Warhawk DS (Free NDS homebrew shmup)

[elvis]

http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=warhawk

WARHAWK DS v1.0

(c) Copyright 2009 Proteus Developments and Headsoft



CREDITS

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Asm Coding - Flash & HeadKaze

Graphics - Lobo & Badtoad

Audio - Press Play On Tape & Space Fractal



INTRODUCTION

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Welcome to the first release of Warhawk DS. Warhawk DS is a game for the Nintendo DS coded in 100% ARM assembler. It is based on a commercial C64 game released by Proteus Developments in 1986.



This has been a joint coding effort between Flash and HeadKaze that has taken around 5 or so months from vision to fruition.



Warhawk DS is based on a much earlier game released on the C64 in 1986, and is more of a re-imagining than a remake. One thing that was intended to retain was the 'old school' feel to the game, and this is hopefully something has been achieved. The downside to keeping the feel is that those of you brought up on present day games may find this a little difficult? It is not an easy ride to clear the 16 levels, though a consession has been made for the modern-day gamer in the addition of continues.



The game has 16 normal levels and also upon completion, another 16 mental levels become available. It is worth finishing the mental levels for the true completion and credit sequence.



The game has also had much help from Lobo and SpaceFractal in both the graphical and musical areas. BadToad (involved in the original game) has helped with playtesting and some graphical work, and many others (Mark, Sokurah, Baz, etc, etc.) have been involved in the mad hunt for bugs and also playtesting. A full credit list is in the game.



INSTALLATION

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Just copy the included WarhawkDS.nds file to your backup card and play.



The game will also run fairly well under emulation and our recommendation is to use no$gba for this function. This offers the best compromise between speed, compatibility, and audio, though you will need the nds bios roms. We cannot provide these, but a search will find all that you need (biosnds7.rom and biosnds9.rom). iDeaS will also run the game fine under emulation without the need of the roms (though audio is compromised). Remember - nothing beats playing the game in hardware!



CONTROLS

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'Start' is used from the title screen to start the game and also within the game to pause. During play, the D-Pad is used for movement and the 'A' button for firing. Firing has 3 modes. A single press will release 2 shots. Press and hold will fire a power shot (12 times the damage and destroys all bases in it's line of fire) and during "power-up" mode, holding fire will shoot a continuous stream of 16 bullets. Power-up mode can be enabled after level 2. During these levels a small ship will drift down the screen, shooting this will release a power orb that when collected will enable power-up mode for a limited time. Crashing into the drop ship will have the same effect but lose a small amount of energy. Energy can be regained during a level only by destroying a meteor. These take 2 powered shots to kill. Pressing start during game play also offers the option to quit and return to the title screen.



GAMEPLAY NOTES

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The game contains 16 normal levels and 16 mental levels (available after clearing the first 16). At the end of each level is a boss that needs to be destroyed, and these all have set patterns to learn. During your fight through a level, destroying 'all' the bases on the level will result in a large bonus upon level completion. Each level you start with a full energy bar, once this is lost, 'Game Over'. Some levels have a few hidden secrets for you to find that make things a little easier.



NOTES

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There may be times when the audio shows signs of clicks during playback. The recommendation, if this occurs is to defragment your SD card. Heavy fragmentation and also lots of files on the card can cause the careful timing of the audio to drift slightly. Also, upon starting the game, there may be a delay before the game starts, this is normal and not an indication the the game has crashed, please be patient.



* The software does contain a small amount of C code in the form of the libfat and EFS. This had to be included to allow for the high quality music to be stored outside of the 4 MB limitation. This is a minor concession we believe as the entire game mechanics are in ASM and also the game will run perfectly with the removal of the EFS.



WARHAWK HISTORY

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Information on the various versions of Warhawk can be found on the wiki here:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhawk_(1986_video_game)



THANKS

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Wintermute for devkitARM, Chishm for libfat, Martin Koth for DSTek & No$GBA, Eris & Noda for EFS / NitroFS . Also thanks go to LiraNuna, Blasty, Cearn, Dovoto, Joat, Dekutree, Elhobbs, Ruben, SimonB, DarkCloud and everyone on gbadev.org.



CONTACT

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Visit the offical website for Warhawk DS, our official forums or contact us



http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=warhawk (Official website)

http://greatflash.co.uk/index.php?board=14.0 (Forum)



flash@greatflash.co.uk

headkaze@gmail.com

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Hmmm....This makes me wonder about what happened to that homebrew Radiant Silvergun DS port from a while back.

[MrPopo]

So I played a homebrew game called Touhou DS, but it made a huge design flaw (in my mind) by having the two screens completely contiguous, instead of the Metroid Prime Pinball style of acknowledging and compensating for the gap. I found it to be nearly unplayable, as a result, because things would instantly move from one screen to the other. Does this game do the same thing?

[elvis]

Yes, this has the "contiguous screen" design.

Quite honestly it bothered me for about 5 minutes before my brain got used to it.

[BigTinz]

Gotta love the K-A rating.