(Insert stupid Blog name here)

Phew, that is a pretty impresive list!

 

Feel free to publish any C7 sprites in your blog or elsewhere, just as you wish - they're your creations after all

 

As for researching a certain kind of sports sprites, there's a NES game of the same name that has pretty small and cutesy sprites, well worth some rounds of ... research

 

4a) Make a list of what sprite artists need to know from programmers, in order to make 2600 sprites.

 

 

Greetings,

Manuel

4a) Make a list of what sprite artists need to know from programmers, in order to make 2600 sprites.

 

Umm...please don't use my PMs about RR as an example of what not to do, please?

 

 

No problem - I'd forgotten the icon myself until I looked at the old post

The veggies and ladybug death-scene are done! (Pending approval.) I got another binary from John tonight - the game is coming along nicely! I think fans of the original are going to be very pleased indeed.

Wow - that is quite a list - make sure that you don't burn out trying to do it all! My own rule is that I have a break from programming when it stops being fun.

 

4) Make sprites for Juno First. I need to find out what Chris is going to need for that. Which reminds me:

4a) Make a list of what sprite artists need to know from programmers, in order to make 2600 sprites.

 

This list would be very useful as it is difficult to know exactly what information is required. From a programming perspective, I think that the choices are usually:

• 1LK or 2LK
  
• Colour or Monochrome
  
• Single, Double, or Quad Width
  
• Number of animation frames (power of 2 is best)
  
• Delay between frames
  
• Sprites Height (usually 256-Screen Height max)
  
• Number of sprites
  

Chris

Wow - that is quite a list - make sure that you don't burn out trying to do it all!   My own rule is that I have a break from programming when it stops being fun.

 

Not a problem. I have an apathy gene that kicks in when I start getting burned out.

 

The trick with all of this stuff, is that it doesn't all have to be done now. Some of this is months away. In the interim, I may pick up other projects, too, but I try not to take on too many projects at once.

 

This list would be very useful as it is difficult to know exactly what information is required.   From a programming perspective, I think that the choices are usually:

• 1LK or 2LK
   
  
• Colour or Monochrome
   
  
• Single, Double, or Quad Width
   
  
• Number of animation frames (power of 2 is best)
   
  
• Delay between frames
   
  
• Sprites Height (usually 256-Screen Height max)
   
  
• Number of sprites
  

 

That's a good starting point. I'll have to go back through my PMs with Bob, John and Manuel, and see what I can add to that.

The Ladybug sprites look great. (No surprise )

 

how to make huge bitmaps for title screens and the like.

I've been thinking a lot about large bitmaps myself lately. The usual width is 48 pixels, but it's not hard to extend that to 50. With some color-related caveats, you can extend to 51 too. Furthermore I've been toying with an idea that might enable a 52 pixel bitmap. From the artist's point of view, would 4 extra pixels be useful?

From the artist's point of view, would 4 extra pixels be useful?

 

Well, I'm always after as many pixels as I can get anyway.

 

Generally it would depend on the circumstance. For instance, logos with text in them (or just text) could benefit from that, since sometimes it gets a little tight trying to cram all of the letters in there. The "Happy Holidays" message in Reindeer Rescue is pretty crowded, for example.

 

But if there were limitations imposed on those extra pixels that negatively affected the rest of the design, then it would be better off not to use them.

An update:

 

1) Finish Colony 7 sprites. - Done!

 

2) Finish sprites for LadyBug. - Done! There will need to be a title screen made after a label is picked, but that shouldn't take long.

 

3) Make label for Four-Play. - Mostly done! Just some minor tweaking remains here. I'll probably try to knock this out over the weekend.

 

4) Make sprites for Juno First. - Done! Chris already has them into a new binary, too. Nothing playable yet, but the kernel is coming along nicely. A title screen needs to be done for this, too, but Chris is working out how big to make it (what with all of the 48, 52, 56 and larger pixel bitmap schemes being tossed around lately).

 

4a) Make a list of what sprite artists need to know from programmers, in order to make 2600 sprites. - Done!

 

5) Create OS X icon for KrokCom. - Done!

 

6) Wrap up the RPS manual. Still no sign of the finished game.

 

7) Create a manual for Man Goes Down. I have the text for this, and a basic idea. Now I just need to sit down and work out the details.

 

8 ) More homebrew sprites - for a sports game. Well, I did tape the games I needed for reference. Just need a list of sprites from the programmer.

 

9) Stella at 20 (or 30). Summer project - remember?

 

10) Update the 2600 video mods page. Still haven't gotten a mod from 8bitdomain yet. So when I have the time, I'll update the site without 'em.

 

11) Sprites for PoP. It doesn't look like I'll be needing to work on this one. Someone else may be able to do it.

 

12) Sprite "How-To" Tutorial. Someday...

 

13) Finish writing XBox 360 vs. PS3 blog entry. - Done! That took awhile!

 

14) Post stupid game ideas. Yeah, I'll still do this. But it's at the bottom of the list for a reason.

An update:

4) Make sprites for Juno First. - Done! Chris already has them into a new binary, too. Nothing playable yet, but the kernel is coming along nicely. A title screen needs to be done for this, too, but Chris is working out how big to make it (what with all of the 48, 52, 56 and larger pixel bitmap schemes being tossed around lately).

 

You have certainly achieved a lot recently! The Juno First kernel was really difficult to create, but I think the results already look great with your sprites. Let me know if any of the colours are off from your original design as I had a bit of a hard time matching them up. I still haven't decided how best to do the logo, but there is certainly no hurry as the game itself is going to take a long time to write.

 

Thanks again!

Chris

I'm not surprised the colors were hard to match up - I sampled them from the arcade sprites. But they look great!