Super Descent

[Isaac]

I'm a fan of Super Metroid. I can imagine an SNES port of Descent being very similar to that game.

edit: drawn in MyPaint 1.1

[Sapphire Wolf]

Sweet work!

[Krom]

2D Descent... That could be awesome.

[Alter-Fox]

... That could be awesome.

What?!?! But how would you trichord???!!!

To be honest though, Descent without the 3D wouldn't be Descent to me.

[Krom]

No, it wouldn't be Descent, but I spent so much time playing Super Metroid (I even knew how to sequence break without using the gameshark or anything like that) that the idea of a Super Descent sounds fun as hell if it is done right. Basically make Super Metroid just where you don't need the space jump to fly...

[Isaac]

Everyone, thanks for your compliments.

Krom, did you ever play Castlevania Symphony of the Night on the first Playstation?

[Krom]

Never had a playstation, only ever owned a SNES and a game boy.

[Foil]

2D Descent... That could be awesome.

I know of a "Descent 0" (2D) game that an old DBBer showed me a few years ago. It was fairly mature development-wise (Java, I think?), and very well done. It was essentially 3DoF (one rotation, forward/back and left/right thrust axes), and had many of the bots and weapons from D1. Descent-style circle-sliding moves actually translated fairly well to 2D.

I'll point them to this thread, perhaps they'll be willing to post some screenshots.

[Drakona]

Wow, Descent 0. Yeah, I haven't touched that in the last . . . eight years. Foil was trying to get me to add sound five years ago, and I was meaning to port the whole thing over to javascript last summer, since it's using some ancient Java web technology that works now even less than it ever did.

It still doesn't have sound, and the menus are pretty sketch, but once you get into the game, it's pretty functional. 27ish levels and a secret one.

It always ways my intent to give it away to the community for free . . . after I finished it. At this point, that includes a port that isn't happening any time soon, so . . . hereyago.

Extract the attached .zip into a directory, and from there type "java Game" on the console.

The menu screens are tragically underdeveloped; you might have to press enter to get choices to take. And you press 'q' to quit.

[Foil]

Awesome! Exactly as I remembered it. Thank you, Drakona!

[ Krom, I think this might deserve its own thread, or even a sticky somewhere. ]

[Drakona]

Hehe. It's been so long, I can't still beat it. LotharBot can, though. He just did.

We made some of those levels MEAN. And the boss, too! I forgot!

And I was mistaken -- twenty levels and a secret. Not twenty-seven.

[Foil]

Yeah, it's really tough; I'm still re-acquainting myself to the 2D controls.

[Drakona]

Not to hijack the thread too much -- it would be fun to make a top-down shooter version. With like, levels and line of sight and sound and stuff. Maybe mouse controls? Music? Save games? Could be a great weekend project.

Unfortunately, I've recently had a kid, bought a house, and started a home business. I can schedule a weekend project in, oh, . . . 2023, I'd guess?

It is a cool idea, though. If I ever get around to it, I should someone to collab on the art, though. It's all programmer art here.

109 KB, though! The way software SHOULD be!

[Isaac]

Yeah, that does sound interesting. It'd be like a faster moving Zelda game.

[Foil]

A (very poor) attempt at Descent 0. Clearly, I need to familiarize myself with the controls, and find a setup that avoids key-conflicts... but it should help show how the first few levels go.

[youtube]t2lfvVNBmD0[/youtube]

[flip]

Hehe, that is really cool.

[Ferno]

Oh my. wow. First, Drakona shows up (Hi!), and then she gives us Descent 0.


I gotta get to work on that GX quadcopter I've been thinking of...

[Drakona]

Hi, Ferno.

Yeah, I didn't realize this place was still around. Foil had to send me a note on facebook, and then I had to remember a password I haven't used in several years. I'm glad it's still here.

I'm also glad you like the game. I'd always kind of hoped that I would finish it, and that maybe it could find a home on this site somewhere.

It was funny playing through it the other day. LotharBot had designed most of the later levels, but we couldn't always remember which of us had done which ones. I was watching him play through and kept saying, "Man, whoever designed this level was a JERK!!! . . . it was probably me, then."

Level 15's all him, though. Nastiest level in the game, if you ask me.

Some strategy:

- Buying extra shields is one of the most cost-effective things you can do. Later in the game, you should just fill to 200 every time.

- Cloaks and invulns are also cheaper than lives.

- Don't forget you have missiles! (I always seem to)

[Lothar]

Further thoughts on d0:

1) every primary weapon is viable for beating the game. Don't feel like you have to buy all of them every time you play. Try experimenting with one or two guns for an extended run, and use the rest of your money on other things, like...

2) buy shields. Boosting to 140 every level, all game long, ends up costing about as much as a single extra life. Buy more on the really hard levels.

3) cloaks and invulns can save a lot of damage too.

4) don't be afraid to spam missiles, even concs. They do a lot of damage, and dead bots are bots that aren't shooting you.

5) it's meant to be challenging. I've probably done a hundred playthroughs and there are still parts of the game that I struggle with. It takes practice to beat even the middle levels.

Also, hi everyone!

[Duper]

Hey Guys! good to see you and here about the new addition. thanks for the link and stuff!

[snoopy]

Nice link!

Hi there guys. You've disappeared off the map for a while.

[Foil]

I've tried D0 a few more times. Still haven't gotten past level 16.

[Top Gun]

Hee, I'll have to give this a go.

I think there was a really really basic attempt at more of a Descent side-scroller, a la Metroid, way back in the depths of time, though I have no idea who was responsible for that.

[Verran]

[akula65]

This old thread had an early screenshot of Descent Zero and some info on other 2D Descent efforts:

viewtopic.php?t=7017