I've had a go (or 10) on the Beta version of this. It's coming along VERY nicely. It has got that 'one more go' factor already so I'm very hopefull that when it's all finished we'll have a nice little game there. I know I'm biased but if it was ****e I wouldn't be having go after go, which I am doing, trying to beat my highscore!! :)
Thanks Mark. Kind words. Even if I'm paying you for 'em. :lol:
I just recieved the last pieces of graphics from Mark today and I've also finished the last missing bits of code, so the game is basically feature-complete and fully playable is it stands.
However, there is a lot of things that still needs tweaking - the flickering of the sprites, my less than stellar collision detection and some speedup's and slowdown's that I need to fix, and that could take another month - I honestly don't know...but I hope that I'm able to fix all that as swiftly as progress has been up until now.
To "celebrate", if that's the word :), here's a picture from the game as it looks now - with Mark's graphics finally having replaced everyting "borrowed".
...the dingos are white here - as I have to rewrite the spriteroutines I haven't bothered colouring them magenta as I expect they'll end up being.
...However, there are a lot of things that still need tweaking - the flickering of the sprites...
Use the byte scan method... ACG used it. Joffa recommended it. It really isn't difficult. If you're converting an ACG game you really ought to use the same method of displaying flicker-free sprites. :)
Use the byte scan method... ACG used it. Joffa recommended it. It really isn't difficult. If you're converting an ACG game you really ought to use the same method of displaying flicker-free sprites. :)
Yes, I'll see if I can make that work once I get to it on my list. I'm sure I can.
...I'm more worried about decent collision detection stuff. Got any easy pointers regarding that? (currently just using box collisions).
Prepare for a long post. Perhaps I can even challenge ewgf here. :razz:
Anyway, I've been meaning to get into Z80 programming and making a game at some point - that's what I've been saying for almost 30 years now anyway :lol: ..but I've been plenty busy with all my PC games and didn't think I could find the time I'd guess it would take to re-learn Z80 and get into that again. Well, I guess I found time now. :D
Now, I used to fiddle around with z80 "back then" - cracking games and programming small utilities (usually for cracking and hacking), but never a game...it seemed to hard and impossible, so I'm not a complete "Z80 virgin", but I never felt I was good enough to make a game, and so I haven't touched Z80 at all for 20 years, but I guess that having made a bunch of other games I've learned a thing or two about how to structure a game. 8)
Then two weeks ago I got the idea to remake Dingo for the Spectrum. Dingo, for those who don't know, is an arcadegame made in 1983 by ACG and is credited to Chris and Tim Stamper. I've already remade it for the PC, so I know the game in and out and thought it would be a good idea...and it could be a nice companionpiece to the four 16K Ultimate games (if I don't screw it up that is). :) It's also a pretty simple game and a good choice for a first game.
I know that due to those origins it may not be possible to store it at WOS, and I'd love to write to the Stampers and ask for "exclusive WOS distribution rights" but as I don't know how to get in contact with them, then - if nothing else - it'll be available from my own website instead.
Being originally an arcadegame - and not for the Spectrum - it's in a grey area so perhaps Martijn will allow it to be stored here, but let's see about that once the game is finished.
Here's a screenshot from the original game;
Developmentwise I had a bit of a false start and wasted a couple of days using some tools that just wasn't as good as they seemed on the surface, but I eventually started programming it on july 21st. Now, 12 days later I almost have a complete game. :D
When I say 'almost complete' I mean "all menus done, building levels, moving around, picking up fruit, shooting fruit, level progression, getting scores and bonuses...and probably a few more things".
Things still left to do is, all code relating to the enemies. I've only just prepared the graphics for them tonight, and I'm now ready to get into programming that too.
I'll also need new graphics for the items because - as you can probably see - they've mostly been "borrowed" from other places as I needed something to work with (graphics almost always comes last for me).
...and music too. Since I want the game to stand along with the four 16K Ultimate games I think I'd like similiar BEEP'style tunes. Who can do that?
...I'll probably also remove that TIME counter and replace it with a lives and level counter. Remember, this is only a WIP version.
There's room for a LOT of optimisation though. At this point I haven't cared much about compact and overly efficient code...I think that - for a first game - I'm allowed to slack off a bit ;) ...but things need to a bit run faster because things are slowing down a bit with both the player and a flying fruit going horizontally (as you can guess I'm shifting my sprites as I need them), but they're going in 1 pixel increments right now - which is not really needed, so if I change that to 2 pixels at the time and do a bit of 'load balancing' so movement of player/items/enemies aren't all handled in the same loop through the mainprogram, but split up and done in separately loops, then I'll probably get the speed increase I need.
Since I'm aware of this issue, and I haven't written any code for the enemies yet, I'll probably see if I can figure out how to preshift them at the start of the program so I won't have to do all those shifts during the game itself. Fun fun fun...let's see how it goes. :lol:
Phew.
Here's a screenshot from Spectacular. As you can see I've been forced to reduce the playfied by a couple of rows because of the Spectrums lower resolution - and because I wanted to keep sprites/tiles at 16x16 so I could have full-color, but as you can see it has worked out just fine. ;)
This is looking brilliant! I love how you've overcome the colour clash on those sprites.
Thanks. There will (probably) be some colour clash once I put colour on the enemies (currently they just absorb the colours present), but I don't think it'll too bad.
Oooh lovely! I hadn't thought about the ACG arcade games before - I did think about the C64 only Ultimate games (Entombed, Staff of Karnaugh etc) as potentials. Apparently the C64 versions weren't that good.
But anyway my z80 coding was never that great and now I've got another project on the boil. Loving the look of Dingo, can't wait!
Oooh lovely! I hadn't thought about the ACG arcade games before - I did think about the C64 only Ultimate games (Entombed, Staff of Karnaugh etc) as potentials. Apparently the C64 versions weren't that good.
The C64 Ultimate games are a bit marmite (i.e. you either love them or hate them). The first two (The Staff of Karnath + Entombed) were great games. Players who loved Entombed generally found Blackwyche and Dragonskulle fun too as they were similar to one another (in a "Knight Lore is similar to Alien 8" kind of way). I wasn't a big fan of Imhotep (the jump n run part seems nigh on impossible) or Outlaws.
Indeed, Zog seems now a mystery. I've been searching round the net and, even searching inside MAWS, nothing at all. I'm quite curious and I would like to know how it was. :-?
I've been searching for Zog on and off since Leigh Loveday mentioned it to me around 2000. You could try Rare Ltd to see if anyone has any screenies etc of it, although I'm not sure if any of the original A.C.G. people are still working there (the Stampers left a few years ago).
Glad you liked it. I've never done anything like this before. I do plenty of doodling but I've not done anything I'd considered a finished piece other than when I did my Graphic Design courses at college and Uni. I'm no Bob Wakelin but plenty of games came out back in the day with artwork worse than this! Re the logo, I was already thinking along those lines but didn't think I could really get away with a real Ultimate logo. So I tried this:
The next stage for me now is my first Spectrum loading screen since 'Total Recall from 1990.
Hah, aces artwork, Mark. Reminiscent of the earlier Ultimate artwork. I was thinking of something more enigmatic, much like their later game artwork - a series, in fact, based on the fruit. Each fruit would be highly detailed with a high contrast shadow/light dingo in the background, shadow of the hero on the foreground as if approaching the fruit...but it's the fruit that's the main focus. I don't think I've explained that well, but I can see it right here in my head! Fruit, beautifully coloured with vibrant colours and really shiny.
Well, the logo doesn't say 'Ultimate Play The Game', and at this point it doesn't really matter if the logo is inspired by the original one - the whole damn game is a copy of one of theirs, so I'd say the IP-line was crossed ages ago. Compared to that the logo can't possibly send anyone over the edge (except Tim Langdell). :p
Hah, aces artwork, Mark. Reminiscent of the earlier Ultimate artwork. I was thinking of something more enigmatic, much like their later game artwork - a series, in fact, based on the fruit. Each fruit would be highly detailed with a high contrast shadow/light dingo in the background, shadow of the hero on the foreground as if approaching the fruit...but it's the fruit that's the main focus. I don't think I've explained that well, but I can see it right here in my head! Fruit, beautifully coloured with vibrant colours and really shiny.
Yeah it does sound nice but I'm nowhere near a good enough artist to pull it off.
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I just recieved the last pieces of graphics from Mark today and I've also finished the last missing bits of code, so the game is basically feature-complete and fully playable is it stands.
However, there is a lot of things that still needs tweaking - the flickering of the sprites, my less than stellar collision detection and some speedup's and slowdown's that I need to fix, and that could take another month - I honestly don't know...but I hope that I'm able to fix all that as swiftly as progress has been up until now.
To "celebrate", if that's the word :), here's a picture from the game as it looks now - with Mark's graphics finally having replaced everyting "borrowed".
...the dingos are white here - as I have to rewrite the spriteroutines I haven't bothered colouring them magenta as I expect they'll end up being.
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
ZX Art page: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/mark-r-jones/
https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970
https://www.facebook.com/OceanSoftwareLtd/
https://www.facebook.com/ultimateptg/
Use the byte scan method... ACG used it. Joffa recommended it. It really isn't difficult. If you're converting an ACG game you really ought to use the same method of displaying flicker-free sprites. :)
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Yes, I'll see if I can make that work once I get to it on my list. I'm sure I can.
...I'm more worried about decent collision detection stuff. Got any easy pointers regarding that? (currently just using box collisions).
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
Thanks. There will (probably) be some colour clash once I put colour on the enemies (currently they just absorb the colours present), but I don't think it'll too bad.
Still, colour clash has it's charms*. :)
* Spoken like a true Spectrum fan. :-P
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
ZX Art page: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/mark-r-jones/
https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970
https://www.facebook.com/OceanSoftwareLtd/
https://www.facebook.com/ultimateptg/
But anyway my z80 coding was never that great and now I've got another project on the boil. Loving the look of Dingo, can't wait!
The C64 Ultimate games are a bit marmite (i.e. you either love them or hate them). The first two (The Staff of Karnath + Entombed) were great games. Players who loved Entombed generally found Blackwyche and Dragonskulle fun too as they were similar to one another (in a "Knight Lore is similar to Alien 8" kind of way). I wasn't a big fan of Imhotep (the jump n run part seems nigh on impossible) or Outlaws.
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
ZX Art page: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/mark-r-jones/
https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970
https://www.facebook.com/OceanSoftwareLtd/
https://www.facebook.com/ultimateptg/
Dingo is clearly the best and most Ultimate-ish of the three.
There may be others, but if so I don't know them.
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
According to MAWS, "Dingo" is the only arcade coin-op manufactured by ACG and licenced to Jaleco. ;)
Well, for what it's worth, if you check the pages for Saturn and Blue Print;
http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/romset/saturn
http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/romset/blueprnt
...they don't actually say ACG, but they do say
And I just checked the ROM files I discovered that it says their names are actually named in the binaries...and no other names are.
That doesn't mean they weren't programmed by someone else, but the ACG programmers are credited for those games.
See;
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
Thank you Sokurah. :smile:
Zog - Which I've never played. *
Also Rare/A.C.G made Battletoads for the arcade (albeit much much later in the 90s).
Blue Print was definitely A.C.G. code *
* source: Leigh Loveday @ Rare Ltd circa 2000 in a personal email re: Ultimate. He named Blue Print, Dingo and Zog specifically. :)
Got any links...because Zog is not on Klov.com and I can't find any info on it?
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
ZX Art page: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/mark-r-jones/
https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970
https://www.facebook.com/OceanSoftwareLtd/
https://www.facebook.com/ultimateptg/
Mark - Totally Awesome Dude!
A cheeky 'Ultimate Play The Game' logo would finish it off nicely. Surely they wouldn't mind would they?
The next stage for me now is my first Spectrum loading screen since 'Total Recall from 1990.
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
ZX Art page: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/mark-r-jones/
https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970
https://www.facebook.com/OceanSoftwareLtd/
https://www.facebook.com/ultimateptg/
I'm getting carried away now! :p
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
ZX Art page: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/mark-r-jones/
https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970
https://www.facebook.com/OceanSoftwareLtd/
https://www.facebook.com/ultimateptg/
...who's doing that? :razz:
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
That's just what went through my head, good job I continued reading before posting it :D
You mean this?
Games List 2016 - Games List 2015 - Games List 2014
Well, the logo doesn't say 'Ultimate Play The Game', and at this point it doesn't really matter if the logo is inspired by the original one - the whole damn game is a copy of one of theirs, so I'd say the IP-line was crossed ages ago. Compared to that the logo can't possibly send anyone over the edge (except Tim Langdell). :p
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
Yeah it does sound nice but I'm nowhere near a good enough artist to pull it off.
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
ZX Art page: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/mark-r-jones/
https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970
https://www.facebook.com/OceanSoftwareLtd/
https://www.facebook.com/ultimateptg/