Robocop Prime

[Devilmarkus]

Dunno why there's a weird dark to light curve about 2 thirds down but hey that's probably something to do with trying to take photos of CRT monitor displays.

It's because the CTM only has 50hz. Most photos are taken much faster and also a photo is not often synchronized to the screen.

The darker area is, because the CRT beam already passed this section and already redraws the next half screen.

You still can see the darker area, because the phosphor inside the CRT glows a bit after.

[Gryzor]

Please do share a file with the screenshot!


And, guys, really there's no reason in asking for it to be ported to the CPC, Carnivac has stated his intentions again and again...

[Carnivius]

Please do share a file with the screenshot!

File?  Do you mean the CDT? 

And, guys, really there's no reason in asking for it to be ported to the CPC, Carnivac has stated his intentions again and again...

It's ok.  Nice to know there's support for it even if I won't be the guy who actually will build the CPC code.  I want to see it happen on a real CPC sometime, moreso now I've seen how it actually looks on the actual CPC monitor. 

[Devilmarkus]

And, guys, really there's no reason in asking for it to be ported to the CPC, Carnivac has stated his intentions again and again...

I ask... Again and again and again

[Carnivius]

Just got the original RoboCop working on my 464 using Tapdancer and my mobile phone and that cassette adaptor.   Nice to play it on a real 464 and see what it actually manages to do. 
Managed to get to the end of level 2 and the last biker killed me, the git.   It's been about twenty years since I played this on a real 464.  Surprisingly I never owned despite my love for the movie.  I borrowed the game off a friend at school enough times.  Just don't get how I didn't have my own one.

But yeah noticing that it's got quite a fair amount of stuff loaded in one go.  Quite a lot of tiles, various characters (with smoothly animated walk cycles for the legs), the motorcycles, the large sprites of the hostage and her captor in that first person bit at the end of level 1, and unusually for the 464 two great pieces of music (the title theme and the main game theme are there).  I didn't finish level 2 so don't know if the photofit thing is part of this load or the next part of the multi-load but overall I'm quite impressed by what they are cramming into the 64k.  So nice to have music to blast the bad guys to.

[Carnivius]

I just read the review of the original game on CPC GAME REVIEWS - R

The reviewer seems to like the game a lot (to get a perfect 10... I'd probably go for an 8 or 9 cos nothing's perfect heh) but what I find interesting is that he enjoyed it that much without having seen the movie apparently (and mistakes the Senior President of OCP Dick Jones as a 'criminal' and the chairman of OCP, usually referred to as 'The Old Man', as the 'President of the United States' though to be fair the game doesn't explain that much and calls the chairman the 'president' on the end screen.  So the characters true identities are only really clear to the player if he's seen the film).   So he found it fun to play as RoboCop when he hadn't seen the film so didn't have that somewhat gamer-forgiveness where some lesser license-based games get by on the 'thrill' of playing as the character you enjoyed in whatever movie or tv show or comic they're from.   It just gave me a new viewpoint when developing this game.   To make sure this game is enjoyable even if you know nothing about the characters.   Of course those who have seen the films will get more out of it and understand a lot more of the backstory and references (and those who are familiar with other media of RoboCop will likely notice even more of those) but I need to make sure it's hugely fun to play without all that too.

Am pondering...


By the way don't my RoboCop figures look lovely in the 'new' cabinet I bought from a charity shop last week?  yay for glass doors to keep dust and potential pets out of and the inside lighting makes them shine nicely (especially the 15 inch metallic Robo at the front there)   

[Carnivius]

this game is clearly going to be a total piece of shit...

i need a break from it.  from everything really.  pointless crap.

[Bryce]

Oh, you really do take your Robocop collecting serious! Some great models there!

I'm just terrified that Jonas will come back with a photo of his My Little Pony Collection now!!

Bryce.

[ervin]

this game is clearly going to be a total piece of !@#$%^&*...

i need a break from it.  from everything really.  pointless crap.

What's up Carnivac?
Are things ok?

Your work on this so far is stunning.
What's happened?

[Nich]

I just read the review of the original game on CPC GAME REVIEWS - R

I wrote that review. It was probably one of the first reviews I wrote for the site! I have no idea where I got the impression that the last level involved saving the US President! I have to admit that I have still not seen the film (I'm just not interested in films in general).

Oh, well, it looks like another of my reviews will need to be modified slightly (along with Cybernoid) - but I still think it's one of the best CPC games ever and the 10/10 rating will remain!

[Carnivius]

Sorry, had a bit of a meltdown.  I think some people know I've had longterm health issues (more mental than physical these days) and things were just getting real on top of me.  I haven't slept much lately either and there's other things going on.  Sorry for the outburst.  I'm gonna back away for a bit but I'll still be working on RoboCop and Cosmic Prison Commando (despite the fact I feel like my own game tastes are partially opposite to everyone else's these days.   Very few recent highly reviewed games have appealed to me yet I've found a lot of enjoyment in some of the lesser reviewed games)  and come in here when I need tech help or any other kind of advice and support relating to CPC stuff.  Thank you.

[Carnivius]

Got a bit bored with the gritty, dirty urban decay street tiles so had at go at the sleek and clean OCP building interior tiles.   Think they look alright so far.  Even the fern is tilable for a bit of variety.

Have centered the dialogue bit cos I think it looks better that way and I already had a center text script in there anyways I can just assign text that counts the string length and works out the center x positions.

[robcfg]

Wow! Looks awesome! I really like the OCP logos on the wall and the nice colors.

[Carnivius]

Thanks.  There's some bits I'm not sure on but (apart from the few tiles that were already present in the city street) most of these are first-gos and I usually tweak the hell out of things as time goes on and I figure out other ways of making things fit together.  For the most part though I'm happy with how it's turned out so far.  It's got the shiny, expensive feel that OCP's corridors should have yet using the same exact palette the grimey riot-stricken streets have too.

Hm the image isn't showing up for me anymore.  Not sure if my webspace is down or if my connection is being wonky again. Oh well I'm sure it'll fix itself at some point.

[ervin]

Damn that is some seriously beautiful pixelling right there!
Amazing stuff.

I couldn't pixel my way out of a paper bag!
It amazes me that images like that can be constructed with coloured dots, one-at-a-time!

[Carnivius]

Thanks.  Am just trying to show that the original non-Plus CPC palette is really quite flexible and lovely and distinctive.  Someone has asked me if I'd do a C64 version... not bloody likely.  The murky palette aside, the colours-per-sprite and blocks and stuff is what really kills the C64 graphics for me.    And my two CPC projects are just designed to look as CPC as they can and cannot be mistaken for Spectrum or C64 ports. 


Thanks again to Devilmarkus for the instructions on making a SCR image and putting it on a CDT file so I could load it through TapDancer into my real CPC.   It's awesome being able to check my CPC-style graphics on the true hardware and especially because it's my actual 30 year old childhood computer that these images are being viewed on.   Makes me smile plenty.

[Gryzor]

Wow, lots of new posts since I last visited. Looking great as always, you can almost taste it


-Serve the Public Trust
-Protect the Innocent
-Uphold the Law
-Feed the Kitten

[Carnivius]

Thanks.  Been experimenting today with some more ideas for exterior tiles.  The shop titles were something that bothered me as there's just not enough memory for every shop to have it's own distinctive logo but after looking up other games with 80's street settings I've noticed some like the Master System version of Streets of Rage end up using the game's standard font and then just has tiled borders around the words to make each shop look a bit more unique.   Ok it means they all share the same typeface for their shop name but that's still preferable than having a bunch of anonymous shops.  The names add a bit more character to a location and give some idea of what kinda places they are.   Plus I can chuck in some cheeky references in the shop names. 

At moment am trying to design an arcade area inspired by the rather Data East sponsored arcade seen in RoboCop 2 where Robo beats up the corrupt Officer Duffy while repeatedly demaning 'Where is Cain?" (man, I love Weller's voice).  Lots of dark blue and neon lights and many arcade cabinets tiling all over the place.  Trying to design an arcade cabinet where the tiles that make up the monitor can be re-used as normal TV's elsewhere.    The tall lights by the office door in that OCP interior screenshot look good in this arcade as do the windows from that door being used as just windows.   yay for memory-efficient tile-recycling!

[Carnivius]

Decided that the TV's will be able to have a sprite overlayed on their screen.  A simple 8x12 sprite.  I have designed a few that are relevant to the film and locations where the TV's will be used. 

Thinking about it, TV's are pretty important in the first film.  The Media Break segments, the commercials, the "I'd buy that for a dollar!" show, the monitors RoboCop's technicians have that his memories of his murder show up on, the computer screen he uses to check police records and Dick Jones' video shown in Morton's apartment and the confession in the boardroom scene in the finale all to come to mind.

[Gryzor]

Damn. Wife is away on a business trip and this thread made me wanna watch the films again, but it's too late now. Next time!

[Carnivius]

Managed to put together a decent looking recovery room for RoboCop using mostly tiles recycled from elsewhere in the game (such as the exterior set's chain-link fences, the OCP corridors walls/elevator, and even the top of the exective office door is being used as just windows, the new TV/VCR comes from the exterior shops and the TV is also the cabinet monitor in the arcade level).  The only all-new elements are the floor tiles, Robo in sitting position, his chair and Dr Marie Lazarus, the techy from RoboCop 3 (and who is in a skirt here because her leg sprites will be shared by the prostitutes... *ahem*)

Bonus points if you can tell what's on the screen of the left TV.

[ervin]

Bonus points if you can tell what's on the screen of the left TV.

Bixby!

(I am *gobsmacked* that you've managed to represent him so effectively in only 10x5 mode 0 pixels. Remarkable).

[Carnivius]

Bixby!

(I am *gobsmacked* that you've managed to represent him so effectively in only 10x5 mode 0 pixels. Remarkable).

Yay!  I wasn't sure if it worked but if you recognised him then it did.  I'll be using that and the other tv-overlay sprites at certain points of the game.

[Gryzor]

I'll buy that for a dollar!


Wow, it's amazing how much you can understand from a handful of pixels. There was a project I saw online once, degrading famous pics down to something like a 10x10 grid, and faces were still recognisable...

[Carnivius]

Seems Game Maker: Studio will be able to able to make games for PlayStation 3, 4 and Vita.  Seeing as my PS3 is my main gaming system of choice I'm very keen on getting this project running on my console.   Whether the general PlayStation gaming community wants to see an Amstrad CPC style game on their systems is another matter entirely.

Also this one probably won't stand a chance cos of movie-license rights but maybe Cosmic Prison Commando.   Several NES-style games have done well on modern consoles but then the NES was more world wide famous.