Double Dragon Remake for the ZX Spectrum 128k

[Swainy]

Hi guy's, I hope you don't mind me posting this. I just thought that I'd try to even the scores seeing as the C64 & Amstrad both got two conversions of Double Dragon

As most of you probably know, the original conversion was pretty poor.
Anyway, I've been trying to get the project going for a few years now but a few weeks ago Jim Bagley (of Midnight Resistance fame) offered to code the game. So 3 weeks in and things are starting to happen.





http://youtu.be/vPfcr07Hz-E


http://youtu.be/jJ3oaobLzzM

[Gryzor]

Hello and welcome! Of course we don't mind posting such topics


Project looks promising, but is there a technical reason why the playing area is so small? What are its dimensions?


Title screen rocks

[andycadley]

It's about 256*160 if my proding around in ZXSpin is correct, which is not too bad for a Speccy game (it's full width and about 5/6 height). I guess that using the remaining height would impact performance a little and you probably get a better fit for the arcade's aspect ratio this way too. The fact it also leaves space for some black-on-black atttributes that can be used for masking vertical scrolls and clipping possibly helps too.

[Swainy]

The playing area isn't small, it's 256 by 160.



That's a bigger playing area than what Renegade & Target Renegade had Also our sprites are bigger and it's locked in at 25 frames per second.

And just to remind us all of what we first got way back in 1989:

[ukmarkh]

I'm not a fan of how it scrolls (Green Beret, Amstrad scrolling) Could the screen move without the pause by any chance, there's lots of examples how this was done on the CPC, Ghosts 'n Goblins for instance. I have to say, the sprites and speed of the thing look amazing... all this after only two weeks!

[Swainy]

We did have it working like that but it caused a bug in that if you quickly pressed right whilst the screen was scrolling, you could walk off screen lol

[ukmarkh]

We did have it working like that but it caused a bug in that if you quickly pressed right whilst the screen was scrolling, you could walk off screen lol

LMAO!!! I see, I'm sure someone on here would be able to help with the scrolling... you could maybe flick the scroll as seen in Gryzor on the CPC. Seriously though, taking on the conversion of Double Dragon is a huge challenge, and if you could get it working with scroll, that would be all the more amazing. I really like what you're doing, and this looks set to easily beat the Richard Aplin CPC version.

[steve]

@Swainy, why does the sign above the door/window say ENGLISH TEAR and not TEA or TEAROOM?

[MaV]

Amazing feat for the short time! And great graphics. I'll be following your progression closely!

[Swainy]

@Swainy, why does the sign above the door/window say ENGLISH TEAR and not TEA or TEAROOM?

Ha, just copying the arcade version mate.

[MacDeath]

colour clashes suck anyway...


Should better do it with no colours IMO.

The playing area isn't small, it's 256 by 160.

the original arcade is supposed to be something like 240x224...

[TFM]

colour clashes suck anyway...

My first thought when I saw it was 'Color bleeding suxx'. Else it looks promising, but the sprites need animation.

[MacDeath]

Yeah, when will you understand that the sprites should have priority over the background concerning colours attributes

But the musics are quite good.
Well done.

As most of you probably know, the original conversion was pretty poor.

Yeah, most ports for DD1 were quite shitty, even (especially) on 16bit.
One of the 2 CPC version was almost decent though.

but a few weeks ago Jim Bagley (of Midnight Resistance fame)

do you know if the sources from Midnight resistance are available ?

[sigh]

This looks great! I had also done some Double Dragon sprites for the CPC of Billy and Jimmy.
Any further advancements?

[Swainy]

Jim Bagley the programmer has been really busy with another project but I'll be meeting up with him at the play expo thing up in Manchester where I will lean on him to get some more done lol

How's your project coming on? The graphics look very nice indeed!

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Good luck with the project! A scrolling, colourful game isn't the spectrum's ideal situation, but it's clearly better than the original, graphically, already.