The Sword of Ianna is coming to the Amstrad CPC

[andycadley]

I hate those 'few patches' of colour on the Plus version of Switchblade.  They stand out too much cos of their hugely inconsistent look and are distracting and is why I almost always play the disk version instead (if Hiro himself had gotten the HW sprite treatment for extra colour I would have been much happier).  The red sky gradient at the start is ok but even that's not great especially compared to Stryker which has waaaay smoother and prettier gradients in it's skies when run on a Plus.

This game looks good.  I can't say I'm hugely fond of it on Spectrum.  I just have a few niggles with the way it plays and controls but overall it's very good.

Hate is a strong term, but I know what you mean about it being visually a bit weird. It's very clearly a game that was designed for the old school machines and then slightly tarted up and I don't think that looks good. Hiro himself presumably didn't get prettied up because it would have required a lot more effort to fake a hardware sprite passing behind the various on-screen objects. Generally I don't think that sort of approach tends to work very well.


As to Ianna, it looks OK but I'm not really sure why I would play it over the Speccy version. There isn't really a "grab factor" to make the CPC version seem like a stand out improvement and, in these days when all machines are available, I think you need that if you're going to port a game between retro systems (unless you are doing it for your own personal satisfaction of course)

[Carnivius]

Hate is a strong term, but I know what you mean about it being visually a bit weird.

I used to find it intriguing, then tolerable, then irritating and now just annoys me so damn much I heavily dislike playing the Plus version. Yeah I'm weird like that.   Yeah I guess having him move behind stuff could have been tricky.  It's pretty impressive just how much foreground stuff that is in Switchblade actually when compared to most other 8 bit games.

[reidrac]

As to Ianna, it looks OK but I'm not really sure why I would play it over the Speccy version. There isn't really a "grab factor" to make the CPC version seem like a stand out improvement and, in these days when all machines are available, I think you need that if you're going to port a game between retro systems (unless you are doing it for your own personal satisfaction of course)

I guess it depends.

I personally don't see the appeal of ports. I agree with you that it is very easy to get an emulator (and sometimes the real hardware!) and enjoy the original game, so why bother with a port? When a game is designed for a system, it is very possible that it may not translate well to a different one. I get asked all the time to make ports of my games, and I don't do ports!

That said, I see that most people here are invested enough to have a real CPC at home, and for them the port may provide something extra when played on the actual machine; but ultimately I think the port exists because the author wants to do it. He made a port of Ianna for a speccy 48K, which is crazy and amazing at the same time!

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

I think they've put some decent effort into the background graphics.

Yes, the Switchblade sprites are a bit odd - the sprite lights are okay, but the (bright blue/red) sprite crates are poor, the grey ones are okay.

[GUNHED]

Well, all I have at home are some CPCs / Plus, few PcWs, one Genie IIIs, but nothing else. Therefore I do appreciate the CPC version. And from what I have seen it looks really pretty (already commented on CPC sprite colors before). The final version is not out now, I will wait and see. Hopefully the CPC version has some extras over the spectrum version. Since the CPC has more colors f.e. it would be great.


And of course I will play it on the real hardware. Emulation is great, but can't beat real hardware - especially with the original CPC color monitor with it's infamous hardware antializing. 

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://youtu.be/0EU01-vqcgM

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://youtu.be/wYmz-uadCl4

download: http://retroworks.es/php/game_en.php?id=15

[reidrac]

Looking forward to give this a go tonight.

I loved the speccy original (although I didn't finish it), and this one looks fantastic!

EDIT: it runs from a Dandanator. I guess depending of what it is using from that technology we may or may not see a disc version.

[viddi]

This is so cool!

Wish you´d release a dsk version plus a physical disc release.

[Gryzor]

Wishing a physical version too...

Right, time to see how to create a Dandanator under RVM

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://youtu.be/UCIgn3hjuao

[reidrac]

4MHz "REPOKER DE ASES" is in Dandanator format (and compatible with 64K models, which is nice for games that were initially 128K only), and it was sold for 45€.

That being several games, I guess this could be a bit cheaper than that (the BOM will be the same though).

Considering the cost of a big box edition on 3" disc; sounds like a good deal to me.

[SkulleateR]

Wish I could play this on real hardware too but no Dandanator here 


Hope there will be a DSK and/or M4 release as well ....

[Gryzor]

Playing it right now; don't mind the port aspect of it, really... looks and plays beautifully!

[manossg]

I hope it will come out on dsk...

[XeNoMoRPH]

Sorry guys, but this game is not going to come out in DSK format 

[asertus]

Sorry guys, but this game is not going to come out in DSK format 

Why? Does it use any specific Dandanator features? 128K or similar? Or just to push dandanator or DES?

[XeNoMoRPH]

Why? Does it use any specific Dandanator features? 128K or similar? Or just to push dandanator or DES?

I can not tell you the reason, that is what the authors commented, I suppose it is the space that the game occupies, if you look at the other versions of ZX Spectrum and MSX2, they are also in cartridge, although I have seen the version of Spectrum Plus 3, comes in a DSK with a special large format

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

How about a .crt for Plus machines?

[Otto]

Is there a way to give the ".rom" image file to the MAME CPC emulator?

MAME emulates a series of CPC extension boards like Multiface, Cpc-Rom-Box etc, but no Dandanator I'm afraid.

(In case the game came as a ".crt" file for the CPC+ machines, MAME should be able to run it since it emulates the CPC+ machines, too.)

[Phantomz]

Sorry guys, but this game is not going to come out in DSK format 

Any chance of a cpr version? 

[reidrac]

For technical details:

https://twitter.com/fj_pena/status/1277584551011852289

- Is not a regular ROM
- It is a ROM for a Dandanator cartridge
- It really uses the memory mapper in the cart

EDIT: just trying to help here, but I think the authors should have a FAQ somewhere

[DanyPPC]

I hope there will be a cpr version for C4CPC.

[Nich]

This is so cool!

Wish you´d release a dsk version plus a physical disc release.

Same here. I commented on @Xyphoe's stream that having a cartridge- or ROM-only release on the CPC (and I don't mean a GX4000 cartridge) doesn't really make The Sword of Ianna feel like an 'authentic' CPC game in my opinion.

[Carnivius]

Feels very authentic to me. Maybe cos I'm used to emulators so don't really care about physical media.  Certainly feels like a CPC game.  I like games that run fine on my 464 but I understand the huge limitations caused by loading from cassette into a 64k machine if this game required that cart method, i'm ok with that. I just still finding the whole rom thing a lil confusing andhave to use RVM which is a fine emulator but yeah