News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu

Shinobi Remaster - Released

Started by Fmtrx, 17:31, 08 February 20

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Fmtrx


Prologue

I have always been a huge fan of the Shinobi in arcades. Mastering the game with 20.000 bonus provided excellent gameplay value unparalleled back then. I was also fan of the CPC since 1988, my first program was written in this machine. The CPC conversion while quite good visually in the green monitor when i first saw it circa 1989 (Dimitris from Styra, Faidon salutes you if you are reading this ;) ), the color scheme that the designer followed made it to differ drastically from the arcade. We all know that despite the fact that the palette is restricted,  CPC can do better than this in 'mimicking' the arcade look.
Adding to the recipe the most valuable ingredient: cpctoolkit, that Fano kindly provided to us, which resulted in me having some fun remastering the old graphics during the last weeks. I tried the best i could, to simulate the feeling of arcade.


The Remaster

Initially my original intention was to just replace the main character sprite -  i always hated the original sprite.  (Noone likes a hero with scoliosis and rounded legs)
Then i decided to change some colors as well.... After that, i decided to update many textures... 'Appetite comes with eating' they say.
The result was that i changed/colored almost all textures of backgrounds, and updated several sprites (hostage,skeleton, blue/green ninjas - the ninja sprite has now a more imposing posture, also used hero sprite,thug from sigh/Rouzid)
That being said, bonus stage is left untouched, until we manage to extract the data. Additionally, end bosses are left untouched for the same reason. Basically i believe that end bosses are already very well designed.


Acknowledgments/Credits

'Fano' for the Patching Tool  utility and his help on many matters regarding the usage, and aspects of the game details. 'Sigh' and Yves Rizoud for their sprite work they did for the main hero, thug, hostage. Also mission 1 tiles are a modified version of Sigh's tiles - added shadows, changed some colors.


FUTURE work


       
  • I believe that we could have tremendous improvements regarding the sound section. We know that CPC can play better quality music than the one we hear in game. Imagine the improvement of the experience just by taking as example the Deliverance soundtrack (Commodore64) or Unreal (PC). Any musician here that is interested in giving a hand with this game, please let Fano and me know. :)
  • Retouch the bonus stage and if needed end bosses (Although i like them as they are).
  • Perhaps with some code hacking we could put some crucial missing frames : sword hits, missing jumpup frame, frame with the gun etc.
  • I have prepared an intro screen showing the shinobi face as in the arcade. Perhaps we could add it somehow in the future.
NOTES


       
  • The game as it was designed, imposed  some limitations regarding the number of colors, there are stages that it utilizes less than 16 colors and there is an explanation for this and has to do with space save regarding tiles.
  • Also they resused tiles in different places, where the arcade had different textures. For example: this becomes obvious in the hut you enter at the end of Level 4-1.The middle bricks used there are taken from the bricks that are used in the  Level 4-2, 4-3.  I could not do anything there, I had two choices: either to follow brown brick design to match the hut wall but 'break' the look of bricks in Levels 4-2, 4-3 or the opposite. I chose the latter.
  • For some inexplicable reason there were cases that they had two same colors in the palette instead of utilizing a different color. In mission 2, for example they had two dark blue slots allocated. I replaced one instance with the ,much needed for this mission, gray color.
  • as the color choice is already quite restricted to begin with, i chose not to restrict my choices more by selecting dark or bright colors depending on foreground and background. Thus I aimed for an arcade 'simulation' of the visuals no matter the cost.
To fix 1) and 2) , code hacking is needed.





Change Log
V1.01 / 9/2/2020

_Updated hostage sprite to make it more visible.
_Corrected texture of mountains in Level 3-1.

V1.02 / 10/2/2020
_ Removed Dithering in Mission 1. Get the clean look of the arcade.
_ Corrected a texture in L5-1_ Changed a texture in L2-1

Carnivius

This is cool.Definitely preferring the new graphics especially the improved main player sprite and his walk animation.  :)
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

VincentGR

Will longplay this on youtube for sure, love this game.


Thank you.

SkulleateR

Thx for this, will try this out soon  8)

Gryzor

#4
Dang that's exciting! Trying it the soonest possible!


[EDIT] is it joystick only? I don't remember...

Fmtrx

#5
Quote from: Gryzor on 20:03, 08 February 20
Dang that's exciting! Trying it the soonest possible!


[EDIT] is it joystick only? I don't remember...


yes, joystick only unfortunately.


Quote from: VincentGR on 18:13, 08 February 20Will longplay this on youtube for sure, love this game.Thank you.
please post a link when you do so  :)









Shaun M. Neary

Quote from: Fmtrx on 21:09, 08 February 20

yes, joystick only unfortunately.

please post a link when you do so  :)










The original was Joystick only if memory serves me correctly.
Gonna fire this up. Can finish the original easily enough so will be nice to compare. And I love the Aplin original!
Currently playing on: 2xCPC464, 1xCPC6128, 1x464Plus, 1x6128Plus, 2xGX4000. M4 board, ZMem 1MB and still forever playing Bruce Lee.
No cheats, snapshots or emulation. I play my games as they're intended to be played. What about you?

ukmarkh

Sadly I can't get past the grey screen, loads the ninja, asks me about options for cheating and then try's to load. I've tried C4CPC and WinApe32?  :(

Fmtrx

#9
Quote from: ukmarkh on 21:49, 08 February 20
Sadly I can't get past the grey screen, loads the ninja, asks me about options for cheating and then try's to load. I've tried C4CPC and WinApe32?  :(
For WINAPE : make sure you have enabled joystick in settings. This i think is emulated with numpad by default. With Num lock OFF,
'5' starts/shoots, 4,8,6,2 : directions

sigh

I need a joystick to control this properly but I managed to see the first screen of the first level. I can throw shurikens and can't move the character at the moment.
However - it looks amazing! The backgrounds colours are especially good as the original yellow I had used was too bright and uncomfortable to the eye. The dithering works well.The ninja colours are super cool as it looks better than the grey of the original.
I hope to find a joystick soon.

amijim

WoW.What a game.Congratulations.There is only one thing that comes in my mind!Free vacations in my hotel in Preveza for the creator.Contact me for details.

Mr. DVG

Fantastic! :o 

An excellent job that makes this Amstrad version the best ever for 8-bit computers of that period. I played this remake pleasantly and was really impressed by the beauty of the new tiles / textures and sprites. If I am allowed I would just like to report some strange bugs in the pavement and in the backdrop of the second boss, some tiles a little messed up in the mountains of the third level and then with the red too bright sometimes the children to be saved are not seen well (which should be pink), but I found everything else really excellent! If you intend to improve even more, the product could become a real jewel (but even so it already is)!

Thank you! :-*

P.S. - Works perfectly on M4 board! ;)

VincentGR

Tomorrow I will play it on an emulator so the picture would be crispy.
WinCPC is also not running it.
Ape is OK, will try also retrovirtualmachine.

trocoloco

#14
Very nice work on the graphics, the main character is a huge improvement over the original and also the background colour scheme is far more pleasant, overall it makes it a lot more enjoyable over the original but i also agree with Mr. DVG comment about the third stage. Played it on a CPC6128 with M4 and worked great. Welldone!

Gryzor

Damn, why doesn't joystick work under Winape? Numlock on or off, nothing happens... what must one press to begin the game?

Fmtrx

#16
Quote from: amijim on 23:29, 08 February 20
WoW.What a game.Congratulations.There is only one thing that comes in my mind!Free vacations in my hotel in Preveza for the creator.Contact me for details.


Thank you man, I appreciate it.


Thank you all for your comments, I am glad you enjoyed it. :)


Mr DVG: you are quite right, it seems that just recoloring the texture did not work quite well. I will create a new texture for it.
Also the kid, while i pink color is used, indeed it is hidden in some places. I will use a more vibrant color.
I have no problem with suggestions, i believe that there is always room for improvement on anything.
I will release a V1.01 soon.


Gryzor, I use numeric keypad in winape. 5 starts the game. Did you have any success with this?

Gryzor

No, and I don't know why! Joystick enabled, nothing happens though... I'll try a fresh installation.

Fmtrx

New version 1.01:

_Updated hostage sprite to make it more visible.
_Corrected texture of mountains in Level 3-1.


khisanth

Fantastic stuff, nice one!  Will play this tonight with a beer :)

VincentGR


kawickboy


Xyphoe

Great job so far!!! <3 I love this game, and I especially like what you've done with the main sprite.
I've done a quick comparison video -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ZnMGblmB8
I know it's a work in progress and I think some things should probably change, so I'll likely do a longer video later when it's the final version or whatever!

Gryzor

Lovely, thanks for the vid!!!

TotO

A agree with Xyphoe about the issue of the new backgrounds brightness.
By the way, it is a great work (in progress) for this Shinobi re-Master version.
(not kind to remove the musician name from the credits)
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod