Today’s Rave: Tyrian
December 9, 2008
I was around back when there were one speed CD roms. A 500 MB hard drive was considered plenty big – even huge. Windows 3.1 was all the rage. Yes indeed. Simpler times. And games from those times had much less to work with. Most serious games of that era still ran in DOS because Windows was unwieldy and Microsoft had yet to invent Direct X as a resource workaround.
Tyrian was a space shooter from that era. It was put together by the tiny software company Epic MegaGames, creator of such ancient and beloved franchises and Jazz Jackrabbit and One Must Fall. It had good music and graphics for the time (it still looks colorful and runs smoothly) and was awesome because unlike other shooters, there was a great deal of customizability. But let me back up.
A game where you are a single pilot in a small plane or spaceship taking on fleets of enemies used to be simply called a shooter or shoot’em up. Generally speaking, you couldn’t get hit even once, or you died. Once you ran out of lives, it was game over. Tyrian broke with that rule because you had both shields (which recharged) and armor (which didn’t) which on the one hand was more forgiving, but on the other made the programmer able to create much harder situations because he knew a few mistakes wouldn’t kill you (that’s right, one programmer. Singular). Additionally, in arcade shooters (pretty much the only kind available at the time), you would collect weapon upgrades and bombs mid-level, and as long as you didn’t die you would keep all of your upgrades. Raiden, if you’ve ever seen that, is the classic example of this.
Tyrian also ruled because the weapons were hugely customizable. Your score was also your currency, which you would then use to buy different kinds of weapons or upgrade them. Besides your standard front weapon, there was also a rear/side weapon and two “sidekick” slots that you could customize with missile launchers, companion ships, bombs, flamethrowers, mines, and a dozen other useful weapons. You could also buy better ships (more armor), upgrade your shields, and upgrade your generator. See, what was particularly cool about the generators is that they power both your weapons and shields, so if your weapons consume too much power then your shields will recharge very slowly while firing. This relationship meant that hotshot pilots could buy really powerful weapons, secure in the knowledge that they could dodge well, whereas lazier people like me could scale back the weapon purchases but be assured of a somewhat more forgiving experience.
But what’s really great is that the source code was released to a group who have switched out the archaic DOS code for an up-to-date SDL executable, which means Tyrian can once again be run in all it’s speedy glory with full sound, instead of relying on DOSBox.
The music is really good too. Check it out, if you’re looking to kill some time with an old-school classic. Kudos to Epic MegaGames. Gone, but not forgotten.
