Hydorah - indie shooter that actually does things right

[ROBOTRON]

Dam....thats the dopest shizz I've seen in quite some time.

[Observer]

Oh, the game is finished? I recall playing the demo of this and it was damn good.

I'm also wondering if the author is a member of this forum (or at least seems he frequents it) as in his description he seems to be addressing most of the complaints you tend to see in horis and "retro" shooters done by westerners (the hard to see bullets, inertia, etc.)

Also, he speaks spanish (Loco Malito = Crazy Baddy), quite an interesting detail and I feel proud we have someone making this kind of games. Last shooter I played in my own language was Protöthea for PC. I wonder if he's mexican or spanish or something.

The guy has a donation option so if you guys want to contribute a bit, you can do so.

[Ruldra]

@Ruldra: I wouldn't say Hydorah is near Gradius III (AC) difficulty unless the latter half of stages ramp up the difficulty quite a bit, I made it halfway through the game on a credit after few plays.

The second half is much harder (especially the 'path of scylla' stage), and dying a bunch of times in a row will leave your ship too weak to recover. Keep in mind I'm saying that in terms of attempting a 1cc (no saving).

[MathU]

I've beaten Path of Scylla after dying a bunch of times. Recovery is tough, but it's not impossible. It's mostly that second section with the eels coming out of the walls that gives the most trouble, but that all boils down to memorization.

Has anyone else noticed how the Scort subweapon "options" track your movement more with the default movement, but they stay in line formation when using any other configuration? Bug or cruel joke on keyboard users who loathe lazy arrows+ZX default setups? And here I was about to praise this game as being one of those few PC shooters that goes the extra step (that should be mandatory) for keyboard users. I hate playing cross-armed.

Also on Red Eden you can fly through the treads of all the vehicles without getting damaged.

[Ruldra]

Uh, nevermind what I said before, I just beat the game without saving lol. Path of Scylla becomes much easier when you have vulcan and stealth. I wish I could record the run but my PC starts choking during the boss rush stage; maybe because I only have 512 MB of RAM here.

I still couldn't find any more secrets...

(1337 postcount)

[MathU]

Also, this game needs a pause button. Or am I missing something?

[ryu]

Also, this game needs a pause button. Or am I missing something?

It's one of the shoulder buttons if you're playing with a controller.

And enter on keyboard.

[Zeether]

The music doesn't seem to work for me. I can listen to it outside the game, but in game it won't play...

[sjoecool1991]

http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=153450


Download that, and put the saud.gml and the saud.dll file in the game folder.


Music problems solved!

[Ghegs]

I still couldn't find any more secrets...

Made an RQ thread with guides to the ones I've collected. But I'm gonna try and find the rest myself as well, those are pretty nifty.

[cskcskcsk]

music wouldnt work for me in game, and the graphics are extremely blurry. anyone has the same problem?

[ryu]

music wouldnt work for me in game, and the graphics are extremely blurry. anyone has the same problem?

Try going to the screen-menu and pressing F2, and for that music problem take a look at the second post above yours.

[cskcskcsk]

tried the music fix, doesnt work. pressing f2 just causes the screen to flicker without and changes. Am on Win 7 . Athlon x2. 4870.

edit* managed to get music by adding hydorah.exe to the ffdshow audio decoder exception list

[Obiwanshinobi]

Native mode appears to be 320x240, 60 Hz, 32-bit. If your monitor can't muster 320x240, pressing F2 won't help I'm afraid.
The deformation is just my CRT thing and can be corrected manually. Shouldn't matter with an LCD.

[lilmanjs]

love the game. the music is really very good as well. I may suck currently at this game but its one of the few I keep trying and trying to get further in. I would gladly have paid $5 or $10 for this.

[Observer]

For everyone who wants to pay: go donate the guy those $10! The donate button is sitting there all lonely and sad.

Hell, it might mean he might even make another shooter for the greater good.

So far, this one is damn impressive, both in music and overall presentation. It also has that badass style of the shooters of old I'm starting to miss from recent games.

[system11]

320 explains why it looks fine for my screen then - thats an exact multiple of my native res.

[linko9]

I still couldn't find any more secrets...

(1337 postcount)

You can pick up the little astronaut on the ground in the very beginning of the second stage. That's the only I found.

[Subterranean Sun]

Holy crap.
I never expected it to be good, but it is damned awesome. And pretty challenging for a indie shooter.

[Aguraki]

wow this one is really great,the graphics the musics,animation,all good.
I find it really tough maybe need some practicing eheh.

[alastair jack]

need some practicing eheh.

A game where you have to practice to get good? Unheard of!

[Lavis]

Music is not working for me either; I tried the fix that was posted earlier but nothing.

I'm on a XP machine. Somebody have any other clue?.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Grrr... It keeps freezing on me. Usually when I'm entering a new area (after losing a ship, or just before the first boss), but it happend a few times in the menu too. Didn't have problems with sound but downloaded that Saudio thing just in case. After copying the files into the folder the game lasted longer, but finally freezed again (to exit I have to disable the hydorah.exe process in task manager).
Just in case the person responsible for coding is reading this, my current config: Athlon XP 2000+, 1 GB RAM (Dual Channel), Radeon 8500 128 MB, SBLive!, WinXP Pro. Because I'm playing it with just one hand, z is permanently pressed (I need to press it anew after entering each area, though) and I'm not using x. A joypad isn't hooked up. As stated above, I'm runnin' it in 320x240, 60 Hz, 32-bit.

[cskcskcsk]

Music is not working for me either; I tried the fix that was posted earlier but nothing.

I'm on a XP machine. Somebody have any other clue?.

Did you try adding hydorah to your ffdshow exceptions? it worked for me. But graphics are still extremely pixelated, its like playing an atari 2600 game. But everything works fine on my xp partition though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

music wouldnt work for me in game, and the graphics are extremely blurry. anyone has the same problem?

But graphics are still extremely pixelated, its like playing an atari 2600 game.

Blurry or pixellated then? They are supposed to be pixellated. The resolution is so low you can count the pixels. They should look sharp, though, without blur.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I like i really do like! It was so worth pratting about to get the music to work so i play this game in all its splendor. With so many (good) new shmups been bullet hell, Hydorah is a ruby in a sea of diamonds.

Edit for those with graphical problems, make sure windows aero is turned off, i know it says this in the read me but not everyone bothers reading them. Infact its best to just have aero turned off perminatly since it fucks with so many games (bad boy! Microsoft)

[Nate]

I'm just going to say I love the voiceover at the end of that trailer - hilarious in a good way.

[kengou]

I emailed the developer to let him know how much I loved the game, and that he should check out this thread. I'd suggest everyone give him some feedback if you enjoyed the game, and consider donating. Hopefully in the near future he'll show up here.

[Lavis]

I played the game with sound in my office and it didn't seem to have any problems there.

Anyway -- the game is what I expected from a Gradius homage: good pixel art, fitting music,
spacey atmosphere; except for the power-up system -more akin to Salamander-.

I haven't advanced much yet, but the game is good nonetheless.

[Subterranean Sun]

Any suggestion on No Mercy (boss rush stage) ? I can't beat this stage without dying a lot (4 or 5) times. 2nd boss, 3rd boss and last boss are really frustrating.