Hydorah 1.1 released!!

[BPzeBanshee]

why cant it be smooth with vsync on, if the vsync is making it stutter then its not running at true 60fps, it must be something weird like 57.99 or 58.99 or something like that surely ....

Could be that it's your monitor, not the game, running at 57.99 or 58.99 or something like that. Could be that it was off and switching it on may fix it!
In my experience that usually isn't the case, but I suggested it not from 100% certainty its the source of the issue but because it was something to try related to the issue you described.

[MathU]

I don't understand why Locomalito suddenly decided to have the game force you to choose from only letters for keyboard inputs (before you could rightly use any key you desired), but this is a pretty silly regression in keyboard control options.

Thankfully you can still force it to use what keys you want by manually editing key_config.ini.


It's a shame he didn't take this opportunity to put in a no-saving "arcade" mode of a sorts. That's really what this game needed to making scoring in it meaningful.

[Zosite]

Yeah, he could have done so... an arcade mode with no-saving could have been there, indeed, but...

but...

Then again, WHO ON EARTH forces you to use any save point?! It's not as if you'd be forced to save and/or the engine would save the game for you on uneven stages nor any other fancy 'feature'... just my opinion. You could as well ask for a no-insert coin mode in each and every shmup under the sun. Besides, there's no online scoreboard so you could perfectly tally your score under no-saving rules as long as you're ready to trust in your opponent/s word.

[Udderdude]

Yeah, he could have done so... an arcade mode with no-saving could have been there, indeed, but...

but...

Then again, WHO ON EARTH forces you to use any save point?! It's not as if you'd be forced to save and/or the engine would save the game for you on uneven stages nor any other fancy 'feature'... just my opinion. You could as well ask for a no-insert coin mode in each and every shmup under the sun. Besides, there's no online scoreboard so you could perfectly tally your score under no-saving rules as long as you're ready to trust in your opponent/s word.

Or require a video recording of the run. Although if you were clever enough, that could be edited to look seamless >_>

[Zosite]

Although if you were clever enough, that could be edited to look seamless >_>

That would be just beyond pathetic... Besides, thinking like THAT would turn each and every score competition we have had here to date pointless. There's just NO WAY to tell if all those scores were valid if people were lame enough as to waste their time on cheating everybody else with some skills on their side. IMHO the only way would be to have a bloody judge on your back while playing... no videos (could be edited), no screenshots (hahahahaha!!), nothing else...

I prefer to think I'm among people who actually care about what they do to have some fun and are mature enough as to know how to win and how to lose. And take note (just check my 1CC list though it's currently a little bit outdated) that my personal gaming performance is clearly below par here... and I think I'll pass on sepuku

[Zosite]

For all of you who are still having trouble with those 'black-transparencies', know ye all that Locomalito has released a special version of Hydorah 1.1 executable which doesn't use GameMaker surfaces; find it at the official Hydorah website right below the normal 1.1 version link.

And what does it mean you may ask? Well, that means that your trouble with those black squares is gone. But... that also means that you'll got no scanlines and that the old blurriness is back, though that particular problem didn't happen in ALL system configurations. Good luck!

Sadly, that's all that can be done for now regarding the transparencies problem due to official GameMaker engine flaws.

[BPzeBanshee]

Yeah, surfaces are IMO the devil of GM which is why I avoid using it where possible. It does have it's benefits however, I'll admit, mostly aesthetic but it's also an alternative to background/sprite_create_from_screen function which does not work on some machines.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The whining about savestates reminds me of certain Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox version) review, whose author had a problem with its quick-save, quick-load feature making it "pathetically easy". As if they did not even try playing the game without it. Well, I have and I found challenge pretty good that way. The game's arbitrary checkpointing never felt wrong to me.

Accidentally, when trying out my freshly obtained arcade stick on PC (to see if it's any good and decide whether I wanna keep it), I revisited Hydorah 1.1, simply because it was already on my HDD and I remembered it would work with the USB adapter I was going to use. What a fun game it's indeed! I won't be needing any other 2D shooting game for a good while. Back in the day, I would be trying variety of games with this stick, but I don't really feel much need to as I am in this day and age. I shall do, eventually, to see how my other adapters and games for various consoles tolerate it, but what a blast to play Hydorah 1.1 is! I've yet to unlock other weapons than railgun, bomb and missile, but it so feels refreshing how you are supposed to aim carefully with every single one of them. Missile in particular is nothing like a deus ex machina "smartbomb" device.

[BPzeBanshee]

You know Obi-Wan, I'm glad you brought up this old gem, although reading some of my own posts is a bit cringe it gives me the opportunity to correct some misconceptions and see how well the original Hydorah stands to the test of time better than my own posts from 2012 do.

Here's an example from yours truly:

Yeah, surfaces are IMO the devil

Probably would've been more accurate for me to have called it 'voodoo' at the time with a prefix of "DISCLAIMER: I'M A NOOB" or something.

Having since become something of an expert in the area of GM surfaces though 8 years later I can also say that this -

Sadly, that's all that can be done for now regarding the transparencies problem due to official GameMaker engine flaws.

- is the result of Locamalito using the wrong blend mode for rendering the game to a surface, which he clearly must've worked out and resolved later on when he overhauled the game for Super Hydorah because he's got all kinds of video options working there if memory serves me right.