I have been working the last week with Bruno for adding a few new tags to CPC-Power, my goal was making easier to discover games using interesting programming techniques, the full CPC-Power tag list is here (http://www.cpc-power.com/cpcarchives/index.php?page=articles&num=89). And the new ones are:
Scroll Hard horizontal (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Scroll%20Hard%20horizontal)
Scroll Hard vertical (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Scroll%20Hard%20vertical)
Scroll Hard multidirectional (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Scroll%20Hard%20multidirectional)
Parallax Scroll (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Parallax%20Scroll)
Software Scroll (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Software%20Scroll)
Hardware double buffer (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Hardware%20double%20buffer)
Samples (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Samples) (Anything else than speech (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=digitalisation%20vocale))
Vertical Split (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Rupture%20verticale)
Some categories as "Hardware Double Buffer" and "Software scroll" are very incomplete, because that if you see any error in those categories or can you suggest any new game using one of these FXs, only go to the game sheet and press in the "Posting info/Report error" button for filling the form.
Every help is welcome, for example i just filled the form for telling that Bionic Command was not in the speccy port category (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=Speccy%20Port) :P
And i'm going to take the chance for comment another useful tags as software using memory expansions (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=extended%20RAM) or games with hidden messages (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=hidden%20message) or games with cheat modes (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=database&lemot=cheat%20mode) or ...
PD: I forget to tell that in the Hex-dump of floppies and tapes, we have added an ascii dump for only show ascii characters and highlight (in yellow) words beginning with PRO (programmer or programming), CHEA (for cheat), COD (coder or coding), MUSI (music), COP (copyright), GRA (graphics), WRIT (written), 198 (198x) or 199 (199x)... although is not going to help with games crunched or encrypted (we could use snapshts for those, jejeje), it can be used for finding hidden messages or real credits for a lot of games, very useful to fix bad credits in the sheets.
Cool but why is Action Fighter in the speccy port list when it has Mode 0 graphics? :)
EDIT: seems like quite a few Mode 0 games in the list.
Groovy. Will come in handy for sure!
How about making it possible to search for multiple categories?
For example, to make it possible to find games that are both "platform" and "adventure".
(Looking for "platform exploration" games).
There should also be "Scroll soft pixel precise". I would know 2 games for that ;-)
Quote from: Carnivac on 16:12, 30 July 14
Cool but why is Action Fighter in the speccy port list when it has Mode 0 graphics? :)
EDIT: seems like quite a few Mode 0 games in the list.
Well, a speccy port is more complex that having bad mode 1 graphics or using a 256x192 screen.
A game with graphics in mode 0 can be working internally as an speccy port, for example games where the screen is built in a hidden buffer and after is finished, it's copied to the screen byte to byte, instead of making two outs in the CRTC for using a double buffer... a lot of spanish games are doing this.
I don't know who marked Action Fighter or Gregory Lose his clock or HoH or Jack The Nipper or Johnny Quest as speccy ports, but at least is an error, i suppose that person researched well those games, before to label them.
And even if we usually joke about speccy ports a lot, putting a game in this category is not saying the game is so awful as Bionic Commando and you should not touch ever ;D , for example i enjoyed and enjoy Scooby Doo a lot, even if i know is an speccy port and a nice mode 0 graphics and a little of more care will make the game a lot funnier.
Quote from: mr_lou on 16:23, 30 July 14
How about making it possible to search for multiple categories?
For example, to make it possible to find games that are both "platform" and "adventure".
(Looking for "platform exploration" games).
I have passed to Bruno your suggestion ;) , it's a very useful feature that i use a lot while browsing in Lemon64 or HOL.
Quote from: TFM on 17:10, 30 July 14
There should also be "Scroll soft pixel precise". I would know 2 games for that ;-)
I felt that it was better put that remark in the game sheet, but maybe we should add that new tag, jejeje.
Quote from: Carnivac on 16:12, 30 July 14
Cool but why is Action Fighter in the speccy port list when it has Mode 0 graphics? :)
EDIT: seems like quite a few Mode 0 games in the list.
To port a game means to reuse the old code. GFX and sound are secondary. Of course Speccy GFX can be converted into Mode 0 on CPC. And maybe they had a quick look over it. You can recognize most ports on the screen size btw.
Hm. I can't say I agree. If they made the effort and time to actually design proper CPC graphics they shouldn't be tarnished with the same bad rep as the more obvious speccy ports. For me Speccy port meant the absolute laziest pieces of crap from companies who simply didn't respect the CPC enough to devote any time or resources to developing a proper version of the game yet had the cheek to expect us to give them money for it anyway.
Do we count R-Type 128k as a Speccy port since from what I remember it's using pretty much the same code as the actual speccy port version but vastly improved with superior graphics and sound?
No "2 fire buttons" tag? (I was pretty sure to see that some years ago)
Quote from: Carnivac on 17:32, 30 July 14
Hm. I can't say I agree. If they made the effort and time to actually design proper CPC graphics they shouldn't be tarnished with the same bad rep as the more obvious speccy ports. For me Speccy port meant the absolute laziest pieces of crap from companies who simply didn't respect the CPC enough to devote any time or resources to developing a proper version of the game yet had the cheek to expect us to give them money for it anyway.
The line that split this category is very slim and i don't agree 100% either, but i think it uses the same view than the CPCWiki article about this subject (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Speccy_Port) (splitting the speccy ports in Lazy, Semi-Lazy and Good Job).
Quote from: Carnivac on 17:32, 30 July 14
Do we count R-Type 128k as a Speccy port since from what I remember it's using pretty much the same code as the actual speccy port version but vastly improved with superior graphics and sound?
That is another urban legend and very unrespectful for Fano, he remade all the code and there is a LOT MORE work in that version that improved art and sound. When the speccy author discovered this project, he sent the sources to Fano, but it was later for being of real use.
Quote from: SyX on 18:44, 30 July 14
That is another urban legend and very unrespectful for Fano, he remade all the code and there is a LOT MORE work in that version that improved art and sound. When the speccy author discovered this project, he sent the sources to Fano, but it was later for being of real use.
Ah ok sorry. All the things I ever read about it mentioned it was still using the original code for the most part. Nice to know it's a truer CPC version that I was led to believe. :)
No problem, jejeje.
The interesting thing is CPC-Power has a lot of powerful search options and i know that sometimes is difficult to use, for example, you can get easy a list with games supporting two players simultaneously (choosing the number of players and setting the export result checkbox). And everybody can helps to improve it :)