Hero Quest CPC Plus CPR with music?

[viddi]

Wow, pretty cool!!

[MacDeath]

thank you, would somewhat look nice but won't fix the gameplay's many issues, though... 

(ok last one, i'm done...) may be interesting to see how it renders on a real CPC/monitor though, can someone convert it into a screener and test it ?




Butt will depend on Abalore's ability or will to impletent those changes.

[robcfg]

This palette makes the game look so much better!

[abalore]

@MacDeath  I think a survey is mandatory. I commit to implement the most voted option, if I'm able adding the shadows too

So the options are

- Original
- MacDeath 3
- MacDeath 4
- MacDeath 5
- MacDeath 6
- MacDeath 7
- MacDeath 8
- MacDeath 9
- MacDeath 10
- MacDeath 5c

I'm not familiar with creating pools in this forum, can it be done in the same thread or need a new one?

[MacDeath]

No need for a Pool.

well, if you can patch the graphics (tiles and sprites), just ask me what format or source you need... else Toto is more than capable to do the same sort of changes I suggested.

Ideally :
>> upgrade the backgrounds via ditherings and use of the ink0 (no need to be too fancy).
>> add some relief (lighting and shadows) to the sprites so they look better and less flat (as I did on the later mockups).
>> check which palette goes best, a few palettes could work anyway it is mostly a matter of taste, opinion or quality of the monitor..

Dark Cyan/Grey + Orange/Pink + Black + White/Pastelyellow seems an obvious choice. but shoudl be tested on monochrome monitor to be sure.

Depends if you want warm ambiance akin to the original board game, or something cold and frightfull, or even plain My Little Pony.
Original board game had quite some Orange into it.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Could always change the inks between the variants above depending on the level, if there's room for that logic.

[Egg Master]

@MacDeath That's very nice. Too bad it's not possible to add rasters for the top, middle, and bottom of the screen.
On your picture, it looks you missed to use the orange colour for the right side of the ribbon. (after the hero's name)

[MacDeath]

yeah that's mostly a basic mockup as proof of concept, not supposed to have every pixels perfectly set, I recolored the HUD roughly to look like the revised version (the one in grey and grey (yet one of htose is a bit greyish and the other one a bit more cyanish))...
and applied roughly the ditherings trying to be regular on every tiles (some errors here and there)   

But I basically did that already at least 12 years ago, There must be a few topics in the older deep layers of this forum's history where I psot very long psots on the mater already.
But at the time no one was willing or able to patch the game. 

I have been using Heroquest CPC version as the typical exemple of what is wrong with speccy ports and the Brits devs  and the lack of RPG on CPC and hopw not to use mode1 for so many years now...

[viddi]

I think " MacDeath 5c" (the latest one - x05c) is the best!


x08 is also great if the addtional corridor shadings (door) are there (like in the x05c version)
All in all I tend to the white one, but it´s a hard choice. 

[MacDeath]

5c is the last/complete one, i renamed it because so it matches the others older one with same palette so i can watch them gradualkly via XnView... yeay it makes no sense, else just imagine palette swaps and call it a day.

Ideally, some levels/map could get different palettes to differenciate them or put a thematic...

"Pyramid of the Lich-Priest" ? yellowish and pastel blue.
"Slaanesh' Lair of the unsuspected Obelisk incident" Pink and Mauve.
"Ice Troll Lair of Norska" Blue and white.
"night hunt of the night haunter" something with blues and Cyans...

But the Orange+DarkCyan seems the easier choice. (White or Pastel Yellow both work)
Even Orange+DarkGreen work...


I will provide a montage with a lot of palette swaps.

[dodogildo]

I think " MacDeath 5c" (the latest one - x05c) is the best!

I agree. 

[MacDeath]

from the second additional ministry department administration bureau of repeated redundant extra redundancy series.

[eto]

from the second additional ministry department administration bureau of repeated redundant extra redundancy series.

There are a some amazing combinations.

[abalore]

I see several good combinations there, I like the ones with grayscale figurines. But it seems 5c is the most popular so I'll implement that one. About having different palettes for levels, I'll investigate if there is a chance of doing it.

[MacDeath]

I did this without any proper method, there are combinaison I didn't do, some may seem somewhat redundant and others are completely shitty...
I show that 4 colours mode is so limited that you won't actually care about having realistic colour sheme because too few of them can rarely display reality, so you go for readability, a practicity in contrasts (lighting and hues) or a feeling.

Most of them work provided you respect the gradiants and luminosity and account of compatibilities or oppositions.
Also must check if the Hero profil (upper left screen) is readeable so not good to use too dark ink0... I mean, DarkBlue1 on Black0 is not quite readable on most screens... but if this can be patched it then opens new options.


Greyscale figurines : looks like someone didn't paint his pile of shame...

BrightWhite26 : may be replaced by Pastel Yellow25 (mostly), Pastel Cyan23 or even pastelGreen22 may work if the palette fit. If replaced by pastel Red-Blue-Magenta, it feels a bit too nightmode. But having no proper white put some "colour filter" vibe on everything.

Orange and Pink are somewhat interchangeable

Grey can Replace/be replaced by Dark Cyan, Dark Yellow, Sky blue, PastelBlue... and most medium unsaturated ones suckh as Pink, Orange...

Mauve and Dark Green can go surprisely well with various combinaisons yet fail are realism. Mauve may be my favourite CPC colours yet not always easy to use, it goes so well with pastel blue as colour ramp goes.

Many opposite hues combine into "greys" (Yellow+Blue, Green+Magenta, Red+Cyan) so a palette like DarkBlue+DarkYellow+PastelBlue+PastelYellow could be surprisely good.

the plain saturated colours such as medium Red, Magenta, Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow are not good in figurative mode1 IMO... Always go for darks, pastels or hybrids (Mauve, Orange, SkyBlue are the easy ones, SeaGreen, Lime, Purple are harder to use...)
 
Hard not to use Black, DarkRed and DarkBlue are the only serious alternative.

Also clearly  a tool could be designed to produce this sort of Palette Test Grid automatically, would be a good tool actually.