• About

  Downfall is a game for the Atari Falcon030 computer. It is more or less a port
  of the Jaguar version released this year.

To run this game you need:

- An Atari Falcon030 with at least 4MB of RAM
- At least 2.5MB of hard disk space
- One or more of the following input devices:
- Joystick plugged into port 1
- Jagpad (Powerpad)
- Jagpad rotary

The recommended specs are:

- An Atari Falcon030 with 14MB of RAM
- 200MB of hard disk space
- One or more of the following input devices:
- Joystick plugged into port 1
- Jagpad (Powerpad)
- Jagpad rotary

Falcon accelerators like the Centurbo CT2 or CT60 are partially supported.
Read the change log for v1.1 below for more info.

If you have a 4MB machine, try to free up as much memory as possible, as the
game utilises a big chunk of memory due to the backgrounds.

Use LEFT and RIGHT on the d-pad and B fire button to control the falling man
(equivalent joystick controls are LEFT, RIGHT, FIRE). When you start the game,
the player sprite falls from the top centre of the screen. Quickly guide him to
the safety of one of the platforms that are moving up the screen. You must now
prevent your character from being squashed at the top of the screen by dropping
down to lower platforms - but be careful! You must also ensure he does not fall
off the bottom of the screen.

During your time falling and running you will find tasty fruits to refresh you.
These give score based on a multiplier of level - the higher the level, the
higher the score. Your character will tell you what he thinks of the fruits in a
number of ways.

You will also find a number of power-ups occasionally. Some require the use of
the B button to activate them. When your character shouts the secret word you
will know your power-up is about to expire - act quickly!

The character may sometimes make comments other than those that are fruit or
power-up related. You may or may not find these infos useful as you guide him
deeper and deeper down.

During the title screen you can also press A or C on the jagpad (LEFT/RIGHT on
joystick) to change backgrounds, OPTION (DOWN on joystick) to toggle Heiko mode
(just try it!) and SELECT (UP on joystick) to toggle superfly mode (also just
try it!).

During the title screen, the game can detect semi-automatically the presence of a jagpad or a jagpad rotary. For rotary just give the paddle a spin and the proper icon will light up. For normal jagpad just push the d-pad up or down and again the proper icon will light up. It is not possible to change controllers while playing (then again, who would want to?)

Downfall Falcon utilizes any remaining RAM left after loading to display the
animated backgrounds. Currently we have two sets of backgrounds, one for 4MB
machines and one for 14MB ones. If you have a 4MB machine then you do not need
the 14MB backgrounds. To reduce the download times, we have decided to not
include the 14MB pack in the main archive. If you have a 14MB machine you can
download the 14MB pack and delete the backgrounds included in the main one.

The only difference between the 4 and 14MB background packs are the number of
stored frames. 4MB backgrounds store 25 frames, while 14MB ones store 120, so
the animation is smoother in the later. Of course if someone finds the 4MB
backgrounds better to look at, there's no harm done in using them instead of the
larger ones :).

Background files must reside in a folder called GFX where DOWNFALL.PRG resides.
Each background consists of 2 files: One with extension BGR and one with
extension PAL. Do not copy a BGR file without its PAL companion.

The game at startup will scan the GFX folder and use the first 64 backgrounds it
finds there. Any background file that doesn't fit in the free RAM will be
discarded (so it is safe to have the 14MB pack in there if you so desire). If no
backgrounds that fit the free RAM are found, the game will display an alert and
exit.

They are saved automatically in a file called DOWNFALL which is in the folder
DOWNFALL.PRG resides in. If the file doesn't exist, it is created at startup. If
for some reason the file cannot be created, the entire feature is skipped.

Falcon code: GGN (based on Cyrano Jones' Jaguar version)
Module player code: bITmASTER of TCE
Music: 505 of Checkpoint and Paradox
Graphics: Templeton of Celebral Vortex Software Development, Neo, shthree
Testing: Partycle, ChrisTOS, Cyrano Jones
v1.1 testing: Jury, Christian Hellmuth, Ragnar76

What we'd like to see is user created backgrounds. If there's any
submissions from people, we'll include them on the website for people to
download. If anyone is interested in creating background animations, get in
touch with us for help!

1.0 - 13-Nov-11: Initial release
1.1 - 21-Apr-12:
- Fixed score/hiscore display in-game (probably not noticed by most people)
- Added rotary japgad support
- Fruit now appear on top of platforms
- Joystick "freeze" bug hopefully squished
- Machines with CT6x accelerators have a better chance of running it correctly. From what we heard from the testers, if you notice any graphical glitches, the only thing you can do is lower the CT6x's frequency. CT2 machines are untested, but it should work there too.

Press it.

<main <projects