Space_Riders_(Atari 1978)_v1.1.0.zip

Thalamus and Mecha_Enron Present:

Atari Space Riders
https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2258

For a long time, I've been quietly admiring the incredible work being done in the VPW Discord. It's a hub of creativity and innovation, with so many talented individuals that it’s almost impossible to name them all. However, some contributions are just too significant not to highlight.

Shout-outs to:

•     Sixtoe, Apophis, Tomate, Iaakki, Bord
•     And last, but certainly not least, Niwak

Niwak deserves special thanks—not only for the Blender Toolkit but also for pushing VPX 8 to levels I never imagined possible just a few years ago.

Of course, the incredible efforts of Jsm174, Freezy, Toxie, Fuzzel, Gaston, and other core developers have also been invaluable. You’ve all helped make this community something to be proud to belong to. Thank you! ❤️ 

(Apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone—there’s just too much brilliance to keep track of!)

Watching VPW's YouTube channel, especially the videos by Sixtoe, Bord, and Apophis, was very inspiring for me. Their tutorials introduced some new tricks for the editor and toolkit that I couldn’t resist trying them out myself.

I had even bought a new computer capable of rendering without too much hassle—so the timing felt perfect. Around a month back or so, I came across an old update to a VP9 version of Space Riders. Frankly, it didn’t play well and, in my opinion, looked even worse. That’s when I decided to see what resources were available online to rebuild it.

I started with a decent-quality playfield image and some surprisingly detailed manuals. Using these, I made the game at least playable, albeit in a bare-bones way with just walls and switches. Then I wondered: Could I take this further?

After some searching, I found plastics that weren’t too bad and attempted to scale them into something close to proper proportions. The Blender Toolkit didn’t have every piece I needed, but it made the process infinitely easier.

By this point, I had invested too much time to stop. So, I decided to take a more VPW-inspired approach to the build. This is the result of that journey.

After sharing my progress in the Discord, Mecha_Enron showed interest in improving my work. See detailes, see table script.

Space Riders isn't the most popular machine out there. It is after-all an Atari. But, I had fun using the new techniques. Who knows, maybe there will be other stuff coming from me in the future ?!

This release is free for anyone except Bigus1 to improve or make changes to. If you do, I prefer to get mentioned in copies derived from this exact release.