That's a good point, GZ. I intend to make a real game fairly typical of 1991, but now I'm thinking about scaling back some.

Last night for a goof and to confirm what I'd read, I finally played all 19/20 levels of Spread Fire. So tedious! It's really unplayable after level 6 or 7. I had to cheat by hacking the NES memory to move the player sprite almost completely off the bottom of the screen. I say 19/20 levels because after level 19 it loops back to level 1, but that "level 1" plays more like level 20, and after you beat it, the next level is also called level 1, which actually plays like the true first level. Ah, good ol' Action 52.

Really liked Mashman, by the way.

Nothing to show just quite yet but progress is being made everyday. Unfortunately, I'm getting the feeling that I'm making a shmup that shmup-lovers are going to hate because it's accessible and old school. Tough luck, kids. Galaga and Robotron for life!

No aftershow for the TIGJam Winnipeg broadcast (episode 19), and the main show is not really suitable for audio-only listening since they only showed games being worked on without any real commentary (beyond sporadic deafening applause). I've uploaded the FLV for those that can't view uStream for some reason.

http://www.mediafire.com/TIGRadio

A TIGJam in the southeast US would be sweet.

Thanks for that, L. Neat interpretation of the blue sprite, I like it. It's either given me a great idea or a terrible one. We shall see...

Nothing yet to show for Spread Fire, but I'm working on it. I definitely have some ideas I want to explore, although nothing Earth-shattering. Right now I'm giving myself a crash course in space shooters for some additional inspiration. It's not my favorite genre, I pretty much stopped playing them before Spread Fire or the term "shmup" ever existed, but there are a few I like. I've never gotten into the whole "bullet hell" and "boss rush" thing that's developed since those days. I doubt I'll be going that route, I'm thinking of something a bit more old school, but I do plan to have at least two bosses. Even 1980's Phoenix had a boss. I actually broke my Apple II+ over that game.

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to stick to a fixed screen shooter or change it to a vertical scroller. The enemies in Spread Fire don't actually fire anything. That's almost certainly going to change. I've read that the game has 19 progressively difficult levels which repeat. I still haven't gotten past level 6 or 7, there is too much luck involved. I think I'm going to stick to 19 levels, working up to a final climax. I'd like to base the game on performance rather than endurance.

I may call on some willing soul to do some simple music for me. I want the music to be good, which is why I should stay as far away from it as possible.

In the meantime, if you have any pet theories about what the hell the enemies are supposed to be in Spread Fire, or why they made a game about a space lobster, I'd be happy to hear them.

It'd be nice if you had a happy little Xevious-style jingle to start each level off, and a sad one for Game Over ...

Ah, great idea, that would fit what I'm doing perfectly. I might even by able to manage that myself despite my musical ineptitude. I think I'll try my hand at some abstract ambient sound for some atmosphere as well.

Wow, Simon, you sure managed to get a lot of creepiness out of just a few pixels. Very nice work.

Got a question. If a game doesn't have music in the original (eg. Spread Fire), is music expected in the remake?

If you want to hear Tommy break some hearts, the amusing episode 18 aftershow is available here:
http://www.mediafire.com/TIGRadio

Hey gang. Most of you probably don't know me, I pretty much just lurk here. Just signed on for Spread Fire.

This is my first collab and will be my first game posted at TIGS. I'll do my best not to disappoint, and if I do, I'll do it quickly.  

[Reason:]

This looks really cool and seems pretty deep. Sorry about previous unwarranted complaint about installation.

I was able to download the installer a couple days ago but now stupid Websense is blocking ogmoeditor.com so I can't see the Help or Tutorial pages. You might want to bust their kneecaps.

Reason:
This Websense category is filtered: Potentially Damaging Content. Sites in this category may pose a security threat to network resources or private information, and are blocked by your organization.

URL:
http://ogmoeditor.com/

Details:
The user adult has been filtered attempting to access http://ogmoeditor.com/ on 4/15/2010.

Restrictions:
Your Websense policy blocks this page at all times. .

[EDIT]

I'd like to try this out but since it requires an internet connection to install I can't.
/flog

EDIT

OK, I'm a dumbass. It installed just fine without internet (as long as AIR is installed, which it is). I blame Game Maker induced retardation for making me forget that it IS possible to do something very useful in only 85KB.

[EDIT]

I would really like to know what you guys did to rip the videos from Ustream.

I use URL Snooper 2 to find the relavent .flv URL in the stream. Once you've got that it's a simple download. From there I transcode the file to MP3 because the original audio stream is some silly proprietary codec.

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/urlsnooper/index.html

I really want to hear these shows but this damn library computer blocks everything.  

EDIT

Dang, my usually tricks don't seem to be working anymore. Something to do with the new advertising I suspect.

Sorry I haven't been able to get any MP3s posted recently. I've been without internet for almost a month now. I'll post them as soon as I can, but food and water must come first.