{| align="right" valign="top"|{{Infobox Game|Image = [[Image:Rtype cover.jpgpng|thumbcenter|200px300px|R-Type Titlescreen of the game cover]]|Company = [[Electric Dreams]]|Developer = [[Keith A. Goodyer]], [[Coder]], [[Coder]]|Publisher = [[Publisher Company]]|Musician = [[Richard Stevenson]]|Release = [[Category:Games 1988|1988]]|Platform = [[Amiga]], [[Amstrad CPC|CPC]], [[Atari ST]], [[Commodore 64|C64]], [[Game Boy]], [[MSX]], [[SEGA Master System]], [[TurboGrafx-16]], [[ZX Spectrum]]|Genre = Action|GameModes = {{Single player}}|Controls = {{Keyboard}} {{Joystick}}|Media = {{Disk}} {{Tape}}|Language = {{EN}} |Info = }}|}
R-Type is a classical and cult Shoot'em up ported from the famous IREM's arcade game with the same name, released in 1987.
It was R-Type is a classic and cult Shoot'em up ported on almost every computer of from the era. And was famous IREM's arcade game with the same name, released on Amstrad CPC in 19881987.
And despite It was ported on almost every computer of the era and was released on Amstrad CPC in 1988. Despite being good, it remains an awfull case of [[Speccy Port]].
'''''You make one little mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down.... Electric Dreams / Activision gave me 21 days to do the port. I wish i had the time to do a nice mode 0 port with new graphics, but alas it was never to be.'''''
'''''Electric Dreams / Activision gave me 21 days to do the port. I wish i had the time to do a nice mode 0 port with new graphics, but alas it was never to be.''''' ''Keith A Goodyer at [http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?topic=699.msg5756#msg5756 CPCwiki forum], 02/25/2010 '' ==Game's Informations== Company : Electric Dreams Original game by : Bob PAPE CPC version programmed/ported by : Keith A. GOODYER Graphics by : MAK COMPUTER GRAPHICS, VIDEO IMAGES Sound effects by : Richard STEVENSON
==The Fluff==
==The Game==
Considered nowadays as a classical horizontal shooter, R-Type introduced two revolutionnary revolutionary concepts in gameplay :
If not the first , R-Type was one of the first to introduce features like specific "super" enemies at end of each level called "Boss" , the well known giant battleship or destructibles levels.
With gorgeous "Gigerish" graphics , unforgetable unforgeable soundtrack , perfect gameplay and innovant innovative level design , R-Type became a legend of the video game.There are a lot of clones and sequels , and a lot of shooters got inspiration from were (and still are) inspired by this game.
==The Port==
As said above, R-Type on CPC was a Speccy port.
Yet because the spectrum version was perhaps one of the best in the 8 bit area (and many say the best speccy game ever), the Amstrad version remained playable, fun, yet so disapointing... maybe disappointing and by far inferior to the Spectrum's one.original:
It *Animation is well known a bit sluggish, lacking the Amstrad Rsmooth moves and precision.*Scrolling is a bit cascaded.*Backgrounds are mono-Type coloured (a classical Speccy port feature) despite the Mode 1 screen displaying 5 colours*As usual, a Raster is perhaps included, to no effect*Sprites manage to feature a bit more colours, yet are afflicted by pseudo colour attributes : 8x8 pixels tiles were 1 bit coded, but sprites could feature different inks*Sprites are not masked either, as unmasked sprites were a trick to avoid Colour Clashes on ZX spectrum*Thankfully, it still features no colour clashes.*A code analysis by [[Arnoldemu]] showed that double buffer is not used, and screen is located from &0040. &5800 even has attribute data just like on a real spectrum. &7800 has a copy of the worst attribute data (maybe double buffered so colours can be changed and then updated quickly). Screen is only updated where necessary. it is possible that the same programmer worked on both the Spectrum and Amstrad version ever, yet with the process being: start with the Spectrum version, remove some colours because the cpc can only display 4 colours in mode 1 (without using raster tricks), use 90% Spectrum code and convert graphics at runtime into CPC form colouring them as you do this . The result is R-type. This explains why the colours are bad and why the game remains goodis so slow.
Animation was a bit sluggish, lacked the smooth moves and precision. Scrolling was a bit saccaded. Backgrounds were mono-coloured (a classical Speccy port feature) despite the Mode 1 screen displaying 5 colours...(maybe six...sometimes ?) As usual, a Raster It is included, just for nothing ! Sprites managed to feature a bit more colours, yet were afflicted by pseudo colour attributes : 8x8 pixels tiles were 1 bit coded, but sprites could feature different inks. Sprites were not masked too, as unmasked sprites were a trick to avoid Colour Clashes on ZX spectrum... Thanksfully, it still features no colour clashes. *Comment from Arnoldemu: I looked at the code to discover why R-Type was like this.Double buffer is not used, screen is located from &0040. &5800 even has attribute data just like on a real spectrum. &7800 has a copy of the attribute data (maybe double buffered so colours can be changed and then updated quickly). Screen is only updated where necessary. I think the same programmer worked on both the Spectrum and Amstrad version. Ok, start with the Spectrum version, remove some colours because the cpc can only display 4 colours in mode 1 (without using raster tricks), now use 90% Spectrum code and convert graphics at runtime into CPC form colouring them as you do this. The result is R-type. This explains all.. it explains why the colours are bad and why the game is so slow. '''It is also to notice note that the speccy version was itself ported (graphically) from the Atari ST version.''' Yet the bad part : it came to Amstrad CPC from the AtariST, but stoped a byte at the Speccy before...
==The good Aspects==
As said the Spectrum version was good.
The main reason was because it was so close and faithfull to the Arcade version (the original)version.
* In graphics : the fine square pixels (Mode 1) allows allow fine details.* In Gameplay : most enemies patterns were are closely respected.
As a result, even the humble Amstrad version was very close to the Arcade, at least in gameplay (even sometimes more than the c64 version).
Also the Amstrad version did include good (though sparse) sound effects too... yet they were too few (and no real music)It is also of note that the game is quite big, as it includes the full 8, challenging levels.
It is also notable that the game was quite voluminous, as it included the full 8 levels... and very challenging too. Last but not least, the intro screen was is in Mode0 and quite nice.
== Screenshots ==
Image:Rtype1.png|Level 8
</gallery>
Good exemple of pure fail:
*mono colour backgrounds
*unmasked sprites.
*colour attributes.
Yet the original design were faithfully ported and still awesome.
==The Cure==
Being attribute based animated, R-Type was of course a bit short on 464/664 config (=64K RAM) to get properly recoded in 2bpp graphic Datasdata.Yeet Yet a 128K RAM version can actually benefit from such true Amstrad CPC graphics... hence and display 4 colours per 8x8 character (mode1) or 16 colours per 4x8 characters (mode0, wider pixels)... But the lone coder which did the port in 3 weeks simply couldn't do that because he had no graphician to re-do the graphics especially and no 128K version was actually planned. By the way.
Modern Era is such a wonderfull place However, the single coder who did the port in 3 weeks simply couldn't do that because he had no graphician to bere-do the graphics and no 128K version was actually planned.
'''We got this How it is :'''
[[File:RType original level 2 Cpc.gif|800px]]
'''We How it could had this be:'''
[[File:Level2 plus.bmp|800px]]
Level 2 mock-up, redesigned by MacDeath.
'''We What will have this be:'''
[[File:Rtype128k_stage2.png|800px]]