Comments on: You’ll Believe An Apatosaurus Can Fly

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:44:51 +0000

Just seems to crash whichever browser I try to use it with. I even got a couple of DEP errors.

By: Johnny Go-Time

Johnny Go-Time — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:39:10 +0000

“You’ll believe an Apatosaurus can fly.”
Best headline ever!
(It’s a spin on the tagline for the recent Superman movie…)

By: lalahsghost

lalahsghost — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:23:58 +0000

Here is what I wrote to them:

“Jetpack Brontosaurus Review Pt.1 (I’ll probably make more than one review)

This was absolutely different than Raptor Safari, and since I’ve played over 100 games of raptor safari I have gotten used to the awkward but familiar responsiveness of it. This feels like you’re literally wielding a 70 ton brontosaurus. Take that as you will, since it’s actually a bit stunning, but makes it unenjoyable. I’ve emailed you guys several times about raptor safari (T-shirts, cheating scores, version updates) and Wegner has emailed me back every time. I feel like I know Splume and Raptor Safari very very very well. Intimately, maybe. I want to enjoy Jetpack Brontosaurus, I really do. Having the lack of the feeling or ability to be nimble ruins it for me. Not being able to walk… OH MY GOODNESS… may I express how frustrating that was the first time I tried after landing somewhere? :P
The “Land On A Spot and Start The Misssion” idea is great. It gives the world a very purposeful and elaborate look to it. For some missions you go here and there, and on some missions you don’t etc etc etc. I assume it is to incorporate a graphics/polygon/engine budget, no? Graphics were splendid, and the turbothruster texture/x-ray effects are great. Fucking brilliant, honestly.
With this game, I know I shouldn’t expect JET-FIGHTER type handling, but please make the controls more responsive. Instead of a 70 ton dinosaur, how about a 30 ton dinosaur? The internet statistics for the individual games IN-GAME was another witty thing to do, as well as the integration of email accounts spanning across games. Are the little do-hickeys that you can collect pineapples? What are their significance now or in the future?

For “Flying Difficulty:”, I would have really like to of put an 8.5, because like I said, the feeling of control is not there. Ever tried to move a really weighed down shopping cart or dolly? Thats what it reminds me of.

For “Enjoyment:”, This game is so kooky, I should have played it more than once before reviewing. The visual cues and guides are very well thought out. The Guidance Rings transforming into arrows or being giant tablet looking closed rings of not being the directly next one in line was genius. I played my first game on my laptop (speeds and quality were more than fine, no problems there), but I would have really like to of had a way to zoom out to see these rings in a larger span of view.

Signing off.
~lalahsghost”

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:49:46 +0000

“Thunder Lizard” is what Brontosaurus means, people.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:01:13 +0000

If I have to be the one that says it fine.
A massive Apatosaurus in a little crash helmet is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
No problems running it for me (2gig ram, 8600 gt 256mb, 2ghz dual core, Vista 64bit home prem) though I did have major slowdown when raptor safari was first released.Also that x-ray jet pack, whoever designed you deserves some kind of national award.

Also quite adorably Apatosaurus isn’t recognized by Firefox but Brontosaurus is a suggested spelling. Firefox knows what it should be called.

By: Rockeye

Rockeye — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:51:41 +0000

someone was gonna say it it’s not a lizard

No, it’s a terrible lizard.

By: sbs

sbs — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:12:21 +0000

dave: thats why i added pl :>

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:10:05 +0000

Thanks for the feedback, guys! We’re watching forums and sites for discussion of the game, but the best way to make sure we see something (and remember it) is to use the feedback form on the website. That goes into a handy database.

If you have input lag, but a good framerate, please email me directly. This sounds like a Unity-related issue and we’d love to track it down: mwegner at flashbangstudios

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:25:44 +0000

@sbs: 200ms is not untypical for me when playing TF2, unfortunately. I’d say this feels much, much worse.

By: derFeef

derFeef — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:17:59 +0000

Argh, I just noticed you can zoom and rotate the camera with the mouse! Much better with this ;)

By: Zonderic

Zonderic — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:06:57 +0000

Hmm, I definitely enjoyed the trailer alot for the smoothness of it, and almost the slowness of it. In playing it as a thruster game, it does have that delayed feel (as that is how thruster games play) and I find it detracts a bit from the enjoyment of flying around. And yeah, the camera is kind of obscured/touchy. I would like to be able zoom out and in a little, actually, to get a scope of things, as well as rotate the camera for a different view.

It’s hard to be bothered though. The concept is so pleasant.

By: sbs

sbs — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:57:22 +0000

This unity web player thing didn’t ask me for an install path or anything, now stored about 10 mb of crap on my system drive.
Luckily the game plays like shit, feels similarly responsive to playing an online shooter with 200ms & heavy packetloss, so at least i can uninstall it right away without any regrets.

Since the concept is awesome I will give it a go once more when there is something like an actual game installer available.

edit: neat, a comment edit feature <3
ah yes, back to dino run.