Alex Kidd Port

[+Lee Stewart]

What happens if you try to make the volcano circular (even more realistic)>

 

...lee

[TheMole]

What happens if you try to make the volcano circular (even more realistic)>

 

...lee

 

I wouldn't be able to have the black 1 pixel wide outline around the base, which I think kinda defines the style of the rest of the graphics here.

[sometimes99er]

You could of course use a few sprites to outline a more circular volcano, but then the shape of the island itself comes into question.

 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Smaller volcano looks nice. If you want a visual perk maybe use a sprite or two to animate some lava bubbling or spewing randomly from the top of the mountain, maybe like small fireworks randomly exploding above the 'red' area.

[mäsäxi]

I didn´t see any problem with the original volcano´s size, but your new smaller volcano surely looks better, even more as now there are trees on it´s left side! It looks really good now! I made a bit more colourful version of your map picture to test how few things would look like and I thought to share it here, but since yesterday image-share doesn´t like that picture, as uploading it doesn´t work. Could you please recommend me trustworthy uploading site, which doesn´t send tracking programs or anything else not wanted to my computer? Thank you.

[Tursi]

You can upload your picture directly into your post, no need to use a remote image sharing site

[TheMole]

And I'd love to see what you came up with!

[JCCyC]

Looks gorgeous so far!

 

(Nitpick: shouldn't it be "in" MIracle Island, instead of "on"?)

[mäsäxi]

I tried that pasting picture into message field already before I asked help, but it always gave this error message:

 

"An error occurred

You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community."

 

I had used that very same .png picture with the very same .png extension. I also tried to save that picture in other compression formats, like jpg, bmp, etc. Always the same error message. I tried it again now, and it still gives me that error message.

[mäsäxi]

Why this image pasting doesn´t work? I can paste the image in this message field, but it always gives that mentioned error message while uploading my message.

[sometimes99er]

Why this image pasting doesn´t work? I can paste the image in this message field, but it always gives that mentioned error message while uploading my message.

Apparently you're able to copy and paste an image. The forum software is apparently not up for the job. I tried one setup with gif, png, bmp and jpg and I couldn't paste. You can go to "More Reply Options". Now you can attach files by pressing "Choose Files...". If you're having problems with the Flash 9 uploader, there's also a basic uploader (press "Try our basic uploader").

Edited September 28, 2014 by sometimes99er

[mäsäxi]

Thank you a lot! I will try to attach it now.

 

There aren´t too much changes, as I didn´t want to make too radical changes to your good picture! I wanted to give that paper a bit more old map feel, by making the edges of paper darker/burnt. And I also made the volcano look a tiny bit more realistic, now you can see crater´s inside wall and the lava is a bit more lively now. I added a bit more "light" to the volcano´s slope, so it looks like the sun is shining from that way. If we will use that "sunshine look" then that "top" slope definitely needs some more white pixels and changing the places of some black pixels to get a more realistic look, but I didn´t have too much time and like I said I didn´t want to change your picture too much. Plus there is a little more extra colour here and there, like more sunshine look in the tree tops. I wanted to make that dark blue area wider or at least few pixel rows taller in the bottom pixel rows of the river, lakes and island, but for that, the rivers were too narrow and the bottom edge of the paper is too close, so it would look too full. I haven´t counted all the pixels, and might have counted some of them wrongly, so some of the pixels can be in the wrong place.

TI can make very pretty pictures! This starts to look too much like console game! A bad thing?

 

Edit: Ok, you can see the picture now! But as the picture is so small, you will definitely need to save this picture to your computer and magnify it to see the changes.

Edited September 28, 2014 by mäsäxi

[sometimes99er]

There's a few problems with more than 2 colors here and there, mostly at the right and left hand side of the paper/scroll (more or less an old problem), top of houses and one inside the crater. Just some quick visual zooming, haven't checked everything. Also the vertical shore lines can generally be adjusted to have more of dark blue added.

 

I still like the original volcano better. The castle is perhaps better. At least the gate is. Also I like the original forest better. Good idea about the top of houses. - Oh, and the effect on the paper is good.

 

 

TheMole

 

 

mäsäxi

 

Edited September 28, 2014 by sometimes99er

[mäsäxi]

Thank you for the feedback. I did it using Paint, not the best for TI graphics. What graphics tools you are using to draw TI graphics shown here? It would be nice to have some windows tool which shows grid to see where each of 8 pixels start and end.

Edited September 29, 2014 by mäsäxi

[TheMole]

I use The Gimp. Excellent Photoshop alternative, and does all I need it to do. Has a bit of a learning curve though, so be aware of that.

http://www.gimp.org/

 

By default the grid is 10x10 pixels, but you can change this in the preferences. Also, I imported MESS' tms9918 palette, so it allows me to edit with the correct colors from the start.

[TheMole]

Just wanted to add, I agree with most of sometimes99er's comments. Some bits are definitely better, some I find slightly less succesfull. I think the "dithered" look on the volcano with the white pixels isn't really working with this style of graphics, but the sides of the scroll indeed look surprisingly good with the extra color. I am undecided on the white tip of the tower on the gray castle, I might change that for a brownish color instead.

 

Either way, I'll make a version incorporating the changes you like and add it to the program. Thanks for the input everyone!

[sometimes99er]

Thank you for the feedback. I did it using Paint, not the best for TI graphics. What graphics tools you are using to draw TI graphics shown here? It would be nice to have some windows tool which shows grid to see where each of 8 pixels start and end.

 

I use an old version of Paint Shop Pro. It starts up instantly and I know my way around. And it has grids.

 

[dphirschler]

Why not try a "front" view of the volcano, like the castle, instead of a "top" view? The changing perspective is what throws me off.

 

 

Darryl

[sometimes99er]

Why not try a "front" view of the volcano, like the castle, instead of a "top" view? The changing perspective is what throws me off.

 

 

Darryl

 

I think it's fine as is. That's with the different perspectives.

 

The island itself is really not "front" view ? I mean wouldn't the island appear more flat in "front" view and have a clear horizon dividing earth and sky ?

 

I think quite a few 8-bit games and beyond have "utilized" mixing perspectives.

 

[TheMole]

The problem with a front view is that it would make it triangular, and thus difficult to give it an outline without having to resort to huge borders (the outline can be done because it is right on the 8x8 cell boundaries, with a diagonal edge that would be impossible). I'd rather mix up the perspectives a bit than have the low-fi non outlined look .

[dphirschler]

Not impossible, just challenging. Take these examples for instance:

 

Darryl

Edited October 1, 2014 by dphirschler

[Iwantgames:)]

Not impossible, just challenging. Take these examples for instance:

Alex Kidd Volcano.jpgAlex Kidd Volcano_map.jpg

 

Darryl

I actually really like this volcano

[JCCyC]

I actually really like this volcano

 

...said Xenu.

[sometimes99er]

Yea, works well.

[TheMole]

Just a small update: I'm still working on this and have a version with start screen, overworld screen and one level almost ready to go. However, I've ran into a strange bug. When starting the game, I do the equivalent of a call files(1) to free up enough room in VRAM for the scrolling screens and bitmap+sprite screens. I use the code provided in Tursi's libti99 for this, and it has work just fine up until now. Since a week or so, the game hangs when starting up, and it hangs in the DSR code itself (at least, I can see it looping in the 4000 address range). I only see this on MESS, not js99er or Classic99, but that's to be expected given how only MESS actually uses the real DSR.

 

Anyway, hopefully I can get this fixed soon so I can move to more fun tasks, such as adding compression to the level data .