Bubble Bobble remake? (BB4CPC)

[trocoloco]

Hey,I use vlc,which configuration you use?

don't use vlc, it doesn't work (at least for me), use Audacity   it's freeware, seguro que te va mejor.

[dragon]

don't use vlc, it doesn't work (at least for me), use Audacity   it's freeware, seguro que te va mejor.

It works!.Eres un genio!.

[trocoloco]

It works!.Eres un genio!.

oleeee, glad u have it working now     q lo disfrutes!

[cngsoft]

Good morning, it's been a while; plenty of things have happened here, incluing moving to a new house that lacked bed sheets at the beginning and where I don't have anywhere to install my CPC6128 and store my tapes and discs yet.

It's nevertheless time for a fourth release of BB4CPC, with more patches and bugfixes (mostly based on weirdnesses such as popping an EXTEND bubble causing the popping of any bubbles next to the wall where the EXTEND letters are written), and a first try at a loading screen:


Any thoughts on this? My original plans (as stated in my interview for Retro Gamer) were that a friend artist would draw and paint an original illustration, but all he finally made was this rough sketch before focusing on his own commissions and projects.

[TFM]

Looks good!

[cngsoft]

Good afternoon, fellow CPC users!

BB4CPC v4 is publicly available at last, it should knock a dozen rough edges off the previous version. As stated in the changelog, it features a new loading screen, more compatible tape encoding, dynamicly-adjusted difficulty, "Hurry up!!" shows when the alarm rings (nobody had apparently noticed that the game rang the bell but wasn't writing the text on the screen!), fixed bubble popping timings and boundaries (cfr. rounds 10, 13, 19...) and so on.



Feel free to get it from http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/bb4cpc.htm :-) Enjoy it!

[TotO]

nobody had apparently noticed that the game rang the bell but wasn't writing the text on the screen!

You the first, I guess? 
Players may only though that you not add it at all.

[cngsoft]

You the first, I guess? 
Players may only though that you not add it at all.

Touché. Truth be said, it belongs to the same category of mistakes that also kept Super Drunk from shooting bottles at the players until BB4CPC v3, despite being something that had to be there.

[Devilmarkus]

"Hurry up!!" shows when the alarm rings (nobody had apparently noticed that the game rang the bell but wasn't writing the text on the screen!)

Perhaps because nobody remembered, that it must be written to the screen?
Or perhaps nobody knew, that you also implemented that, but didnt work

But cool, that you fixed that! 

[mr_lou]

BB4CPC v4 is publicly available at last, it should knock a dozen rough edges off the previous version. As stated in the changelog, it features a new loading screen, more compatible tape encoding, dynamicly-adjusted difficulty, "Hurry up!!" shows when the alarm rings (nobody had apparently noticed that the game rang the bell but wasn't writing the text on the screen!), fixed bubble popping timings and boundaries (cfr. rounds 10, 13, 19...) and so on.

Feel free to get it from http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/bb4cpc.htm :-) Enjoy it!

Awesome timing! Will bring it to our retro gaming day the 15th. 

[cngsoft]

By the way, while several of these mockups have already been featured here, it's perhaps the time for a deeper review.






I'm already trying to calculate the memory I'm going to need for this project, and to distribute everything in RAM. I want the game to run on a hardware double buffer (the game needs horizontal scrolling, and I want it to avoid the flickering that BB4CPC had to endure to fit everything on 64k), so this means 32 kB are already out of question.

Since each world has seven levels (never bigger than 64x24 characters), up to six different normal baddies, plus a big boss, does anyone see PS4CPC feasible on 64k CPCs? I'm kinda wary of directly going for a 128k-only design.

[TotO]

The screen look to be 128x192. With double buffer = 24K. You can save 8K.
It may fit on 64K, but like BB4CPC you will have to cut on tiles variety to save memory?

[rexbeng]

These mockups are amazing! One could say that the CPC version looks better than the original. Did you convert these by hand?

rb

[sigh]

Those mockups are fantastic.
You've got me thinking about those Rodland mockups I did.

I think that fitting a level into 64k would be doable if the bosses were loaded seperately?

[cngsoft]

The mockups were made by hand indeed, although I had to get a bit too creative with the colour palette; I'm also unhappy with several sprites, the wooden jester of the fourth mockup being perhaps the worst case, the head is totally wrong :-/

It's also worth saying that the mockups are 40x26 characters, although my idea was to run on 40x25 (standard CPC config), condensing the top two lines (lives, "BUBBY 10000", "PRESS FIRE CREDIT 4"...) into just one, and profiting that the game levels are 64x24, for this configuration would make hardware horizontal scrolling trivial.

[TotO]

Sure.
OK, in this case you may done a more accurate game port by taking part of 128K.

[Axelay]

Nice work!  At first glance I was wondering why there were sets of the same screen shot shown twice! 

On the 64k feasibility, my instinct is to think there's too much there graphically, though you'd have a better idea than anyone else since you already have BB4CPC as a guide on the required space for logic, level data, sound and graphics.  Looking at some of those larger sprites, they seem to be 5-600 bytes in size and even the small ones appear to be almost 300 bytes.  Once they start animating, that's going to knock a significant hole in the 32k you have left.  I don't know how comparable it would be, but would you be able to knock 16k off BB4CPC and still get it to work if you only needed to store the stage data, graphics and behaviour logic for 8 levels or so at a time?

[TotO]

And level maps are two screens size and need to scroll.

[TFM]

Well, I can only encourage you to move on to 128 KB machines (which most people own today). Because 128 KB means you will have 3 times more RAM (when disregarding the 32 KB V-RAM needed).

[Gryzor]

Well, those mockups are... wow. I adored that game, too, so here's hoping it'll come to a fruitful ending! I'd really pay for it!

[cngsoft]

Good afternoon; I made a tiny patch for BB4CPC regarding the title screen (several odd-looking pixels had been bugging me for a while) and the "Hurry up!!" logic (it actually pauses the game, like in the arcade). It's available from http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/bb4cpc.htm as usual.

Also, a quick question on colours: which ink looks better, magenta or purple?

(magenta)

(purple)

P.S.: I also want to thank Ralferroo for using BB4CPC as a FPGA benchmark.

[sigh]

Magenta.

It gives a nicer contrast and also resembles the original a lot more.

[Phi2x]

.

[arnoldemu]

My advice is: don't trust emulator screenshots to make your palette choices.
If you can, always use a real CPC with a CTM monitor for that. The color differences can be very noticeable.

yeah I noticed that when I was writing stranded. the original colour choice for the tiles was too dark on a real cpc, fine on an emulator.

[Gryzor]

Am I the only one who can't see a difference??