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Wile Coyote
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 646 |
Green Beret - Is any interested in..
Is anyone interested in making a new version / conversion for the C64, as I am sure it can be done better than the original official Imagine release. The Imagine release was impressive especially the Audio which could be re-used, or conversed to use less raster time, although the graphics, and some of the playability could be much improved.
Ideas:
If the game were based on disk / cartridge, I thought it would make sense to load each level during the interlude screens.
With the extra memory, maybe it would be possible to use hires overlays on the sprites.
If the score were placed in the upper border, the playing area could be increased, to match that / be similar to that of the Arcade version. |
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v3to
Registered: Feb 2005
Posts: 150 |
for the bg cyan is not the best choice for bg, though it may be possible to get a bit more detail by pixelling transitions. there are some color-combinations with the variable color that will provide problems. that is the reason why i think you need a lighter shade of grey or you need to use cyan like grey. both versions would cause a color cast.
the whole thing would look more grey-ish.
playability: agree, without a doubt. |
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STE'86
Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 274 |
well, personally i found the cyan of the c64 not very easy on the eye. but technically yes the arcade is closer to the "duck egg" colour of c64 cyan. tho tbh i am unsure how well this would "gel" with the other c64 colours.
the draughtsmanship yes could probably be improved in a few areas. Steve Wahid did pretty well in this conversion but he wasnt a graphic artist in the Steve Thompson class. But again in defence, drawing stuff in char mode takes a different mindset to doing it in bitmap or you run out of chars quicksmart.
you are in no way ever going to get black outlines in those sprites, sorry but its never going to happen in 2:1 multicolour mode.
fair point about the c64 version being so hard, but in mitigation, the bullet speed is so because its alomost certainly a software sprite and so has to move 8 pixels a time.
Steve
edit no i am reliably informed the bullets are HW sprites and move fast to get them off the screen quickly to prevent the multiplexor overloading and glitching. :) |
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Wile Coyote
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 646 |
With the original Steve Wahid graphics, they look stretched horizontally.
This had the knock on affect of making the play area appear lacking in height.
One idea might have been to narrow the play area width. Another idea might have been to keep the wider player area, and show more of the backdrop.
Speaking hypothetically, and given the fact Im not a programmer, the illusion of a taller play area might be possible.
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cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
But what's the pixel aspect ratio on the real arcade screen? The resolution seems similar to NES, which stretches its pixels horizontally to fill the TV screen, but emulators don't always emulate that.
Of the graphics, you could possibly achieve more colorful level backgrounds by not making black a common color, but a char color instead. However at some points that could be a detriment. Or perhaps even using bitmap mode and VSP scrolling :) |
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algorithm
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 705 |
Sprites with overlays would give 4 characters on one section (including player) But would need to take into account any enemies/player jumping up to next section on screen (eg if there are already 4 players on the top platform=no more sprites. but the AI would take care of that. would ofcourse require a considerable amount of multiplexing although would not hit cpu resources greatly and due to the simplicity of the background graphics, charmode will do (although bitmap and vsp) would give more color combinations.
For the bullets/missile, would be easier to use charmode and to eor the bullets with the background
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cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
There could still be some unforeseen shit happening, like a dead enemy (if you emulate that from the arcade, it would be nicer than just always turning into a skeleton) or weapon falling into a group of enemies on a lower platform, and overwhelming the multiplexer. But in that case you could flicker the objects like on NES :) |
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algorithm
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 705 |
Bitmap mode would solve that problem somewhat. Or using spare characters that are not used in display to 'ora' the killed enemy onto a strip with background definitions and then plotting the new chars there etc. same for bullets.
Flickering the bullets also would not be that much of an issue if they are sprites |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5086 |
wow, atariage forums have arrived. blabbling instead of coding is indeed very easy, a few sentences in a minute, and the game will just code itself after that.
all this overlay and graphics shit wont make the game better anyway, playability is more important than 'nice' overlayed flickering sprites. |
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algorithm
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 705 |
Quote: wow, atariage forums have arrived. blabbling instead of coding is indeed very easy, a few sentences in a minute, and the game will just code itself after that.
all this overlay and graphics shit wont make the game better anyway, playability is more important than 'nice' overlayed flickering sprites.
Yes, talking about things instead of doing it is indeed easy in comparison to taking out time to actually create it, but thats not exactly rocket science is it? People here are just putting idea's together and making some time pass by with comments.
Yes, gameplay is important but if the graphics are 'better' it adds to the gaming experience |
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STE'86
Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 274 |
sorry but no matter how u look at it, you arent going to get hi res overlays. there are too many variable positioned enemies to consider wasting half your sprites on black outlines.
u say there can be 4 men in a line including yourself, well thats fine for when u are standing but what happens when u get 3 enemies on one level and u duck?
your player is 2 sprites wide when lying down
so you would suddenly go from requiring 8 sprites on a line to requiring 10. ditto when u get a green man doing a flying kick.
realistically no matter which way you come at this, it just not possible to do overlays on GB.
and once again i point out that Dave Colliers 'plexer is a serious bit of AI. he already takes into consideration how many enemies are on each level before letting guys shoot or change levels.
indeed as Pete pointed out to me last night night, when an enemy fires and there are too many sprites in a line, all that happens is that a gap the height of the bullet appears between the torso and legs of the sprites. in most 'plexers you would lose the legs off one of the sprites. like i say. serious bit of kit.
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