The Amstrad CPC ventures into unusual territory once again with *Castle CPCStein*, a new project from Devil-System that employs artificial intelligence during development to bring a game clearly inspired by a pioneer of the first-person action genre to this 8-bit computer.
As its title screen reveals, *Castle CPCStein* draws inspiration from the legendary *Wolfenstein 3D*, adapting its first-person combat concept for the Amstrad CPC. The result is a project that aims to recreate part of that classic title’s experience while working within the capabilities of the Amstrad machine
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Another CPC prod inspired by Wolfenstein3D. This is a level of ambition that is “at the stratosphere” of the CPC capabilities: it can’t carry everything. Something can be done but sacrifices have to be made either in graphics, gameplay or animation smoothness/playability.
Also interestingly, I feel like the “mark of AI” can be seen. Else why put life/score bars on top of the 3D view while there are huge margins on all four sides? And that aiming thing with pink color, with a USB stick plugged on top?
I’m wondering what else the AI did there. Does that include all the rendering routines? This is impressive as a proof that not all CPC capabilities have been explored. We’re all in a time where our mental models and expectations have to adjust to the wind of change.
Notice that the thumbnail picture (castle in the night with soldiers running from it) is not the splash screen seen in the actual game.
We need to try this Wolfeste… I mean Castle Stein AI. Us Amstrad fans are lucky to have an exclusive action genre. “REFLECTIVE ACTION” it’s not fast, but it works pretty well, at least from what you can see in the video. We’ll play it on stream. Thanks for sharing.
The bars may remain in a fixed position relative to the whole screen. In fullscreen they would overlay the 3D view, in reduced view they would be out of the 3D view. Less flicker.
But I guess this should be discussed with the author.
I did try it in full screen and it’s a lot less playable - any enemies close to you are so jerky and firing is so slow that it’s not great, but the other two screen sizes work pretty well.
I do think though that maybe a symbol beside each bar to explain that they’re ammo and health would be useful - like a heart and a gun symbol.
The game is still being improved—I might have posted the video a bit too early, hehe. Here’s another example in full-screen mode, made with the same engine..
I wonder if double buffering could help here - I am more disturbed by the rendering scan than the low fps! Maybe a Plus version could replace the hand with sprites, and maybe some of the other items too (and a nice gradient on the ceiling/floor).
What this engine could be good for is a First Person RPG which is a little slower in gameplay, and has a smaller window to increase FPS. It could look a bit like Captive on the Amiga in terms of movement.
it’s not fast, but it works pretty well, at least from what you can see in the video. We’ll play it on stream. Thanks for sharing.