It’s been a few years since 1.0 was released, and in the little spare time I’ve had around major life events and a busy work schedule I’ve been slowly working toward a 1.1 update with some fixes and improvements based on feedback from 1.0’s release, and now 1.1 is finally available!
Here’s what’s new in 1.1;
- Gameplay
- Improved Ace pilot spawn logic.
- Ace pilots are now limited to one per level, so once an ace is found (whether it is rescued or killed), no other pilots can become an ace on that level.
- Saucer approach path sine wave now randomises phase so saucer can now arrive on either side of player ship instead of only on the player’s right side.
- Updated messages to match original game’s messages.
- New pilots are no longer spawned as the player approaches the required number of pilots to be rescued, to prevent endlessly rescuing pilots beyond the required number, while still allowing a small amount over the required number.
- Saucers will now divert course away from the player if their systems are turned off or if they are returning to the mothership.
- Saucer sound now fades as the player ship exits the level and boosts to the mothership, preventing the sound from abruptly cutting off when leaving the atmosphere.
- Graphics
- Replaced planet model with a higher detail mesh.
- Sounds
- Added alien snarling and jumpscare sounds.
- Added settings for individual sounds to allow player to reduce volume of annoying sounds.
- Pilot knock is now louder and more staccato.
- Split ambience sound into three separate loops with different lengths to increase variety in ambience.
- Controls
- Control system rewrite;
- Multiple controllers can now be active concurrently, with the control system taking the combination of inputs from all controllers.
- Individual controllers can be enabled or disabled (except the Keyboard), and Joystick controllers now start disabled to prevent unwanted input from extra controllers.
- Added flight control rebinding for Gamepad and Joystick controllers.
- XR controllers now work, as the left and right controllers no longer exclude each other.
- Invert Y setting is now per-controller.
- Throttle axis setting is now per-controller.
- Rebinding persistence and reset now works per controller.
- Added rumble support for Gamepad controllers.
- Added separate control settings menus for each controller that is present.
- Bug Fixes
- Returning to manual flight mode from a menu by pressing confirm button no longer fires the weapon as well.
- Returning to mothership while alien is at player’s windscreen now kills alien before boosting instead of taking the alien with you.
- Fixed critical energy warning light/overlay getting stuck.
- Fixed video resolution selector always showing display’s native resolution as the current resolution under Linux.
- Other Improvements
- Menu items with selectors now show current value in bright white.
- Cockpit landed light now blinks while landing or taking off.
- Vertical meter values are now clamped.
- Split video resolution and video refresh rate into two separate menu entries.
- Score display now flashes when significant score increases occur.
- Retimed mothership exit sequence, added ship startup tone during start sequence.
If you have any thoughts, comments or feedback, leave a reply below or let me know on Twitter or Facebook!
Enjoy and stay safe, pilots!
A co to zkompilovat i pro mk68??? Konkrétně pro Atati ST/STE/TT/Falcon??
Nice! Thank You for update! 🙂
Absolutely fantastic to see you continue to perfect this masterpiece. It is so atmospheric (heh, heh) in VR, it truly is. Thank you for the update!
Nice remake, but i think it makes a few questionable design decisions.
For one, it’s intended that you you be bale to hang around and get extra pilots, but not infinitely, because you are expected to run out of fuel trying.
So instead of stopping them from spawning, instead they should still spawn, but at a greater distance and with more gun emplacements and saucer activity. as you stick around in one level, the difficulty should ramp up, to make it harder and harder to tough it out. ANd if you are far enough to get aliens isntead, the alien percentage should start to rise.
Hi Charles, thanks for the feedback!
My remake was intended to be as close a replica of the original game as possible, and these design decisions are the same as they were in the original game;
– You cannot rescue infinite extra pilots on a level, only a few beyond the required quota before no more will spawn.
– Additional turrets and saucers at a greater distance was not in the original game, and wouldn’t quite work in the original game or in the remake as the terrain area in both is relatively small and loops infinitely.
– In the original game the difficulty only increases with an increase in level number.
Future versions of the remake may include alternate game modes or settings that differ from the original game’s design, so if I end up implementing those features I’ll keep your suggestions in mind.
@Charles: those are really good suggestions and would be cool to potentially extend the gameplay further along
@Luke: I really like this new update, the spit and polish was evident. I am curious where you will take both this game and potentially other fractal based work in the future (Eidolon, Koronis Rift) or totally new original work. And of course, am hoping for a standalone VR version with motion controls! 😉
@Loafmeister Thanks! I’m still considering what to do with future versions of Fractalus, and I also have a variety of prototypes of remakes and original works in progress, but nothing that I think is in a releasable state.
I’ve been trying to get a standalone VR version working on the Quest, but unfortunately it’s not a simple switch this time. My tests so far have not worked in a few different ways – one had it launch in a small 2D window in the VR space instead of actual VR. The issue I’m currently stuck on is it launches in VR mode – but everything is upside down, including the headset tracking (if I tilt my head up, the view tilts down), and it completely ignores the controllers. Still working on it when I get time, hopefully I’ll figure it out and be able to make a standalone VR version 🙂
Thanks for trying and good luck with your efforts. I am looking forward to sometime in the future checking out your other remakes once matured enough for release. You do good work good sir!
Just a phenomenal job Luke. The fidelity to the original is amazing. I still flinch when those Jaggies jump scare. Can’t wait to see what you do next, whether it is further refining or expanding the RoF world, or remaking another C64/Atari classic.
I can’t rebind ship controls to “E” or “D” key in the new 1.1 release for some reason. It was working fine in 1.0 IIRC.
@ALIEN Thanks for letting me know, I’ve confirmed that attempting to rebind to ‘E’ doesn’t work, but I was able to rebind to ‘D’ without issue. The 1.1 release included a complete rewrite of the input system, and while I tested rebinding a variety of things, I must have missed rebinding to ‘E’ not working.
@Luke You’re right, “D” actually works. It’s just “E” blocking any input.
Hi Luke, RoF was my favorit game on Atari. I am so happy to see your remake and how it is close to original idea! It is absolutely fantastic!!. I played few hours in Fractalus v1.1 and have some feedback: 1) I have a feeling that Saucers spawns at fixed period of time. If it is random, the range maybe is too small.
2) Saucers movement is too sinusoidal. More realistic tracks would bring better feeling of “intelligent” alien.
3) (expanding beyond the original) Would be fantastic to add some caves/bridges within the mountains. It would provide more fun to fly through, heh.
Game is amazing!
Your game not only moves player to NEW Fractalus experience (fantastic!), but it moves me to … 80-ties. What a feeling…
It is created to be as much similiar to oryginal! <– very good idea.
Thank you for your effort and for great results (The game). Appreciated.
No bugs and issues found.
My max level I reached at game is 26. Points around 56000.
Fantastic redevelopment Luke – loved the original with my kids in the 1980s. By the way they still love it in their 40s.
Think I have found a bug.
My version appears to be stuck on ‘auto-fire’ mode. Think this was engaged inadvertently when using a new gamepad and figuring out the controls. Not the gamepad – disconnected. Reinstalled the software after windows add/remove. Rebooted before and after that, still the same – the symptom is constant yaw to left in gameplay, and constant scrolling through menu items when not. Installed the original download on my laptop – works fine. Is it a registry problem? Very grateful for your attention.
@Trevorg The constant yaw and menu scrolling is likely due to an input being detected from some device. By default only Keyboard and Gamepad inputs are enabled, and any other inputs have to be enabled manually in the options menu. You can confirm what controller devices you have installed and what inputs they are sending by checking the Game Controllers control panel entry, either by searching your Start menu for “Set up USB game controllers” or running
joy.cpl.Alternatively you can completely reset Fractalus’ controller settings in the registry by going to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\LSD\Fractalusand deleting all the entries that start with eitherControlBindingOverrides_orController_.Thanks very much for your reply. The regedit did the trick right away! Many thanks.
Dear Luke. Thank you so much for this extraordinary game. It port me back to the 80s playing it with my Atari 800 XL for long hours. Is it possible to get the old 8-bit sounds, too? And is it possible to swap the keys for pitch down / pitch up ?
Many greetings
@El Greco, The old 8-bit sounds are not available in the remake, all sounds are either new or recreated based on the original sounds. You can swap the keys for pitch down/up by changing the “Invert Y” option in Options | Controls | Keyboard.
@Luke: Thanks for quick answer. I try it out by changing the “Invert Y” option. My little kid is also excited of your game. Many health for you and your fellows! Greetings El Greco of XL
Hello Luke! The “invert Y” option is great.
1) Is it possible to send you some money for your effort? But i have no Paypal or so
2) Is it also possible to get your score & level with you? – I am playing on two different computers. On the one i am at level 16, on the other at level 7.
Many thanks 6 greetings from germany
@El Greco, there’s no built-in way to copy your save data between computers, but you could manually copy the data between the computers. Here’s where the data is stored for each operating system;
Windows: Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\LSD\Fractalus
macOS: /Users/(username)/Library/Preferences/com.lsdwa.fractalus.plist
Linux: /home/(username)/.config/unity3d/LSD/Fractalus
Thanks, Luke for quick answer!
I try out the registry key and send you feedback. I was killed at level 17 with about 153.000 points. Great game, great feeling. You made the past come again to today. Many thanks. Maybe you want to re-make “Star Raiders II” from Atari 800 XL. It was my 2nd fav. game ever. And the 3rd was Lode Runner. Greetings from Germany.
El Greco of XL
I don’t know if this is included in the latest update:
In the Atari 7800 prototype, while the ship ejects through the ship “tunnel” the tunnel light is being reflected in the cockpit making it alternating between light and dark.
See here:
https://youtu.be/f6C7pcD6u_s
@Michael The lighting for the cockpit is handled separately to the world lighting so the mothership tunnel lighting doesn’t currently affect it. I’ll add this to the list to be revised in a future build.