Many of you already know of this game especially Amiga and C64 owners as this game has huge similarities to Super Mario and as such way back in the 80's also had an alleged lawsuit case against them from Nintendo. In fact during the last number of years, there wasn't just a Giana Special Edition by Reimagine Games and then of course the Great Giana-Sisters Construction-Set, but we also had a 30th anniversary version for the C64 by The-Seven-A-Three in celebration of this rather famous game. So why are we writing about this game again? Well you'll be pleased to know that as of today, TCFS together with Csabo and Unreal, has released The Great Giana Sisters for the Commodore Plus/4!
Here's the latest from the website. "The Great Giana Sisters is a beloved classic on C64: a platformer heavily inspired by the "Italian plumber" series (that shall not be named). The game has incredible staying power: over 100 cracks of it exist (with new ones being released even this year), there's a PETSCII version, multiple level editors, a 30th-anniversary edition with lots of extras, tributes, the list goes on. Its soundtrack by Chris Hülsbeck is one of the most popular video game soundtracks of all time. But wait a minute, why should we, lowly Plus/4 users care about all this C64 hoopla? Simple: thanks to TCFS, the game is now available on our platform as well!"
"Enemies to dodge, power-ups to collect, boss fights to overcome, hidden warps to find, and 30+ levels to complete: it's all waiting for you!"
Links :1) Source
Fantastic News ! Cant get enough Love for the Fantastic Commodore Plus 4 IMHO ! Wayne / Art Ravers
ReplyDeleteAnother impressive release for the Plus/4. That 64k is being utilized to very good effect nowadays, instead of being held back for compatibility to just 16k, like it was in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteLooks too slow!
ReplyDeleteExcellent Port. For some reason the new water world levels aren't even mentioned here (!!). I want this on my C64 ;).
ReplyDeleteBut I want to raise your attention to another thing that is going on in this game: You know, the c16/plus4 architecture works with the TED chip (sound AND video) which can produce only 2 different tones simultaneously. It's quite obvious during the game levels (where the CPU is busy fitting the screen with game action).
But count the voices you hear simultaneously while the title screen is on (and even during the animated in game title screen). Magic isn't it? And I don't talk about clever serialization of tone events or arps (both things are happening on top).
Excellent sound job, done by the excellent Csabo from Canada.
Excellent port indeed! Fantastic job working within the confines of the +4!
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday I listened a Hungarian podcast with guesting TCFS, who told that what kind of outstanding ideas and effort it takes to port such a sprite-intensive game like Giana Sisters to Plus/4, even is such quality. Don't forget that Plus/4 does not have hardware sprite support at all!
ReplyDeleteI must admit it is well done though too slow for my taste
DeleteAbsolutely love this game still play it now
ReplyDeleteThis is an absolutely amazing conversion, hats off to you! Only one thing that I think would have been better: Option to choose between music only / sound effects only. Because I think that if both try to be present at the same time, the whole sound falls apart and the game slows down in the more complicated parts. It's a Plus 4, you have to accept its limitations, and maybe many people would have liked it better that way. Definitely for me. Just music, but better music, or just sound effects, supporting the events in a more enjoyable way.
ReplyDeleteUppdate!
ReplyDeleteI wrote my previous comment only based on the video. Since then, I visited the plus4world website, and it turned out there is an option to choose only music or only sound effects in the game. So I have to say, it's perfect! Downloaded, thanks TCFS and team!
Having played the Plus/4 version a while, I have some minor (!) criticism: The game play feels a bit different to that of the original versions, like on the Amiga and the C64. The differences in particular show in the way Giana jumps in general and also when landing on top of opponents. Also the fact that power ups dissappear after a short time is somewhat unexpected and requires the player to play the game with that in mind, so having to play the game in a slightly different way than one may have been used to. Finally I think the arrangement of the in-game music should not have been changed as it has been in the Plus/4 port. What is there indicates that a 1:1 conversion would have been no problem, it's obviosly the musician's creative choice doing the music in the way we got it. All in all I would rather like the port to be an exact replication of the original. That said, what we got is still quite a remarkable release for the machine and I would have been a very happy kid if had it been released like this back in the days. The things I pointed out may as well be matters of taste and others may even like the port better because of the small differences.
ReplyDeleteok next wizzball please
ReplyDelete