Robocop Prime

[tastefulmrship]

Please, SyX, Axelay or arnoldemu please! Spend all your time making THIS happen! PUHLEEEZE!
Robocop Prime NEEDs to happen on CPC! I will even BUY a copy when it's released... I don't even own a CPC anymore! ^_^

[Carnivius]

Please, SyX, Axelay or arnoldemu please! Spend all your time making THIS happen! PUHLEEEZE!
Robocop Prime NEEDs to happen on CPC! I will even BUY a copy when it's released... I don't even own a CPC anymore! ^_^

Heh, thanks for that and all the 'likes' you just did.  Should really be shouting at me to get the game done first and then hand over the files to one of those guys (or whoever else has the skills and time and wants to have a go).  I hope you will enjoy the game when it is done and that it hopefully lives up to that enthusiastic comment.

[Carnivius]

I want one for the main villain but I haven't yet decided who that's going to be ... when doing his portrait perhaps pick an actor I feel would be suitable for the 'part' to use as reference for the portrait to make sure he looks as realistic as these ones do.

And it just hit me when thinking about several criteria when picking an 'actor'. 
1. Has to be someone who was in their prime around the time these films were made so he may have been an actual contender for a role in them.
2. Has to be someone with some connection to the original series even if not directly involved.
3. Has to be someone with experience of violent sci fi movies.
4. Has to be someone who has a distinctive and interesting face and can look like an intimidating villain.
5. Has to be someone who could have convincingly played an intelligent executive type or a badass military type (or perhaps both at same time).
5. Has to be someone who is damn cool.   


So basically I reckon I'm gonna go with Michael Ironside's 'likeness' for the villain in this game as he fulfils all of those and appeared in two other Paul Verhoeven movies (Starship Troopers and of course in Total Recall alongside Ronny Cox who played Dick Jones in RoboCop)

  Also he has a cool voice (not that this game has any speech samples except maybe nabbing the prime directives samples from the original game).  I might put a beard on him cos he has one in later roles and it looks pretty cool.  Will consider it once I've decided on the character's appearance and clothing.

Also this:

Paul Verhoeven initially considered Rutger Hauer, whom he had worked with on most of his films, as well as Michael Ironside, for the role of RoboCop. Ironside was also originally considered for the villainous part of Clarence Boddicker; he later portrayed a similar villain in Verhoeven's Total Recall (coincidentally, Kurtwood Smith (who portrayed Clarence) was considered to play the villain in Total Recall, but passed the script to Ironside). Allegedly Arnold Schwarzenegger was suggested by the studio, but the film makers eventually dismissed all three on the basis that the bulky RoboCop costume would require an actor of light build to work with while producer Jon Davison quipped on the Schwarzenegger suggestion that it would look like the Michelin Man. Peter Weller, a method actor known for playing everyman characters, was subsequently cast as Murphy/RoboCop.

[Gryzor]

We've seen Robocop quite a few times by now, but Lewis is spot-on!

[Carnivius]

We've seen Robocop quite a few times by now, but Lewis is spot-on!

quite a few times?  Heh, not sure what that means, he was only posted twice here since I pixelled it a couple days ago and one of those was with the concept backdrop thingy and I wanted to show him 'clean' of that with Lewis.   But thanks. 

[ervin]

Please, SyX, Axelay or arnoldemu please! Spend all your time making THIS happen! PUHLEEEZE!
Robocop Prime NEEDs to happen on CPC! I will even BUY a copy when it's released... I don't even own a CPC anymore! ^_^

WHAT HE SAID!!!

[Carnivius]

Pressure. 

At least with this one people have some idea of what to expect as it's mostly the same sorta gameplay as the original game (which most CPC folks seem to enjoy) but with new additions.  Basically an unofficial sequel.

[Gryzor]

quite a few times?  Heh, not sure what that means, he was only posted twice here since I pixelled it a couple days ago and one of those was with the concept backdrop thingy and I wanted to show him 'clean' of that with Lewis.   But thanks. 

No, I mean Robocop is a very familiar image, whereas you don't see her that often...

[arnoldemu]

@Carnivac: Your new forum avatar is really cool.

[Gryzor]

Heh indeed it is!

[Carnivius]

@Carnivac: Your new forum avatar is really cool.

Thanks! Figured it was about time I had an actual CPC-related avatar rather than my usual one and the RoboCop portrait seemed ideal.

[ukmarkh]

Will this ever get released on the actual CPC?

[TFM]

Please, SyX, Axelay or arnoldemu please! Spend all your time making THIS happen! PUHLEEEZE!
Robocop Prime NEEDs to happen on CPC! I will even BUY a copy when it's released... I don't even own a CPC anymore! ^_^

So does somebody actually plan to make a CPC version?

[Carnivius]

  As I have already said several times there will hopefully be real CPC versions made when I have finished these PC coded versions where I will then hand over all the resources in packs and any one of the talented CPC coders can have a go at porting them.    And if I get one more stupid and somewhat abusive email like the one I got the other day I may just not bother. 

[SyX]

And if I get one more stupid and somewhat abusive email like the one I got the other day I may just not bother.

If only i got a cent for those ... the number of idjits in retro world is getting frankly stupid, better ignore them and add the address to the spam filter

[TFM]

As I have already said several times there will hopefully be real CPC versions made when I have finished these PC coded versions where I will then hand over all the resources in packs and any one of the talented CPC coders can have a go at porting them.    And if I get one more stupid and somewhat abusive email like the one I got the other day I may just not bother.

Well, in this forum there are hundreds (ok, dozends...) of posts every day. Not everybody can read all of them. And at least I can't always remember everything. Also sometimes there are similar topics (CPrisonC and RoboPrime f.e.), so things can get confused. Also not every one does know if somebody else may have stated working on something. So take it easy.


It won't make any sense if two persons/groups work on the same project and finally the same work get's done twice - but be such a waste of time. That's my general POV about that.


Nobody want's to bother here, in contrast. 

[Carnivius]

I was never happy about simply scaling up the smaller logo (that is also used in the status panel of the game) for the title screen.  Not a fan of mixed resolutions.  So I pixelled a larger version which I think looks much nicer. Still not a hundred percent happy with the styling and position of the word 'Prime' but it'll do for now.
Also improved the buildings to look more like a city (same tiles that are also used in the backdrop of the exterior locations of the levels) and then I felt a bit silly and moved the scrolling buildings up a few blocks and pixelled tiny vehicles of police cars and criminal vans/bikes to chase each other across the bottom for fun.

Comparison between the old one and this new can be viewed here

[Gryzor]

1920x1080 please...

[Carnivius]

1920x1080 please...

Waahhh... what be that?  I only know resolutions up to 640x480.  Anything higher is like REAL LIFE surely? 

[Gryzor]

Heheh ok, sure. I just meant something clear enough to scale for use as a wallpaper. Even 320x200 if they're clean - the shot above has some banding apparent in the scanlines...

[Carnivius]

'clean' version cropped to 320x200.



Though I've done a little more coding since that shot was taken.  There's now a sort of road in the space under the cars that scrolls towards to the left to help give the impression they're moving along it and the background buildings now scroll much slower for a parallax effect (though they look a slightly jumpy cos there's really only so much you can scroll slowly with wide-pixels especially).   The effect looks nice though.

[TFM]

You see the houses from a side angel (look at roofs), but the lights are all in one horizontal line. That's not the right perspective. Or I'm wrong all all that sky scrapers have a strange kind of roofs.

[Carnivius]

Some of the skyscrapers have slanted roofs (some have flat) cos that's how many sci-fi things often pictured what 'futuristic' buildings looked like.  Those tiles are from the backdrop of the exterior levels in the game and are meant to represent the flashy new Delta City that was built (a plot point in the movies).   In-game those tiles represent the big shiny modern buildings far in the background where all the rich folk live and 'work', while you patrol in the crappy, dirty, crime-ridden Old Detroit in the foreground trying to save the less fortunate types. 

[TFM]

Ah! Sounds very atmospheric.

[Carnivius]

Small cropped sample from the current build that shows some updated tiles (for more variety in the exterior street scenes) and RoboCop himself has been getting some tweaks.   Now uses the blue-green (0,127,127) in place of the dark green (0,127,0) cos it looks similar enough places I was using the dark green in but also now blends better in various hue ramps such as with the blues or purple so it can be used in many more areas to smooth out the pixels a bit.  RoboCop himself now uses this colour (in addition to what the sprites already contained) as well for a lil bit of hue variation to try and get closer to the way his armour was very reflective of the lighting in the films with the range of blues.  Reduced the amount of purple I was using on his black areas and his gun to make them look a bit more black and just using the purple and grey to suggest a focal point of light on those areas.   Been optimising some of this sprites to fit more within tighter size limits to save on memory.  Had already got all his torso sprites to fit 24x16 (48x16 in real pixels) except for the two that show him firing his gun left and right cos the way he held up his free hand made those sprites taller, but now I've repositioned the hand somewhat (which turned out to be more accurate to the film anyways) and they now all fit within those sizes.  Nice and tidy.


Hm.  I think I need to change that tile on the road.  The one that has some 'rubbish' on it.  Cos it was meant to be two random little bits of paper but for some reason I keep seeing them 'connected' and looking like a tiny origami swan.