🐔 Chicken Invaders 1 Remastered #01

InterAction_studios · January 14, 2023, 10:07pm

I have recently made the decision to remaster Chicken Invaders 1. There are several reasons behind this:

I regularly get requests from fans to do so via e-mail, so I guess there is at least some demand.
It would be nice and consistent (and OCD-friendly) to have all 5 episodes in a modern format.
Even at the time of its release, there have always been some technical issues with the original game that I was not happy with (e.g., crashing when Alt-Tabbing away).
I recently tried running it, and it is indeed slow enough to be unplayable under modern versions of Windows (I expected it would be slow, but I never realized it would be that slow).
CIU development has taken its toll on me, especially during the last few months (years?), and I would rather take a break by tackling an easier project. Well, maybe not easier per se, at least it’s something with a clearly-defined goal, what needs to be done is relatively straightforward, and the path can be planned out and completed within a few days. All of which is more than I can say for CIU.

I also plan to chronicle the process here in this topic as a series of bite-sized posts. It will help to provide some insight on the considerations, the limitations, the trade-offs of such a remaster, and ultimately provide some deeper insight behind some choices and why there were made in a particular way.

I expect this to take about a week of full-time work. Truth be told, I’m already at the half-way point, however I think it’s worth pretending no work has been done at all, and presenting things in logical chronological order (while it’s still fresh in my memory). Hopefully it will prove interesting to some aspiring young developers, or at least provide some entertainment value to the rest. I certainly know I’d enjoy reading something like this 24 years ago.

🐔 Chicken Invaders 1 Remastered #01

Table of contents