Remember the amazing, jaw-dropping, Shockwave 3D first person shooter (FPS) demo that surfaced last year just prior to GDC? The game was called Phosphor Alpha and it was created by Nick Kang of Rasterwerks. Well, he's done it again.
Phosphor Beta 1 kicks the action into high gear by including multiplayer deathmatch functionality. And it all runs within the convenience of your browser(!), provided you have a computer with a fast processor, DirectX or OpenGL installed, and with a nice video card. Here is what Nick recommends:
Recommended for playback: 1.6+ MHz CPU, 64+ MB video card, Internet Explorer
6, Shockwave 10, Enhancer Xtra required for mouselook, fullscreen.
His recommendations are not requirements, however. I was able to run this amazing piece of work on my measly G4 Mac laptop in Firefox using OpenGL. To play using OpenGL, disregard the initial "DirectX 7 not found" dialog, choose Settings, then Video, then change DirectX to OpenGL and you're good to go.
Additional bullet points that follow are direct from Nick:
- Multiplayer deathmatch in a web browser
- Up to 8 players/bots/spectators per session (peer-to-peer with one player acting as host, using the MU Xtra). Instructions for setting up multiplayer.
- 3 player types with 3 skins each and about 30 anims each (created by the talented guys at AsorsonStudios.com)
- For a controls list, go to Settings/Controls. To re-map, click the box and press a key or mouse button (some keys like ESC and P are not-mappable). Make sure you check Save Settings so your customizations are restored next time.
- If you just want to wander about the world without being bothered, just click Start on the Main Menu (bot count defaults to 0)
- If you just want to watch, go to Settings, hit the Game tab, check Spectator, and add a few bots depending on the speed of your machine (try 3 for <2 MHz, 6 for >3 Mhz CPUs), click OK, then Start. The performance is pretty much CPU bound, due to collision, LOS tests, and projectiles, so the number of bots is the biggest framerate hit.
- In Spectator mode: SPACE = switch view, click+drag to orbit camera, cursor keys UP/Down/Left/Right = camera In/Out/Lower/Higher
- The background audio is an MP3 player, so you can play whatever URL you want (I only recently found out Shockwave doesn't throw that security dialog for this, nifty). To try it out, check Enable, and take a set from these temporary URLs (copy-n-paste into Track fields):
./Propellerheads - Spybreak! (Short One) - The Matrix - 02.mp3
./Rage Against The Machine - Wake Up - The Matrix - 13.mp3
./Prodigy - Mindfields - The Matrix - 07.mp3
./Rammstein - Du Hast - The Matrix - 12.mp3
./Marilyn Manson - Rock Is Dead - The Matrix - 01.mp3
Of course, you would only do so if you own The Matrix soundtrack CD ;-).
Not particularly your taste of music? Have a listen to Tom's excellent interview last week at MagicGate - tilde key brings up the console window, enter ? for list of commands; try "time 0.25" to make everything run sloooow ("time 1.0" = normal speed)
"Any feedback, bugs reports, suggestions (esp. concerning gameplay, map layout, etc.) are much appreciated. My goals are to clean up the bugs (esp. collision), get the networking more robust (such as reconnecting after a drop), improve the AI (fortunately the hard stuff like the waypoints and A* is done, needs a lot of tuning though), get more maps created, and even make a real website one day."
"Here's hoping the game is playable and perhaps fun, cheers!"
-nick
Very impressive stuff indeed. If you haven't had the opportunity to check out Nick's previous work, make sure you don't miss this one. As before, you never know when the testing period will end and the game is taken down.
This game truly is awesome. wish I had someone else to play instead of the bots...they're just too cruel...
This is the best free online gmae i ever played, bbut i only had one problem, i kept on colsong on me during midgame
Wow.... Just... Jaw-dropping... This game compares with CSS and Unreal Tourn 2004 and other great ones
absolutely amazing. maybe we should set up a jayisgames tourney in this, it would be good to play against real people
Mozz, you can adjust the Bot skill level, and I was holding my own at Level 2, and I suck at FPS.
This is amazing, by the way.
Wow that pretty cool
the bots are pretty hard
Is there anyway to download it?
WOW! Very impressive piece of work. Unfortunately there seems to be a serious mouse bug for me :(
The game is stuck in moving my view to the ground. Trying to correct it by moving the mouse forward brings the view up and then moves it back down :/
That's, just.. wow..
I didn't think something like this was possible in a browser-based medium.
I wonder what the level creation is like? Which, speaking of level creation, this guy seems to be a master. No dead-ends. Every spot is connected to another spot on the map somehow. I've seen worse level design in some of the big-name games like Half Life and Unreal Tournament.
This game is great and just to say this is on shockwave platform. Props to Nick on this :)....
WOW
Tequito, i have Unreal Tornament (Real cool) and my jaw dropped at this game. So simple as it is can be, its so fun and you can get big-time hooked. It looks like Quake, especaly ammo boxes. It was hard to beleve that a game could be created on the internet thats 3D plus all the info it may need, without needing to download or be saved.
I would like to see more of these games Jay and keep up with the site :)
Super cool. Is there a level editor?
WOW indeed, this game looks amazing :) Even for a non-brower game it looks good.
HAhaha. He Put the Halo Bug in there. From the pipe, go down the bottomless pit, the one where theres another pipe on the other side. Just jump down. And you'll land in complete darkness with some huge patches of grey, you'll still see the waterfall coming from the pipe though, walk through that, and look up. Amazing.
Although this is an impressive game in many
respects, what most excited me is the ability
to restrict mouse movement to the game window.
so many online flash/shockwave games are spoiled by the mouse losing focus or clicking on ads just at a crucial moment.
Can this feature be easily included in a Flash game ?
Or, even better, could a simple stand alone program, preferable browser based, be made to implement this feature to any existing Flash in a web page.
Come on you coders im sure it cant be that hard :)
(by the way, if it already exists, plese let me know !! )
AAAHHHHHHH!!!
Closed till monday! What I'm I going to do till then????
Drat! The game's offline until Monday 3/20. I wish that Nick had mentioned the time zone. I have'nt gamed for a while but this one is a-d-d-i-c-t-i-v-e :)
Would be nice to know how to grab that suit of armor. Unless it's difficulty-specific? I just couldn't jump to grab (perhaps revealing my inexperience). Anyone?
Stig, the mouse restriction is handled by the Enhancer xtra, makes things like changing screen res & joystick & mouse control easy.. but being a Shockwave component it's not available for Flash.
http://www.director-xtras.com/xtra-enhancer.html
Is this game messed up or something it says multiplayer then how do i play against real ppl i got to settings netwerok and i click on server and nothing
i get a ip and i click ok and somehow join and no ones there like i'm alone??? But its best online game i ever seen.
It's a good game, but there's one problem. If I right-click, in addition to using the alternate fire, firefox brings up the default right-click menu, which messes with my mouse position and gets in my way. Is there any way I can stop it?
I don't know. Was addicting at first but now I'm kinda of bored of it. I'm more in to games where you accomplish something, like hapland.
Freeloader. Jump from the catwalk above to get the armour.
cool site
how do you download it???
One of the best web games I've ever played and more stable than many games I've payed for. The only bugs I've found so far are bot's becoming invisible, leaving only their shadow to shoot at and the game crashing after long sessions.
I've jumped into the pit a few times but have always died, I'll have to try again. On one occassion I jumped from the armour crate towards the lower door, missed and fell into a space just outside the long tunnel. From there I could see the bots running across various areas and shoot at them.
On another I followed a bot up the corridor to the observation post, hugging the left hand wall, turned a fraction to early and found myself on the top of the hills next to the ob posts roof. I wandered about for a bit before jumping onto another concrete platform. Unfortunately this turned out to be the armour room and I fell straight through the fan.
So the hills are useable if you can reach them but I can't find a legitimate way of getting up nor can I reproduce the action that got me there in the first place. Anyone got any ideas?
You can get fairly high up in the smaller canyon by climbing the spur inbetween the machine gun/health and pulse rifle pick ups but this route is to give access to a ventilation shaft that leads to the bottom of the stairs and contains an ammo recharge
Elvis: For multiplayer you need someone to host the game on their home computer and then give the other players there IP address. I'd offer to do this but I only have a 1mb connection and don't think it would work very well.
I went on a bit longer than I intended. Great game and great website Jay!
alien x off shockwave.com was a fps but it had no multi player
So true, AlienX is an excelent game but is not MP and it plays in a small window.
Phosphorb, on the other hand, can be played MP, fullscreen and appears to be advancing by leaps and bounds.
I think they've increased the power of a players jump so it's now possible to reach the hill tops by the route described in my last post spoiler.
If you want to discover it yourself, just run around looking for bits of landscape to run and jump at, you'll find it eventually.
P.S. I think that players should regenerate with 100% armour, otherwise its just to easy to kill those regenerating.
The game isn't available at the moment, a message says the beta version has "expired" and Rasterworks has replaced it yet.
The route to the hilltops only lasted a short time, they readjusted the jump height and it was no longer usable.
hi, i love this game and i think that it's amazing how good it is but still only a browser game!! can someone either point out or give me like a guide on how to use the console comands?? they confuse me a lot.
A few hours ago an update was posted for Phosphor which adds a useful new feature. It will now allow you to pick up and use the weapons dropped by those recently demised (including yourself). It also puts a couple of halos around the weapons presumably to make them easier to see.
Good mods I think. It certainly helps with building up your stock of weapons and/or ammo. You now don't have to go as far to get a more useful weapon for your current environment. Very useful for me because I'm rubbish at the game! Hugely enjoyable though.
Well done Jay. First class site. Always need my daily fix. How else would I have found out about Phosphor, Lego racing, isketch etc.?
Splendid.
Thank you kindly, Fredthesecond. =)
I had almost completely forgotten about Lego Racing, and thanks to your reminder, I have added it to the "Replay" feature on the front page in hopes that newer visitors will get the chance to check it out.
I have also added Phosphor to the replay feature, based on your good news, so cheers! =)
Hey if anybody is still reading the JIG comments for this particular game, let's definitely set up a JIG tournament! Email me and we'll try to get something going!
How do you join someone else's server? + Counterstrike server is up atm.
Sorry for double post but someone please help with my question. Server still up and remember when playing, click F11 on your keyboard to get full screen.
Anyone who's reading, go to http://www1.rasterwerks.com/game/phosphor/beta1.asp and join my server (NAME: Counterstrike)
Thanks.
Just a note to say WOW!! This is the best browser based FPS ever. I can't wait for more maps and mods, yes it has the odd bug i.e. falling down the cavern and not dying, being blown away(by the rocket launcher) straight through a wall, but I love it!!
If you want a cheat:
Go to the console and type in god
Has anyone else found anymore?
Jay, I was just remembering this game and decided to come back and take a look at it. I was noticing in the main post, it has several mentionings of "MHz" and this is a mistake. It should be GHz. Just thought I would say something. :)
(I thought this was very funny as it says "try 3 for 3 Mhz CPUs" and my CPU is *2600* MHz :P)
Is there any way to download this so I don't have to reload it every time on dail up?
when one enters a url for a music clip at the start of the match it plays but the 2nd url does not auto play and with the cursor there is o way to manually play it can anyone offer some help
Phil H, when you posted the cheat in the eariler post, I do not know where the console is. If you could give me a location that would be nice. Thanks!
Regard my last comment. I found the console, but when I type in the cheat, it says it can't be used during multiplayer! How do I use it without multiplayer?
i know a cheat go to console and type in ghost it alllows you to walk through walls. and once i did something that made me jump high. do you know how this could be done again?
Dudes I know a way to get to the stairs in the sewer places going up though a canyon. I don't know if anyone else has discovered it but lets just in case, I will recap you. There is health and a machine gun and a not so steep canyon wall, you can climb that, but you have to jump a very thin part to get to the ventilation. There is rocket launcher ammo. I don't want anyone to think this is plagerism, ok. Congrats to those who those who discovered it before me.
Why does the online have so much lag, do you goys know, can you help me, I know the max players has to be 4 but stilll, why? Respond to question in an hour, or at least a weak. And yes others have discoverd the canyon trick of climbing the little canyon. Something I forgot to type was that you can't enter the area with the machinegun and health. You have to climb the ramp lookig canyon with a ventilation tube thing at the end. But someone climbed another canyon near the small bridge in multiplayer. It mite have been a glitch, or a cheat, or just some bad lag. If this happens to you, type down hear in about a weak, or month.
Why are ther so few peple online, come on and play. Im waiting for hours, well, more like half and hour for a good match.
Please, if your going to come and play, leave a message hear saying at what time you will play and sever. If you don't like being the server, please write that too, although, nobody is able to connect to me even if i have a 4 megabite connection.
Please notify me of any other cheats
PLaytime starts tommorrow.
Yes, i know how you can jump high. (phosphor beta 1) When you are outside and theres 2 red high jump platforms, jump on the first one, then aim for the second one and you'll jump high again. Then everytime you jump, you jump high. (B.T.W, do you know any site with phosphor alpha 4? I never got a chance to play it.)
Wow! It's great game! The best game i've ever seen in browser!
Here's a cheat...
Press Console and type in god, ghost and jump
Phosphor rocks!
I've tried jump high in the platforms but i can't it. Can you tell me more information about who do it?
Wow i just found this game when they put it on addictinggames.com...this is one of the best i have played. Where is this console though?
Well, guys I've been enjoying this tough game a month now. And I have applied few cheats. But I could fairly enjoy the game, while we opt for challenges on the way. However, gotta try it. Here are some cheats as mentioned above: on the console type, god, jump and ghost. The console can be found at the control tab. Change the console button to the desired letter or character for easy access on the game. After you have started the game long press the letter/character corresponding to the console. A gray slot will appear at the bottom. Type the desired cheat.
Well, hope you'll enjoy after all. Have fun!
Hello, guys once again. This game is really adicting. I spent a lot of time playing this game. But kids, please stay in school. You know the graphics of this game is awesome, including the backgrounds and the sound effects. The graphics is even higher than other online game (what do you think, of those?). To Nick Kang, KUDOS for this inventiveness!
Just a hint, the cheat codes doesn't work over multi-player game. It only work if you're playing with the bots. Press ~ on the keyboard, and type the cheat code you desired.
Good Luck and Good Gaming Guys!
This happened to me:
Health: 5
Weapon: Pulse gun
Recent evens: nearly dead after a bot launches a rocket
and sends you into the ditch.
Current events: Spawn: bot 2 w/ sniper rifle. Right in front of me. Ah well, easy kill!
What's going to happen: Chasing the enemy... Bot 2 turns around... and...BANG! I got pwnd.
love the game cant wait for it to go out of beta
What exactly does the "jump" cheat do? I've tried it and as far as I'm concerned, it doesnt do anything.
Also, I've done the superjump bug a couple of times before, but now I can't seem to do it again. I even slowed down the time to perfect the landings, but i can't do it.
how do you use the Phosphor editor?
how do i reverse the cheats? I entered the gheats in console andi beat 1 round super fast. I went to the main menu and checked to seeifr there was a ser for multiplayer.There was none. I started another game, and the cheat wer still on. How do i turn them off?
Oh never mind, all you gotta do is refresh your browser window and the cheats should be off.
if you have cheat code, you're almost diluting the effort and the thrill behind the game.... try to play natural way... this is my personal feel ...
I found a good trick. If you have very low health (20 or under) and u have a rocket launcher then shoot at the floor. You will die but hey, it would take a while to get ur hp back plus u get a kill because u are killing yourself. Plus theres no way u could get another kill before getting killed(unless you snipe them or they have 20 or less hp). And, if you spawn close to where u died, just go and grab your old rocket launcher! So after doing this u get: a refill of hp, another kill, a new weapon and, if your lucky, you dont really lose anything xept for 1 missle!
Yeah, typing in the word jump doesn't do anything.
ok, the cheat is Jumpvelocity then a number, exactly like that.
another cheat, gravity [number]
Can't open the console!!
If I press the tilde button, the console doens't open.
(btw, i have azerty, so i pressed both the tilde on azerty and qwerty..in sof, it works, in phosphor, it doensn't)
Hi All,
anybody knows how to use cheats in server mode?
ok if anyone sees this go to network and be a client and find this ip address: 172.16.100.161
only 4 players tho i will put in bots kk thanks!!
i really want to find out how to play phosphor alpha 4 i never got to play it so can somebody plzzzzzzzz tell me!!!!!
Alpha was the version of Phosphor before Beta, which means you can't play it any more. And why would you want to?
acyullat i found out how i can play it
and it is so awesome!!!!!
In phosphor beta 1 u have to use E to activate something can somebody tell me where u activate it at because i really want to know!!!!!!!!!
i press the tidle to get the console up it wont come and ive changed it it still wont come up HELP ME!
This may sound a little dumb, but for the life of me, i can't figure out how to get out of the settings menu. Can somebody tell me?
Wait, never mind. I got it.
I did someting im not sure what i did but after i did that thing i could jump sky high..anyone knows how to do this?
I really like this game:-)
It would be great on DS.
I want to play against someone, could someone tell me a server and password so I could Join? Thanks!
type in [weapon all get 999999] and you will get unlimited ammo for all guns
its a fun game but the bots are as hard as heck
WOW this was astounding. Not to mention all the other things, finally a game where I can fight with my bro without a split screen, cause with those (I dont mean to) I see what he is doing in his half-screen. No way either of us can genuinely sneak up on each other that way.
I think it would be really cool if you could restrict the types of weapons used in each match.
Great game, but I can't seem to play it on my Mac . I guess I would have to get an external mouse or something @_@ Anyone have any ideas?
Mine doesnt work everytime i try to play this,it shows a black window thing,with the symbol where a picture doesnt show,a paper with a red X on it. Also ive tried troubleshooting,nothing changed at all please help
Another cool bug. When going up the elevator, start walking into the wall just before you get to the top; you find yourself up to the waist in the ground. Then go to the ramp up to the sniper rifle (don't jump at any point) and walk up the ramp backwards to get outside the scenery.
How do I get the multiplayer to work? :s
I LOVE THIS GAME! I play it all the time (God and ghost rule!) =) NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BUT THE TIME TO 0.25. Because if "I" do I my game messes up... IT RULES THO!
here's a new cheat to get all the weapons infinity ammo:
press console and write: weapon all get 99999
can someone please tell me the cheat for jumping high. the only cheat iv seen here that works is ghost[thanx random guy] can someone please tell me some cheats that actually work cuz jumpvelocity and god do nothing.
can anyone say what happens when you type in gravity i typed it in and it said gravity = 950
plz someone say what it means
Hey hey hey! It seems as though Phosphor is now in Beta 2!
my best score for hacking: 15-0, 30-0, 25-0, 20-0, 10-0, and 5-0.
my best for not hacking and playing legit is;
30-5, 25-6, 20-4, 15-4, 10-3, 5-1.
THIS GAME ROCKS!!!
WE SHOULD HAVE A TOURNERMENT! ahahaha
be soo BEASTY AND FUN... it just sucks that there are "BOTS" instead of Humans like us.. -.-
if they were humans i would love to be first place. ahaha game is a rated
9/10!
Cheats:
type in (~) or (`) its the key under ESC.
then type god for incvinbility
ghost for walkin through walls
weapon all get 999( for some reason i cant go over that)
gravity 10 t jump up and stop until your in the sky, now this is a good hack when u fall into that big hole in PB(phosphor beta) 2 and how to get down when you are stuck in the air is you type in
gravity 950 to get down- make sure u point at the ground and try to walk towards it.
jumpvelocity 1200 allows you to jump high(you wont be stuck in the air)
MAKE SURE YOU TYPE THESE CHEATS ONE AT A TIME!THEN PRESS ENTER FOR EACH CHEAT YOU TYPE IN!
your Welcome, From Wang.
gravity 950 if for going down when you are in the air.
It only works when you use "GRAVITY 10"
When you get stuck in the big hole where those two red jumpers are make sure you use the cheat
"god" so that you will not die- no matter what.
once you get stuck use "gravity 10" and jump this jump will get you out of the whole and send you up into the sky. YOU WILL GET STUCK IN THE SKY! so use "GRAVITY 950" TO GET DOWN! make sure you aim for a place other than the whole!
Type in (~) it is the key under ESC
God for invincibility
Weapon all get 999
Ghost for going through walls
Gravity 10 to jump into the sky
Gravity 950 to get down from the sky
Jumpvelocity 1200 to jump high(you will not get stuck in the sky)
Your welcome!, from Wang.
x.x i JUST found this game and i see NO ONE playing online. IS any1 hosting a tourney? id rly like one.
@ Wish other ppl played: I'll play you! Post a comment again when you want to and I'll play you.
@Master DC
People actually still read this? I thought that was a pointless post... Ty for the post though. reply back. Wow, if other ppl actually read this it'd be enough for developer to work on again...put this game up on the web any1 else who reads thos plox. i dont feel like goin 2 quake live...
@ 0_0: Sorry that I haven't posted for a while. I stopped playing because I got addicted to MW2 & BF2, along with a bunch of new wii games i got this summer XD ! I would like to play with ANYONE who still plays this. plz comment back!
@Master DC
I never knew people still played multiplayer on this! I have been hosting multiplayer matches, to no avail, for about a week, and it would be good if a real person was actually online. To anyone who plays, reply back, and I'll join your match!
Im surprised people still play this... w/e replys back to this...Yeah. Do you think we can get nick to work on this again...? (probly not.)
Yeah, Nick has probably been working on it a bit, as there was also a new texture mod and whatnot, but maybe if more people played he'd update the game more. By the way, is there a certain time when any of you would like to create a multiplayer match?
how do you reload?!?!
Is anyone still playing this?
I LOVE IT!!! NOw ca u make it into a full featured, downloadable game?
Can you help me? i can't use my mouse to look and shoot and it i can only look around by arrow keys and shoot with CTRL.
Update