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Pang! Are the mount Fuji Graphics corrupted??

Started by CraigsBar, 09:50, 20 June 15

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CraigsBar

Hi All,


I know this has been discussed before, but whilst watching Xyphoes 25 games in 25 minutes, where his retail Pang failed to load, I first realised that there is more than a rumour here. so first let's look at the differences on stage 1.


Retail:
[attach=2]


Beta:
[attach=3]


Clearly the designers added the trees to the base of mount Fuji.... but is that Fog or graphical corrption? Se how a dark additional tree trunk stretches up into the "fog" layer on the right hand side.


All 6 screenshots (3 from the retail and 3 from the beta cartridges) can be found here:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/9nvaa42r89209y5/Pang_Screenshots.zip?dl=0


so there is the back ground. Personally I much prefer the Beta release backdrop, with the obviously recognisable mountain, without the trees and the ugly fog, now the questions....


1. Which do you prefer?
2. Is anyone capable of moving the Beta Backdrop into the retail cart, so we 3 have better looking first stages of Pang?


Let me know what you think. or if you are volunteering to hack the graphics ;)


Craig
 
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

CraigsBar

OK that Retail screenshot is particlarly bright, here's a better one with less glare.



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arnoldemu

#2
where is the link to the beta cart?

EDIT: Found it.

I am going to take a guess and say that the alternative graphics compressed better.
I expect they ran out of space. Perhaps Ocean said "128KB cart only".

But I can't say for sure.
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

CraigsBar

Quote from: arnoldemu on 10:13, 20 June 15
where is the link to the beta cart?

EDIT: Found it.

I am going to take a guess and say that the alternative graphics compressed better.
I expect they ran out of space. Perhaps Ocean said "128KB cart only".

But I can't say for sure.


Since the c4cpc size limit is 512k, what are the chances of these graphics being swapped over. I guess the eproms would both need some level of cracking first :( therefore I guess not really practical.
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Morri

#4
My guess is space saving and laziness. They have just reused the Kenya stage screen (level 13). Very poor if they already had the Mt Fuji graphic in a BETA.



The graphics are not corrupted. It matches the Kenya stage of the Arcade.

Keeping it Kiwi since 1977

CraigsBar

#5
Quote from: Morri on 21:50, 20 June 15
My guess is space saving and laziness. They have just reused the Kenya stage screen (level 13). Very poor if they already had the Mt Fuji graphic in a BETA.



The graphics are not corrupted. It matches the Kenya stage of the Arcade.


Not strictly Mount Fuji then, so they should not be there at all and an extra backdrop inserted. would that make the correction easier or harder I wonder, Clearly Kenya would look odd with an obvious mount Fuji so a direct replacement is not really doable.

Edit: or I wonder if this is just a bug, and the mt Fuji is already in the cart, the wrong one is just displayed?
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CraigsBar

#6
Hmmm, More duplicated graphics in the retail PANG.


First this one is Mt Keirin
[attach=2]

Second it's Australia
[attach=3]


Perhaps Ayres Rock would be a better one for Australia. What did the Beta use? I cannot get past those bloody short ladders at Ankor Watt to find out LOL.
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dthrone

My beta cartridge has no backgrounds from Australia onwards.  It has the same beta Mt Fuji graphics as above.  And the beta graphics are definitely better!  8)
The Mt Fuji graphics sit at the start of cartridge block 4 in the beta version and the start of cartridge block 7 in the retail version.  Unfortunately they don't quite copy over perfectly, it kind of does but with some corruption.  Then you'd still need to find where the ink sets are stored  :(
The "PANG" title graphics seem to sit next in the block. 
At least it is very easy to change the stage names, MT FUJI -> rude word etc.  ::)
SOH Digital Entertainments

dthrone

Here's what the basic copy produces.....
SOH Digital Entertainments

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