Astromilon on Memotech MTX512

[AndyS0uthgate]

Wow Steve I wrote this game when I was 14! I never thought I'd see it again... Thanks for digging it up.

[SteveBenway]

@AndyS0uthgate I always love hearing from the people who wrote these games, (except when I'm harsh about the game and upset the programmer), so thanks for commenting :)

[ForViewingOnly]

I like the way you said "I like this, ooh yeah" just 3 seconds into the game :-) But I agree, you can tell straight away it's gonna be fun. My fave Memotech game so far.

[Jago666]

that looks awesome!!!! has a Galaga feel to it

[paulpetroleum]

This looks GREAT, real retro replay value too. It's one of those games that you just keep having to come back to to try and beat.

[Fuzzy192006]

I was cringing along with you. That game has some of the nicest dynamics I've seen on a shoot 'em up. Nice find.

[DocHackenbush]

Steve, you didn't mention if you like it...!

[LeShark75]

Looks great, give me that joystick!!

[atombat]

Hmm their must be some homebrewers with the knowledge to get the best from this machine, but then again, the extra ram would be hard for most people to track down/afford?

[wrestletube1]

Galiga on speed and with drained colours unless if the TV is on too high brightness and we can't see the colours in that case you may need to change the colour settings on the TV to go with the quality of the camera for future vids.

[Roadstar1602]

Damn you were kicking ass until the SD card ran out. You should have claimed to make it to level 50.

[djp1100]

Looks hard!

[christo930]

This system is proof that good specs don't make a good game machine. With all those sprites, 512k ram and a 4mhz z80 all add up to CRAP.

[SteveBenway]

@christo930 It doesn't have 512k ram, it has 64k. And despite what you may think, the game is actually quite good fun to play.

[christo930]

@SteveBenway I thought you said that it could have up to 512k (hence the name)?

While the game may be enjoyable, I don't think it looks especially good. I agree that fun is the most important issue for a game, but I am surprised at the lack of graphics and sound such an expensive machine with so many features has been able to do.

[SteveBenway]

@christo930 It can indeed have up to 512k, but as standard, and this one is standard, it only has 64k.

I'm inclined to think that the simplicity of the games shown here, and that appeared on the system in general, don't reflect the machines actual capabilities very well.

None of the developers had very long to really get to grips with the thing, and no top flight developers ever touched it... so we will never know.

[BackForwardPunch]

This is the most original one of the last few, but it's clearly a hard ripoff of Galaxian/galaga. I feel like it would have been weird playing so many straight copies of other games. Why didn't the publishers make their own versions on any of these systems?

[SteveBenway]

@BackForwardPunch It was a very little known machine with a very small user base. I doubt the developers or publishers even know about it. hence all the dodgy clones.

[SteveBenway]

@UKRetroGames I'm nothing if not eloquent when I play these things ;)

[Quimbyrbg]

What an awesome little game!

I think the way they take after you if you get too close really makes this game stand out from the countless other Invaders; Too many of them are content to simply have the enemies follow their set path blindly (which isn't always a bad thing if they have well planned out and varied attack patterns and such).

[SteveBenway]

@Quimbyrbg I don't know how clever the AI is in these invaders, or if it's just an illusory thing and that's just how their attack pattern works, but when you're playing it, they really do feel quite aggressive.

[Otouto72]

Oh this looks a lot of fun!  I can definately get some amusement from this game! "Oh I got one!" sounds like you were really getting into it =)

[SteveBenway]

@Otouto72 Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot :)

[TheSymbianFreak]

Hey this game didn't run at insane speed, Im disappointed :P

[SteveBenway]

@TheSymbianFreak lol... makes a change after the recent games, I know :)

[TheSymbianFreak]

@SteveBenway if it aint running at insane speed, it aint Memotch!

[MrDebauch]

man, that game actually puts you on edge a bit... nice one man

[SteveBenway]

@MrDebauch It does rack the tension up very successfully :)

[mrcoolr429]

"I like it, I like it" Your very easy to please. lol love the vids!!!!

[SteveBenway]

@mrcoolr429 I do, and thanks :)

[28steryan]

Do you like it?

[SteveBenway]

@28steryan I might do :P

[nightbirdds]

So far that's the only one of the MTX512 games you've looked at that seems to run at a reasonable speed. Strange about that...

At any rate, looks like Galaxian on anabolics. It seems like a game I could really get into.

[SteveBenway]

@nightbirdds There are quite a few games that run at a normal speed... just coincidence that the fast ones all came together.

It's a very generic game, but more fun than you might initially expect :)

[paulspydar]

its pheonix ripp off (ahem ""Influnced by") unless of course its the other way round? pheonix ripped this off?

[SteveBenway]

@paulspydar There's a hint of Phoenix, with a big dose of Galaxian and more than a little Space Invaders. What's interesting is how well it all hangs together :)

[shaurz]

That's a weird mash up of different games

[SteveBenway]

@shaurz Very much so :)

[65Gamerguy]

Did you like this game? You got me though with the retarded pig comment! LOL!!

[SteveBenway]

@65Gamerguy Yeah, I like this game :D

[DeviouslyDevious]

Oh wow, that game got hectic as hell when you had all of the aliens darting around the screen trying to collide with you. Looks like a really fun game.

[SteveBenway]

@DeviouslyDevious It gets very tense and quite frantic, even though it doesn't move as fast as some of the other games :)

[senorverde09]

Looking at the sprites, it seems that the Memotech's folly with them is that they can only be one single ('hi-res') colour.

[SteveBenway]

@senorverde09 Yeah, it does seem the sprites on all of these games are just one colour. That's quite a limiting factor. I do wonder if clever programming could have got around that.

[alecjahn]

Seems like they used the classic "wait until the bullet's coordinates are just off the screen" programming when it comes to firing, so you can fire really fast when you're blasting away at close enemies but if you miss you get that shamefully long firing noise. *Beeeaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!*

[SteveBenway]

@alecjahn Yup, spot on. Miss a shot and the tension ramps right up, coz you're defenceless for what feels like an age.

[neojake999gamer]

This is like Galaga meets space invaders meets Asteroids. that looks super fun!

[SteveBenway]

@neojake999gamer Yeah, it's generic, but plays really nicely :D

[RetroGamerVX]

Hmm, you think it may be astroids? What could possibly give that away lol!, Oh bugger, it aint lolol. It's galaxian and space invaders!!!

'oh bollocks'? I didn't see any bollock sprite........................­.........oh no, hang on, there is one lololol ;o)

This is one of those games that requires alcohol consumption to be good at it ;o)

DOOOOOHHHH, prior preparation and all that lol :o)

[SteveBenway]

@RetroGamerVX It does indeed seem like a it'd be a good game to play while somewhat mullered :D

[newcoleco]

I'm not 100% sure but... I think you said "I like it" many times, but I don't want to rush to a conclusion... I should watch the video again. Let's see...

[SteveBenway]

@newcoleco it's not bad ;)

[lektrum]

I was clinching and unclinching my fists as I watched this..!

[SteveBenway]

@lektrum so... much... tension...

*Head explodes*

[17R3W]

Thumbs up for full SD cards!

[SteveBenway]

@17R3W LOL... indeed. Attention to detail is not a factor :D

[SushiSunshine2000]

1984!! Wow, I was born in that year!!

[SteveBenway]

@SushiSunshine2000 You young whipper-snapper ;)

[AtsumaKarin]

Yawn! That game's rubbish - it's not going at 100 mph! :P

Nah, it looks pretty cool, I guess but it is a rather dumbed-down version of Galaxians, by the looks of it.

I'm not sure whether you said this in the video or not so I'll ask here: did you like the game, Steve? :P

Also: get a spare memory card!!! ;)

Good SWILL! :D

[SteveBenway]

@AtsumaKarin It has elements of a lot of games, Galaxian included, but it;s really quite compelling when you start playing it :)

[RPKGameVids]

Hmm, seems odd that there's no score.

[SteveBenway]

@RPKGameVids It's possible I had the camera positioned slightly wrong so that it didn't appear on screen. I don't remember to be honest.

[ReplayRetro]

Oooooh freakish halfbreed game! me likey, god bless you memotech you have some fantastic little timewasting games

[SteveBenway]

@ReplayRetro They are, aren't they? Load it up, start playing, you get the idea in half a second flat, think "that's pretty simple stuff", but then find you don't want to stop.

[sonick808]

reminds me of gorf with the slow projectiles, and that you can only have one projectile on the screen at a time. Looks fun!

[SteveBenway]

@sonick808 It's very generic, and has bits of many similarly styles game. The end result is pretty good though :)

[DdlyHeadshot]

Awesome game! For first time playing it, you're very good.

Might I suggest getting a bigger SD card?

[SteveBenway]

@DdlyHeadshot The SD card was 2gig, so not too small by any means. It's just that I recorded all of these MTX games in one sitting. Not surprising that I filled it really :)

[DdlyHeadshot]

@SteveBenway Get a second card and swap them out when you're doing a long batch of videos then...

[SteveBenway]

@DdlyHeadshot Yes, I could do that, or I could just do what I do, and bodge it :)