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Very good looking and sounding port. The aesthetic is dead on. Though it doesn't follow the game rules of the original. The original ran on the following logic.
- Goal: Collect 6 divers and bring them to the surface all at once before you run out of oxygen.
- If player collides with an enemy or runs out of oxygen, they explode and lose one life.
- If player surfaces with 6 divers: Freeze game and player, convert remaining oxygen to bonus points, gain points for each diver, clear screen of enemies except the "patrol sub" at the top, increase point value of kills and divers, increase enemy speed, unfreeze game (but not player), refill oxygen, unfreeze player.
- If player surfaces with >1 and <6 divers: Freeze player, remove one diver (no points for this), refill oxygen, unfreeze player. (The patrol sub can get you during oxygen refills, since the player is frozen and it's not.)
- If player surfaces with <1 diver: player explodes and loses one life.
In essence, you can think of each trip to the surface with 6 divers as completing a "stage", after which point values and difficulty increase. Surfacing early reduces progress (removes a diver), but gives more time (oxygen) to complete the objective.
Some other minor thoughts:
- In the original, the player's torpedo shots follows the player's Y coordinate movement. This allows the player to "bend" missed shots, but also forces them to commit to their shot line. Typical shooter fire-and-evade tactics will pull the shot off-course before it can land.
- You have normal enemies spawning close enough to the surface to hit the player during oxygen refills. This is the role of the patrol sub, which should be the player's primary concern when timing surface visits (since the original doesn't let you abort oxygen refills early). I also found myself surfacing by accident when trying to shoot these enemies.
Of course, take or leave any of this as you see fit. It's your port. Thank you for investing the time in it. It was a nostalgic experience.
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