New Q*bert Atari 7800 Homebrew

[kenfused]

If that's the case, I'll do a lot screenshots and find out how many frames of each object has and adapt the sprites into something the 7800 can use.  That's going to take while but it should make Qbert different from what it is now.

869601[/snapback]

Don't go too crazy since I would have to add code to support it plus I might want to save a few for other things (like GAME OVER so it will look better). Ugh and Wrongway are the only two that I don't currently use a separate image for when they hit a cube. Some of the other ones it may be a little to subtle (like slick and sam which I think the legs barely move and I also don't really like the look of.)

 

For anyone that is interested, I attached the current sprite files. The editor to edit them is a text editor :-) Not exactly high tech. A program processes them and turns them into binary files.

 

--Ken

qbert_sprites.zip

Edited June 7, 2005 by kenfused

[Albert]

Attached is a scan of the article that appears in the latest issue of Retro Gamer.

 

..Al

[Gregory DG]

Nice little article. It would have been cool if they had included a screen of the original arcade to compare.

[Bakasama]

Don't go too crazy since I would have to add code to support it plus I might want to save a few for other things (like GAME OVER so it will look better).  Ugh and Wrongway are the only two that I don't currently use a separate image for when they hit a cube.  Some of the other ones it may be a little to subtle (like slick and sam which I think the legs barely move and I also don't really like the look of.)

 

For anyone that is interested, I attached the current sprite files.  The editor to edit them is a text editor :-)  Not exactly high tech.  A program processes them and turns them into binary files.

 

--Ken

869605[/snapback]

 

Some of the changes I got planned are simply color and sprite edits. The balls don't really need anymore animations frames. Slick, Sam, Ugg, and Wrong Way do use some frames. They use more frames of animation than QBert.

 

I'll just start on the balls and work from there.

[Albert]

Nice little article. It would have been cool if they had included a screen of the original arcade to compare.

869714[/snapback]

It would have been nice if they told people where to go for more information..

 

..Al

[Mayhem]

Don't worry, there's a feature on the 7800 Frogger this month with a link to the thread in question in RG

[kenfused]

Some of the changes I got planned are simply color and sprite edits.  The balls don't really need anymore animations frames.  Slick, Sam, Ugg, and Wrong Way do use some frames.  They use more frames of animation than QBert.

 

I'll just start on the balls and work from there.

869817[/snapback]

I was always going to make the purple ball a little rounder (it looks a little too diamond shape-ish). The balls all flatten a little too much on top when they hit a cube.

Note that slick, sam, green ball share the same pallette.

[Bakasama]

I was always going to make the purple ball a little rounder (it looks a little too diamond shape-ish).  The balls all flatten a little too much on top when they hit a cube.

Note that slick, sam, green ball share the same pallette.

870060[/snapback]

 

I did some edits on the balls expect the purple one. The green one has more darker green and looks more like a ball rather than a lime. I changed the red balls to look more red. The balls look more natural when they plop on the cube. I did notice Sam, Slick and the green ball use the same pallette. I've yet to work on Ugg, Wrong Way, Slick and Sam. Since, I changed the green color, Slick and Sam will end up being a darker green.

 

I'll post some GIFs when time permits.

[kenfused]

I was always going to make the purple ball a little rounder (it looks a little too diamond shape-ish).  The balls all flatten a little too much on top when they hit a cube.

Note that slick, sam, green ball share the same pallette.

870060[/snapback]

 

I did some edits on the balls expect the purple one. The green one has more darker green and looks more like a ball rather than a lime. I changed the red balls to look more red. The balls look more natural when they plop on the cube. I did notice Sam, Slick and the green ball use the same pallette. I've yet to work on Ugg, Wrong Way, Slick and Sam. Since, I changed the green color, Slick and Sam will end up being a darker green.

 

I'll post some GIFs when time permits.

870083[/snapback]

I have been meaning to tweak some of the colors, but I have to be sure they don't match or are close to a match to the color on any of the boards so an object doesn't blend in. I know there is a least one screen where Q*bert's color is very close to one of the side of the cube colors I need to look at. I also try to test them out on a real 7800 and tv since emulator colors usually are not perfect. Usually the best thing to do, is boot up with the program that shows all of the colors on a CC2 and pick a color that way.

[Schmutzpuppe]

For anyone that is interested, I attached the current sprite files.  The editor to edit them is a text editor :-)  Not exactly high tech.  A program processes them and turns them into binary files.

 

--Ken

869605[/snapback]

Have you ever tried the 7800 graphic converter?

If so I would really like to know why you prefer the text editor way.

[kenfused]

For anyone that is interested, I attached the current sprite files.  The editor to edit them is a text editor :-)  Not exactly high tech.  A program processes them and turns them into binary files.

 

--Ken

869605[/snapback]

Have you ever tried the 7800 graphic converter?

If so I would really like to know why you prefer the text editor way.

870105[/snapback]

I thought it was mostly only good for converting pictures and not fonts and sprites. I'll have to take another look at it.

I don't necessarily create all of the text files from scratch (at least initially). I have some programs I made to convert some atari 8-bit computer font formats to the text files.

[kenfused]

New version:

 

Now you can select if you prefer to hold the joystick in the normal position vs. rotating it clockwise 45 degrees. It probably depends on the joystick is better. The text will eventually be replaced by graphics.

 

This verison has the new graphic for Ugh (or whichever is the one that goes left to right). The going down looking image will need to be updated and there may have to be some slight pixel offsets added to it.

qbert.zip

[Schmutzpuppe]

For anyone that is interested, I attached the current sprite files.  The editor to edit them is a text editor :-)  Not exactly high tech.  A program processes them and turns them into binary files.

 

--Ken

869605[/snapback]

Have you ever tried the 7800 graphic converter?

If so I would really like to know why you prefer the text editor way.

870105[/snapback]

I thought it was mostly only good for converting pictures and not fonts and sprites. I'll have to take another look at it.

I don't necessarily create all of the text files from scratch (at least initially). I have some programs I made to convert some atari 8-bit computer font formats to the text files.

870177[/snapback]

It was initially written to convert graphics/sprites (I used it for the Frogger gfx).

You wouldn’t use it for a single sprite but a whole “block” (256 byte * height) of data.

That means that you would store your gfx in a picture with the width of 512/1024 or 2048 pixel (depending on the color resolution).

Font and picture converting was a later feature.

I did a small enhancement in the latest version where you can assign the picture color to a “color nibble” before that the assignment was kind of random.

I didn’t release it because nobody seems to use it anyway.

If anybody made (good or bad) experience with the converter let me know maybe I can add some improvement in future.

[Bakasama]

Here's the updated sprites. I'm not too happy with Ugg and Wrong Way but it's the best I can do. Ugg and Wrong Way have "shading" in an attempt to make them look less flat. I'm satisfied with the revamped balls. They looks less anglar and look more round.

 

Some notes:

 

The colors said here are based on a screenshot I took of the color demo for the 7800 I use with MacMESS. They are noted with x/y where the top row number is x and the left column number is y.

 

Colors as seen on MESS may not be accurately displayed.

 

The color for the green in the green ball is 2/B

 

The color for the red in the red ball is 4/3

 

The colors for the purple objects is still the same.

[DracIsBack]

How do you guys design these graphics for the 7800?

[kenfused]

Here's the updated sprites.  I'm not too happy with Ugg and Wrong Way but it's the best I can do.  Ugg and Wrong Way have "shading" in an attempt to make them look less flat.  I'm satisfied with the revamped balls.  They looks less anglar and look more round.

 

Some notes:

 

The colors said here are based on a screenshot I took of the color demo for the 7800 I use with MacMESS.  They are noted with x/y where the top row number is x and the left column number is y.

 

Colors as seen on MESS may not be accurately displayed.

 

The color for the green in the green ball is 2/B

 

The color for the red in the red ball is 4/3

 

The colors for the purple objects is still the same.

870777[/snapback]

Added new shapes for Ugh and Wrongway to these versions.

Added new shape for purple ball, but made it one pixel shorter and narrower than Bakasama's version.

Give me any opinion's on the new shapes.

Fixed qbert doing slomo on level 6.

Fix bogus black color on level 9, round 4.

Fix top line of sprite missing if it was on a 16 line boundry (most noticable in the title string, and in coily (cased a black line to sometimes flash in the middle of his body)).

qbert.zip

[Danno]

as always, it just keeps getting better.

[Bakasama]

Some more suggestions. When Q*bert jumps on a disk, the black background flashes bright green and fades to black. Ugg and Wrong Way make a kind of "pip" sound when they jump on a cube.

 

Here's more of my suggested edits. One is a new Q*bert. I always thought the current Q*bert was a little on the pudgy side. This edited Q*bert is slimmed down a bit and has bigger eyes. He has 'jumping' frame and 'crouching' frame. This has the upward and downward versions. The jumping frame is not too seen often when Q*bert is standing still. The only times one sees this is when Q*bert is when Q*bert starts a new round, when he starts a new life after he jumps off the edge, or after he gets clobbered by an enemy. The crouching' frame is seen when Q*bert jumps on a cube.

 

Slick and Sam, as you can see this is a lot frames. The pics shown here, are from left to right are what frames that Slick and Sam use when they jump from cube to cube.

 

I got a question about those spinning disks. How did you make it look they use five colors?

[kenfused]

Some more suggestions.  When Q*bert jumps on a disk, the black background flashes bright green and fades to black.  Ugg and Wrong Way make a kind of "pip" sound when they jump on a cube.

both of these have been on my todo list.

Here's more of my suggested edits.  One is a new Q*bert.  I always thought the current Q*bert was a little on the pudgy side.  This edited Q*bert is slimmed down a bit and has bigger eyes.  He has 'jumping' frame and 'crouching' frame.  This has the upward and downward versions.  The jumping frame is not too seen often when Q*bert is standing still.  The only times one sees this is when Q*bert is when Q*bert starts a new round, when he starts a new life after he jumps off the edge, or after he gets clobbered by an enemy.  The crouching' frame is seen when Q*bert jumps on a cube.

 

Slick and Sam, as you can see this is a lot frames.  The pics shown here, are from left to right are what frames that Slick and Sam use when they jump from cube to cube.

I will give these a look and try

I got a question about those spinning disks.  How did you make it look they use five colors?

When the discs are not moving they are playfied graphics which has use of up to 12 colors + background. Unfornately I was only able to free up 3 colors instead of 4 for the spinning. The colors are moved by updating by color registers so I do not have to replot different characters for each disc every time the color rotate (or also an option would be to copy the character set to ram and modify it, if I had more RAM).

 

When you jump on a disc, it is erased, and replaced by two of my "sprites" which have 3 color each. They just use the colors from the same palettes the character background uses and are both drawn to look just like the character playfield graphics they replace. One sprite has the colors for the top of the disc, and the other handles the edges.

[Bakasama]

I look forward to seeing those graphics in action.

 

That does explain why those disks have five colors. I thought it was really two sprites but I only guess part of it. I didn't know about the disks being background graphics. Is this trick used in other games too?

 

I'll try to give Ugg and Wrong Way more frames. I'm also thinking about revamping Coily.

[kenfused]

I look forward to seeing those graphics in action.

 

That does explain why those disks have five colors.  I thought it was really two sprites but I only guess part of it.  I didn't know about the disks being background graphics.  Is this trick used in other games too?

 

I'll try to give Ugg and Wrong Way more frames.  I'm also thinking about revamping Coily.

873072[/snapback]

I would be willing to bet the 8-bit/5200 version does it that way since they become a single color when you are riding the disc, vs. the normally rotating colors which are the same colors from the background graphics

[kenfused]

First pass at adding two player support. Note that the top line needs fixed in that for two player games, both Player 1 and Player 2 strings will animate, and Player 2 will actually display with a [1] instead of a [2] in the upper right when player 2 is up. Let me know of any bugs encountred.

 

First pass at adding new graphics for Slick. I have all the images there but not necessarily the order (I need to map the images into 8 slots)

qbert.zip

[kenfused]

 

Slick and Sam, as you can see this is a lot frames.  The pics shown here, are from left to right are what frames that Slick and Sam use when they jump from cube to cube.

 

872119[/snapback]

It looks like there are 4 unique pictures for Slick and Sam and I need to map them into 8 slots. Currently I have them as 1,2,3,2,3,2,3,4 (5-7 are the same as some as the earlier ones). I also I have only messed with the one without the glasses.

 

Not sure why I did that order. I guess 1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1 would be better.

Or maybe 2,2,3,4,3,2,1,1.

 

--Ken

[Bakasama]

It looks like there are 4 unique pictures for Slick and Sam and I need to map them into 8 slots.  Currently I have them as 1,2,3,2,3,2,3,4  (5-7 are the same as some as the earlier ones).  I also I have only messed with the one without the glasses.

 

Not sure why I did that order.  I guess 1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1 would be better.

Or maybe 2,2,3,4,3,2,1,1.

 

--Ken

873919[/snapback]

 

The pics I posted are how the animations go, at least as the arcade game goes. My suggestion is that just make some of demo and see which animation works the best. I'll admit it's a little detail most players won't notice unless they look real hard. Anything is better than the static images in the earlier bulids.

[kenfused]

Slick and Sam graphics have both now been updated.

 

Minor tweaks to ball and Q*bert (may still do some more). They are mostly a hybrid of my images and bakasamas.

qbert.zip