Retro Nanny

My Coding/interest projects around Amiga, retro gaming and "stuff".


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  • Rebelstar 2 - Audio Development (part 3)
  • Rebelstar 2 - Video Development (part 2)
  • Amiga tactical squad turn-based games
  • Rebelstar 2 - some initial developing info
  • Rebelstar 2: Alien Encounter - Amiga Remake
  • Recycling my old blog for new projects...
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  • Been quiet lately...
  • Keeping a promise - More Kitty
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   Rebelstar 2: Alien Encounter - Amiga Remake
 

It started back in December 2024, I was playing with ZX emulator and started playing Rebelstar 2 and I got the idea to quickly port it to Amiga and add mouse support. The usability would be great, and it would make it more accessible. Also not resetting in the end...

ZX Original Rebelstar 2 : Alien Encounter

We could look into other work of the genre in the Amiga, unfortunatelly there aren't many, apart from the Omnitrend Breach series.

The Amiga Laser Squad is the very first Gollop's work to be ported to Amiga (by Teque), but it was a clinical affair on the gameplay front. Music and sound was clearly upgraded. GFX, apart from some cutscenes still and animated intro it seemed a simple recoloring of the sprites.The controls work worst than the ZX original - if it only had the mentioned mouse support...

Now UFO: Enemy unknown was a much well sorted affair on the GFX, music, sound and gameplay front fitting more the Amiga.

Well I'm getting ahead in the story. We should take a look at the original game in question.

What is Rebelstar 2?
Since there's a 2 in the title people will immediately admit that this the 2nd game... And actually, is the third in the Rebelstar series.
The Rebelstar games are a series of science fiction-themed turn-based tactics game designed by Julian Gollop (programmed as well). In each game the player controls an opposing squad of soldiers, using their individual Action Points (A.P.) for movement, combat/firing, as well as other inventory operations. The playing area is a sort of top-down plan view, with units shown in profile. The games went from good reviews to critical acclaim. The evolution of this series led to the Laser Squad and even the UFO / X-COM series.
Rebelstar Raiders was published in 1984 by Red Shift for the ZX Spectrum 48kb (and was comprised of 3 maps). This was hot seat 2 player game. Played on a single screen with limited map dimensions and units of size of 8-pixel chars.
 


Rebelstar Raider Screenshot
Rebelstar Raiders

The first and last maps were reworked and made into a new Rebelstar, published by Telecomsoft under their budget label Firebird in 1986. It was 1 player game primarily, with the 2 player game version on the other side of the cassete. It clearly has Space 1999/Star Wars inspirations (Moonbase Delta, a unit named Luke Solo, droids resembling R2-D2 units) 

Rebelstar 1
Rebelstar - Moonbase Assault

It was a great departure from the first game, being programmed entirely in Z80-Asm, introduced multi-screen scroll on bigger map (80x50 tiles comprising a total 1280*800pixels).


Rebelstar 2 ZX Loading Screen
Rebelstar 2 ZX Loading Screen

We arrive at the sequel, Rebelstar II  (also known as Rebelstar II: Alien Encounter). It was published in 1988/89 (probably developed in 88 and published in 89) by Telecomsoft on the Silverbird label. The same division of the 1 player / 2 player was done as well. While it was programmed by Julian Gollop, this had more evolved graphical aspect, probably because of Ian Terry additional graphical aid. The gfx overall vibe also transitioned to the later Laser Squad games.

The scenario takes place on the planet of Thray 6, on which an alien race is threatening Rebelstar. The game features two sides: the Raiders (the titular series heroes), controlled by the player, and the Aliens (controlled by the computer or player 2). This one has clear "Aliens" inspirations (with the Hicks and Hudson units in there as well), as well as "Space 1999" (the shuttle clearly resemble the EAGLE Space transport). 

Rebelstar 2 : Alien Encounter Screenshot
Rebelstar 2 : Alien Encounter Screenshot

The Raiders initiate the assault, aiming to infiltrate the alien base with objective to kill aliens, kill the alien queen, and capture alien eggs. The Raiders have a set escape window, with their shuttle landing on round 15 and taking off on 26. In the end the game checks for victory points and the winning side is declared. The west half of the map is an outdoor environment, with bushes, trees, rivers and marshes, the eastwards side is where the Aliens caves are located. In there the alien eggs and the queen herself lies. It's a powerful unit that can fire a short-ranged but deadly acidic spit.



Amiga 500


This is the starting point of my Amiga remake. I tried to make a set of rules for myself:
  • This should as close as to the original
  • It should be based on the original graphics, sounds, maps and set of rules.
  • Modifications should stick within the dimensions, scope and spirit of the originals.
  • Additions should try to stick to the known LORE established within the original series of games.
  • Gameplay and GUI can be updated, but in a manner that even using the original gfx should feel as natural as possible.
Music is an addition but a more complicated issue, since apart from some sound effects and beepy jingles there's nothing to pick up. Even if we look further into the future (laser-squad and UFO) it clearly had no connection and were thing of their own. 
I know that the in-game Laser Squad Amiga music is very good (actually the stand out feature of the game), but it doesn't really fit this theme. It's better to leave in the hands of a propper musician.


After RebelStar 2...
One last curiosity is that there was a sort of sequel in the form of a spiritual successor titled Rebelstar: Tactical Command, developed by Gollop's company at the time and released for the Game Boy Advance by Namco in 2005. There were talks of  more Namco Rebelstar projects and even there were working titles (Psionic Rebellion and The Meklon Conspiracy), but ultimately were cancelled.

Rebelstar GBA game
NAMCO's Rebelstar: Tactical Command (GBA)

Labels: Amiga, Games, Rebelstar

Saturday, 30 August 2025

   Recycling my old blog for new projects...
 

New Blog, new projects, new...

Well let's start by introducing Retro Nanny. It's some sort of label for my Retro projects, it's not a personal one. Maybe someone can join in... For now it's a blog logo!

Well anyway, From now on this is the blog for Amiga retro related projects.
Used to be "Wandering around AROS..." blog regarding an OS that truly represents the AmigaOS spirit going beyond it.
And in 2025 we have a fully m68k-AROS ROM and several AROS m68k dev/distro/based projects. As well as being the first (and only so far) implementation of 64 bit with a branch trying to use multiple cores. The first true multitasking personal computer OS is getting a modern revamp!

Anyway so many things to mention...
So many Amiga related projects/releaseses. Even I am on board this train...

I've already have one project in hands. Since the begining of the year, I've been coding an Amiga remake of Rebelstar 2.

This isn't a new thing for me - even have posted something related:
Retro Nanny: October 2010

More posts will follow... Hopefully!

Friday, 29 August 2025