Tyrian, thoughts, and how it compares to Raptor
Jared Ong
brings back thoughts of that game. But how do the two compare?
First off, my thoughts on Tyrian.
When I first downloaded the game and loaded it up, the control seemed
really bad. It still is (see ranting post on Tyrian Control), but the
ship drifting to the left is not so noticeable. The game would be
much better with fixed control, but I can stand it, for now. Please
hurry on the Patch, or tell me what the problem is Epic.
The graphics were good, but not great. Animation was smooth and there
was a lot of color. The music was great, being a midi composer makes
me appreciate the music more than the average gamer. As to the
sound effects, they are sufficient. Nothing stunning, your average shooting
and explosion sounds. I do have to note that the jukebox was cool; it
would make a great screensaver.
I noticed that there was quite a lot of different enemies and a lot of
power-ups. This is what I like about shooter type games, a mass
amount of weapons and a mass amount of baddies. It adds variety. In addition,
the scrolling of the screen changes. Sometimes it slows down to let you
shoot all the enemies, and sometimes it speeds up to let you blow
by obstacles. It reminded me of the old EGA shooter by Apogee, Major
Stryker.
Now, Raptor and Tyrian:
First, the graphics on both games a good. The enemies in Tyrian were
more numerous than in Raptor. And there was more variety too. Animation wise
Raptor's and Tyrian's enemies both had good animation and were very fluid.
Both backgrounds were well done, but not spectacular .Tyrian probably could have made
SVGA, andthe graphics SVGA, and put more detail on the backgrounds,
but parallax scrolling is a plus over Raptor. Raptors graphics were good,
but limited parallax scrolling (if any) was a constant reminder that it
wasn't up to the level of the video game consoles back then (SNES and Genesis).
Tyrians claim that this game stands up to the best of those console shooters
is more plausible. But still, it's not quite correct. The consoles have a
lot more parallax scrolling, and a bigger playing area. The bosses are
MASSIVE, and there are usually many more sprites on the screen. Tyrian
has much smaller bosses, and the playing area is about 3/4 of the screen.
It feels too small. But it still is a good shooter. Overall, Tyrian had
better graphics than Raptor.
The sound on both games was excellent. I'd give the edge to Tyrian's
midi though, it was much more involving. Raptor's music sounded old
(because it is, I guess). On the area of sound effects, though, Raptor wins
this one. Tyrian's sound effects were weak, while Raptor's were LOUD
and explosive.
Playability is much better on Tyrian. In Raptor, you were forced to
play the story style (not very many powerups during the game, only when
you passed the level could you buy more weapons). Tyrian gives you
two choices, arcade, and regular. I prefer arcade as it seems more
random and exciting with new powerups appearing quite rapidly. In addition,
Tyrian has an exciting TWO player mode which Raptor sorely lacked. Being
able to play with a family member or friend makes the game twice as
fun and competitive (your friends get pretty angry if you get in the way
of their powerups). Epic does need to make the interface a little better
on the Two player mode. Many times, I found myself running connecting
with my brother's ship to make one massive ship when instead, I wanted to
control my ship on my own. Epic should make this an option; one could
turn the combining of ships on and off.
Tyrian also tops Raptor in other miscellaneous ways. Tyrian has the aforementioned
jukebox in its setup. This allows your to hear some of the tunes, and
also test your Midi music. This was a great addition, as one can
just let it run and watch the screen fill with color and/or listen
to the music. Tyrian also has a better story line. Though not much,
the unanswered questions about Microsol and the death of Buce gives
a better background than the marauder for hire story of Apogee.
All in all, Tyrian beats the pants of Raptor. It is in no means
a perfect game, but it is a fun and enjoyable one.
p.s. Epic remember that PATCH!
Jared Ong
jo...@coyote.csusm.edu
---------------------------------------
We are spinning our own fates
good or evil, and never to be undone
Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves
its never so little scar...Nothing we ever do is,
in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.
- William James
Neal W. Miller
>jo...@coyote.csusm.edu (Jared Ong) wrote:
>[review deleted]
>These are all good points...I don't know if I prefer Tyrian over
>Raptor or vice-versa, but one thing I definitely *loved* about Raptor
>was the Auto Tracking Mini-Gun...one of the best weapons I've ever
>seen. It always made me imagine a long arm reaching out from your ship
>to crush an enemy.
Sigh... Please don't tell me I'm the only person who remembers
Xenon 2. 'twas the first VGA game I ever played. Great graphics, sounded
like crap. All in all, quite fun, and very similar to Raptor/Tyrian.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neal Miller | --------------------- | "This Side Up - Not Plummet Please!"
mil...@rpi.edu | Southampton, PA 18966 | - the box for my Taiwanese CPU fan
---------------http://www.rpi.edu/~millen3------------------------------------
Nai-Chi Lee
>e...@netcom.com (eL WeiRDo) writes:
> Sigh... Please don't tell me I'm the only person who remembers
>Xenon 2. 'twas the first VGA game I ever played. Great graphics, sounded
>like crap. All in all, quite fun, and very similar to Raptor/Tyrian.
Okay, so you are NOT the only person who remembers Xenon 2. ;-)
The similiarity between Raptor and Tyrian is purely superficial. In fact,
Tyrian strikes me more as a "Xenon II clone" than anything else (not to
say that this is bad): power-up, rear cannon, double-shot cannon, enemies
fly in figure of eight, money left behind, attacks coming from the side
walls, end bosses with different weak points...
Than again, perhaps all latest top-down vertical-scrolling arcade shooters
can be classified as some form of Xenon II clones.
--
Nai-Chi
=============================================================================
1st Law in software engineering: "If things don't work, blame the hardware!"
2nd Law in software engineering: "... blame the operating system!"
3rd Law in software engineering: "... blame the user!"
Last Law in software engineering: "... document it and call it a feature!"
=============================================================================
Eugen Woiwod
> P.S. SW levels of Tyrian was too easy, so does Baryon demo. Ne1 tried
> a regged version of these games?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/g470/tera0006/ tera...@gold.tc.umn.edu
> http://www.paranoia.com/~mugen/
Did you try the IMPOSSIBLE difficulty level of Tyrian? You can get to
impossible by when it asks you for difficultY(Easy, Normal, Hard) type a
capital G and Impossible will show up :-)
Adam Williamson
> These are all good points...I don't know if I prefer Tyrian over
> Raptor or vice-versa, but one thing I definitely *loved* about Raptor
> was the Auto Tracking Mini-Gun...one of the best weapons I've ever
> seen. It always made me imagine a long arm reaching out from your ship
> to crush an enemy.
>
> eL WieRDo
>
>
Woah, same here! Some kind of subconscious link up or something? :). Well,
micro-missiles, machine guns, pulse cannon and auto-tracker was always
enough for me in any mission. Plus 5 phase shields of course :). Pulse
cannons? We don't do pulse cannons round 'ere :)
--
---
Adam Williamson, D1M - ad...@scss.demon.co.uk
Terminal Velocity and Wolfenstein 3D FAQ writer
for more details on either FAQ, e-mail me
"There's nothing left for you to say,
soon you'll be dead anyway" - Green Day
Jared Ong
>
>e...@netcom.com (eL WeiRDo) writes:
>
>>jo...@coyote.csusm.edu (Jared Ong) wrote:
>
>
> Sigh... Please don't tell me I'm the only person who remembers
>Xenon 2. 'twas the first VGA game I ever played. Great graphics, sounded
>like crap. All in all, quite fun, and very similar to Raptor/Tyrian.
Ooohh, I remember that. I used to play it on my 386. My brother had
a hard time getting to the end boss (a huge ship about 10 screen lengths
it seemed). Of course the sound was in pc beeps, but was pretty
good back then. And I have to admit the game was pretty fun
(remember the alien who was in the store where you could buy hearts,
awesome weapons and such). That was a really good shooter too.
>
>--
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Neal Miller | --------------------- | "This Side Up - Not Plummet Please!"
>mil...@rpi.edu | Southampton, PA 18966 | - the box for my Taiwanese CPU fan
>---------------http://www.rpi.edu/~millen3------------------------------------
Jared Ong
Steven Gershenfeld
Eugen Woiwod <Eugen_...@mindlink.bc.ca> wrote:
>>
>>
>> To get to the carrot ship in super arcade mode, just type "weird" (no
>> quotes)
>> at the main menu, btw.
>>
>> Other codes are "stealth", "enemy".
>
>
>Try "techno" for the Experimental PQZ. If you get a Zica Laser with this
>ship, then you have one truly nice front weapon, especially when it's fully
>powered up :-)
>
I much prefer the weird arcade game. Nothing like a carrot for a ship
and banana bombs. If you have the banana front weapon fully charged,
there must be like 50-60 bananas per second coming out of your ship...
It's hilarious. I also like the hot-dog weapon, the others on this
mode sorta suck (although the orange juicer is cool, it makes oranges
surround your ship (as a shield sort of) and also shoots some off.
Hot dogs (on a bun with mustard), coming out of a carrot... where do
they come up with this?
The only game that I can think of that has a similar mode is novastorm.
Steven
Steven Gershenfeld
Jared Ong <jo...@coyote.csusm.edu> wrote:
>In article <439256$j...@usenet.rpi.edu>, mil...@rpi.edu (Neal W. Miller) says:
>>
>>e...@netcom.com (eL WeiRDo) writes:
>>
>>>jo...@coyote.csusm.edu (Jared Ong) wrote:
>>
>
>>
>> Sigh... Please don't tell me I'm the only person who remembers
>>Xenon 2. 'twas the first VGA game I ever played. Great graphics, sounded
>>like crap. All in all, quite fun, and very similar to Raptor/Tyrian.
>
>Ooohh, I remember that. I used to play it on my 386. My brother had
>a hard time getting to the end boss (a huge ship about 10 screen lengths
>it seemed). Of course the sound was in pc beeps, but was pretty
>good back then. And I have to admit the game was pretty fun
>(remember the alien who was in the store where you could buy hearts,
>awesome weapons and such). That was a really good shooter too.
>
>
I played Xenon II on an Atari ST (remember those things), and the music
on it was quite awesome. I remember finishing it a few times. By the end,
it was hilarious how much fire was coming out of your small ship (I think
you could have 4 or 5 HUGE laser beams firing at once, and you needed it
too!).
Tyrian definitely comes close to Xenon II, and the addition of the weird
level (carrot ship), and the "secret" game makes it quite funny too.
Raptor was quite boring, IMHO, especially once you got a certain
setup, since you really couldn't upgrade your choice of weapon (just buy
different ones). Most of the time in Raptor you can get away with
closing your eyes, holding the button down, and moving left and right
(that wasn't quite true in the registered version as much, but it wasn't
too much harder.) Not much of a game.
To get to the carrot ship in super arcade mode, just type "weird" (no quotes)
at the main menu, btw.
Other codes are "stealth", "enemy".
Steven
p.s. the secret game is quite fun for about five minutes.
Eugen Woiwod
> Tyrian definitely comes close to Xenon II, and the addition of the weird
> level (carrot ship), and the "secret" game makes it quite funny too.
> Raptor was quite boring, IMHO, especially once you got a certain
> setup, since you really couldn't upgrade your choice of weapon (just buy
> different ones). Most of the time in Raptor you can get away with
> closing your eyes, holding the button down, and moving left and right
> (that wasn't quite true in the registered version as much, but it wasn't
> too much harder.) Not much of a game.
Sounds like all Apogee games eh? Boring. The way I see it, Epic and Id
Software are much better at game making then Apogee, ID Software with DOOM
& Heretic & Quake soon, and Epic with games like OMF 2097 and Jazz
JackRabbit, and now Tyrian :-)
>
> To get to the carrot ship in super arcade mode, just type "weird" (no
> quotes)
> at the main menu, btw.
>
> Other codes are "stealth", "enemy".
Try "techno" for the Experimental PQZ. If you get a Zica Laser with this
ship, then you have one truly nice front weapon, especially when it's fully
powered up :-)
Ttul
Mike Marcelais
| I didn't like Raptor at all...lame graphix, bad weapons, boring
| scrolling and enemies with no originality. Tyrian is much better than
| Raptor; the multilayer scrolling is silky smooth and each weapons and
| enemies look and acts different.
| The problem is that, both Raptor and Tyrian has a huge shield on your
| ship and the enemies. I believe they should be shot down by one
| shot(or two). I prefer 2D shooting games with massive weapons, more
| enemies, and weak(or no) shield&armor.
If your ship can be killed by just one shot, then giving the opponent
bigger weapons doesn't inspire any fear in the player. I know when I played
Raptor, those ships which shoot the lasers and the fireballs always
frightened me more than the other ships -- those shots _HURT_!
--
+------------------------+----------------------------+
| Mike Marcelais | mrma...@eos.ncsu.edu |
| Moonstone Dragon | Magic: The Gathering Judge |
| -==(UDIC)==- | Author of ChrHack 2.3 |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
Mike Marcelais
| Tyrian definitely comes close to Xenon II, and the addition of the weird
| level (carrot ship), and the "secret" game makes it quite funny too.
You also get the carrot ship by finishing the game on `Impossible'
Michael Ronn Marcelais
| mrma...@unity.ncsu.edu (Mike Marcelais) wrote:
| >My spies tell me that Majin (tera...@gold.tc.umn.edu) wrote:
| >| I didn't like Raptor at all...lame graphix, bad weapons, boring
| >| scrolling and enemies with no originality. Tyrian is much better than
| >| Raptor; the multilayer scrolling is silky smooth and each weapons and
| >| enemies look and acts different.
| >
| >| The problem is that, both Raptor and Tyrian has a huge shield on your
| >| ship and the enemies. I believe they should be shot down by one
| >| shot(or two). I prefer 2D shooting games with massive weapons, more
| >| enemies, and weak(or no) shield&armor.
| >
| >If your ship can be killed by just one shot, then giving the opponent
| >bigger weapons doesn't inspire any fear in the player. I know when I played
| >Raptor, those ships which shoot the lasers and the fireballs always
| >frightened me more than the other ships -- those shots _HURT_!
| >
| That was the problem with Raptor. When I said massive weapons, I
| meant the weapons with huge hit radius(or so it seems) or a lot of
| slow ones.
I'll agree, Raptor had too much shielding at the end (I felt kinda
invulnerable...even on the most difficult setting). Tyrian seems to
have a better balance: Light shields, but they can recharge. One hit
can't kill you, but several in quick sucession (or one _large_ hit) can.
And the only way to quickly recharge is to stop shooting.
Douglas Jacobs
: My spies tell me that Steven Gershenfeld (sger...@merle.acns.nwu.edu) wrote:
: | Tyrian definitely comes close to Xenon II, and the addition of the weird
: | level (carrot ship), and the "secret" game makes it quite funny too.
: You also get the carrot ship by finishing the game on `Impossible'
Really? I got the carrot ship after finishing the game at "easy" a few
times (i was trying to see how high i could get my power levels...)
It was in the middle of the game too...very weird. The between-levels
screen was the same, but during the game, it was the carrot ship.
Adam Williamson
>
> Raptor's weapons were pretty stupid for they all worked same; just one
> takes more energy than other.
>
Errr...what???? Sorry, you cannot say that about Raptor. What about the
auto-track minigun? And the separate ground and air missiles?
Mark Rein (Epic)
>Most of the time in Raptor you can get away with
>closing your eyes, holding the button down, and moving left and right
>(that wasn't quite true in the registered version as much, but it wasn't
>too much harder.) Not much of a game.
I guess one simularity to Raptor is that out registered game gets
considerably harder as well! Even in Normal mode is can get quite
difficult, a lot more than the shareware version which we want people
to be able to finish.
Mark Rein,
Epic MegaGames.
Check out the Epic Web Site at http://www.epicgames.com
Mark Rein (Epic)
>Sounds like all Apogee games eh? Boring. The way I see it, Epic and Id
>Software are much better at game making then Apogee, ID Software with DOOM
>& Heretic & Quake soon, and Epic with games like OMF 2097 and Jazz
>JackRabbit, and now Tyrian :-)
Thanks for the kind words!
We've got a ton of products in development right now and I think
you'll find them cool! On Friday ELECTRONIC ARTS approved two more of
our products for retail distribution so we're very excited about the
things going on at Epic right now. Look for announcements about those
games sometime in the next 60 days. If we can make products that
world-leader Electronic Arts are willing to publish then we know we're
doing something right!
I think people will really like Tyrian. The early reviews from both
the US PC Gamer (87%) and the UK PC Gamer (2 page preview) were
excellent and hopefully users will enjoy it as much and register it.
Mark Green
dja...@umich.edu "Douglas Jacobs" writes:
I got it at the end of my third time round, starting on Normal. I have
a feeling it shoves the difficulty up by one every time you finish it (you
may not feel this because you have an upgraded/enhanced ship..) and when
you finish "impossible", you get the carrot.
Mg (now trying to write a Tyrian FAQ.. send me info!)
--
Adam Williamson
every time you complete the episode in "full game" mode you have a 1/6 chance
of getting the Carrotmobile.
Mike Marcelais
| Mike Marcelais (mrma...@unity.ncsu.edu) wrote:
| : My spies tell me that Steven Gershenfeld (sger...@merle.acns.nwu.edu) wrote:
| : | Tyrian definitely comes close to Xenon II, and the addition of the weird
| : | level (carrot ship), and the "secret" game makes it quite funny too.
| : You also get the carrot ship by finishing the game on `Impossible'
| Really? I got the carrot ship after finishing the game at "easy" a few
| times (i was trying to see how high i could get my power levels...)
| It was in the middle of the game too...very weird. The between-levels
| screen was the same, but during the game, it was the carrot ship.
Hmmm...I guess I assumed that when you finished on `Easy' it went to `Average',
etc. If you win once on Impossible, you get the carrot. Win twice on
Hard, you get the carrot, etc.
Douglas Jacobs
: According to the stuff I read on Cserve, from one of the game's programmers,
: every time you complete the episode in "full game" mode you have a 1/6 chance
: of getting the Carrotmobile.
But, what if I don't want the Carrotmobile? :) Maybe give me the ability
to simply 'upgrade' or something? :)