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Pole Position modest sprite hack !


TIX

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Hello,

based on the recently hacked version of Pole Position (by MrFish) I tried to pretty it up a little :P

first task was the explosion.. I tried to recreate all five arcade frames of animation in chunky quadruple pixels !

Then I squeezed them in the 8 frames of our port like so:

 

1 ->1

2 ->2

3 ->3

4 ->3

5 ->4

6 ->4

7 ->5

8 ->5

 

I can't control the order of the animated frames, but it seems pretty accurate..

It needs some work in the overlapping frames (for third color) but I'm getting there !

post-65-0-01052000-1542025767_thumb.png

post-65-0-30128000-1542025788.gif

Pole Position (new explosion).xex

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I haven't loaded it yet, but I know from years of playing with a crummy pixelated explosion that this will be so much better! Now if something could be done to spuce-up the cars, even if it's just better colors...if it is possible, a few DLI's in the car sprites to give them a bit of shading detail...maybe that's far too much to ask for, but I think just having the main car as mostly red, like the 2600 version...I've always thought even the 2600 version car looks better just due to the colors used.

 

But if the explosion is all that can be improved, it makes a big difference! Too bad we can't have bouncing tires...

Edited by Gunstar
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sshhhhh, that's the super secret tracking pixel... it is used to follow the user and help to improve their experience.... yeah that kind of talk was always BS on the x86 machines as well, they just wanted to spy and track, had nothing to do with improving anything for the use. LOL

 

just don't connect to the internet with this version of pole "position".....

 

you get the joke, it's not really an Atari pixel tracker. Though tracking pixels were done on the interwebs browsers...

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Strangelly that for many years most (if not all) of the G2F versions that came up always put this pixel when you import a P.C. picture at this place over whatever colour is the BAK register. If I'm not wrong is always PF2.

Solution: Just Zoom and change for BAK pixel or Bitmap Edit and FoodFill with BAK if you have good eyes ;) :grin:...

:thumbsup:

Edited by José Pereira
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Strangelly that for many years most (if not all) of the G2F versions that came up always put this pixel when you import a P.C. picture at this place over whatever colour is the BAK register. If I'm not wrong is always PF2.

Not totally and I just tried from a picture and is:

-> If at that top&right is BAK then that pixel is PF2;

-> But if at that top&right is PF0 or PF1 it puts that pixel as BAK;

-> And if is PF2 or PF3 then it doesn't put that pixel;

:?

Edited by José Pereira
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I haven't loaded it yet, but I know from years of playing with a crummy pixelated explosion that this will be so much better! Now if something could be done to spuce-up the cars, even if it's just better colors...if it is possible, a few DLI's in the car sprites to give them a bit of shading detail...maybe that's far too much to ask for, but I think just having the main car as mostly red, like the 2600 version...I've always thought even the 2600 version car looks better just due to the colors used.

 

But if the explosion is all that can be improved, it makes a big difference! Too bad we can't have bouncing tires...

 

I will try my hand on the car sprite next, but I don't have any experience with color hacking :(

we will need help there !!

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I will do something, but I don't think it will be much of a difference with these colors..

Check this, I we could change the colors around maybe we can have something better/closer to the arcade :)

even that looks a little better, and I think with just color changes and no reshaping the car can look decent from the back angle, the REAL issue are those side perspective angles when turning, as bad as the original explosion! That's where a graphic re-design is needed most.

Edited by Gunstar
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The playfield for the road resides in RAM - in theory the game could be modified to utilitze it for better resolution.

Though you're stuck with green, grey or white pixels there - the 4th PF colour alternates between white/red for the ripple strip.

 

It wouldn't be so straightforward - there'd need to be adjustment for each scanline considering LMS and HSCROL offsets.

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C64 sprites are not better but maybe some inspiration?

front and rear tires look out of proportion like they are backwards, and the C64 version looks like it could really use a rear wing for balance, more so than the Atari version, but both need it if it could be done. I do think the main body is drawn better in the C64 version. The side angle definitely looks better on the C64.

Edited by Gunstar
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Even the arcade version has a fairly inconspicuous wing (and I think F1 at the time was similar - from memory the wing size peaked around the time things like skirts and turbos were being banned). Possibly the topmost horizontal black stripe on the C64 is supposed to be the wing.

The problem with having a too conspicuous wing is that it could obscure other detail in front of it, though given the chunky horizontal pixel size of both versions the detail is a rough approximation anyway.

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front and rear tires look out of proportion like they are backwards, and the C64 version looks like it could really use a rear wing for balance, more so than the Atari version, but both need it if it could be done. I do think the main body is drawn better in the C64 version. The side angle definitely looks better on the C64.

 

Yes they look better, but they don't have to wrestle with x4 wide pixels..

Man those quadruple pixels are the bane of my life.. at least in Moon Patrol we had an overlay layer with x2 pixels to smooth things out !!

I wish :(

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I think it entirely possible the cars could be augmented with playfield graphics but it would mean an extensive rewrite and might mean 128K ROM and 48K Ram needed to run it.

 

The thing is, the game isn't really going to be a lot better for it. IMO the best pseudo-3D driving game by far was Vroom on the Amiga and the elevation change of the track is a big contributor to that.

Such a game on the A8, probably doable but it'd have to be a ground up development.

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