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Program Announcements / D U O - Shoot-Em-Up ( Full Game )

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fog
21
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Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 18:45
Hi all,

Well here’s my first complete DBPro game…..DUO. And much fun I had creating it.

It’s an old-school 2D shoot-em-up that was meant to capture the mindless blasting of the Jeff Minter classics with the visual style of Tempest……I’ll let you decide how successful I’ve been. The full game is available for download below.

It has 3 game styles, 100 levels (around 3 hours of gameplay), 25 weapons, 90 enemy types, a save game option and hopefully a few surprises and touches of originality.

Special thanks to las6 and The_Masked_Coder for testing, suggestions and encouragement and to Grim Reaper for the music. Thanks guys.

As ever any comments, crits, suggestions or any questions gratefully received………and yes the website needs some work

The screenie looks a bit blurred due to resizing. Some on the site look better but they all look better in action……honest
[img] http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/duo/images/duo_800x600.jpg[/img]

http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/duo/index.htm
fog
21
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Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 18:48
Try again

.....perhaps I should stick to coding.
andrew11
21
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Joined: 23rd Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 19:15
Thats Awesome!!

VERY Well done. Has an extremely retro feel to it which it always good . Effects are just great IMO. Effects Max is best lol.

My only complaint is that the ship is too small. Its hard to see! lol.

Great work.

"All programmers are playwrites and all computers are lousy actors" -Anon
spooky
22
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Joined: 30th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 22:04
All I can say is: WOW!

Looks great, plays great, sounds great!!!

Love the blurry effects and all the different types of baddie. Brings back memories of frantic arcade games.

Why have baddie simply die when it can explode into a rainbow of colours.

Even with loads of stuff on screen, game never stalled or stuttered. Just how a game should be.



Boo!
MiR
21
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Joined: 13th Jul 2003
Location: Spain
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 22:13
Looks cool. Downloading now...Damn you 56Kb modem.

Libera tu mente y te liberaras a ti.
Darksyde
21
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Joined: 13th Sep 2003
Location: Staffordshire, UK
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 22:39
Totally awesome. I only played it briefly so far, but I'm gona play this to death. I loved GridRunner and this is like.. better than it I'm really impressed. Most playable game I've been on that's made in DB *big thumbs up*


I.Robot will never kill.
TheAbomb12
21
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Joined: 14th Aug 2003
Location: Amist the blue skies...
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 22:57
OMG...this is a great game. This is one of the most complete, playable, and greatest presentations I have ever seen In a DB game...

When the title screen came up, I was amazed at how well the UI was designed. The effects are great, the music is great, the gameplay is great...

Amist the Blue Skies...
Peter H
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Location: Witness Protection Program
Posted: 9th Apr 2004 23:18 Edited at: 9th Apr 2004 23:18
Sweet game! awesome graphics...smooth (and i mean smoooooth ) gameplay...great music too

Time Soft-"Your wife is death. How? NO idea. But it is murder. REVENGE!!!!!!!!!"
MiR
21
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Joined: 13th Jul 2003
Location: Spain
Posted: 10th Apr 2004 01:18
Eyeballs...pain . Wow. This game kicks ass. It´s so professional and fun.´Got to go. Must play some more.

Libera tu mente y te liberaras a ti.
walaber
21
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Joined: 22nd Oct 2003
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posted: 10th Apr 2004 04:18
fantastic game! in fact, I'm gonna go back and play it some more now rather than type the same comments everyone else has

Go Go Gadget DBPRO!

Athlon XP 2400+ || DDR-SDRAM 1GB || Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 AGP 8x 128MB
Toby Quan
21
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Joined: 16th Oct 2003
Location: U S A
Posted: 10th Apr 2004 05:40
This game is brilliant, and this software is simply fabulous. The music is PERFECT! The video effects are awesome!

This game will definitely go down in DarkBasic history as one of the top games of 2004!

Wow - this game has the ability to play your own MP3 files. It has a high score board. It has a great User Interface. It comes with nice instructions. It has training. From beginning to end - this game has it all!

A Must See Game
TheOneRing
21
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Joined: 28th Aug 2003
Location: Right here.
Posted: 10th Apr 2004 06:34
This is pretty cool! Very playable and nicely executed. Two thumbs up.
walaber
21
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Joined: 22nd Oct 2003
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posted: 10th Apr 2004 09:55
okay I played it some more! holy crap! this is the most complete game I've seen in DBPro yet. absolutely stunning, professional presentation. and the gameplay is fantastic!!

I'm amazed there's no slowdown whatsoever!

Go Go Gadget DBPRO!

Athlon XP 2400+ || DDR-SDRAM 1GB || Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 AGP 8x 128MB
fog
21
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Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 10th Apr 2004 12:26
Wow guys thanks so much for all the positive feedback. It's much appreciated. If anyone has any suggested changes or improvements I'd like to hear them. I'm not promising they'll make it into Duo but I'll certainly consider them for the sequel.

As it's my first DBPro game Duo started out as a bit of a test of both my and DBPro's abilities. It was only meant to be a demo but kinda grew out of control. I made a few mistakes and there are a lot of things I'd do differently but I'm quite pleased with the end result.

Well my monthly bandwidth has taken a huge hit (not that I'm complaining ) so I'm hoping Rich will accept this for the showcase.

I didn't expect a humble visually challenged 2D shoot-em-up to go down as well when compared to all the great looking 3D stuff out there. Thanks very much for at least giving it a chance
Toby Quan
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Location: U S A
Posted: 10th Apr 2004 22:09
Quote: "I didn't expect a humble visually challenged 2D shoot-em-up to go down as well when compared to all the great looking 3D stuff out there. Thanks very much for at least giving it a chance "


In the end, we all realize that a Good Game is a Good Game! No matter what language it was written in. No matter if it was 2D or 3D. A Good Game is a Good Game - no matter what!

LONG LIVE DUO
fog
21
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 11th Apr 2004 00:03
Thanks TobyQuan, glad you enjoyed it.

Now if only I had a decent PC I could see what it looked like with the FX cranked up to the maximum level.....probably totally unplayable
Peter H
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Posted: 11th Apr 2004 00:24
Quote: "but I'll certainly consider them for the sequel"

ooh! ooh! ooh! a sequel?!!? i can't wait!

Time Soft-"Your wife is death. How? NO idea. But it is murder. REVENGE!!!!!!!!!"
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 11th Apr 2004 01:08
Absolutely amazing game. Unfortunately the collision is skipped on my slow computer a lot of the time. Everything moves smoothly, just looks like you used some sort of collision timing that is skipped.

Pincho.

fog
21
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 11th Apr 2004 01:59
@DarkWing Duck.
Yeah but it's a long way off. I'll need to squeeze a bit more out of DBPro to achieve what I have in mind so I have a bit of testing to do first.

@Pincho.
I've already replied on LLRGT but for everyone else.....I do use a timer based movement system so if the frame rate drops considerably then yes that is possible. Using the menu options to reduce the amount of FX, background (heh) and Screen FX (blurring) should help keep the FPS high. Although it appears a lot of people can actually run with Max.FX without any slow down.

Thanks.
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 11th Apr 2004 03:03
Yeah I posted on here first, then I remembered that you hardly ever come on this site.

fog
21
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 11th Apr 2004 14:08
Actually Pincho I visit every day.....I just don't post much otherwise I'd never get any work done and there'd be no Duo

Anyway I've released a new version that fixes a small bug that meant the screen FX (blurring) were turned on at the start of every level regardless of the menu settings. (thanks Pincho)
It's only really of interest to anyone that needs to switch off the effect to get a few extra FPS. There's an exe only d/l to save you grabbing all the media etc. again.

http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/duo/index.htm

I'm guessing the majority prefer to play with the blurring on.
Rage_Matrix
21
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Location: Brighton, UK.
Posted: 11th Apr 2004 15:56
That is totally awesome! Brilliant work. Jeff Minter's stuff is way cool.

I know this makes me sound like a total newbie fanboy, but any chance of ever releasing the source to this? (Well, you can ask, can't ya? )

www.tronsoftware.co.uk
AMD Athlon XP 1700+, 180GB HDD, 512MB DDR RAM, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB DDR, Windows XP Pro, DirectX 9.0b
Sync
21
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Location: Hungary
Posted: 11th Apr 2004 21:00
Great work, Fog! Good gameplay and graphics, retro feeling...

386SX, 2MB EDO RAM, 512kB VESA video card, 40MB HDD, 5,25 FDD
fog
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 11th Apr 2004 22:43
Rage_Matrix:
Total newbie fanboy.....j/k Thanks
Well TBH I don't think you'd learn a great deal by reading my 6000+ (I forget) lines of messy code. I'd probably do some things very differently next time but as I said in my first post I'm more than willing to answer any questions people might have.....as long as it's 2D as I don't really venture into the 3rd dimension

Sync:
That retro vibe is exactly what I was after. Cheers
Flashing Blade
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Posted: 11th Apr 2004 23:43
Damn this is slick. This deserves to be in next Newsletter.
Very nice work.


Rage_Matrix
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Location: Brighton, UK.
Posted: 12th Apr 2004 06:30
Wow.....gets pretty bonkers at level 14 or so. Ahhh....

www.tronsoftware.co.uk
AMD Athlon XP 1700+, 180GB HDD, 512MB DDR RAM, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB DDR, Windows XP Pro, DirectX 9.0b
medwayman
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Location: uk
Posted: 12th Apr 2004 18:45 Edited at: 12th Apr 2004 18:46
Totally awesome!!! I’ll settle down to a proper game later tonight but wow! this is the dog’s nuts

3D's coolz but 2D rulez!

Good work

Based on Amiga PD game Squigs. Early shots: http://www.custardsoft.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/03.png

fog
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 13th Apr 2004 10:24
Flashing Blade:
Glad you enjoyed it

Rage_Matrix:
You think level 14's bonkers well wait till you see the enemies that shoot back, enemies that home in on you, the acid, the.....well you'll have to continue playing to find out

Custard:
Thanks man. Yeah 2D rules.....and so does the Amiga. Nice project you got there.
Joncom2000
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Posted: 13th Apr 2004 17:13
Got to level 42 !! This game is pure class.
Welldone and I hope we see more top games from you in the future
medwayman
22
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Location: uk
Posted: 13th Apr 2004 19:09
After a good game I can honestly say Duo is amazing. Well done again.

Quote: "Thanks man. Yeah 2D rules.....and so does the Amiga. Nice project you got there."


Glad you like my project. The main screen is well out of date (I forgot about those) but I hope to have enough for a WIP post soon.
I agree about the Amiga. Its games are among the best ever Imho.

Cheers

Based on Amiga PD game Squigs. Early shots: http://www.custardsoft.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/03.png

Scouseknight
20
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Joined: 15th Mar 2004
Location: Bootle, Merseyside, UK
Posted: 13th Apr 2004 20:29
Very good game - slick, extremely well presented and a fine example of what can be achieved.

And I agree - Amiga had some of the best games ever

fog
21
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 14th Apr 2004 00:23
Joncom2000:
Quote: "Welldone and I hope we see more top games from you in the future "

LOL. Me too Joncom2000. and getting to level 42 aint too shoddy . Thanks.

Custard:
Thanks again. Yeah Amiga games were just so playable....looking forward to trying your game out.

Scouseknight:
It's turning into a real Amiga fans love-in. Cheers for the kind comments.


I hadn't really planned on doing any more work on Duo bar bug fixing but I've had a few suggestions for minor changes and a few things I'd like to do myself so if anyone has anything they'd like changed or added then please let me know. Nothing too major please......I have another project to start. Thanks
BatVink
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21
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Joined: 4th Apr 2003
Location: Gods own County, UK
Posted: 15th Apr 2004 14:14
I cranked up the effects to the full and can only say one thing...awesome!

It's hard to be original due to the vast array of games on the market today, but you've managed it.

I would make 2 suggestions, improvements not criticisms...

1. The summary of each level always tells you that you are rubbish! Yes, I am rubbish, but it might be better to be more "encouraging" on the lower levels.

2. It is possible to blast away "willy nilly" in some parts and get a good outcome. Maybe the better weapons should run out faster.

All in all..fantastic!

BatVink (formerly StevieVee)
http://facepaint.me.uk/catalog/default.php
fog
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 15th Apr 2004 20:22
BatVink:
Cheers man. Glad you think it's got some originality about it. I suppose at it's core it's just a 2D shooter but I did try adding a few original twists

Quote: "
I would make 2 suggestions, improvements not criticisms...
"

Hey whether suggestions or criticism I wanna hear it otherwise how can I hope to improve on my next project? Any comments positive or negative are much appreciated.

Quote: "
1. The summary of each level always tells you that you are rubbish! Yes, I am rubbish, but it might be better to be more "encouraging" on the lower levels.
"

Yeah that's a fair point and you're not the first person to say it. Perhaps I didn't get the balance quite right. I'll certainly be addressing that in the next revision.

Quote: "
2. It is possible to blast away "willy nilly" in some parts and get a good outcome. Maybe the better weapons should run out faster.
"

I think this is kinda a result of the chaotic nature of the game. I've made the game very forgiving and sometimes being able to blast away "will nilly" is kinda half the appeal IMO. I could make it less forgiving so that you have to be a bit more considered in your blasting but I feel that might distract from it's mindless nature. I don't know. What do others think?

As for the weapons running out faster......well you might not be saying that on the later levels but I'm open to any other opinions.

Thanks

Andy Igoe
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 16th Apr 2004 19:05
Keep it mindless, this reminds me of a shareware game on the Amiga called Mirobe where you blasted away inside a petri dish. Sensless shooting fun I love this game, the simplest ideas are always the best and this one really works.

This is your first game? I am very impressed by that, it does not show that this is your first game.


God created the world in 7 days, but we're still waiting for the patch.
Peter H
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Posted: 16th Apr 2004 20:37
he he...i got to level 92! (i have waaaaayy to much time on my hands)


Formerly known as "DarkWing Duck"
fog
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 17th Apr 2004 20:23
Andy:
Hey thanks. I've really enjoyed your stuff in the past (still partial to a blast on Asteroids) so I'm glad you liked it. I agree about the simplest ideas although I wasn't sure this one would work until I'd done a quick demo of it.

Quote: "
This is your first game? I am very impressed by that, it does not show that this is your first game.
"

Well I first messed around with coding in Basic on the Vic20 but I've never done anything of any substance and I've never completed anything. So yeah bar a few pointless DBPro demos and snippets this is my first game.

Anyway as I think DUO proves, ideas and attention to detail are more important than being a really good coder........luckily


Magellan Studios:
Quote: "
he he...i got to level 92! (i have waaaaayy to much time on my hands)
"

LOL. Yeah way too much time...... but I'm well impressed.

Spaceman Spiff
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Location: Smacking my head on your keyboard.
Posted: 6th May 2004 09:57
DANG! I hate you Juno!(got cut off again) Well if I ever get it to download I'll tell you what I think.

Takes one to know one
Scraggle
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Posted: 6th May 2004 15:46
Runtime Error!

Sprite does not exist at line 4617!

doxxan
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Location: Sweden
Posted: 6th May 2004 17:29
this is one impressive game. it's so easy to forget that eyecandy is only part of a great game. great job

"What is darkness? It doesn't exist where there's light, and without light, it's nothing..."
Peter H
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Posted: 6th May 2004 19:06
Quote: "Sprite does not exist at line 4617!"

the only two errors i've gotten while playing this game to level 95(notice i got 3 levels farther? ) are the one above which happens when you minimize the game then try to open it back up and a error that said "sprite alpha value illegal at line ?????" which sometimes happened when you got really low on health

so only 2 bugs for a game this good is great!


Formerly known as "DarkWing Duck"
Peter H
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Posted: 6th May 2004 19:09 Edited at: 6th May 2004 19:10
[edit] oops! didn't realize thread had gone over to the second page so i re-posted


Formerly known as "DarkWing Duck"
fog
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Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 6th May 2004 21:30
Quote: "
the only two errors i've gotten while playing this game to level 95(notice i got 3 levels farther? ) are the one above which happens when you minimize the game then try to open it back up and a error that said "sprite alpha value illegal at line ?????"
"

Yeah when DBPro loses focus it loses all it's media so unfortunately this isn't something I can do anything about (I believe Walaber said this was actually a DirectX issue)

Magellan Studios:
I've added an extra check to the code so it shouldn't happen in the next version but if you could note the line number I'd appreciate it. Level 95 now eh? You really should get out more j/k

Darth Vader:
At least I can't be blamed for that problem. Hope you got it sorted.

doxxan:
Thanks. With looks like DUO's it's probably just as well I didn't rely on just the eycandy.


I've got a slightly modified version ready with the few suggestions I've received for improvements (auto-fire option, weapons tweaks etc). I should have it uploaded in the next day or two when my other commitments are out of the way but if anyone has anything else they'd like to see included or changed please say now

Thanks.

Peter H
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Posted: 7th May 2004 16:05
Quote: "Level 95 now eh? You really should get out more j/k "

well i actually haven't managed to beat level 95 just get to it (so i've only "beat" up to level 94) i haven't played it in awhile becuase i gave up


Formerly known as "DarkWing Duck"
fog
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Posted: 15th May 2004 19:14 Edited at: 15th May 2004 19:15
Well it took a bit longer than anticipated due to other commitments but there's another small and in all probability final version uploaded to add the few requests I've had. Full and exe only (1Mb)versions available (link in sig).

1.06 Revisions
- Level bonus times and targets made "fairer".
- Switchable auto-fire added. (to ease those aching wrists)
- Weapons tweaked to smooth progression (red weapons improved).
- Survivor mode difficulty curve increased.
- Shield time extended but can now only withstand a limited amount of damage.

Thanks again to everyone that has taken the time to download and especially those that took the extra time to give some feedback......and now onto something new

Peter H
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Posted: 17th May 2004 18:26
Quote: " Shield time extended but can now only withstand a limited amount of damage."

i will definetly keep the old version aswell as the new version becuase i liked being invincible


Formerly known as "DarkWing Duck"
fog
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Posted: 18th May 2004 02:43
Quote: "
i will definetly keep the old version aswell as the new version becuase i liked being invincible
"


LOL. I knew I should have just sneaked that change in without mentioning it

Marthik
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Posted: 19th May 2004 22:56
hey, nice game, i only got to level 25, but i haven't played it much, been trying to get my game running.
Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 19th May 2004 23:53 Edited at: 19th May 2004 23:54
Dude!

I saw this game a while ago in the newsletter and ignored it because I wasn't the biggest fan of the original tempest. Also from screen-shots it looked confusing and not that great. I was wrong!

Just downloaded it out of curiosity and because of all the good stuff I've heard about it. Its a great game! Cool retro but stylish and still impressive visuals, nice menu system and control options, and I love the fact you can add your own music for it to play.

Great game, very complete, highly recommended Kudos my friend

The forum user formerly known as Kangaroo2.
If the apocalypse comes, email me
fog
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Posted: 20th May 2004 20:18
Marthik:
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

Everwhat Studios:
Yeah I appreciate the screenies aren't the best looking around here still, hopefully it's gameplay that counts so i'm pleased you liked it.

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