By Quintin Smith on October 21st, 2010 at 7:40 pm.
Remember VVVVVV, the brutal & brilliant gravity-flipping platformer from early in the year? Ah, you do. Here‘s what Kieron had to say about it, and here‘s my take. Have you tried the demo? There’s a demo, you know.
More excitingly, as of last week there’s also a demo of the C64 demake. As in, converting the game so it will run on a C64. Why? Because, that’s why. Grab yourself an emulator and get the whopping 16kb ROM here. And for a reminder of why Kieron expects somebody to punch the VVVVVV creator in the face one day, watch the video after the jump.
It’s because of an optional series of rooms called Veni Vidi Vici. Ooh, this one’s a charmer.
21/10/2010 at 19:45 SquareWheel says:
Veni Vidi Vici is the one trinket I didn’t get.
=[
21/10/2010 at 20:04 Heliosicle says:
Spending probably 1000 lives and as long as it took me to complete the rest of the game (minus trinkets) on it, I have to say its worth doing it. I think I can still remember how to do it 6 months later…
21/10/2010 at 20:39 Meat Circus says:
This. In the end I decided my sanity was worth more than a shiny trinket.
Still one of my faves of ’10, mind. Prize for the Reckless was a special favourite.
21/10/2010 at 20:45 Daniel Rivas says:
Veni Vidi Vici wasn’t so hard. Prize for the Reckless wasn’t either, but it was pure genius. Magic with games, it made me laugh so hard when I saw the trick.
The one I couldn’t get was in the room with the terminal describing the secret lab.
21/10/2010 at 21:14 Nova says:
Yeah, the genius was that even after loosing hundreds of lifes at Veni Vidi Vici I never complained or was angry at the game. Quite the contrary after beating it I even felt it could have been harder.
“…Not as I Do” made me swear a bit though.
21/10/2010 at 21:38 Lambchops says:
Prize for the Reckless and Edge Games gave me more pain than Veni Vidi Vici but I got there with all of them in the end. My death count was truly horriffic but the guy still had a little smile on his face and when I finally got them so did I.
21/10/2010 at 23:34 Petethegoat says:
I managed to complete Veni Vidi Vici in front of Terry Cavanagh.
I was rather obnoxious, and shouted “HAH! I DID IT!”.
He just said “Congratulations.” and smiled in a knowing fashion.
I can die happy. ;_;
21/10/2010 at 19:45 Ateius says:
“… the C64 demake. As in, converting the game so it will run on a C64. ”
I don’t think it’s possible to get any more indie.
21/10/2010 at 19:49 Mil says:
Well, it depends. Do their shirts fit?
21/10/2010 at 20:07 Tei says:
If you want to run with that joke of “more indie than you”, nothing can beat train
21/10/2010 at 19:53 robrob says:
Posting here to gloat about getting all trinkets. Lavish me with praise.
21/10/2010 at 19:58 Harbour Master says:
I got them first. Hand them back, thief, before I chuck you into the Super Gravitron for 15 seconds.
22/10/2010 at 07:22 Wulf says:
Now that’s just not nice! No one deserves that, especially if they’re being forced to do it for educational purposes. You should go and stand in the naughty corner!
21/10/2010 at 19:56 thealexfish says:
Dwarf Fortress is way more indie than this.
21/10/2010 at 19:56 Birdman Tribe Leader says:
It seems like everyone lands on the disappearing platform from the left, runs across, and launches from the right. But I found it easier to land on the left and take the quarter-second you have before it disappears to stop, collect yourself, turn around, and launch back off from the left.
The experience of playing Veni, Vidi, Vici until you get it right is definitely the gaming moment of the year, maybe of the last ten years. The way you can feel yourself getting more and more of a feel for it, and the way you play better more and more as you zone out and lose yourself in the feel of it more and more, and if you try to think consciously about it you snap out of that zone. Cultivating that subconscious part of your mind and seeing yourself consistently get farther and farther. Awesome.
I guess this is what people said about Space Giraffe too, but ehh, too steep a learning curve for me.
21/10/2010 at 20:08 Harbour Master says:
I found it was mental momentum that encouraged me to leap rightwards; my brain was distinctly unhappy doing a reverse gear with barely a breather. A bit being driven by Automan round a corner who in an instantaneous 90 degree turn.
Oh and I’m so going to attack Space Giraffe one of these days. Attack! Attack!
21/10/2010 at 20:09 Harbour Master says:
“A bit LIKE being driven by Automan round a corner in an instantaneous 90 degree turn.”
wtf happened to my typing skills today
21/10/2010 at 21:12 Huw says:
I went back to the left, too. It was actually easier that way. And after all the split-second timing required to do the rest of the puzzle, the time you get before the platform disappears feels like ages!
21/10/2010 at 21:43 teo says:
Going down left is easier a screen down, but holding right is easier than doing the actual switch
21/10/2010 at 23:14 Dolphan says:
I went back to the left. I don’t think I’ve ever cheered and whooped as much as when I did it (after about 45 minutes to an hour of trying, I think). There was a non-trinket bit towards the end that I was stuck on for almost as long (the screen rising, and something like a couple of trampoline bounces before going round a set of spikes and straight into another couple of trampoline bounces, then a whole other screen to get through before the checkpoint) that wasn’t nearly as satisfying.
24/10/2010 at 20:30 pupsikaso says:
Yeah, I actually went left, too. It was so easy that way that I’ve actually done it in only 5 tries, no lie. I thought that surely there was more to this than that, and that going back the way I came must have been unintended or something and I felt that I cheated. So after watching some youtube videos of everyone going straight through the platform to the right, I had to go back and redo it that way just to satisfy myself that I did it “the proper way”. Took me about two days of sporadic playing to get it that way.
But seriously, if you’re being landed in a bloody pit by going to the right, why would you keep doing it if you could just simply go right back to the left?
21/10/2010 at 20:04 Tei says:
HA!.
So my plan is complete.
I will steal this, save it on my still working C64 and trave back in time, to publish this in 1986.
I am going to be more rich than jesus*!
* he owns all the vatican gold.
21/10/2010 at 21:08 Carra says:
The brains of those puny 80′s humans will surely explode.
21/10/2010 at 20:12 Longrat says:
….Why?
21/10/2010 at 20:22 leeder_krenon says:
the c64 sucks compared to the speccy.
21/10/2010 at 22:10 Meat Circus says:
Now this is some retro-chic platform trolling right here.
21/10/2010 at 20:26 jrr says:
I tried for quite a while to complete that portion honestly for a while, then gave up and used keystroke playback software.
21/10/2010 at 21:04 Aninhumer says:
If you’re going to cheat, you know there are built in options for it?
You could just turn off spikes.
21/10/2010 at 20:35 geldonyetich says:
That video actually makes the C64 look like the better platform to play it on.
21/10/2010 at 20:52 Atic Atac says:
I Love VVVVVV with every fiber of my being.
The soundtrack PPPPPP is one of my albums of the year as well
21/10/2010 at 21:06 RogB says:
agreed, the soundtrack is amazing.
and the thought of it on the mighty 6581 SID is very exciting!
21/10/2010 at 22:14 Meat Circus says:
I think it’s under-appreciated quite how magnificent this soundtrack is. All other game musicians should hold their heads in shame that they never composed “Passion for Exploring”.
21/10/2010 at 22:19 Stu says:
Amazingly, 3 tracks from PPPPPP are being released for Rock Band:
http://fairwoodstudios.com/vvvvvv.php
I am happy beyond measure.
21/10/2010 at 21:05 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Does it really count as a demake when it’s basically identical to the original version?
21/10/2010 at 23:03 FRIENDLYUNIT says:
…and then run it using an emulator?
Unless this is:
a) some sort of take on being “post-modern”
b) a programming exercise (I guess the just cos reason listed
… then it’s a bit of a wank really. I mean what’s next? Taking all the gears but one off our bikes?
21/10/2010 at 21:08 Inglourious Badger says:
Veni Vidi Vici
Why did you have to remind me?! On my last attempt I got to the second last screen, as in all the way up and 3/4 of the way back down and then death.
I suppose I better go back and attempt it again now.
THANKS FOR REMINDING ME!?!!!
21/10/2010 at 21:23 fishyjoes says:
i loved veni vidi vici!
21/10/2010 at 21:34 Meat Circus says:
If there is a category for FUNNEST THING in the FUN THING OF THE EVER AWARDS, this should be invited to the afterparty.
21/10/2010 at 21:40 OptionalJoystick says:
If this version doesn’t save your game using Flash cookies it may even be superior.
21/10/2010 at 21:42 Lorc says:
My fondest memory of VVVVVV is when I FINALLY got to the top screen of “doing things the hard way” and landed on the platform.
And it collapsed under me.
I was consumed with a mixture of disbelief, rage and awe.
21/10/2010 at 21:59 Sagan says:
I recently replayed VVVVVV, and I managed to get all shiny trinkets and still got the “under 500 deaths” achievement.
I’m awesome. Also the game is much easier the second time. I still had a lot of muscle memory for Veni Vidi Vici for example.
21/10/2010 at 22:06 Sulkdodds says:
I still do a Veni, Vidi Vici drill most days as part of my morning exercise regimen.
21/10/2010 at 22:16 Meat Circus says:
TERMINOLOGICAL QUIBBLE.
I think the Shiny Trinket should be called “Doing Things the Hard Way” rather than “Veni Vidi Vici”.
21/10/2010 at 22:22 Sulkdodds says:
Or perhaps ‘Veni, Vidi….
…Vici’
21/10/2010 at 22:33 Pretzel says:
I was really hoping for an Atari 800 version. The game always looked more like it was made on the Atari hardware than Commodore.
21/10/2010 at 22:50 Sigma Draconis says:
Yeah, fuck that room forever. I suppose should go back and make another attempt at getting the shiny trinket there, but for now, fuck that room forever.
21/10/2010 at 23:31 Hippo says:
There are actually new C64-games being published commercially too. Last year’s Knight & Grail was a highlight, a real gem of a game.
(http://www.binaryzone.org/retrostore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=473)
I’m actually hoping the creator of this C64-version can get together with the original creator and make an official, commercial C64-version. Boxed, of course. I’m sure Psytronik would love to publish it.
I would definitely buy it again if I could get it on a cassette… :-)
21/10/2010 at 23:38 Hippo says:
Should possibly include a link to Psytronik as well…
http://www.psytronik.net/
They release some stuff for other retro formats too, like the Amstrad and Vic-20 (the Realms of Quest-RPG for Vic-20 is quite impressive).
21/10/2010 at 23:55 Alex says:
I feel really silly, bit – how do I start the game? I opened it in an emulator, and see the title screen, where I can listen to music. I’ve tried hitting a bunch of keys, but nothing does anything. Am I missing something?
22/10/2010 at 00:13 Snuffy (the Evil) says:
I would like some help, too. I’m using the Come Back 64 emulator right now, should I be using a different one?
22/10/2010 at 00:33 Gabe McGrath says:
It’s most likely that it’s waiting for you to hit ‘fire’ on your joystick.
If you’re using the CCS64 emulator, hit F9 for menu, then down to options->inputs->
Then change joystick 2 to ‘PC joypad’ or similar, then , , back to the game.
Hope that helps
22/10/2010 at 00:05 Wooly says:
@Quintin Smith: “Why? Because, that’s why.” I think you mean just cause.
22/10/2010 at 03:02 DMJ says:
I woke up this morning in a nightmarish alternate world with flame-eyed stone effigies of Tei glaring balefully down at me from every broken street corner while the black sky boiled in a terrifying perpetual storm. Rains of petroleum distillate washed the lands, igniting in sheets of fire blasting the lifeless parched land further into ruin. Isolated tribes of hollow-eyed humans huddled around their cracked Commodore 64 altars warbling solemnly and fearfully along to the unearthly sounds coming from the worn tapes in their “datasette” players, each bearing the faded legend: “VVVVVV: BY TEI”.
I fixed the time-line and had some breakfast. You’re welcome, world.
22/10/2010 at 04:24 psycoking says:
I took about an hour and a half and 700 lives or so, but that just made finally getting my hands on that freaking trinket feel all the better.
22/10/2010 at 09:00 Hmm-Hmm. says:
I must say, reading all this makes me so happy I didn’t purchase VVVVVV.
22/10/2010 at 15:39 Wulf says:
Bah, at least pirate it then (and then buy it later when you find out it’s worth it). Overcoming the trinket hunt is one of gaming’s most interesting challenges, it’s not particularly hard, but it’s definitely one of the most fun and genuinely interesting gaming experiences of the last decade.
22/10/2010 at 10:28 adonf says:
Cool. I’ll try that when I finally get around to buying a C64-To-TV thingy and hacking it to read memory cards. If the internet’s still around by this time.
22/10/2010 at 13:23 Lipwig says:
I beat the game and got all the trinkets in about 3 hours, it took about the same time again to do it upside down. I haven’t played it since, but those were some good 6 hours.
The VVV sequence was great for rote learning, but I think the Edge Games, while not quite as difficult was more fun. That’s the one with the light balls that loop across the screen. It gave me a headache constantly switching from the left and right side of the screen with pauses and flips.
23/10/2010 at 11:51 Harbour Master says:
Edge Games: Jesus Fuck That Room
It was worse than Veni Vidi Vici. More deaths there than any other room.
22/10/2010 at 17:52 sneetch says:
At the risk of showing my complete ignorance and/or pooping on the party, is this… kosher?
I mean someone directly copying my (hypothetical) game and porting it to another platform would… irritate me to put it mildly.
24/10/2010 at 20:38 pupsikaso says:
…
25/10/2010 at 19:54 Heilvetica says:
Friendlyunit, you are my hero.
25/10/2010 at 22:46 Shamanic Miner says:
Well, that’s the first time I’ve bought a game after playing the demo ported to an 8-bit computer.