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Ad Astra

RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
edited April 2011 in Games
I've just been having a shot on Ad Astra

It's very dated, one of the most dated Speccy games I've ever played, but there is something charming about it...

Great 3D effect back in the day which was of course, pretty amazing back then. But now it just doesn't seem to work very well at all.

Reviewed it on my blog if you fancy a read.
Post edited by Retrobrothers on

Comments

  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited April 2011
    Retrobrothers wrote: »
    [...]

    It's very dated, one of the most dated Speccy games I've ever played, but there is something charming about it...

    I think the same. Crappy when you first see it, but it has something nice, maybe that strange feeling of depth...

    I've never understood why there's a frame with a partial devil's face in the menu screen:

    AdAStra.GIF
  • RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
    edited April 2011
    JuanF. Ramirez wrote: »
    I think the same. Crappy when you first see it, but it has something nice, maybe that strange feeling of depth...

    I've never understood why there's a frame with a partial devil's face in the menu screen:

    AdAStra.GIF

    Yeah, it does have some sort of 'depth' feeling. Funny how some games date far more than others.

    That 'devil's face' is a gargoyle, and their name was Gargoyle Games - so it's just their logo on the menu screen.
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited April 2011
    Agree with the above, you think it'll be shocking when you see the speccy font used on the menu but its a decent shoot em up for its time
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited April 2011
    psj3809 wrote: »
    Agree with the above, you think it'll be shocking when you see the speccy font used on the menu but its a decent shoot em up for its time
    Why? The early Ultimate games all used the Spectrum font.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited April 2011
    karingal wrote: »
    Why? The early Ultimate games all used the Spectrum font.

    Yeah good point, totally forgot about those. Keep forgetting how old Ad Astra is, 1984 wasnt it ?
  • DanforthDanforth
    edited April 2011
    I played the hell out of this when it turned up on a YS covertape. Though it had that annoying feature of almost every 3D shooter ever where you can only fire straight ahead (therefore, ultimately, into a single spot on the horizon), it was strangely compelling. For 1984 it's pretty awesome.

    G.L.A.S.S. is still my oldschool into-the-screen blaster of choice, though...
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited April 2011
    I'd already had a Spectrum for a couple of years when Ad Astra came out and it did create quite a stir. There'd been a few half-assed attempts at shooters with a 3D effect up to then, but it really did raise the bar a bit with the graphics.

    I never thought the gameplay was that great though. It's a bit too twitchy, the bullets are hard to see, the semi-random patterns sometimes mean you get cornered and the 3D effect makes it hard to shoot at certain parts of the screen.

    It's worth comparing it against Light Force, although that came a couple of years later, as they're quite similar in concept.
  • MorkinMorkin
    edited April 2011
    Apart from the nicely animated planetoids, I didn't think a great deal of it when I first played it. It reminded me of a bit of Arcadia, which I thought was more playable despite being an earlier game.

    ..But that was probably because I didn't play it until a couple of years after its release. By then Gargoyle had set such a high standard (Tir na Nog, Dun Darach etc) that I was expecting more, was a bit disappointed.
  • Dwayne DibleyDwayne Dibley
    edited April 2011
    It was a good game in its time with some nice explosive effects when your ship was destroyed. Not particularly great at the time , and certainly not aged well. GG's one and only foray into the world of shooters - perhaps just as well they changed to scrolly adventures
  • SardSard
    edited April 2011
    Dwayne Dibley wrote: »
    GG's one and only foray into the world of shooters - perhaps just as well they changed to scrolly adventures

    Except Light Force. Gargoyle became FTL
  • SKRSKR
    edited April 2011
    TBQH I thought it was garbage at the time, and still do.


    Play area is too small and most of what there is of it is obscured by your "ship".

    Sorry but I was never keen on this one.
  • Dwayne DibleyDwayne Dibley
    edited April 2011
    Sard wrote: »
    Except Light Force. Gargoyle became FTL

    Did they really? That was one game (Lightforce) I regretted spending my hard-earned on
  • MattLambMattLamb
    edited April 2011
    I got mixed up with Astroclone when I opened this thread. another game I had on a Beau-Jolly Computer Hits compilation, and a much better game. Took me a while to track it down though - I nearly had to submit a 'name the game' thread.
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