Eenie Meenie Miner Mo!

[Jess Ragan]

I just thought of a few things. One, the sequel to Miner 2049er, Bounty Bob Strikes Back, is not available for the ColecoVision, or even its cousin the MSX. Two, the guy in Miner 2049er doesn't particularly look like Bounty Bob, the guy on the box cover. He's entirely too generic, lacking the scruffiness you would expect from a guy who toils all day in the mines, dodging mutants and painting floors. Here he is on the front of Miner 2049er Volume II, as drawn by Scott Ross.

 

Now, I wonder... what if the guy in the game actually looked somewhat like the guy on the box art? I imagine it'd look a little like this...

 

There we go! It's not a perfect match, but he's got more of that trademark Victor French, "thems snails!" look that you would expect from a grizzled prospector. This should, in theory, work on a ColecoVision, with two 16x16 sprites on top and two 16x16 sprites on the bottom. The only problem is that since the ColecoVision doesn't flip sprites automatically like other systems, you need a total of 48 sprites for the standing and running animation, and it's a pretty heavy burden considering that the ColecoVision only has room for 64 sprites in total. The mutants would take an extra eight frames (two frames of animation for both sides, and another two frames for the vulnerable versions), so it becomes a tight squeeze... especially when you consider that Bounty Bob would also need death animations, and they couldn't really be done the way they were on the Atari 5200.

 

It's not to say that I'm particularly interested in making Bounty Bob Strikes Back for the ColecoVision (that game is cruel with a capital C), but it's fun to dink around and see what might be possible on the hardware. I've tried shrinking the animation down to four frames, but it's a little rough that way... even more so when you limit it to three frames. Turns out that running animations are tough to really sell on an 8-bit game system!

[artrag]

All you need is to define on fly the sprites of the main character.

Do it after a wait command and it will work flawless 

[TIX]

7 hours ago, Jess Ragan said:

.

This should, in theory, work on a ColecoVision, with two 16x16 sprites on top and two 16x16 sprites on the bottom.

.

 

Your Victor French mention made me do this..

If I understand the limitations, we have a 4 color character but with 2 colors only for each half !?

So this is my take on Bob, the blue beard doesn't bother me much, but I wish I could do something for his blue hand 😀

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Jess Ragan said:

.

I've tried shrinking the animation down to four frames, but it's a little rough that way... even more so when you limit it to three frames. Turns out that running animations are tough to really sell on an 8-bit game system!

.

 

4 frames should be good enough for a run cycle, it would be fun to animate him if you are interested !

 

[Jess Ragan]

Dang. That's some good sprite work! You're right, it does make him look more like the prospector on the front of the box!

[artrag]

On 7/17/2024 at 11:31 AM, TIX said:

 

Your Victor French mention made me do this..

If I understand the limitations, we have a 4 color character but with 2 colors only for each half !?

So this is my take on Bob, the blue beard doesn't bother me much, but I wish I could do something for his blue hand 😀

 

 

 

 

4 frames should be good enough for a run cycle, it would be fun to animate him if you are interested !

 

Awesome sprite!