Dizzy question

[SharkusMaximus]

Out of curiosity, has it ever been explained why Dizzy the egg has a rather unhealthy green tinge on the CPC, but doesn't on other formats?

[andycadley]

I think the Oliver's were just going for some kind of 3D shading, but obviously had pretty limited colouring so it doesn't really work very well imo.

[SharkusMaximus]

Yes, unfortunately it just looks rather odd, especially considering the original games were written on the CPC, and the simple white of the Spectrum and C64 versions looks much better. Curiously, Spellbound Dizzy, the fifth game in the series, doesn't feature the green tint but it does return for Prince of the Yolkfolk and then disappears in Crystal Kingdom Dizzy.

I'd be interested to know if it's ever been raised in an interview with the Olivers.

[eto]

Actually a good question. On the Speccy and C64 Dizzy doesn't have any shades and is just white. 

[andycadley]

On the Speccy, there isn't really a choice because you can't mix colours like that really. And on the C64 he's a monochrome sprite, I believe, so you couldn't have shading on him without overlaying multiple sprites to build up the image (or using a lower resolution)

I wonder if he was originally drawn on the CPC with a white/grey combo and then they obviously had to change it because it made the backgrounds look too bland? Possibly would've seemed like too much effort at that point to "flatten" the image down to one colour.

[merman]

On the Speccy, there isn't really a choice because you can't mix colours like that really. And on the C64 he's a monochrome sprite, I believe, so you couldn't have shading on him without overlaying multiple sprites to build up the image (or using a lower resolution)

I wonder if he was originally drawn on the CPC with a white/grey combo and then they obviously had to change it because it made the backgrounds look too bland? Possibly would've seemed like too much effort at that point to "flatten" the image down to one colour.

Crystal Kingdom Dizzy on the C64 did use overlay sprites, and looks much more like the NES Dizzy