ADG Episode 3 - Tyrian 2000

[@WskOsc]

Tyrian is an incredible shooter. I still consider it my favourite even after all these years.

[@RetroJaro]

I remember playing this and making a ship with entirely "vulcan" based weapons. (front gun, rear gun, sidearms, max power), only to find out it burns through energy like mad and it's pretty weak after a certain point in the game to the point it's worthless.. and the generator required means you have to get pretty far in the game. Also I found a money cheat where you can just rack up money: go to a level with a "homing orb" dispenser, hold down fire, and destroy the orbs, not the dispenser.

[@Citrusrock]

One of my all time favorite dos games! Nice to be able to see your work on youtube!

[@UltromanTheTacoman]

I remember getting the carrot-ship, and outfitting it with hotdog-cannons. That was AWESOME!

[@abadenoughdude300]

I love this game. Not only it has tons of explodables and upgrades but it's also absolutely bonkers. Carrot ships, banana cannons, hotdog missiles, ale collectibles, the plot... It's like Saints Row - who cares if dildo swords and dubstep guns make no sense when they're so FUN.

[@Emays24]

ahhh...Nostalgia.. and my favourite game since 1996.. :)

[@cxk7127]

I loved this game! My friend brought over the original Shareware version in 95 and we played the hell out of it. We decided to combine some money and sent off for a copy of the full version. When I found out it was freeware I immediately downloaded it and revisit the game about once a year.

[@TheCodedtestament]

You can very hardly say this game is bad, even if you don't like arcade shooters, Tyrian shows by itself how great it is. But to truly feel it, of course, play it.Unlike most shoot 'em ups, it actually has an interesting plot,it also allows you to edit your own ships with the Ship Editor. The ships are actually constructed in a paint program capable of creating PCX format graphics files. The editor then allows you to change the look of the ship so it maintains the proper perspective when you turn and move around in the game.

[@garfiduper5822]

This game is free on GOG.com now.

[@thewhyzer]

Still my favorite shmup of all time! Also some of my favorite game music of all time!

[@RockstarRacc00n]

You forgot to mention OpenTyrian, which is the bleeding-edge version of it...

[@MaximeBelleau1337]

I remember there was a way to get the "arcade mode" weapons inside the game, but I'm not sure of the exact steps. I know you had to enter the code of the ship you wanted, and then, exit the mode back to the main menu. Then, if I'm correct, you just had to start a new game in story mode without going into the Ship setup, and you had all your previous setup, as it is still stored inside the game memory. I'll have to test it later on. By the way, really awesome review of the game! I loved id (same goes for the game)!

[@BlackCatRedScarf]

Hmmm... Even being a long game, I like to beat it every once in a while. The plot behind the game is actually pretty interesting. The Episode 1-2-3 look like a single arc about the special "gravity manipulating ore" discovery and the struggles that Trent faces to survive. Episode 4 is all about Ixmucane planet and the activation of the ancient Zica equipments close to the core of the planet. (You can have two possible endings on this episode with different levels!) And episode 5 goes full bananas with the Order of Zinglon and some pretty weird events. I would love to see not exactly a remake, but a enhanced version with better mechanics to tell the history behind the levels. Universe of Tyrian is highly detailed (oh man... the data cube guides are very entertaining) got plenty of potential and I believe it could even be told from the perspective of different characters without much problem. Unfortunately, the plot it is easily overlooked on most reviews. :< Example: not even once you mentioned who is the pilot, what happened and why he is blowing up stuff... it's just like calling MechWarrior a game where you only blow up giant robots. About the difficulty levels, the game gets much more difficult if you reach really high scores... there is a fairly obvious exploit that allows the player to get an extremely high score on a secret level (the infinite orb dispenser). But... if you reach something like "9999999999999 points", the next level will be almost impossible to destroy anything even with maximum upgrades. hehehehe It's one of my favorite games. I play it since 1996, accidentally unlocked a glitchy version of episode 3 while messing up with patches in 2000's, but just got my hands on the full version only in 2004.

[@White_Tiger93]

I must say this game soundtrack is really good, & catchy as well. the soundtrack really subpar with other shoot em ups like touhou & others. shame it don't have sequel or something...

[@simnostalgia]

Probably best shoot em up sountrack of all time. Even today we can find new remixes of Tyrian tracks, great!

[@Vokabre]

Totally forgot that you had an episode on Tyrian! I recently got the game for free from GOG and I really liked it, though haven't got time to play it much.

[@jacobthesitton9142]

What if adg was made in the 1990s and early 2000s and was a magazine subscription where you would get each adg episode on vhs plus upcoming news much like your website :-P

[@Pixelmusement]

+MeatBeat It'd be called CDG then: "Contemporary DOS Games" ;)

[@jacobthesitton9142]

Okay, I'll keep that in mind for a future tribute.

[@Alianger]

14:00 man, that bgm track sounds a lot like Thunder Force III.

[@LiquidDIO]

Tbh, I always looked at Tyrian as heavily influenced by like, Major Stryker, because the similarities in gameplay and enemies, etc. The main exception, I guess, would be the store, since Major Stryker's power ups and weapons were all in game.

[@labowskidude]

It also takes hours to beat and has great music.

[@stam_ehad]

This game was the bomb, I played the shit out of it.

[@TheWolfgangGrimmer]

Regarding the episodes: 4 is really long and full of great levels (some of them really tough), while 5 is the shortest and somewhat unfair on Impossible (the otherwise recommended skill level). Seriously, the penultimate level ("STATION") can go to hell.

[@Protoman00]

Great video!

[@XxDeViLBrInGeRxX]

Could have shown the picture of the head on a pike when you finished a certain mission, and to think the game was considered for "all ages". Still traumatized with that since i saw it the first time when i was little :c Didnt knew the rest of the secrets this game had, i guess i will redownload, shame i cant activate the cheats on my homebrew PSP, had a blast replaying Tyrian on it.

[@Pixelmusement]

For as wacky as the story in Tyrian is, there's actually a LOT of death in it. :P

[@tomyyoung2624]

Yes one!

[@trekaddict]

No Lannister mode?

[@ZipplyZane]

I know what a DOS extender is, but I'm curious why you would need a 16-bit extender. Doesn't DOS already run in 16-bit mode? Does the extender just add special features without changing the CPU mode?

[@Tipsukka]

Oh man, I played the shareware episode of Tyrian so much in the 90's I broke the mouse of our computer...

[@jojos08]

This game instantly reminded me of Raptor: Call of the Shadows!

[@1x4x9]

This is a game that SCREAMS for an AWE32/64 Gold MIDI card like no other (except for maybe System Shock and the Magic Carpet games)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Mister BluntSA I've heard it on an AWE32 and I actually prefer the music in this game in synth. :o

[@1x4x9]

Hey, who am I to argue if you like OPL3/FM better? I've heard amazing things done with Yamaha's little FM chips, too. Just pointing it out to the SB AWE fans :o)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Mister BluntSA Fair enough. I have a friend who swore by the game's AWE32 music as well, which is how I know what it sounded like. ;)

[@1x4x9]

It's sound isn't for everyone and is definitely divisive - either you love it or you don't. I still stand by the fact that when a game is specifically composed for it the AWE sounds great. But in other games I will be the first to say that I yearn for a GS or XG module. In the end, it's all subjective to the listener. Descent and Magic Carpet 1/2 were the games to really sell me on it.

[@nosuchthing8]

Actually there is a free object oriented Pascal ide called lazarus. Good for small projects.

[@aaronbuffalo7769]

loved this game a lot

[@tomyyoung2624]

I love this game. Yes only it has tons of explodables and upgrades but it's also absolutely bonkers. Carrot ships, banana cannons, hotdog missiles, ale collectibles, the plot... It's like Saints Row - who cares if dildo swords and dubstep guns make yes sense when they're so FUN.

[@gameoverhell]

I've been wanting to try this game out for a while, but it seems getting it in its original format, fully playable and with sound isn't simple on Windows 10?

[@Pixelmusement]

You can grab it for free on GOG and that should come pre-configured with a build of DOSBox to emulate it properly. You can then adjust the configurations of the game and DOSBox itself following to tweak the end result to be how you want it to be. :B www.gog.com/en/game/tyrian_2000

[@gameoverhell]

That's great, thanks! This game is overlooked by literally everyone I know who is into vertical shooters. @@Pixelmusement

[@intel386DX]

16 bit DOS extender means this game could run on 286? :D

[@292cz]

legendary game

[@GigaBoost]

Hrrngngnghhrhh your pronounciation of Tyrian is breaking my brain. Fuck, why can't I get over it? I'm sorry ;_;

[@EdmondDantes224]

So, I know this is a really old video, but I'm confused. The "Hint" at the end of the previous review (Mega Man for DOS) said that this title had a "hint of purple," and "if you turn it around, its the exact same title..." neither statement is true. So what the heck?

[@Pixelmusement]

Both statements are very true. The actual word "Tyrian" refers to a shade of purple, while if you take the graphical representation of the title, put it into your graphics software, and rotate it 180 degrees, it will STILL read from left to right as "Tyrian"! :D

[@EdmondDantes224]

@@Pixelmusement ........ That sounds like the kind of clue Roberta Williams would've come up with ;)

[@simovihinen875]

The one thing you could have avoided doing in this review is you're just giving all the special codes away when there may have been people who would've wanted to discover them themselves (by playing the game through on different settings). True, there's way more codes than what you listed. Also I would have condensed the review a bit instead of going into so much detail about which weapons are the best, which levels have the secrets etc.: if the audience wants that they're much better off getting some in-depth FAQ bookmarked. And I really think this game is partially so memorable BECAUSE of all its secrets. I realize this was years back.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Simo Vihinen Almost EIGHT years now... I've learned a lot about making videos since then. I should point out too that this was before I began scripting, which led to a bit of rambling about things and just sort of recording whatever came to mind rather than trying to produce a properly structured video. :P

[@JeffGraw]

Constant Laser + Rear Mega Pulse

[@7thDementia]

I have a ship that's a carrot.

[@ZipplyZane]

But you need 32-bit addressing to do that, don't you? Or is that what makes this so unusual--the fact that they pulled off 32-bit addressing with a 16-bit program? That's like using a 32-bit program to get past the 4GB barrier. *mindboggles*

[@valeriojackable]

Mouse? Gamepad? Keyboard Master Race!!! Is a great game, you can have it also on Android, PSP etc... (Search OpenTyrian)

[@nosferadu]

It's pronounced TEErian.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Max Even that's wrong as it's supposed to be like TIER-EE-ANN. But yeah, that's how I USED to pronounce it. (Hearing other people pronounce it correctly so often has since changed my own pronunciation.)

[@stealthrobot1]

5TH love your reviewing of TS3 IP

[@dirtpipedan]

It's pretty good but I'd have to say Raptor Call of the shadows is a bit better.

[@Pixelmusement]

Heh... I think you should go watch Episode 60 on my website. (Though it'll be up here on KZbin in a week or so.)

[@KakyouKuzuki2001]

Nose Drip

[@Pixelmusement]

The most powerful nasal construct ever invented! :O

[@miciso666]

tyrene? thats a weird way of pronouncing it. also its pretty doable with mouse. and movement is way better sometimes with one.

[@Pixelmusement]

Yeah, I have a history of mispronouncing things and sometimes switch pronunciations in the same sentence because my brain doesn't know which to use. :P

[@12me91]

Pascal? ... Why, just why?

[@Pixelmusement]

12me91 Pascal was pretty big for a time. Inexpensive, easy to learn for how powerful it was... lots of things in its favour, but C/C++ ended up getting more support in the long run. The big languages nowadays are Java and C#, although I'm still a C++ guy. :B

[@12me91]

***** I guess that was just before my time, all my teachers at college have only referred to pascal as a dead language. I'm a C/C++ guy too, just something about them that other languages just don't do for me.

[@Pixelmusement]

12me91 Yeah, once 32-bit C/C++ compilers became more widespread, such as DJGPP, Pascal died a rapid death. The CPU-speed-related bugs with Borland Turbo Pascal 7.0 didn't help matters. :P

[@12me91]

Yeah thats a fast track to death for a language, if it dont run well its the coffin for it.

[@Darkstar2342]

Why not? Pascal was (and still is) actually a pretty decent language, at least after it no longer compiled to PCode and instead generated native code. It was very easy to write safe "high-level" code as well as darn fast lowlevel code with it (remember that was back when C compilers couldn't even do runtime checking of buffer overruns and stuff like that). A lot of games back in the 90's were written in Pascal actually (it's pretty easy to find out if you know what you're lookgin for in the EXE files ;-)

[@serpentdarkness8844]

Your review of Tyrian2000 is pretty shallow, if compared with many other reviews you've maid. It's a pity. So thumb down. You completely forgot to mention secret (and special) weapons and so called "secret destiny". This game is THE best shoot'em up game on PC ever made. Period.