Rhomaios Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Man, 7800 Toki in a playable, near-finished state. Amazing stuff, Willard & co. -- taking a chance on old Atari workstations clearly pays off when priceless stuff like this gets rescued from obscurity and oblivion. Marc Oberhäuser's mock-up box looks amazing, too. Big kudos to everyone involved for gathering all this info and piecing together a plausible story for why this game exists, this thread's a great read. The game looks awesome, to boot. ...although am I alone in thinking that the Toki sprite itself is a little oddly drawn? Haha, the face... smudgy eyes, blocky nose, square jaw. I don't know. Kind of a weird adaptation of the original graphics from the arcade. It's been bugging me, so I decided I'd whip up a quick edit this morning to just generally clean things up a smidge. What's the general opinion on that? I get the feeling that for lots of proto repros, they get released as-is without much tinkering, even as simple as making the sprite look more aesthetically pleasing. Does that seem to be true, or is that just my imagination? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 ^^They gotta get it running on dual region hardware first before we start worrying about miniscule details such as Toki's nose. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 ^^They gotta get it running on dual region hardware first before we start worrying about miniscule details such as Toki's nose. Absolutely. However, miniscule details ... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 (edited) Absolutely. However, miniscule details ... Toki 7800 sprite_2.PNG Okay, the last one is clearly the Arcade ROM. The first two I'm assuming are Atari due to the rectangular pixels. Looking at it, I'm guessing the first sprite is the proto and the second sprite the mockup. I actually think they both look equally acceptable. In fact I kinda think the first looks less bland given a three color pallete, even if the second is closer to the arcade. Secondly, it may not even be possible to update the colors without breaking something else as palletes are often shared between player/background/enemy. Changing Toki's colors may cause another sprite to look very "off". As an example, Goombas in Super Mario Bros share their colors with the level's theme. I'm not sure tampering with the ROM graphics goes with the spirit of the prototype. Let's definitely get a working game ROM before we start to concern ourselves with enhancing the playability, and of course lastly missing levels, graphics, etc... Edited May 4, 2015 by stardust4ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Okay, the last one is clearly the Arcade ROM. The first two I'm assuming are Atari due to the rectangular pixels. Looking at it, I'm guessing the first sprite is the proto and the second sprite the mockup. Correct. Updated image. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 I'm not sure tampering with the ROM graphics goes with the spirit of the prototype. Let's definitely get a working game ROM before we start to concern ourselves with enhancing the playability, and of course lastly missing levels, graphics, etc... Let Defender 2600 Rock on with his awesome sprites man. It is how he rolls. The coder guys and owners of the rom etc. will determine what goes on with this. If they want to change the name of the game to the Apehead Saga or whatever its not for you or I to say. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 (edited) Let Defender 2600 Rock on with his awesome sprites man. It is how he rolls. The coder guys and owners of the rom etc. will determine what goes on with this. If they want to change the name of the game to the Apehead Saga or whatever its not for you or I to say. They should call it "Ape Spit." From the Genesis cover "Going Ape Spit" FTR, I wish they would have stuck to the arcade formula with the Genesis version. I picked up a CIB copy for $7.95 when I first got my Model 1 Genesis at Game-X-Change in 2011, and I was disappointed by the direction the developers took. It did not feel like Toki. More like a consolized sequel that missed the mark. I wasn't trying to knock Defender2600's sprites. I just thought that the original was good enough. Adding in the missing last level would be cool though, but unless the programmer is of the same caliber of PMP, it may feel out of place if it isn't done well, or done too well. As it stands, the game is nearly complete. I am thinking we need an "official" unadulterated ROM for the NTSC conversion, possibly with minor bugfixes, then later on if someone wants to take on the task of enhancing it from there and making a "TOKI Arcade" version with enhanced graphics, sound, and missing levels, then more power to them. Edited May 4, 2015 by stardust4ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Secondly, it may not even be possible to update the colors without breaking something else as palletes are often shared between player/background/enemy. Currently, in the screens that have been published, the player sprite has no colors shared with other elements of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I am thinking we need an "official" unadulterated ROM for the NTSC conversion, possibly with minor bugfixes, then later on if someone wants to take on the task of enhancing it from there and making a "TOKI Arcade" version with enhanced graphics, sound, and missing levels, then more power to them. I agree, an "official unadulterated" version should take precedence because of its historical value, IMHO. However, I think that would be a great addition to have also a later version with some updates (a "TOKI Arcade" version). About the "official unadulterated" version, the NTSC conversion would require the region conversion for the colors but once you find the colors locations it is easy to make even a alternative version with colors closer to the arcade. Here a colors mockup (for the kind attention of Willard), just to not underestimate this interesting option. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) Monthly bump for updates. @Defender: Nice rework. The pink BG elements are a bit much; I'll admit that. Edited June 21, 2015 by stardust4ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 @Defender: Nice rework. The pink BG elements are a bit much; I'll admit that. Thank you. I would just add that there is some imperfection inside that colors mockup (I did it late at night). Here a few better. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 My two cents; the voodoo man looks too close to Toki in v3. He needs different color scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggins Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Hi, Sorry to come into this conversation months after started but just wanted to add a few words about the Atari 7800. In Australia the Atari 7800 was still available in 1993 just before Atari Computers Pty Ltd (Australian office) closed. From the end of 1991 until Atari closed they ran advertising for both the 2600 and 7800 called "Atari The Name of the Game, the choice of the experts" After Atari closed HES were selling the Lynx and even the 7800 through their retail shops called The Gamesmen (I think they cleared out Atari's stock. Australian Atari's are PAL so a new PAL game being developed at that time makes sense here. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 ^^ Nice. It's ashamed this stuff got canned so late in development. The 7800 (and nearly every other game console) came to PAL territories late, so it makes sense they got discontinued later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIKON Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 is there anymore inforama on this title??? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 My two cents; the voodoo man looks too close to Toki in v3. He needs different color scheme. That 'voodoo man' sprite shares the palette of the soil texture / tree in v2 and the palette of Toki in v3. Certainly with the help of a developer it would be possible to update / add some palettes and tiles ( v4 mockup below ). 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 There's definitely too much pink in the Proto for sure. Nice mockups. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Damn I hope the proto and the variant make it out someday 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 And while we wait on them to finish completing that proto, what's the status of Paperboy? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 And while we wait on them to finish completing that proto, what's the status of Paperboy? Paperboy is Missing In Action. No pun intended. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Paperboy is Missing In Action. No pun intended. Suffering from incomplete collision detection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Suffering from incomplete collision detection? MIA in the literal sense. The Paperboy code was rumored to exist on some former developer's stash of computers/floppies, but the guy serached for it and presumably didn't find it or never responded back. Sad that Paperboy may be permanently lost to time and the ether that all deleted data goes to, but Toki is a better find anyway. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 MIA in the literal sense. The Paperboy code was rumored to exist on some former developer's stash of computers/floppies, but the guy serached for it and presumably didn't find it or never responded back. Sad that Paperboy may be permanently lost to time and the ether that all deleted data goes to, but Toki is a better find anyway. I should've put a smiley after my previous comment. I haven't given up on Paperboy. From my understanding, the programmer still hadn't found time to go up in his attic to retrieve his ST discs that he thought the game code was stored on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 I should've put a smiley after my previous comment. I haven't given up on Paperboy. From my understanding, the programmer still hadn't found time to go up in his attic to retrieve his ST discs that he thought the game code was stored on. Fingers crossed the disks are still readable... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Fingers crossed the disks are still readable... . Well, fingers crossed that he even finds those discs first! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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