Project-X PC release??...

[dave4shmups]

I thought that I read somwhere that this game was released for PC's-but I don't know what region, or the format.

[Shatterhand]

I saw it once, it was released in floppy disks. (Or at least this version I saw)

It also got a CD-32 version, coupled with f-17 challenge, and later coupled with Ultimate Body Blows.

[dave4shmups]

I saw it once, it was released in floppy disks. (Or at least this version I saw)

It also got a CD-32 version, coupled with f-17 challenge, and later coupled with Ultimate Body Blows.

Yeah, man, I wish the people who put out the C64 TV stick would put out an Amiga TV stick! Talk about a missed business opportunity!

I've looked into signal converters, which I'd use for a PAL CD32, but they're all butt-expensive.

[MJR]

I did 1cc it back in the early nineties.. like many other amiga shmups it had nice graphics but I had a memory that it had really annoying spots here and there.. maybe I want to check it out again, I had just got my old amiga back!

[Shatterhand]

Fuck, you 1cc Project X?

I think It's the first time I hear anything who made it without cheating, that game was freaking hard.

Project X was incredibly overrated by magazines, Apidya was released at the same time and it was ten thousand times better (But the graphics, while good, weren't as hot as Project X, which indeed looked great). It was really annoying how magazines used to put Project X as the staple to compare other shmups, as the Amiga had so many better shmups, and Project X was actually just below average (Disposable Hero, Uridium 2, Battle Squadron, Silkworm are all great games and better than Project X)

X2 was also incredibly overrated, I read lots of reviews claiming it the "best PSX shmup" , which anyone who played it know it's very far from the truth. Again it looks great, but it's gameplay fails again (It has lots of the same shortcomings that the original game had)

[Turrican]

Fuck, you 1cc Project X?

I think It's the first time I hear anything who made it without cheating, that game was freaking hard.

Maybe you did 1cc the Revised Edition '93, MJR?

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

^The revised edition was still stupidly hard. I barely managed to save-state my way through it myself.

[SteevTee]

X2 was also incredibly overrated, I read lots of reviews claiming it the "best PSX shmup" , which anyone who played it know it's very far from the truth. Again it looks great, but it's gameplay fails again (It has lots of the same shortcomings that the original game had)

X2 had great graphics and pretty good music but the gameplay was too hard. I found that however powered up my ship was, it was never enough to destroy all the enemies.

I read in this forum once that there was a Jap version which had stronger weapons, but the player energy bar was removed and you were given only 3 lives.

Re. Project X (also over rated imo): A mate of mine showed me a rating guide from an old issue of Amiga Format or something, which gave it around 75%, He insisted it was a printing error.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Team 17 were overrated. They had some great artisits and musicians but a whole bunch of their games were an unbearable chore to play.

[Shatterhand]

THis is a common sense between many amiga players.. that their games looked greatly, but didn't play that well.

I personally disagree. The Alien Breed series is among my fav games ever. Super Frog was a great platform game (And it was voted the best platform game in a EAB poll ), Miami Chase was lots of fun, as F17 challenge also was. Assassin was great (The Special Edition was top-notch stuff). All Terrain Race is the best game in its genre ever. I had lots of fun with Overdrive (Before ATR was released ). Qwak was awesome, better than any bubble-bobble rip-off on amiga (Or bubble Bobble itself). Body Blows was the best fighting game available for the system when it was released, kicking Street Fighter II ass... though it wasn't all that good anyway really.

IMO they just didn't know how to do shmups (Cardiaxx was another shmup published by them, but made by other team, which also sucked)


X2 isn't really all that hard actually , this one I managed to 1cc. The problem with is that the weapons are stupidly unbalanced...

You see, you NEVER lose a weapon after you get it (Or any power for your current weapons). So while you progress you will power up your weapons AND will get a lot of different weapons.

If you can progress up around level 4 (I think it's the one with the meteors - I remember when I finished the game, I finished this level with 0 lives left.. then after that I only lost another life against the last boss), you probably can finish the game. After that the game becomes so EASY, mainly because you have SO MANY weapons shooting at once, it becomes really silly. The game is challenging early, but then later in the game it becomes too easy.

Believe me, the power you have against the last boss is three times more ridiculous than Batsugun. 0

[Kiken]

I read in this forum once that there was a Jap version which had stronger weapons, but the player energy bar was removed and you were given only 3 lives.

I have played both the PAL original and the NTSC-J version.

The NTSC-J one is faster, to even things out Capcom (who were responsible for releasing it in Japan) completely rebalanced the weapons (they are stronger than in the PAL version) and adjusted the life meter (you can take more damage in the Japanese version) and number of lives per credit (reduced from 5 to the Japanese norm of 3).

My old SCC of the Japanese version on Normal is still on Archive.org, for those who would like to compare it to the PAL original:
http://www.archive.org/details/Project_X2-Kiken

[Kiken]

If you can progress up around level 4 (I think it's the one with the meteors - I remember when I finished the game, I finished this level with 0 lives left.. then after that I only lost another life against the last boss), you probably can finish the game. After that the game becomes so EASY, mainly because you have SO MANY weapons shooting at once, it becomes really silly. The game is challenging early, but then later in the game it becomes too easy.

Believe me, the power you have against the last boss is three times more ridiculous than Batsugun. 0

Have you seen it in 2-player when both ships are maxed out? It becomes almost impossible to see where you are.

[ST Dragon]

Yes, Project X was released for the PC sometime around 1993 and was published by East-Point Software. It didn’t play as well as on the AMIGA though.

Project X was referred to as "The best graphics money can buy" back in the AMIGA hey days.
Not wrongfully either, as Team17 utilized the 32 colours in the best possible way, producing some of the most stunning graphics seen on the AMIGA!
It’s amazing how good it looked even without the 64 half-bright colours possible on the OCS/ECS chipset. It definitely puts to shame a lot of other AGA powered games & some shooters on the Genesis/SNES.

I don’t think it was possible to 1’cc Project X however, as it was one of the toughest and most frustrating shooters, definitely not recommended to the ill of heart. The Special Edition ’93 was much more balanced though & could be completed even without cheating.
Team17 was stupid enough to remove the cool Ending cut-scene on the SE though, leaving only some text.

What I didn’t like about Project X was that it did not feature any in-game music, something that plagued a lot of Team17 games and quite a few others on the AMIGA in general for some reason?!
I’m not entirely sure if this was an AMIGA technical restriction, but a lot of games only aloud to choose either music or sound-effects.
The End-Level Bosses (With an exception of Level-2 Boss) weren’t that impressive either.

Project X had the coolest techno/rave intro sound theme however & the revised version on the SE ’93 was even better.
I still listen to the mod files every now and then.

I remember reading rumours back in 1994, on AMIGA-Format and various other AMIGA Mags that Team17 was developing Project X-2 for the A1200, but it was scrapped and in 1996, it was released for the PSX.
That was one of the reasons I got the system and I was shocked by the awesome hand-drawn graphics & kick-ass in-game techno soundtrack!
The weapons visually looked awesome, but weren’t very balanced & not very powerful. In some very tight spots it was near impossible to blow through the myriad of enemy waves.

X-2 had much more balanced gameplay & difficulty compared to its predecessor however and was more than possible to 1’cc.
The ships didn’t look too good though & were completely different to the ship that appears in the intro.

Personally, my favourite Team17 game was Alien Breed Special Edition ’92.
Awesome game play, perfectly balanced difficulty, potent weapons & excellent (Sci-fi Alien) atmosphere, combined to give the best gaming experience on the AMIGA.









And for a bit of trivia…

This is the space station where the Alien Breed story takes place.
You can see in the Alien Breed Intro, where the station is actually floating next to a Red Giant!



This is taken from the R-Type series:

[dave4shmups]

Fuck, you 1cc Project X?

I think It's the first time I hear anything who made it without cheating, that game was freaking hard.

Project X was incredibly overrated by magazines, Apidya was released at the same time and it was ten thousand times better (But the graphics, while good, weren't as hot as Project X, which indeed looked great). It was really annoying how magazines used to put Project X as the staple to compare other shmups, as the Amiga had so many better shmups, and Project X was actually just below average (Disposable Hero, Uridium 2, Battle Squadron, Silkworm are all great games and better than Project X)

X2 was also incredibly overrated, I read lots of reviews claiming it the "best PSX shmup" , which anyone who played it know it's very far from the truth. Again it looks great, but it's gameplay fails again (It has lots of the same shortcomings that the original game had)

IMO, Project X-2 is one of the best PS1 shooters; the graphics are fantastic, and so are the weapons. Heck, I wish Team 17 would put out another shmup instead of more friggin' "Worms" games.

I don't understand what the big deal with Apidya is, it looks like Gradius with insects.

[dave4shmups]

I read in this forum once that there was a Jap version which had stronger weapons, but the player energy bar was removed and you were given only 3 lives.

I have played both the PAL original and the NTSC-J version.

The NTSC-J one is faster, to even things out Capcom (who were responsible for releasing it in Japan) completely rebalanced the weapons (they are stronger than in the PAL version) and adjusted the life meter (you can take more damage in the Japanese version) and number of lives per credit (reduced from 5 to the Japanese norm of 3).

My old SCC of the Japanese version on Normal is still on Archive.org, for those who would like to compare it to the PAL original:
http://www.archive.org/details/Project_X2-Kiken

Well, I like this game so much that I may just have to get both! I dunno if my modded PS1 can play PAL games, though.

It's also worth mentioning that the PAL release is much cheaper, at least on Ebay.

[Turrican]

Personally, my favourite Team17 game was Alien Breed Special Edition ’92.

Word. It's their masterwork from a gameplay pow.

Superfrog is quite nice but Bodyblows... blows.

[dave4shmups]

Personally, my favourite Team17 game was Alien Breed Special Edition ’92.

Word. It's their masterwork from a gameplay pow.

Superfrog is quite nice but Bodyblows... blows.

Are the Alien Breed series borderliners, like Alien Syndrome, or more search-and-destroy type games, like EA's Strike series?

[Shatterhand]

More like Alien Syndrome. Except the levels are huge

Alien Breed Tower Assault introduces an "adventure" style to the game. Instead of levels, you have a big base to explore (Like Castlevania SOTN was not level after level but a big castle to explore)

I personally find Tower Assault to be the best of the bunch, but probably many people didn't play it because it was released late in 94. (From what I played of the PC version, they removed the "adventure" side of it, and just put level after level.. weird.. it was also done by east point software if I remeber correctly)n

I never played the 3D incarnations. Alien Breed 3D is supposed to be very good, and Alien Breed 3D 2: The Killing Grounds is supposed to be the greatest FPS ever released on amiga, being a lot better than any other stuff (Even technically speaking) released on PC at that time. It also needed a very powered up amiga.

And just for the record, there's the original Alien Breed, Alien Breed 92 Special Edition and Alien Breed 2 , besides the ones mentioned above.

All 2D Alien Breed games are awesome. And I don't know how to say that, or how weird it will sound, but it's the kind of game that could had only be done by Euro developers.

[ccovell]

What I didn’t like about Project X was that it did not feature any in-game music, something that plagued a lot of Team17 games and quite a few others on the AMIGA in general for some reason?!
I’m not entirely sure if this was an AMIGA technical restriction, but a lot of games only aloud to choose either music or sound-effects.

It was a Euro thing. X-P No technical restriction, really.

Japanese musicians, even on primitive 3-channel sound chips, learnt early on how to have a game play music AND have pre-emptive sound effects. That was a thing that always bugged me on Amiga and Euro-developed NES/GB/SNES games: the options menu usually only had the choice of turning the music on or off, or -- worse still -- the Sophie's choice of music OR FX.

[Marc]

I don't understand what the big deal with Apidya is, it looks like Gradius with insects.

It is pretty much Dave, but you say that like it's a bad thing?
It's just really well designed and balanced, with one of the most ass-kicking sound tracks of any 16bit game ever.

[ST Dragon]

Apidya.
This was R-Type meets Mushi, best looking computer shooter in 1992 by far!
I actually managed to 1’cc this!

A master piece soundtarck, but not quite as good as the Turrican II music.
Chris Huelsbeck at his best!

Alien Breed 3D-1, was better game play-wise compared to AB3DII. It felt and played very similarly to Doom, the weapons were very well balanced & the level layout was great.
It featured some cool water effects that were superior to anything the PC could do back then.

As for AB3DII, graphically some people compared to Quake I (I think that's a bit excessive imo) but the lighting effects, shadows & some models, were far better than what the PC could produce in software mode in 1996.
Game play & level layout wasn't as good as part 1 though & you needed a pretty meaty AMIGA (68060 CPU with 64MB RAM)

The best looking FPS on the AMIGA however, is Genetic Species
http://www.marble-eyes.dk/gs/
Boasting some of the best graphics seen the AMIGA with a very dark & sinister feel indeed.





Interestingly enough, there was also supposed to be a GBA release sometime around 2001-2002, but I guess it was scrapped.

IGN Article:
http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/098/098379p1.html

[MJR]

Fuck, you 1cc Project X?

I think It's the first time I hear anything who made it without cheating, that game was freaking hard.

I really think I did, but it was long time ago, so for the sake of clarity it would be best to check. No I don't think it was the revised edition, but I will check this one, too.
As soon as I get extra memory back, I can load it up and check my highscore. But yes, that game was freaking hard. I was attending evening school these days, and I spent stupid amount of time on games these days. I dont think I used to have any other life back then..

I completed many games that were stupidly difficult at that time; shadow of the beast 1 & 2 (god the second one was horribly difficult); I 1cc:d ghoul'n'ghosts 2nd loop and super ghoul's'nghosts 2nd loop; as well as gradius III on hidden arcade difficulty.

Awesome was actually only amiga shooter I was not able to finish. There were two reasons; there were some levels near the end that were just simply so impossible that I dont think reflection really wanted people to complete it; secondly, you can NOT complete it, becasue when I played the original disks on amiga with a cheat, the whole thing crashed when you arrived to the last planet. Same thing repeated with WinUAE. So there.

It would be fun to put up highscore table for amiga shmups though. Anyone interested to contribute?

[BrianC]

No mention of Addiction Pinball? That game rocks! Is that rally game that one of the tables is based on any good?

[ST Dragon]

Fuck, you 1cc Project X?

I think It's the first time I hear anything who made it without cheating, that game was freaking hard.

I really think I did, but it was long time ago, so for the sake of clarity it would be best to check. No I don't think it was the revised edition, but I will check this one, too.
As soon as I get extra memory back, I can load it up and check my highscore. But yes, that game was freaking hard. I was attending evening school these days, and I spent stupid amount of time on games these days. I dont think I used to have any other life back then..

I completed many games that were stupidly difficult at that time; shadow of the beast 1 & 2 (god the second one was horribly difficult); I 1cc:d ghoul'n'ghosts 2nd loop and super ghoul's'nghosts 2nd loop; as well as gradius III on hidden arcade difficulty.

Awesome was actually only amiga shooter I was not able to finish. There were two reasons; there were some levels near the end that were just simply so impossible that I dont think reflection really wanted people to complete it; secondly, you can NOT complete it, becasue when I played the original disks on amiga with a cheat, the whole thing crashed when you arrived to the last planet. Same thing repeated with WinUAE. So there.

It would be fun to put up highscore table for amiga shmups though. Anyone interested to contribute?

You could complete Awesome on WinUAE by using the save-states.
That way, no matter how difficult those specific spots are, you'll eventually overcome them without having to use the cheat & avoid crashing the game at the last planet.

[Shatterhand]

Addiction Pinball was not released on Amiga, that's why it wasn't mentioned (Nor Stunt GP)

IMO it's the best digitall pinball game ever.

World Rally Fever is very cool IMO. It's really dated by today standards, but still lots of fun.

But it only runs in pure DOS mode.


And I am all for Uridium 2 or Disposable Hero coming up in the next weekly online shmeet poll

By the way Dave, how you can say Apidya is just gradius with insects? I could say Project X is just gradius with cool graphics and crap design

The only thing Gradius and Apidya have in common is the power-up bar (Which is also present in Project X). The level desing in Apidya is much better than in any Gradius game of that era, not to mention it has the best music in any shmup ever.

[dave4shmups]

Addiction Pinball was not released on Amiga, that's why it wasn't mentioned (Nor Stunt GP)

IMO it's the best digitall pinball game ever.

World Rally Fever is very cool IMO. It's really dated by today standards, but still lots of fun.

But it only runs in pure DOS mode.


And I am all for Uridium 2 or Disposable Hero coming up in the next weekly online shmeet poll

By the way Dave, how you can say Apidya is just gradius with insects? I could say Project X is just gradius with cool graphics and crap design

The only thing Gradius and Apidya have in common is the power-up bar (Which is also present in Project X). The level desing in Apidya is much better than in any Gradius game of that era, not to mention it has the best music in any shmup ever.

Well I'll have to try both out on WinUAE, then.

[ST Dragon]

While you're at it... be sure to try out these:

1.Agony - Gothic / Medieval graphics with a lot of references to the Northern Viking Mythology / Heroic Fantasy & 2nd best music after Apidya.

2.Apidya - Awesome graphics & probably the best music in any hori shooter on the AMIGA.

3.Swiv - Many refer to it as the best vertical shooter on the AMIGA. Graphics are better than the SNES/Genesis counter parts, but its missing music however.

4. Disposable Hero – Better level design than Project X & kick-ass music, but the in-level shop system ruins the Fast-paced / Arcade feel that it was promised by it’s creators to deliver back in 1993. The Final Game Boss is one of the finest examples of the AMIGA sprite animation capabilities.
This guy is fully articulated, with hundreds of frames-scaled animation, matched only by the 2nd level ED-209 Boss in Axelay.

[MJR]

You could complete Awesome on WinUAE by using the save-states.
That way, no matter how difficult those specific spots are, you'll eventually overcome them without having to use the cheat & avoid crashing the game at the last planet.

Sorry, you can't. I did try that option before trying the cheat. And I've done the cheat also in original copy.
WinUAE crashes with the game as soon as you enter on the last planet, no matter how you play. And you cannot beat the game without entering it. It just won't load the last world.

Besides, you can also save the game in the original copy - but that won't help much.

This bug comes within the original copy. There were few other games in the 80's that crashed in the end - phobia and parallax on c64 being the two others.

If anyone can prove me wrong - *please* do. I'd LOVE to see the ending for awesome!

[ST Dragon]

I did not know that even on the original copy, you could not load the last level!?

I'm sure there is a trained copy of Awesome with the option to see the ending sequence, aswell as enabling some cheats menu (F1-F10, etc...) in the greetings-intro of the group that cracked it.

I just check at:
http://www.vgmuseum.com/
But they don't have the ending pics of awesome.

[MJR]

That's right, you can't. And it really bothers me since I bought that game (still got the t-shirt!) and loved it, even if it wasn't perfect.

If someone can find a copy of it where you can go through the end, let me know. But somehow I feel you won't, unless someone hacks the game and makes a new release with trainer; like they did with phobia on c64..