Yars Revenge GB

Yar's Revenge
General
Author	Bob Baffy, Mike Mika
Type	Shooter
Version	1.0
License	Mixed
System	DMG
Last Updated	1996/12/13
Links
Download
Website

This is a remake of Yar's Revenge from Atari 2600, developed by Mike Mika. After rediscovering the game through John Dullea's PC Atari emulator and its comic book of his favorite game, his passion led him to bring the classic game to the Game Boy (with enhanced graphics). The wonderful music is done by Bob Baffy.

User guide

The primary objective of the game is to break a path through the shield, and destroy the Qotile with a blast from the Zorlon Cannon. The secondary objective is to score as many points as possible.

The shield is the moving area in front of the Qotile base. It appears in one of two shapes, as an arch, or a shifting rectangle.

The shield is made up of cells. The Yar scout can destroy these cells by firing at them with energy missiles, from any location on the playfield, or by devouring them on direct contact. (The Zorlon Cannon can be used to demolish cells, but this is a waste of a powerful weapon.)

Once a path has been cleared through the shield, the Zorlon Cannon must be used to destroy the Qotile. To call up the cannon, the Yar can either eat five cells, or run over the Qotile.

The Zorlon Cannon appears on the far left side of the playfield, and moves in a direct line with the Yar. This means the Yar is in its line of fire. It is important, therefore, to aim the cannon at the Qotile, fire it, and fly out of the way FAST!

The Qotile shoots off two weapons. The Destroyer Missile and Swirls. The Destroyer Missiles come in a more or less constant stream, one at a time. The Yar must do his best to dodge them. Periodically the Qotile turns into a Swirl. This Swirl winds up and rushes after the Yar. A Swirl can be destroyed with the Zorlon Cannon by hitting it either in its base location, or in mid-air. The further you go into the armada, the Swirl becomes increasingly dangerous.

The glittering path down the center of the screen is the Neutral Zone. This area will protect a Yar from Destroyer Missiles, but not from Swirls. While in the Neutral Zone, a Yar cannot fire any energy missiles of his own.

When a Yar is hit by a Destroyer Missile, a Swirl or his own Zorlon Cannon, he dies. Each player has four Yars (Turns) to play in a game. Additional Yars can be earned.

Scoring

• Cell, hit by missile = 1 points.
• Cell, devoured by Yar =5 points.
• Cell, hit by Zorlon =10 points.
• Qotile, destroyed =1000 points.
• Swirl, destroyed in place =2000 points.
• Swirl, destroyed in mid-air = 6000 points + additional life.

Level divisions

There are about 8 different level divisions, designated by the Yar Commander's quote before each level. They are tightly spaced until you get into the higher levels, in which case the level divisions are about 60 levels apart.

There are 255 levels before it flips. If you can get to level 255, you are too good for this game!

Different Qotiles

Throughout the heated battle different forms of Qotile will appear. Later in the fight, you go up against the Elite Qotile Destroyers, which are protected by gigantic shields!

Also, beware of the Qotile tactics, they will do anything to destroy the Neutral Zone. If you can last that long, don't fret, Planet 3 has some tricks up their sleeves to destroy the Qotile's ability to protect themselves!

Controls

D-Pad - Moves Yar in any direction

A - Fire missile

B - Fire Zorlon Cannon

Start - Skip titles, Start Game, Pause

Select - Not Used

Screenshots

Compatibility

This game won't work on real Game Boy, and it only works no$gmb if VGB-bug-emulation option is enabled.

Changelog

V1.0 1996/12/13

• Friday the 13th, our lucky day. Game appears to to be complete! Final stages of bug reporting.
• Initial release! Jeff Frohwein says it may not be able to be burned, first time hearing about update issues. I'm gonna order a smart card system!

1996/12/12

• Added pause, fixed some bugs, added level indicator. Bob informs me he has reached a score of 114,000. Can I beat it? Looks like next week for release. Just have to bug check the whole thing. Already laying out plans for next project! Mars Attacks! Comes out tomorrow at the show, how fitting...I got 245,853 points!

1996/12/11

• Fixed Quotile shooting bug (It didn't see you at the far right).
• Fixed startup shooting bug as well. Also put x-limit on shooting so you can't shoot cells from the far left!
• Fixed right boundary problems, fixed all collisions for better accuracy.
• Added more levels.
• Added hidden *LEVEL SELECT*.
• Added Qotile sound effects based on DX/DY.
• Added windup effect for Qotile spin. Bob got 140,000+ tonight! MY GOD! He's iNsAnE! I think a release is finally ready... a few more bug fixes.

1996/12/10

• Added High Score Keeping. It seems to work. Bob got 89,000+ last night! Wowza.
• Yar Overlay finished. Got a new colorscheme!
• Bob starts work on new driver, will be used in upcoming Gameboy(tm) title (Not Yars!).

1996/12/09

• Officially organized YARS.TXT and added GAME OVER screen. Damn, I need to organize my spaghetti-like code!

Scoring and free live conditions set.

1996/12/08

• We now have score, levels, difficulty, intermission, lives. A new Intermission tune by Bob. Bob and Mike power-talk via e-mail. Many code swaps done through E-Mail.

1996/12/07

• We now have collisions, effects, etc. A sub-title screen offers copyright info. Sent source code to myself in a sealed, postage marked envelope for precautions. (Not to protect money making potential, just so I can take action against people who claim it is THEIR work. Feel free to rip my source, as I have done to others. But make sure you credit those people! I will gladly make source available to trustworthy fellows!) Also, I think I am wasting too many cycles. I will work on slashing code for next revision.

1996/12/06

• We have a Zorlon Cannon, a cruise missile.. No collisons.

1996/12/05

• We have music. My lame themes are replaced by Bob's wonderful tunes.

Added more game elements. Ripped GBAPA2 for line drawing routine to shoot SWIRL. Took me too long to figure out. Wasted whole day! I'm a loser!

1996/12/04

• Yar's is working! I can recognize things. Got it moving with sound. Found out Yar's was Girlfriend's favorite game. I did it on purpose (wink...wink How did I know??) She still calls me a nerd. Bob wanted a sound tracker, he got one. The worst tracker ever made. You go Bob.

1996/12/02

• Added control. Wow, that HERO/ZERO document rules. POWER! Think I'll make YARS.

1996/11/30

• We have sound! Thanks PAN of Anthrox! I can also animate, Thanks me for being me!

1996/11/29

• My first sprite and PCX conversion. How good my little sprite looks over a picture of Shaft Daddy from the World Wide Waste (www.oeonline.com/~bip)

1996/11/28

• Wow, I got a screen up. It reads "John's Bogus Adventure by McNeff Games" (This was an inside joke that lead to my first contact with GB programming.)

Credits

Original Game Credits for the Atari 2600:

• Original Cartridge Programmer - Howard Scott Warshaw.
• Writer - Hope Shafer.
• Illustrators - Frank Cirocco, Ray Garst, Hiro Kimura.
• Art Director - Steve Hendricks.

Game Boy version by Mike Mika and Bob Baffy from Genetic Fantasia.

External links

• Zophar's Domain - https://www.zophar.net/pdroms/gameboy/yar-s-revenge.html