Space harrier for Atari 130XE (March 2008 updated)

This is the last update (March 2008) of Space Harrier project game. Includes more levels and polished routines.
Programmed by Chris Hutt (Sheddy) and music from Sal Esquivel. You can visit his official project web on:
www.sheddyshack.co.uk/

[@jeremyfirefoxaddon]

Wow, amazing. I wouldn't have believed an 8 bit system could do this. It even tops the Sega Master System version.

[@ThrilloVanHouten]

I remember when this port was first released waaay back in 2002. It blew my mind then, and it blows my mind now! That's one of the best characteristics that Atari consoles had: if you were a good programmer you could push 'em incredibly hard and pull off nearly-impossible effects. Modern consoles can't be pushed like this...

[@meetoo594]

Very, very impressive, if this had been released back in the day, jaws would have dropped. I would say it has the edge over the master system version due to the lack of the sprite masking squares and the far superior sound (seriously, the sound is spot on). It looks a bit faster as well.

[@inphanta]

I'm a C64 head and I have to admit, this blows the C64 version out of the water!

[@StaxX28]

Much better then the C64 version !! Great job !

[@kevin12567]

Awesome that it has the speech in there, and the graphics blow the C64 version out of the water! Really shows what potential this system had if it was marketed properly (as a computer - not as a competitor to the NES)!

[@frigginjoe]

Wow. It sounds like the SMS version, but the voice doesn't halt the game, which is cool. The visuals are real nice. I wouldn't have guessed the XE could do it.

[@sheddyshack]

160x96 mode - same height as 160x192 - just more chunky, but less to move around the screen :) 4 players 8 pixels wide. 2 next to each other, the others on top of those. option for overlap of players is set to create 3rd colour - so no display list interrupt stuff needed in this case. you're right, it would be a bit tricky otherwise.

[@IanRawlings]

That's pretty damned good for such an old machine. I've got one in the loft somewhere, I'll try and get this going on it when I eventually dig it out.

[@porcorosso81]

Wow, I'm impressed! Great work!

[@douro20]

Considering that the graphics engine remained unchanged throughout the entire Atari 8-bit series, what you are seeing is being rendered on graphics hardware which was designed back in 1977.

[@dmadn]

This is damn impressive

[@VideyoJunkei]

love all the voice samples!!!

[@sheddyshack]

to clarify, movie is made by merging flickering frames or colours don't show due to different frame rate of movie

[@sheddyshack]

Yep, only 4 colours per scanline in this mode - it does flicker at 30Hz in real life rather than movie - interlaced colours don't show up properly otherwise. Only 160x96 resolution too. Running on a stock 64K Atari but the game cart is 1MB

[@Adropacrich2]

Very bloody impressive lets be honest and a shame the Atari range wasn't pushed harder at the time

[@sheddyshack]

Finished game released July 2011. Search AtariAge forums for "Space Harrier Released" Available for free to run on emulator or to upload to an Atarimax cartridge Project website no longer running

[@basshunter2007]

all the official sound effects are in there

[@uggla03]

puts the 16 bit atari st to shame good job

[@ianmcdowell4955]

awesome conversion!!, the atari could of kicked arse if only it had the programmers back in the day.

[@olynxmano]

It's not a fake. It's one solution of having the CPU and both custom chips for graphics working together. But, clearly, this solution was used far too less on this great 8 bit machine.

[@odislaw]

very good work :)

[@olynxmano]

LOL If people weren't that much into sidescrollers in the 80's , but wanted to play 3D games as today, the C64 would have seen no light...

[@CyborgNinja7]

This is great. I was wondering how this game was programmed.

[@MrThunderwing]

So this is running on 1970's harware? I can only conclude from this that there must be some witchcraft involved in here somewhere. Seriously though, great job!

[@thorgallpl]

@inphanta theres no turrican version on the 8 bit atari.

[@cheese7monkey]

does this remind anyone else of the last sin and punishment (i assume s&p was inspired by this)

[@sheddyshack]

(1MB ROM)

[@VectorOmega]

Have you ever tried doing an Atari 130XE conversion of Legend Of Zelda?

[@P5BDeluxeWiFi]

@MrThunderwing 130XE was announced in 1985, at the same time as the initial models in the Atari ST, So that's basically rubbish. x86 was designed when ?...WOW IT RUNS CRYSIS!!!....do you see?

[@MrThunderwing]

@P5BDeluxeWiFi I don't really care.

[@olynxmano]

"anyways people play and choose from whats available. its not vice versa" That'S NOT really true. Many developers tried to make good 3d on the c64, but it always was too slow. So the developers concetrated their games on the sprites of the c64. that's why so many sidescrollers exist on the C64. btw. "out of tune"... Analyzing most of the sid tunes, you recognize non musically frequencies that musicians chose, to have the music sounding better (?) ...

[@kangarht]

"If people weren't that much into sidescrollers in the 80's , but wanted to play 3D games as today" .. and if people wanted to listen to horribly detuned music :D anyways people play and choose from whats available. its not vice versa.

[@unreal030]

Uncharted 2 looks better than this crap PS3 > this