In interviews with Stefan Mader, who is one of the founders of the development team, he said, that it was above all the many colours that made him want to develop for the "little Commodore." He was from the beginning sure that games in the quality of other systems are not only possible, but might even look better, because the C16, C116 and Plus/4 can represent comparatively many colors; an advantage over the other home computers that have hardly been used so far.

The previously released Jump'n'Runs Majesty of Sprites, The Lands of Zador and especially Pet's Rescue are actually incredibly impressive and make it clear that the end of the flag pole is apparently not yet reached. The Lands of Zador - technically definitely a milestone - is even a bit too colourful in places. Pet's Rescue on the other hand has and would almost be worthy of one of the 8-bit consoles from Sega and Nintendo. An action game like Gradius has slightly higher requirements: Fast opponents in formations, many projectiles, smooth scrolling, exact collision detection and a spacecraft to be precisely controlled. A C16 Gradius must be able to do all that!

ONLY THE BEST DEVELOPERS
AND ARTISTS ARE IN DEMAND
Stefan Mader may be one of the most talented C16 coders, but the target was very high. A team had to be put together which is made up of the most experienced forces of the demoscene - Only with that a satisfactory result would be possible. The compilation was no problem - under the newly founded label Puls4r, which was basically the old Bauknecht / Boyknecht core team (right).
The numerous members of this group are very well attuned to each other due to earlier collaborations. Alpharay has been compiled successfully within only one year,
quickly finished - and achieves all the imposed targets!

ALPHARAY - ON THE C16 ACTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE
As already indicated by the reference by Gradius, Alpharay is a horizontally scrolling Shoot 'em'up: The player controls a spaceship from left to right, while numerous opponents attack permanently. There are also many turrets, which also fire constantly on their own and the player must maneuver through narrow passages from time to time.
Although the 64 KB systems are aimed - here about 62 KB are free for Code - it is still quite little memory: A level in Gradius or R-Type is quite long. The players are supposed to have something to do and fight numerous enemies,before the bosses show up. In between, about in the middle of a Levels, loading is not an option.
How can a 64 KB system like the Plus/4 manage that?

NEW TECHNIQUES ARE MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
The amazingly large levels in Alpharay - the longest is 25 screens wide and four screens high - do not reside as giant-sized Bitmaps in memory. Rather the individual components are compressed and are only processed shortly before they are unpacked onto the screen. In addition, each background element can be mirrored. With the help of this method, you can already massively saved storage space, which can be used other things urgently needed. However, the permanent decompression takes massive computing time, which must be saved elsewhere. Here comes a new type of trick to the move, the fluid scrolling with lower performance load is allowed as usual: In order to scroll an image, the C16 must not only move the information in the graphics memory, but in a second step also the colors or the color memory. This normally happens by recopying the information before displaying the result. By means of simple write commands, which are sent to are directed to the TED, the readout of the graphics memory is delayed, and its contents thereby shifted. Visual scrolling occurs, but without copying all information. The performance saved as a result is is used for a further novelty: All movements of all Objects are created using a special scripting language developed for the game, which again saves a lot of memory. The new scroll method - Mader calls it the "Bubis Screen Positioning Trick" (named after the inventor András "Bubi" Dotsch) - permitted by the way also the use of singlebuffering. Usually doublebuffering is used: During the current image - or the current frame - to be seen on the screen the next image is already set up in another area of the memory to be displayed. It is a constant, fast change between two screen memories - one is displayed, while in the other the next image is being prepared. Hence the name doublebuffering. Alpharay is a fast-paced action game, which can be played as fast as possible with all actions and evaluate without delays. Therefore does working without two buffers and is drawn directly on the currently displayed screen. Normally, that leads to strong sprite flickering, but with the new screen positioning trick it is also in the singlebuffering mode reduced. In addition, flickering is reduced by the skilful use of colours, so that it can only be seen in very few places.

PULS4R HAS THE TECHNOLOGY UNDER CONTROL
The result is extremely impressive: The levels are long, the objects are fast and numerous, the control system runs smoothly, the scrolling is stunning. But can Alpharay inspire a native Shoot'em'up player? As mentioned before, the levels have an amazing extension. By the scripting language is possible to defeat many opponents and follow established paths, which the developers have made moderate use of. Not too much and not too little - exactly correctly dosed. Some objects are arranged one behind the other, follow a horizontal curve and the first is a dragon head or a snake head; the the effect achieved is excellent. So Puls4r succeeded. There are interesting formations, which follow narrow corridors and every now and then the scrolling changes direction. Opponents and turrets are placed fairly and cleverly. In addition, there are various expandable weapon systems that can be collected and large end bosses, whose tactics have to be learned all of this in a quality that has so far not been possible on a C16.

Even small things were thought of: The own spaceship tilts easily to one or the other when changing direction vertically. There are several difficulty levels, high scores are automatically saved. And Ronny Doll (former Krüger) donated 17 earworm-suspicious pieces of music, which one would not believe to be possible with a TED chip.
Of course you can hear both the music and the sound effects at the same time. The loading system is lightning fast - only before the first level you have to wait a few seconds. After that, the short loading times are of little consequence. Before Endbossen is also a short delay for loading - however in a monkey's tooth and dramaturgically skillful embedded.
Compared with the productions at other 8-bit systems such as the C64, the Master System and the Nintendo Entertainment System, Alpharay can almost keep up. "Almost, because the movements of the opponent projectiles are some times, for instance at bossfights with many projectiles, not quite liquid. Here the weak hardware makes itself somewhat noticeable. However, this disadvantage due to the breathtaking software sprites - up to 17 sprites can be simultaneously displayed on the screen and the dazzlingly designed levels are skilfully hidden. The Themes of the levels are indeed a little surprising, but good and varied. The first level - you of course don't need to be reminded of that style. Of course it's an level in R-Type likeness. The following are organic cave-worlds and even narrow houses-canyons, that quite particularly high Demands on the skills of the players on the other side. All of this is garnished with animated objects in the front and in the Background - for example small Smoke clouds and uninvolved Spaceships - that bring life to the screen.
So yes, interested Shoot'em'up players will definitely like Alpharay. Because only because it's on a C16 is running, you shouldn't leave it alone. But take a look at it and wonder that on the little Commodore a game similar to Gradius is actually possible.

FORTUNATELY, THE 264 SERIES SHOW MANY COLOURS
A LITTLE ADVANTAGE
COMPARED TO OTHER COMPUTERS
ARE THE COMPARATIVELY MANY
DISPLAYABLE COLORS OF THE C16.

THE TECHNOLOGY IS BREATHTAKING: UP TO 17
SOFTWARE-SPRITES SIMULTANEOUSLY ON THE SCREEN CHALLENGE THE WEAK HARDWARE
OF THE COMMODORE PLUS/4 TO ITS LIMITS.

WITH VARIOUS EXPANDABLE WEAPON SYSTEMS
AND BIG END BOSSES WHOSE TACTICS LEARNED
ALL OF THIS IN A QUALITY THAT YOU CAN ONLY
ON A C16 HASN'T SEEN BEFORE!

Under the unknown label Puls4r the core team of the already known Boyknecht group

Some Spritesact as a head - they follow certain paths and draw some others Sprites behind it: Like long dragons.

The Presentation lets Alpharay look like an arcade title: Of course there is also a story to each level and a short presentation of the respective planet. Thus loading times are cleverly bridged.

In front of the bosses there will be a brief reloaded, but these forced breaks are displayed very nice: The Names of the bosses will be displayed and shortly afterwards
you'll be in the middle of where the battles were thrown.

Assembled:
Stefan "Mad" Mader (Programming and graphic),
András "Bubis" Dotsch (programming),
Ingo "Degauss" Jache (programming),
Szabo "bsz" Balazs (programming),
Robert "Kichy" Kisnémeth (graphic),
Rainer "Nero" Muehr (graphic),
Luisa & Oni / Poo-Brain (graphic),
Ronny "5tarbuck" Doll (music).

Technical level optics changes with organic level design. Any Planet has its own name, the along with a short story, and of course an own design.

The opponents come in all possible variations, but always fit to the Level design. Larger opponents can take a lot of shots.

The game uses colours very skilfully - in spite of the large colour palette.

It does not always go straight to the right: In some levels you have to overcome height differences. The advantage is, who'll have the right weapon.

The look is varied: During a level a style is maintained. But different elements ensure that there is always something new to discover.

In front of a boss, there's always something new to do and it's more relaxed - the famous calm before the storm.
Now it's time to breathe a sigh of relief. During the final match there's hardly time for that.