7800 RPG Style Poll

[kroogur]

Ok to help things along on this great project what type of game do you all want to see?

 

Zelda Style with a solo character style.

 

Final Fantasy with a four person party and turn based combat.

 

Diablo with good old Hack-n-Slash play.

Edited June 25, 2009 by kroogur

[GroovyBee]

Thanks for starting the ball rolling kroogur.

[kroogur]

No prob! I want to help as much as I can.

 

I chose Zelda style because I think it would be somewhat easier to pull off and if it goes well would open the door for bigger and more sophisticated RPG's for the 7800.

[j.m.ratkos]

I picked 'zelda style' as well from the standpoint that it would be easier to manage one player controlled sprite, vs. a dragon quest style caravan train of characters following each other.

 

and seeing as I'm not familiar (at all) with the graphic and horsepower limitations of what the 7800 can or cannot do in terms of scaling stuff (ala a 3D dungeon master type game), a top-down map/sideways sprite title might be much easier to work out.

 

I'll dig up some 7800 technical spec stuff to brush up on what we're dealing with and try to throw together some ideas and pitch them by the end of the week.

[GroovyBee]

It doesn't matter if its easy to pull off. I'm looking for a fun game to make/play.

[kroogur]

It doesn't matter if its easy to pull off. I'm looking for a fun game to make/play.

 

Ok then i'll add a World of Warcraft option to the poll WoW on the 7800 would be the coolest thing I could think of! With a modem add-on we could do it all! form guilds, pvp tournaments, expansions!

 

I kid of course but yeah a Dragon Warrior/Final Fantasy style would be just as good because of added game depth. The only thing I would like to see whatever style we decide on is a training/skill point system from the beginning to add a little extra flavor to the game rather than rely totally on a "fixed" amount of stat increases when you level up.

 

For example on the Zelda game you can choose a standard class at the beginning warrior/mage/thief then you get 5 points to put wherever you want depending on your choice.

[+swlovinist]

I think that the 7800 would be perfect for a zelda style game. I wonder if there needs to be more choices on what type of RPG it should be. If there was a dungeon explorer RPG option, I would have probably voted for that. Either way, I would love for this to happen

[Bakasama]

Even tho' I suggested Diablo in the other thread. I'm going for Zelda. I remember some of the tech dudes on a 7800 thread mentioning that doing a Zelda style game on this system is easier than on a NES.

Edited June 24, 2009 by Bakasama

[GroovyBee]

and seeing as I'm not familiar (at all) with the graphic and horsepower limitations of what the 7800 can or cannot do in terms of scaling stuff (ala a 3D dungeon master type game), a top-down map/sideways sprite title might be much easier to work out.

Basically MARIA (the 7800 video chip) is good at tiles/sprites and you have a 1.79 MHz 6502 to deal with. MARIA can't do scaling so that would have to be done in software.

 

As far as the hardware goes you have a 25 colour mode and a 13 colour mode both 160 pixels across. In 25 colour mode each sprite/tile can be assigned 1 of 8 mini-palettes. Each mini-palette is 3 colours and there is a common background colour to all palettes. In 13 colour mode you have 12 colours in the palette and a background colour. You can change colours easily vertically so status panes etc can be in different colours than the main playing area. You can change colour modes horizontally and vertically.

 

For colour selection have a look at the NTSC palette I posted on the 7800 developers forum. At some point I'd like to get a PAL palette done too. The ProSystem emulator is way off with PAL .

 

Vertical resolution is 192 pixels in NTSC. It can be more, but testing would need to be done to make sure that all all game information is displayed. The vertical space is divided into a number of zones. The zones can either be 8 pixels or 16 pixels high. That gives 24 zones for 8 pixels or 12 zones for 16 pixels high. All tiles/sprites should be multiples of 8 or 16 pixels high.

 

I have PC tools that make the conversion to 7800 graphics a breeze. You just pass it a text file that has labels and coordinate positions of the sprites/tiles and the name of a *.bmp file and it does the rest.

[roland p]

I liked Zelda on the SNES so I chose Zelda.

 

Do you have any ideas how to manage this type of game? It would be cool to have level editors. I also wonder how events are created/handled (collect key, open door, kill enemy, etc.)

[Wickeycolumbus]

Zelda style would be awesome!

[Bill Loguidice]

I chose Final Fantasy style, a la classic western CRPG style. I don't really care either way though, though personally I'd love to see something done in a non-anime style. The 7800 is a western console and it would be nice to get western-style aesthetics as a nice change of pace from the mighty anime-style influence that permeates everything.

[Atarifever]

Zelda style. Midnight Mutants 2: Dr. Evil's Return would be cool.

Edited June 24, 2009 by Atarifever

[Lord Thag]

Aww, c'mon. Who wants a Zelda style game when you could have a big Diablo-style game with thousands of randomly generated items and dungeons. You guys are nuts

 

[aftermac]

Aww, c'mon. Who wants a Zelda style game when you could have a big Diablo-style game with thousands of randomly generated items and dungeons. You guys are nuts

 

 

I might be nuts, but I likes what I likes!

[Bill Loguidice]

Actually, something with procedurally generated dungeons, a la "Rogue", "Telengard" and others, would be rather cool for a console, regardless of style.

[Bakasama]

Aww, c'mon. Who wants a Zelda style game when you could have a big Diablo-style game with thousands of randomly generated items and dungeons. You guys are nuts

 

 

Or we do a Zelda game with with Rogue style (which Diablo's gameplay is based on) dungeons. The thing I don't like about JRPGs is that I find the game play to be very static. Random dungeons and items would make plowing through the game a bit less boring.

[108 Stars]

Too bad Zelda has nothing to do with RPGs.

 

It is a common mislabeling in the US, but Zelda is an action-adventure. The most basic element of an RPG, a character development system, is completely absent. Improvements are only made through either advancing to certain story keypoints or using items; that does not qualify for an RPG. The misunderstanding may come from Zelda & co looking very similar to top down RPGs, and offers conversation and dungeon exploration. But these are not features specifically RPG-exclusive.

Secret of Mana qualifies as an Action-RPG, since it does have character development.

 

That said, a Zelda-like game would still be nice; but I wouldn´t mix it up when talking about a possible RPG.

Edited June 24, 2009 by 108 Stars

[Bill Loguidice]

Too bad Zelda has nothing to do with RPGs.

 

It's an old debate and I agree 100%. However, it has RPG-like elements and at worst is an Action Adventure. For a console like the 7800, I think it's fitting enough to be categorized as an "RPG" in this context.

[108 Stars]

I just wanted to point that out; and I agree that seeing that the 7800 probably is even a bit more limited that an NES (don´t shoot me, I am guessing), an action-adventure may be easier to do (I am in the Pier Solar team for MD, believe me, I know that RPGs are damn hard to do). Didn´t the 7800 have problems with scrolling? Zelda does not even use smooth scrolling, but changes screens all the time.

 

Also it might be more accepted by 7800-players with their console being traditionally action-oriented.

[Bill Loguidice]

I just wanted to point that out; and I agree that seeing that the 7800 probably is even a bit more limited that an NES (don´t shoot me, I am guessing), an action-adventure may be easier to do (I am in the Pier Solar team for MD, believe me, I know that RPGs are damn hard to do). Didn´t the 7800 have problems with scrolling? Zelda does not even use smooth scrolling, but changes screens all the time.

 

The ColecoVision was the one with the scrolling issues, though even that has been overcome at times. The 7800's biggest strength (in my opinion) is probably it's ability to push lots of simultaneous sprites.

 

Also it might be more accepted by 7800-players with their console being traditionally action-oriented.

 

Not sure if that matters with homebrews, particularly for pre-crash systems. People are just hungry for good quality games, and I think whether it's turn-based or action-oriented it will still sell out.

[Impaler_26]

I voted for Zelda style though i think you should also add an option for Ultima Style.

I'd love to see a 7800 RPG in the vein of Paul Slocum's Homestar Runner RPG, shouldn't be too hard to do on the 7800.

[Bill Loguidice]

I voted for Zelda style though i think you should also add an option for Ultima Style.

I'd love to see a 7800 RPG in the vein of Paul Slocum's Homestar Runner RPG, shouldn't be too hard to do on the 7800.

 

Technically that's covered under "Final Fantasy", which was as much a rip off of western-style RPGs like Ultima as anything.

[neotokeo2001]

I would rather see something like Dragonstomper with expanded maps and more enemies. I like Zelda, But I can play Zelda anytime in a format that the 7800 can't touch.

[DracIsBack]

I agree that seeing that the 7800 probably is even a bit more limited that an NES (don´t shoot me, I am guessing)

 

That's a generic answer to a complicated question. At a game like SUPER MARIO? Sure. At a game like ROBOTRON or BALL BLAZER? No.

 

Didn´t the 7800 have problems with scrolling? Zelda does not even use smooth scrolling, but changes screens all the time.

 

There are plenty of scrolling 7800 games. Heck. Check out Groovey Bee's 25th anniversary game.

Edited June 24, 2009 by DracIsBack