Rock, Paper, Shotgun: The Pub Lunch Exegesis » 8-Bit Killer

8-Bit Killer

Written by Jim Rossignol on July 12, 2008 at 12:06 am.


This is a kind of fresh Wolfenstein 3D, complete with mouse/WASD controls. 8-bit Killer is a super-simple FPS with bright colours, big pixels, and lots of lovely lo-fi noises. I wish I had a pair of glasses that made the real world look like this.

You can download it here.

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Gravatar sbs says:

Holy shit, the soundtrack is amazing.

July 12th, 2008 at 12:27 am

Gravatar MetalCircus says:

This is mint!

July 12th, 2008 at 1:02 am

Gravatar Riotpoll says:

Was great until I encountered a bug on chapter 2-2, where you unlock a door then get stuck and die as something attacks you through the closed door.

July 12th, 2008 at 1:25 am

Gravatar Will says:

The only flaw in this is that I instinctively press ‘Space bar’ to scroll through the text… which ends up just skipping it. So I instinctively press ‘Escape’ to go back and load the game so I can read the pre-mission text again… but it boots you from the game and there’s no saving…

I’ve done this three times now…

July 12th, 2008 at 2:29 am

Gravatar El Stevo says:

Is it meant to be really really slow?

July 12th, 2008 at 2:39 am

Gravatar Sam Combs says:

Not too shabby, made it as far as under the tower before I died. Some sort of save feature would be nice, since it looks like game over once you lose all your lives is really game over, and you have to start from the beginning.

The FPS distilled to only the essential elements: key cards, shotguns, and endless hallways, even with backtracking and enemies respawning in cleared rooms. Really fun though, maybe because it is so straightforward, some of it is probably nostalgia though. Graphics are really polished.

July 12th, 2008 at 3:29 am

Gravatar Ben Abraham says:

I saw this on Tigsource and played it – it gets quite hard in places, and I couldn’t be stuffed replaying everything before it when I reached the end tower and died to some stupid turret thingos.

Two thumbs up, BTW.

Edit: As Sam Combs says above, it’s really quite a fantastic exercise in minimalist game design.

July 12th, 2008 at 3:50 am

Gravatar James T says:

…How do you open doors?

July 12th, 2008 at 3:55 am

Gravatar Sam Combs says:

Right click to open doors, space is “Start” and the inventory screen, and left click to step through the text.

July 12th, 2008 at 4:04 am

Gravatar MindBrain says:

How’s the AI ?

July 12th, 2008 at 4:30 am

Gravatar James T says:

The blind-fire’s a little glitchy, but the team tactics are phenomenal.

July 12th, 2008 at 4:40 am

Gravatar Al3xand3r says:

Yay you posted about it ^_^
Do the others too ^_^

July 12th, 2008 at 4:52 am

Gravatar Pemptus says:

ARGH! I’m on the last level and got hit by the boss’ missile and it glitched out. I’m in a sort of limbo and can’t die… any way to commit suicide? :P

July 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am

Gravatar Matt says:

Ouch. Tis fun, aye, but I have a whiskey headache and this ain’t the cure for it. Infact, it nearly made me blow chunks. Had to go get a glass of water. First game to make me feel sick though, so that’s somethin…

July 12th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Gravatar Senethro says:

Mouse control makes this game too easy, didn’t die once. Still fun though.

Favorite weapon: Submachine gun

July 12th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

Gravatar Scandalon says:

Real 8-bit killers think of the mouse only as (perhaps) something to launch the game with.

Wolf3d/Doom must be played with keyboard for the full nostalgia experience. (If you *MUST* have a mouse, then it should be a three-button serial mouse, don’t forget to “loadhigh” mouse.com!)

July 12th, 2008 at 11:04 pm

Gravatar Scandalon says:

Having actually tried it:

Making z and x the strafe buttons, and space the inventory button (but door open is right click) ruined it horribly. I can’t play your game if I can’t control it!!

I did find that having your own bullets not be hitscan but actually take some time to travel (but still invisible) to me mildly entertaining.

July 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

Gravatar Will says:

a and d are also strafe, with q and e being ‘turn’. Yeah, with mouse it is really easy! That doesn’t bother me though, my senses have been dulled by time, so I thought that game was just perfect!

Played it to the end, didn’t die once (after I’d gotton over my fit of trying to press Escape for the menu and it booting me)! Awesome game!

July 13th, 2008 at 2:34 am

Gravatar Heliocentric says:

got to near the end, got stuck in a wall…. I’m not replaying this, but it wasnt too bad.

July 13th, 2008 at 3:19 am

Gravatar FernandoDANTE says:

Did anyone else get some claustrophobia/nausea effects from playing this game? I had to go outside and get some air, because I felt like I couldn’t breathe properly.

July 13th, 2008 at 6:05 am

Gravatar DSX says:

Reminds me of the windows maze screen saver. I larfed my ass off how the train level was the same as all the rest with just tracks down the middle and every 3rd wall has that pac-man ghost poster on it.

July 13th, 2008 at 8:43 am

Gravatar Tomzor! says:

That’s the best FPS I’ve played in a while.

July 13th, 2008 at 10:05 am

Gravatar Frank says:

Fun, but I only want to replay it because I’m getting trapped in a wall, repeatedly, and have to restart

July 13th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

Gravatar Vorpal says:

You can also press Alt to open doors.

July 20th, 2008 at 4:22 am

Gravatar sinister agent says:

Finally got round to having a proper go at this. Finished it, but didn’t find the last gun as I rushed the last two levels. I assume it’s some kind of slow-firing, extra-strong ammo guzzler.

This was really refreshing, pretty and colourful and smooth, with excellent music and some surprisingly satisfying combat. Cheers for the link!

August 17th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Gravatar Tom says:

Man it seems as if I can’t get past the third/fourth level in the game. Too hard for me, but at least I like the game a lot!!!

January 19th, 2009 at 7:46 am

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