[Retro Sabotage] What happened to Xevious?

[RicoTheSaboteur]

Hello all!

With a friend, I run a little web site where we use classic games as raw material to craft funny/strange/arty flash games. It's called Retro Sabotage. Since our latest target is Xevious, I thought it might interest this forum.

To date, we made two sabotages of Xevious. The first one, Autopsy of a Battlefield, explores the narrative possibilities of a vertical scrolling while the second one, Solvalou vs Fischinger, was spawned by the realization that some of the bullet patterns in manic shooters are not unlike the patterns one can see in experimental animation (if you are designing a game and are looking for bullet pattern ideas this could be a nice source of inspiration!).

While not being proper shoot'em-ups I hope you can find some enjoyment in these sabotages in particular and the site in general.

Feedbacks, suggestions, constructive criticisms and/or odes to the shinning beacon that is our genius are of course warmly welcomed!

[Turrican]

Interesting. Autopsy of a Battlefield explores the narrative possibilities of vertical a lot better than Invader did.

[Shatterhand]

Does autopsy of a battlefield makes more sense with sound? Because I have no sound here on my work PC.

Though I got the joke, heh.

[Turrican]

Does autopsy of a battlefield makes more sense with sound? Because I have no sound here on my work PC.

Though I got the joke, heh.

Definitely. Sound is the most important part.

[Ed Oscuro]

Does autopsy of a battlefield makes more sense with sound? Because I have no sound here on my work PC.

I think so. Sad-ish music, wish I knew what it was from...

The first one looks like an expensive joke, but the second one is pretty impressive - just the thing I wanted to see after this.

[RicoTheSaboteur]

The music of Autopsy of a Battlefield is from the score of a japanese animated serie called Brain Powerd (if you mouse over the question mark at the end of the sabotages you get some details about the source material used btw).

It took a while to decide which music to use. The whole thing was built around a piece of contemporary classical music (from the score of There Will Be Blood) but ultimately, since we strayed from the original idea, it was pleasing to the hear, but did not make much sense anymore.

Since we drew some inspiration from Apocalypse Now (walking in the footsteps of a hero that was there before you) we almost used The Doors, but I felt the music was to tightly connected with the Vietnam war era to work well with the subject matter. From Apocalypse Now We sorta kept the visual idea of a river though, but here we go down stream, not up stream

After several other attempts (notably a very repetitive track by Michael Nyman from the score of The Draughtsman's Contract - an homage to the very repetitive nature of Xevious' music and also a way to draw a parallel between the sabotage and the movie, both being about deciphering landscape) we settled for the current music. It works well and comes from the same kind of background, since Brain Powerd is, just like Xevious, japanese science fiction.

Ok that post ended up longer than expected...

[worstplayer]

Hehe, i really like Autopsy of a battlefield. This could make awesome outro/credits sequence.

BTW: I played some of other games on that site and Compromise (double tetris) is complete brainfuck.

[MX7]

Brilliant. Autopsy of a Battlefield perfectly sums up that nagging guilt you get as you blast your way through hordes of assailants. In the shooter I've been making in my head for the past few years now, the end credits are accompanied by black and white shots of the husks of the countless enemies you've slaughtered set to choral music. Obviously ripped from Shadow of the Collosus, but since this game is never leaving the echoing tunnels of my brain, I don't care.

The music in the game itself is old Ludwig Van's Symphony No7 isn't it? A perfect accomaniment to a very accomplished experiement

[it290]

Heh.. reminds me of one time years ago when I played Tatsujin 2 completely fried out on LSD (sorry to trot out that horse again). I just credit-fed the entire game, and by the end literally felt terribly guilty for the genocide I had inflicted on those poor aliens.

[it290]

Sorry for the double post ... I just took another look at the rest of the site, and I have to say it's utterly brilliant. By far some of the best videogame-related art I have ever seen. Aside from the Xevious pieces (which are both great), I found 'incompatible visions' and 'compromise' to be especially inspired. Well done! I think 'compromise' should be made into a full game; it's actually more entertaining to play than regular Tetris.

[Udderdude]

Personally, I think you should have done Raiden II. That place looks like a total mess even as you're passing over it and blowing the #$%! out of everything. You could make it look like a real warzone.

[Turrican]

Personally, I think you should have done Raiden II. That place looks like a total mess even as you're passing over it and blowing the #$%! out of everything. You could make it look like a real warzone.

These things work better with symbolic titles.