Martinez McMeyer 2: The world is in trouble

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szemigi
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Martinez McMeyer 2: The world is in trouble

Post by szemigi »

And finally done! :D

Get it now: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4975825/Mart2.zip
Bernie
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Post by Bernie »

i had a bit of a play of this and uh it was okay i spose, but are those reddish colours correct? I thought maybe my dosbox was being weird on me, like it does sometimes. there was one level that had oh so many collectables, mainly burgers, bears and guns i think, and i dont think the area i found them in was all that much of a secret (uh, im assuming it was meant to be a secret area :/).
levellass
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Post by levellass »

From my PCKF review:

Graphics: 5/10 The graphics are inventive and function well, but they're not anything to phone home about. I see you used a light red colorscheme here but a lot of the graphics look tileish.

Story: 7/10 quite inventive and only misspelled in a few places. A classic 'mirror universe' tale.

Levels: 4/10 There are a number of problems here. First, you have far too much ammunition and points. A mod where you can run out of ammo is good, one with spares... not so much. A good guide is to have just enough shots in a level to kill all the enemies, and 5 more.

Another issue is points, ideally you should have about the same amount of points for each type of item in a level. So if your level has 40 100 point items, 20 200 points, 8 500 points, 4 1000 and 1 teddy bear is good point use. These levels tended to go 'You did a minor task! Have a bajillion points!'

It was also easily possible to leave a level without saving someone, this is a big no-no, especially since new players will not know what they need to do to win. The levels also tended to be quite linear. (Go here, now do that, now...) with little room for exploration or alternate routes, but this was not too evident.

Patching: Rather sparse. As noted the enemies are not too different from the originals, which is a pity as they have a lot of potential.It is amazing, I always say, how much a few tweaks to gameplay can invigorate a mod.

Overall: 5/10. This shows improvement from its predecessor, and I hope to see more improvement in future. The mod is presentable, but with several weak areas that could use ironing out. Aqua Keen2 is a good place to look for where to go with a mod on this level.
Bernie
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Post by Bernie »

btw, why do people make mods out of keen 1-3? I dont get it. keen4-6 is just better, right? in all areas. or maybe its just me.
Draik
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Post by Draik »

There's a variety of reasons. Loosely speaking, Vorticons is "easier" to mod - at the very least, more readily accessible in terms of modding. A vast range of pre-existing patches are available, and there's less graphics to worry about. Even level editing is simpler. Generally, a Vorticons mod project won't take as long as a Galaxy one, although some have been in development for over a decade now, I think.

Plus, strictly speaking neither engine is "better". The Galaxy games are generally regarded as superior to Vorticons in terms of graphics, but some people prefer the Vorticons jump mechanics and general engine feel. Quite impressive looking Vorticons mods aping the isometric style of Galaxy have been put out. With some of the more serious patching available, Keen 1 mods using, say, Dr. Kylstein's new palette patch and lemm's V2 patch could create something that makes Galaxy look pedestrian.
Bernie
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Post by Bernie »

yeah you have a point. they're both 4 bit tile graphic engines, so they're probly not all that much different. but personally i prefer the feel of galaxy, just feels more fluid for me. but different strokes for different folks i suppose. i dont know anything about that V2 patch though. hmms.

heh anyway, dont mean to derail the OP's thread...
levellass
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Post by levellass »

Current galaxy engine capacity:

* 25 levels
* About 24 songs
* About 2000 tiles masked and unmasked for the whole game
* 3 difficulty modes
* 128 different possible enemies (In practice, many,many fewer.)

Current Keen 1 Vorticons capacity, with patches:
* 32 levels plus
* 910 tiles per level, 10 levels contain more tiles than all of Galaxy.
* An IMF song for every level
* 20 different enemies with possibilities for more
* Different palettes, color cycling


Currently Keen 1 is better than Galaxy in a number of ways.
Bernie
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Post by Bernie »

whoa, thats weird though :/ why did they go backwards with limitation? unless the enemies or whatever in galaxy take more memory. i gotta try some of these vorticon mods then. hmm.

the one great thing though is PC speaker sound and music (although I know theres a patch to add music in vorticons.)
Benvolio
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Post by Benvolio »

Well any going backwards that might have occured only pertains to the capabilities of the engine - not the game. The technical advantages of the vorticon engine as listed by levellass are almost all due to patching.

The real advantage of vorticons is its charm - it is simply a very plain and well programmed side scroller that retains the look of cool things from 1990. You feel good when you start up anything in the Vorticons engine - even the april-fools Keen0 has charm which is largely because it is running on Keen1.

Vorticons engine is a pure and un-differentiated starting point for many mods, allowing for the creativity of others in ways that never crossed the minds of the guys in id in 1990. I mean, look at the mods made so far. Vorticons mods have entered territory that no other games have ever entered let alone Keen games (think of Keenrush, Spleen and Xky's work among others). Whereas Galaxy modding, which is in its infancy compared to Vorticons, has produced some wonderful games. The most wonderful, Keen9, is still just an (arguably better) instalment conceptually and gameplay-wise in the Galaxy series. The freedom leading to Extinction or Fall Up or Xkykeen3 doesn't exist currently in Galaxy.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

This is why I did Zoltan, to test things I may use for a very un-galaxy-like game. I plan to have two mods out that totally rewrite the gameplay and provide a unique experience.
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