Geometry Wars Evolved

[ARCADE5280]

Has anyone built a Geometry Wars cab yet?  I think it would be sweet.

If only  Bizarre Creations would sponsor it...yeah right...but if you're reading I will !

[Dizzle]

I've got Grid Wars (just as good as Geometery Wars IMHO) on my cabinet and I play it a lot.
Two 8 way joysticks work pretty well, but I personally prefer dual analog sticks so I use my
DualShock controllers.

[JONTHEBOMB]

A Geometry Wars cabinet would be great.  Still my favorite game for the 360. The only problem is I think any controller other then the 360 controller would move to slow.  Geometry Wars requires split second movement with thumb joysticks on the 360 controller.  If you built a Geometry Wars cabinet and used hand joysticks I think you would move slower then the thumb joysticks on the 360 controller.  It would be probably impossible to control once you got past a million.

[gamecreature]

If you really wanted to, you could get an XBox 360 VGA HD AV Cable to plug your 360 into your cabinet. You wouldn't be able to use your CP, but it would feel like you were playing XBox on a cab. 

[SirPoonga]

Actually, jonthebomb, joysticks would be fine, like the new ultimarc ones, assuming you will use grid wars on a PC instead.  Robotron required fast movement in later levels.

I can tell a decent difference between grid wars and geometry wars so I'd stick with geometry wars

[Kremmit]

Heh.  Found another Geometry Wars clone called Grid Assault, get it here:
http://www.shmup-dev.com/index.php?categoryid=9&p13_sectionid=1&p13_fileid=15&s=

It looks a lot like Grid Wars, and it's the same basic idea, but it feels different.  I'm digging both. 

I wish I had an Xbox or a 360 to try the originals on.

[lcddream]

heads up..they ported geometry wars to pc...only for vista. word on the street though is that some version floating around can be played on xp...

http://zone.msn.com/en/root/deluxe.htm?code=112233183

[Pongo]

That's awesome news about GW on PC (Too bad it's on Vista only though)

Anyways, I have a game I have written called "Neon Blast" that is heavily inspired by Geometry wars. Some of the code in gridwars is my original code that was written for this.

Currently it uses dual analog sticks for control, but I also have it so you can use WASD and Arrow keys. I can make this available to anyone that wants it,... maybe if there is enough interest I can finish polishing it up and make it work better in a cabinet.

here is a screenie.

[Kremmit]

Pongo-

Yes, please!  Where can I get it? 

BTW, I've got a game called "Neon Wars" I downloaded a while back, is this an older title for Neon Blast, or is that somebody else's game?

[Pongo]

Nope, not related to that one at all, but it looks like it was written in the same programming language. A bunch of us were all writing GW-type games about the same time on that forum. Actually, that's the reason I stopped writing my own version (too many similar games)

Anyways, I've been considering polishing it up again and putting it out there for all to see. Give me this week to modify a few things and change the configuration a bit so it works more like an arcade game.  I will leave in the analog controls, but will re-configure the keys to work better with sticks. Is there anything standard (keys) that people use for the second stick?

If I don't post anything about it in the next week, send me a PM to bug me about it.

I should also add that I have not tested it on a lower-end machine, but I would guess it may struggle on machines less than 2 Ghz. (My slowest machine is a 2 Ghz And I get mostly 60 fps, with a few slowdowns)


 

[Kremmit]

The MAME default keyset can be found here.  Matching inputs up to this will make you as cab-friendly as possible.  If you use the Player 2 joystick inputs for the "Fire" joy (R = up, F = down, G = right, and D = left), that'll get you compatible with a lot of people "out of the box".  If you've got re-mappable controls, that will cover pretty much everybody else.

And yes, please keep the dual-analog.  It's the only "right" way to play!

[Aurich]

I've got Ultrastiks on my cab, but I run a vertical monitor at 480x640, it's not worth going into iRotate to change the rotation of Windows to play these games so I don't bother. Not much in the PC world is vertical monitor friendly.

[NickG]

What's kinda cool about 2-d shooters like this is that you don't really need to rotate the screen; just have to remap(rotate) the directional controls...    

[Aurich]

Eh, it's not really worth it to play some sideways game even if I managed to map the analog controls rotated. I have a vertical cab because I'm pretty devoted that aspect ratio, if I really want to play I've got a dual-shockish USB pad I can plug into my work PC.

[Pongo]

UPDATE:

Things are moving along, although not as fast as I would like. The coding is not so much of a problem,... it's finding the time to code after getting the kids to bed and kicking the wife off the computer.

Anyways,... I hadn't touched the code in a year, and I can see right away why I had decided to scrap it and re-write from the top.  It works just fine and it's pretty and fun to play, but the code is heavy in areas it doesn't need to be. It's a bit of a mess in there and really needs to be optimized. I won't be doing that now, but I am rewriting the config stuff to make it easier for a cabinet to run it. I will also make it so that it uses .ini files for some of the settings, so you will be able to run it in a vertical resolution.

If anyone is able to host it when I release I would appreciate it.  Size will be around 1-3 megs depending on what I pack in with it.

[Kremmit]

I don't think I've ever seen a game of this type that plays vertical.  That'll be a treat!

[NickG]

WTH? It plays vertically just fine!  Just remap the controls.  Sure the menu's are still sideways.... Oh wait, you are making a joke, huh?   

[Aurich]

I will also make it so that it uses .ini files for some of the settings, so you will be able to run it in a vertical resolution.

That would be sweet, I'll definitely test that feature for you. I can't offer you a permanent hosting solution, but I can definitely throw it up on a server for a little while so people can grab it.

NickG - You don't understand, I run a true vertical cabinet. In other words Windows is running at 480x640, it's not sideways. Yes, I can temporarily flip it back to 640x480 and live with the funky sideways text, but that's a real pain, and I'm just not going to do it to run one little game.