Harrier Attack Reloaded Amiga - Public Beta 5

Public Beta 5 - a radical step :-)

This is a rather radical beta, especially in Enhanced mode! It still needs some polish, balancing and more real-hardware testing, but there is plenty of new gameplay to try. Expect rough edges and please send feedback.

What's new

• Carrier defence raids with fighters, helicopters, larger bombers and a surfacing submarine.
• A large submarine missile returns under a parachute: intercept it before it hits the carrier. Two Harrier bombs sink the submarine.
• Momentum-based carrier VTOL: countersteer to brake, turn independently of drift, and drop bombs that inherit Harrier's velocity.
• CPU/P2 carrier weapons, repair-kit pickups and landing to repair/refuel. An available Wingman appears on deck before joining the terrain mission.
• Bomber rendering improvements, longer offscreen turns, fixes for disappearing carrier graphics and fewer Enhanced flak opportunities, especially over cities.
• Primary fire ejects when the E lamp is lit; release and press again if already holding fire.

Downloads

• ADF: bootable floppy image for an Amiga or emulator.
• HD.zip: executable, Workbench icon, loading screen and instructions. Keep the files together.
• SHA256SUMS.txt: checksums for both downloads.

Target: PAL A500, 512 KiB chip RAM + 512 KiB expansion. No Kickstart ROM is included. Back up your existing high-score files before upgrading.

Testing and known rough edges

Carrier regression tests and focused checks for submarine combat, VTOL bomb momentum, Wingman deck readiness and pickup/background restoration passed during development. The latest normal build and graphics validation also passed.

Earlier cycle-exact stress tests of the combined bomber/submarine wave measured roughly 26-42 FPS on A500 and 50 FPS on stock A1200 after startup. These are sequence measurements, not a guarantee for every scene or the final build. This beta needs more testing on real hardware.

Please report machine, Kickstart, RAM, mode, Skill, Tempo and reproduction steps in Issues.

Harrier Attack Reloaded Amiga - Public Beta 4

Harrier Attack Reloaded Amiga - Public Beta 4

v0.9.0-beta.4 is a public prerelease. Target: PAL Amiga 500, 68000/OCS,
512 KiB Chip RAM plus 512 KiB expansion RAM. No ROMs or system software are included.

Changes since Public Beta 3 RC1

• Enhanced Missile Silos fire accelerating vertical missiles independently of
  enemy aircraft. Editable closed/open silo graphics.
• Terrain-following helicopters appear from mission 2, remain ahead for a limited
  time and stop before cities. Two missile hits bring them down. Rotor audio,
  sparse damage smoke, right-facing runtime art and at most two small machine-gun
  bullets at once; bullets disappear on terrain contact.
• Very low throttle activates landing mode (L), landing gear, a deeper engine
  tone and triple fuel consumption. Enter at throttle 2 or below; exit at 4.
• Ordinary missiles remove one third of Harrier armour; Missile Tank shots remove
  one half. Wingman dies from one missile. Hold both fire buttons with the E lamp
  lit to eject; the existing E key remains available.
• Rare, editable 8x8 F depots grant 20% fuel when destroyed by the player or
  Wingman. Fuel is turquoise and Armour yellow. Effective difficulty 3/4/5 gains
  10/20/30% fuel endurance for longer routes. Classic fuel timing is unchanged.
• Wingman sprite data is staged and published during vertical blank, addressing
  active-display writes implicated in the reported A500 corruption. Physical
  confirmation of the original symptom remains outstanding.
• Missile Tank missiles climb faster and explode on terrain contact. Wingman
  formation convergence and camera/Copper update timing were also refined.

Separate Classic/Enhanced scores, independent 80/90/100% Tempo, Skill labels,
Missile Tanks and editable weapon/city graphics from previous betas remain included.

Downloads and installation

• ADF: bootable floppy image.
• HD.zip: executable, Workbench icon, loading bitmap, README and version file.
  Keep the files together and launch the executable or its icon.
• SHA256SUMS.txt: checksums for both packages.

Preserve harrier_scores*.dat, harrier_classic2_*.dat and
harrier_enhanced2_*.dat when upgrading. Saving requires writable media.

Validation and beta limits

• Focused emulator contracts passed for encounters, sprite staging, bullet
  restoration, missile damage/eject and fuel supply.
• Fuel tests exercised 80 generated routes across all five effective difficulties.
  Whole-route cruise at throttle 5 or higher, 10 seconds departure allowance and
  30 seconds triple-consumption landing left at least 10% fuel without pickups.
  Extended hovering or slow flight can still exhaust fuel.
• A500/OCS/Kickstart 1.2, 512 KiB Chip + 512 KiB Slow RAM, normal weapon load:
  46-50 FPS in measured gameplay intervals, with zero late Copper commits.
• A1200, 2 MiB Chip and no Fast RAM, 90% Tempo: 50 FPS in ordinary sampled
  intervals of the hardware-feedback test; scripted pause excluded.
• Dense two-player stress can drop substantially below 50 FPS. This beta does
  not claim locked 50 FPS. PAL remains the qualified timing target.

Please report model, Kickstart, memory, mode, Skill, Tempo and reproduction steps.
Real-hardware Wingman confirmation and extended playtesting remain important.

Downloads enable HAR_HARDWARE_PLAYER_ROCKET=1,
HAR_HARDWARE_PROJECTILE_CHAIN=1 and HAR_CRASH_DEBRIS_BOBS=1.

Credits and appreciation

Harrier Attack was originally created by Robert White and published by
Durell Software. We remember their work with great respect.

Our sincere thanks go to Chris Perver for creating Harrier Attack Reloaded
for the Amstrad Plus, making its source available as an invaluable gameplay
reference, and offering such generous encouragement to this Amiga port. The
goal has been to preserve the rules and character of Chris's Reloaded version
while giving it a natural home on Amiga hardware.

Amiga port by Tonny Roger Holm.

Thank you as well to everyone who has tested the game in WinUAE, on real Amiga
hardware and on FPGA systems. Your beta feedback will help make the final
release stronger.

This is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project. No endorsement by Durell
Software or the original rights holders is implied. All names and original
works remain the property of their respective owners.