Shadow of the beast......

[milamber]

The CPC version of beast was a bit of a let down in my opinion and left me wondering why they would release a cut down version of what was a simple game anyway.  The Amiga version used every trick in its box to produce great visuals - two 8 colour playfields, full use of the copper chip to display sky and ground, fixed 16 colour hardware sprite for the beast and amix of hardware and software scolling.  Beyond this, the actual game was too hard and mostly boring. ( I managed to make my own Amiga version of the first level with BB2 - which taught me quite alot about the 16bits capabilities, which where often limited and relied on visual trickery)

Even if the CPC+ had been employed to produce similar effects i think in mode 0 it would have lost the higher res crispness of the original. 

Just wish that Myth had been made using mode 0 instead of mode 1!

[Gryzor]

Boring? I mean, yes, it hasn't aged all that well as a game but back then the visual treat was more than enough to keep you intrigued, so well was it done...

[MacDeath]

Just wish that Myth had been made using mode 0 instead of mode 1!

Myth history in the making ?

I didn't played it at the time, yet I could learn about it.
Used to be some sort of milestone at its time...
A great game, especially on Commodores (C64 and Amiga...)

The speccy version is quite good for a speccy.
the 1bpp graphics managed to be quite decent (Medusa Head and bosses... yet it just is not the same game as on C64/Amiga...


CPC version is actually not that badly speccyported.
But far too straight.

The good point ? Speccy version was good, to begin with, and they simply didn't try to add extra raster colours... so yeah, it is not that sluggish.

Yet the problem is that they literally emulated the Attributes, yet with 4 colours instead of 8.


Speccy :

CPC :

CPC version is not even slowlier than speccy one...(well, perhaps just a little bit...)
This is perhaps a proof that many speccy ports could have been more playable or faster without the useless rasters they often put...

But I also suspect Myth Speccy engine to be cleverly programmed at first...

Probably the usual way to translate 1bpp into 2bpp... in this port.
The character based graphics/engine enable an helpfull lack of colour clashes... and you can "emulate" colours for each elements...

But... as usual it is not that good to have actually 1bpp graphic on a CPC... Yet this enable the graphical Datas to be twice "lighter"...

Some tiles would look so much better with a proper 2-3 colours dithering (the choice of Yellow, Orange and red for first level would be good in that way....).
just a few highlights on the tiles, or the sprite in 3 colours instead of 2...

But the Atribute logic of such engine doesn't enable such a margin as masked graphics/Sprites... (which are then actually 2bpp in RAM)


So certainly a game which would have needed a 128K version.
Or a true Mode0 job on the CPC version.

[arnoldemu]

For Myth, I am not sure that using mode 1 and doing better graphics would actually work here.

I think the problem with Speccy ports for me is:

1. The graphics end up less colourful than the Spectrum
2. The graphics and gameplay end up *SLOWER* than the Spectrum

It is better when they try to use rasters to get more colours, and of course better if the graphics are re-done for mode 1 or mode 0 in mind.

The Myth graphics are clean, making them more colourful may make the game less enjoyable.

[milamber]

Folks, dont shoot me here but I read reviews in my mates C64 mag of Myth and loved the look of the game.  I hated the conversion to Amiga and was saddened by the CPC/speccy port. 

The info about the games mechanics in conversion to CPC is good info, thanks kind sir.

Back then, I had the CPC and my mate the C64.  I hated the C64 colour scheme and was jealous of its abilities...but!  I had many games that shined where the C64 ones looked dull and where a series of repetitive sprites.  I dreamed of how Myth could look on the CPC with its superior colour palette.  Then its released and all i thought was ruddy spectrum!!!!!!!!!

I just glad Turrican was made by a group who appreciated the CPC and made the most of its ability.

Imagine that in mode 1!