News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu
avatar_Gryzor

Robocop Prime

Started by Gryzor, 12:44, 08 February 14

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Gryzor

(not sure I should put this here, but...)


ANYONE SEEN THIS?





This is by Carnivac, btw. The vid's description:



(I think this is actually my first ever Youtube video upload so apologies if it's bad quality :P )


A fangame tribute to one of my fave 80's movies and my childhood 80's computer.


This is an early video from my RoboCop fangame which is made to the graphic specs of the Amstrad CPC (my favourite 8-bit home computer and the one I spent many an hour playing Ocean's classic original RoboCop game from the late 80's). As you can see the basic player movement and shooting is done though level mapping hasn't begun (it's just a scrolling still shot of some of my tiles, while I get the main code working). Enemies aren't probably done yet (just chucked in there sliding at Robo to test bullet and punch collision). Gameplay is mostly that of the original game but with all new graphics and some new gameplay features and a sort of 'story' and references most screen-versions of RoboCop though it's 'canon' is set after the events of RoboCop 2. Happy with the progress so far. It's mainly a simply project for me to get used to using Game Maker: Studio (though I have experience with previous incarnations of the Game Maker software). Anyways yeah.. Yay for 16 colour 'widepixel' 8-bit graphics. :P Ideally would like to be produced on a real Amstrad CPC someday so trying to not get too ambitious with it. Just good ol' fashioned retro violent shooty fun.

cngsoft

I did! Carnivac has been posting snapshots of his work in process for several months and every new screenshot is a treat.

I exchanged some few messages with him and while his priority is to get the Game Maker version ready, he doesn't disagree with getting it ported to the actual CPC hardware as well.
(if you can't see the banner right now my server is currently offline)

Gryzor

Looks awesome! I hope it gets finished, I'd give my left arm[nb]hm, wait, how would I hold the joystick then?[/nb] to play a reboot of sorts!

sigh

Looks great! I like that when he turns around, the gun is in the other hand.

Deeko

Quote from: Gryzor on 18:28, 08 February 14
Looks awesome! I hope it gets finished, I'd give my left arm[nb]hm, wait, how would I hold the joystick then?[/nb] to play a reboot of sorts!

Suction cups holding it to the table and erm use your nose for the fire button?

TotO

For me, this news is "Other Retro" related as it's a PC game.
The same for Barbarian, Bruce Lee II and Outrun remakes.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Gryzor

Yeah, I was debating with myself on this, but seeing as it's directly CPC-related...

Carnivius

#7
Ok, since Gryzor emailed me the other day about this topic (and the friendly chat I had with cngsoft on Deviantart a few weeks ago) I feel I should come say stuff about the game.

1.  it's not simply a clone of the still very fine and playable original CPC game with new graphics.  While the core gameplay is similar (you don't want to deviate too much from the traditional formula of RoboCop walking about shooting and punching bad guys) there's a bit more 'police work' involved with exploring areas and insides of buildings for clues and interrogating some bad guys for information.   Ideally each area with have a simple crime to 'solve' that will fit into the overall story arc.  Also from the early video you can see he's shooting and punching fine but I'm adding other actions too.  At moment I'm coding the grab action where he will grip an enemy by their neck, lifting them up off their feet which you can then interrogate them, throw them, or just punch them halfway across the screen).  Some enemies will need a bit of beating up before they'll share information (this being inspired by Robo's deservedly brutal interrogation of Clarence Boddicker in the first film) .  Also you can go through doors in the background inside certain buildings.  Some will be heavy and locked and need bashing down (with a simple mini-game meter appearing above the door where you have to get  the punch timing right three times), this being inspired by the drug factory raid in the first film where he bangs the door several times before it falls down.  I've already coded the enemies reacting in different ways to it before the door is smashed.  Some get ready to shoot, some panic.  Got some other ideas in mind.  They may not all make it. Might be I code something in, decide it gets a bit in the way or is more of a hassle than fun and I'll remove it. 

2. for gameplay, level loading, graphic and sound reasons I'm making this with floppy disk and 128k in mind with possibly a cut down version for 464.   I thought long and hard about it and just felt the loading speed of disk and the extra memory would be something I'd need for this project to become a reality on a real CPC.

3. As mentioned in the youtube video description I'm setting it shortly after the 2nd movie but with various amounts of elements of the 3rd movie, cartoon, TV series and Prime Directives mini-series.   While they are inferior to Weller's RoboCop movies in many ways there are things about them I like and feel could work in a game of this type.  I'm going to be seeing RebootCop at the cinema next Monday so there may or may not be elements from that in here somewhere... or digs at it if I don't like it. :P

4. At least one ED-209 will be in the game and unlike the version in the original CPC, this will actually look a lot more like how it should and it will walk.  Already experimenting with the size and ideas about memory efficient animation for his big legs. 

5. There will be a fair amount of violence and bad language.   I kind of miss the nice blocky red gore sprites of games such as Barbarian and Death Wish III and felt the original RoboCop game was lacking in that area, especially given the movie's high level of gore.   There will be an option in the menu to switch it to a somewhat humorous and sanitised version which mocks the decrease in violence and swearing that occured after the second movie.  Also mocks the old ITV broadcasts of the first film which had some very funny censoring going on with the language which had swear words either replaced by other words the character said elsewhere in the film, or had the swear word dubbed over by somebody with a different voice (for example, saying 'baloney' or 'nonsense' instead of 'bulls**t').  The blood effects will also be censored in that mode.  I haven't decided yet how.  Either it turns the red to green like SNES Mortal Kombat or maybe just gets replaced with some kinda fairy dust to really just make fun of it all.  I'll see what works best.




Oh yeah and I probably agree with TotO here.  Probably best not to have this in CPC games until there's the beginnings of actual CPC code for it. I can see it might be a bit tricky to classify projects like this that are at the moment PC based though simulating the lovely old CPC style.
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Sykobee (Briggsy)

It sounds good! Being able to go through doors into rooms/levels behind the current level will add a whole new dimension to the side scrolling beat/shoot em up.

Gryzor

Ooh goody goody goody! Those ideas sound fantastic, thanks for sharing info outside the video...


Ok, moving it to "Other Retro" then!

NiNxPe

... a 128K version... a cut down version for 464... and maybe a"DX" version for the future CTC-AY card ?  :P

Gryzor

As he says, this is made-to-spec with the original CPCs in mind. So... I'd say no, the more so with unreleased hardware.

Carnivius

I've no idea what a CTC-AY card is but I'm betting it's very unlikely I'd have any interest in it.  Ideally am just trying to make the most of the specs of the CPC's of the 80's back when they were actually relevant and not the nostalgic hobby machine of today.   Also a nice bonus of having a real CPC version at some point, would mean the game could then run on any computer, phone or console that can load a CPC emulator.  Still been getting some odd comments like I've no right to make a CPC-style game because I cannot code actual CPC stuff.  Does that mean I should just not bother at all?   I'll keep developing 'RoboCop:Prime' and 'Cosmic Prison Commando' (easy enough since they share most of the same code anyways) and then (when FINISHED, unlike that incident a few years ago when C.P.C.'s graphics were being ripped out of the ancient demo...ugh...) I'll release them as 'development packs' to the CPC community which will contain all the graphics, sound, music, images of all the maps, dialog script and other notes so that if a CPC coder is looking for a project with ready-made resources they can have a go at creating the true CPC versions of these games. 
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Gryzor

Oh, that'd be a good idea actually... share all the resources, I mean. Awesomeness!

Carnivius

Eddy turned up today. :)



Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Gryzor

#15
These are the most photo-realistic sprites I've ever seen on a CPC!!!


PS nice figurines... :)

Carnivius

Hehe.  Yeah.   He's gonna make good reference for my ED-209 sprite.  :)
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Gryzor

Do you do it by looking at it, or do you digitise it, down-size it and go from there?

Carnivius

By looking.  Downsizing a realistic looking image to the size of these sprites and in a low resolution (particularly a 'wide-pixel' one such as the CPC's Mode 0) and colour reducing down the available colours of the CPC results in such an unreadable mess you have to end up redrawing the whole thing anyways.   I do it all manually pixel by pixel to try make the most of the size and get in just enough details.  Sometimes I have to exaggerate certain parts slightly for resolution or gameplay reasons (for example the RoboCop sprite in my game has slightly unrealistic proportions so that he seems a bit chunkier for a better feel in the game, and his head is a little bigger in proportion to the body than in real life, which I did so it's readable both with and without the helmet).
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Carnivius




Just wanted to do a new screenshot that DIDN'T have that frickin' 'VideoShack' store in it. :P    Also this particular shot is showing one of the other types of optional 'monitor effects'.  Can all be adjusted or turned off in game.   And oh look there's one of those heavy doors you can smash down and enter the building.
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Devilmarkus

Just Emulating... :P


When you put your ear on a hot stove, you can smell how stupid you are ...

Amstrad CPC games in your webbrowser

JavaCPC Desktop Full Release

Gryzor

Heh, I was about to post something relevant :) If you're using off-the-shelf filters, a curvature/VHS one would be great to have...


But, it's looking majestic! Do you have a twitter account perhaps? Can't get enough of your teasers :)

Carnivius

#22
Quote from: Gryzor on 11:20, 16 February 14
Heh, I was about to post something relevant :) If you're using off-the-shelf filters, a curvature/VHS one would be great to have...

Was that to me or DevilMarkus?   Cos I don't know what 'off-the-shelf filters' actually means. :P   Also any curving would be a bit beyond me.  Simply overlaying a transparent 'scanline/CRT' effect easy, but actually transforming the shape of the screen is a bit more difficult. 

But thanks.  And yeah I have a twitter.  Is same name as here.  :P

Couldn't get much sleep last night but I keep a sketchpad and pencils by side of the bed and I was doodling some concept ideas.  I think I've got the first ED-209 level planned out somewhat.  Should be fun. 


edit: ah, I take it you found the Twitter then.  Both my laptop and phone started making noises from the notifications (the phone doing double as it makes noises for both the email and Twitter ones)  :)
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Devilmarkus

I just imported Carnivac's screenshot into JavaCPC Paint, made an overscan SCR of it, and then I enabled some display effects in JavaCPC ;)
When you put your ear on a hot stove, you can smell how stupid you are ...

Amstrad CPC games in your webbrowser

JavaCPC Desktop Full Release

Gryzor

By "off-the-shelf filters" I meant the algorithms that are used in games and emulators the world over; you know, stuff like EAGLE etc (though I wouldn't touch most of them).


Followed :)

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod