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Remakes of old video games -- The TI-99/4A and PARSEC


Omega-TI

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I've seen video game remakes over the years, some for pretty obscure games, some for even more obscure computer systems. In all that time, I have never seen a remake of Parsec! I know the TI was not the most popular or well known machine, but it was not scraping the bottom of the barrel either. Could it be that no one wants to screw with perfection?

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I have seen an old remake or two .... one of which was a very poor rendition of Parsec on the Atari 800 .... It was awful!

 

But as for modern remakes, no, there are none .... and you are right , nobody can touch perfection :)

Edited by Retrospect
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Perfection? Well, I also loved this game as a child, and I might be walking into a mine field here, but technically, since the color of the scrolled area is all yellow they should not have used bitmap mode. They could have done this much more efficiently using normal graphics mode, and the scrolling could have been pixel smooth and full screen.

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Interesting Rasmus .... because the use of Bitmap mode was the one reason the game could not be played on the more rare 99/4 (chiclet keyboard model)

 

I see why they did it all one colour though, because as you changed levels, the colour of the background changed with it.

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And MunchMates at the same site, also Howard Kistler, is a remake of Munch-Man.

 

Howard is The Codex here at AtariAge, though not presently active, and also coder of Magellan.

 

In Owen's interview with Howard at Retrogaming Times Monthly, he talks about a remake of Parsec in the pipe named Parsecutor.

 

:)

Edited by sometimes99er
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  • 3 weeks later...

There was a Parsec remake in the works a long time ago. The project died and early death. It looked good. I have attached a couple of the promo videos.

 

It was to be a multi-universe multi-player game. The demo was fun to play. Each "universe" was to be an independent server, and you would move between them by way of a star gate ("It's the 'Fargate'!... "F"! It's different from that movie which I've never seen, so how would I copy it? ... I just want to make sure we are clear, it's the 'Fargate'. Goes far, get it?! And there is no way it came from that movie or that syndicated series based on the movie.")

parsec_fall.mpg

parsec_trailer.mov

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There was a Parsec remake in the works a long time ago. The project died and early death. It looked good. I have attached a couple of the promo videos.

 

There's a site for that one.

 

From what I see, there's really nothing but the name in common. Would hardly call it a remake. Do they mention the TI version at all ?

 

There was another one, which had elements from the original one, sideway scrolling, avoid asteroids scene, name was Parsector, Parsectoids or something. Windows based, and it had a site for a few years until about maybe 2006.

 

;)

Edited by sometimes99er
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From what I see, there's really nothing but the name in common. Would hardly call it a remake. Do they mention the TI version at all ?

 

If there was any mention of the original, I did not see it. None of the ships carry a name similar to the originals, let alone even remotely resembling any of the original ships.

 

Now I could buy into a 3D version of Parsec from the cockpit view, but I totally agree with you, the only thing the same is the name.

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There's a site for that one.

 

From what I see, there's really nothing but the name in common. Would hardly call it a remake. Do they mention the TI version at all ?

 

Holy crap, it lives! I gave up looking for it after the original development project went off-line. This site looks like it's pretty much the same as the original with some recent updates (you know, like the "28.8k modem" minimum spec.) ISTR a short dedication to the original TI Parsec, but reading the history section that may have come after the new game concept.

 

This may explain the differences from what I remember:

 

After the source release of Parsec in May 2003, the original Parsec Project will be closed. However, some members of the original Parsec Project will continue working on Parsec as members of the open source development effort.

 

I never read the FAQ back in the day. I tried pulling up Archive.org copies of the old site to no avail. The current site still has links to the old site, which no longer exists, obviously. Ah, well.

 

Does "Beyond Parsec" count as a remake, or a sequal?

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Well, TI told him not to use Parsec in the name, so it became "Beyond Space".

 

I wouldn't call it a remake for sure. A sequel ? Yeah, why not.

 

http://www.99er.net/jphillips.html

 

With Parsec's popularity, I felt a 2-player version would be a sure hit. I created a storyboard concept and began coding the software as a submission to TI. The concept was two ships in a moveable asteroid field. The asteroids would move if they were fired upon, so they could be used as both an offensive and defensive weapon. I used the sound effects created for Parsec and submitted it to TI. They loved it and accepted it as a Class A submisstion. But TI announced they were killing the home computer. They released the software back to me with the condition that I did not use the Parsec name. So, I renamed the game "Beyond Space."

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There's a site for that one.

 

From what I see, there's really nothing but the name in common. Would hardly call it a remake.

 

 

The project didn't get finished. I'd say that's as TI-99/4A project. :)

 

What might be fun would be to remake TI-99/4A games as they were depicted on the gen 2 instruction manuals. Imagine Car Wars with the futuristic looking cars they pictured.

Edited by S1500
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Well, TI told him not to use Parsec in the name, so it became "Beyond Space".

 

I wouldn't call it a remake for sure. A sequel ? Yeah, why not.

 

http://www.99er.net/jphillips.html

 

Be that as it may, I have a cartridge with the label "Beyond Parsec" and the splash graphics to go with it... is that not normal? I would like to think I have one gem amongst my many unrare cartridges, especially since "Spy's Demise" is going to sell on eBay for over $200! Not that I would sell it, but to SAY I have a $200 cartridge in my stock-pile. heheheh

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I like the idea of a remake. I’ll give it a try, no promises, will probably be something on and off.

 

First of all I’d like to replicate the first level. Copy look and feel to an almost pixel-perfect degree. Not including tricks like laser-trails. And probably resynthesizing voice effects.

 

Secondly, I’d like to slowly expand the universe, at first faithfully to the original style, but also within “top view” capabilities of the chips (9918A, 9919 and 5220).

 

Any input or branching is welcome.

 

:)

 

http://en.wikipedia....ec_(video_game)

http://xona.com/ti994a/parsec.html

http://www.videogame...net/parsec.html

Edited by sometimes99er
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I fire up Parsec in Classic99 with the Debugger turned on. Ship flies steadily across the sky.

SAL at >1B00

>1B00: 50 46 84 0C 50 35 88 03
>1B08: D0

2 sprites. Must be ship and exhaust. Got starting positions. First one (>50) for both is vertical position. Actual patterns must be offset (not at top left corner) within the sprites to line up.

SDT at >1800

First sprite starts at character >84

Location of first sprite pattern at >84 * 8 + >1800 = >1C20

>1C20: 00 00 3E 11 08 FF 80 47 ...

Entering the string in Patterns reveals ... the ship !

parsec.ship.png

Hello ship, hello world.

:)

Edited by sometimes99er
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Looking at the SAL, I moved the ship up and down. Upper limit seems to end at between >05 and >0F. Moving slightly down from >05, will even make the new value the upper limit.

 

Ship moves up and down. You can use arrow keys or E and X. Lower limit set to insure a crash with the message area. Lift can be changed using the number keys, 1, 2 and 3. Area below should be Flash and you should be able to interact - though very limited for now.

 

:)

 

[media=544,416]http://sometimes.planet-99.net/parsec/p1.swf[/media]

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I'm not saying the Atari version is great by any means, but those unfamiliar with the Atari emulators might not have realized that the game relied on color artifacting. Here's an Atari screen shot with artifacting turned on. Unfortunately I don't consider any of the emulators artifacting to be entirely accurate. For instance there are some green colors between the numbers/letters that I don't think would really show on a real TV.

 

Bob

post-18691-0-60034400-1373735404_thumb.png

Edited by bfollett
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I'm not saying the Atari version is great by any means, but those unfamiliar with the Atari emulators might not have realized that the game relied on color artifacting. Here's an Atari screen shot with artifacting turned on. Unfortunately I don't consider any of the emulators artifacting to be entirely accurate. For instance there are some green colors between the numbers/letters that I don't think would really show on a real TV.

 

Bob

 

Reminds me of the color "effects" caused by the Apple's simplistic TTL-based video generator when using white vertical lines with black adjacent.

 

And FFS, "Space Gliders"? Really?!

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