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Stormlord Amstrad cpc HD
26 July 2011, 10:21 am

 

	Stormlord Amstrad cpc HD Recorrido completo por el Stormlord para Amstrad CPC	From: Metr81 Views: 21 2 ratings
Time: 18:45	More in Gaming

Source: Uploads by Metr81

[MacDeath]

Great game, awesome realisation...

The only ofdd part is that many tiles actually suffered a little bit from the crossdev with C64 version.


But hey, it is quite 50/50...
Some tiles are better on CPC, other better on C64...

And i'm not quite sure the C64 actually plays betterly.

Here let's compare a little tit...
er, I meant a little bit.



=C64 :

=CPC :

=Speccy :

No wonder that such game could benefit from a PLUS version...

but just a slight palette editing on CPC old too.

[Metr]

By far I prefer the end result of the graphics,etc on the Amstrad, also raindrops, worms etc seems slower on C64, maybe is better for the gameplay
Main character doesnt have that flashy effect when dieing and you become immune for a few seconds on the Amstrad, but I think I prefer it that way.

[MacDeath]

I think about this game like some of those games that were so great on every 8 bit machine (C64-speccy-CPC actually)

think about it like Barbarian or Sacred Armpour of Antiriad...

Well, actually the games that made the "computer" (as opposed to consoles) games history and were just simply good whatever the machine.

Actually we can compare a good Soft Sprite on CPC against the hardversion on C64...

and shitty looking version on Speccy of the same exact code concerning the Sprite and scroll management in soft on a Z80.
but ok : better gameplay/speed/or some extra animation (The "naked sprites" (so accurate) done in actual tiles... eyeblinking at you...) thx to the 128+ version of speccy...
More RAM and AY... same Z80... still far too light on Video so perfect in animation.

Anyway.


Erf, why CPC was never ctually used as a 128K machine..?


but... such games were playing differently on each achine, the CPC respond quite differently and feel different, yet not clearly not as good...



Anyway as I told... If palette was betterly used on CPC, they shouldn't have tired the same kind of ditherings or colours...

Grey on CPC is called Cyan...
It's the "blue grey" yet the only proper "Grey" hues.

(alongside "dark yellow... the golden metal/grey)

So yep... could easily look better, also the 2nd opus (Déliverance) was even not as well ported from C64...

the main Dwarf sprite is in only 3-4 colours : C64 ported !

Even the 1st opus main sprite was properly using more colours on CPC... (and could perhaps use even more is patched)

From what I saw in recolouring this one, they used the light "pastel cyan" as an equivalent to the light grey on C64...I guess...

But hey, As C64 can't really have a lot of B&W+3 level gradiants... they often patch their gradiant with any grey... so the same ink is used while CPC could use 2 different...


Bricks are in red and the proper light colour after 3Pink" (pastel Red) is light yellow (pastel uyellow) not pastel blue, on the other hand, the pastel blue is just too fine for metallic effects, and even stone... and can mix with dark Blue as additional dark.
But at the time is wasn't as simple as today to recolour graphically...mmmh... well...
Hewson used a lot of atari ST to cross-port.

I suppose Atari ST had powerfull enough graphical apps to manage 16 coloured modes...


Anyway, one aspect that is truely impressive is the sound ambiance...

All those little jingles are simply wonderfull.
To me a good CPC sound managment have to be like this...

as for Head over heels...

Sonds effect mostly and little music when you actually do something...

I see few point in having some music only during games... (but a good one doesn't hurt...)

[redbox]

Never seen the C64 version before and admit that it does look very nice.


Annoying they didn't mask the sprites on the CPC version, must have run out of frame time with the soft scroll.

[MacDeath]

Annoying they didn't mask the sprites on the CPC version, must have run out of frame time with the soft scroll.

Sprites are unmasked ?
perhaps mostly the smaller sprites, not that a big deal and perhaps a residue from the speccy code too.

Anyway the CPC version do have a starfield while C64 seems to lack it.

Yep, looks great on C64... as the graphics seems to have been designed for it primely.

Also was the C64 playing with music only and no sound effects or is it just the video here ?


quite sadly the screen on CPC is as usual reduced compaired to C64...
as a resilt the HUD have been redimensioned, redesigned and looks not better than C64's one (less detailed).

But i guess this was done so the game could actually run as a 64K RAM game...


For a CPC/speccy engine, it pulls a really good sprite+scroll performance... and the starfield gives some parralax feeling.


Also the Hewson Logo we can see on Deliverance/Stormlord2 is so cool... 
A shame the CPC palette can't render it properly.

here a proper PLUS version of the CPc one as seen in deliverance I guess...
this is a dsk file, run this on a PLUS and run"pic.   

[robcfg]

Nice pic!


I agree that the CPC+ is underused and it deserves a nice game that takes advantage of the plus features.

[norecess]

I prefer Beyond The Ice Palace over this game (same kind of gameplay). Unfortunately I don't have any arguments to put on the table, it's just a general feeling.

[MacDeath]

I didn't played beyond the ice palace at the time...

The sprite is quite well animated, but the overall graphics seems less refined concerning the backgrounds (despite stormlord having some inks flaws due to the C64port...)

The sprites exploding in multicolour particles seems to be typical from the era (Trantor , savage ?)

But i think the sound "ambiance" from Stormlord is simply amazing...
The sweet little music when you rap.... er... deliver a cutie chick... is simply marvelous.


Concerning PLUS (again)...
Despite the obvious Hard features, the most unsused one (and shamefull non use) is simply it's palette...

I mean, any picture with such palette in mode0 is simply far beyound CPC.

[Axelay]

I prefer Beyond The Ice Palace over this game (same kind of gameplay). Unfortunately I don't have any arguments to put on the table, it's just a general feeling.

I think Stormlord is the better game, though I still enjoyed Ice Palace.  It's just that Ice Palace had a few design issues in my view, and was disappointing to me for a David Perry game.

Also the Hewson Logo we can see on Deliverance/Stormlord2 is so cool... 
A shame the CPC palette can't render it properly.

Can't?  Surely you mean it was a shame the graphics in Deliverance were such a poor rush job?

[MacDeath]

Can't?  Surely you mean it was a shame the graphics in Deliverance were such a poor rush job?

I was talking about the intro picture logo (the lizard one)...



this CPC version is using only 6 colours...
black, darkRed, orange, yellow, light cyan and white.

It is supposed to be a black + 5 level gradiant... which the CPC actually can't properly handdle but a few colour gradiants..

The C64 often "manage" this because graphician often mix unprobable colours together...
But on CPC it simply doesn't work that way that easily.


But anyway the in-game graphics on the 2nd opus were simply hastly ported straight with no real pixel nor palette bothering...
Just like the sprites from rick Dangerous and so on...
And to be fair it seems there are still some character attributes artefacts remaining on some tiles.


And no thinking was done to properly replace the Grey range from the c64... nor get the sprites into more colours.


There... other variation with smooth gradiants...
then just colour the different elements in the picture with those (separate the elements in different colours) as on CPC there is no need to follow colour attributes...

there you are, an even more awesome looking picture (and still better on PLUS of course....)
   

[norecess]

I think Stormlord is the better game, though I still enjoyed Ice Palace.

So I guess I have to revisit this game. I probably have a biased, outdated view.

[Axelay]

So I guess I have to revisit this game. I probably have a biased, outdated view.

You misunderstand, I think?  I wasn't attempting to assert a right or wrong game to prefer, just saying that in my view their were some design/execution issues that diminished the fun Ice Palace could have been, it felt like a missed opportunity.


For example, they give you a number of weapons to choose from, but the majority of the game is spent climbing ladders or being attacked from above, so there is little reason to use anything other than the one weapon with the overhead arc trajectory.  There's also the push scrolling, it requires you get quite close to the top or bottom of the screen before it kicks in, making the elevator ride near the end of level one pretty much pot luck when you encounter the flying enemies near the top.  Likewise on the few occasions you might climb down a ladder, enemies below don't appear until they would be fully on screen, by which time they cover the player and you immediately lose a life.  Things like that just take the shine off a game for me, regardless of other considerations.

[Axelay]

I was talking about the intro picture logo (the lizard one)...

So was I.  The logo still suggested the same lack of familiarity with the CPC palette as the rest of the game, a sense the artist wasnt sure what to do without a light grey.  Though I guess they could have been trying to make the gold logo look as though it was being lit by a blue light source, but I'm not convinced. 


But the CPC can still manage the logo in 'gold' without resorting to making it red, blue or purple.  You could simply replace the light cyan with pastel yellow, though that will reduce contrast on the lighter areas.  Or you could move yellow and orange 'up' and put in the dark yellow for a kind of 'dirty' gold look.  Not as smooth looking as using red, but I think it gives a better approximation of the logos original colour.


The multi coloured logo you did on the Plus doesn't look so bad with the CPC's palette either! 

[MacDeath]

Cyan, yellow and Green quite lack some decent contrast between the light and pastel variation, that why I told  the CPC palette couldn't that well do it.

Would need to re-dither in less tones perhaps.. or re-do so the darker colours get more surface and the lighter a bit less...

That why i suggested to following long gradiants :
Dark red => light purple
Darkred => yellow
Darkblue => light cyan.

They are amongst the betterly balanced large gradiants the CPC have IMO.

The "dark yellow" version is not bad either.

[norecess]

You misunderstand, I think?  I wasn't attempting to assert a right or wrong game to prefer, just saying that in my view their were some design/execution issues that diminished the fun Ice Palace could have been, it felt like a missed opportunity.

Actually you are right. Most of my memories are based on my childhood experience - I did not notice at the time that much those climb stuff etc. in Beyond The Ice Palace. Playing it now and experiencing this design flow would probably bore me as well.

[Metr]

I just uploaded Beyond The Ice Palace in case you want to compare anything. It should be posted here in a while, but is up now.

[Gryzor]

Wow, finally I get to see the ending!

[edit] erm.... oh well. Btw, the intro and high-score music sounds like Cybernoid, is it the same musician?

[Axelay]

[edit] erm.... oh well. Btw, the intro and high-score music sounds like Cybernoid, is it the same musician?

Yes, Dave Rogers (The Great!)  Sometimes used to load up some pretty average games just to listen to his music. 

[Gryzor]

Ooh nice! Any other game to recommend?

[SyX]

Well, if you only want to hear the Great Music Works of Mr. Rogers, download the attachment and Enjoy!!!

[Gryzor]

Oh wow. Thank god the missus is not at home! Thanks!!!