Carnivac's CPC pixels

[Gryzor]

In Spain was officially distributed, and the second part too. I bought both, because i loved french games 

Was it really? What was its title? was it translated (I remember some text within the game)?

[SyX]

Was it really? What was its title? was it translated (I remember some text within the game)?

1.- Of course, take a look in CPC-Power.
2.- The spanish title was "Billy El Barriobajero".
3.- I don't remember text in the game, but "Proein Soft Line" (the spanish distributor) usually translated the games. The instruction manual and the cover are translated.

In Spain, Erbe imported the most part of UK games, because that we had a few minor distributors that brought the few games not distributed by Erbe and a lot of games from France. These distributors didn't have the money of Erbe to buy ads in the important magazines, because that they can not compete with quantity or cheaper prices, but they gave more quality (better package, great translations of instructions/game and much more interesting games, at least for me).

[Gryzor]

Thanks for the nice post, Syx. Interesting stuff.


Also, looking at the screenshots I remembered the mini-games. IIRC, these were actually pretty good! They look quite authentic as well... Maybe I should play it again!

[SyX]

I think that was the Mode 1 platformer with the teenager in the hotel wasn't it?  So long ago now.  I would like to make something of that but no it's not that I've been tinkering with lately.

Everytime that i see that mock-up always came to my mind a cpc game based in "Supernatural"... ay rock music + pixelated Winchester brothers destroying ghosts, demons, angels, ... pure 8 bit heaven 

[Carnivius]

Everytime that i see that mock-up always came to my mind a cpc game based in "Supernatural"... ay rock music + pixelated Winchester brothers destroying ghosts, demons, angels, ... pure 8 bit heaven 

Never really thought about it before but yeah I can see what you mean. 

[Carnivius]

I'd been using a revamped version of the RoboCop CPC sprite as my sig image for a while but I've finally found the piece I cropped it from that I was working on back in 2010.  Basically, while I always enjoyed the CPC version of RoboCop (and consider it my second favorite version after the arcade game) I still felt the graphics could be better.  I began a revamp though I didn't get very far.  I thought people might like to see what I did do though.  The top was what I started to do and the bottom was the original screenshot so you can see what I did change.

RoboCop sprite (more accurate coloring, shape and detail using an action figure as reference)
babyfood health sprite
brick walls
window
street lights
status panel (though the gun icons are from the original)
unfinished are the road and city backdrop (I was restyling the backdrop using screenshots of the arcade game as reference but didn't get far)
Everything else was untouched as I didn't finish.

Ok there's no story sense why there's a red player 2 RoboCop.  I think there was a second player in the RoboCop 2 arcade game.  I think I did it just out of fun and it always annoyed me when I went round a friend's house to play his Amiga with him but he'd be playing RoboCop and wouldn't let me play cos there was no 2 player mode.  Then I got the CPC version for my birthday and found it superior in my opinion.  Anyways if I continue this mock up I'll probably remove RoboRed and re-layout the status panel accordingly.



Might finish this at some point as it's bugging the hell out of in it's unfinished state.  Possibly change it to a night time look for better atmosphere too.  Have learned a bit more about CPC graphics since I did this too so could redo it a lot better I reckon.

And yeah I suck for not finishing Duckula or RoboCop mock ups.   

[ervin]

BEST.MOVIE.OF.ALL.TIME.
It's wonderful that this legendary movie/game is still talked about all these years later.
(I believe it is also Eugene Jarvis' favourite film!)

I've often wondered where your sig sprite was from - now we know.


Nice work on that screen, by the way.
I particularly like the traffic lights and the RoboCop logo.

Your skyline is much cleaner as well - it always bugged me that the original's skyline contains all that odd grey dithering.
Was it meant to signify pollution?

[Carnivius]

Your skyline is much cleaner as well - it always bugged me that the original's skyline contains all that odd grey dithering.
Was it meant to signify pollution?

Heh, thanks but I hadn't finished what I was going to do with the sky (and my buildings look AWFUL in their unfinished state).  You're right about the fact the dithering in the original looks bad.  If it is meant to be pollution then it doesn't work too well.

And yeah I love RoboCop.  Got the figure standing right by the laptop as I type this. 

Strange.  Was gonna load up the Blu Ray for some movie shot refs to continue the work (rather than using the arcade game as reference as that feels a bit second hand) but it turns out I don't have the Blu Ray.  Thought I did.  Ah well I have the DVD.  Plenty good too.

[Gryzor]

Very subtle changes, but really nice results with Robocop. You totally stayed within the original's aesthetics and gave it a nice boost... congrats!

[Carnivius]

Very subtle changes, but really nice results with Robocop. You totally stayed within the original's aesthetics and gave it a nice boost... congrats!

Thanks.  I'll do a much more drastic upgrade when I have time.  Haven't got much free time for the next couple weeks cos of rehearsals for the play I'm acting in.  We go on in a couple weeks so lots of rehearsals and stuff to do before then to make sure everyone's sorted.

I'd quite like to animate the new RoboCop sprite walking too.

[Gryzor]

I'd say you're torturing us. Wish someone picked up those ideas and implemented them...

[Carnivius]

I'd say you're torturing us. Wish someone picked up those ideas and implemented them...

Am sorry. 

Fun with RoboCop figuuuures!




Sorry, this is just helping me get re-motivated to finish that RoboCop mock up.   

[Gryzor]

Hahaha! Go for it mate, whatever rocks your boat!

[MacDeath]

in a miniserie (recent one) there was a second Robocop, some sort of roboblack (those americans and their Racial clichés)...

could be great for a 2up player game...

Anyway this Amstrad Robocop had impressive tunes and sounds.


RoboCop (Amstrad CPC) - Title Screen Theme

and a sweet cool modern "remix" (form both C64 and CPC actually)


Let's remix - Robocop

those guitar solos, this bass... ouch I cry and jizz my pants every times.


Also fun to see Wrestlers and Robocop...


RoboCop saves Sting




on last :


i always found this intro page was a bit lazy and shamefull.
Ok, why not mode1 after all, but my point is that it could benefit greatly from a few rasters...
the car doesn't need the pink.


of course the white i added could/should be used on the Robo part to have a better dithering gradiant and highlights (had no time ATM)

And yep, a good old overscan mode0 would be more than fine too.
BTW thiis lazied speccy ported is the only disgrace in this awesome game.



"Dawn"... oh wait, this hot blond 80's chick from Ocean ?
ouch...

it's her :

I am disapointed...

[Carnivius]

Anyway this Amstrad Robocop had impressive tunes and sounds.

To be honest I was never that keen on 'that' tune.  The tune itself is nice but it didn't feel quite right for me as the first tune I hear on loading a RoboCop game.  I quite like the level 1 in-game tune but I really wanted the actual RoboCop theme the arcade game and Amiga versions had.   I own the movie soundtrack and often play it while I'm doing stuff so wished the CPC version had more of it.

Also fun to see Wrestlers and Robocop...


RoboCop saves Sting

Yeah I remember seeing that when I was a kid and I'd forgotten about it in recent years until I bought that Sting figure of one of his more recent looks (the one on the far left of the action figure photo with the white facepaint) and stood him next to RoboCop on my shelf and then it jogged that memory.



The attachment of your edit of the loading screen is nice but I think you'd got too much red in the visor.  A much more subtle approach (perhaps a thin vertical line off-centre) might work better as he doesn't tend to have a full red visor bit and the black of the original makes him look more intimidating.  Personally I would have done the whole thing in Mode 0 as it would allow better shading (much more metallic effects with the extra colours and some flesh tone on the visible face area and have the logo in the blue/red double lighting as the real logo often has and I attempted in the status panel of my mock up) and the original poster I recall had some red backlighting to RoboCop as well.  Also I just get a bit annoyed when the game's loading screen is in Mode 1 and the game is in Mode 0 and vice versa.  I prefer a more consistent look throughout the entire game.

[MacDeath]

I own the movie soundtrack and often play it while I'm doing stuff so wished the CPC version had more of it.

This said I am also a huge fan of Basil Poledouris (RIP, maestro) and was also a bit disapointed the music wasn't ported from his score.

Robocop had those sweet digital sampled voices, but only in 128k version, which you couldn't have due to your CPc being a 464...

I used to have my CPC6128 plugged into a stereo HiFi thing with sweet basses and the music qre ridiculously better compaired to the in-built mono-speaker.

The attachment of your edit of the loading screen is nice but I think you'd got too much red in the visor.  A much more subtle approach

yeah as i told, didn't put time on this one... it was just to show how a few rasters could have been used...

It would need perhaps a couple of hours to get it betterly done...
Sadly I don't think the 464/664 version could afford such extended feature (or like a full screen or even 320x200 screen) because the RAM must be quite a bit short...

but on a 128K version or a "from scratch" remake, perhaps... or some sort of cracktro like new page...

Robocop is one of those games that added a few bits in 128k...
single loading, and sampled voices mostly.
Still better than nothing.

Personally I would have done the whole thing in Mode 0 as it would allow better shading

exactly...
hell it should have been ported from the C64 version instead of speccy, as usual.

With all those sweet blues, the CPC could have really shined even (especially) in only 160x200x16.

Also I just get a bit annoyed when the game's loading screen is in Mode 1 and the game is in Mode 0 and vice versa.  I prefer a more consistent look throughout the entire game.

don't tell me...

it was a quite common "feature"...

1st case : the game is an awfull speccy port in shitty used mode1, but the intro page is a sweet awesomness in Mode0 done especially for the CPC...

sadface because you would have liked the whole game really converted.

2nd case : the game is properly converted, use mode 0 all the way and even manage to be playable and nice...
But it took all their time so the intro page is jsut a fast speccy port of death...

Robocop, Chase HQ, Victory Roads... and may even feature Attributes artefacts.


concerning Chase HQ or Robocop, you can clearly see the Amstrad and Speccy verison share a lot in the "engine" departement...
but this is a good case of Speccy port done well/not lazy/ actual cross development.



to see the intro pages :

victory road :
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=109

chase HQ :
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=100

[Carnivius]

Robocop had those sweet digital sampled voices, but only in 128k version, which you couldn't have due to your CPc being a 464...

Ah, who cares?  I have more fun just making RoboCop impressions and saying quotes from the films while I play the game anyways.  Much more in the way of 'speech samples' than the 128k version then.   

hell it should have been ported from the C64 version instead of speccy, as usual.

With all those sweet blues, the CPC could have really shined even (especially) in only 160x200x16.

The C64 loading screen was a really odd choice.  He just looked like he was in the middle of some conversation.  And it was coloured really bizarrely with far too many hue changes.  Ugly.  Also the in-game graphics weren't much better.  Why was Detroit mostly pink?


Anyways CPC RoboCop in-game looks to have been done for the CPC itself rather than ported from another and while I think it can be improved on I still appreciate the fact it looks like a proper CPC game and not a port of Spectrum or C64 (it's more competently sprited than the Amiga version too)

[robcfg]

Hey Mac!


I'd say, a CPC+ version of the RoboCop loading screen would be kick-ass! 

[Gryzor]

Heheheh! Human-generated voice samples, this is almost as good as having the soundtrack on a separate cassette


Also, the Ocean girl... oohhhh!

[Carnivius]

Heheheh! Human-generated voice samples, this is almost as good as having the soundtrack on a separate cassette

RoboCop is very fun to impersonate just because of Peter Weller's awesome voice and the way he delivers those lines.  Other actors could have simply done a flat monotonous robotic voice but he somehow does it with a sense of artificial personality that it's not quite robotic and not quite human either.  Perfect.

I'm trying to sprite his car at the moment using my toy of it as reference.  It's possibly the only time I've sprited a CPC graphic where I've actually been annoyed there's not more grays in the regular CPC palette.  But then that's part of the fun and challenge for me.  Just thought it could have been nice to see the car turn up at the beginning of the level and him to get out of it in the way that he does in the film and start walking on beating up and shooting the bad guys as the game plays.

[Gryzor]

Heheheh! Why do I remember the car sequence in a game too? Was it a sequel or another machine?

[Carnivius]

Heheheh! Why do I remember the car sequence in a game too? Was it a sequel or another machine?

I don't know if it's ever been fully done with him getting out of the car.  Thinking about it more I think it would look cool if the car got hit by a rocket as it drove onto screen and exploded and was on fire (the fire sprites could be reused throughout the level with the city looking more trashed so it's clear there's been a riot) and then RoboCop stepping out of the wrecked car as he does in one scene in the film.

Looking at screenshots on Mobygames his car does at least appear on the DOS version (in a very bright shade of sky blue)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/robocop/screenshots/gameShotId,60202/

Also check out the ugliness of the Apple II version
http://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/robocop/screenshots

Definitely the CPC version was one of the best available for home machines.

[Gryzor]

Damn, for some reason this thread made the Terminator music get stuck in my mind. My brain's totally off-topic


But I'm *sure* I saw him coming out of a car somewhere... Oh well!!!

[Carnivius]

Damn, for some reason this thread made the Terminator music get stuck in my mind. My brain's totally off-topic

It's not 'that' off-topic.  There were RoboCop Vs Terminator comic mini-series and video games.  I particularly liked the Mega Drive game over the SNES one (the Mega Drive's more 'limited' graphics actually suited it more with the lovely dark atmosphere and metal shine, whereas the SNES one looked a bit soft and pastelly).  I need to get me a decent T-800 action figure sometime to pose with my RoboCop.

But I'm *sure* I saw him coming out of a car somewhere... Oh well!!!

Maybe he did but I can't think which version if any that may be.

[Carnivius]

I kinda like the CPC acronym...

I'm already using one. 

Spoiler: ShowHide

If I ever manage to find a coder to turn Cosmic Prison Commando into a real CPC game. I have been messaging Axelay for a little while for advice on how various things work on a real CPC and have been modifying my plans not just to ditch what would be too much for a real CPC but to add new stuff in that would work fine and add to the gameplay.  Have been revamping and actually improving the graphics lately too with the overall plan to make it look the best it can on a 64k machine with extras for 128k machines.  Still loads to do but eventually will need a real CPC coder to turn it all into a proper CPC coded game once I'm done.

sorry..off topic.  Put most of my post in a spoiler tag to 'hide' it so it don't stand out.