|  ACE +4 | |
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| | Releases | | Name | Released By | Release Date | Distribution | Product Code | Retail Price | Format | Package | Rarity | Notes | Owned |
| Original release | Cascade Games Ltd. | 1986 | Commercial | | | Cassette | Microcase | Unspecified | | 4 |
| Gamebusters release | Gamebusters | Unknown | Commercial | | | Cassette | | Unspecified | | 2 |
| 2 found. |
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| | Covers | |
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Cassette Cover (Gamebusters Release) |
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| | Physical Media | 
Cassette |
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Disk |
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| | Advertisement | 
Click for full size ad. Sent in by Kim Lemon. |
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| | Built-in Cheat | Taken from the German book "Der DATA BECKER Führer: C 64 Superspiele" from Data Becker is a cheat mode for ACE. (All cheats in the book are for Commodore 64 games, but this cheat works on the Plus/4 version as well).
German
Steigen Sie nach dem Start gleich auf etwa 50.000 ft. und lassen sich dann im Sturzflug nach unten fallen (Nase zeigt zu Boden). Bei etwa 18.000 ft. nehmen Sie die Triebwerke langsam zurück und bringen das Flugzeug wieder in normale Position, nachdem Thrust den Nullpunkt erreicht hat. Sie fliegen nun, ohne einen Tropfen Sprit zu verbrauchen.
English
After the start climb to circa 50.000 ft - then let yourself fall down with a nose dive (nose points to soil). At a altitude of 18.000 ft take back the engines slowly and bring the plane back into normal position, after Thrust reached the zero-point. Now you fly, without using a drop of fuel. |
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| | Author Speaks! | On February 2008, Ian Martin talked about his own game on Lemon64:
An incredible 22 years have passed since I wrote this game. It was developed over several months through 1985 (I think I missed most of Live Aid because of it).
I've just disposed of my C64 but before I did, I played some old games, making mpeg recordings of some highlights, and my old game ACE was one of those products.
A brief inside story:-
ACE started life as a very simple air combat game for the VIC20 and C16 - the decision was made by Cascade (yes, those people behind Cassette 50) to produce a full C64 title. I was giving a lot of creative freedom, but driven by one of the directors to add more and more (refuelling, ships, 1 bit speech) and I have to say that his project management was spot on. The game eventually was completed in September 1985 (I think a July completion was originally planned).
Playing the game 2 days ago - for the first time in more than 10 years - I was actually engrossed by my task - to video the refuelling sequence. It took me ages, and I kept getting bounced by enemy fighters. I eventually crashed whilst landing, almost out of fuel!
The graphics are crude by any standards. I wanted a bitmap gameplay area, with sprites for planes etc but in the event we used a character screen to get a high speed. I'm no artist, but I did the helicopters, trees, planes and most of the cockpit panel. We brought in an artist to help with the latter.
We never pitched it as a flight sim - fun was the order of the day.
The sound is adequate I feel - the speech does add to the feel of the game, and of course the quality is accurately poor.
The refuelling sequence took ages - I think that the refuelling pipe was linedrawn into a sprite, as I recall - but I always felt it was the best looking part of the pseudo-3d.
I think I can be reasonably objective after 22 years to say that the gameplay whilst repetitive can also be engrossing - the battle to stop the map turning red. I experienced the anguish of having my first airbase overran by the enemy.
I cannot believe we used the phrase "enemy planes" rather than "enemy aircraft". I think the box said "100% machine code" too!
We did a Plus/4 version in 1986 - which was great fun to do - purely because a mistake on an advertisement implied that there was a fully functional Plus/4 version. The threat of action by the Advertising Standards Agency forced a Plus/4 conversion.
I've awarded some scores trying to be as objective as I can.
I stayed with Cascade for a couple of years after ACE, and we did some other games, including a couple of sequels, but none as much fun as ACE. Cascade folded in 1990. |
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| | Cheats - How do I use cheats? | | >EA2E 24 | Unlimited fuel |
| >32C2 2C | Unlimited ammo - all types |
| >D3D0 A9 00 | Disable copy protection question |
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