Tac/Scan: Ancient Vector Graphics Arcade Shmup

[straight]

I found out about Tac/Scanfrom FraGMarE's excellent review here at the shmups site and checked it out in MAME. And I agree it's a cool game and still a lot of fun to play (made in 1982!)

The thing I found interesting is that Tac/Scan has a whole bunch of features that I haven't seen much or at all in other shmups, and it seems like there are some ideas that might be worth trying again.

First, there's the cool vector graphics (like Tempest or Asteroids). I don't know why vector graphics completely died. I think they look way cooler than most of the other graphics from that time period. I know that some modern shmups (Warning Forever, Area 2084, rRootage, Torus Trooper) have used a style inspired by vector graphics (and I think they are way cool), but do any of these games actually use vector graphics? Is there some reason they're no longer used? Are there any recent games that use this kind of graphics?

Second, in Tac/Scan, instead of having one ship with 3 lives, you have a formation of little ships. These are not like options; each ship is equal to the others. They all have the same shot and they can all get hit. So you're either flying a big target (although you can often dodge so that shots go between two ships) with lots of firepower or a small target with a little firepower. You have a few reserve ships you can call in at will when one of your ships gets destroyed, and occasionally additional reserves will fly past and will join your formation if you catch them.

Third, each ship fires in unison a single long, thin shot. You can fire as fast as you can push the button BUT you can only have one volley of shots on the screen at a time. So if you push the fire button once, you'll fire a volley of 8 single shots (one from each ship) that travels quickly to the top of the screen, destroying anything in its way. But if you push fire a second time before your first volley leaves the screen, the first volley will just disappear as your second volley is fired.

So, you can either shoot single shots at targets far away, or you can fire rapidly shots that only go a short distance. The faster you fire, the shorter the distance. Which adds some interesting strategy to the game.

Fourth, your ships swivel as you move, so if you move toward the right, your shots will fire at an angle off to the right. Some shmups do that with options, but I can't think of a scrolling shmup where you can aim all your shots by how you move your ship.

Fifth, instead of your ships moving around on the screen, the ships stay centered and the rest of the screen moves when you steer the ships. This in addition to the continual forward scrolling of the game. I guess that makes it sort of like a 2D Star Fox.

In Tac/Scan, you can only manuver left and right, not up and down (or speeding up and slowing down I guess it would be), but I think it would be cool to have a shmup like Dodonpachi, with the same constant forward motion and the ability to move your ship in any direction in addition to that, but with the ship pegged to the lower middle of the screen and have everything else move in response to your dodging. (I'm guessing that might be a lot harder to program and require much greater system resources, but I don't actually know.)

Tac/Scan has a few other little quirks. Since vector graphics are easy to resize and transform, half the game is viewed from directly above, like most vertical shmups, but the other half is viewed from a tilted perspective, like Raystorm or Gyruss.

Hmm. Now that I think about it, vector graphics are sorta like 3D polygonal graphics, except in two dimensions. Is that why you don't see them anymore? Because they evolved into polygons?

[the2bears]

I checked the pictures at KLOV you linked to... and while I don't have a huge rush of memories coming back I do remember playing this game. The thing with arcades and my childhood is this: could have been Wizard's Castle at Market Mall, or in a KOA on one of my family's numerous camping trips.

Sorry if I'm pointing out the obvious with vector graphics, but the technology is really quite different from a tv-type monitor. In vector based screens the lines are literally drawn on by the mechanics of the screen as opposed to pixels being set in a rasterized display. This leads to of course limits in what can be done. There are surely physical limits to how much can be drawn each cycle, and forget about solid polys - it's quite like trying to use a thin pencil in a colouring book. But I agree with your point - the vector style is cool, and you see it "emulated" even today. I'd hazard that much of ABA games style is vector-like.

Bill

[Accutron]

I don't know why vector graphics completely died. I think they look way cooler than most of the other graphics from that time period.

Vector monitors are finnicky and very expensive. Back in the old-timey days they cost many multiples what a conventional CRT would run.

[BrianC]

Actually, I think vector graphics died becuase they got replaced by polygonal graphics, which are pretty much filled vector graphics.

[Davey]

I don't know why vector graphics completely died.

I'm sure this didn't help:

As with all of Sega's vector games, the Electrohome color vector monitor used for this game has a notorious tendency to catch fire. It is unknown what to do to prevent this.

[Blue Lander]

There's a port of this game to the Atari 2600 that's pretty fun. You use the paddle to controll the ship.

[Accutron]

Actually, I think vector graphics died becuase they got replaced by polygonal graphics, which are pretty much filled vector graphics.

Most vector games did not have representative 3D objects. Vector games and polygon-based games are coded in completely different ways, and drawn to the screen in a completely different manner. There is no linear, historical continuity between the abandonment of vector graphics and the advent of polygonal graphics. Vector games were predominantly abandoned several years before 3D games started showing up with any regularity.

Make no mistake, prohibitively high cost was the primary reason that vector technology was left behind. It's the very reason that Pong exists in the first place. Bushnell wanted a unit he could build for less than the five-digit pricetag attached to a vector game. It was another 12 years before the first commercial 3D game was released.

The other two significant factors were the tweaky nature of vector monitors (catching on fire, for example), and their draw speed limitations. 3D had little, if anything, to do with it. From a philosophical standpoint, I suppose you could say that modern 3D games are the mathematical integration of vectors and bitmaps, but there is no technical linearity.

[Blue Lander]

The other two significant factors were the tweaky nature of vector monitors (catching on fire, for example), and their draw speed limitations.

I'd say draw speed limitations were as big of a killing factor as price. You can only draw pictures of limited complexity with a vector monitor. This was okay when video game hardware was slow and couldn't generate complex images, but as hardware power increased, vector monitors couldn't keep up.

Plus raster games translate better into home games. If you make a hit arcade game with vector graphics, porting it to a home system without totally changing the look and feel would be difficult.

[dave4shmups]

Tac-Scan is really cool; it's quite a shame, IMO, that Sega quit doing shmups. I wish they'd develop one!

[BrianC]

I wish Tac-Scan would get another home port. It's a shame that SEGA seems to be more in to porting their mid-late 80s and early 90s games than earlier games like Monaco GP, Tac-Scan, Pengo, or Zaxxon.

[dave4shmups]

Very good point, BrianC.

For example, I cannot understand for the life of me WHY Sega chose some of their Virtua series for the Sega Ages remakes. Weren't these games 3D in the first place?? And from the movies I've watched on the 3D ages websites, they don't look much better. Virtua Racing still maintain's it's blocky polygonal look. Talk about a waste!

Sega should have inlcuded more of their catalogue from the early '80s. And even with all their late '80s arcade hits they had redone, why did they not include Thunder Blade?? That was as big of an arcade hit as any of the rest!

[BrianC]

Very good point, BrianC.

For example, I cannot understand for the life of me WHY Sega chose some of their Virtua series for the Sega Ages remakes. Weren't these games 3D in the first place?? And from the movies I've watched on the 3D ages websites, they don't look much better. Virtua Racing still maintain's it's blocky polygonal look. Talk about a waste!

Sega should have inlcuded more of their catalogue from the early '80s. And even with all their late '80s arcade hits they had redone, why did they not include Thunder Blade?? That was as big of an arcade hit as any of the rest!

I think the reason 3D Ages kept the old style of graphics was becuase they were getting complaints about some of their updated games. I think they decided to try to keep the gameplay more intact rather than focusing on graphics with some of the games. Puyo Puyo Tsu Perfect Set is still 2D like the original. I'm glad some of the SEGA Ages games will be coming to the US in a collection, though.

I agree about the early 80s and Thunder Blade, though. They need to port the arcade Shinobis and the second arcade Golden Axe beat 'em up too.

Actually, SEGA did remember the original Monaco GP! It was remade and it will be in the US PS2 SEGA Classics Collection.

[dave4shmups]

"the US PS2 SEGA Classics Collection" Yes, I can't WAIT for this collection to come out on the 22nd of this month! They've included the Fantasy Zone remake, and even the Alien Syndrome one, too!

Although I don't think the Afterburner II remake will be on there; at least from what I've read.

[straight]

Sorry if I'm pointing out the obvious with vector graphics, but the technology is really quite different from a tv-type monitor. In vector based screens the lines are literally drawn on by the mechanics of the screen as opposed to pixels being set in a rasterized display. This leads to of course limits in what can be done.
Bill

I did not know that. I was totally ignorant about how vector graphics work. I wonder how the vector drivers work in MAME? Given the cool things you can do with vector grahpics, it would be awesome if someone made a virtual machine so you could program new games as if they were going to run on a vector machine and have them run on a computer looking the way Tempest or Tac/Scan do in MAME. Or would that be totally stupid?

All I know is you don't see 2D games doing the cool dual perspective thing that Tac/Scan did in 1982.

[Blue Lander]

Vector and raster monitors are mechanically different. You can't make a PC monitor behave like a raster. You can only simulate it.

[gameoverDude]

Sega should have inlcuded more of their catalogue from the early '80s. And even with all their late '80s arcade hits they had redone, why did they not include Thunder Blade?? That was as big of an arcade hit as any of the rest!

Agreed there. Something else that would also really be great is Galaxy Force II. The Saturn version is the best one out there for a home system, but not even it is perfect. Just like Power Drift, it's choppy in comparison (I think it runs in 30 FPS, definitely not 60!). The arcade GFII is 60 FPS.

I think the Y-Board games may have overstepped the Saturn's boundaries in their original form.

Tac-Scan would be good for a Sega Ages update. Another level style I'd add for this would have the ships going into a planet's atmosphere to attack ground targets in a canyon- having to dodge both the walls and enemy fire.

[the2bears]

I wonder how the vector drivers work in MAME

MAME emulates the vector graphics, at a certain resolution the difference might be fairly hard to tell. However, if you ever have a chance to see Tempest, Asteroids, Star Wars etc. again in person do so, then compare that with the MAME version. You'll really notice that you're looking at pixelled lines rather than straight as an arrow vectors.

Bill