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Popeye Arcade 8-bit conversion


miker

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darryl1970, on 14 Dec 2015 - 01:45 AM, said:

I always thought that was cool too. Actually, the Atari has registers that will offset the screen.

Likewise, I think Atari is known for it's smooth scrolling.

However, I think maybe Playsoft told me he tried implementing that, but there was an issue.

 

I know the arcade version only moves the screen. It don't think all of the characters move with it, but I thought it had something to do with certain things moving.

 

Anyway, two of my biggest issues with the game would be way more than a hack.

1. I hate that Brutus always floats to the right side of the screen when punched. I'd love to see him bounce around the screen.

2. Brutus has really poor AI, and he's really easy to manipulate.

3. Popeye can't punch in the air.

 

I think we kind of left it at the sweet spot, where it improves it while playing on the strengths that were already present.

Playsoft made some pretty sweet changes for not decompiling the code. Pretty impressive. I had fun drawing the characters around an 80's console color and resolution limitations. It was really fun to see how 1 pixel could really change an animation.

 

I played around with a vertical shake, since that can be done by simply adjusting the blanks at the top of the screen - but the issue was that you'd need to shift all the player/missile graphics too as bits of Olive and Popeye get mixed up and the collision detection goes off. For a horizontal scroll I think you'd need to remap screen memory for a wider playfield.

 

I never set out to modify the game, just to put Darryl's graphics in it. If someone else wants to do more with the game then I can provide the source for my changes which hook into the original game.

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90,400 Up to round 9 so far... the changes made take Popeye from an 8 to a 9 out of 10. The game looks really nice and bright :thumbsup: Did you intentionally remove the pause and restart features?

No. I am sharing to the best of my memory. I am a little fuzzy, but I think this is how it went.

 

I do know that the recent graphics were updated on the actual A8 version. I am pretty sure that only the 5200 version had Pause. :(

Previous versions were drawn over the 5200 to A8 conversion, because the original hack was for the 5200 version.

I forget who did this, but pause was remapped to the space bar when converted to A8.

 

The sad thing is that I do not like the punching bag behavior on the 5200 version.

They did it to compensate for the non-centering sticks, but I think it was stupid, as I never had any issue with the sticks in this game.

Popeye doesn't have to leap off of the platform; pressing the button, while standing still, by the punching bag causes him to leap off.

I like to stand there and punch the hearts sometimes, and I don't like wasting the punching bag.

 

I am not sure of the exact details, because Playsoft handles injecting the graphics back into the game.

I do not believe the A8 version ever had a pause feature.

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The fact you guys did this at all is just awesome.

 

It is. I really haven't looked at it since I started DK Jr. It may be the final.

I will have to revisit it, and see if there's any minor tweaks to be made.

 

This thread started off with the Homesoft port of the 5200 hacked version. Then I started modifying the A8 original too. Then I got fed up of doing everything twice and so just did the A8 original which does not have pause as far as I know.

 

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Just found this 'Let's compare' clip on youtube.

 

 

Seems the XL/XE 5200 remake was one of the best. :thumbsup: :D

The J2ME version you see there was executive produced by moi at Namco when we licensed the game from Hearst.

 

One fun thing we got to do was we included both an arcade accurate version of the game plus an "enhanced" version which is what you see in the video (starting at 18:29) in which we tried to make the game look more like an old Max Fliescher cartoon, including the costumes. The best part was we were able to add two new custom-designed levels to the game, including one based on the old Popeye cartoon "A Dream Walking". I personally animated Olive Oyl's sleepwalking. :) We even got Eugene the Jeep in there.

 

As to the punch animation. I know this is a hack and that limits the possible solutions re the punch length of Popeye;s arm, but it occurs to me that if you were doing this game from scratch you'd just use a DLI to change the player widths on the lines which feature the extended arm so that only those lines of the player doubled at the appropriate moment.

Edited by Big_Mo
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The J2ME version you see there was executive produced by moi at Namco when we licensed the game from Hearst.

 

One fun thing we got to do was we included both an arcade accurate version of the game plus an "enhanced" version which is what you see in the video (starting at 18:29) in which we tried to make the game look more like an old Max Fliescher cartoon, including the costumes. The best part was we were able to add two new custom-designed levels to the game, including one based on the old Popeye cartoon "A Dream Walking". I personally animated Olive Oyl's sleepwalking. :) We even got Eugene the Jeep in there.

 

As to the punch animation. I know this is a hack and that limits the possible solutions re the punch length of Popeye;s arm, but it occurs to me that if you were doing this game from scratch you'd just use a DLI to change the player widths on the lines which feature the extended arm so that only those lines of the player doubled at the appropriate moment.

 

Too bad they messed up and labeled the game as "JavaSCRIPT" instead of Java.

I noticed that this version uses Bluto instead of Brutus. If I remember, Bluto was just a trouble maker to both. Brutus was the one that also liked Olive.

 

A little twist on the game, as well as the sleepwalking.

 

Fun game.

Edited by darryl1970
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Well, as I said, the "enhanced" version was designed to look like a Max Fliescher cartoon, so we went with a more Bluto look instead of Brutus, as opposed to the "original" mode, which retained the arcade graphics.

 

I need to get a good J2ME simulator so I can run the game and get more screenshots.

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Well, as I said, the "enhanced" version was designed to look like a Max Fliescher cartoon, so we went with a more Bluto look instead of Brutus, as opposed to the "original" mode, which retained the arcade graphics.

 

I need to get a good J2ME simulator so I can run the game and get more screenshots.

Yes - the JavaScript version/enhancement has particularly excellent graphics done. I wish all the other games that had their graphics enhanced/retweaked etc were done to this high standard, but yours is the only one that has done such a great job.

(These were Bounty Bob/Miner 2049'er / Donkey Kong) done elsewhere.

 

Harvey

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Yes - the JavaScript version/enhancement has particularly excellent graphics done. I wish all the other games that had their graphics enhanced/retweaked etc were done to this high standard, but yours is the only one that has done such a great job.

(These were Bounty Bob/Miner 2049'er / Donkey Kong) done elsewhere.

 

Harvey

That's nice to hear. I was a real stickler on our mobile games that the "original' modes look exactly like what we were porting, but when we'd do the "enhanced" mode the trick was not to lose the spirit of the original look. I've seen too many games that get graphic updates which end up looking utterly unlike the originals and thus they feel "false" on some level.

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That's nice to hear. I was a real stickler on our mobile games that the "original' modes look exactly like what we were porting, but when we'd do the "enhanced" mode the trick was not to lose the spirit of the original look. I've seen too many games that get graphic updates which end up looking utterly unlike the originals and thus they feel "false" on some level.

I am going to have to play this again. I don't think I tried the original version. I only played enhanced.

 

Also, The Youtube video incorrectly labeled this as Javascript.

It is Java, not Javascript. Two different things.

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  • 4 months later...
Guest LiqMat

I FINALLY got around to actually playing this on Altirra and where most games start with a button press from my USB joystick I can't seem to get this game going. The title screen comes up and then it plays the music and I can see the play board, but nothing I do seems to get the game going, What am I doing wrong here? Thanks. Plays fine on my real hardware of course.

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  • 7 months later...

Is v10 still the latest?

It is. I really haven't looked at it since I started DK Jr. It may be the final.

I will have to revisit it, and see if there's any minor tweaks to be made.

It's December 2016 now, so I'm curious: is the version 10 final? Or maybe there would be some minor changes in the future?

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It's December 2016 now, so I'm curious: is the version 10 final? Or maybe there would be some minor changes in the future?

I checked what I have on my machine quickly. I don't think there is much more that can be done to Popeye. I think the player characters are about the best I can squeeze into the size and resolution limitations.

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  • 1 month later...

I did play around with the graphics some. This is an updated Popeye. I tweaked his head to have a little more detail.

I also made a few minor tweaks to the punch. There isn't much I can do with that, but it is cleaned up a little.

Also altered the death frame, which is also limited on size.

 

Bad news is that I seem to have lost many of my files. The colors seem off to me, and I do not recall how to change the colors.

I also do not recall how this got converted to the 5200.

 

Do the changes justify an updated version, or should V10 be the final?

 

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