RetroBlazer (Alpha)

By: Derek Yu

On: January 16th, 2012

RetroBlazer, by Amil Parra

Amil Parra’s RetroBlazer is an FPS built on the modified Quake engine called DarkPlaces. Currently in alpha state, the game evokes Wolfenstein 3d more than either Doom or Quake, with mostly flat level designs save for a few instances where enemies rain pipe bombs down on you from higher platforms. The camera is locked to a single plane, which makes those areas particularly annoying (the worst being a large maze in level 6). Hopefully later iterations of this project will offer more interesting scenarios, as it’s otherwise pretty enjoyable. It looks good, too.

To get the most out of the 7-level demo, make sure you enter the console by pressing ‘~’ and bind the alternate fire and dash like so:

Alt-Fire: bind “mouse2” “impulse 100”

Dash: bind “ctrl” “impulse 15”

You’ll probably need to fiddle with the controls and video mode, also.

  • Geust

    bold

    innovative

    provocative

  • ape

    Wow looks great. Rather play this than a lot of modern fps

  • http://twitter.com/AshranQ Arael Queratzan

    +1 if notch sent you here

  • http://twitter.com/Glauzero Glauzero

    I want it.

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    +1

  • http://www.gnomeslair.com/ gnome

    Looks utterly amazing!

  • http://twitter.com/nigmashumma nigmashumma

    Absolutely awesome!

  • http://mediocritycodex.blogspot.com/ Timothy Hsu

    finally, more games marrying new tech with proven ideas. increased FOV, precise hitboxes, buttery smooth framerate

    lurv it

  • News

    eternally circle strafing

  • Lala

    +1 XD

  • red

    its 2012 and i like sprites in FPS :D

  • Anonymous

    sick graphics

  • Nailbombed

    Looks cool… like an updated version of Corridor 7.

  • Cyber

    This game is amazing keep developing it !

  • Remco Bregman

    me too

  • http://profiles.google.com/huntershoptaw Hunter Shoptaw

    +1

  • Dotu

    -1…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001347861539 Norberto Monarrez

    I got the view to go up and down with the mouse but I lost it after messing with controls some more. Now I’m trying to recreate it.

  • Bobby

    is this minecraft with a new texture pack or something?

  • JP

    BTW, Linux users can run this natively by downloading the content-only build and running it with a vanilla darkplaces binary with the “-game RetroBlazer” option.

  • Anonymous

    stop that :(

  • http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

    Interesting, but why is the gun high resolution while the enemy sprites aren’t?

  • http://www.facebook.com/mcgrue Ben McGraw

    I don’t know, but I similarly don’t mind.  Feels like Doom, where the gun is always pixel-perfect to scale, but the enemies are always variably scaled.

    This scratches an itch I didn’t know I even had.  Needs more NEDM, though.  

    …or DM, E.  I guess.

  • Séamus Bradd

    Ohhh, this is freaking lovely.

  • ptoing

    This is very boring so far I have to say. The gfx are nice, but everything looks the same. In Quake I had a fun time navigating levels because there are landmarks and things look different (tho brown). Here all looks the same. Virtually no lighting to speak of. The music gets grating fast, and the sfx are weird (door sound mostly).

    The Wolf3D-esque levels tho are what kills it for me. I still love Doom 1 and 2,  which have a lot of awesome usermade content you can get, quite a bit of which is brilliant. I do not understand why anyone would even need the DarkPlaces for this. It’s like buying a really good computer suited for making 3D gfx and highres art in Photoshop but then you use MSPaint and that’s it. I am sorry if I am sounding harsh, but I am not impressed.

    The setting seems like it could be fun, but the elements of the game which seem to be retro for the sake of being retro bring it down IMO.

  • fh
  • Seanveith

    It’s as if I died and went to hell, but hell was run by daft punk. cool!

  • chrilley

    Yay for Megaman Zero sound effects!

  • Snowflakepillow

    Yeah, needs more looking up and down and moving up and down.

  • Anon

    I love the idea of abstract colorful fps’, as well as the dashing. After playing UT20034 I always missed something like the dodgejump in FPS games.

  • http://www.tedmartens.com Ted Martens

    Love the beautiful art style. At first, when I saw the screenshot I wondered why some things were pixel art and others high res 2D. After watching the gameplay video, though, it totally works. The definition of the enemies comes through at a distance *because* they are pixel art. They’d probably be muddy from afar as high res 2D.

    Kudos!

  • http://www.arm42.com/ Michaël Lievens

    Great art style !
    This is more than fast paced :D Mixing old technics and modern computer can give great result in terms of performances.
    Golden age for some FPS I think (but just because I can’t try the new one due to my old configuration ^^).

  • Retractingblinds

    I made a video with some criticism regarding the game. I would like it if you all, and if the developers were to watch it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKzcTwLtL0I

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tobias-Svensson/603193733 Tobias Svensson

    Guns have much less frames, and you’ll be seeing them up-close a lot. So it’s less work and more value to make them high-res. Whereas enemies are moving around quickly at some distance, getting shot at and in the middle of the action. They can get away with being lower detail.

  • Julio Eliseo Valls Martinez

    One thing that made old shooters so fun to play is the amazing work done in level design.
    I like the old school feel of it, but it wont be great unless it gets some charismatic and challenging level design.

  • http://twitter.com/Amon26 Amon26

    I’m so glad to see this getting ink! It’s like the best parts of Megaman X and Doom1 thrown at terminal velocity against eachother.

  • Hool

    I think that if you think the level design owes more to Wolfenstein 3D than Doom then you haven’t played very much of Wolfenstein 3D or Doom.

  • ur a faget

    This isn’t youtube you faggot.

  • notch’s crotch

    +1 if you think comments like this are pointless spam