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Fun with tiles: another weekend experiment


cmadruga

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Thought - since you are using black as the background color on the cars anyway, how about add a black border around the cars so they look like they are on asphalt, this making it seem more natural to have the black background color...

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32 minutes ago, bhall408 said:

Thought - since you are using black as the background color on the cars anyway, how about add a black border around the cars so they look like they are on asphalt, this making it seem more natural to have the black background color...

Well, yes, the black background sticks out, doesn't it.

A little more polish, please? ?

Now look what happened when I used a few green sprites and tweaked the car graphics a bit!

 

I will try to do the same for the other cars.

 

image.png.a746d60b77afa08a75f1ee14b1908831.png

 

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1 hour ago, cmadruga said:

Well, yes, the black background sticks out, doesn't it.

A little more polish, please? ?

Now look what happened when I used a few green sprites and tweaked the car graphics a bit!

 

I will try to do the same for the other cars.

 

image.png.a746d60b77afa08a75f1ee14b1908831.png

 

 

44 minutes ago, cmadruga said:

Better?

 

image.png.87a694e703901bde5eeb92bd651fd88a.png

Looks good, although the silhouette definition afforded by the black outline is missed.  Perhaps you could use MOBs to add the black outline of the original.  During the car driving scenes, you may not need more than one or two MOBs for the roaming ghosts.  You could dispense with showing the items "on" the car (which I always thought looked silly in the original).

 

https://steemitimages.com/p/2N61tyyncFaEfV16Y7o9VqCqLm3EtKcTcZWeNC9UnfDP2EyiLcYuypQM4bz6U8EtnTBU1kinkAqLDX7GYhQAGpRtUgBpUh7q3VuTE3EJTkT58teEBNJUsD4XNqAkjTj9aJqL2NfrpqD7?format=match&mode=fit

 

By carefully aligning the outline to card boundaries, you could use a clever mixture of black/white or black/green tiles to cover the straight lines, and a few stretched-out MOBs showing "behind" (low priority) the background to represent the black outline.

 

During the street animation, you could simplify it, since the motion and action will distract the player from the detail. ;)

 

Also, that bright green background is burning a hole in my retinas!  ? Any chance orange or red would work better, as in the original?

 

image.png.56d272990e34972c30f15720f3f2a67a.png

 

34 minutes ago, cmadruga said:

Of course, one can always invest USD 500 and go for a different style. A matter of taste?

 

image.png.7173fa5d6ed0d911c14192be44b7471a.png

 

Which one is that, the beetle?  I don't really recognize it.

 

https://www.c64-wiki.com/images/a/a5/Ghostbusters_4.gif

Edited by DZ-Jay
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1 hour ago, cmadruga said:

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

I’m basing graphics and colors on the MSX version I grew up with, but could certainly go for a few improvements if possible.

 

 

Oh, I see.  Then you should really aim for the original, the C=64 version, to ensure it looks as good as it can on the Intellivision. :)

 

 

     -dZ.

Edited by DZ-Jay
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16 minutes ago, cmadruga said:

Can you believe some people swear by the SMS version being even better?

 

But then again, I didn’t grow up playing the SMS.

Opps, I was about to post the SMS. Um... don't use the NES version.  That version have more problem with drunk drivers than catching ghosts in addition of running out of gas. Plus tapping the side button to walk in the stairwell would be a big pain using the Intellivision controllers.

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1 hour ago, Kiwi said:

Opps, I was about to post the SMS. Um... don't use the NES version.  That version have more problem with drunk drivers than catching ghosts in addition of running out of gas. Plus tapping the side button to walk in the stairwell would be a big pain using the Intellivision controllers.

Yes! I remember testing the NES version back in the day and giving up when I got to the stairwells.

 

Back to the SMS version... I think visuals are not bad, but I'm not convinced about some of its unique gameplay elements.

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IIRC there were three schools of Ghostbusters games, just like there were thrree schools of The Goonies games. First you had the C64/A8/A2 generation which mostly should be identical in gameplay though with audiovisual differences. Then you had the SMS game which is similar but not the exact same. In parallel you had the NES game which again differs from the first slew of games. Whether those were improvements to the original game or if Activision made small changes to ensure exclusivity can be discussed.

 

Ghostbusters Master System version - only available on Sega.

Ghostbusters NES version - only available on Nintendo.

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I grew up with the C=64 version, so to me that is the canonical version of the game.  Learning that it was originally programmed the C=64 only reinforces this view. ;)

 

If it does not follow the C=64, I have no interest in it. :P

 

     -dZ.

Edited by DZ-Jay
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4 hours ago, cmadruga said:

The C64 version is not bad, but I have to say I'm not a huge fan of the voice clips. Was David Crane the "voice actor" himself?

LOL!  The speech samples were a huuuuuge selling point back then.  They managed to do it without additional hardware and integrated it into the game.

 

This was 1984, on a cheap microcomputer you could buy at K-Mart for $99.00.

 

It was so much fun to hear "it slime me!" whenever the ghost hit you. LOL!

 

I'm sure that an Intellivision version could use the Intellivoice with actual samples from the movie, using Joe Z.'s special encoder.  :)

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Or use artrag's digital sound routine that was use in Infiltrator. (I really need to get around getting a Intellivoice module. I have all the CIB games.)

I remembered playing the Atari 8-bit version of Ghostbuster when I was really young.  And hearing it slimed me when you fail to catch a ghost.

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1 minute ago, Kiwi said:

Or use artrag's digital sound routine that was use in Infiltrator. (I really need to get around getting a Intellivoice module. I have all the CIB games.)

Oh yeah!  My point was that we could take the clips from the movie itself instead of having cheesy David Crane-ish voices. :)

1 minute ago, Kiwi said:

I remembered playing the Atari 8-bit version of Ghostbuster when I was really young.  And hearing it slimed me when you fail to catch a ghost.


I recall hearing the phrase said in the school playground.  It became sort of like a pop-culture icon, and I've since heard others used to describe a defeat.  I would attribute this to the constant repetition of the sample in the game, rather than to the single moment it is said in the movie.

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I think Electronic Speech Systems had a roster of voice actors they signed up. I never considered who did the Ghostbusters recordings, I kind of thought those were samples from the movie but perhaps not. In the case of Impossible Mission, perhaps the most famous of the ESS games (hey, who will make an Intellivision mock-up of that one?), apparently ESS had a staff member that matched what Epyx were looking for so they didn't have to hire an external actor.

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5 hours ago, carlsson said:

I think Electronic Speech Systems had a roster of voice actors they signed up. I never considered who did the Ghostbusters recordings, I kind of thought those were samples from the movie but perhaps not. In the case of Impossible Mission, perhaps the most famous of the ESS games (hey, who will make an Intellivision mock-up of that one?), apparently ESS had a staff member that matched what Epyx were looking for so they didn't have to hire an external actor.

 

"Another visitor.  Stay a while ... Stay FOREVAH!!!!"

 

LOL!  That clip is implanted in my brain, along with "He sliiiimed me!" :)

 

    -dZ.

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Regarding speech synthesis, I just came across TAV (Texto a voz) which is used to generate speech synthesis, primarily in Spanish but I'd expect technically it is not any different to produce English than Spanish.

 

It has been ported to C64, VIC-20, C16, ZX-81 (!), ZX Spectrum, MSX. The later is interesting because it has the same AY chip as Intellivision does.

http://www.pastbytes.com/tav/

 

VIC-20 version from December 2020:

 

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