Map Book Update

zeropolis79 · January 2007

pre-production work on teh map book..

I've decided to drop Lemmings from volume 1 due to it not being visually attractive.

I've got the following lined up (in alphabetical order)

CrackDown
Dan Dare 3
Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters
Hero Quest (plus expansion pack if there is a map by then)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Myth
Professional Ski Simulator
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Treasure Island Dizzy

Any nominations for the last game?

andrew_rollings · January 2007

zeropolis79 wrote:

pre-production work on teh map book..

I've decided to drop Lemmings from volume 1 due to it not being visually attractive.

I've got the following lined up (in alphabetical order)

CrackDown
Dan Dare 3
Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters
Hero Quest (plus expansion pack if there is a map by then)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Myth
Professional Ski Simulator
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Treasure Island Dizzy

Any nominations for the last game?

Jet Set Willy 2

Pavero · January 2007

I am looking forward to the final product.

It's very difficult to choose only one title. BTW, ten maps - isn't too few?

andrew_rollings · January 2007

Pavero wrote:

I am looking forward to the final product.

It's very difficult to choose only one title. BTW, isn't too few only ten maps?

I guess it depends how much detail about the game you go into...

I think it could work very well if it goes into a lot of detail about each game... gameplay, solution, history, developer info etc...

:)
Andrew

zeropolis79 · January 2007

It is the first book remember so 10 is a nice simple number to make a start with..

chop983 · January 2007

Firelord (big and beautiful)

ewgf · January 2007

You *have* to include ZX Heroes! Yes, it was never a commercial release, being a Jetset Willy rewrite, but it looks fantastic, what with every screen being based on a different Spectrum game. Some other JSW/MM rewrites would be great too, such as Carnival Macabre, Frosya, Ultimate Manic Miner, Eugene: Lord of the Bathroom, Maria vs. Some Bastards, and Bulgarian Requiem.

http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/list.html

Also:

Dynamite Dan,
Dynamite Dan 2,
Brian Bloodaxe (hard to map, though),
Jack the Nipper 2,
Starquake,
Scumball,
Earthshaker,
Down to Earth,
Underwurlde,

and about a zxillion others.

zeropolis79 · January 2007

http://rapidshare.com/files/11132490/eftpotrm_book_proto.pdf.html

Lastest page as designed by my niece...

VincentAC · January 2007

I can't think of any games to add but I thought I'd say it looks good already.

I really like the "page divider" look on the side/top of the pages.

zeropolis79 · January 2007

Thanks but it seems the PDF creator flipped page 2 (I work with double spread)

CKay · January 2007

Looks nice, I like the little picture of the game at the top right too, looks slightly larger, so you can make the graphics more visible, I wasn`t sure how some bigger maps, especially the isometric games would fit on a page, but looks like there gonna look cool.

How you planning on doing games that might be wide, but not tall... have layers of the map?

-CrackDown
-Dan Dare 3
-Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters
-Hero Quest (plus expansion pack if there is a map by then)
-Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
-Myth
-Professional Ski Simulator
-Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
-Treasure Island Dizzy

Can`t wait to see Pro Ski Simulator, haven`t been past level 3 ever.

Last Crusade`s a good choice as it`s brilliant graphics, one of the games that works well in monochrome, brilliantly atmospheric :)

Have you decided on the last game yet? Pacland might look good as it looks pretty decent, just a pity it didn`t scroll.

zeropolis79 · January 2007

Undecided yet but someone's promised me something really good. All I can say right now..

Wide games will be put on their side but I probably will use layers

rich_chandler · January 2007

Just taken a look at your sample page and I've got to say it looks pretty good. The map looks great against a black background and the game title looks superb.

A couple of criticisms though. Not sure about the screenshot on the right hand side. I can understand why it's there but it just doesn't look quite right.
Secondly the game description definitely doesn't look right with black text in a white box, it does tend to look like it's just been plonked on there. Also I'd spend a bit more time with the game description, it could really do with a re-write.

It might be nice to have a more complete credit description. i.e. programmers name, graphic artist name etc.

Hope you don't mind my comments. This could be a very interesting book. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on developments.

Good luck.

zeropolis79 · January 2007

The screenshot is to show a bit of gameplay - sadly, Emiliana did a bit of moving about with the maps and forgot to set the screen shot to "Move to Front"

The white box with the text is planned to be changed - the text description was her words which was done with the help of a Crash review.

Gd comments though

zeropolis79 · January 2007

Two new prototypes thanks to a friend:

What do u think?

Pavero · January 2007

Wonderfull! I would say book1ie1.png is a little bit better.

In which language is the description? :)

zeropolis79 · January 2007

Gibberish!

But thanks 4 the comment

rich_chandler · January 2007

Now thats looking really good. If you can get everything inside the borders and avoid the overlapping I reckon you might have come up with a winning formula. The overall look is impressive, it just needs a bit of a tweak. You're definitely getting there.

NickH · January 2007

zeropolis79 wrote:

Two new prototypes thanks to a friend:

What do u think?

Finally taken a look at this :)

This is stunning. I prefer the second one, although I suggest you investigate using non-rectangular paragraphs - in other words, you see those triangular blank spaces beneath the paragraphs in the first prototype? You could fill part of that with text.

RetroRevival · January 2007

Just for the record, I did the two new prototypes, just to see what the reaction would be. So keep the comments coming please.

If I may just reply to one or two of them?

If you can get everything inside the borders and avoid the overlapping I reckon you might have come up with a winning formula.

I intentionally overlapped them, for the main reason being that it makes the whole think less regimented. Take any magazine, overlapping pics with screenshots, borders etc. Its commonplace and accepted, hence the reason I did it. Naturally if the consensus is that it needs to be changed then so be it, but until then.... :)

although I suggest you investigate using non-rectangular paragraphs - in other words, you see those triangular blank spaces beneath the paragraphs in the first prototype?

Totally agree. I made those in around 5 mins with the pictures that were provided to me by zeropolis79. They are just "demos" of what it *might* look like and to give zeropolis a better idea as to what to aim for.

In all honesty I beleive that the logo needs to be re-sampled (its cut off at the top in the one I have from zero) and the text needs to be defined and placed within the layout of the page properly. I also think that the screenshot needs something doing to it, however I am not sure as to what yet. I do personally feel that landscape is the better option for these maps though.

Hopefully you guys can give zeropolis some more ideas to play around with. I'd love to help out more on this (as i really do have some good ideas here) but I am currently working on a book of my own for a different audience, so will have little time.

I have offered to help format and print this for zeropolis however its his project and will let him do what he wants with it and whatever he decides to do, I ask you guys to support him and give him as much help as you can.

Regards
Simon
RetroRevival

rich_chandler · January 2007

RetroRevival wrote:

I intentionally overlapped them, for the main reason being that it makes the whole think less regimented. Take any magazine, overlapping pics with screenshots, borders etc. Its commonplace and accepted, hence the reason I did it. Naturally if the consensus is that it needs to be changed then so be it, but until then.... :)

Yep. thats a fair comment and I fully understand why. The problem I can see though is that the map has been cut off at the top of the page, which considering this is a book about maps may not be the best thing to do.

Other than that, nice work.

RetroRevival · January 2007

The problem I can see though is that the map has been cut off at the top of the page

Thats how I got the image in the first place unfortunately and could only work with the image the best i could. I saw that certain parts were *cut* and used the page to attempt to *hide* them (i.e the top part of the map at the edge of the page).

If I can get hold of an *undamaged* set of pics I will have another bash at it, assuming zeropolis wants me to of course!

Regards
Simon
RetroRevival

zeropolis79 · January 2007

The logo was originally that way mate...

Emiliana's going to have another bash and we'll show u when she's done a new draft..

Bluce_Ree · January 2007

I'm a bit confused here. This is a book of ten maps, right?

I'm not sure I see the point of that. Andrew's book covered 230+ games so that makes sense but a book of ten speccy maps... i don't get it.

Explain please? I'm not being a prick about it or anything I'm just a bit baffled.

psj3809 · January 2007

ewgf wrote:

You *have* to include ZX Heroes! Yes, it was never a commercial release, being a Jetset Willy rewrite, but it looks fantastic, what with every screen being based on a different Spectrum game.

100% agree with that, ZX Heroes is an excellent underrated game which people have to try, just love finding new screens to see what game theyre from

zeropolis79 · January 2007

Bluce_Ree wrote:

I'm a bit confused here. This is a book of ten maps, right?

I'm not sure I see the point of that. Andrew's book covered 230+ games so that makes sense but a book of ten speccy maps... i don't get it.

Explain please? I'm not being a prick about it or anything I'm just a bit baffled.

It's 10 games.. Each one will take several pages! It's just a trial run to see if such a book will be popular.

RetroRevival · January 2007

I'm not sure I see the point of that. Andrew's book covered 230+ games so that makes sense but a book of ten speccy maps.

Andrews book was just one game per page. Zeropolis book will cover game maps as apposed to mini reviews of the games themselves. Of course there will be game information, however the point of the book is to allow people to have a hard copy of the map of a chosen game in paper format.

A game map will not be on one page, in fact for lemmings (if we take this as an example) we are looking at 40+ levels, so with full explination on how to do each level we may be looking at 30+ pages (map and info combined).

Dont be fooled into thinking that it will only be a book of ten pages, because the end products page count will be well over 3 figures.

zeropolis79 · January 2007

A single comment like Bluce_Ree's can be enough to put me of totally.. mainly the reason nothing has been done since..

Lemmings has been scrapped from teh book because we can't find any way to make the presentation look good..

andrew_rollings · January 2007

zeropolis79 wrote:

A single comment like Bluce_Ree's can be enough to put me of totally.. mainly the reason nothing has been done since..

Lemmings has been scrapped from teh book because we can't find any way to make the presentation look good..

You shouldn't be so easily put off... :razz:

I think the book will look awesome - I particularly liked the last layout I saw of the robot monsters game.

Seriously though, the main reason I did my book was because *I* wanted to... and it didn't matter what anyone else's opinion was... If it did, I would have given up after I got the first (and thankfully only) rude email demanding a refund because I hadn't delivered 'on time'...

You should definitely go ahead and do your book... the sense of achievement at having it done is incredible... There were many times I never thought I'd get there and wanted to give up... The previously mentioned email was one of those... (but I cheered myself up by promising myself that if the f***er ever re-ordered the book, I'd immediately refund his money and tell him to sod off! :evil: )

Andrew

Lee Fogarty · January 2007

zeropolis79 wrote:

A single comment like Bluce_Ree's can be enough to put me of totally.. mainly the reason nothing has been done since..

If your going to be put off so easily then there is no point in carrying on. You are going to get critisism at every stage and if a single comment that wasn't that bad is going to make you give up then stop now and let someone else take over.

My advice is to do this because you want to and not because you want everyone to tell you how great it is.

You have to take the good with the bad and weigh up for yourself what is good critisism and what is bad. Bluce_Ree asked a simple question.

zeropolis79 · January 2007

thanks 4 the nice words. got a few new ideas in mind.

Map Book Update

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