Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
UPDATE - 1/6/2010
Since GAF is my favorite (and I'm the lead/only QA for this game) I want to release some level-skip cheats for you guys.
UPDATE - 1/5/2010
The PixelForce Left 4 Dead NES de-make is available today, and it is fucking awesome. Read about it here, or go straight to the download page and play it for yourself.
If there's one thing I recommend, it's using Joy2Key or Xpadder when you play. Also, there's a lot of info in the README about the gameplay (like reviving players and such) that isn't explained in-game, so be sure to read through that.
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Game designer Eric Ruth is currently working on an NES remake of the first Left 4 Dead to be playable on computer (which he's calling part of his PixelForce project). It takes all 4 campaigns (each with 5 maps) and pretends that had Left 4 Dead been programmed in the late 80's, this is what the result would be.
Check out the teaser trailer here on YouTube.
I personally know Eric Ruth, and he's graciously allowed me to visit his small studio and play a private build of the game so far (as of writing this, he had the entire No Mercy campaign playable, start to finish). While normally I wouldn't excite GAF about a demo of a fan-made game, NES L4D is a different story entirely. Already featured on a bunch of news sites, I figured I'd tell everyone here all I know (and are allowed to say) about the game since I'm one of the few who has had the pleasure of trying it so far.
Right off the bat, as seen in the trailer, the game looks like an awesome 8-bit replica, complete with the exact NES color palette with a screen resolution of 256x240. I got to play the game with a USB NES controller, since it runs on PC (not an actual NES rom, or anything). The game started us out on the rooftops where it was a first-come-first serve for the weapons, unlike the real L4D. The whole first level of No Mercy was pretty easy, but I'm guessing it was just to get used to the game as whole.
As soon as we hit the subway, everything started getting extremely chaotic. There were far more zombies on screen than before (like shown in the YouTube vid), and more special infected zombies started showing up. The Hunter, which was my favorite of them all, lunges at you when you're close enough, or when you shoot it. If you don't dodge, then the screen starts flashing red and you must button mash to get him off of you, which felt so much like an old-school NES game. On the third stage, outside again, I encountered a witch, which when startled, chased me down until she one-hit-killed me. It really felt overpowered to me, but then again, I was playing single-player. In multiplayer, your teammate can revive you once you're felled. Of course, then again, you're probably not supposed to startle the witch.
I went through the entire first campaign, which took maybe 30-35 minutes (after dying a few times), all the way up to the rooftop and final Tank battle. It was pretty difficult, both playing single and multiplayer, but there were definitely some NES-style patterns I caught on to after a while.
The controls were pretty natural. Your character moved in all 8 directions, but only fired in 4. But when holding the B button to fire, it also allowed you to strafe. The A button was the melee attack, which shoved common infected away like in the real game. To my knowledge, I don't think shoving them did any damage, though. Using the select button, you could switch between your grossly underpowered pistol and your secondary weapon, and to my knowledge, there aren't any pipe bombs or molotovs. Really, the controls felt awesome. The zombies moved a little slower than you, but in great numbers, it really kept you on your toes. The special infected (with the exception of the Smoker, which didn't really pose any major threat when I played) are all handled brilliantly with an NES spin on them. The boomer is the projectile type of enemy, while the Hunter is the up-close-and-personal type of trap enemy. The tank is the "chip away at him until he's dead" baddie, and the witch is the "oh shit, get the F away!" type.
While the game felt like a highly-polished NES title, what really blew me away were the authentic visuals and audio. Eric sent me a link and gave me permission to post the unreleased Stage 2 music, and I have a few screens of later parts of the game he gave me (on my home computer) that I can upload later tonight. I could talk all night about how cool it was to see all of the L4D locales in glorious 8-bit, but it wouldn't do the game justice since you really just have to see it. The music and sound effects were also well-done, and in typical NES fashion, each new stage had a new chip-tuney song to go along with it. A lot of the L4D songs (like the Tank battle) and sound effects (like the witch crying) were interesting in their respective 8-bit style, as well.
I'm honestly not sure what else I'm allowed to say about the game, but was just an insanely fun experience and I can't wait until the game is released, which he says will be in early January. Here's the Eric Ruth Games Homepage.
Since GAF is my favorite (and I'm the lead/only QA for this game) I want to release some level-skip cheats for you guys.
At the character select screen, hold the following letters combined with a number 1-5 to skip to the corresponding chapters:
N = No Mercy
T = Death Toll
I - Dead Air
V = Blood Harvest
1 - Start of game
2 - First Safe House
3 - Second Safe House
4 - Third Safe House
5 - Final Safe House
N = No Mercy
T = Death Toll
I - Dead Air
V = Blood Harvest
1 - Start of game
2 - First Safe House
3 - Second Safe House
4 - Third Safe House
5 - Final Safe House
UPDATE - 1/5/2010
The PixelForce Left 4 Dead NES de-make is available today, and it is fucking awesome. Read about it here, or go straight to the download page and play it for yourself.
If there's one thing I recommend, it's using Joy2Key or Xpadder when you play. Also, there's a lot of info in the README about the gameplay (like reviving players and such) that isn't explained in-game, so be sure to read through that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game designer Eric Ruth is currently working on an NES remake of the first Left 4 Dead to be playable on computer (which he's calling part of his PixelForce project). It takes all 4 campaigns (each with 5 maps) and pretends that had Left 4 Dead been programmed in the late 80's, this is what the result would be.
Check out the teaser trailer here on YouTube.
I personally know Eric Ruth, and he's graciously allowed me to visit his small studio and play a private build of the game so far (as of writing this, he had the entire No Mercy campaign playable, start to finish). While normally I wouldn't excite GAF about a demo of a fan-made game, NES L4D is a different story entirely. Already featured on a bunch of news sites, I figured I'd tell everyone here all I know (and are allowed to say) about the game since I'm one of the few who has had the pleasure of trying it so far.
Right off the bat, as seen in the trailer, the game looks like an awesome 8-bit replica, complete with the exact NES color palette with a screen resolution of 256x240. I got to play the game with a USB NES controller, since it runs on PC (not an actual NES rom, or anything). The game started us out on the rooftops where it was a first-come-first serve for the weapons, unlike the real L4D. The whole first level of No Mercy was pretty easy, but I'm guessing it was just to get used to the game as whole.
As soon as we hit the subway, everything started getting extremely chaotic. There were far more zombies on screen than before (like shown in the YouTube vid), and more special infected zombies started showing up. The Hunter, which was my favorite of them all, lunges at you when you're close enough, or when you shoot it. If you don't dodge, then the screen starts flashing red and you must button mash to get him off of you, which felt so much like an old-school NES game. On the third stage, outside again, I encountered a witch, which when startled, chased me down until she one-hit-killed me. It really felt overpowered to me, but then again, I was playing single-player. In multiplayer, your teammate can revive you once you're felled. Of course, then again, you're probably not supposed to startle the witch.
I went through the entire first campaign, which took maybe 30-35 minutes (after dying a few times), all the way up to the rooftop and final Tank battle. It was pretty difficult, both playing single and multiplayer, but there were definitely some NES-style patterns I caught on to after a while.
The controls were pretty natural. Your character moved in all 8 directions, but only fired in 4. But when holding the B button to fire, it also allowed you to strafe. The A button was the melee attack, which shoved common infected away like in the real game. To my knowledge, I don't think shoving them did any damage, though. Using the select button, you could switch between your grossly underpowered pistol and your secondary weapon, and to my knowledge, there aren't any pipe bombs or molotovs. Really, the controls felt awesome. The zombies moved a little slower than you, but in great numbers, it really kept you on your toes. The special infected (with the exception of the Smoker, which didn't really pose any major threat when I played) are all handled brilliantly with an NES spin on them. The boomer is the projectile type of enemy, while the Hunter is the up-close-and-personal type of trap enemy. The tank is the "chip away at him until he's dead" baddie, and the witch is the "oh shit, get the F away!" type.
While the game felt like a highly-polished NES title, what really blew me away were the authentic visuals and audio. Eric sent me a link and gave me permission to post the unreleased Stage 2 music, and I have a few screens of later parts of the game he gave me (on my home computer) that I can upload later tonight. I could talk all night about how cool it was to see all of the L4D locales in glorious 8-bit, but it wouldn't do the game justice since you really just have to see it. The music and sound effects were also well-done, and in typical NES fashion, each new stage had a new chip-tuney song to go along with it. A lot of the L4D songs (like the Tank battle) and sound effects (like the witch crying) were interesting in their respective 8-bit style, as well.
I'm honestly not sure what else I'm allowed to say about the game, but was just an insanely fun experience and I can't wait until the game is released, which he says will be in early January. Here's the Eric Ruth Games Homepage.
And I'd strongly recommend trying out Mega Man Rocks, which is a full original Mega Man game.