Roland in Time/Space maps?

[Carnivius]

Has anyone made maps for Roland in Time and Roland in Space?   I checked the usually reliable CPC Power site but they don't seem to have any.

[Carnivius]

Nobody?  Hm, that seems kinda strange.

[Gryzor]

Hm, indeed it is!

[MacDeath]

there are not that many screenshot maps for CPC to begin with...

Some french are actually trying to do some at CPcpower but it is a long process and too many games to do.


There at Amstrad CPC fans forum, a section about this...

:: Game MAP

there must be some section at CPCrulez as well.

[zeropolis79]

I've been trying to do some CPC screenshot maps but is tricky lining them up.

[MacDeath]

To align the screenshots, also to get them :

you can copy-past the screen from the find graphics function with winape...
just set the proper size and it is not so difficult...

see picture attached.

good to work with a checkerboard picture with 2 colours not used by CPC (like dark and bright grey...), most graphic utilities have a checkerboard option, I often use them in 8x8 pixels...

the find graphics option with winape :
=set encoding on "screen"
=adapt window size so the screen appears, no zoom.
You can then select with you mouse a zone of "tiles" and copy it (ctrl+c)
then switch to graphic utility : and paste (ctrl+V) then align it into the checkerboard...

you may then recolour the 2 inks used by checkerboard into black or whatever you want...

I use paint.net because of its simplicity, nice to pixelart... just add a few plugins and enter a CPC palette manualy then save it...

Sorry, don't have time to do the map myself at the moment.
and not sure i'm good enough in Roland in time/space...

you may also erase Roland sprite after, or copy paste diverse sprites in order to display their movement pattern or add any information with the graphic utility options...

screenshot maps can really become big big big pictures so save often and be sure your videocard/PC/RAM can handle it, you may encounter some lags when doing some stupid errors like filling a whole colour on the whole picture into a dithered colour... 

I really wonder how big was this game...
is this as big as jet set willy 2 map ?

Also Roland in time may be quite easily moded to have better sprites or tiles... sprites are easy to find and stored quite simplily so it is normally very easy to replace them with better graphics.
Not sure about the tiles though...

[zeropolis79]

I'd do it but if Annabelle catches me doing something as stressful as this, she'll have my head

[MacDeath]

who is Annabelle ?

[Gryzor]

His daughter

[MacDeath]

anyway, I fail to find longplay of those games, did someone actually manage to finish those ?

They were quite hard because Roland is a big slow compaired to Jet Set Willy...

You need to know timings for almost every monsters/jumps...
Many levels are with quite few screens indeed.


Ok I started to do it a bit, but this freaking game is freaking difficult, lol...

I failed to note the levels number at the moment but see this as a begining... all can be edited and put betterly on a big map.
But I  simply failed to passe many levels/screens so I quit for the moment...

Funny to rediscover the good fluff, very whovian indeed...

[EgoTrip]

Nobody?  Hm, that seems kinda strange.

Not really strange, having to play those monstrosities is bad enough, but mapping them too? It's no wonder it hasn't been done.

[Carnivius]

Not really strange, having to play those monstrosities is bad enough, but mapping them too? It's no wonder it hasn't been done.

I dunno.  I kinda like them (even though I heavily dislike Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy).  Maybe it's the Doctor Who homage that makes them appeal to me.   Plus it's been long enough and people have mapped all sorts of games and these being Roland games have some significance to the CPC.


Thanks MacDeath for making a start on that.  Nice to see how some of those rooms link up.

[EgoTrip]

I guess its a matter of personal taste. Im not a fan of Doctor Who. Manic Miner was great, but I hated JSW. However I liked Chuckie Egg 2 so that probably invalidates my opinion.

[MacDeath]

I was doing some pixels for another project this weekend and couldn't continue this map for the moment...
issue is that it's a damn hard game, each screen may be tricky to pass ass Roland is quite slow, each jump must be well timed and need some pixel precision.


Also there are 10 levels.
Not all of them have a lot of screens but still, this can lead to quite a big map anyway.

Look at the level with missiles and airplane, I actually failed to pass beyound screen4... damn...

the Dome number 9 level also took me quite some times, and so on...
Not because it is difficult to copypaste graphics into a checkboard big picture, but it takes a lot of time to pass those fu****ing screens easily.

[Puresox]

The most annoying thing I find is that you have to go back to the start of the level if you biff up. Which is also a slow affair and ruins the flow of the game. I suppose it should train you to concentrate on not dying but still it's a draaaagggg!

[Devilmarkus]

Why not use the GameMapper I implemented in JavaCPC?

It can create game maps from RAM (Like in this example) or directly from screen, too (Is almost the same technic)

JavaCPC GameMapper (RAM Mapping)

[SyX]

I was reading old spanish magazines and i found an article about "Roland in time" with pokes and a map (but no using game screens).

You can find it in the pages 58-61 from the Micromania nº5.

I have tested the pokes and they work perfectly with the preserved versions in CPC-Power.

The basic list to add the tricks is:
[attach=2]

The list adds a few new extra keys:
1.- CTRL is for kill a life in case you get trapped.

2.- H is for stop enemies, press again to they can move.

3.- Cursor UP for returning to the "Time Tunnel".

4.- S + H save the actual screen to tape.


I'm going out in a few minutes and i can not write the list, but if somebody want to write it, i'm going to translate a few things from spanish for not having problems, the questions of this program makes are (S =  YES / N= No):
1.- "Monitor verde S/N" is "Green Monitor Y/N"

2.- "Vidas infinitas S/N" is "Infinite Lives S/N"

3.- "Numero de vidas 1-10" is "Number of lives 1-10"

4.- "Se mata en la caida S/N" is "You should die falling from high places Y/N"

5.- "Te maten los objetos S/N" is "Objects can kill you Y/N"

6.- "Neutralizar objetos voladores S/N" is "Disable flying objects Y/N"

For people using emulators, they can ignore this list and use directly the pokes that appear after the list:
1.- Vidas Infinitas/Infinite lives

2.- Numero de vidas/Number of lives

3.- Paralizar/Stop enemies

4.- Neutralizar ciertos objetos/Disable certain objects

I hope that this can help to finish the map of Roland in time

[Token]

Nice (holy roland!) digging!  I just wrote "online OCR" on Google. I had to correct every lines, it's not complete... and I must.. quit internet too 

Code Select Expand


Micromania Primer Epoca (Spanish) Issue 05
PROGRAMA CARGADOR
10 MODE 1
20 LOCATE 11,13:PRINT "CARGANDOSE ROINTIME"
30 OPENOUT "DUN"
40 MEMORY 4999
50 CLOSEOUT
60 LOAD "!ROINTIME,5000
70 CLS
80 LOCATE 9,19:INPUT •MONITOR VERDE S o N ",COLOR$
90 IF COLOR$="s" THEN POKE &1389,1
100 LOCATE 8,19:INPUT "VIDAS INFINITAS S o N",V$
110 IF V$="s" THEN POKE &1712,&A7:POKE &13F0,&A7:GOTO 140
120 CLS:LOCATE 8,19:INPUT "NUMERO DE VIDAS DE 1 - 10 ",N
130 IF N<1 OR N>10 THEN GOTO 120 ELSE POKE &145D,N
140 CLS:LOCATE 5,19:INPUT " TE MATEN LOS OBJECTOS ? S o N ",O$
170 IF O$="n" THEN  POKE &1B4E,0:POKE &1A02,0:POKE &1A90,0
180 CLS:LOCATE 1,19:INPUT "NEUTRALIZAR LOS OBJECTOS VOLADORES S o N ",N$
190 IF N$="s" THEN POKE &1EBB,&C9
200 POKE &164D,195:POKE &164E,76:POKE &164F:POKE &1519,54:POKE &152C,53
210 FOR I=40000 TO 40113:READ A:POKE I,A:NEXT I
220 CALL 5000
230 DATA ....



[SyX]

Good work Token!!!

I have fixed a few syntax errors at your work and adding the data lines:

Code Select Expand

10 MODE 1
20 LOCATE 11,13:PRINT "CARGANDOSE ROINTIME"
30 OPENOUT "DUN"
40 MEMORY 4999
50 CLOSEOUT
60 LOAD "!ROINTIME",5000
70 CLS
80 LOCATE 9,19:INPUT "MONITOR VERDE S o N ",COLOR$
90 IF COLOR$="s" THEN POKE &1389,1
100 LOCATE 8,19:INPUT "VIDAS INFINITAS S o N ",V$
110 IF V$="s" THEN POKE &1712,&A7:POKE &13F0,&A7:GOTO 140
120 CLS:LOCATE 8,19:INPUT "NUMERO DE VIDAS DE 1 - 10 ",N
130 IF N<1 OR N>10 THEN GOTO 120 ELSE POKE &145D,N
140 CLS:LOCATE 5,19:INPUT " SE MATA EN LA CAIDA ? S o N ",C$
150 IF C$="n" THEN POKE &1B2E,0
160 CLS:LOCATE 5,19:INPUT " TE MATEN LOS OBJECTOS ? S o N ",O$
170 IF O$="n" THEN  POKE &1B4E,0:POKE &1A02,0:POKE &1A90,0
180 CLS:LOCATE 1,19:INPUT "NEUTRALIZAR LOS OBJECTOS VOLADORES S o N ",N$
190 IF N$="s" THEN POKE &1EBB,&C9
200 POKE &164D,195:POKE &164E,76:POKE &164F,156:POKE &1519,54:POKE &152C,53
210 FOR I=40000 TO 40113:READ A:POKE I,A:NEXT I
220 CALL 5000
230 DATA &FF,&49,&2E,&44,&2E,&42,&41,&44,&41,&49,&4F,&5A,&3E,&17,&CD,&1E,&BB,&C2,&D9,&16,&3A,&AF,&2D,&B7,&C2,&50,&16,&3E,&2C,&CD,&1E,&BB,&20,&0B,&3E
240 DATA &00,&CD,&1E,&BB,&C2,&8D,&14,&C3,&50,&16,&3E,&3C,&CD,&1E,&BB,&20,&1D,&3A,&40,&9C,&ED,&44,&32,&40,&9C,&FE,&FF,&28
250 DATA &08,&3E,&C9,&32,&BB,&1E,&C3,&F4,&15,&3E,&FD,&32,&BB,&1E,&37,&C3,&50,&16,&3E,&01,&CD,&6B,&BC,&06,&0B,&21,&41,&9C
260 DATA &CD,&8C,&BC,&21,&00,&C0,&11,&00,&40,&01,&00,&C0,&3E,&02,&CD,&98,&BC,&CD,&8F,&BC,&C3,&50,&16


I have added a floppy with this list, RUN"POKES and choose what you want, one of the best is press H for stop enemies and at the same time the sprites can not kill you.

Now it's time for the people interested in making the map and not forget to send the map to CPC-Power

[Carnivius]

I have no idea what any of this is that I started with this topic but if it results in maps finally being made for those games then YAY!   

[SyX]

We have given the cheats and now it's only somebody with enough time to browse the game and capture the screens (around 50).

[tastefulmrship]

I'm more than happy to do it for the community... give me a few hours to sober up first and I'll post the complete maps!
(well, IF I ever sober up!)

[Gryzor]

Incoming upside-down map in 3...2...1...

[cngsoft]

Since nobody else's making the map and CPCE makes mapping easy with its F12 key...





















It's worth saying that "Roland in Time" was published with a big bug: it was originally made with 139 gems in mind but new screens were added and the final number of gems became 143. This makes the game unfinishable without these pokes: &149C,&8F ; &1559,&8F ; &15B3,&8F ; &15CE,&8F ; &166E,&8F ; &17F5,&8F

It's also worth saying that ROINTIME is notable because of the many invisible platforms within. "The End of Time" has a bunch of horizontal and vertical conveyor belts that let you reach the last gem, but also push you towards the lethal fireball in the centre of the screen or make you fall from too high. Similarly, the left wall of "Dome 9 Spaceport" features a tunnel of non-solid blocks that lets you walk into "Stepping Out", and both "The Guardroom" and "The Crumbling City" can be reached by standing behind the time machine of "Seen my Ballista?" and "After the Holocaust" and carefully jumping to the left. Bear in mind that ROINTIME predates the second part of "Jet Set Willy" and its twisted screens "Loony Jet Set" (invisible ramps) and "Star Drive (Early Brick Version)" (undistinguishable conveyor belts).

[cngsoft]

Ladies and gentlemen, here you have the maps of "Roland in Space" fresh from the oven!

SOL 3


ALPHA CENTAURI 4


BETELGEUSE 2


ARCTURUS 7


POLARIS 4


ALGOL 6


POLLUX 3


This map was made thanks to a couple of pokes that kept the enemies from moving. In this aspect it was a bit more difficult than in ROINTIME, where you could press H while a screen was being rendered and this ensured that the following screenshot would show everything in their starting locations.

Fun fact: ROLSPACE was published without any bugs. It's finishable as it is! :-)