Great Giana Sisters found?

Hernán Pablo Álvarez · February 2015

An user in the Facebook group "Spectrum 4 Ever" just uploaded this picture...

It's a fake screen dump... or a copy of GGS has been found?

FB link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204851363740702&set=gm.785408988204342&type=1&theater

Tom Gale · February 2015

The colours look completely wrong to me. I say fake.

Ralf · February 2015

I would say that it could be real display from real Spectrum. You would be really surprised how Spectrum colours may look on different monitors taken with different cameras. Just watch screenshots in magazines.

Still I would bet it's a mockup screen based on preview screenshots from magazines. It shows more or less the same location as in magazines.

But I would love to be proved wrong, of course :)

EDIT: another possibility - someone starting writing a remake.

mjwilson · February 2015

Comparing against the screenshots in the CRASH review, they both have the slightly off colours compared with what we normally see from a Spectrum screenshot. And the layout of the screen pretty much matches the main screenshot, to the extent that someone with a good scanner and skill with a graphics editor could definitely fake up a full-size screenshot.

The status bar info doesn't quite match - the CRASH screenshots only show one line of info, but the picture above has two. (The CRASH screenshots could be cropped at the bottom of course.) The CRASH pics show "SCORE" and the pic above has "Giana" in the same place.

Zup · February 2015

The upper part seems like a Gameboy screenshot, but there was no Gameboy version of Giana Sisters.

Paul van der Laan · February 2015

Fake picture I'd say. Look at the differences in pixel density between the upper and lower part of the screen. In the lower part you can see the size of the pixels is much bigger, whereas in the upper part the pixels are hardly discernible.

GreenCard · February 2015

Why not ask the person who posted it? :smile:

snigfarp · February 2015

Either that screen is really filthy, or there are a lot of blue blobs in places that the Spectrum wouldn't like you to put them. Like in the border, and in character squares that already have two other colours in them (see the numbers under Lives and Stage, for example).

Strident · February 2015

Score/info section has two lines in the YS review. Screen matches that one pretty closely. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=YourSinclair/Issue34/Pages/YourSinclair3400081.jpg

Impossible to tell further if it's a mock-up, a photoshop, a recreation or the original from a snap like that. Ask for a video :)

Swainy · February 2015

Ralf wrote: »

I would say that it could be real display from real Spectrum. You would be really surprised how Spectrum colours may look on different monitors taken with different cameras. Just watch screenshots in magazines.

Still I would bet it's a mockup screen based on preview screenshots from magazines. It shows more or less the same location as in magazines.

But I would love to be proved wrong, of course :)

EDIT: another possibility - someone starting writing a remake.

Yeah I'd say it's a real Spectrum display. Would be nice if it is the real game or a remake to be honest.

Swainy · February 2015

snigfarp wrote: »

Either that screen is really filthy, or there are a lot of blue blobs in places that the Spectrum wouldn't like you to put them. Like in the border, and in character squares that already have two other colours in them (see the numbers under Lives and Stage, for example).

That's just interference from the RF lead.

snigfarp · February 2015

Swainy wrote: »

That's just interference from the RF lead.

I should have thought of that. I've never seen it that bad before.

WhenIWasCruel · February 2015

Looks real.

weesam · February 2015

looks like real photoshopping

there's a reason this is a still and not a video

BuzzySounds · February 2015

Just play the 64 version

Ralf · February 2015

Just play the 64 version

Hey, we are on Spectrum forum. Why C64 and not this one for example? ;)

slenkar · February 2015

if it was real they would have supplied a download of a .tap file :)

Timmy · February 2015

This screenshot is like the original but you can clearly see it's fake. Compared to the screenshots in the magazines this one is missing things. (and the original screenshots were already so bland...)

BuzzySounds · February 2015

Ralf wrote: »

Hey, we are on Spectrum forum. Why C64 and not this one for example? ;)

That one of them tacky xbox arcade remakes? I downloaded Jetpac refueled (or something) years ago. Not too bad, just cheesy.

Swainy · February 2015

There must of been at least an early version of this available for review as all the magazines mention that the game suffered with slow scrolling.

If this is a mock up screen, I guess that whoever done it has used the screen shots from the Sinclair User review as the screen shots in that review were rather crisp and it's easy to see where each pixel should be.

For ages I always thought that it was Choice Software who coded the Speccy version who had done The Newzealand Story, not Source Software. I don't think that I've played any of their games.

gasman · February 2015

Considering the screenshot is apparently taken right at the start of the game (the YS screenshot has them standing at exactly the same spot with 0 points, and the review text says that you have 3 lives so they haven't lost any yet), they've done rather well to have picked up 5 'bonuses' (presumably, diamonds) already. It's also surprising that you only get at most 30 points for each one... :-)

(edit: to make it more scientific, I suppose someone could compare against the C64 version to see how plausible the setup in the screenshot actually is...)

(edit 2: okay, looking at the first 30 seconds of this video... it's plausible. Objection retracted!)

(edit 3: ...or is it? The sprite in the screenshot has the 'punk' hair as well, which means that they would have to have racked up 175 points, just as they did in that C64 video. Hmm...)

fog · February 2015

Swainy wrote: »

For ages I always thought that it was Choice Software who coded the Speccy version who had done The Newzealand Story, not Source Software. I don't think that I've played any of their games.

both did a fair amount of ports.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekpub.cgi?regexp=^Choice+Software+Ltd$
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekpub.cgi?regexp=^Source+Software+Ltd$

I couldn't see a big dev house like software creations/graftgold/probe taking it on as they'd want multi format.. and well amiga / c64 already existed. problem also the teams change, e.g. early "probe" was awful with firebird, but amazing far later

ralf , it suits the 64 more due to it paralleling the nes version of a certain game ;) I have the newer versions they did "twisted sister".. interesting the same team are doing a kickstarter for "Mysterious Cities of Gold" the cartoon from the 80's.

the mag pics all look different, if you notice the lines between the score font for example. is it real / is it fake ? until I see someone booting it up and playing it, then I'm not overly fussed.. not like you can't take a 2 minute clip on a camera phone etc. a video is slightly more tricky to fake :)

Swainy · February 2015

So has anyone on Facebook asked the person who posted the picture?

Ralf · February 2015

ralf , it suits the 64 more due to it paralleling the nes version of a certain game

Yes, of course. It's that kind of game that uses strengths of C64.

Still being a fan of Spectrum, I would rather play ZX version even if it is much worse :) Yes, it's not rational but generally being a fan of Spectrum (and C64 too) is not much rational in 2015.

And C64 version has been known for ages while Spectrum version is considered a lost relic. So if it appeared (which to be honest I don't believe) a lot of people here would be really excited about it.

Swainy · February 2015

Well an unfinished Amstrad version showed up a few years back so you never know.

Sokurah · February 2015

If it's a hoax - and I'm almost 100% certain it is, then it's super sloppily done. :roll:

I would've found a scene from the C64 version, then recreated it on the Spectrum, and taken a nice and crisp picture of my Spectrum. :-D

Track · February 2015

I say possibly fake. If you look at the bottom left corner of the monitor, some of that purple 'noise' seems to overlap the plastic of the monitors casing?

FrankT · February 2015

The Spectrum version was made, just unreleased because of legal action.

So it's possible it survived.

If it is fake, I don't think its been sloppily done at all. Why would anyone go to all that trouble anyway?

I was never bothered about this game not being released at the time. Red on yellow isn't a great colour scheme...

def chris · February 2015

FrankT wrote: »

Red on yellow isn't a great colour scheme...

one of the reviews said a later level was cyan on magenta, lol

would love to play this game though. reckon it might've played a bit like Wonderboy which I really liked even tho scrolling on that was a bit pants too

Sokurah · February 2015

Track wrote: »

I say possibly fake. If you look at the bottom left corner of the monitor, some of that purple 'noise' seems to overlap the plastic of the monitors casing?

Well, that could just be a reflection in the clear plastic.

weesam · February 2015

FrankT wrote: »

Why would anyone go to all that trouble anyway?

because it is hardly any trouble in photoshop; it would take minutes; and it gets a lot of attention.

what would be 'all that trouble' is faking a video of gameplay

Even the C64 version is horrid, compared to SMB (and especially compared to SMB3 which is the greatest 8 bit platformer)

Great Giana Sisters found?

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