the fact its SD RAM makes a significant difference here. I think the game is just very well coded.
 
 
I think after the new years, when Im supposed to go as much "amiga only" as I can, as part of my experiment, I'll do a series of discussions on each of the various amiga FPS games. Seems like there's fodder for conversation and some game playing together here
 
Koshman - If I forget, remind me after the weekend to get some pictures for you, of the thing in use. Its pretty incognito, mine is just stuffed behind the amiga. The only annoying thing is it has an AC adapter, so the power strip gets a bit crowded, but other than that, I've been really happy, and its a lot cheaper than Indivision (which is second hand only right now).
 
Also, you dont have to mess around inside the miggy, whcih in this day and age is probably a good thing. That case gets pretty cramped as it is