Bomb Jack remake

[BSC]

There are more than 4 colours per line in quite a few places (vertical colour splits). In several places I'm also using dithered colours but inverting the dither pattern at 50hz which disguises the dither. For example the rainbow colours at the top of the screen, and the entire background of the bonus screen. The flashing GAME OVER letters do this too.

Regarding dithering and colors, did you use inks 0, 2, 15 and 25 for the game area in level 1? At least it looks like it. I made a quick experiment, see screenshot. I think dithering in Mode 1 is quite useful.

edit: I changed my guess from ink 11 to 2 and replaced the screenshot.

[Anthony Flack]

You were right the first time, it's ink 11 in stage 1.

[CyrilAmstrad]

Great work ! WIP on good way

[BSC]

I wonder how this great project is proceeding.

[Anthony Flack]

Yes! I'm very sorry it isn't done yet. 

It has been nearly finished all year, but I have been busier with my work this year so progress is slower. I've been trying to do a few hours every Sunday to get it finished before year's end in time for the 40th anniversary of the CPC and Bomb Jack. I do enjoy it and would work on it all day if I could. 

I feel a bit guilty because the game is fully playable and I have meanwhile been playing it all year, it's great! Sorry for the wait, if you like Bomb Jack it will be worth it. I have slowly been adding the final bits of polish, front end menu, difficulty balancing, high score saving and various other details that I need to call it properly finished. It's getting close now. 

[Gryzor]

Don't worry about us man, it's just great it's still progressing no matter how slowly!

[Anthony Flack]

I'm really keen to share it. And give myself permission to start a new game

[Anthony Flack]

It's not always glamorous but sometimes you have to make a pause menu...



Or a high score name entry screen

[GUNHED]

Hi Anthony! Great piece of work so far. Feel motivated to finish this super awesome game. It's one of the very very few to show the power of CPC MODE 1. 

[VincentGR]

I'm really keen to share it. And give myself permission to start a new game

Maybe a single screen game like Snow Bros or Rodland now that you have that killer engine? 

[dodogildo]

I hope this venture would end up with a physical release

[Prodatron]

Yes! I'm very sorry it isn't done yet. 

It's always a huge amount of work or just a big mess to finish the last 5% of a project.
For Bomb Jack you probably recognized, that your project will be really cool, so you just want to have it as perfect as possible. And this makes the last 5% even harder...

[Shaun M. Neary]

@Anthony Flack - You don't owe us an apology for delays.

We're waiting over five years for Vapourtino... personal life comes first.
At least you're cluing us in with relevant updates.

From what I'm seeing here, this Bomb Jack upgrade is gonna be worth it.

[lmimmfn]

It's not always glamorous but sometimes you have to make a pause menu...



Or a high score name entry screen

Impressive pause menu, that's a lot of work to get the additional pink/red colour for the Restart/Quit text, very nice

[Anthony Flack]

Yes! I'm very sorry it isn't done yet. 

It's always a huge amount of work or just a big mess to finish the last 5% of a project.
For Bomb Jack you probably recognized, that your project will be really cool, so you just want to have it as perfect as possible. And this makes the last 5% even harder...

There's an old joke in game dev with more than a little bit of truth in it in my experience
The first 90% of the game takes 90% of the time.
The final 10% of the game takes the other 90% of the time.

You're exactly right, it's all starting to get a bit messier and hackier especially as I get close to the memory limit, but it's all going to fit (just). And the game itself has turned out great, so I want all the presentation to be as nice as can be.

[Anthony Flack]

It's not always glamorous but sometimes you have to make a pause menu...

Impressive pause menu, that's a lot of work to get the additional pink/red colour for the Restart/Quit text, very nice

If you like raster split colour effects, there's plenty more of that.

The nice thing about doing the menu like this it becomes trivial to have the text colour change as you make your selection. I don't have to redraw anything, just change the ink numbers, so it's easy. And the CPU has nothing better to do anyway, since the game is paused, so why not. I resisted the urge to put colour gradients or anything too ostentatious on the text because it's not in the style of the game, but it's nice to get a little bit of extra colour in there when I can.

[lmimmfn]

It's not always glamorous but sometimes you have to make a pause menu...

Impressive pause menu, that's a lot of work to get the additional pink/red colour for the Restart/Quit text, very nice

If you like raster split colour effects, there's plenty more of that.

The nice thing about doing the menu like this it becomes trivial to have the text colour change as you make your selection. I don't have to redraw anything, just change the ink numbers, so it's easy. And the CPU has nothing better to do anyway, since the game is paused, so why not. I resisted the urge to put colour gradients or anything too ostentatious on the text because it's not in the style of the game, but it's nice to get a little bit of extra colour in there when I can.

Ahh yeah, I can see the split masters at the top and bottom and I take it cpu is providing extra colours at the bottom one?

It's just very impressive to see the extra colour in the window of the pause screen, I don't think I've seen that in any game back then? and just seen it in demo's since. I realise it's not that difficult and counting cpu cycles but it's very impressive to see it in a game and you've made excellent use of mode 1 already with split rasters. 
It's those small touches/attention to detail that really add to the game experience, great work so far!!!

[Anthony Flack]

There's one screen which I won't spoil yet, where I push this technique as far as I can. I'm just curious to see how it will look so I have to try these things. 

There is only one 80s game that I can think of that used vertical colour splits, and that is the "Naughtyometer" in Jack The Nipper and it looks really nice. It's too bad coders weren't more adventurous with vertical splits back then, since there's no secret to it. It's true that it's easier to get the timing right with an emulator, but it's still nothing compared to what people were already doing with the Atari 2600.

I'm relieved that the title worked as well as it did, as that one was quite a puzzle to figure out. Again it is inspired by the Atari 2600, specifically the awesome homebrew port of Juno First. 

[andycadley]

There is only one 80s game that I can think of that used vertical colour splits, and that is the "Naughtyometer" in Jack The Nipper and it looks really nice. It's too bad coders weren't more adventurous with vertical splits back then, since there's no secret to it. 

Are they raster splits? I'd honestly just assumed the screen was switched to Mode 0 for the bottom few lines, it would've seemed an easier way to pull off the same trick.

Looks very cool in your Bombjack though. And so subtle I didn't even notice it at first, which somehow makes it more impressive than if it were screaming out "look how clever my demo effects are" 

[Anthony Flack]

There is only one 80s game that I can think of that used vertical colour splits, and that is the "Naughtyometer" in Jack The Nipper and it looks really nice. It's too bad coders weren't more adventurous with vertical splits back then, since there's no secret to it.

Are they raster splits? I'd honestly just assumed the screen was switched to Mode 0 for the bottom few lines, it would've seemed an easier way to pull off the same trick.

I had a look and I think it's actually impossible to tell either way just by looking. I assumed they were just banging the colour change because the bands look like about the right width for that, and it's only a few scanlines tall so it would be doable. But maybe.