Path: ...!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2024 15:21:47 +0000 From: Spalls Hurgenson Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Subject: Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2024 10:21:47 -0500 Message-ID: References: <3422ijl6l9ec43csiut9j4r1jg3scb04oc@4ax.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 2.0/32.652 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 32 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-iHOOveIWbeQCrA0P3OlGmTQT0IFLNCyAj8/yj2gix+/5tHzC4em4DMqkqNTrTCAEXmGaDkDO47b1zcV!gtruONWXY+TBMOfmqQfTMX99uQjAW7FjpfVlU7OX1CyUHCxLka0JKWk4qj9JUwTpBpg2W4Yp X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 2561 On Sun, 10 Nov 2024 11:59:58 +0000, JAB wrote: >On 02/11/2024 05:13, Justisaur wrote: >> On 10/30/2024 2:33 AM, JAB wrote: >>> On 29/10/2024 16:16, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: >>>> >>>> Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't. >I can't say I remember playing it in the arcades but by then my visits >to them where in decline. I did play Xenon when I visited the computer >museum in Cambridge though! The Bitmap Brothers had a string of hits, mostly on the Amiga and Atari ST. They were more successful in Europe, where the 8-bits reigned supreme while IBM/PC compatibles, Apple and consoles were second fiddle. "Speedball" (1 and 2), "Gods", "Cadaver", "Xenon" (1 & 2), "Chaos Engine" (a.k.a. Soldier of Fortune), "Steel Soldiers" and "Z" were all extremely well-reviewed games. But they never really transitioned to the 'modern era' of gaming; their skills were with bitmaps and fast blitters, and the new era of 3D gaming left them behind. (I'd argue that changes in game style left them behind too; Bitmap Brothers were always fairly simplistic one-note games, but as years went on people started demanding deeper, more complicated mechanics). The last real game (as opposed to remakes and compilations) they developed was "WW2 Frontline Command" in 2003, a pretty forgettable RTS. A sad coda to a proud company.