*Warning* C64 Lack of Love on this board!

[Herr Schatten]

Armalyte is overrated and Catalypse is great? I thought Catalypse was basically a simplistic Armalyte clone?

It's heavily inspired by Armalyte, but simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I must admit, though, that it had been quite a long while that I played Catalypse, so I remembered it too fondly. I just re-played it (I only reached stage 4, unfortunately) and it t's actually far from great. Sadly, it didn't just carry over Armalyte's overall style, but also the annoying floating explosions and the generous amount of hitpoints enemies have. As a fault of its own, it adds a questionable hit detection.

I found Catalypse to have spectacular and imaginative bosses, though, while Armalyte's bosses tend to be a bit same-y and dull. Additionally, I found the stages a tad bit more structured in Catalypse and I like the straightforward extra weapons.

But yeah, it's merely nice, not really great. I stand corrected.

Anybody played Metal Dust? Came out in 2005 (!). Looks very Manfred Trenz-y;

Don't you need some hardware add-on to play that?

[MadScientist]

I don't see many similarities between the two games...

Really? I remember thinking it felt pretty similar to Armalyte to me - not just the graphics (obviously), but how it controlled, the various weapons (though simplified compared to Armalyte's power-up system), the enemy patterns etc... I'll give it a go later and see how I feel about it now.

Don't know what's required for Metal Dust. I just saw it in the C64 list on triggerzone.de and was wondering if anybody had played it.

EDIT - I posted this before I'd seen your edited post.

[rtw]

Anybody played Metal Dust? Came out in 2005 (!). Looks very Manfred Trenz-y;

Don't you need some hardware add-on to play that?

Yes you need a SuperCPU 64.

http://ftp.giga.or.at/pub/c64/supercpu/superinfo.html

rtw

[MadScientist]

But yeah, it's merely nice, not really great. I stand corrected.

Alright, just played Catalypse again and y'know what? It's not bad! I think my opinion at the time was coloured by a rather scathing review in Zzap! (~3/10 if I remember it), but I tend not to put as much stock in reviewers these days. It plays smoothly enough and it's certainly faster than Armalyte. Collision detection isn't perfect and most of the weapons are underpowered, but when you're fully powered up with the laser and options, it's not too bad.

Apparently it was programmed by an 18-year old and I think it was released as a budget title (maybe, not sure about that), so in that respect it's a decent effort.

[caincan]

this thread curiously lacks of pics . that would have drived curiosity to more people

well it seems it's the annual post .. hmm, forget the SuperCPU... the prices have gone mad .

this machine is often in my mind. it blew away the Amstrad cpc. (in France, Amstrad was the leader... we were lobotomized i guess ) i always figured the c64 was better. and because i want play again some jewels (i liked much Commando/ IK+/Platoon , i would have loved to play Firestart project .. ) and the SID sound .

and as there are awesome STG's around from the latest c64 genius programmers. (armalyte, delta, IO, ...)

i'm in my mind trying find the best from the different new answers as floppy-like : Sd/mmc cards readers for this old goldies machine. there are numerous things like sd2card, uiec, mmcreplay, 1541-III, ... not easy to choose or even find comparisons..

_
my old one from some years (w/ little tricks , portable pc server for d64 games, reset, speedloader, heat sinks

i'm waiting another unit i searched for a while , will be installed in my rent in Paris , this could be easily emulated, but i want the feeling of the machina

[xybot]

Thats why we have released a new c64 shmup on cartridge infos are on https://clay.ch/mono