Freeware Game Pick: Mazer Mayhem (ABA Games)
Mazer Mayhem is an XNA-only arena shooter by Kenta Cho, in which the player is given control of a tank as they attempt to destroy as many orange balls as possible while collecting green objects. The action takes place in a large enclosed area, and some traveling is required to search for more enemies.
The W, A, S and D keys can be used to move your ship. Cursor keys have a similar effect. Press the X key to simultaneously execute the dash move, launch a grenade and shoot. Hold the Z or C key to turn your craft around. This build also provides support for the Xbox360 controller.
Players can store a maximum of a hundred green items at any time, with a counter shown at the bottom right of the screen. When entering hyper mode by pressing both buttons, this count will deplete at a very quick rate. Replenish it by finding and destroying more balls.
To play Mazer Mayhem, simply install Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, its update, and XNA Game Studio 2.0. The click on Mm-Windows-0-1.ccgame twice to unpack the game.
Name: Mazer Mayhem
Developer: Kenta Cho
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB
Requires the installation of XNA Game Studio 2.0.
Comments
I feel thats the main downfall with XNA, all the crap you have to install in order to play the games
Posted by: BenH | January 20, 2008 12:05 AM
Also worth noting that you need to make sure you've got the correct Direct X runtimes for XNA as well.
But, having said that, the game's a bit mup.
Interesting experiment, but not really much there to grasp onto in the way of fun.
Posted by: Oddbob | January 20, 2008 12:51 AM
You don't need Visual Studio, "just" the .NET 2.0-redist package.
But it's stupid anyway...
Posted by: Erik | January 20, 2008 2:12 AM
Eric is right. You only need this:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=A7DA4763-6807-4BD5-8D18-18C60C437F93&displaylang=en
It is slightly annoying to have to do, but once you've done it, you don't need to do it again.
And I'm kinda not surprised Kenta's using XNA. It is really very lovely to work in.
Posted by: Aubrey | January 20, 2008 12:33 PM
Oops, my bad. This is the link (for the XNA 2.0 redistributable)
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/info.aspx?na=47&p=1&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=a7da4763-6807-4bd5-8d18-18c60c437f93&u=details.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5%26displaylang%3den
Posted by: Aubrey | January 20, 2008 12:35 PM
Aubrey:
I think you meant this:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=15FB9169-4A25-4DCA-BF40-9C497568F102&displaylang=en
Posted by: x_x | January 20, 2008 1:12 PM
@Aubrey
Installed what you posted - didn't work.
Then I installed the whole package - Visual C, update and game studio - game works now but I have black stripes covering the right hand side of the screen. Anybody know how to fix this? Kinda dissapointed right now...
Posted by: Slang | January 20, 2008 1:29 PM
Oops. Sorry for the confusion folks :/
Posted by: Aubrey | January 20, 2008 10:28 PM
This is somewhat disappointing. I installed the XNA 2.0 redistributable, but the game still gives a crash screen when I run it.
Plus, it's not written in D like his previous games, so I can't compile a Linux version. :-(
Posted by: James | January 21, 2008 2:59 AM