Help needed for a ThenewzealandStory remake on Amstrad CPC+ project on Twitter

[dthrone]

Looks really nice! 


Are these graphical mock-ups we're seeing or has the project gone beyond that?

[kawickboy]

All gfx are done ? 

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://twitter.com/BenYoris/status/1138871739272880128

[Scarlettkitten]

Cool, this is one of my favourite games.


Is Kiwi missing a black outline down it's right hand side though, looks a little weird and chopped off?

[seanb]

Now this has my interest.
Looking forward to a remake as the original was one of my favourites on the cpc.


Well it had to be someone's favourite.

[OneVision]

Hello,


I'm Ben Yoris, trying to produce this remake of The New Zealand Story for our beloved Amstrad.


I've been in the video game industry for 20 years (from Infogrames, Atari, my own studio and now Ubisoft) producing games from the Gameboy Color to the PS4 Pro.


I'm a big fan of the Amiga and the Amstrad and I remember fondly my beginnings with my 6128 back at the days. I was drooling on magazines pages about The New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands etc ... At 11 years old I was not mature enough to see the poor quality of TNZS conversion on Amstrad, I was simply happy to have it and play it whenever I wanted !


30 years later, having met some old friends at the Alchimie event in France, I saw that remakes of Ghost'n'Goblins, R-Type, a port of Pinball Dreams and much more were on the way, wether it's for CPC or for the PLUS versions.


So I started doing the necessary graphics, gathering technical advice on the constraints, trying to produce gfx that are supported by the Amstrad to have a better TNZS on Amstrad.


I've shared on Facebook groups and Twitter my first results in the hope to find a coder and a musician to help. It's still not decided if the project would be on OLD Amstrad or on the PLUS version. It will depend of who want to help technically and if it's possible to have decent results on an OLD. It's sure that having the hard scroll and sprites of the PLUS version is cool, but so far I've managed to fit everything in 16 colors (need to reclean some details to support the OLD palette though) and I'd be happy to deliver on the OLD as an hommage, if it's technically sound.


I'd by happy to discuss and share with you, collect some infos and advice.


Thanks a lot for any help or support !


Best,
Ben Yoris

[VincentGR]

Thank you Ben for your time&effort.

[OneVision]

Level 1-2 graphics are done ! Now working on sprites for this level !
Enjoy


Still looking for a coder and a musician to help !

[villain]

Still looking for a coder and a musician to help !

@TomEtJerry
Where are you? ;-)

[kawickboy]

With or without DMA support ?

[andycadley]

Is there a break down of how the game actually works? Making graphic mock ups is one thing, but if you really want to get a programmer involved you have to do some of the hard work too. When do enemies appear? How does scoring work? What hidden secrets and bonuses are there and what triggers them?


All this kind of analysis is hard work and, unless you have a programmer very passionate about the project themselves, somebody really needs to do to minimize what a developer might have to consider themselves.

[OneVision]

@TomEtJerry
Where are you? ;-)

I'm in France, Lyon.

[OneVision]

Is there a break down of how the game actually works? Making graphic mock ups is one thing, but if you really want to get a programmer involved you have to do some of the hard work too. When do enemies appear? How does scoring work? What hidden secrets and bonuses are there and what triggers them?


All this kind of analysis is hard work and, unless you have a programmer very passionate about the project themselves, somebody really needs to do to minimize what a developer might have to consider themselves.

Hello,


I'm very familiar with all this kind of documents (GD/LD documents). I've already gathered those infos about enemy behaviors, scoring, warp zone location, collision placements etc. I'm not doing just mockups : I'm (re)creating all levels, generate unique tiles, place enemy spawners, consider the EXTEND bonus system etc etc


So yes, a nice and good will coder will find all those useful information from somebody who's been working since the GameBoy Color period on many and various video games from the industry.


Cheers,
Ben Y.

[OneVision]

With or without DMA support ?

Hello,


could you please specify ?


Thx,
Ben Y.

[andycadley]

Hello,


I'm very familiar with all this kind of documents (GD/LD documents). I've already gathered those infos about enemy behaviors, scoring, warp zone location, collision placements etc. I'm not doing just mockups : I'm (re)creating all levels, generate unique tiles, place enemy spawners, consider the EXTEND bonus system etc etc


So yes, a nice and good will coder will find all those useful information from somebody who's been working since the GameBoy Color period on many and various video games from the industry.


Cheers,
Ben Y.

Good to hear. I don't have the time to commit right now, but I really hope someone does. It's good to see someone taking the right steps to help getting their dream game produced. 

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://soundcloud.com/user242232901/tnzs-02-opening-main-theme

[Gryzor]

Always brings a smile to my face

[Targhan]

Still looking for a coder and a musician to help !

I contacted you via Twitter, but had no answer. I can help with the music/sound effects, I'm the author of Arkos Tracker. From what I know there is only one music and a few jingles, right? I only know the Atari ST version. Do you need only conversion of the music, or do you want original music too? I would only have time for conversions.

[OneVision]

I contacted you via Twitter, but had no answer. I can help with the music/sound effects, I'm the author of Arkos Tracker. From what I know there is only one music and a few jingles, right? I only know the Atari ST version. Do you need only conversion of the music, or do you want original music too? I would only have time for conversions.

Hello Thargan,


sorry for overlooking your message on Twitter. Luckily enough we can talk here
I have a friend of mine (Stéphane de France) who has already started  converting arcade ROM music to something your tracker can play. He may have some questions for you. I'll drag him in for more convenience.


Thanks a lot for your offer !

[Targhan]

Great! Less work for me then . But happy to answer questions if needed.

[OneVision]

It's a team ! The New Zealand Story remake on Amstrad CPC PLUS team is now complete : Abalore (Code) E-Dredon (Music SFX) OneVision (aka me )(GFX).
We'd like to do a CPC old version later also.

Now, let's do this !

[villain]

Bonne chance!

[Targhan]

We'd like to do a CPC old version later also.

Watch out about such statement. If you're doing a real CPC+ game, it means hardware scrolling and hardware sprites, 50hz game, which is great.
If you intend to do a CPC old version, you will need to code a new game almost entirely, and the result will not be as good, even if you're a good coder, so you may end up disappointed by the result. They are very different machines.

[andycadley]

Yes, my advice if you want to target the Plus is to go full out and not worry about how things will work on the old machine, or you'll just hobble your version. A revamped release for old school CPCs can always be worked on later, possibly reusing parts of the code. you

[OneVision]

Yes, my advice if you want to target the Plus is to go full out and not worry about how things will work on the old machine, or you'll just hobble your version. A revamped release for old school CPCs can always be worked on later, possibly reusing parts of the code. you

Hello Andy, Hello Targhan,


Abalore is aware of that and so am I.


Thank you for your advice, we'll look into it.