Hi,
I put up a video walk through of the March 1988 Exile prototype.
The prototype surfaced here: https://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30507
The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTkO634b2bw
The video covers most of the main map areas and most of the game mechanics.
My notes:
- To unlock a door, you need to correct key. You then press "D" after touching the door. There is no RCD.
- Energy is limited. You have 8 units to recharge something. To use a unit for the jetpack, it's "0" then "U".
- Other keys differ. "0" "1" "2" etc. is the jetpack / weapon select, not the function keys. "N" picks up an object, "M" to drop and "," to throw.
- Every object seems to destructible. This includes the cannon, robot Chatter, keys, even the boulder!
- On the topic of the cannon, it's different. The details are left as a surprise in the video. Warning -- if you get your timing wrong, the enemy robots can fire the cannon at YOU.
- The icer is powerful enough to destroy anything. This includes any door, which makes moving around the map easier.
- Some of the most important object mechanics from the released game are already present. This includes the nuclear explosion from the coronium boulders; the use of a button to change teleport destinations; the windy passage needing the boulder to descend; etc.
- Some of the sprites appear to have more animation frames. Perhaps this got chopped back when the game was ported from Master to model B.
- You can pick up a lot more things than the final game. This includes robot Chatter, imps, the red frogman, etc.
- Not sure if robot Chatter actually does anything. There's a weird telephone-looking object but not clear if that's related.
- The weapon select keys are iffy. Once you have the icer / plasma gun, the selection doesn't seem to work until later.
- The concept of momentum doesn't appear to be fully implemented. Most noticeable, when you are holding the big boulder, you can still fly around just as easily.
- There's a nice "rustling" noise associated with nest activity.
Some other fun things about the prototype build:
- Press f0 to enable flying through walls. f1 to become solid again!
- f5/f6 (with or without shift) changes the viewport. You can change the viewport arbitrarily, leaving the play offscreen.
- Just found out, pressing "J" appears to give you a live grenade, which is also good enough to blow any? door. There's a generous but limited supply.
- f2 messes with the water level of the world, but only sometimes?
- f9 does something weird with sound.
- "?" appears to change which game object the viewport is tracking, but I'm not sure which one. Maybe relating to number keys pressed previously?
Cheers
Chris
I put up a video walk through of the March 1988 Exile prototype.
The prototype surfaced here: https://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30507
The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTkO634b2bw
The video covers most of the main map areas and most of the game mechanics.
My notes:
- To unlock a door, you need to correct key. You then press "D" after touching the door. There is no RCD.
- Energy is limited. You have 8 units to recharge something. To use a unit for the jetpack, it's "0" then "U".
- Other keys differ. "0" "1" "2" etc. is the jetpack / weapon select, not the function keys. "N" picks up an object, "M" to drop and "," to throw.
- Every object seems to destructible. This includes the cannon, robot Chatter, keys, even the boulder!
- On the topic of the cannon, it's different. The details are left as a surprise in the video. Warning -- if you get your timing wrong, the enemy robots can fire the cannon at YOU.
- The icer is powerful enough to destroy anything. This includes any door, which makes moving around the map easier.
- Some of the most important object mechanics from the released game are already present. This includes the nuclear explosion from the coronium boulders; the use of a button to change teleport destinations; the windy passage needing the boulder to descend; etc.
- Some of the sprites appear to have more animation frames. Perhaps this got chopped back when the game was ported from Master to model B.
- You can pick up a lot more things than the final game. This includes robot Chatter, imps, the red frogman, etc.
- Not sure if robot Chatter actually does anything. There's a weird telephone-looking object but not clear if that's related.
- The weapon select keys are iffy. Once you have the icer / plasma gun, the selection doesn't seem to work until later.
- The concept of momentum doesn't appear to be fully implemented. Most noticeable, when you are holding the big boulder, you can still fly around just as easily.
- There's a nice "rustling" noise associated with nest activity.
Some other fun things about the prototype build:
- Press f0 to enable flying through walls. f1 to become solid again!
- f5/f6 (with or without shift) changes the viewport. You can change the viewport arbitrarily, leaving the play offscreen.
- Just found out, pressing "J" appears to give you a live grenade, which is also good enough to blow any? door. There's a generous but limited supply.
- f2 messes with the water level of the world, but only sometimes?
- f9 does something weird with sound.
- "?" appears to change which game object the viewport is tracking, but I'm not sure which one. Maybe relating to number keys pressed previously?
Cheers
Chris
Statistics: Posted by scarybeasts — Wed Feb 05, 2025 12:41 am