Stone Age

edited December 2014 in New game ideas
There is an old (1992) and very playable logic game "Stone Age" http://hol.abime.net/2125

It was released on Amiga, Atari ST, PC and C64. Maybe it's time to make Spectrum version?

Graphics are quite simple, every level is just one screen.
Post edited by PopoCop on
ZX Spectrum +2 & PicoDiv SD,
Timex 2048 & divIDE 57c

Comments

  • edited November 2014
    PopoCop wrote: »
    There is an old (1992) and very playable logic game "Stone Age" http://hol.abime.net/2125

    It was released on Amiga, Atari ST, PC and C64. Maybe it's time to make Spectrum version?

    Graphics are quite simple, every level is just one screen.

    Slab Age
    look it
    [Stronghold] [l'Abbaye des Morts] [Stronghold2 WiP (30%) defrosen]
  • edited November 2014
    "Slab Age" looks like poor "Stone Age" clone. Main character's animation is slow, there is no sound, two "action" buttons are used. And the game works on TR-DOS machines only.
    Spectrum version of "Stone Age" could be much better (should run on tape based Spectrums, have music soundtrack and be controlled with one fire button).
    ZX Spectrum +2 & PicoDiv SD,
    Timex 2048 & divIDE 57c
  • edited November 2014
    if you can provide all the graphics and levels, anyone can write code. :)



    i think about this game :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzM1qHJ04k0
    i think its possible too
    [Stronghold] [l'Abbaye des Morts] [Stronghold2 WiP (30%) defrosen]
  • edited November 2014
    PopoCop wrote: »
    There is an old (1992) and very playable logic game "Stone Age"
    The many biggest levels 20*11 blocks.

    2125_screen57.png

    20*16>32x8
    (though this level can be squeezed)
  • edited November 2014
    goodboy wrote: »
    The many biggest levels 20*11 blocks.

    2125_screen57.png

    20*16>32x8
    (though this level can be squeezed)

    If this was done with either Nirvana or Bifrost and tiles made 12x12 pixels it could fit on screen. ;)
    Website: Tardis Remakes / Mostly remakes of Arcade and ZX Spectrum games.
    My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
    Twitter: Sokurah
  • edited November 2014
    OK, so the biggest level is 20x11 tiles. Each tile is a square 16x16 pixels.
    It means that the biggest level is 320x176 pixels.

    Spectrum resolution is 256x192 pixels. Vertical resolution is enough - we have 176 pixels for tiles and 16 pixels for score panel.
    Horizontal resolution is shorter than 320 pixels, but the screen can be scrolled.

    So, it's possible to make it with tiles 16x16.

    Of course, the tiles can be smaller.
    ZX Spectrum +2 & PicoDiv SD,
    Timex 2048 & divIDE 57c
  • edited November 2014
    Tiles must be 16x16 , 8x16, 16x8 or 8x8 to match attributes.
    Using other sizes means the game would be monochrome.

    The best solution seems to be keeping the 16x16 tiles and redesign the levels to fit 256 pixels.
    As for the tiles, they would convert well since there's little color variation.
    If someone provides a sprite-sheet, I can have a go at converting them.
  • edited November 2014
    4throck wrote: »
    Tiles must be 16x16 , 8x16, 16x8 or 8x8 to match attributes.
    Using other sizes means the game would be monochrome.

    No - Using Bifrost, we can largely ignore attributes and gain full colour.

    D.
  • edited November 2014
    PopoCop wrote: »
    "Slab Age" looks like poor "Stone Age" clone. Main character's animation is slow, there is no sound, two "action" buttons are used. And the game works on TR-DOS machines only.
    Spectrum version of "Stone Age" could be much better (should run on tape based Spectrums, have music soundtrack and be controlled with one fire button).

    Here is TAP conversion:
    http://velesoft.speccy.cz/other/SLAB_AGE.TAP.zip

    Today can big part of ZX users run tr-dos only software on real ZX Spectrum with DIVIDE / DIVMMC interface with system ESXDOS. This system support work with TRD files so single as with TAP/SNA/Z80... :-)
  • edited November 2014
    Isn't Bifrost limited to 8x2 if we want to use the full screen? I think it can do 4x2 on a smaller area. Correct me if I'm wrong :wink:
  • edited November 2014
    4throck wrote: »
    Isn't Bifrost limited to 8x2 if we want to use the full screen?

    Right.
    4throck wrote: »
    I think it can do 4x2 on a smaller area. Correct me if I'm wrong :wink:

    You are wrong! :)
    Creator of ZXDB, BIFROST/NIRVANA, ZX7/RCS, etc. I don't frequent this forum anymore, please look for me elsewhere.
  • edited November 2014
    PopoCop wrote: »
    OK, so the biggest level is 20x11 tiles.

    Therefore I suggest using 8x16 images inside 12x16 tiles.

    This is what I mean:

    16osvb.png

    Even better if you use NIRVANA so you can use extra colors to compensate lack of pixel details:

    117hg2g.png

    BTW I draw these quick'n'dirty tiles just to illustrate what I mean, I know they look ugly as hell! :)
    Creator of ZXDB, BIFROST/NIRVANA, ZX7/RCS, etc. I don't frequent this forum anymore, please look for me elsewhere.
  • edited November 2014
    I tried to exam snapshot from amiga

    6607883.png

    4436711.png

    4430567.png
  • edited December 2014
    Einar, thanks for the correction :-)

    Yes, those are the Amiga tiles, sprites and background. But guessing the palette is hard.

    I did a small study of an Amiga level:
    186466-stone-age-amiga-screenshot-level-79-the-labyrinth-full-of.png

    So you have a different color for each tile type. I've missed a few but that's not important for now.
    This would work in the Spectrum, nice and colorful, if we could fit the entire map.
    I don't see how 12x16 tiles would work with colored tiles...
    But again, prove me wrong :-)
  • edited December 2014
    I don't see how 12x16 tiles would work with colored tiles...

    They wouldn't. Einar wanted to reduce them to 8x16 tiles and leave empty space on the side. But quite often tiles need to touch each other and in such case it wouldn't work.
  • edited December 2014
    The same idea also works even if you need colored tiles touching each other. In this case I suggest using 5x12 or 6x12 images inside square 12x12 tiles.

    Here's another quick'n'dirty example with 20x11 tiles using NIRVANA:

    124zmns.png

    Obviously you would need a better artist than myself to design proper tiles for this!
    Creator of ZXDB, BIFROST/NIRVANA, ZX7/RCS, etc. I don't frequent this forum anymore, please look for me elsewhere.
  • edited December 2014
    Cool Einar !

    It's much better to discuss with images that with simple "A x B tiles will work" comments.
    At least for me... perhaps I'm getting old or something...

    I get it now. At least for the background tiles it might work.
    20x11zx.png
    There's some color spill on the converted image since I'm using dithering. I think that with solid colours it would work better.
    Nevertheless, I don't see it working perfectly with detailed graphics. Neighouring ink / paper colours will always mix. But it may still look good with a limited palette of Cyan/Magenta/Blue for example.
  • edited December 2014
    Still, it would be always better to redesign the game and use 16x16 tiles than struggle to fit everything into 12x12 and go into dirty compromises :)

    Personally I don't quite understand this trend - let's make existing game X on Spectrum, as close as possible to original. Let's make Stone Age, let's make Monkey Island etc.

    If you want something that looks and plays exactly like Stone Age on Amiga, go playing Stone Age on Amiga. Simple.

    Personally I would like to see new ORIGINAL games on Spectrum that may reuse some ideas but add something fresh to them, have extra features, new graphics or new levels and so on.
  • edited December 2014
    4throck wrote: »
    Nevertheless, I don't see it working perfectly with detailed graphics. Neighouring ink / paper colours will always mix.

    They won't mix if you avoid pixel details inside the part that tiles share with a neighbour (corresponding to 1/3 of each tile), like in the example I provided.

    However I don't think it's so important to make it work perfectly. Some degree of color clash is perfectly acceptable in a Speccy game. In particular, your conversion in post #18 looks quite good, it just needs some additional work to minimize color clashes, that's all.
    Creator of ZXDB, BIFROST/NIRVANA, ZX7/RCS, etc. I don't frequent this forum anymore, please look for me elsewhere.
  • edited December 2014
    Ralf wrote: »
    Personally I don't quite understand this trend - let's make existing game X on Spectrum, as close as possible to original. Let's make Stone Age, let's make Monkey Island etc.

    If you want something that looks and plays exactly like Stone Age on Amiga, go playing Stone Age on Amiga. Simple.

    Personally I would like to see new ORIGINAL games on Spectrum that may reuse some ideas but add something fresh to them, have extra features, new graphics or new levels and so on.

    If you want new and original Spectrum games why did you make so many unoriginal games like "Archeomania", "Heritage" and "Janosik"? Anybody can play them on arcade or Atari :lol:
    ZX Spectrum +2 & PicoDiv SD,
    Timex 2048 & divIDE 57c
  • edited December 2014
    Did you play any of those for longer than 5 minutes?

    If you played you would see the differences and enhancements. I never make direct remakes, always add something from myself.

    Anyway, you have been hanging here and on other retro forums for years. Maybe it's time to start writing your own games instead of asking others to do it for you.
  • edited December 2014
    Ralf wrote: »
    Still, it would be always better to redesign the game and use 16x16 tiles than struggle to fit everything into 12x12 and go into dirty compromises :)

    Personally I don't quite understand this trend - let's make existing game X on Spectrum, as close as possible to original. Let's make Stone Age, let's make Monkey Island etc.

    If you want something that looks and plays exactly like Stone Age on Amiga, go playing Stone Age on Amiga. Simple.

    Personally I would like to see new ORIGINAL games on Spectrum that may reuse some ideas but add something fresh to them, have extra features, new graphics or new levels and so on.

    Im also one of those People who want to see a Monkey Island or other games existing for 16 bits or other Computers, in the Spectrum. I dont know, but I like to see how the Spectrum handles it, and gives them ist unique look. Thats why, for example I organised 2 compos about conversions :)
    Not everybody had or has an Amiga, or feels like using ist Emulator ;)
  • edited December 2014
    Ralf wrote: »
    I never make direct remakes, always add something from myself.

    Anyway, you have been hanging here and on other retro forums for years. Maybe it's time to start writing your own games instead of asking others to do it for you.

    Spectrum version of "Stone Age" is still only an idea. The game doesn't exist but you already call it unoriginal. And that's silly.

    Saying that I ask others to create game for ME is silly too. This forum is called "New game ideas", so I've given an idea. If that idea becomes a finished game EVERYBODY will be able to play it.

    Thinking that being on the forums for years means that anybody can write own games is not silly. It's stupid.
    ZX Spectrum +2 & PicoDiv SD,
    Timex 2048 & divIDE 57c
  • edited December 2014
    Slab age came after Stone age :-)
  • edited December 2014
    ...Some degree of color clash is perfectly acceptable in a Speccy game
    ...looks quite good, it just needs some additional work to minimize color clashes, that's all.

    Agreed, but I'm a perfectionist.

    From a conversion point of view I'm not satisfied :p

    From making a single screen color spectrum puzzle game with 20x11 tiles, I'm more than satisfied ;)



    As for the general discussion about original / conversion take on it is that any Spectrum conversion will be original.

    Let's just consider graphics. You can't just convert them.
    Even if you go for pixel by pixel, it will be an original work. The original sprites will have more than 2 colors a different palette, etc, etc.

    So making something that looks the same is in reality a creative effort.
    All the talk about how to handle a 20x11 tile single screen only proves that.
    Another example comes from the C64 converted Hobbit images.
    Looks like a straightforward task, but the community has produced 3 or 4 good variations for a single image.
  • edited December 2014
    Im all for lifting cool ideas, and improving them : I suggest Window age? :-)

    In which you must assemble a large stained glass window without breaking any pieces. You heard it here first.

    (I was playing L'Abbey de Mort earlier.)
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