Castlevania Spectral Interlude - Massive High Quality ZX Spectrum game released!

Neil79 · 17:52, 13 February 15

QuoteAfter much waiting and excitement throughout the retro community, Sanchez has announced the release of Castlevania : Spectral Interlude for the ZX Spectrum. A very high quality homebrew release

Indie Retro News: The latest free games, indie games and retro news: Castlevania

Joseman · 20:49, 13 February 15

A game that the cpc should have too!!

Neil79 · 20:55, 13 February 15

Quote from: Joseman on 20:49, 13 February 15
A game that the cpc should have too!!

Damn right

TFM · 22:29, 13 February 15

Is there a video link?

Neil79 · 23:56, 13 February 15

Quote from: TFM on 22:29, 13 February 15
Is there a video link?

Castlevania. Spectral Interlude (ZX Spectrum): The First 10 Minutes - YouTube

CraigsBar · 00:03, 14 February 15

Hmmm a CPC port of that would be brilliant. But if it gets done please do it properly... Mode 0 with proper use of the 16 colour pallette, and avoidance of a tiny screen.

MacDeath · 00:09, 14 February 15

So, when do we have a proper version, I mean one in Mode0...

Also : many amstrad games got booed because they didn't feature proper scrollings (greenberets anyone ?) but are OK when on speccy.

and nice transparency effect... all sprites are fanthoms, oh wait, those are actually colour clashes.
can even see some attributes artefaces on the title screen.

Jokes appart it is a well done game on speccy anyway.

Could actually work on a CPC because :
=no actual real continuous scrollings.
=masked smooth sprites = 1bpp + 1bit mask = 2bpp = equivalent to Amstrad's graphics...
=256x192 sized screen instead of 320x200 (or 160x200)

So yeah, background graphics would be heavier but otherwise, the CPC may be able to handle this quite well, even if not as fast and smooth.

And Castlevania and WonderBoy2 : monsterland or BlackTiger (Gods ?) sort of games are cruelly missing from the modern CPC productions.

Like you know, platformers with some fights and RPG flavour and equipment/stuff management.

This one doesn't have a lot of sprites on screen as well... which is a cool feature for a CPC version as well.

Also because no one seems able to post the video properly here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zVYfisnDys#t=455

have fun.

VincentGR · 00:24, 14 February 15

I just watched a video of it on yt. I joined here and I see this post!!!
Looks excellent

A port for the CPC would be great, I imagine that like dracula.

fgbrain · 19:34, 14 February 15

This reminds me of Stryker and the crypts of trogan... No??

MacDeath · 20:26, 14 February 15

Indeed...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgm2biUQO2Y

But this castlevania seems to have a bit more RPG flavours...

ZbyniuR · 13:22, 15 February 15

I know someone who is planning to make a version for CPC. Here are a few pictures after the initial conversion of graphics from NES, which mean disappears half of pixels. It still will be improved.

Joseman · 13:44, 15 February 15

So code from spectrum and graphics from the NES version?

Are the original coders of the spectrum version aware of this version or cooperating in it?

anyway this can be very very interesting and promising.

ZbyniuR · 16:20, 15 February 15

Decision was made before we knew about ZX version. Graphics will be convert from NES, so 16 colors mode and 3 colors sprites. And code start from zero. Version for CPC+ with palette exactly like in NES.

Work is on very early stage. I little bit help to convert graphics, and cutting on tiles. I have to made tool for this in Basic (all I can do) to ease my job. Rest is depend of my friend. He have small baby, so not much time for coding.

Joseman · 16:22, 15 February 15

Quote from: ZbyniuR on 16:20, 15 February 15
Version for CPC+ with palette exactly like in NES.

2 versions then, cpc classic and cpc+, or only cpc+?

ZbyniuR · 16:41, 15 February 15

One version for both, which recognizes LC or Plus to use different colors.

TFM · 18:56, 18 February 15

Quote from: Joseman on 13:44, 15 February 15
anyway this can be very very interesting and promising.

Yes, another spectrum port.

Would be better to do things from scratch!

ZbyniuR · 19:18, 18 February 15

Don't you read? It's not Spectrum port. Graphics is converted from NES in 16 colors, and code will be written from scratch.

I think this ZX version is not first part Castlevania. Look different then levels which I converted.
Anyway on CPC already is Night Hunter (4 colors) which look very similar like some levels from Castlevania yyyy eeee I think 3.

Joseman · 21:54, 18 February 15

According the web site:

"It was originally invisioned as a ,,demake" of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest but eventually turned into an original independent game for ZX Spectrum.·

sigh · 12:29, 19 February 15

What a lovely looking game! They've done a great job catching the Castlevania vibe.

Joseman · 09:44, 25 April 15

On msx.org forums, someone claims that he have make an agreement with the russian coders to have the source code, graphics and sound to make a port for MSX.

If someone is interested i think that source code can be a great help for a CPC port...

Carnivius · 10:52, 25 April 15

Quote from: ZbyniuR on 19:18, 18 February 15
Anyway on CPC already is Night Hunter (4 colors) which look very similar like some levels from Castlevania yyyy eeee I think 3.

Ah yeah I liked that game. Nicely animated sprites too (including the morphing of Dracula into the other forms)

Anyways I never liked the original NES Castlevanias (or the SNES game) and found them to be tedious and full of cheapness (that old falling down off the bottom of the screen you just climbed up from being an example). However this Spectrum game somehow looks really appealing and well crafted.