News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu
avatar_NewsBot

Genesis8 - Remake of Slap Fight (Alcon) by Abalore W.I.P.

Started by NewsBot, 16:00, 20 October 16

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Maniac

Quote from: abalore on 22:59, 21 May 20
Hello!
Here is the Level 1 Beta version 3 with huge improvements:
- Improved stability, crash source have been identified and fixed.
- Improved collisions: Bigger collision box for some enemies and a lot more accurate collision check.
- New Weapon interface, with new icons and new info text
- All screen side artifacts have been removed by carefully reviewing and fixing all enemy paths
- New Laser weapon with new graphics for improved visibility and better performance
- More gameplay to test: a new bunch of enemies unlocked after the boss including new enemy classes

Thanks everyone for your invaluable feedback, let's keep making this game more and more enjoyable!
Abalore
PD: @Axelay I think all the issues you posted have been solved
Awesome as ever. Really like the changes. Sorry to say that the issues with the Plus persist with the scrolling at the top of the screen but fully realise that this is not going to impact the vast majority. As always happy to help if needed.


Keep up the great work - I love it even if I'm not that great at the game!

Otto

This is a very nice remake and indeed an impressive soundtrack in the title screen, as Mr. DVG wrote. I only saw it on a
Youtube video which the hard-working guys or guy at Indy Retro News linked to, today.

Does this title soundtrack use the CPC's standard AY-soundchip with 3 channels, or does it use the mentioned additional AY chip from the cartridge with additional 3 channels, so giving 6 channels in total?

In any case, sounds amazing.
And the whole game looks really excellent (according to the videos I saw). Well done Abalore, and TotO (graphics) and Targhan (music/sound) !

It's so nice to see our good old CPC and its scenery being so highly active. I wouldn't have imagined that 35 years ago!

abalore

Quote from: Otto on 09:01, 26 May 20
This is a very nice remake and indeed an impressive soundtrack in the title screen, as Mr. DVG wrote. I only saw it on a
Youtube video which the hard-working guys or guy at Indy Retro News linked to, today.

Does this title soundtrack use the CPC's standard AY-soundchip with 3 channels, or does it use the mentioned additional AY chip from the cartridge with additional 3 channels, so giving 6 channels in total?

In any case, sounds amazing.
And the whole game looks really excellent (according to the videos I saw). Well done Abalore, and TotO (graphics) and Targhan (music/sound) !

It's so nice to see our good old CPC and its scenery being so highly active. I wouldn't have imagined that 35 years ago!
Hi Otto,
thanks for  your words, the music is standard CPC sound.

LewisCPC

Incredible work! I have an original arcade board running in my arcade.

I need to get on this! can anyone link me to a shop that will sell me an X mem expansion?

TotO


Quote from: Otto on 09:01, 26 May 20In any case, sounds amazing. And the whole game looks really excellent (according to the videos I saw). Well done Abalore, and TotO (graphics) and Targhan (music/sound) !
It's so nice to see our good old CPC and its scenery being so highly active. I wouldn't have imagined that 35 years ago!
Thank you! Probably you have preferred the music was Otto;D

Quote from: LewisCPC on 21:34, 27 May 20
Incredible work! I have an original arcade board running in my arcade. I need to get on this! can anyone link me to a shop that will sell me an X mem expansion?
Thank you! It is just a short beta demo. The X-MEM does nothing special for the game, except storing the ROM by commodity. If you want to buy it because you need a RAM/ROM expansion, you can contact me. Depending of your usage, the demo works on the M4 board too.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Otto

Quote from: abalore on 02:23, 27 May 20
Hi Otto,
thanks for  your words, the music is standard CPC sound.
Thanks for the answer. I already loved the original 1987 tune, but yours from Thargan ist incredible.


Quote from: TotO on 08:22, 28 May 20
Thank you! Probably you have preferred the music was Otto;D
Nice! Didn't know that such an Otto chip exists. :-)

I send greetings to you three in Spain and France.

Targhan

Thanks for all your kind words.

Just to clarify:

  • the sound effects are not mine, but extracted from the arcade version by Abalore.
  • the title music is original
  • the ingame songs are however conversions from the arcade version, to which I of course applied the "Targhan treatment" :). I hope you will like them too.
Targhan/Arkos

Arkos Tracker 2.0.1 now released! - Follow the news on Twitter!
Disark - A cross-platform Z80 disassembler/source converter
FDC Tool 1.1 - Read Amsdos files without the system

Imperial Mahjong
Orion Prime

Otto

Thanks for the clarification, Targhan!
Quote

       
  • the title music is original
Since I lack the hardware to run the remake, I only watched various videos showing the remake in action. Its title tune starting at
minute 5, 55 secs here in this video from the Retro News guys sounds a lot better than the title tune from the CPC 1987 original.

Is this because I play the CPC 1987 original within an emulator (MAME 0.220), or does the remake title tune has got some "Targhan treatment", too? (Like your mentioned in-game tunes, which unfortunately I didn't hear so far but which I am going to like for sure!)

Question to modern-PC tech-tech guys: Is there any chance we can run the Slap Fight remake on an emulator on Linux, like MAME which happily emulates the CPC range including the CPCplus machines ?

TotO

The new Title Music isn't present on the demo to not spoil.  ;)
Instead, the demo play one of the in-game music with "Targhan treatment".

About the current SFX, they are extracted from the arcade but not sound properly.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Otto

Quote from: TotO on 11:56, 28 May 20
The new Title Music isn't present on the demo to not spoil.  ;)
Instead, the demo play one of the in-game music with "Targhan treatment".
Now I understand! And indeed I knew it wasn't the 1987 original, and now I see it's one with the  "Targhan treatment". Easy to hear, since it sounds absolutely amazing. I think it's one of the best CPC tunes I heard (the in-game
tune from the video at minute 5, second
53 which the demo plays also at the title screen).

You three do a great job. Keep on the good work. Long live the king – or CPC in this case.

GUNHED

Let me ask the technical things... It seems to be MODE 1, but seems to have more than four colors. Which technique do you use?
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

Otto

Quote from: GUNHED on 14:58, 28 May 20
It seems to be MODE 1, but seems to have more than four colors. Which technique do you use?
When looking at the game demo videos, I'm pretty sure that only the title screen is Mode 1 with various colour rasters to get more colours accross vertical raster lines.Whereas in-game the classical mode 0 with 16 colours is being used.
(Please correct me if I am wrong.)

TotO


Quote from: GUNHED on 14:58, 28 May 20
Let me ask the technical things... It seems to be MODE 1, but seems to have more than four colors. Which technique do you use?
The title screen is MODE 1 with rasters. The in-game graphics are Sub-Pixel Mode 0 to have the picture sharp and colourful.

"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

cpcitor

Of course I love this production like everyone. It's so superior to the original port in every way.

I just happened to have noticed something.
https://youtu.be/YlHGHxhyJfY?t=415

The landscape is gorgeous, the colors are well chosen for a nuanced palette, softened with dithering.

The shadows are soft and accurately convey depth information: ramps, trees, towers, etc. Destroying a shadow-casting object removes the shadow, too, nice!

The ship must be high above the landscape since it flies over all those items, especially the high cone-shaped tower tops.

But but but. There's something that destroys the feeling when you know it.

Spoiler: ShowHide

The shadow of the player's spaceship is black and very very close to the ship's shape.

This conveys the conflicting visual information that the ship is actually very close to the ground.

What could be done?

Drawing an accurate shadow would require the game engine to:
1 actually know the depth at each location on the ground.
2 figure out where to place the shadow
3 including when the shadow is cut in pieces by discontinuity (see for example shadow of one of the lamps on https://www.gridsecondlife.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PL_EM_070906-05.jpg )

This is imho irrealistic to expect from the CPC.

A solution would be to remove the shadow altogether (I remember it was not there at the beginning), pretending that "the ship is so high, its shadow is outside of the screen dude!". Which actually make kind of sense.

I remember the shadow was added for better contrast of the ship against the ground.
To preserve contrasts, maybe surround the ship with a black outline all around ?



How did they solve this problem in arcade games? (Did they?)
Had a CPC since 1985, currently software dev professional, including embedded systems.

I made in 2013 the first CPC cross-dev environment that auto-installs C compiler and tools: cpc-dev-tool-chain: a portable toolchain for C/ASM development targetting CPC, later forked into CPCTelera.

Targhan

QuoteThe new Title Music isn't present on the demo to not spoil.  ;)
Instead, the demo play one of the in-game music with "Targhan treatment".

Oh I'm sorry, now I'm the one adding confusion :). The "real" title music has been shown in a previous video, so I expected it to be included in the game preview (which I didn't attempt to test). So it seems you heard the level 1 music instead, which IS an adaptation.
Targhan/Arkos

Arkos Tracker 2.0.1 now released! - Follow the news on Twitter!
Disark - A cross-platform Z80 disassembler/source converter
FDC Tool 1.1 - Read Amsdos files without the system

Imperial Mahjong
Orion Prime

Carnivius

All sounds impressive. I just don't understand how to run it myself.  I use emulators and haven't a clue about x-men's and roms and such. I just tried loading dsk 1 into the emulator and i get a message about rom installing and I'm left staring blankly. :P
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Otto

Quote from: Targhan on 17:03, 28 May 20
Oh I'm sorry, now I'm the one adding confusion :) . The "real" title music has been shown in a previous video, so I expected it to be included in the game preview (which I didn't attempt to test). So it seems you heard the level 1 music instead, which IS an adaptation.
Absolute great adaption! Love it: the music, the graphics, and the programm of course. So far only
from video (showing as title-screen: LEVEL 1 BETA TEST)
This adaption is still 3 channel AY-sound? Or 3+3 channels from the additional AY chip sitting on the cartridge?

Quote from: Carnivius on 18:02, 28 May 20I just don't understand how to run it myself.  I use emulators and haven't a clue about x-men's and roms and such.
Same here.

TotO


Quote from: cpcitor on 16:14, 28 May 20
The shadow of the player's spaceship is black and very very close to the ship's shape. This conveys the conflicting visual information that the ship is actually very close to the ground. What could be done? [...] How did they solve this problem in arcade games? (Did they?)
Thank you for your feedback. See it like an half-outline usually applied on fonts to have them more readable and not a real shadow. Removing that does the ship obviously less visible. Adding a full outline look really strange and increase the sprite width (or reduce the details). A largest/adaptive shadow will waste the display bandwidth. Into the arcade machine, they use a free sprite transparency.

If something is doable at end, it will be (currently, the ship is no more as shown on the beta version).
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TotO

@Carnivius and @Otto : Using the RVM emulator with the X-MEM installer is the more easy to beta test.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

XeNoMoRPH

your amstrad news source in spanish language : https://auamstrad.es

GUNHED

Quote from: TotO on 15:11, 28 May 20
The title screen is MODE 1 with rasters. The in-game graphics are Sub-Pixel Mode 0 to have the picture sharp and colourful.
That means you switch between a MODE 1 and a MODE 0 screen? Sorry, can't tell from the video.


From the GFX this one may be #1 in CPC games. Gameplay and sound are gorgeous too. I would make any bet, that people on commodore meetings would rather loose their soul instead of admitting that this is running on a CPC.  ;D
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

Otto

Quote from: TotO on 19:38, 28 May 20
@Carnivius and @Otto : Using the RVM emulator with the X-MEM installer is the more easy to beta test.
Great, thanks!

Quote from: XeNoMoRPH on 20:50, 28 May 20
@Otto,    it's in spanish, but you will see it well :)
Excellent video, many thanks. Looks very good, I'll soon try RVM on my machine running Ubuntu, too.

Your video is in Spanish language, so ,,That's Greek to me" but indeed a picture is worth a thousand words. :-)

I send pre-Pentecost greetings to Spain!

Carnivius

Quote from: XeNoMoRPH on 20:50, 28 May 20
@Otto,    it's in spanish, but you will see it well :)


https://youtu.be/iQ0uFYmwpDE
OK cool. Eventually got there (I just didn't know where that FW rom thing was til I clicked my way through to the video and to the blog in the comments kinda blindly cos i don't understand spanish). 
Thanks :D
Yeah very cool and impressive. :)
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

GUNHED

Here an idea:

Why not to make an installer for the Y-MEM from Tot0 too?

In this case only one ROM would be needed between ROM numbers 1-15 and to intall something into Y-MEM is nearly the same as to install into X-MEM.  :) :) :)

This would enable us to leave our X-MEM / M4 untouched. (I got plenty of software in them already, and it's time consuming to switch between ROM sets).  :) :) :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

TotO

Quote from: GUNHED on 10:09, 29 May 20
Here an idea:Why not to make an installer for the Y-MEM from Tot0 too?
Because the Y-MEM is an unofficial board from the X-MEM for some developers wanting more RAM/ROM.
You can edit the BASIC installer to dedicate your Y-MEM for that. I imagine that will not cause any problem. :)

Now, RVM could easy support it by extending the memory to 1MB and the ROM range up to 31.

  TotO

Hey, since some posts you write Tot0 instead... :-\
"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