A WIP vertical shmup … Chaos Streams.
There’s a distinct difference with this one. This game is done entirely in ASCII graphics. If you don’t know what that is, then go look it up. Now I’ve played games that use this graphics technique for years and years, and I have always loved it. Back with Rogue and a lot of the old bulletin board door games (even though that’s ANSII, but it’s the same general idea) to the newer Rogue-likes. I love it. But a “fast paced” shmup with all text based graphics I’ve never seen. The only thing even remotely close was a Space Invaders clone. And while it was done well for what it was … let’s face it. The original Space Invaders isn’t exactly the same kind of pace as something like 19XX : War Against Destiny or Radiant Silvergun.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any downloads for this yet. And it isn’t even anywhere near being finished. There’s a video and some (what the developer called outdated) screenshots after the jump, but if you just want to head over to the forum post for the game over at The Independent Gaming Source you can click right here and get all the same stuff, and updates if or when the dev puts them up.
Me personally, I hope this guy releases something because this looks kinda cool. I just hope he changes up the sound and music and whatnot in it, because it sounds like a 3 month old smacking a keyboard.
ASCII Space Invaders
I hold text mode games in a special place, because for years that's the only type of graphics the computers I had access to could display. This changes the Space Invaders gameplay a little bit. In the first couple of levels that I played there were no barriers, so it's more like Galaga in the end, just without the Kamikaze ships raping you. But it adds new weapons to the mix. A nuke that clears the screen of enemies, a bomb that clears out the bottom row, and a missile that will cut through an entire column of them if timed just right. The only real problem is that it's a little difficult to control your ship. There's a slight delay when you press left or right. And the PC speaker sound is as annoying as anything else the PC speaker spits out. But once you get past that it plays pretty well considering what it is. Worth trying out at least once in any case, though it's doubtful it'll hold your interest for THAT long.
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ASCII Portal - This is both awesome and ridiculous at the same time.
I have nothing to say, this is just pure weirdness. Hit the jump for a little more info and a gameplay video with commentary.