MODE 1 > MODE 0 wishlist

[cwpab]

What mode 1 games with barely any colours would you like to see remade in mode 0?

Examples:

[dodogildo]

I'd rather have them remade in Mode 1 properly.

[sigh]

I'd rather have them remade in Mode 1 properly.

I agree with this too.

For instance, the original BombJack is a mode 0 game, but the remake in mode 1 looks way better.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

I like proper MODE 1 games, but I think Last Crusade would look great with a CPC+ Mode 0 treatment (full screen, not spectrum sized screen). I did enjoy the game back in the day, although could have done with a few more levels.

[andycadley]

It's a tricky one, the Indy game was pretty awful on every platform - I think there's just a lot more jank in the game design that'd need fixing, before even really worrying about the graphics (and I say that as someone who played it a lot, wishing it was a better game).

Xybots does look very bland though and I do think it could look a lot nicer in Mode 0. I'm less convinced Mode 1 would ever really work well for that, because any kind of shading effect is going to start hiding bullets very quickly (unless someone wants to prove me wrong).

Switchblade (on the GX) was one I always felt could've been much better with Mode 0 graphics, especially given that you have the H/W sprites there to maintain a touch of higher res detail on the main character and enemies.

There are some other obvious candidates, Wonder Boy in Monsterland, Scramble Spirits, Flying Shark etc. I've also always been curious about what a good artist could achieve with something like Dizzy (yeah, I don't really count CKD) or even Head Over Heels (which is beautiful in Mode 1)

[cwpab]

I find it very funny when I semi-like something that most people hate, or vice versa.

Like the movie 400 Days (pretty fun if you don't take it seriously, ignore the 4.4 on IMDB)... or the Action game for Last Crusade.

The torches thing was kind of a pain. The monochrome was decent for Speccy, subpar for the CPC.

But I don't know, I always had a soft spot for this... 6/10 game? I mean, it's not "bad", but definitely not great.

Indy moves at a slow pace too... but I feel like this game offers a great sense of adventure. You can jump, use your whip, visit many of the movie "locations"... (not Venice, sadly!).

I loved playing the game on the original Game Boy, borrowed from a friend. It was so cool playing a CPC game in the late 90s on a portable console (without too many games, I was saving for the PS1).

The slowly dying light of the torches effect would have been interesting to see in pixelated 16 colors. I guess they would have added some black/gray dots here and there, as the CPC doesn't have that big of a pallette (there are like 4 or 5 light levels).

And yes, the blackness of Xybots is almost scary, that game needs the gray walls of the original.

[RedAngel]

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in mode 1 could be like this:

[Anthony Flack]

I have Indiana Jones on the SMS and being in full colour doesn't help the game much. If anything, the gameplay feels even more janky. On the Spectrum, the stiff style feels more appropriate, somehow. The improved CPC palette above does look way better. 

I wish that Switchblade had used the full capabilities of the Plus instead of just using sprites to recolour some random bits of background. Hard to do when you're making a cross-compatible game, I know. And I realise the masking complicates things further, but it's still sad seeing our protagonist all grey, while 16 colour sprites are being used to draw some static boxes in the background. 

For Bomb Jack I tried both Mode 0 and Mode 1 and decided that losing colour looked better than losing detail. The sprites are only 16x16 and I didn't want to smush his little face. 

[GUNHED]

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in mode 1 could be like this:

Great example how wonderful MODE 1 can be for games - while MODE 2 is best for applicatioins. MODE 0 is nice for screens and few games too. 

Pictures in the first post show that they are just badly converted form speccy.

[RedAngel]

I have Indiana Jones on the SMS and being in full colour doesn't help the game much. If anything, the gameplay feels even more janky. On the Spectrum, the stiff style feels more appropriate, somehow. The improved CPC palette above does look way better.

I wish that Switchblade had used the full capabilities of the Plus instead of just using sprites to recolour some random bits of background. Hard to do when you're making a cross-compatible game, I know. And I realise the masking complicates things further, but it's still sad seeing our protagonist all grey, while 16 colour sprites are being used to draw some static boxes in the background.

For Bomb Jack I tried both Mode 0 and Mode 1 and decided that losing colour looked better than losing detail. The sprites are only 16x16 and I didn't want to smush his little face.

Switchblade is a great game but it is a pity that the cartridge version doesn't use hardware sprites for the main sprite. With a better palette, a more interesting gradient of colours for the sky and some little tweaks to the main sprite it could look like this:


By the way I really like how you achieve more colours through dithering in the Bomb Jack version you are working, it doesn't look like the limited mode 1 we are used to 

[RedAngel]

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in mode 1 could be like this:

Great example how wonderful MODE 1 can be for games - while MODE 2 is best for applicatioins. MODE 0 is nice for screens and few games too. 

Pictures in the first post show that they are just badly converted form speccy.

There are many poor Speccy ports that use 1 bit graphics that are not the native format used by CPC in mode 1 and those games look bad and are usually slower than they should. Even using a different ink for backgrounds and sprites would improve the look overall and it would break the graphic monotony.

[GUNHED]

Absolutely!  Some of them even use the speccy way of managing the screen. The CPC version is then just an "speccy screen emulator". 

[Anthony Flack]

Even using a different ink for backgrounds and sprites would improve the look overall and it would break the graphic monotony.

Yeah, some games did this and it does help things to stand out. Scooby Doo and Scramble Spirits come to mind.

 On the other hand, we have modern games like Gato Roboto showing just how good 1bit graphics can look. There is something I quite like about it. Or Downwell that restricts itself to three colours.

Other games like Starquake are using un-enhanced Spectrum graphics, but without colour clash and more colours to choose from, I still think Starquake looks great on the CPC. I always thought that was a pretty game. 

One thing that is often overlooked is that high res graphics look so much better on the CPC with its RGB monitor, compared to an original Spectrum or C64 plugged into the RF input of a TV. The dot crawl on the 48k Spectrum's video output is horrendous. 

[dodogildo]

Speaking of 1bit gfx. C64's Tony:

[HAL6128]

Looks good and well drawn.

Not easy to create a good looking two-colour game.

 Indy in the first post works similar, but usage of 1-bit colour choice is not so well done and not wise in case of the capabilities.

[Interrupt]

I had a bit of fun tonight inspired by Anthony Flack's Mode 1 Bombjack and Xyphoe's recent playing of Green Beret. I had a go at imagining what that game might look like in Mode 1 (with some raster effects for the top and bottom for extra colours). I traced over a Mode 0 screen shot and I'm sure someone could do a much better job but it was a fun exercise. No idea if it is really practical from a coding point of view but it's always fun to imagine.

[Anthony Flack]

Imagine, get it?

[Interrupt]

Perhaps it's the name for a new retro label - "re-imagine"

[Egg Master]

The force of the CPC is to provide great games that not use horizontal scrolling. 
Bombjack was a great idea using mode 1. But, the topic is mode 1 to mode 0 

[ZorrO]

I found two games made twice in MODE 1 and MODE 0.
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=9365    <- MODE 1 & 0

Elvira Mistress of the dark
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=18838     <- MODE 1
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=18878     <- MODE 0

[Nich]

I found two games made twice in MODE 1 and MODE 0.

And I can add two more:

• Phoenix (a homebrew game from 2016)
• Tales of the Arabian Nights

Tales of the Arabian Nights was originally released by Interceptor Software in MODE 1, but according to the review in Amstrad Action, they weren't entirely happy with it, so it was reprogrammed and re-released with MODE 0 graphics.

[Egg Master]

I was disappointed to see Strider in Mode 1 while Forgotten Worlds was incredible in Mode 0.

[MacDeath]

many of those awful mode1 speccy sh**ts often also had terribad game engines beyond any redemption.

I mean, check for Black Tiger or WonderBoy Monsterland... and you'll know.

Bad use of rasters, small screen, many routines or engine code strategies unfit for CPC, tailored to run on a Speccy 48 with tape... or just coded by a poorly paid british student in 2 weeks.

[Egg Master]

Black Tiger is not a good game on CPC. Poor gameplay and graphics! (not your mockup)

[MacDeath]

yeah, that's what I was saying.

Black Tiger : laggy, poor colision detection, bugged bats, poor graphics, no proper useful colours, and so on, a great Tiertex magnificent brilliance (not).