ROSS'S GAME DUNGEON: TYRIAN

[BTGBullseye]

(I did a search for one game's title on Youtube, turned up completely empty)

None of my DOS abandonware will show up in YouTube, some occasionally show up as a picture of the title screen, but most don't. I still have copies of games made for the Apple][ that nobody even knows existed if you're to believe the internet...

 

Unless there's a really special exception, I don't plan to be covering ANY Nintendo games

GOOD! They get WAY too much coverage as it is...

[Agony]

Alexander Brandon! Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a game I still play a LOT and primarily because of the music done by him. I have heard of Tyrian but never tried it since I'm not into scrolling shooters but I guess I have to now

[Dr.Bill]

Jazz Jackrabbit 2?

 

I remember it now!Oh my god,thank you!For five years i've been missing something,the best game from my childhood!I'm reinstalling it right now.

[ripa]

I would also like to congratulate/thank you for picking a very good choice for the first game to review. Like One Must Fall 2097 and a few other games, for me Tyrian is the kind of game that I revisit from time to time. There's an incredible amount of replayability. In addition to all the cool stuff you showed on the review, there's also the arcade mode with even more (!) ships, weapons (e.g., Widget Beam), and power-ups. 2-player mode with one on the keyboard and the other on the mouse was also awesome back when network gaming was not widely available. Flying two different ships simultaneously and being able to dock into a combo fighter with a turret was awesome.

 

I especially appreciated your segment on the music. I still listen to Tyrian's soundtrack from time to time using WinAmp AdPlug plug-in, and I rotated some tracks as my phone ringtone

 

I was surprised you did not mention the built-in real-time Scorched-Earth-style game. I.e. a completely different hidden game in Tyrian! It's pretty fun against another player.

 

I look forward to more Game Dungeon (and Freeman's Mind and Civil Protection) episodes! Good luck with the new series!

[ThePest179]

Perhaps next you can play Shadowrun (the SNES version)?

Unless there's a really special exception, I don't plan to be covering ANY Nintendo games after I heard about them going after Youtube creators, sorry. Besides, there's a lot more coverage of old console games than PC ones out there. Also for what it's worth, I think Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country are also serious contenders for the "best game soundtrack" running.

 

Damn, first machinima, now Nintendo? Well, on the bright side, at least another video game review is coming up next. If you were to do a mainstream game, could you give an example?

[Ross Scott]

Damn, first machinima, now Nintendo? Well, on the bright side, at least another video game review is coming up next. If you were to do a mainstream game, could you give an example?

Sure. I have some things to say about Deus Ex Human Revolution you won't hear in ANY other review and will make me sound either like a prophet or a madman (hint: it's not related to augmentation). I might eventually cover Bioshock, though the things I would say in that review might alienate half my fanbase, so I'm in no rush to do that one. Also I wouldn't mind covering Crysis as kind of an excuse to talk about something else.

 

By and large I'm probably going to be more interested in talking about unusual games no one's heard of however.

[scott155]

I might eventually cover Bioshock, though the things I would say in that review might alienate half my fanbase, so I'm in no rush to do that one..

You can say horrible shit about a game I love or wonderful things about a game I hate and I'll still love the video as long as it's entertaining.

[RED@KTOR]

By and large I'm probably going to be more interested in talking about unusual games no one's heard of however.

 

Would be great if you cover the masterpieces that didn't get the fame they deserved, like Omikron the nomad soul, for example.

[Atvis]

Well I guess I'll go ahead and ask for you to review some older and not so old(probably not so good as well) games that I liked. Mainly all strategy ones

"The Battle for Wesnoth" is a great turn based strategy game from 2003 with an insanely long and depending on the story you pick insanely difficult game, it's also freeware since 2007 if I'm not mistaken.

"Heroes of Might&Magic3" is probably a very heard of game but still gonna ask for that one.

I dug around the strategy section of Steam and found this great strategy-simulation game called "FTL"(Faster Than Light) which is about space and stuff, it has great re playability to it!

And also my favorite 2D beat em up. A old game if I'm not mistaken originally on the Sega Saturn I think, it's called "little Fighter 2" a really fun CO-OP game. The co-op part is very important as 8 people could play it on the PC version if you had enough keyboards and controllers.

Now that my urge to point out things that no one cares about has been satiated I can say:"Great episode Ross I gladly await the next one I'll try out "Tyrian" soon enough and keep it up!".

[danielsangeo]

Phew. That took longer than I hoped. No matter. Subtitles are up.

[ISGC]

Personally, with the right exposure, I think these kinds of videos could be a future for you. If you look at the majority of the popular youtube gamers, 80% of the content is game reviews anyway. When it boils down to it, youtube is just entertainment and entertainment is driven nearly entirely by personality. I think you have the personality to attract a lot of attention and the video editing experience to hit it strong without any mishaps! (Also, I really want to see you play one of those silly cooperative games with someone)

[almozayaf]

try (Jets n Guns GOLD)

 

And can you recommend more games like that

 

---

I play Shump with cheet code or on MAME with endless conies

[Luis]

I've been rocking Tyrian on my phone for some time now, has anyone else tried the secret arcade mode? I think I got the code after finishing the game in hard difficulty.

 

BTW, depending on the Tyrian version you're rocking, this might appear when you boot up the game :

 

[Arthalion]

For those interested, PC Gamer have uploaded an hour long commentary video of Tyrian, featuring Alexander Brandon. Links are below.

 

PC Gamer - http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/03/pc-classic-commentary-tyrian-2000-with-alexander-brandon/

 

YouTube -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hcEgw95C7o

[sekerliraki]

Sorry for the Necromancy but I had to post when I saw the game ask me if it was christmas time. Awesome

[kerdios]

bump

 

[Verticen]

Hey all, during this thread bump, I thought I’d offer some thoughts on the video and Tyrian. I’m really into 2D shooters, and am somewhat involved in the shooting game community.

So, 2D shooters are so hard now, because the game genera evolved in the arcade for so long. Basically, during the 1990s - ~2005, the Japanese arcade industry was a societal mainstay. People would visit arcade game centres very often, sometimes daily after work, and quickly built their skill at shooting games. They would also learn faster, by watching each other play and discussing strategies. The Japanese arcade players kept getting better, so the games had to keep getting harder to turn profit in an arms race of community skill vs developers. The rest of the world then got ported increasingly hard games with often no context on how to even try to approach one.

Additionally, a lot of those games are designed to be played on a precise arcade stick and hardware (or emulator) autofire. Additionally, these games are often lazily ported with poor emulation and input lag that can make the games harder. Even in best playing conditions though, the game genera boasts some of the most challenging videogames on the market, and its a common practice in the shooting game community to brag about clearing ni-imposible games without using any continues. Also, the community still doesn’t know who T h e C h o s e n O n e is yet, though Jamers and Plasmo are both promising candidates whom I have seen.

With that said, I understand the appeal of Tyrian being 2D vertical shooter with a longer, more laid-back experience. However, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that I think Tyrian is a BAD vertical shooter. It commits one of the cardinal sins of 2D shooter design; inertia movement control. This ruins the game for me. Its a feature that sounds cool and realistic, but is bad and frustrating in practice. It may work well for mouse control, but it basically makes precision dodging impossible. Often, this mechanic encourages you to stay in place even if you’re going to get hit, because building movement momentum in the area is more dangerous. For someone who regularly plays arcade shooters with player movement tied directly to the digital joystick, Tyrian feels like a bad ice physics version of an arcade shooter. If you want to experience this feeling for yourself, go play 30 minutes of Battle Bakraid or Dodonpachi with a fight stick or good D-Pad, (fighting as hard as you can to stay alive), and then go play Tyrian. It’s like the controls have a hangover. The game has other flaws that hold it back, like quantity over quality weapon balancing, but these are forgivable. If there is a patch that fixes the movement of this game I feel like I would enjoy it a lot more.

Also, I’d like to shine light on a game currently in development called Stellar Fury that takes heavy inspiration from Tyrian. There’s an alpha out now if you’d like to help the dev with player feedback.

And some 2D shooters I’d recommend for those who like Tyrian:

Steel Empire (Steampunk side-scroller)
1941: Counter Attack (JP arcade version)

HydoraH / Super HydoraH (on Ross’s list)
Cho Ren Sha 68K (Freeware, Very Challenging)