A Tribute to Deathchase
One of the first games I remember truly enjoying as a kid was Deathchase, a simple motorcycle chase game for the ZX Spectrum, developed by Mervyn Estcourt back in 1983.
Mervyn managed to fit an entire 3D world into just 16 KB, a world where you raced through a forest at full speed, dodging trees while trying to shoot down enemy riders. Looking at it today, it might make you smile, but back then it was absolutely amazing.
Gaming isn’t quite the same when you get older. You don’t always have time for long stories, elaborate campaigns or complicated game mechanics. Sometimes you just want to recapture that feeling of excitement those early games gave you: simple, almost arcade-like games where you could start playing immediately and have a few minutes of pure fun.
And that’s exactly what I wanted to bring back.
Maybe update it a little, but keep that same simple spirit: jump in, start playing and have some fun without too many complications.
And while I was at it, I thought it would also be a good opportunity to put GPT-6 Astra to the test.
But I didn’t want anything complicated. Just something that runs in a web browser, with no accounts, no saved data, no fuss, no big ambitions… just simple.
After a few development sessions, always interrupted by more important things, I ended up with this version:
https://juanosborne.com/deathchase
It has definitely scratched that itch and brought back some of those feelings from a very long time ago.
The original Deathchase
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathchase
Try my version
https://juanosborne.com/deathchase
Controls
Use the arrow keys to accelerate and steer, and press Space to fire.
Credits
Bike: StarWars Speeder Bike, by Idmenthal.
Rider: Scout Trooper – Star Wars, published by Leonardo Benavides.
Aaron Swartz
This is my little tribute to Aaron Swartz. I’m sad because we did not have the opportunity to help him. I’m also very sceptical with this story, but I have to admit that I’m sceptical even with the sceptics.
For a few days I thought about how to pay tribute… with one of his quotes (love “there is no justice in following unjust laws”), with the most relevant words of wikipedia … but the words “forever free” always ended up in my head.
Probably because in the land of freedom it was his biggest fear, to remain free. I really think it was the weapon. But somehow he reversed the whole thing… he is now forever free. We will never forget you Aarom.
Inside Keith Haring
My little tribute to Keith Haring, a mind full of colour and wonderful messages.
For this illustration I took around 35 of his great figures and spread over his portrait.
Tribute to Sean Taylor
Anish Patel came to me with this sad but wonderful history about Sean Taylor. After reading about him I decided to create a little tribute to his memory…
So I took more than 4.300 messages people left here after his death, people continuous writing even a year after, and counted the most used words of all these messages. Then I spread the words over some different images of Sean. Size of the words represents repetition.
The beginning of the word list:
family (3443),sean (3261),god (2436),taylor (1638),may (1478),missed (1315),bless (1261),prayers (1235),love (1054),time (1051),know (875),peace (839),fan (761),redskins (720),rest (718),go (691),heart (677),friends (676),one (659),always (656),great (629),thoughts (610),player (582),play (548),never (540),life (532),watch (508),football (471),rip (451),man (443),memories (427),loss (423),remember (419),comfort (394),now (392),just (372),like (371),young (362),day (361),condolences (341),live (337),best (334),keep (322),person (321),pray (310),see (304),field (302),many (299),game (289),heaven (283),much (280),deepest (277),can (275),forever (273),lord (273),thank (271),goes (265),sympathy (265),sad (258),truly (257),son (243),lost (241),daughter (237),father (235),ever (230),sorry (230),way (229)… and another 3800 words
And counting two representative words combo:
god bless (1084),sean taylor (869),may god (765),taylor family (722),rest in peace (556),thoughts and prayers (457),bless you and your family (347),family and friends (294),prayers go (282),redskins fan (215),rip sean (211),prayers are with your family (207),sean’s family (194),go out to the family (193),deepest sympathy (164),never be forgotten (159),heart goes (151),family of sean (148),family in this time (147)…
Thank you Anish for helping me with this!.
Here you can find my other favourites:
