Warhawk DS

Warhawk DS v1.02

(c) Copyright 2009 Proteus Developments and Headsoft

Credits

Introduction

Welcome to the first release of Warhawk DS. Warhawk DS is a game for the Nintendo DS coded in 100% ARM assembler. It is based on a commercial C64 game released by Proteus Developments in 1986.

This has been a joint coding effort between Flash and HeadKaze that has taken around 5 or so months from vision to fruition.

Warhawk DS is based on a much earlier game released on the C64 in 1986, and is more of a re-imagining than a remake. One thing that was intended to retain was the 'old school' feel to the game, and this is hopefully something has been achieved. The downside to keeping the feel is that those of you brought up on present day games may find this a little difficult? It is not an easy ride to clear the 16 levels, though a consession has been made for the modern-day gamer in the addition of continues.

The game has 16 normal levels and also upon completion, another 16 mental levels become available. It is worth finishing the mental levels for the true completion and credit sequence.

The game has also had much help from Lobo and SpaceFractal in both the graphical and musical areas. BadToad (involved in the original game) has helped with playtesting and some graphical work, and many others (Mark, Sokurah, Baz, etc, etc.) have been involved in the mad hunt for bugs and also playtesting. A full credit list is in the game.

Controls

'Start' is used from the title screen to start the game and also within the game to pause. During play, the D-Pad is used for movement and the 'A' button for firing. Firing has 3 modes. A single press will release 2 shots. Press and hold will fire a power shot (12 times the damage and destroys all bases in it's line of fire) and during "power-up" mode, holding fire will shoot a continuous stream of 16 bullets. Power-up mode can be enabled after level 2. During these levels a small ship will drift down the screen, shooting this will release a power orb that when collected will enable power-up mode for a limited time. Crashing into the drop ship will have the same effect but lose a small amount of energy. Energy can be regained during a level only by destroying a meteor. These take 2 powered shots to kill. Pressing start during game play also offers the option to quit and return to the title screen.

Notes

There may be times when the audio shows signs of clicks during playback. The recommendation, if this occurs is to defragment your SD card. Heavy fragmentation and also lots of files on the card can cause the careful timing of the audio to drift slightly. Also, upon starting the game, there may be a delay before the game starts, this is normal and not an indication the the game has crashed, please be patient.

The software does contain a small amount of C code in the form of the libfat and EFS. This had to be included to allow for the high quality music to be stored outside of the 4 MB limitation. This is a minor concession we believe as the entire game mechanics are in ASM and also the game will run perfectly with the removal of the EFS.

History

Information on the various versions of Warhawk can be found on the wiki here:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhawk_(1986_video_game)

Screenshots

Installation

We recommend the EFS version for most people. For people exeriencing problems with the EFS verison should try the FAT version. This game requires a dldi patch compatible card to play.

  • EFS Version - Just copy the included WarhawkDS.nds file to your backup card and play.
  • FAT Version - Copy the Data folder included in the archive to the root of your sd card. Copy the WarhawkDS.nds to anywhere on your card.

The game will also run fairly well under emulation and our recommendation is to use no$gba for this function. This offers the best compromise between speed, compatibility, and audio, though you will need the nds bios roms. We cannot provide these, but a search will find all that you need (biosnds7.rom and biosnds9.rom). iDeaS will also run the game fine under emulation without the need of the roms (though audio is compromised). Remember - nothing beats playing the game in hardware!

Awards

Recently Warhawk DS featured as Remake of the Month in the prestigious RetroGamer magazine which is a great honor for all involved.

You can read the full article here.

We also came 3rd in the R4 Revolution 2009 Top 10 DS Homebrew competition and can now proudly display the medal on our site. Thanks to the guys at http://www.r4revolutionds.co.uk/ for running the competition and giving us the opportunity to be involved.

Download

We would prefer it if people linked back to this website for the download, that way any potential updates will be linked to in the future.

Thanks

Wintermute for devkitARM, Chishm for libfat, Martin Koth for DSTek & No$GBA, Eris & Noda for EFS / NitroFS. Also thanks go to LiraNuna, Blasty, Cearn, Dovoto, Joat, Dekutree, Elhobbs, Ruben, SimonB, DarkCloud and everyone on gbadev.org.

Contact

Visit the offical website for Warhawk DS, our official forums or contact us

flash [at] greatflash.co.uk
headkaze [at] gmail.com