Already being worked on, but my total lack of Mac knowledge if hampering the situation. That said, I have an expert on hand to help. Keep watching this space. :o)
After playing a lot of hours and beating the game with two of the characters (Knight and Moustache man), I can write a recommendation.
This game is gold. Seriously. It combines amazingly the best of the 80s and nowadays.
The graphics are inspired in the ZX Spectrum, but the colours are used without any restrictions and the results are beautiful.
The gameplay is frenetic, short and intense matches that makes you try again immediately after every defeat. And with every run you know a bit better the castle and therefore you are closer to the victory.
The difficulty is kind of old school, but don't let this put you off, if I can finish the game, you can too. You just need to keep trying.
I can't mention anything negative. Well, yes, one thing: the game is for free and they don't take donations. That really annoys me!
Thanks for the feedback. Your experience of the game is exactly what we were hoping to hear. It's a bit hard, a bit old school, a bit 80s, but not so difficult once you get used to it. Yep, that's exactly it! :o)
Hi, I keep playing Melkhior's Mansion and the more I play the more I fall in love with it.... A request, nothing important, just a small detail, would it be possible to make a cross appear where the character dies that stays until the end of the game, just like in the original Atic Atac?
Thanks again for creating this wonderful little gem.
Glad to hear you're enjoying the game. There used to be a cross, but it had to go because, unlike the Atic Atac cross, it had to be a solid object, other wise the isometric viewpoint screws up. Problem with it being solid though is that it can block door if you die in front of one. It turned out to be a pain in the bum, so it went. Here's an old tweet about it...
Love the game. A wonderful effort on all concerned. The 'difficulty' question in an earlier strand could only have come from a contemporary games player. Anyone brought up playing the Spectrum, where the games started at 'hard' and got more difficult from there, wouldn't have a problem with it. Anyway I wanted to jot down some tips regarding the objects in the game. So something of a SPOILER ALERT is needed. I have not worked what all the objects do, so please others contribute:
1. Lightning rod - makes you quicker for a timed period
2. Princess's'ring - allows you to crash through mirrors
3. Skeleton key (wonderful idea) which allows you to open 10 doors without the coloured key for that door. Use wisely
4. Money bag (and a few others) can be dropped to bribe the hunchback and move him away from the blue door behind him
5. Palette icon - unlocks one of the different game palettes which can be accessed from main menu
6. Hourglass - not exactly sure, but I think it stops your energy depleting for a set time
7. Leaf - allows you to get the red key in the room with the spirit. Drop leaf near the creature and he moves away from guarding the leaf so you can nab the red key.
Objects which I think have a function (beyond bribing the hunchback) but I have not worked out: evil eye, Melkhior's spare wand, glowing coin. large diamond.
General tips:
- Find the green key and unlock the green door on the floor you start, which leads the way to a specific trap door which drops onto the ground floor (a large room with six locked golden doors). You can only access this by dropping in (unless you have the skeleton key) and you acquire the gold key here. This opens the game up.
- Don't drop into the caverns unless you have the blue (or skeleton key) to get back out
- For the second mission, you need the gold key to unlock the pentagram room. The symbols are in chests and most are on the lower floors.
- Eat all food in rooms, because it almost always regenerates.
- Memories the floors
There was an urban myth which floated around (and I believed) linked to the original Atic Atac that some of the extra objects can be joined together to create a creature. I wonder if something like this has been sneaked into MM. Also, some of the more elaborate rooms - such as the giant library - may have another function, but I haven't found one. I know in Richard's original Atic Atac remake he added some rooms to the attic (a kind of long set of passages), so I wonder if there might be a secret room or two in this game.
I have managed to solve three of the four missions. The final one is really hard due to having to access rooms which are behind several colours of different doors. I have found Melchior's room (above the attic) but cannot find the labyrinth room where I am supposed to fill the first phial. I presume it is one of the rooms in the labyrinth section on the first floor, but has anyone found it?
Finally, huge thanks again to Richard - who has been a champion of Spectrum games since the early days of the internet - and his team. This is the best remake/reimagining of a Spectrum game yet created. If only he would turn his attention to delivering a decent remake of Sabre Wulf, but that's another story....
Wow thanks for all that info. I'm not posting spoilers myself, just the odd hint, but it's great to see what other folks are finding out. Just a few things to comment on:
Hourglass? Nope, it does something else.
The death eye is really useful if you're playing as Lester, but it works for all characters.
There's no mythical creature to create in this game, sorry!
Sabre Wulf? Nah, not for me, one of my least favourite Ultimate games.
Thanks, Alber. Worked it out. It slows the enemies. Hourglass...time....I should have seen it...duh! Another item I forgot to mention was the cross which stopped Dracula appearing in the original, so I suspect probably stops Death appearing.
Exactly. And not only that, but if you pick up the cross while Grim Reaper is chasing you,... he vanishes! I have just discovered how the eye of death works. It's very cool! And it makes sense too. But no more spoilers for today hahaha.
You seem to have advanced in the game more than I have, Alber - and I'm pretty good at it! You tease me with the eye of death. Richard stated it worked the best for Lester, so it has to have something to do with the 5 main evil creatures (a la Nightshade). I thought it might be a way of destroying them without their specific weapon. However, I tried that and it doesn't seem to work. My main problem at the moment is navigating the labyrinth to get to the main room there with the sludge creatures. I found it once, but then haven't been able to since. Another object which is puzzling but I feel has a purpose is the soap. What a great game.
So. I played several times. And I think the game is ruined for general public. Maybe hardcore players can enjoy this.
Here is what I think. Just like lots of games in the past the game is made with a player in mind who already knows the game really well. Not for a first time player who have no idea where to go and what to do and why and how.
For a general player here are some things that blocking good game experience:
1. Respawning enemies. I don't know what would be best to do with that. It also ruins fun of exploring the maze.
2. Timer.(health going down) it's just one of the worst things in games from the past.
3. no map access. Why not give a map like all the best games out there do?
4. opening closing doors. I understand it goes from the urge to increase difficulty, because when developer plays his own game he doesn't feel it the way when first time player playing. So he thinks, oh it's too easy and adding something to add difficulty that he could feel.
5. items unresponsive to take. I had problems to pick up items.
6. Also the items gotta be visible on the map. As we have to drop some of them.
7. Maybe save points. Not sure tho.
I am not some unskilled player, by the way. I played and beaten many NES games. Their difficulty is way above average of todays games. Spectrum? Not so much. I did not had one at home.
If you want to bring in all those frustrating things - just add a hard difficulty and throw all that challenging stuff in there. Why not give general public to enjoy the game on a normal mode?
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. It's clear that you don't like the game, and that's absolutely fine, we all have different tastes. The feedback we've had since releasing it has been overwhelmingly positive, so I think that "the game is ruined for the general public" is a bit on the strong side. However, that's your opinion, you're entitled to it and I'm happy you've shared it with us.
I took the time to check out your game on Itch and I have to say it looks superb. All the best with future projects. :o)
Oh, you said, "the game is ruined". That kind of led me to believe you didn't like it. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, that's just how I interpreted it. :o)
"ruined for general public". It means the game is too hard for general public. And stuff like accessible map at any time is more player friendly and also most common these days.
There are map consoles on each floor. Essentially though, I wanted to keep the essence of the original game. I think I've achieved that, although I appreciate that doing so will put people off. It's a free game anyway, so you don't lose anything for trying it! :o)
It was just a small game I made at home when my friend gave me speccy. It was not released anywhere. And it was just a several levels with squares. Later I made also newer versions on ZX emulator, Pascal, QBasic, and only in 2004 first time it was something I posted to the web. In 2005 English version which called Orbox.
I disagree, and I will try to explain it in a reasoned way.
1- The game is inspired by Atic Atac, respecting its essence and mechanics deeply. It's like reliving that game 40 years later, in 3D style, with beautiful music and a really wonderful art style. And adding, in a very inspired way, new game modes. It would be meaningless without the frenetic pace, opening and closing doors, constant appearance of enemies, life drainage, etc.
2- The map is available on the consoles. There are 5 floors, and you have one map per floor. When you have discovered a complete floor, take a picture of it with your mobile phone (or a screenshot) and you have maps forever, if you wish so. Other players prefer to play without a map.
3- I don't think it's a hardcore game, not even close. My son, who had never seen a game like this before, saw it on Monday and immediately asked me to install it for him. He played two test games with Stamperlot, understood the objective perfectly, and the next game he won the game in 17 minutes (Andrew13 at the score table). I was surprised how well he knew the map after a few games, and he was more familiar with the main paths than I was. He made one more comment: Dad, it's too easy to refill the life bar, there's food everywhere.
After that, he won it twice with Lester (one of them didn't enter due to server error) and once with Zouch (was also not registered for the same reason). And although he usually plays Fortnite and League of Legends, he also loves Melkhior's Mansion.
So, as you can see, for some it is easy, for others it is hard. You have to ask yourself whether you really like it or not, it won't suit all players. In my opinion it's a marvellous game, a gem. And on top of that, it's free.
Thanks, I'd agree with all of that, but then I wrote it so I'm incredibly biased. Sorry about the server issues, Fasthosts had a big outage earlier in the week, most annoying. Take a look in the log folder, your scores may have been written out to a file, I can manually submit them for you if you like. Contact details are on the bitglint.co.uk website. Oh and I love that your son has been playing it over his usual games, that's a result!! :o)
Don't worry about the scores, my son and I will continue playing it regularly. I'll tell you something else that worries me more, and that might be a bug. Yesterday afternoon I finally unlocked all the palettes, I left the last one on (Spectrum dimmed, or something like that). Today I started the game and it's as if my data has been erased: I have all the palettes locked again. Maybe you can figure out the cause. I don't mind getting them again, it can be fun. What worries me is that it keeps happening over and over again.
I have discovered the <Setting Key="Palette" Value="0" /> value in the Settings.xml file, but I have never edited it. I don't know why it is set to zero. Maybe after taking them all, the next time it goes back to zero? Or something like that.
EDIT: Never mind: I noticed that this value is the selected palette, not the unlocked ones.
I suspect there are some hidden details about that you son was playing and found it easy. Maybe he saw someone playing it and realized some easy play tactics. Maybe you explained him something. I don't know. But I suspect there was some details that made it not a blind first play for him.
The key to the game is getting to know the map. Once you become familiar with it, things do get easier. Kids do tend to pick things up quicker than adults! Maybe he's just better at it than you are? Sorry, but you're starting to sound a little bit jealous of a 13 year old kid. By all means offer feedback on the game, that's absolutely fine, whether it's positive or negative, I don't mind, but there's no need to start having a dig at the kid's gaming skills.
Maybe if I knew the way to play easy right from beginning it would be easy for me. I gave feedback from absolutely blind playthrough. You sure his son did not saw something which made some great spoilers for him?
I find it a bit absurd to have to answer this, I don't see the point, but since you insist so much I'll do it just once. As I told you, my son saw the game and asked me to install it for him, because he liked it. He watched me play for about 2 minutes, no more. The only thing I told him was the objective of the game (which the game itself tells you), he saw that there were some coloured keys to open doors and I told him that one of the pieces he was looking for was in an attic (which the game also tells you!). From there, he went to his room and managed by himself to find the keys, look for the stairs upwards, go up to the attic, etc. All by himself and no more spoilers. And I assure you that after only three games, he knew the map much better than I did. I hope you'll feel more at ease now that I've revealed the 'hidden details'.
Honestly, I think you've put a lot of effort into criticising a game you clearly don't "get".
It's a bit like criticising a bullet-hell game for being unrelenting, or a roguelike for permanent death. If it's not the sort of game you enjoy, then perhaps spend some time on other games?
Your criticism also appears rather contradictory - you want it to be easy to explore the maze AND to have a map of the maze given to you?
The fact that this is not like "todays games" is exactly the point.
I find the never ending spawn of enemies kinda annoying. I have to keep a finger on shoot button all the time. It's just gets tired. As well as to must always move around just exhausting.
By the way, if you're planning a Linux version, *please* can you check out the RG351 console(s) (based on Ubuntu 19) - they would be the perfect home for this game and already have some excellent native titles.
Does it actually run Ubuntu? I've not had much experience with Linux so excuse my limited knowledge. I have an OpenGL version of MM running on the latest version of Ubuntu, so should I expect that to just work on the RG351?
It's linux on ARM, so you would have to compile for the platform - and I think it runs Open GLES, which you can use directly, or may be able to use the GL4ES wrapper. The biggest thing would be to make sure it worked with the controls.
Wonderful game! A lot of work went into this. Excellent graphics and gameplay. I particularly like the music.
The only issue I am having is that I am getting flickering at the maximum resolution 2880 x 1620 both windowed and full screen. The lower resolutions work fine.
Thanks, glad you're enjoying the game. Testing beyond 1920x1080 was a bit limited due to my hardware. What's the resolution of your monitor? Do you see the flickering on full screen mode?
My monitor resolution is 3840 x 2160 which is the default for my Windows 11 Dell system. Yes, I do get the flickering in full screen as well. It is not a problem since I can use a lower resolution in the game settings and it works fine.
Ok, I figured out what was causing the flickering...it was the GPU. My laptop has two GPUs: an Intel UHD Graphics 620 and a NVIDIA GeForce MX 130. The Intel GPU was the default for the game. When I changed it to the NVIDIA GPU the performance improved and all flickering stopped.
What I do is to press the print screen key and immediately after that the ESC key. Then I go to my favourite editing program, for example paint, and paste it (ctrl+v). It's not the most comfortable, but it works. I hope it helps.
Una extraordinaria noticia. Dos preguntas, por favor: ¿Está su desarrollo finalizado completamente? ¿Opciones para roms en raspberry? Saludos y enhorabuena por esta brillante 'vuelta de tuerca' al maravilloso Atic Atac.
Absolutely magical - nice work on this ... and the blurb is just awesome - I live in Leicestershire and not that far from Ashby-de-la-Zouch! So obviously the links there are fantastic. ;)
First of all, the game is just wonderful! It has exceeded all my expectations, which were very high. I am enjoying it enormously.
If I may, I have two small suggestions:
1- I agree with what others have said: it would be great to be able to move the character with the left joystick.
2- I think the food respawn time needs a little tweaking. As it is right now, you can wander around a few rooms, without even needing to change floors, and you won't be short of food.
Best regards and thank you very much for this precious gift.
Glad to hear you're enjoying the game, thanks for offering feedback. Joystick control is on the additional features list. The food thing is a very tricky one to gauge. Try the harder tasks, you may find yourself short on food there :o)
Thanks for the answer! What do you think about a menu option to choose between short, medium and long food respawn time? It would be like a customisable difficulty level.
If I did add something like that, and it was actually considered during development, then it would be a more general "difficulty level" setting that could affect other things, eg. energy drain, number of baddies etc, etc. It does however complicate the high score table, because I then have to take into account difficulty level. Also worth noting that I've got quite good at the game, as you might expect, and I still find myself running short on food when playing the harder quests. Like I said, it's tricky, getting the difficulty level right is so hard. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts, consider it "being pondered". :o)
If you finally decide to implement full difficulty levels, of course that would be great. But it seems like more work. What I proposed is simpler: Leave the current food respawn as "Short" and make it the default option, and then add the Medium or Long options in the menu (totally optional) for those who want a greater challenge, without needing to change anything on the leader boards. In any case, and whatever you decide, it is a real pleasure to share these thoughts with you, and that you are such a nice person :-)
Yeh I see what you mean. I think I'd still want it mentioned on the leader board though, it's makes the challenge worthwhile if you get a fast time on hard core. I'll stick it on the "ideas" list. Thanks again. ;o)
It stays blank (white screen window) on my win7 machine. Tried both installer and portable. Could it be because of the second monitor? Nobody on the chat here seems to be having such issues.
Currently running DX11.1. I have an ACER NITRO laptop downgraded to win7 64b. The nvidia inside the laptop reports it uses DX12 here and there and it is impossible to upgrade this further without going win10. When running 2 displays, the external one gets driven by nvidea while the laptop monitor runs onboard GPU. With these running, all I get from the game is a white screen, sound is coming through. Primary monitor is set to onboard GPU, laptop screen. As I disable the second screen, laptop monitor runs with nvidea, at which point, the game boots fine. So, the second monitor and GPU running it seems to be the problem. I could probably force the laptop monitor to use nvidea and onboard for the second monitor, which in theory should also fix my issue. Thanks for the attention, I will finally be able to savour this game :)
Well, sorry that it's a bit of a pain to get up and running, but glad you've managed it anyway. Without being able to recreate the problem on my own hardware, it's hard to know what to do. Targeting Windows PC is not without its challenges!! So much hardware variation to deal with.
Thanks, glad you like it. You're not the first person to mention the thumb stick. Perhaps that's worthy of an update. I did notice the barrel issue, those round objects are a pain in the bum. I can live with it if you can? :o)
Lovely project and so well documented during development that we all fell in love with it even before release date. I will wait the Next version, unless porting it to Mac is not too complicated (don't use Windows). Thanks!
This is awesome news! I am using MX Linux 21 (Debian Bullseye based) Hope itt will support that too... Then I do not need to switch to Windows if I want to play Melkhior's Mansion :-) :-)
This is absolutely incredible, the gameplay, music and graphics are better than I could've possibility imagined. A big thank you to everyone who donated their time to make this a reality.
Totally random question - does anyone know of a handheld device which would run this? I'm currently playing it on my Mac in Parallels, but would happily buy dedicated hardware to play it.
One more comment: Atic Atac has always been my favourite game. But when I saw that in this game every character brings a new game mode, as well as the connections to Night Shade, Knight Lore, Pentagram..., I almost cried with emotion. Well done!
Sounds strange, it works perfectly for me and my son, on two different PCs. You simply choose the palette you want and the colours of the game change accordingly.
This game is absolutely amazing. From the crisp and colourful graphics to the very catchy music its a pleasure to play.
The only thing I would suggest is for younger players they may find the game frustrating and may need some kind of map as you're going through the rooms. Otherwise, if you ever played Atic Atac this is right up with that classic and then some.
Thanks very much, that's lovely feedback. I did think about putting a kids mode in during development, but it's something that never happened. That said, there are map consoles on each floor to help with finding your way around. ;o)
Rather than easy, it feels like infinite food. Maybe later on you can add a new difficulty level where the food takes a few minutes longer to reappear. In any case, the game is really wonderful. Even my kids have been excitedly enjoying it all day :D
Very excited, I have been following this project since the beginning. I am one of those people who in 1983 were lucky enough to play the original Atic Atac, which left an indelible memory in my mind. Now, at 51 years old, I will be able to feel like that child again, thanks to you. The game you have made is really amazing!
Hi, I think we're looking around autumn time. The game is functionally complete, but there are still lots of frames of graphics to be done, and all the boring stuff to finish off, plus a lot of play testing. Hang in there, and thanks for your support ;o)
Thanks for the reply and sorry for bothering you. As a kid, I spent maybe hundreds of hours on Atic Atac. M'M seems like his worthy successor to me and I really look forward to it more than any triple A title. Can't wait ... :)
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please don't hurt me but is there any chance of a mac version coming one day or not really?
Already being worked on, but my total lack of Mac knowledge if hampering the situation. That said, I have an expert on hand to help. Keep watching this space. :o)
wizard
After playing a lot of hours and beating the game with two of the characters (Knight and Moustache man), I can write a recommendation.
This game is gold. Seriously. It combines amazingly the best of the 80s and nowadays.
The graphics are inspired in the ZX Spectrum, but the colours are used without any restrictions and the results are beautiful.
The gameplay is frenetic, short and intense matches that makes you try again immediately after every defeat. And with every run you know a bit better the castle and therefore you are closer to the victory.
The difficulty is kind of old school, but don't let this put you off, if I can finish the game, you can too. You just need to keep trying.
I can't mention anything negative. Well, yes, one thing: the game is for free and they don't take donations. That really annoys me!
Thanks for the feedback. Your experience of the game is exactly what we were hoping to hear. It's a bit hard, a bit old school, a bit 80s, but not so difficult once you get used to it. Yep, that's exactly it! :o)
Hi, I keep playing Melkhior's Mansion and the more I play the more I fall in love with it.... A request, nothing important, just a small detail, would it be possible to make a cross appear where the character dies that stays until the end of the game, just like in the original Atic Atac?
Thanks again for creating this wonderful little gem.
Glad to hear you're enjoying the game. There used to be a cross, but it had to go because, unlike the Atic Atac cross, it had to be a solid object, other wise the isometric viewpoint screws up. Problem with it being solid though is that it can block door if you die in front of one. It turned out to be a pain in the bum, so it went. Here's an old tweet about it...
(1) Richard Jordan on Twitter: "Gravestones will be solid, but what happens if you die in front of a door? This temporary gravestone graphic demonstrates Sir Stamperlot's solution... @hot_piping #melkhiorsmansion #aticatac #zxspectrum #gamedev #monogame #screenshotsaturday https://t.co/ULjkaTROri" / Twitter
Thanks for the reply, I miss this tweet...
Too bad, that would have been a really nice touch....
Love the game. A wonderful effort on all concerned. The 'difficulty' question in an earlier strand could only have come from a contemporary games player. Anyone brought up playing the Spectrum, where the games started at 'hard' and got more difficult from there, wouldn't have a problem with it. Anyway I wanted to jot down some tips regarding the objects in the game. So something of a SPOILER ALERT is needed. I have not worked what all the objects do, so please others contribute:
1. Lightning rod - makes you quicker for a timed period
2. Princess's'ring - allows you to crash through mirrors
3. Skeleton key (wonderful idea) which allows you to open 10 doors without the coloured key for that door. Use wisely
4. Money bag (and a few others) can be dropped to bribe the hunchback and move him away from the blue door behind him
5. Palette icon - unlocks one of the different game palettes which can be accessed from main menu
6. Hourglass - not exactly sure, but I think it stops your energy depleting for a set time
7. Leaf - allows you to get the red key in the room with the spirit. Drop leaf near the creature and he moves away from guarding the leaf so you can nab the red key.
Objects which I think have a function (beyond bribing the hunchback) but I have not worked out: evil eye, Melkhior's spare wand, glowing coin. large diamond.
General tips:
- Find the green key and unlock the green door on the floor you start, which leads the way to a specific trap door which drops onto the ground floor (a large room with six locked golden doors). You can only access this by dropping in (unless you have the skeleton key) and you acquire the gold key here. This opens the game up.
- Don't drop into the caverns unless you have the blue (or skeleton key) to get back out
- For the second mission, you need the gold key to unlock the pentagram room. The symbols are in chests and most are on the lower floors.
- Eat all food in rooms, because it almost always regenerates.
- Memories the floors
There was an urban myth which floated around (and I believed) linked to the original Atic Atac that some of the extra objects can be joined together to create a creature. I wonder if something like this has been sneaked into MM. Also, some of the more elaborate rooms - such as the giant library - may have another function, but I haven't found one. I know in Richard's original Atic Atac remake he added some rooms to the attic (a kind of long set of passages), so I wonder if there might be a secret room or two in this game.
I have managed to solve three of the four missions. The final one is really hard due to having to access rooms which are behind several colours of different doors. I have found Melchior's room (above the attic) but cannot find the labyrinth room where I am supposed to fill the first phial. I presume it is one of the rooms in the labyrinth section on the first floor, but has anyone found it?
Finally, huge thanks again to Richard - who has been a champion of Spectrum games since the early days of the internet - and his team. This is the best remake/reimagining of a Spectrum game yet created. If only he would turn his attention to delivering a decent remake of Sabre Wulf, but that's another story....
Wow thanks for all that info. I'm not posting spoilers myself, just the odd hint, but it's great to see what other folks are finding out. Just a few things to comment on:
Hourglass? Nope, it does something else.
The death eye is really useful if you're playing as Lester, but it works for all characters.
There's no mythical creature to create in this game, sorry!
Sabre Wulf? Nah, not for me, one of my least favourite Ultimate games.
:o)
Take the hourglass and look at the behaviour of the enemies... If you don't see anything different, simply change room ;-)
Thanks, Alber. Worked it out. It slows the enemies. Hourglass...time....I should have seen it...duh! Another item I forgot to mention was the cross which stopped Dracula appearing in the original, so I suspect probably stops Death appearing.
Exactly. And not only that, but if you pick up the cross while Grim Reaper is chasing you,... he vanishes! I have just discovered how the eye of death works. It's very cool! And it makes sense too. But no more spoilers for today hahaha.
You seem to have advanced in the game more than I have, Alber - and I'm pretty good at it! You tease me with the eye of death. Richard stated it worked the best for Lester, so it has to have something to do with the 5 main evil creatures (a la Nightshade). I thought it might be a way of destroying them without their specific weapon. However, I tried that and it doesn't seem to work. My main problem at the moment is navigating the labyrinth to get to the main room there with the sludge creatures. I found it once, but then haven't been able to since. Another object which is puzzling but I feel has a purpose is the soap. What a great game.
The route to the sludge room in the labyrinth is quite straightforward when you know it. :o)
I have been waiting 39 years for this game, great work!!!! Congratulations to the team that brought us this marvellous sequel to Atic Atac!!!!
Wow, that's a long time. Hope it was worth the wait! :o)
Version 1.1, nice! The palettes resetting bug was very annoying. And the joystick control is a fantastic addition. Thank you very much ;)
Thanks. I'm fairly sure I've found the palette issue, hope there isn't another way to make it go wrong! :o)
Absolutely beautiful game!!
Thanks! :o)
It's out ! It's out ! Didn't notice till now !!!
If I could have just a little extra time to play it ...
As soon as possible I'll give you my feedback.
Thanks !!!
Thanks, I hope you enjoy it. All feedback is welcome, good and bad! :o)
So. I played several times. And I think the game is ruined for general public. Maybe hardcore players can enjoy this.
Here is what I think. Just like lots of games in the past the game is made with a player in mind who already knows the game really well. Not for a first time player who have no idea where to go and what to do and why and how.
For a general player here are some things that blocking good game experience:
1. Respawning enemies. I don't know what would be best to do with that. It also ruins fun of exploring the maze.
2. Timer.(health going down) it's just one of the worst things in games from the past.
3. no map access. Why not give a map like all the best games out there do?
4. opening closing doors. I understand it goes from the urge to increase difficulty, because when developer plays his own game he doesn't feel it the way when first time player playing. So he thinks, oh it's too easy and adding something to add difficulty that he could feel.
5. items unresponsive to take. I had problems to pick up items.
6. Also the items gotta be visible on the map. As we have to drop some of them.
7. Maybe save points. Not sure tho.
I am not some unskilled player, by the way. I played and beaten many NES games. Their difficulty is way above average of todays games. Spectrum? Not so much. I did not had one at home.
If you want to bring in all those frustrating things - just add a hard difficulty and throw all that challenging stuff in there. Why not give general public to enjoy the game on a normal mode?
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. It's clear that you don't like the game, and that's absolutely fine, we all have different tastes. The feedback we've had since releasing it has been overwhelmingly positive, so I think that "the game is ruined for the general public" is a bit on the strong side. However, that's your opinion, you're entitled to it and I'm happy you've shared it with us.
I took the time to check out your game on Itch and I have to say it looks superb. All the best with future projects. :o)
I don't know why you think I did not liked the game. I did not liked the mentioned items. They block a great game experience for me.
Oh, you said, "the game is ruined". That kind of led me to believe you didn't like it. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, that's just how I interpreted it. :o)
"ruined for general public". It means the game is too hard for general public. And stuff like accessible map at any time is more player friendly and also most common these days.
There are map consoles on each floor. Essentially though, I wanted to keep the essence of the original game. I think I've achieved that, although I appreciate that doing so will put people off. It's a free game anyway, so you don't lose anything for trying it! :o)
And by the way. The first game I ever made was on ZX spectrum. And it was a very simple version of the game you saw on my itch.io
Was around 1996
Cool, what was the Speccy game called? I don't remember anything like that.
It was just a small game I made at home when my friend gave me speccy. It was not released anywhere. And it was just a several levels with squares. Later I made also newer versions on ZX emulator, Pascal, QBasic, and only in 2004 first time it was something I posted to the web. In 2005 English version which called Orbox.
Ahh sorry, I misunderstood. I've made the same little games for various platforms over the years, it's good practice.
I disagree, and I will try to explain it in a reasoned way.
1- The game is inspired by Atic Atac, respecting its essence and mechanics deeply. It's like reliving that game 40 years later, in 3D style, with beautiful music and a really wonderful art style. And adding, in a very inspired way, new game modes. It would be meaningless without the frenetic pace, opening and closing doors, constant appearance of enemies, life drainage, etc.
2- The map is available on the consoles. There are 5 floors, and you have one map per floor. When you have discovered a complete floor, take a picture of it with your mobile phone (or a screenshot) and you have maps forever, if you wish so. Other players prefer to play without a map.
3- I don't think it's a hardcore game, not even close. My son, who had never seen a game like this before, saw it on Monday and immediately asked me to install it for him. He played two test games with Stamperlot, understood the objective perfectly, and the next game he won the game in 17 minutes (Andrew13 at the score table). I was surprised how well he knew the map after a few games, and he was more familiar with the main paths than I was. He made one more comment: Dad, it's too easy to refill the life bar, there's food everywhere.
After that, he won it twice with Lester (one of them didn't enter due to server error) and once with Zouch (was also not registered for the same reason). And although he usually plays Fortnite and League of Legends, he also loves Melkhior's Mansion.
So, as you can see, for some it is easy, for others it is hard. You have to ask yourself whether you really like it or not, it won't suit all players. In my opinion it's a marvellous game, a gem. And on top of that, it's free.
Thanks, I'd agree with all of that, but then I wrote it so I'm incredibly biased. Sorry about the server issues, Fasthosts had a big outage earlier in the week, most annoying. Take a look in the log folder, your scores may have been written out to a file, I can manually submit them for you if you like. Contact details are on the bitglint.co.uk website. Oh and I love that your son has been playing it over his usual games, that's a result!! :o)
Don't worry about the scores, my son and I will continue playing it regularly. I'll tell you something else that worries me more, and that might be a bug. Yesterday afternoon I finally unlocked all the palettes, I left the last one on (Spectrum dimmed, or something like that). Today I started the game and it's as if my data has been erased: I have all the palettes locked again. Maybe you can figure out the cause. I don't mind getting them again, it can be fun. What worries me is that it keeps happening over and over again.
I have discovered the <Setting Key="Palette" Value="0" /> value in the Settings.xml file, but I have never edited it. I don't know why it is set to zero. Maybe after taking them all, the next time it goes back to zero? Or something like that.
EDIT: Never mind: I noticed that this value is the selected palette, not the unlocked ones.
Yeh sorry about that, it's a bug that other folks have reported too. I'll be looking into it soon. Bit annoying that one.
Ok, thank you ;)
I suspect there are some hidden details about that you son was playing and found it easy. Maybe he saw someone playing it and realized some easy play tactics. Maybe you explained him something. I don't know. But I suspect there was some details that made it not a blind first play for him.
The key to the game is getting to know the map. Once you become familiar with it, things do get easier. Kids do tend to pick things up quicker than adults! Maybe he's just better at it than you are? Sorry, but you're starting to sound a little bit jealous of a 13 year old kid. By all means offer feedback on the game, that's absolutely fine, whether it's positive or negative, I don't mind, but there's no need to start having a dig at the kid's gaming skills.
Maybe if I knew the way to play easy right from beginning it would be easy for me. I gave feedback from absolutely blind playthrough. You sure his son did not saw something which made some great spoilers for him?
I find it a bit absurd to have to answer this, I don't see the point, but since you insist so much I'll do it just once. As I told you, my son saw the game and asked me to install it for him, because he liked it. He watched me play for about 2 minutes, no more. The only thing I told him was the objective of the game (which the game itself tells you), he saw that there were some coloured keys to open doors and I told him that one of the pieces he was looking for was in an attic (which the game also tells you!). From there, he went to his room and managed by himself to find the keys, look for the stairs upwards, go up to the attic, etc. All by himself and no more spoilers. And I assure you that after only three games, he knew the map much better than I did. I hope you'll feel more at ease now that I've revealed the 'hidden details'.
Honestly, I think you've put a lot of effort into criticising a game you clearly don't "get".
It's a bit like criticising a bullet-hell game for being unrelenting, or a roguelike for permanent death. If it's not the sort of game you enjoy, then perhaps spend some time on other games?
Your criticism also appears rather contradictory - you want it to be easy to explore the maze AND to have a map of the maze given to you?
The fact that this is not like "todays games" is exactly the point.
Thanks for your support. He's barred now for going off topic.
I find the never ending spawn of enemies kinda annoying. I have to keep a finger on shoot button all the time. It's just gets tired. As well as to must always move around just exhausting.
It's inspired by Atic Atac on the ZX Spectrum. It's not a slow game, it's meant to be a bit manic! I appreciate that it's not for everyone. :o)
"never ending spawn of enemies" definitely sounds like Atic Atac.
Haha, yep!! :o)
By the way, if you're planning a Linux version, *please* can you check out the RG351 console(s) (based on Ubuntu 19) - they would be the perfect home for this game and already have some excellent native titles.
Does it actually run Ubuntu? I've not had much experience with Linux so excuse my limited knowledge. I have an OpenGL version of MM running on the latest version of Ubuntu, so should I expect that to just work on the RG351?
It's linux on ARM, so you would have to compile for the platform - and I think it runs Open GLES, which you can use directly, or may be able to use the GL4ES wrapper. The biggest thing would be to make sure it worked with the controls.
Ok thanks for the info. Have to be honest, that'll be quite low down the list, but never say never.
Wonderful game! A lot of work went into this. Excellent graphics and gameplay. I particularly like the music.
The only issue I am having is that I am getting flickering at the maximum resolution 2880 x 1620 both windowed and full screen. The lower resolutions work fine.
Thanks for this great game! Well done!
Thanks, glad you're enjoying the game. Testing beyond 1920x1080 was a bit limited due to my hardware. What's the resolution of your monitor? Do you see the flickering on full screen mode?
My monitor resolution is 3840 x 2160 which is the default for my Windows 11 Dell system. Yes, I do get the flickering in full screen as well. It is not a problem since I can use a lower resolution in the game settings and it works fine.
Ok, still useful to know, it shouldn't flicker. I'll get my laptop connected to the 4k TV in the lounge!
Ok, I figured out what was causing the flickering...it was the GPU. My laptop has two GPUs: an Intel UHD Graphics 620 and a NVIDIA GeForce MX 130. The Intel GPU was the default for the game. When I changed it to the NVIDIA GPU the performance improved and all flickering stopped.
Ahh, brilliant, thanks for the info. ;o)
Is there a Pause key? I keep getting killed off while trying to take screenshots of all the great rooms! 😄
Oh, no sorry, pressing Esc is the pause key, but I guess that's no use! :o/
What I do is to press the print screen key and immediately after that the ESC key. Then I go to my favourite editing program, for example paint, and paste it (ctrl+v). It's not the most comfortable, but it works. I hope it helps.
Thanks! I'll try that.
Una extraordinaria noticia. Dos preguntas, por favor: ¿Está su desarrollo finalizado completamente? ¿Opciones para roms en raspberry? Saludos y enhorabuena por esta brillante 'vuelta de tuerca' al maravilloso Atic Atac.
¡Muchas gracias! Puedo agregar más características. Lo lanzaré para Linux. No sé si eso funcionará en Raspberry PI.
Absolutely magical - nice work on this ... and the blurb is just awesome - I live in Leicestershire and not that far from Ashby-de-la-Zouch! So obviously the links there are fantastic. ;)
Haha, nice one, I've been waiting for someone to mention the Leicestershire references. They're all over the game, some more subtle than others. :o)
Ey! Very good job and very very funny the game! Congratulations and thanks very much!
Thanks ;o)
First of all, the game is just wonderful! It has exceeded all my expectations, which were very high. I am enjoying it enormously.
If I may, I have two small suggestions:
1- I agree with what others have said: it would be great to be able to move the character with the left joystick.
2- I think the food respawn time needs a little tweaking. As it is right now, you can wander around a few rooms, without even needing to change floors, and you won't be short of food.
Best regards and thank you very much for this precious gift.
Glad to hear you're enjoying the game, thanks for offering feedback. Joystick control is on the additional features list. The food thing is a very tricky one to gauge. Try the harder tasks, you may find yourself short on food there :o)
Thanks for the answer! What do you think about a menu option to choose between short, medium and long food respawn time? It would be like a customisable difficulty level.
If I did add something like that, and it was actually considered during development, then it would be a more general "difficulty level" setting that could affect other things, eg. energy drain, number of baddies etc, etc. It does however complicate the high score table, because I then have to take into account difficulty level. Also worth noting that I've got quite good at the game, as you might expect, and I still find myself running short on food when playing the harder quests. Like I said, it's tricky, getting the difficulty level right is so hard. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts, consider it "being pondered". :o)
If you finally decide to implement full difficulty levels, of course that would be great. But it seems like more work. What I proposed is simpler: Leave the current food respawn as "Short" and make it the default option, and then add the Medium or Long options in the menu (totally optional) for those who want a greater challenge, without needing to change anything on the leader boards. In any case, and whatever you decide, it is a real pleasure to share these thoughts with you, and that you are such a nice person :-)
Yeh I see what you mean. I think I'd still want it mentioned on the leader board though, it's makes the challenge worthwhile if you get a fast time on hard core. I'll stick it on the "ideas" list. Thanks again. ;o)
Thanks!
Thanks :o)
It stays blank (white screen window) on my win7 machine. Tried both installer and portable. Could it be because of the second monitor? Nobody on the chat here seems to be having such issues.
It's been tested on Windows 7, worked ok here. Are you up to date with DirectX? Second monitor shouldn't make any difference.
Version 11. I will update to 12 and report.
Thanks
Currently running DX11.1. I have an ACER NITRO laptop downgraded to win7 64b. The nvidia inside the laptop reports it uses DX12 here and there and it is impossible to upgrade this further without going win10. When running 2 displays, the external one gets driven by nvidea while the laptop monitor runs onboard GPU. With these running, all I get from the game is a white screen, sound is coming through. Primary monitor is set to onboard GPU, laptop screen. As I disable the second screen, laptop monitor runs with nvidea, at which point, the game boots fine. So, the second monitor and GPU running it seems to be the problem. I could probably force the laptop monitor to use nvidea and onboard for the second monitor, which in theory should also fix my issue. Thanks for the attention, I will finally be able to savour this game :)
Well, sorry that it's a bit of a pain to get up and running, but glad you've managed it anyway. Without being able to recreate the problem on my own hardware, it's hard to know what to do. Targeting Windows PC is not without its challenges!! So much hardware variation to deal with.
It's brilliant, as we all knew it was going to be :)
A couple of bugs/issues I've noticed:
1. Thumbstick not recognised on standard XBox controller (needs this, with deadzone obviously, the d-pad isn't ideal)
2. character sprite peeks-through the barrel "doorways" when they walk up close to them
Fantastic work again :)
Thanks, glad you like it. You're not the first person to mention the thumb stick. Perhaps that's worthy of an update. I did notice the barrel issue, those round objects are a pain in the bum. I can live with it if you can? :o)
Thanks for this beautiful gem of a game! Any plans for another game? Maybe an Alien8 sequel? :-) :-) Can't wait for the Spectrum Next version!
Thanks. Next on the list is probably turning this into a full game... Underwurlde Towers Playability Demo by BitGlint Games (itch.io)
Exciting news, thanks for letting us know!
YOU ARE THE BEST! RETRO RULEZ 4EVER! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Haha, thanks! :o)
Lovely project and so well documented during development that we all fell in love with it even before release date. I will wait the Next version, unless porting it to Mac is not too complicated (don't use Windows). Thanks!
Thanks. An OpenGL version is underway for Linux, so that should pave the way for a straightforward Mac release.
Lovely ^_^
The Linux version is great news! I look forward to it :-)
This is awesome news! I am using MX Linux 21 (Debian Bullseye based) Hope itt will support that too... Then I do not need to switch to Windows if I want to play Melkhior's Mansion :-) :-)
Cool, keep watching this space. It'll be a few weeks.
Congratulations for the game and thank you so much for thinking of releasing that for Linux.
You're welcome
Thanks. It should work with Microsoft XBox compatible controllers.
Excellent! :o)
This is absolutely incredible, the gameplay, music and graphics are better than I could've possibility imagined. A big thank you to everyone who donated their time to make this a reality.
Totally random question - does anyone know of a handheld device which would run this? I'm currently playing it on my Mac in Parallels, but would happily buy dedicated hardware to play it.
Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear you're enjoying it so much. Can't help you on the handheld question, sorry! :o)
One more comment: Atic Atac has always been my favourite game. But when I saw that in this game every character brings a new game mode, as well as the connections to Night Shade, Knight Lore, Pentagram..., I almost cried with emotion. Well done!
Haha, yeh it was fun getting all those little nods to Ultimate in there. :o)
My two cents... I know, i'm italian... No one is perfect.
https://www.thegamesmachine.it/forum/showthread.php?t=2630&p=2607528#post2607528
My nickname is Strider.
Thanks Strider, that's a nice write up. :o)
Game is amazing, been playing it all day. Only thing is, changing the palette does not seem to do anything for me.. Am i missing something?
Good to hear you're enjoying it. The palette thing sounds like a bit of a mystery. How many palettes have you unlocked
Sounds strange, it works perfectly for me and my son, on two different PCs. You simply choose the palette you want and the colours of the game change accordingly.
This game is absolutely amazing.
From the crisp and colourful graphics to the very catchy music its a pleasure to play.
The only thing I would suggest is for younger players they may find the game frustrating and may need some kind of map as you're going through the rooms. Otherwise, if you ever played Atic Atac this is right up with that classic and then some.
Thanks very much, that's lovely feedback. I did think about putting a kids mode in during development, but it's something that never happened. That said, there are map consoles on each floor to help with finding your way around. ;o)
The music is divine, can't wait to play this; I have been following the project with some enthusiasm! Woohoo! Congrats on the release!
Thanks, enjoy the game. :o)
Where is the donations button? Where?
It's a freebie! :o)
You are incredibly kind. The game is fantastic, a true gem.
You guys are awesome! :-) Your game is awesome! Kindly ask for a donation button. :-) :-)
I would also like to donate. By the way, I was the first to submit a score on the leader board! :)
Thanks, but no donations required. I saw your score, well done. Hope it's not too easy! :o)
Rather than easy, it feels like infinite food. Maybe later on you can add a new difficulty level where the food takes a few minutes longer to reappear. In any case, the game is really wonderful. Even my kids have been excitedly enjoying it all day :D
Oh happy day! :)
I think so too! :o)
Congratulations!!! A new classic is born!
Haha, cheers ;o)
Congrats on the release! Been looking forward to playing this!!! :D
Thanks Ric, enjoy.
Very excited, I have been following this project since the beginning. I am one of those people who in 1983 were lucky enough to play the original Atic Atac, which left an indelible memory in my mind. Now, at 51 years old, I will be able to feel like that child again, thanks to you. The game you have made is really amazing!
Thanks so much. Really hope you enjoy the game. We've had so much fun writing it. :o)
Woohoo! C'est arrive! \o/
Oui! C'est arrive!! :o)
Santa Claus is coming to town !
Let's cross our fingers !
:o)
Oh, yes!
... just like something is missing under the tree :(
Super crunchy and simply gorgeous!
Thanks ;o)
Hi guys, any news? Any hope of being able to play M'sM by July?
Hi, I think we're looking around autumn time. The game is functionally complete, but there are still lots of frames of graphics to be done, and all the boring stuff to finish off, plus a lot of play testing. Hang in there, and thanks for your support ;o)
Thanks for the reply and sorry for bothering you. As a kid, I spent maybe hundreds of hours on Atic Atac. M'M seems like his worthy successor to me and I really look forward to it more than any triple A title. Can't wait ... :)
Fantastic... Any news about the release of the final version?
Thanks. Should only be a few months away now, we're about 90% done.
Great!!! Thanks for the answer, can't wait to play it. :)