24th September 2005

Trampoline Gunmen History file


Now might be a good time to recap the history of this series, which started back in 1999, since TG Quadro is actually the 6th version to be released. All of the DOS version were programmed in pure QBasic, without any additional assistance.




Trampoline Gunmen  The first game, and it was 2 player only. It was originally meant to be the mattress minigame which is included in TG: Minigame$, but it evolved into two people shooting each other on trampolines. There was also a second version released later that fixed a nasty bug Id missed.


Trampoline Goats  Technically the official sequel to the original TG. The only difference was that I replaced the main characters with the heads of goats, and the bullets with cheese. It was a homage to and was inspired by Jeff Minter, and his use of animals in games. It also incorporated, rather unsuccessfully, a power-up system. If two bullets collided, they formed a bubble. Shooting the bubble would cause your opponent to freeze. It unbalanced the gameplay, and so was scrapped for later versions.


Trampoline Gunmen: Turbo Deux  A proper update to the original this time, it was the first version to feature AI, which Im rather proud of. It included a tournament against 6 progressively more difficult opponents, each of whom had their own fully animated background, which was for me another great highlight. It was tremendous fun creating an animated ocean background using only pure QB. Plus, there was even a secret hidden Easter egg that allowed you to see the ending (its the # of rounds you select).


Trampalien Gunmen DC  A Dreamcast remake of the very first original Trampoline Gunmen. I did the design, artwork, music, sound effects, playtesting, etc. Voices were done by my brother. It was meant to go SO much further, but then my lousy programmer bailed on me. The worst thing is, he bailed before we had implemented the proper visuals, the Metal Slug sprite rips in there were only placeholders. Plus, I never got to implement the minigames.


Trampoline Gunmen: Minigame$  With my programmer bailing, I decided to make the Minigame$ version alone, again using QB. It was originally inspired by Wario Ware, and I must admit, it turned out rather damned well. I also implemented high-score saving!



Trampoline Gunmen Quadro  The version I bring to you today. This too was meant to be included in the DC version, and frankly, it would have rocked with 4 pads being displayed on a TV. Play either 1v1, 1v2, 2v2 or 1v3.


I someday hope to update TG with further additions that Ive planned: Multiple selectable characters, each with their own different narratives, traits and stats (such as different speeds, ammo amounts, health, special signature moves etc). Plus, the addition of a charging power bar to pull off specials. Then of course, there are the 100 or so minigames that Ive designed, and now just need to be implemented.

If anyone wants to convert these to a more stable format, to run properly on a Windows system, or alternatively, if you want to port it homebrew style to something like the PSP, then send me an email.

Otherwise enjoy



Best regards
John Szczepaniak