(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--Q_SUxPjCtQ/VcJEoDntzFI/AAAAAAAAWZQ/5k9ySl2XbP0/s640/2.png)
QuoteAfter the previous announcement for Oliver Lindau's work in progress C64 adventure title of 'Lindwendture', which then became 'Caren and the Tangled Tentacles'. Has now appeared as an early preview at gamescom, playable at the Return magazine booth - hall 10.2 in the retro gaming area. With a team working on the game such as Martin Wendt and Kamil Wolnikowski, this is an adventure set in a Lucas arts style design that is also available to view through the latest teased footage released today.
Indie Retro News: Caren and the Tangled Tentacles - C64 adventure appears at (http://www.indieretronews.com/2015/08/caren-and-tangled-tentacles-c64.html)
all those greys and brown... feels like pre-colour sepia 70's... :laugh:
( dawn, C64 still delivers SCUMM while CPC doesn't... :'( )
Quote from: MacDeath on 20:06, 05 August 15
all those greys and brown... feels like pre-colour sepia 70's... :laugh:
( dawn, C64 still delivers SCUMM while CPC doesn't... :'( )
I know, much rage >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
Never thought that I will ever say, but... this looks like a really decent game! However, there is not a single tentacle. Maybe the 21+ version is not at youtube?
this name made me think about this... thing...
AMV - Magical girls : Creamy Emi Susy Vanessa ensemble - vidéo dailymotion (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cg1s_amv-magical-girls-creamy-emi-susy-v_creation)
yumi-chan and the tangling tentacles...
they raped my childhood... again...
(https://echecetcinemat.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/majokkoclub_2.jpg?w=300&h=225)
;D
I can't really see any reason you couldn't do something like this on the CPC. It'd be interesting to see what the limitations of the underlying engine are, I've seen this kind of thing come up on the WoS forums before but it always ends up with people trying to recreate Monkey Island and also focusing far too much on the graphics and not enough on what limitations are workable.
The few other pages I've seen mention it's using sprite masking to do foreground objects, but it's clear there is a bit more to it than that as in places there are objects that you can walk both behind and in front of. I'm assuming there must be a few "layers" that the player sprite can be in. It doesn't seem to be scaling the sprites at all, which would certainly make life easier.
Nice stuff, however the interface seems a bit strange to me... Is it fun to use?
SCUMM has first been created on and for C64, so there is nothing magic about it. I could release the Orion Prime engine and put a nice acronym on it: would people release games with it?
The problem is not about the tool, but making the game itself!
Exactly!
OP machine rulez!
there is absolutely no fundamental reason that games like this cant be done on the cpc.
In fact it would be much more technically straightforward to do on the cpc than the c64, much like doing a low res ST version.
the major fly in the ointment is the c64 version of this and maniac mansion and zak mackracken all use charset mode to save ram ow it would be constantly loading.
ergo the cpc graphics data would be significantly bigger and that in itself is a problem.
also modern tech on the c64 does allow for big cartridge only games now, that can be plugged into old c64s.
has the amstrad got the same sort of modern tech equivalent? or would it have to me on a sizeable amount of disks?
Quote from: Targhan on 22:55, 05 August 15
Nice stuff, however the interface seems a bit strange to me... Is it fun to use?
SCUMM has first been created on and for C64, so there is nothing magic about it. I could release the Orion Prime engine and put a nice acronym on it: would people release games with it?
The problem is not about the tool, but making the game itself!
If the engine is well documented I would try, that is for sure :D If I am doing a text adventure right now is because my skills are not enough for a point and click...
The C64 game looks really great to me by the way... :)
Quote from: STE86 on 23:10, 05 August 15
there is absolutely no fundamental reason that games like this cant be done on the cpc.
In fact it would be much more technically straightforward to do on the cpc than the c64, much like doing a low res ST version.
the major fly in the ointment is the c64 version of this and maniac mansion and zak mackracken all use charset mode to save ram ow it would be constantly loading.
ergo the cpc graphics data would be significantly bigger and that in itself is a problem.
also modern tech on the c64 does allow for big cartridge only games now, that can be plugged into old c64s.
has the amstrad got the same sort of modern tech equivalent? or would it have to me on a sizeable amount of disks?
Various choices on CPC:
a) many 3" discs (178K per side, 360KB per disc).
b) 800KB 3.5" discs (comparable to ST in terms of disc format)
c) X-MASS installable version (IDE interface)
d) Symiface ide version using BonnyDOS or other Symbiface compatible
e) C4CPC cartridge hardware for Plus/GX4000 (max 512KB ROM) - more comparable to modern c64 carts.
f) Perhaps a MegaFLASH/MegaROM version where data is split into multiple 16KB roms (up to 512KB ROM useable as read only filesystem).
I agree with you, it's definitely possible on CPC, the data could be stored in a kind of charset on cpc and drawn to the screen and coloured (with a slight pause between rooms). I think for this there is quite a bit of programming to be done before art and music should be considered because making the engine would take longest I believe.
I don't have the time to work on a project like this. I am already working on another game.
Quote from: STE86 on 23:10, 05 August 15
there is absolutely no fundamental reason that games like this cant be done on the cpc.
In fact it would be much more technically straightforward to do on the cpc than the c64, much like doing a low res ST version.
the major fly in the ointment is the c64 version of this and maniac mansion and zak mackracken all use charset mode to save ram ow it would be constantly loading.
ergo the cpc graphics data would be significantly bigger and that in itself is a problem.
also modern tech on the c64 does allow for big cartridge only games now, that can be plugged into old c64s.
has the amstrad got the same sort of modern tech equivalent? or would it have to me on a sizeable amount of disks?
The C64 has hardware support for a tiled display, but it's easy enough to replicate in software and it's not like it's using the kind of tricks that scrollers used to get cheap parallax etc. Worrying about storage at such an early stage seems like the wrong thing to do to me, you build the engine and get a feel for what the limits would be within the context of what that requires. Then you either build small enough games to fit or you investigate options for bigger storage. At the end of the day you're as likely to be constrained by the amount of work needed to develop massive game worlds as you are by the capabilities of the machine.
Quote from: arnoldemu on 20:18, 06 August 15
c) X-MASS installable version (IDE interface)
d) Symiface ide version using BonnyDOS or other Symbiface compatible
Symbiface is 100% compatible with x-mass, step C & D are the same! :P
Quote from: Joseman on 20:53, 06 August 15
Symbiface is 100% compatible with x-mass, step C & D are the same! :P
I didn't know if they used the same I/O ports or not. So this is why I listed them seperately. :)
Why to invent the wheel again? We got the 8 bit world's best engine for that already. Just sacrifice some goats and beg Targhan. I mean... it wouldn't be the first time to sacrifice goats for CPC projects. :laugh:
Seriously (even if I personally have no time), get in touch with @Targhan (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=110) ! He may share his engine! And since some of you always tell that they would fund such projects... just give HIM the money. ;) :)
As I said, I would definitely try to make a game using an engine like that, provided that it is documented and it does not require tons of knowledge to make something that works. If it is PAWs like (in terms of complication) I would be 100% in.
8)
a Scumm v1 & v2 IDE? anyone for a kickstarter? should we start with something like this?
Quote from: Joseman on 23:58, 06 August 15
a Scumm v1 & v2 IDE? anyone for a kickstarter? should we start with something like this?
I dont actually think there is a Scumm IDE, so writing one would be hard. There arent actually as many details on the Scumm system as you'd think.
Was discussing Point n Click adventures with Prodatron last night and this is definately something we plan to implement for Symbos at some point in the future. Its just a genre the CPC lacks completely and is very very feasible
Quote from: Trebmint on 08:26, 07 August 15
I dont actually think there is a Scumm IDE, so writing one would be hard. There arent actually as many details on the Scumm system as you'd think.
Was discussing Point n Click adventures with Prodatron last night and this is definately something we plan to implement for Symbos at some point in the future. Its just a genre the CPC lacks completely and is very very feasible
Is not how hard would be, it is how much money is necessary to do it... and once the money is clear, then start a collect to achive it!
Projects of this calibre its clear that nobody will do it for free, unless the project will last 5 or 6 years!
There is further video footage as well now:
Enjoy ;)
great graphics that clearly suffer from the palette/attributes limitations... for the moment, I guess this is a heavy work in progress demo only and most elements are far from finished. looks very promising and the players character is quite well designed and cute.
a 6128PLUS with big RAM/ROM could clearly show its greatest potential here... even a mundane CPC6128 actually.
Quote from: enthusi on 12:06, 07 August 15
There is further video footage as well now:
Enjoy ;)
Hate to tell ya but, that's old footage :p
Yes, this is more recent and I just heard that Ron Gilbert played a round this afternoon at Gamescom ;D
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4P60l_Myo4#)
this one then...
Quote from: MacDeath on 20:06, 05 August 15
all those greys and brown... feels like pre-colour sepia 70's... :laugh:
( dawn, C64 still delivers SCUMM while CPC doesn't... :'( )
Plus can do greys and browns :)
Quote from: arnoldemu on 19:10, 07 August 15
Plus can do greys and browns :)
A cow too (even more bright)... cow > C64
(https://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/390/flashcards/1168390/jpg/cow61328726201068.jpg)
Palette notwithstanding, this does look beautiful. Just my 2c.
Caren and the Tangled Tentacles v1 - An incredible C64 adventure release!
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbVzYvz8TQg/VeVybgTxVII/AAAAAAAAXKE/PAxiSJhqrLw/s640/Clipboard01.jpg)
QuoteWe have been following this for many months now and thus today we are pleased to announce the release of the incredible looking C64 adventure 'Caren and the Tangled Tentacles ' compo version 1.0. First appearing as snippets of trailers and then the playable preview at gamescom developed by a team of people such as Martin Wendt, Oliver Lindau and Kamil Wolnikowski has now appeared on CSDb just in time for the German Forum64 competition.
Indie Retro News: Caren and the Tangled Tentacles v1 - An incredible C64 (http://www.indieretronews.com/2015/09/caren-and-tangled-tentacles-v1.html)
The fixed, polished and extended version is out now:
Martin Wendt - cosmology, astronomy, physics (http://enthusi.de/caren)
Enjoy ;-)
And here's the newest vid:
...which I just watched. Bloody beautiful!
Quote from: Gryzor on 16:23, 11 October 15
...which I just watched. Bloody beautiful!
This one's a real gem, indeed! v1.1 makes a lot more sense than v1.0 (due to more English dialogue and better puzzles) but both are way too short. (I know! It was an entry to a game compo!)
I'd love to see a CPC version using a 3.5" disc and plenty more locations & puzzles!
EDIT: Or a double, triple, quadruple disc version on C64, of course! ^_^
Quote from: SuTeKH/Epyteor on 17:06, 11 October 15
This one's a real gem, indeed! v1.1 makes a lot more sense than v1.0 (due to more English dialogue and better puzzles) but both are way too short. (I know! It was an entry to a game compo!)
I'd love to see a CPC version using a 3.5" disc and plenty more locations & puzzles!
EDIT: Or a double, triple, quadruple disc version on C64, of course! ^_^
Point and click games are really expensive to develop from my point of view of "non artist person" :) They also need really good writing to design nice puzzles, and I'm rubbish at that.
Usually the 8-bit machines are too limited; but the CPC looks specially attractive both because the palette and the 3.5" disk (on top of 128KB of RAM, that is).
It's still a preview, very short, but yet awesome. <3
Oh, dont call it a Preview.
It is a full scale thing. If you know your way, it is a bit on the short side maybe but it depends.
We intentionally avoided the (back then rather normal) back-and-forth running all the time or the riddles that require use-everything-with-everything runs :-)
18 locations, > 23 KB of Text.
Less than the Lucasfilmgames back then but more than quite many similar games in that genre :-)
But yes, there is some more potential.
It is indeed a pity that so few teams take up the challenge of a good point-and-click adventure on other 'homebrew systems'.
Therefore we got Orion Prime on CPC. Nothing did beat that yet. :)
In think that in the CPC we lack a good framework available to everyone (CPCtelera is still more a helping tool for proper programmers). It is quite bad when you know that the computer has enough memory and power to create the game you would like to develop but then you are forced to use ancient operating systems and tools to make it... I mean, do not get me wrong, it is fantastic to have something like PAWS or DAAD for free to create text adventures but I would totally try to do something more like Orion Prime if the proper tools were available and not extremely difficult to use (otherwise I could program the game in C). However, I do not have the time or the knowledge to make something like this, so it is not very fair to ask for it, to be honest :( . But we do not need to go so far, a simple CP/M able to use X-MEM as real RAM, for example, would be absolutely great and would allow to create really wonderful and complex text adventures.
Ha! That's what we will keep in mind! :) ;) :)
Quote from: TFM on 20:38, 13 October 15
Therefore we got Orion Prime on CPC. Nothing did beat that yet. :)
That smiley was an irony-one, right?
Otherwise you must be kidding. Though Orion Prime might have nice texts/atmosphere it sure lacks alot in the technical and visual area.
Converted (they sure look like that), purple, still images (without any actor on screen, hello?? You can do THAT with any adventure game creator on c64) and simple mouse-over actions?
Then a bunch of Text. Nothing animated, nothing moves. Hell, you dont need ANY CPU for an engine like that.
If that is the best CPC has to offer, it sure is time someone starts to code!
Ooh! A flame warrior appears!
Well, Orion Prime has a LOT to offer, technically speaking. A lot of innovative stuff has been done on the graphic and sound side, though it may not be clear for a non-CPCist.
As for the lack of animation, it was a choice mainly based on the fact that I started the game without a graphist, so didn't expect to have one to make full animation.
As a non-C64ist, I watched Carmen game and found disappointing the fact that there is no scrolling, no text overlay... I thought these were easy to do on C64. So did the creators were lazy? Probably a design choice! So let's make our next games better :).
Quote from: Targhan on 20:40, 17 January 16
As a non-C64ist, I watched Carmen game and found disappointing the fact that there is no scrolling, no text overlay... I thought these were easy to do on C64. So did the creators were lazy? Probably a design choice! So let's make our next games better :) .
As the artist of that game I have to say that the reason is more of some technical features. Scrolling itself wouldn't have been a problem btw.
First of all - the graphics use charmode with some extra limitations because of the background animations which are implemented as video streams. This means - usually you have one charset that provide 1/4 of a screen to do the whole background graphics - minus the areas for each door, cabinet, water tap, feather bed etc. Thanks to this I have the average number of 190 to 200 chars to get the whole scene done except animations. This is not much to build a scene and for scrolling this means reduction of details and also increasing repetetive elements. Please remember that the graphics are using the same basis as for example great giana sisters.
Another point are things that aren't really visible. There are walk boxes for example. Think about having 16 invisible boxes for one scene that are necessary for non-direct movements and could also be used for assigning events. Similar games like Maniac Mansion use about 5 or 6 walk boxes per screen. Caren uses more because of the level of detail, for example walking around fences, trees, standing on a fix position next to an object while opening... If a scene would be larger than it would be necessary to reduce these things either.
To sum things up: I had the choice to get more detail or to get scrolling. Actually I prefer the first option.
Speaking of the sprites/text/whatever the game relies on sprite priority features. For that reason using extensive multiplexers is a really bad idea, but thanks to this it is possible to do some special tricks like cookie cutter masking which provides using kind of free form masking and arranging overlapping game characters without noteworthy cost.
Finally got around to playing this the other day and it really is rather nice, if a bit short and quite easy. The control mechanism works really well with a single button joystick, which I had wondered about. The graphics are lovely and I don't really think it needed scrolling to work, it certainly does very well within the limitations of the C64 character modes.
I think the only frustrating thing is wanting to know what happens next, it sort of ends at exactly the point it really feels like it's getting started!
Hi Oliver.
first I would like to thank you for all the posts you do here... always very interesting and somewhat technical (in graphics and code of course)
I was quite bluffed by the design of the main character's sprite and the overall feeling of the game.
Very often, C64 sprites would lack some clear comic styled black outline or shadowing.
But it is quite needed, as for CPC sprites... the black outline is a way to be sure the coloured parts/hilighted parts of the sprite wouldn't merge with the background du to the somewhat limited palette preventing sprites and backgrounds having radically differnet palettes that may not merge.
also with large pixels and such reduced resolution/palette, to go for comics/cartoon design is actually more than needed and always a better artistic choice.
so yeah, Well done.
Would be a great dream that some coder would make a nice SCUMM like engine for CPC and that this game (and the graphics) could be ported decently on CPC.
I'm pretty sure that the CPC palette and attribute less video mode could actually do this game even better justice... :P
By the way, I'm called Olivier too...
;D
QuoteAs a non-C64ist, I watched Carmen game and found disappointing the fact that there is no scrolling, no text overlay... I thought these were easy to do on C64. So did the creators were lazy? Probably a design choice! So let's make our next games better
Those SCUMM like games are supposed to be like a theatre representation...
Basically the scrollings may not be needed.
It is a fancy interface with a lot of sprites and animation action on what remains basically a text/action based adventure game with point and click and graphics.
The CPC was using a very lot of adventure games with text based actions but the characters wouldn't be represented inside the scenes... or you wouldn't always click inside the graphics box.
CPC offered nice games but they would more likely be first person RPG without the actual RPG (Roll-play and wargame aspect) but jsut adventure.
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1239&slot=2&part=A&type=.png)
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1730&slot=5&part=A&type=.png)
SCUMM like games offered a cross mix between plateformers/action games, with player's sprite moving inside a background... and full blown adventure game.
Basically some games offered a bit of this exploration without the developped adventure text based aspect...
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=744&slot=2&part=A&type=.png)
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1785&slot=2&part=A&type=.png)
Marche à l'ombre was to me the clsoest thing we had to a SCUMM-like game... but it was also action oriented which renders it not SCUMM enough.
Fact is : SCUMM like games are nice, fun and a great display of the potential of a machine... a great way to tell a story with sweet "Mise-en-scène" (story telling) that relate to theatre/movie experience.
And CPC has somewhat none.
Orion Prime is great as its sort of game can be, but you don't have the third person feeling of a true theatre representation.
First person is great for its theme indeed... but it can't pretend offering the same experiance as a maniac mansion because it is not the same concept of game play, despite those are quite close in many way.
also "interactive comic books" were quite soemthing.
Perhaps soem Iznogoud or bob morane games could have had some more elements of SCUMM... were they done betterly.
Myst is the good example of those fancy French style First person enigma/adventure games... (and it wasn't even french, lol)
some French companies (Coktel) would later do SCUMM like games like Bargon Attack or the Gobliiins series...
Lots of enigmas but with this third person view.
But not on CPC as it was too late or the games were too big.
by the early 90s, cocktel only released ADI educationnal games on CPC.
anyway.
X-MEM and X-MASS could be great but a simple CPC6128 with many disks os quite enough for a great 8bit SCUMM experience.
the main danger is to aim at somethings as fancy as Monkey Island 2 on a 486 PC with 8megs RAM and HDD... :picard:
as it was somewhat the case when the "monkey Island for CPC" project tried to emerge at CPCrulez one summer a few years ago.
[attachimg=1]
Quote from: MacDeath on 00:03, 26 February 16
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1785&slot=2&part=A&type=.png)
Marche à l'ombre was to me the clsoest thing we had to a SCUMM-like game... but it was also action oriented which renders it not SCUMM enough.
Hm, I don't think i've ever heard of this before! Not to mention - pixel b00bs! Ah, those Frenchies...
Such a good game; you should hear to the "associated" french singer named "Renaud"; his songs are.....how to say.......a bit provocative :)
Looks cute :) I'm sure I'd have been impressed by it, had I seen it when it came out...
Never trust pixel boobs that weren't made by the Bollawares! :-)
Hey! Pixels: gooood. Boobs: gooood.[nb]apologies to the ladies reading this. Feel free to chime in with your version. Actually... hm, sex was so one sided back then...[/nb]
Quotehm, sex was so one sided back then...
you meant it was only a distant dream... :picard2:
also :
Quotehm, sex was so one sized back then...
that's what she says...
;D
yeah, Sidewalk (the english version) was a fun little game.
bit of a shame they didn't inclure more "colours" to the graphics and it was a bit hard to not get lost on the "map" as there were no map you had to do it yourself as usual.
The theme was quite adult actually, and would more lean toward adult French comics...
well, let's say adolescents or young adults indeed.
The french version was somewhat a port/license from this singer and this song :
it says : get away, you stink and walk in shadow.
funny part of the lyrics :
"he should go back to greece to get lost"... sort of...
yeah, we had an expression : aller se faire voir chez les grecs...
= to go get seen at the greek's
basically it means go get f**ked by greeks/in greece.
Or something like go f**k yourself in greece.
basically it just mean get lost/out/away.
I think it dates back from the Gaulish era when Brennos went to screw some greeks in Delphia.
Or it was certainly a Latin expression.
:laugh:
:picard:
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1785&slot=4&part=A&type=.png)
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1785&slot=2&part=A&type=.png)
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1785&slot=3&part=A&type=.png)
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1785&slot=1&part=A&type=.png)
yeah, Infogrames were a lot into licenses and Franchises.
Also some better palette could be chosen for the intro picture in order to have a larger contrast in the colour ramp...
[attachimg=1]
Oh, was released on many formats, even C64 obviouslt :
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/318540-sidewalk-commodore-64-screenshot-title-screen-uk.png) ouch...
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/318543-sidewalk-commodore-64-screenshot-asking-the-local-girl-uk.png)
(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/318544-sidewalk-commodore-64-screenshot-meeting-sumo-uk.png)
But again sorry for the sliding...
please go on with the tentacle things.
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YpM5VkgYWCg/Vvu3vfoAU7I/AAAAAAAAbcw/JpEZj7IpsB8D7SFCB3FvYSirm0jeLO_mw/s640/Clipboard02.png)
QuoteLast year we gave you the heads up for PriorArt's high quality adventure homebrew of ' Caren and the Tangled Tentacles ' for the C64. At the time we rated it as one of the best adventure games by a homebrew developer in a LucasArts style. It had great scene detail, lovely character animation, an easy to use control scheme and a great soundtrack. Well that same game has once again appeared in our footage news feed, but this time as a teased internal experimental Easyflash version of Caren, which shows a much faster almost non existing loading time between each scene.
Indie Retro News: Caren and the Tangled Tentacles - An impressive adventure for (http://www.indieretronews.com/2016/03/caren-and-tangled-tentacles-impressive.html)
Good use of the C64's mixed resolution characters there.
But who has a staircase in their bedroom? Apart from Caren...
I'm never jealous of the C64, but with this game and the lucas-scumm games that were released for the c64, make me feel something like hurt about the great CPC not having them... with our mode 0 and our wonderful colours they will pee on the c64 versions...
We really need to port this type of games on CPC... at all costs
Quotewith our mode 0 and our wonderful colours they will pee on the c64 versions...
or not quite...
Sid Meilleur's Pirates! is a clear exemple of american game ported from AppleII or C64... or Bard's Tale too...
= slow
= graphics not even accounting for the ST like capabilities video mode or palette...
yeah IO meant it.... Pirates! ? Monkey Island ? the bright warm hues in blues and proper RGB complete cube of CPC can really get the carribean island paradise...
Yellow sand, blue sea and sky, and so on... nope, denied...
at least we had a nice Prince of Persia because UbiSoft managed to screw Jordan Mechner for life and became huge as well...
QuoteGood use of the C64's mixed resolution characters there.
yep, the plain bright blue characters use fine pixels...
:picard:
nah kidding, really nice job on this tengled tentacle rape game... so cute and well done. I'm quite impressed by the pixel art as well.
Quote from: Joseman on 00:20, 31 March 16
I'm never jealous of the C64, but with this game and the lucas-scumm games that were released for the c64, make me feel something like hurt about the great CPC not having them... with our mode 0 and our wonderful colours they will pee on the c64 versions...
We really need to port this type of games on CPC... at all costs
I personally miss a lot of CRPGs that were released for the C64 and never got to the speccy or the CPC.
Actually, I thought that the 8-bit machines couldn't do RPGs or something (looking at the few titles we have, kind of makes sense), and that's why they never got as many as 16-bit systems. Until I found out that the C64 had them!
OK, the speccy didn't have disk until too late so fair enough, but the 6128 was released back in 1985 and all those CRPGs based on the "Gold Box" produced by SSI hit the market first time in 1988 (Pool of Radiance is a great game I enjoyed in my 8086).
What is reason behind this? I don't know, I guess C64 was big in USA and those CRPGs were big in USA with D&D (whilst EU CRPGs appeared way later), but it is a shame because I think the CPC could have managed those just fine.
When I was a kid I also found that we were lacking RPGs and adventures that were available in the C64. This was quite (very, I would say) traumatic, since these two have always been my favorite genres. Funnily enough, I knew that they were available on C64 because I had a friend with a Commodore that was frequently traveling to UK and USA and buying many games there. For me all these traveling far away with your nerdy parents to check on new computers and buy games was something very close to science fiction, to be honest. Later, he even managed to have an Amiga! :-X . Luckily, in Spain we were producing very decent Amstrad games back in that time, but oh man, I really was missing that Commodore stuff.
Marche à l'ombre / Sidewalk graphics are a Thomson port. The Thomson version is slightly better with some touches of colors: Logiciels Thomson (http://logicielsmoto.com/viewsoftware.php?softid=15)
Quote from: reidrac on 08:54, 31 March 16
What is reason behind this? I don't know, I guess C64 was big in USA and those CRPGs were big in USA with D&D (whilst EU CRPGs appeared way later), but it is a shame because I think the CPC could have managed those just fine.
I can't say. I will guess that in the US they had c64's with disk drives and the market was big enough to justify the version.
Similar market on CPC is France, but perhaps too small for the time.
CPC could do it well enough I think.
A friend looked at how the sprite masking was done on the ST version of leisure suit larry. They had a 16-colour screen which defined the z order so they could mask the sprites against the graphics. There was also control graphics for entrance and exits.
On cpc that would kill too much vram and a different method would be needed.
I think a custom version of scummvm v1 and v0 on cpc is a possibility. I don't think compiling scummvm on cpc would work.
I don't see a description of the v1/v0 opcodes :(
Quote from: arnoldemu on 13:40, 31 March 16
A friend looked at how the sprite masking was done on the ST version of leisure suit larry. They had a 16-colour screen which defined the z order so they could mask the sprites against the graphics. There was also control graphics for entrance and exits.
On cpc that would kill too much vram and a different method would be needed.
I think a custom version of scummvm v1 and v0 on cpc is a possibility. I don't think compiling scummvm on cpc would work.
I don't see a description of the v1/v0 opcodes :(
That's a different type of problem, and an interesting one! Last Christmas I was experimenting with AGI (the interpreter for Sierra games) and they use 160x200 resolution and 16 colours (yes!); at least the earlier versions of the interpreter, that would allow playing a good set of games (eg, up to King Quest IV).
AGI did run in Apple II computers with 128k of RAM, so I thought it would be a nice project for the 6128.
I have some documentation and some example code, but I didn't get too far because I started my game for the ZXDev 2015 and... lost interest. Mainly because you can play those games NOW (even online, see Sarien.net - Instant adventure gaming (http://sarien.net/)) and there's no need top wait for a CPC port to be honest.
...took a mockup of the game recently, changed colors to cpc palette and set some pixels here and there :)
no further plans for a port though...
(http://vetodrom.com/media/ons/adv/caren_mockup_cpc.png)
It sure looks nice!
That fence is freshly painted. ;) :)
I would play that.
Really cute. That shading on the tree is great, and overall is a very nice and balanced image.
The mock-up looks really nice. Any chance of an Amstrad version? I mean... puhleeze!
This looks fantastic. The aspect ratio on the screenshot is wrong, but it looks great on a real CPC.
hehe, I can take a picture of it this running in my Amstrad and upload it here :D
I would appreciate such an actual screenshot!
There you have it! :D
[attachimg=1]
The image is a bit too large, but otherwise it was very difficult to appreciate it. Consider as well that although this monitor displays an acceptable picture now (imho) probably some other units will be able to provide better convergence and/or less distortion.
This is such a beauty :)
Indeed! It looks awesome! 8)
I'm a bit confused about the status of this game on C64. There is a v1.1, a v1.3, but the game isn't complete?
I watched a video of the beginning of the game, and I must say the writing was hm... not so good. Am I right in supposing that it was translated from German by a non-native English speaker?
Where is the donate button to make the Amstrad version possible, great work Oliver. The C64 version looks super also :)
Quote from: khaz on 10:08, 29 April 16
I'm a bit confused about the status of this game on C64. There is a v1.1, a v1.3, but the game isn't complete?
I watched a video of the beginning of the game, and I must say the writing was hm... not so good. Am I right in supposing that it was translated from German by a non-native English speaker?
Hey :) There is a reason for this. V1.1 is in fact a version that the team set as finished - because of a game competition which is why this project exists.
Because of the deadline we needed a strict compact plot which (also thanks to the deadline) gets quite short at the end. The team decided to do something more than just continue the story, which leads to a Caren 2.x project - which is still too early to talk about...
The v1.3 happens because of a contact with RGCD and Sam Dyer, who started a Kickstarter for his C64 visual commpendium second edition book and was asking for suitable game projects as pledge option. We agreed, but because of the exclusive status of the campaign we started a special edition of v1.1 with some extra rooms and features like implementing the backer's names :)
Btw the English texts were initially the translated German text but have been revised by Robert Megone, who is indeed a native speaker and was involved in projects like Broken Sword 5:
Robert Megone - Games Design / Script Editing / Games QA (http://www.robertmegone.com/)
@||C|-|E|| (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1447)
Thank you very much for posting the screenshot :)
You are welcome! :D
As the end of the year 2016 approaches we are giving some outlook to our plans for the C64 project Caren 2.
Those of you who already played Caren can expect to experience numerous changes and additions. In fact not only the game mechanics but also its content change massively. We do not consider this an extension or add-on but a completely new game which will actually include a remake of the first part.
Do not worry, no spoilers ahead but we'll say this much (without letting the head er... cat out of the bag), the game will be arranged into several chapters and we work hard on it becoming less linear that one might expect from an adventure game.
The village will grow notably in size as will the number of inhabitants that you can meet. In the end, each door that you can see will in principle be accessible. Of course this will depend on the flow of the game. Not everyone is going to let Caren in, right?
While this is what we always wanted there is quite some work ahead of us. All planned buildings will be constructed out of several locations and even already existing rooms will get an overhaul in some cases.
We already changed some of the controls to render the experience of navigating through the game and story more smoothly. The quick-exit option now became a direct action panel item and we omitted the double-click completely.
We also aim for a quick-traveling option to places you already visited.
Naturally we can not make tight predictions of when or how the game will be released in its final form but we strongly aim for 2017 as long as our life-love-work-balance allows for it.
We are very excited about this like we were from day one and we are most grateful for the feedback we received so far!
All the best for 2017,
Martin & Oliver & Kamil
(http://vetodrom.com/media/ons/adv/caren_docamber_visit.png)
(http://vetodrom.com/media/ons/adv/caren_flashback.png)
(http://vetodrom.com/media/ons/adv/caren_map.png)
Purty pixels :)