Joe Danger... and modern games using 3D engine for a 2D gameplay.

[MacDeath]

On NoLife channel I just saw a review for Joe Danger, a modern game which reminded CPC stuffs actually.

Reminded me some games onAmstrad like the BMX part in epyx GX4000 sport game.


And the various games like :

Super Scramble Simulator :


ATV simulator :


Perhaps BMX freestyle :


And mountain bike simulator :


But other games were using this kind of view/setting/gameplay.perhaps.


Post Edit :
Yes, this one :

Moto Cross Simulator.


Of course it has 3D and cartoon style, let's look at it :
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Perhaps such a game may be do-able on CPC/Plus.
Using a slightly "isométric" engine as in Epyx World Of Sports :



But a view like Paperboy may be suitable too.
Awesome Elite's Parperboy :

other version, less awesome :


Paperboy 2 too, but less good looking than the good old Paperboy1...



I'm actually trying my hand on Isometric graphics these days...

Would be sweet in Mode0.

But Diagonal Scrolling is not easy to perform, yet a horizontal "Epyx world of sport BMX part"-looking Super-Scramble-Simulator game may well work IMO.

Let's no forget that isometric like stuff remains a nice way to produce pseudo 3D environments which are pixel Art friendly, and can greatly erzatz/emulate modern 3D engines used in platformeds and shooterz nowaday, those games still having a 2D gameplay.


other exemples of such twists :

Gauntlet 3 is some kind of Proto Diablo like games.

Yet this one was speccy ported to death as well recoloured graphic in HeadOverHeels style could have been awesome.



But yeah, if Diablo is not quite a 3D game, such engine may be used in a World of warcraft like game environment...
Minus the rotating indirect first person view...



Yet the pre-concieved level design and linear level scroling/progression of Joe Danger is certainly easier to put on a CPC compaired to the open environment of a 3D RPG...

A RPG Gauntlet3 like game would certainly be a bit too heavy for a 6128 configuration...would need 512K RAM  +512K Data rom + 3"1/2 disk at the same time...and be very sluggish though...

In the same Vain : La Abbaddia del Crimen and "Fres" Black Land (bollaware)...

Also if CPCpower is right, even the Speccy Porked Gauntlet3 is a 128K version... Heroquest too.

As those games were certainly Speccy-128-only versions.
This may actually explain the poor level of proper adaptation to the CPC format...

If the original speccy version may be 128K the margin to adapt to CPC is quite unexistant as opposed to Speccy 48k games which were not well adapted for pure economical lazyness reasons only.


Post Edit :

From all those game I talked about, I mostly played (and enjoyed while young) on CPC :

=Super Scramble Simulator : Great game actually, the mode1 is quite well used, the action is not that much Arcade yet uinteresting : so technicall to manage to use the Bike... Challenging levels... Really one of my fondest memories from Amstrad youth...
Never got it for myself, just a friend had it on a compilation that he lend it to me for few weeks...
Except that sometimes you could crashed and don't even understand why...

It managed to use 6 colours per screen.
BMX freestyle  seems to do it too (many speccy port or Mode1 games from this era did it too actually, Deflektor style...).
But "SSS" was quite well recoloured as many CodeMaster or Hewson games.
not actually that well recoloured but enoughly so the Attribute charcters weren"t apparent... And so that the actual Game-window wasn't Monochrome...(as in Black Tiger  or PacMania per exemple)
This was more than enough to get a better feeling than on Spectrum IMO.

6 colours per screen and no Character attributes was certainly better than 8 colours with attributes (or even colour clashes...).
Strider per exemple is Half/Half... Sprites are recoloured betterly than R-Type, yet the background remains Monochrome.

Also a Plus specific coded game with the same visual/gameplay on PLUS/GX4000, despite in mode 1... May actually easily use 8 to 10 colours : if black is the only common colour... with 3 hoirizontal raster palettechanges then... as the screen is in 3 parts... And of course Hardwired sprites may add +15 colours...and Border +1...

ATV simulator, BMX freestyle and mountain bike simulator look like badly speccyported/executed Super Scramble Simulator clones.


=Paperboy : got the Elites version in a compilation with Bombjack scooby Doo and whatever.... don't remember well, I had 2 such compilations, the "Bombjack 1" & "Bombjack2"...
yes, no sounds, but neat graphics and sweet gameplay, but i was too young to understand what the soft said....couldn't know how to really play well then...

="Epyx sport Game" : I played the BMX part a lot on Atari Lynx... (and the surf) and this GX4000 version is a lot like this one. As BMX and Surf are common as in California Games (CPC and Lynx...) and this one.
Diving is taken from Epyx Summer games, and skiing from Winter games... Just to bad they duidn't released actually 2 or 3 games based on improoved CPC/Lynx/Other games... à 256k or 512k cartidge could have allowed a fucking great game actually, a mega compilation...


Concerning PC games, Diablo 1&2 and  Warcraft series are amongst my personnal classicals.


Also, perhaps another fine exemple of pseudo 3D-Isometric stuff :


Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road
Most known as simply Super Off-Road....

A good Mode 1 game looking quite 16 bit like actually...
Should test it betterly to see if Gameplay is good enough, but purely Graphically, it's good.
Just a few "PLUS hard sprites patches" (to add colours and special effects) may be more than enough to get it awesomly awesome.
And yeah, the graphics could have included a bit more dithering thx to the Black&White inks...
But such game were mostly monochrome on a speccy (see shadow of the beast or Switchblade or even Venom strike back for similar Speccy port level, per example...) while those were at least well basically recoloured for the CPC version.

Still better ported than Black Tiger or Pacmania (in graphicall term).

A well used Mode1 needs actually very few extra colours tiles to get a proper coloured feeling...


Attached to this post : a little edit of the OffRoad picture just to compare with even little pseudo harwired-Sprites PLUS patches...(roughly done in a few seconds...lol...)
Needless to say, this can be done greatly better but those little extra colour patches are enough to get a disturbingly better  feeling IMO.

[Gryzor]

You forgot Run the Gauntlet! Simply great game, and I was soooo good at it!

Used to love Super Scramble Sim. Joe danger seems nice, but nothing more than that. Collect the starts... pffft!

[fano]

You forgot some classics like Contra and R-Type series starting from Delta that get a 3D Engine for a 2D gameplay.