The Legend of Beryl Reichardt

[matthew180]

Hey Owen, I'm not sure if you had a chance to check out any MSX1 games, but this link gives some nice screen shots of some of Konami's MSX1 games:

 

http://bifi.msxnet.org/msxnet/konami/

 

Not that your stuff does not look nice, but IMHO Konami made the best graphics for the 9918A, bar none. Pixel pushing is definitely an art, and I think you will get a lot from looking at their stuff. And, a little plagiarism never hurt anyone either.

 

Be sure to check out the The Maze of Galious and scroll to the bottom where they show the items. All those are done with the 9918A! Konami used the heck out of "half-bitmap mode" where you can set the color (foreground and background) for *each* pixel row in a character, but you can put characters on the screen just like Graphics I mode.

 

Also, Nemesis is the king-daddy of all 9918A graphics. Anyone want to argue about that? I think you will agree.

 

Anyway, any MSX1 games will use 9918A graphics, so do some Google searches if you are looking for some fresh inspiration or something to strive for (and to see what is really possible with the 9918A.)

 

Matthew

[Opry99er]

Holy crap!!! The Maze of Galious is incredible!!! That has inspired the sh** out of me, thank you!

Edited May 25, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Wow... So now I have a whole new inspiration graphically! I will be re-doing my maps to be able to handle a double sized single magnified SPRITE for my character and my enemies. . This should prove to be alot of fun!!

[The Codex]

Kinda went over your specifications (this is two sprites each, top and bottom, plus another for the sword), and he looks a bit demonic, but see what you think.

 

Edited May 25, 2010 by The Codex

[Opry99er]

Wow!!! Now THAT sh** is impressive!!! Thanks!!! I think I'll be going with a 2x2 character (double sized single magnified) now that I have thought more about it. Just need to rework/massage my maps a little bit. This design of yours really has me pumped up about it. Thanks buddy!

[Opry99er]

I posted this a couple weeks ago but thought I'd give it a bump. Here's the desired motion for my character. The SPRITE looks nowhere as good as Codex's, but you can see the method.

 

Heres a rough crappy example of the motion type I want in this game. I want the character to be shifting patterns even when he is not in motion. This shows him walking, walking in place, and then walking again. =) It's a crap example, but it's important to document it.

 

100 CALL CLEAR :: CALL SCREEN(5) :: CALL MAGNIFY(3)

110 CALL CHAR(96,"0F1F1C1C1E1F0F03030307070202020384C4241424C4841FC43C040480804070")

120 CALL CHAR(100,"0F1F1C1C1E1F0F03030307070303030380C0201020C18204A8502840000080E0")

130 CALL CHAR(104,"0F1F1C1C1E1F0F03030307070305080E80C0201020C080000040FF4080008070")

140 CALL SPRITE(#1,96,2,100,20,0,10)

150 FOR I=96 TO 104 STEP 4 :: CALL PATTERN(#1,I) :: FOR DELAY=1 TO 45 :: NEXT DELAY :: NEXT I

160 X=1

170 FOR I=100 TO 96 STEP-4 :: CALL PATTERN(#1,I) :: FOR DELAY=1 TO 45 :: NEXT DELAY :: NEXT I

180 FOR I=100 TO 104 STEP 4 :: CALL PATTERN(#1,I) :: FOR DELAY=1 TO 45 :: NEXT DELAY :: NEXT I

190 X=X+1

200 IF X<5 THEN GOTO 170

210 IF X>10 THEN CALL MOTION(#1,0,10) :: GOTO 170

220 CALL MOTION(#1,0,0) :: GOTO 170

[Opry99er]

Okay, here I've attached the new Magellan file I'm working with... It has seven maps... 6 of which are now useless. The 7th is the map I'm using as my foundation as I develop better graphics. This map has been expanded to facilitate 2x2 SPRITES (double sized). It's by no means finished, but here's the deal so far

 

*Enter at the left side of the world.

*You must find and collect the last 5 remaining living things in this world, the divine saplings. (and guess how many there are?)

*You must collect the key to enter the black obelisk which is the portal to the final battle of this world and then subsequently-- on to the dungeon world.

*The enemies are fierce in this world, as it is the 4th out of the 7 worlds. Your level should be high enough now to keep you safe (for the most part) until you face the final boss

 

 

You'll want to click on this pic to view it in full res. The re-size Atariage does makes it look junky.

 

 

Attached is the .mag file for your viewing pleasure in Magellan. I'll be posting some new enemy and item SPRITEs I've been working on tomorrow or the next day. =) Enjoy the pic and the .mag file and let me know what you think! Feedback is crucial during this planning and drawing phase of this RPG. =) Thanks all.

 

lava.zip

[Opry99er]

And please remember, this whole world will be viewed and played in and through a 15x15 window--- try to imagine that as you view this picture

[Opry99er]

Here's the first of several new graphics for the enemies. I like this background color for some reason. =)

 

100 CALL CLEAR :: CALL SCREEN(5) :: CALL MAGNIFY(3)

110 CALL CHAR(96,"0818376567C5C1C3C3CEBDBFFFF3B8FE07FDB5F5D0CAFFC040E0F0FCBEDED6DF")

120 CALL SPRITE(#1,96,2,100,100)

130 GOTO 130

 

This is an undead zombie-dog-wolf-chupacabra thing. I don't have the name for it yet, but I'll take suggestions. =)

 

Edited May 26, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Perhaps it is better to view the beast in it's native environment?

 

 

[Opry99er]

Each of these enemy SPRITEs will have two patterns as they sit in wait... Each second (or so) they will shift patterns from one to the other. They will constantly be "in motion", even though they are sitting still.

[The Codex]

Nice! For big evil black dogs I've always been partial to the folklore name Barguest. But given there are lots of graves and religious icons around, it might be even better suited to a Church Grim (same link). I like the sound of that especially for this beastie, and you could combine it into one word (Churchgrim).

 

Love the idea of the saplings as well. Feels like the quest will be more than just beating the bad guy, it may also be about restoring the world.

 

One thing about the monster sprites, it would be cool if they were different colors that the environment, to make them stand out more. Since sprites are one of the few elements you get free pick of color on, go wild with it man!

Edited May 26, 2010 by The Codex

[Opry99er]

Thanks Codex. I will probably be layering the SPRITEs.... However I have to be very careful if I do so that I do not have more than 4 total SPRITEs on a line.... The way I'm thinking about it is this---

 

since the enemies are going to be static, i.e. they won't be moving on the map, I can simply make each enemy appear as a simple screen character and not a SPRITE. Then, it's a matter of layering one actual SPRITE of the alternate color (which will consist of the portion of the monster which will be the different color) over top of that static character to simulate multiple color. Then I need to change the screen character(s) once a second and change the pattern of the SPRITE at the same time so that my multiple-colored enemy will appear to have that motion I was talking about. And thank you for your comment--- yea, you will be saving the world. Shouldnt be too hard, should it? hehehe

[The Codex]

Ah, I get ya, combining sprites and characters. Sorta like Tursi did with his zombie game. Clever! Good way to get around the sprite and color limitations of the hardware.

[matthew180]

PacMan is an awesome example of using tile-based sprites or "soft sprites" I've heard them referred to. "Sometimes" posted an example in another thread that showed the eyes were done with tile patterns. PacMan also uses sprite rotating to minimize flicker. It is very much worth studying. Run it in Classic99 with sprites off and you will see some cool use of tiles and patterns.

 

Also keep in mind that you are talking about a lot of pattern data with 16x16 characters, each having 2 or 3 "frames" of animation is 128 to 192 bytes of data! You will chew through VRAM really fast and you will have a lot of pattern management on your hands. I assume you are keeping track?

 

If you are going to place the monsters on tile locations, absolutely draw them with tiles until they need to move, and only then if you want the movement to be pixel smooth. But, if you are already using 4 sprites for the main character, you are going to flicker when you encounter any sprite based monster.

 

Remember too that your world can only scroll 1 tile at a time, so even though assembly will help make it smooth it will still be noticeable (compared to pixel level scrolling.)

 

Matthew

[Opry99er]

I will be using double sized SPRITEs, so the main character will consist of two SPRITEs. And what you see on this thread is ALL I've got. I have no idea how I am going to actually "do" anything in assembly yet. . As far as patterns, I want all the enemies to have 2 patterns. This is not ABSOLUTELY necessary, but if it's possible, I'll find a way to make it work. Simple labels for each set of enemy data would make the animation less difficult, but as

I said.... The enemy animation is not 100% crucial. What IS crucial is the Beryl animation. . I am accepting any and all advice here. This is by far and away the biggest and most complex program i've ever attempted, so I'm really in over my head right now. That's mainly why I'm trying to get as much graphic and story stuff in place NOW, because I can DO that. Coding the UI and such will come later... As of now, I'm doing everything I know how to do so that at least that big chunk of the game is done. I had initially hoped for this to be a collaborative effort between myself and an assembly expert. Remember that this was always intended to be an XB game--- I planned to develop all graphics and game story, variable tables, etc. I planned to write the battle and game engines and do all the sh** work. The A/L programmer would have just helpEd in implementing screen draws and such. Of course this was when the game was intended for XB with A/L support. Now that it's taking the assembly route, I'm lost. But I'm working on what I know and trying to learn what I don't know.

[The Codex]

ToD doesn't use sprites for anything except missile animations and the targeting cursor I believe, so you could certainly get away with using character graphics for just about everything. Again, the main issue is how much RAM you can snatch for graphical allocation. Does anyone know the practical maximum in this regard? Is it around 2K, or more?

[Opry99er]

Of course, using Graphics Mode II.... That would keep me from having to use ANY SPRITEs for multi-coloring. But I don't know jack about jack. Just trying to learn.

[Opry99er]

Hey Codex, does this look like a "Helm" darkhound??

[The Codex]

I thought about that too, and yeah, you could definitely make the parallel. Darkhounds essentially look like a skinned dog giving off smoke, so your puppy is a good match for that. I say go for it, since you wanted to use the darkhounds anyway, and the magma world is a perfect setting for them.

[Opry99er]

Great!! Then a darkhound, it shall be!!!

[Opry99er]

Hey UnderExtended!!! Are you watching this thread? I'd like to see a Beryl Reichardt enemy rendering of yours. . Care to give it a shot?

[UnderExtended]

Hey UnderExtended!!! Are you watching this thread? I'd like to see a Beryl Reichardt enemy rendering of yours. . Care to give it a shot?

 

Sure, what would you like me try? Just some random baddie? I have some, but I'll have to convert them to patterns first because I can't upload images (my computer/OS is super old) at the moment.

 

I'm also kind of slow with keeping up. A quick look the other day, I saw you wanted an 8x8 pixel treasure chest, so I tried making one. I really hate 8x8.

I think yours looks good in lavnewgraph2 if you change the background to grey and make the foreground yellow or something. But, if you want a 16x16 treasure chest, lemme know! I'll still get you the 8x8 one I tried if you want.

 

I like your chupacabra-thing/churchgrim.

 

--Rich

[Opry99er]

I made a 16x16 treasure chest for one of the first battle screens I did--- one of the first 3 pages of this thread. But I'm not attached to it--- if you want to try one, is love to see it.

 

as for the baddie, I need a "Soul Reaver."

Edited May 27, 2010 by Opry99er

[UnderExtended]

Oh, sorry I missed the earlier 16x16 chest -- just checked it out -- it's good. One thing though, if you post GIFs, or PNGs, instead of JPGs, things will look better. I've saved 16x16 sprites you did, but when I try to look at them closer in a paint program, they are too blurry to really see.

 

I am clueless about D&D style monster names, so I don't know what a soul reaver looks like. If you give me a description, I can give it a try. Or... I do have a kind of grim reaper guy...

 

I think I just sent you an email through Atari Age. So reply and I'll send you some GIFs.

 

--Rich

Edited May 27, 2010 by UnderExtended