Sorcery plus - New/Old Plus remake

[Trebmint]

Decided to have a go at upgrading the game Sorcery to the plus, and this is the results so far. Still lots to do, as the main sprite needs to be done, but the sorcerer is going to get his own 15 colour palette.... so it should look better.


Any comments?

[McKlain]

Big task ahead 

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Good first steps - not sure about the ever present logo, I think I'd prefer the game screen higher. Maybe the book at the bottom could be a couple of sprites.


The gradient is a nice touch.

[Devilmarkus]

Nice progress already. I like the logo on top of the screen, because the regular playfield is not smaller with it.

I hope, you can finish and polish it

Keep hacking

[fano]

Nice ! keep up the good work !

[EgoTrip]

The gradient looks wrong to me, it looks cheap and too rough. I'm sure something better could be done with the backgrounds. Also, the logo looks good but I dont think it should be persistent. Maybe remove it and center the rest of the screen.

[TFM]

Looks interesting, and it was sure a lot of work. Respect therefore. Would be interesting to directly compare old and new version. But I guess that can wait for the main sprite being finished.

[Kris]

Nice project, hope you will finished it 

[Trebmint]

The gradient looks wrong to me, it looks cheap and too rough. I'm sure something better could be done with the backgrounds. Also, the logo looks good but I dont think it should be persistent. Maybe remove it and center the rest of the screen.

Hi, yeah the gradient is ragged, but it has to be dark to make the foreground stand out, plus even with 4096 the colours arent enough for a smooth gradient. I do have a trick up my sleeve but we will see. I like the logo and it's gonna be around on every screen even the menus, and it just expands the screen area. I hate big borders.


As for the backgrounds remember it is effectively Sorcery with lots more colour, and questionably better graphics/sprites. The game is exactly the same... but it was a very good game to start with. Remember its really just a hack, but the more games that use plus features the better huh?

[EgoTrip]

you could always dither the gradients to make it look smoother

[Trebmint]

you could always dither the gradients to make it look smoother

Sorcery XOR's the graphics to the screen. And there arent enough sprites as each character is 2 sprites in size as they are 12x24 pixels. This means only the Sorcerer will become a hardware sprite getting rid of many of the XOR problems, but the others would have to suffer from gradient XORing.


Im going to alternate the the split lines so it appears to give a mid colour between the two. Hopefully this will make it better

[Devilmarkus]

Perhaps don't remove the "Sorcery" logo... just shrink it to 1x1 size (instead of the stretched pixels) and put it into the upper left or right corner and move the rest of the display up a bit...

Then, perhaps, let the logo slowly scroll from right to left (so that it disappears a short while and then re-appears in the upper right corner)

[TFM]

Well, hardware sprites can cover 8 phases (when using two for each character and phase). How mach phases has the sorcerer? Isn't 4 enough? So, you could at least use hardware sprites for one another character (enemy).

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

I remember that ACU had a Sorcery+ sprite and graphics editor type-in at some point - maybe there will be some useful stuff in there to help?

[Gryzor]

Ooh I hope this takes off Your second screenshot, btw, is broken.


I actually like the logo to tell you the truth...

[TFM]

Your second screenshot, btw, is broken.

The one in your signature too 

[Trebmint]

Well I've got it as a .cpr file now, so its going well... hooray! Thanks to arnoldemu

[Kris]

Great ! A new cartridge game in progress

[arnoldemu]

Well I've got it as a .cpr file now, so its going well... hooray! Thanks to arnoldemu

I didn't send you the full filesystem yet

But good you used the other code I sent you. I will publish this also.
I want to do a little more testing before it's released.

[Trebmint]

I wrote a small PC program that converts a .sna to .cpr plus allowing me to load graphic data into the last 16k too, and then just copies the ROM to RAM as in you're manner.

[Trebmint]

Just a little update since I now am running it as an actually .cpr file rather than a .sna


Still the sprite things to add in game, and I've managed to bust the hi score system somehow, but have added some nice pics an stuff to the game screens to plus it up a little





If you wanna take a look at the .cpr as far as it is then you can get it here sorcery plus

Any comments?

[Gryzor]

What are the keys? Can't get past the title screen? Or is this the only thing included in the cpr?

[Trebmint]

Its joystick so in winape thats set to the numerical keys unless you've altered  it. You might have to press num lock too

[arnoldemu]

is pause 'P'?

That is the pause button on the gx4000.

The cpr doesn't work in arnold emulator - I can fix that, but I really like the presentation.

[Trebmint]

is pause 'P'?

That is the pause button on the gx4000.

The cpr doesn't work in arnold emulator - I can fix that, but I really like the presentation.

Is that because the the .cpr RIFF header is wrong. I just copied the 20 byte header from Switchblade TBH. It works in Winape and thats all I can test it on. I just leave my pure faith in Richards emulator hands for accuracy.


And I have no idea where the Pause is. Ive not changed the code like that so perhaps there never was a pause function in the original. Actually I'd forgotten the Pause... what key does it map to?


Glad you like the presentation. Only really the hi score bug fix and graphics to ammend from here in. No free room for any nice fades etc as they pretty much filled the memory. All the changes I've added had to be done in about 800 bytes