Warhawk (C64/A8/SpecNext): From Budget Brilliance to Next Essential - Beyond The Scanlines

[@zawtowers]

Warhawk is one of my favourite C64 budget shooters - and I was fortunate enough to review that as part of the C64 Budget Publisher Showdown series with Mat (Witchfinder1976) - it's always great fun and getting the ship destruction bonus really feels like a sense of achievement. Although the Rob Hubbard soundtrack takes its dues from John Keating's Space Experience album, it's a classic of its time on the 8-bits, and the A8 version really does fare well as a conversion too - possibly harder to get the ship destruction bonus due to some redesign, but the game is there. The Spectrum Next version really does show what that hardware can do in the right hands, and can be seen rightly as an evolution of the game and making it even better with some meaty sound and lovely playability. It was well worth you explaining the mechanics of that so it effectively gives moire of an insight too. Keep up the excellent work - really enjoyed this one and shows a really sensible perspective to respect the original versions for what they were.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I think if the Atari's maps had ramped up the number of targets for the bonus, it wouldn't be as much of a thing, but I guess it's that tougher challenge. Still, in the larger scale of things, a minor critique nonetheless…

[@ultrasteveg]

My first experience of Warhawk was actually the A8 version. When I got my 800XL as a kid (second-hand) it came with a bunch of games, Warhawk being one of them. It was the game that is probably most responsible for my love of the shoot 'em up genre. I agree with you that the lack of in-game music on that version is a bit disappointing, but at the same time, the SFX are really crunchy, and coupled with the colourful graphics (albeit singles for the enemies), and frantic gameplay, I think it really is a great blaster, especially given it was a budget release. And speaking of music, the Spec Next rendition definitely sounds quite POKEY, which I like! I probably haven't given the C64 version enough time as a result of liking the A8 one so much. Definitely would like to try the Spec Next release out, too, so I'll buy the digital of that to use with emulation. And as ever, I really appreciate the explanation of the mechanics - particularly as when I played it as a kid I had no idea about the base destruction bonus, because as you point out, I never cleared them because it was so difficult!

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I had the same experience with the auto fire upgrade! I didn't even know that was a thing for *years* on the C64 one, and only learned about it after playing it on the Next. I'd say it's part of the experience of playing without instructions, but I don't even think that's covered in the inlays of the 8-bit versions! Deep down, I think covering how something plays is important to help get folks on board - and it's increasingly a factor in what I want to achieve with these videos. Glad you appreciated that :)

[@benchandler4298]

I don’t know that I’ve seen a shmup replace big bosses with a horde/swarm mechanic. That’s an interesting idea, and actually probably feels kind of fresh after seeing so so many games doing similar things.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

It's actually not a bad idea as a challenge - I think it's a little limited here if only because it would have been one of those things where they had to do a rush job to make it work. Makes me wonder once again what could have been - either going for the original design, or doing a more refined version of this. Guess with the Next one they felt it was far enough away to try and do it properly!

[@benchandler4298]

@@BeyondTheScanlines Game designers: the door is open! Rob and I are ready to be impressed, bring it on! 😀

[@retroelectrodad5933]

The Atari could have the same number of scan lines as the C64 or even more - just the default display lists had 192 scan lines. to make sure it was all visible on all TVs. Antic doesn't limit the number of scanlines but your picture will roll if the TV can't handle it - you could just tell it to show more screen mode rows. This makes me think that the devs may have not been entirely familiar with the A8 or perhaps under time pressure. As for music in-game, my understanding of the C64 is that it has 3 sound channels of 16 bits where the Atari has 4 8-bit channels that can be combined to make two 16-bit channels or two 8 and one 16 bit channels. The title screen probably makes use of the 16-bit combination so the music may not have sounded as good in-game with the addition of sound effects that would force some 8-bit note frequency resolution.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

The title music on the Atari port is a 3 channel chip-tune. From what I understand there is no real need to combine channels since no "exotic" bass or saw-tooth waves are noticeable. I might be wrong but I am pretty sure there was a sound channel available for SFX if they wanted. Since Warhawk wasn't a 64k game and the instructions on the jewel case inform the users of XE/XL machines to disable BASIC, the lack of in game music must be mainly due to RAM limitations of the original 800.

[@retroelectrodad5933]

I will bow to your greater Pokey music knowledge. Certainly makes sense that something had to give when reducing down to 48K to support the 800. May explain why the sprites are chunky if they had to use the double resolution PMGs to save memory.

[@PG-gs5vb]

@@nickolasgaspar9660 The gritty bass sound of the POKEY has a very limited frequency resolution, which is why it is often played with combined channels to not be out of tune. That is the case for all Hubbard's POKEY tunes. Despite that, the sfx could still have been played simultaneously on both Atari and C64, though it would be better if they won't interrupt the lead channel but the one that playes the chords.

[@ThisIsPete]

Looks like a great reimagining -- seems like it's more unashamedly wearing its Star Force influence on its sleeve, too. For the longest time I thought the Warhawk theme was a Rob Hubbard original, but recently I discovered he's actually borrowing the theme from "The Unknown Planet", a track from John Keating's Space Experience album. I think we can forgive him that, though, as his is a cracking version that distinguishes itself a bit from the original, particularly in its rhythms.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I think there's a load of classic tunes that were "inspired" in similar ways - and considering the maxim that everything's a remix, as long as it's linked properly, it's no major dealing ;) But generally, I do like now the Next one does use that inspiration a little more - even if only because it's giving some levels with some real challenge. Let alone the bosses, which do enough to make learning each a challenge. It's a sign of some real growth from stuff from earlier 8-bit days where it was mostly kind of samey. At least until devs were more able to get away with multiloads!

[@MattLacey]

Finally catching up! Atari version of this looks frantic with the wide aspect and vertical scroll. The funky colours on the player are done with a palette change on h-blank, so doing them for the enemies would have looked odd when they're on different y coordinates. The next version looks amazing

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I was expecting some display list trickery on the player's front at least - but I guess having them modify that on the fly would probably be a no-go. But yeah, considering the number of enemy sprites, and their positions, it doesn't make sense to even attempt any tricks, so keeping the other 3 players (and missiles) the same colour saves that messing about :)

[@pacbilly]

Holy moly, you read my mind when you talked about the main melody cutting out whenever you fire!! I've owned this game since I first bought it on disk a million years ago, and I have to say that I have complained about that very thing since I bought it. Here's the thing -- they leave the rhythm track in and take the melody out. It would have made FAR more sense to leave the melody in and take the rhythm track out. Nobody will miss a gap in the rhythm track the same way we miss that wonderful melody. It'd be great if some cracking team could reassign which track goes out whenever you're shooting.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I don't necessarily think it's an easy task to work out how to reprioritise the music - I remember some notes from how Hubbard utilised his driver to swap which track was played on which voice. I've certainly seen that in some of those videos which present an oscilloscope view showing each voice in action, and it's a marvel of coding to make that happen so seamlessly.

[@merman1974]

Big fan of the Next version, especially since it's the original team behind it. I enjoyed the DS version too. Not played the Atari one though, does look a bit narrow compared to the original. One of my finest gaming moments was playing Warhawk on an SX-64 (the portable C64 with the 5-inch screen) at a retro event - I managed to complete it, which was the first time I had got that far! That was also when I discovered the "star" power-up to give faster firepower, very handy.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I managed to do it on the C64 in the last few years, finding out about the power up really helped. Couldn't quite do it in the recorded footage, but at least I got about as far across the C64 and Atari. Guess the narrowness is more from the enlarged size of the player sprite - but I don't think I noticed it as much as the vertical squish.