Laserhawk -- SEUCK effort from 1990. (C64)

This is a game I made in 1990 using the Shoot'Em-Up Construction Kit (SEUCK) on the Commodore 64.

Download link: http://www.seuck.retrogaming64.com/laserhawk.html (Thanks to the SEUCK Vault for hosting the file.)

Unfortunately SEUCK offered no AI for the enemies, which meant that all enemy movement and firing patterns had to be preset (with the exception of the rather annoying random fire option, which randomly fires in any one of eight directions). To compensate for the lack of AI, I tried to make the game challenging by having it rely heavily on memorisation. This means the game has plenty of cheap death situations where you can easily get caught out of you don't know what to expect. In fact, there are a couple of cheap death moments that are so unfair I can hardly believe I put them in.

So, overall I have to admit this game isn't really much fun to play, however I did try to make it differ from other SEUCK games of the time by hacking in some colour changes between stages, and also some basic weapon upgrades that are activated when your score reaches certain milestones. Also, that messy looking pattern in the background is a parallax layer that I added, but Youtube's video compression has messed it up a bit, so it's kind of hard to make out in this vid.

The final stage features a pretty poorly conceived end of game boss. After killing it by blasting away its various bits, you're supposed to just slip past its remains and push-scroll the screen (even though there is no on-screen clue to tell you this) until you are presented with the world's worst end screen. Alright!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• seuck
• c64
• commodore
• 64
• shooter
• laserhawk
• laser
• hawk
• shoot'emup
• construction
• kit

[mikechicago]

I want to play Laserhawk on my Dreamcast via DreamFrodo! Is the D64 or PRG available to download yet?

[pressfiretostart]

Hi mikechicago, I've now added to the vid description a link to a page at the SEUCK Vault where you can download the game as a D64 image. Thanks for reminding me! I should have added the link ages ago.

Good luck!

[robrax]

One of the best seuck games I've seen.  Great variety of enemies and difficulty balancing. I'll have to dig out my terrible efforts some time. It was on ST seuck which was even more limited than this i think.

[pressfiretostart]

Thanks robrax!

There's nothing like digging out the old seuck efforts to get the nostalgia going... takes you right back to the days of doodling game ideas in the margins of your maths homework. :)

[CommanderKrail]

Probably the joint best SEUCK game I have seen (along with Andrew Smith's "Aquablasta"). Though some sort of "GO" arrow to indicate that you can slip past the final boss might have been advisable, the available data is so limited with SEUCK and it still works well. The idea of combining background and sprite graphics to make a larger and more detailed boss is very effective, and one I have seen in more than a few commercial 8-bit games.

[pressfiretostart]

Thanks, CK!

I totally agree that I should have added a flashing GO! at the point when you can scroll on past the boss. The omission of that really bugs me when I look back on it now. :)

[mikechicago]

Thanks much. I was trying this out with VICE yesterday. Now, if only I could make it to 10,000 points :P (Hehe... great fun!)

[CommanderKrail]

But of course, with SEUCK's modest sprite library that means the loss of some graphics elsewhere ... One idea might be to make a version of this using SEUCK Redux, which (or so I gather) increases the size of the sprite library. I'm not sure if it increases the size of the attack waves data, though (not that a still, flashing arrow takes up much space).

[pressfiretostart]

Unfortunately, SEUCK on the Amiga was kind of crappy. A shame, as I had been really looking forward to it.

BTW, I would have loved to have a console back in the day. Grass is always greener, etc... ;)

[thelegendofcarsley]

awesome! I was stuck with crummy consoles back in the day, always dreamed of owning an Amiga and S.E.U.C.K.