Pinnacle – a modern tribute to the 1986 classic, The Sentinel | Hacker News Reader

Pinnacle – a modern tribute to the 1986 classic, The Sentinel

viperfish.com.au

115 pointssandebert38 comments

Nice.

I enjoyed this:

https://simonowen.com/spectrum/augmentinel/

Maybe not as nice visuals, but it emulates the Original Spectrum port but transplants it in a VR capable renderer and adds David Whittakers Amiga soundtrack.

Interestingly, the game mechanics is as if it was made for VR.

The mechanics are basic enough that it's even suitable for Google Cardboard - VR via a smartphone!

https://arvr.google.com/cardboard/

Don't miss the - "how it's made": https://simonowen.com/articles/augmentinel/

No linux version though.

This one works perfectly on linux.

My only problem with this (and every other) game on Linux is that it always, always wants to start on my portrait screen, which invariably screws things up. It never starts on my landscape screen, even if that's set as primary.

I don't know how to make games start on a specific screen by default, I wish games had more options for this.

That sounds more like a window manager problem than anything else.

Seems a perfect fit for a web based version

I loved The Sentinel when it came out but part of that love was the awe at seeing solid 3d on my 8bit C64 in an era when most 3d was wire frame like Elite, Sublogic Flight Simulator, Gunship, etc...

While the game was a great idea I feel like half the enjoyment was seeing these 3d vistas in an age when they were rare.

It looks a neat game to try! KUDOS to the author. Another fantastic game that played long ago is Knossu: https://jonathanwhiting.com/games/knossu/ It's really creepy though there's literally nothing to be afraid of in the game. I don't know why its author hasn't pushed the game's idea further, because it's really well done.

I found The Sentinel spooky and scary at the time. I always panicked when the sentinel got me in sight and usually I lost moments after that. It was an amazing game for its time, and maybe still.

Yes! It was terrifying when you got caught and your energy rapidly ebbed away.

The Sentinel was a hugely original game. Perhaps my favorite strategy game on my Sinclair ZX Spectrum together with The Lords of Midnight. That tree absorbing sound is firmly implanted in my mind.

Btw, is there an easy way to run software like this in a sandbox on MacOSX to protect one from malware?

Carrier Command was my favourite, I think. Ant Attack, Attic Attack, Alien 8, and Jet Set Willy were also great.

I'd love to see a Factorio plus Carrier Command modern game. Managing resources while conquering an island archipelago would be very cool.

I have the original in a box somewhere in the garage. Love to see some of these classic games, simple by today’s standards, be reimagined.

I probably have the original somewhere, cant remember if cassette or floppy. Speaking of old games,where can I play Iridis Alpha?

It's in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story along with a whole lot of the rest of his work. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2236680/Llamasoft_The_Jef...

I'll leave it to you to figure out what emulator you want to use, but here's the game: http://www.c64.com/games/1862

That was my favourite Minter game. You can use a C64 emulator to run it.

If you have Kodi connected to a TV you can use a Bluetooth controller.

I looked up what "the sentinel" was, and it turns out it was a game in 1986, that works on the BBC Micro and Commodore 64, and has 3D graphics! I didnt even know it was possible to do that on average computers in 1986!

There was no texture mapping, and the 'trick' that makes it work is that all you can do is rotate/pan in place. The only movement is instantaneous teleportation.

It's still an amazing achievement.

The world procedural generation from a seed alone is amazingly well implemented in an environment so constrained most programmers nowadays wouldn't even be able to do anything in.

Oh c'mon we had a full flight simulator in 128x48 monochrome in 1979!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS1_Flight_Simulator

True, but the CPU the C64 used (MOS 6502) was introduced in 1975. Also the flight simulator was wireframe while Sentinel was solid 3D.

Wireframe, not full screen polygon-fill like Sentinel.

Leaderboard had a polygonal golf course. The course was flat, but drawn in a 3d perspective with billboard trees.

Stunt car racer had a 3d course and vehicle physics.

Elite had 3d space flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0w1e_kzLDo

36MB! That's a lot of cassette tapes.

Floppy drives.

I played this on the Amiga 500 and was still playing this well into 2010.

Oh my, such a classic! It was almost scary in its simplicity and ambience back then, having to find thf right spot until the sentinel fixed its gaze upon you.

Apple's "Monopoly Sentinels" won't let me open it. To wit, “Pinnacle a Sentinel remake” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software." • This software needs to be updated. Contact the developer for more information."

Next to the download button are the instructions to overcome this.

I had to right-click open twice in a row, back-to-back. I've seen this with other apps downloaded from non-app-store, from time to time. Very non-intuitive but rewards (irrational) persistence. :)

Getting "Unsupported operand types: int - string" when I click download.

I am getting the same error, but was able to download the game from: https://viperfish.com.au/downloads.html

Thank you.

People get too cute with what should be a link to a file.

One of my all time favorite games. Truly mind-boggling for a teen in the mid 80s.

a great 80s game. there are other versions of it out there, which i would list here if i were not feeling as lazy as i am, and if my carer had not just plonked my lunch in front of me!

Pardon my ignorance...is it safe to install on Windows? It wants to bypass defender. Would very much like to try it.

OK I'm playing it now and it's brilliant. This is the way The Sentinel was meant to be!

Unsupported operand types: int - string" in Firefox and Chromium too...

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