Jacques Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 (edited) @shanti77 Yeah, I know our version is based on BBC Master (not Micro), but wanted to compare rather with "mainstream" 8-bitters (OK, Sam was not mainstream, it was a failure to introduce 8-bit with Amiga/ST on the market). I've added BBC Master screenshot, but its colours are crazy! Edited May 16, 2020 by Jacques Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanti77 Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 Yes, Atari have better colors. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 3 hours ago, Jacques said: Just played it a bit longer on real Atari, I have to say the combination of dynamics, graphics and sounds is possibly the best of all PoP for 8-bits (C64's is "correct" imitation of PC/Amiga, but graphically simple and boring, similiar on Sam Coupe (plus it's slooow), CPC is missing frames of player animation, therefore key-feature is gone). Thanks, the thing that can't be easily replicated on the other platforms is the fact that each character has 5 colors + background on the A8 while still staying within the limits of the original A2 ( you forgot the pic btw ? ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 (edited) Since I can't edit original post anymore, I paste again the screenshots with added original one from Apple II. Atari 8-bit: CPC: C64: Sam Coupe: BBC Master: Apple II original (last but not least ) Edited May 17, 2020 by Jacques 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 Mac version ? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 The brickwork on ours/BBC looks better than most of the others though obviously the BBC suffers from those attrocious colours. Even the Mac looks simplistic, is saved by good resolution and better texture than most others. I've had a bit of a dig around - browsing memory I couldn't see a cheat code though not really expecting plaintext. Then of course it'd probably just process raw keycodes, found an instance of it reading Pokey directly but couldn't work out what it was trying to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 And a topic about making PoP for Atari 2600. Sadly the project is presumed dead. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Ascii 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Just curious... will you release all the stuff to public or just running file(s)? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 On 11/30/2019 at 3:59 AM, rensoup said: On 11/29/2019 at 11:23 PM, pseudografx said: I revamped my older attempt at PoP graphics, reducing the number of colours to 4 and polishing some parts a bit. It is also adjusted a bit better to character boundaries so 5-colour mode could be possibly used. I added TIX's awesome sprite in to check the proportions. well I'm storing everything compressed with deflate on disk. The levels graphics take about 6KB so it may be possible to store an alternate set ?... I haven't decided it on using priority 0 or not, which would impose restrictions on the palettes. Do you think in the end you will still be able to store the alternate graphics set? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 I also have to say - the Atari graphics as we see them have the most convincing 3D/depth illusion by far, followed by the Mac ones. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 (edited) Would be quite interesting to additionally see the classic gfx from Apple II (Amiga/PC) on A8, but that would go best with classic sprite of Prince (Jordan's brother video-capture). But what we have right now looks incredible. With maybe small question mark over palette used for the castle levels, I'm not sure that purple colour is the best fit, maybe it should be a bit brighter (or less purple ), like Amiga/PC? On Amiga/PC I remember myself always enjoying leaving dungeon levels for castle graphics, on Atari 8 it's a bit other way round and dungeon looks a bit better. Edited May 17, 2020 by Jacques 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 5 hours ago, Rybags said: The brickwork on ours/BBC looks better than most of the others though obviously the BBC suffers from those attrocious colours. Even the Mac looks simplistic, is saved by good resolution and better texture than most others. I like those bricks but there are just too many of them so it gets a little intense: the picture becomes a bit confusing... the vest color was almost a necessity to make the prince stand out. 5 hours ago, Rybags said: I've had a bit of a dig around - browsing memory I couldn't see a cheat code though not really expecting plaintext. Then of course it'd probably just process raw keycodes, found an instance of it reading Pokey directly but couldn't work out what it was trying to do. You'll just have to wait a little longer then ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 6 hours ago, miker said: And a topic about making PoP for Atari 2600. Sadly the project is presumed dead It may be fun to start something like that but the A2600 is just so far behind that it was an impossible task... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, José Pereira said: Just curious... will you release all the stuff to public or just running file(s)? The source code will go on github but the art will be in binary form (because the art converter is just tailored for the current sprite sheets: any mistake would make the game blow up or not even build because it would run out of memory) 3 hours ago, TheNameOfTheGame said: Do you think in the end you will still be able to store the alternate graphics set? Not that one, the way it's built doesn't fit the restrictions (there can only be one 16x63 wall tile, I could make it 32x63 perhaps but PG's is just random). Generally, to make a working tileset requires a lot of work... I could post the current tile set for everybody to see what's involved (it's also available in the BBC source code btw) 3 hours ago, Jacques said: Would be quite interesting to additionally see the classic gfx from Apple II (Amiga/PC) on A8, but that would go best with classic sprite of Prince (Jordan's brother video-capture). I wasn't sure about that before but now it's probably not a good idea anymore... when I mentioned an alternate Prince set, I hadn't really done much work on the PMGs... it's a messy piece of code and in the end I added a bunch of small restrictions to make my life easier and they may not be compatible with another animation set. In short: probably too much hassle... 3 hours ago, Jacques said: But what we have right now looks incredible. With maybe small question mark over palette used for the castle levels, I'm not sure that purple colour is the best fit, maybe it should be a bit brighter (or less purple ), like Amiga/PC? I like that purple palette... I had a yellow/sand palette for several months before I came up with this one: it was crap ? and it made the castle levels look really inferior to the dungeon ones. There's only 3 colors so it's trickier than you'd think. I'd like to have a few more palettes: 1 for the dungeon levels and 1 for the palace levels so if anybody has the skills, feel free to post mockups here (they should only use colors from the A8 palette of course) Edited May 17, 2020 by rensoup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 21 minutes ago, rensoup said: I had a yellow/sand palette for several months before I came up with this one: it was crap ? Oh, I see... Just of curiosity: would you be able to paste a screen of such "sand" castle example (similiar colour scheme to PC/Amiga), or it's too time-costing after you abandoned it? Anyway, after your explanation I believe current one is the best way to go and I never thought it was easy! With so limited number of colours, it's incredible to pull out the look like this and yes, the vest is doing it's job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 5 hours ago, Jacques said: Oh, I see... Just of curiosity: would you be able to paste a screen of such "sand" castle example (similiar colour scheme to PC/Amiga), or it's too time-costing after you abandoned it? Anyway, after your explanation I believe current one is the best way to go and I never thought it was easy! With so limited number of colours, it's incredible to pull out the look like this and yes, the vest is doing it's job here's a bunch for posterity... I said 3 colors but the light grey one is pretty much fixed... so you've only got 2 colors to play with! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 For anyone wanting to come up with new tiles, here are the current ones: it's a little more involved than you'd expect... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 Just a quick rework of the basic wall tile. It is a little bit too uniform. For more variety there would have to be several alternative wall tiles and I am not sure there is enough memory left for that. Moreover, I am currently quite busy with another project so I am not sure I could redraw all the graphics for PoP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) Do you know what happens when you keep reworking the the icing on a cake? It all goes wrong... We have one of the best POP ports ever! I'm sticking with bank one stuff and the fix up for things like the crash and what not... all this other stuff makes chances to go to far or even spoil the masterpiece we have. Edited May 18, 2020 by _The Doctor__ 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, rensoup said: here's a bunch for posterity... I said 3 colors but the light grey one is pretty much fixed... so you've only got 2 colors to play with! Thanks @rensoup! ? I have to say, #1 is one I don't like (it's too yellow and too dark against the black background at the same time). But #2 and #3 look both very good! #3 is a bit more lively, but #2 seems more subtle, suits the look of a palace build of sandstone(?) very good and there's a bit of similiarity to Amiga/PC palace. Please don't get mad at me ( ), it's just personal feeling based on static screenshots, but honestly your screenshots confirm there could be something better than current purple/violet, which just for me is a bit odd and also too dark, so I'd pick #2 or #3 instead of current one, if I could choose it like the vest ? Overall#2 looks spot on (floor nicely standing out from the black background, and subtle tones of sandstone) Edited May 18, 2020 by Jacques Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) For the last couple of months, between my drawing sessions, I'm toying around with a new wall tile set.. I haven't "seriously" worked on this, it's more of a stress relief doodling. So among others here is my favorite tile so far.. I'm going for a catacomb look, I have yet to incorporate the in-between pieces for a more uniform look and the columns. I'm sure if @rensoup expand the width to 32 pixels, it will be much better ! I generally like the idea of a unique look for our version, but first I have to make time.. Edited May 18, 2020 by TIX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) Why would we take this and make it look like Roman, Italian, Jewish, or French catacombs... Our Prince is in Persia... drifting away.... New 8 bit game Prince of Paris? Edited May 18, 2020 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 I hate to break it to you, but other countries have stones and bones too.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 Stones & Bones? Hey, that was my favourite machine on the Amiga version of Pinball Fantasies. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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