Paradroid

[captainbeeb]

I,ve waited 25 years to play paradroid and boy what a let down, at school my friend always let me read his zzap64 mags, in one issue was a review on a game called paradroid, looked like a brill game, really wanted to play it but did not have a c64
25 years on i brought a c64 game joystick, looking through the games i could not beleive my eyes when i saw paradroid but after playing it i thought it was shite, the zzap64 review made me think it was like a awesome game but its just another scrolly shootem up

[PaulEMoz]

Whoops.

I would say you may need to play it more, and maybe have a good read of the instructions. It's a tricky game to get into, but it's definitely a lot more than "just another scrolly shootem up".

On the other hand, it just might not be to your liking...

[andy vaisey]

I'm guessing that if you're calling it just another 'scrolly shootem up', then you're probably rushing around blasting everything in sight, switching decks and ultimately not lasting very long or getting frustrated.

Although I really like the clean simplistic look of Paradroid, I would say it does look dated compared to later C64 games. However, the strength of the game is the tactical approach you must take to get further into the game. Learn about each droid because they do have different personalties.

Give it a chance!

And try the game 'Citadel' using an emulator too!

[gordon]

Might I direct sir toward Heavy Metal Paradroid, and recommend playing the game using a judicious combination of transfer and shooting techniques?

It's really quite rewarding.

[captainbeeb]

Cheers for the replys
I tried real hard to get into it, played it for hours, completed a few levels and even transffered into some more powerfull droids, i really wanted to like this game coz i waited so long to play it but at the end of the day it was a let down but i did like the puzzle game when your doing the transfer My c64 joystick dont let you put on new games so i will get a c64 emulator to try citadel and heavy metal paradroid and other games i remember reading about in zzap64

[RichH6109]

It's an awesome game that should have been deducted points for the "lazy" last level.

A game as rewarding as Paradroid should have had a decent end sequence, not just a repeated level.

[Sixteen Plus]

Maybe it hasn't aged as well as it should have for people who's never played it before, or just for any who doesn't like the genre.

But for most who played it back then, it's definitely a classic.

[Professor Brian Strain]

That's a good point. I feel Paradroid 90 has aged even worse - the vertical scrolling restricts you too much.

[CraigGrannell]

I think it's aged perfectly well, unlike most C64 games. It's a decent mix of shooting and strategy, although I'd love to see a modern version with more deck damage and layout variety.

[relentless]

IMO A classic then and a classic now - though I played it when it was fresh from Mr Braybrook's keyboard.

As for the Amiga update of Paradroid, my personal rant is the fact that the graphics weren't in Andrew's 'style'. Having someone else create the graphics saved Andrew development time for sure, though I personally didn't like these other artist's creations. Andrew's graphic style was great - clean,polished & immaculate. In fact just like Andrew's presentation which I'm sure everyone agrees was damn near flawless. Same graphics comment applies to Uridium on the Amiga as well.

The poor aspect of only having vertical scrolling in Amiga Paradroid pretty much ruined the feeling of freedom I had zooming around the decks. I'm 100% certain the decision to have vertical only scrolling was due to the game also having to be written for the Atari ST - which lacked the ability to do horizontal hardware scrolling. Ironic, as I remember Andrew being a fierce supporter of the Amiga in the beginning - looks like the commercial need to sell more copies won out in the end.

[dsprengers]

This was my favourite game at the time and still has reply value now. i would love to code a PC version but i am sure somebody has/will beat me to it. this would be a perfect 1.99 game on the ps3 network

[relentless]

After playing many retro remakes a decade ago I quickly realized I'd much rather play the original 8-bit games instead of the updates.

IMHO to get the 'feel' right is very hard to achieve - both gameplay wise and nostalgia wise (by which I mean you still feel like you're back in the 80's playing a much loved classic.)

The single best remake I've ever played has to be Raid on Bungeling Bay by Special FX. It's not perfect (some slight tweaking and a few minor additions could have made it perfect IMO) even so it transported me right back to 1985 when I first loaded up Raid.

Grab the file from here -
http://members.multimania.co.uk/spacial ... eling.html

[dsprengers]

looking at the old games and replaying them i felt that the updates should really only correct technical issues. like games with slow down with huge sprites(either size or amount) or crappy speach. i dont want a completely different game i just want the same game as when i was playing it, thati was imagining. robin o the wood would be another great example. now you can have a proper map as you can texture all the screens not have random screen because you need to reuse all the textures to save space.

[Fiery Phoenix]

I do love Klass of 99 - the skooldaze remake.