Vortexion is a short MSX/SG-1000 inspired shooter.


Controls

Button 1: Shoot

Button 2: Pause


Instructions

WASD keys, Arrow keys, or gamepad D-pad to move.

Z/U key is button 1

X/I key is button 2


Source code

https://github.com/helpcomputer/vortexion


Credits

Designed by https://twitter.com/badcomputer0

Music generator - https://github.com/shiromofufactory/8bit-bgm-generator

Font by Damien Guard - https://damieng.com/

Made using Pyxel engine -  https://github.com/kitao/pyxel

StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.2 out of 5 stars
(23 total ratings)
Authorhelpcomputer0
GenreShooter
TagsMSX, pyxel, sg-1000, Shoot 'Em Up, Short, Singleplayer

Comments

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(+2)

Hi! We played your game on stream and really enjoyed it!

Really hard gamd

Got up to the jungle boss, but then pressed "new game" instead of continue. Could you put the new game as the second menu option or have a warning if it will overwrite your save?

(+1)

Awesome! Too hard for me :P

(+1)

nice game :D

there is no button but i can download cuz i am on itch.io's windows app

How do you download this? I don't see a button to do so lol

It's play by web only.

(+1)

Okay thanks!

(+1)

This really deserves a port on a classic platform, being either a real MSX(2), a NES or so.

That would be cool. I'd like to make a real MSX game at some point.

muy bueno, pero falla en 2 pequeños detalles, los colyders, y que hay ataques que por ejemplo son 2 balas y entre medio no hay nada, entonces quiero pasar por ahì, pero enrealidad es una imagen de 2 balas y enmedio igual me mata


(-3)

Too hard for stupid reasons. Good thing I'm not pumping quarters into a machine. 

I enjoyed this one quite a bit, reminds me of other bullet hells I've played, game froze and slowly drifted across my screen after beating the third boss but up till that point it worked beautifully, i like how each level area is easier/harder with each of the different ARM types, allows you to kind of decide the difficulty for yourself.

(+1)

Made a video

(+1)

very cool but woah that's difficult

The game freezes when I defeat the third stage boss. Is there something wrong?

(+2)

/rage me

(+1)

This is really nice! well done! I used to play Gradius (aka Nemesis) on my old MSX computer, this really reminds me of those good times!

(+1)

Game's cool and all but that player hitbox really needs some adjustment...

(+1)

very very pretty :D

(+1)

really hard bro

(+1)

This is a perfectly good game, if a bit basic. It's fun and straightforward yet challenging, so it has a lot of replay value, like an NES game. Thank you.

(+2)

nice job!

(+2)

Enjoyed the game. Reminds me of playing games like Gradius 3, R-Type, and Zero Wing!

(+1)

The game is fun and hard

(+1)

Love the game!

(+2)

Good game; I suck though

The game isn't working for me. :(

Title screen is a pink background with only the logo and buttons. Actual game is just a pink background and the ship. Controls work, but no enemies spawn, no level, no background, no sound. I even tried the web-launcher link, but it has the same problem.

Win 10, Firefox, no AdBlockers or anything like that.

Very strange! Thank you for reporting, I don't know what the issue might be but I'll try to find out.

(+1)

Problem solved! I dunno what it was, because nothing I did fixed it. But I shut down my computer and left, then just now when I returned and rebooted my computer, it was working. Hooray!

Also, fun game! I love the style! It really reminds of all the classics from the 8-bit era, which was my favorite era for scrolling shooters.

Ah great! Thanks for playing!

Check JavaScript in your browser settings

(+1)

Love the aesthetic and the soundtrack :)

(+2)

FYI for anyone really struggling - I found a good strategy is to stay low at the beginning - managed to survive to the first boss rather than dying within the first few seconds :)

(+2)

Cannot pass the welcome screen with continue and start game, cannot enter the game . Enter does nothing, i am on a Azerty keyboard, France

(1 edit) (+1)

In my browser it seemed to be a problem of the browser deselecting the game itself so it wouldn't take input. I got past this by fullscreening the game immediately after clicking "Run Game".  After that the game is started by pressing "Z" (which is Button 1 according to the instructions)

Apologies for this, I've reported the issue with the Pyxel engine dev, thanks for the solution in the mean time.

Just to say that this now should be fixed as I updated the latest version of the engine I'm using and the game.

(+1)(-3)

hate it

Thank you.

(+1)

Fuck this it's too hard!

(-2)

This is inaccurate to real MSX/SG-1000 in one very important thing, a quirk that real TMS 9918/A hardware had. Real VDP /  TMS 9918/A could only scroll in increments of 8 pixels / 1 tile per each scroll instance. Here the scrolling is smooth like in NES / Master System games, one generation later.

Except for that, it's a great game.

(1 edit) (+3)

You made a mistake and didn't read the description correctly. I described it as "MSX/SG-1000 inspired", so that's why it's not an exact replica of a game for those systems.

(-2)

Yes, I read the description. I think that even a game that's inspired by a system that couldn't do smooth scrolling and where the tile-based scrolling is a very notable quirk of that system, should try to replicate this quirk.

(+2)

No one is stopping you from making your own game with your own definition of the word "inspired".

Not enough going on here

I don't know what you mean, but thanks anyway.

(1 edit) (+1)

I had to use my X-box 360 controller to play. Only the pause and shooting works on the Microsoft gamepad controller. I like this game. :)

(+1)

Muito massa, me lembrou os jogos antigos.

(+1)

Is this a msx or sg 100 game?

(-1)

Neither.

Any chance you could upload a Windows-packaged version?

(+1)

Amazing, as someone who grew up with the Sega Master System and is now aware of the similarities with the MSX, this feels super authentic in every way, including that unforgiving difficulty!

(+2)

:)

(+2)

Great game! Any change to get a download version?

Thanks! No plans currently, but maybe in the future if I make any changes.