Label Contest Alternate Reality: The City *update*

[Gunstar]

That is a pretty sweet picture...is that actual concept art for A.R.?

[8bitclassics]

Great to see your entries!

 

If you added the Alternate Reality to the bottom of the floating gate in #13, the stats would still be visible.  There is plenty of floor and gate to cover up, but only one small area where the stats are.

 

Ok, looks like I will make up a few myself to get things rolling along.

 

One question though, is there an easy way get a good cutout of the Alternate Reality text besides carefully tracing around it with a selection tool or using an eraser to painstakingly edit around the text?

 

I am using Photoshop 5.0.

874546[/snapback]

 

I believe 5.0 has the magic wand, so what I did was click outside of the text with the magic wand until it was selected properly, then I inverse the selection to select the text only. You might have to change the % that it uses for selecting what you want.

 

Corey

 

Oh, label looks good.

[Xebec's Demise]

Yeah, I tried that, but I just could not get it cut as perfect and clean as I wanted.

 

 

So...

 

I ended up using a very small eraser to go in and edit completely around the text by hand, fixing any defects with the color matching tool and a tiny brush.

 

...yeah, in case you have not noticed, I really think a lot of this darn game.

[Xebec's Demise]

That is a pretty sweet picture...is that actual concept art for A.R.?

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Yes!

 

Notice how the mountains are the same as in-game. There is even a waterfall to the south.

Edited June 15, 2005 by Xebec's Demise

[Gunstar]

That is a pretty sweet picture...is that actual concept art for A.R.?

874617[/snapback]

 

Yes!

 

Notice how the mountains are the same as in-game. There is even a waterfall to the south.

874990[/snapback]

 

Well, I did notice that the picture of the city seems to have all the landmarks, like tha Palace and walls, and mountains surrounding it all, etc. But I don't see a waterfall, there are a couple of "lines" in the background that could be a waterfall, but I can't tell for sure if that's what they are supposed to be, or if they are just a "ridge" detail on the side of the mountain. It's just grey lines I see. If it's supposed to be a waterfall, either it just wan't drawn/painted dlearly or the detail on th posted image is not great enough for me to discern the waterfall. In any case, I think that should be the cartridge label, right there, look no further. It's got that "classic" fantasy look to the picture, like other classic fantasy artwork I've seen and do myself, it's VERY "middle-earth" looking. Good stuff. Quality artwork. Makes me want to read the entire 'Alternate Reality' book series, but since that doesn't exist (too bad, might even give LOTR a run for it's money, if Philip Price teamed up with a first-rate fantasy author like Robert Jorden (Wheel of Time; best selling Fantasy series) to help him write it! that should have been used for the original box art to begin with, it's much better than the "gate." I'd love to have that painting framed on my wall.

Edited June 16, 2005 by Gunstar

[Xebec's Demise]

The waterfall is behind you, in The Wilderness, to the south. I never would have quessed you were an artist. Maybe you could paint a south facing image as seen from the north gate? That would be great!

[Gunstar]

The waterfall is behind you, in The Wilderness, to the south.   I never would have quessed you were an artist.  Maybe you could paint a south facing image as seen from the north gate?  That would be great!

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I didn't catch your little "joke" becuase I figured the "view" was from the west facing the east. I figured this by the placement of what looks like the city palace on the hill in the left rear of the city, and if that view corresponded to the actual layout of the city, where the Palace is on the east side of the city, then the painting's waterfall would have been in the picture, becuase the south side would be the mountains to the right. Also, there is a western gate, but not an eastern gate,(well actua lly ther may be one at the reat end of the palace?) the eastern walkway leads to the palace, not a gate, which would more or less match up with the painting too. What makes you think that the painting is a view from the south, facing north? That doesn't look like an Arena up on the hill to me...

Edited June 16, 2005 by Gunstar

[Xebec's Demise]

Oh, sorry, I was just joking around. I guess that did not come through in my post.

 

You are correct.

 

The layout actually does match your description. To be precise, the waterfall would be between the 3rd and 4th mountain peaks on the right. Because waterfalls carve out their paths in mountains, you cannot actually see the waterfall from this eastwardly view, looking across the mountains to the South, as the waterfall is set-back, after carving it's way into the Southern Mountains for millions of years, spilling down between the mountains into a large crystal-clear pool, where Tavern keepers send their water boys with their donkeys to collect buckets of fresh cool water, supplying the inhabitants of the city of Xebec's Demise with life. Many a water boy never returns as they perish on their way, to the perils of the dangerous wilderness beasts. So the next time you buy a Water Flask at the tavern, instead of crying foul that there is a small charge for water, say thanks for those brave souls that collect it.

 

Edited June 17, 2005 by Xebec's Demise

[Xebec's Demise]

This is a finished Alternate Reality cartridge label in 650x450 72 pixels/inch.

This is a compressed jpg. The full quality image is 1.8 MB.

Edited June 18, 2005 by Xebec's Demise

[eobet]

I believe that picture is by Rodney Matthews and thus copyrighted.

 

I could trace the logotype in a vector based illustration program and perhaps do something with the background, but I have a question:

 

Old cartridges had the label go across over the back, didn't they? This new type of cartridge doesnt have this? I know the measurments are in the first post, but could you post a picture of a blank cart?

[Gunstar]

Many third-party Atari cartridges had the label go over the back, but Atari's own 8-bit cartridges never did, they only had the label on the face of the cartridge, whether it was the older "brown" cartridges from Atari Inc., or the newer XE cartridges from Atari Corp., there was no wrap-around on 8-bit cartridges. the 5200 was the same as the 8-bit, and the 2600/7800 cartridges had a seperate end label, and many third-party cartridges for all those systems had wrap-around, but never Atari.

[Xebec's Demise]

If anyone has contact information it would be you, eobet! Do you have any contact info for Rodney Matthews? How about Philip Price? We should definately attempt to contact them.

 

Of course, the project should not be sold. It should only be donation based, with any donations at least covering the cost of the cartridge. Nobody is going to pay for and give out cartridges for free (except for me).

 

I know at one point Philip wrote that he did not mind if people copied AR and played it without purchasing a copy. Do you have the exact quote? So, I wonder how he would feel about the cartridge conversion. My guess is that he would be happy to see people still playing and programming for the game as he has often said that it brought joy to him to know that people were still appreciating AR. But it would be good to hear from him!

 

I will post a screenshot of the Flashcart in the first post.

Edited June 19, 2005 by Xebec's Demise

[Xebec's Demise]

I would like to see some more entries from other people!

 

Surely there is a layout hiding out in your mind, Gunstar? eobet ? axewater? Heaven? deathtrappomegranate? analmux? Goochman?

 

What do you think the label to the Alternate Reallity cartridge should look like?

 

I know you guys are all good with computers and probably Photoshop too.

 

Make an awesome label and your cartridge is on me!

 

As soon as I get more entries, I will list them in the poll so you can vote.

[Goochman]

My $0.02 - The original artwork picture with the nice Alternate Reality titel font is my personal choice - Otherwsie I kinda like the 8bit gate picture wrapped into an appropriate frame with title font.

[8bitclassics]

This is a finished Alternate Reality cartridge label in 650x450 72 pixels/inch.

This is a compressed jpg.  The full quality image is 1.8 MB.

876711[/snapback]

Is your original in 72dpi? It will print off grainy if so. There is some stuff you can do to upconvert in Photoshop, but the picture size will reduce some, so if you have the original picture that is bigger, best use that.

 

Corey

[Xebec's Demise]

When I resize to 650x450 it automatically goes to 72 pixels/inch and that is what classics said it should be.

 

Is there a difference between 72dpi and 72pixels/inch? Or is it just that one is for the monitor and the other, the printer.

[Xebec's Demise]

Here is one using only original box art. I like the view of space and the planets. I could also easily shrink it a little and move the copyright text down lower to get an unobstructed original box image. This would be a sideways label. This is to scale 650x450. The distortion that you can see in the compressed jpg is not there in the full res pic. Res is 200 pixels per inch.

 

If you look closely, I did add in five stars around the AR text, to help it blend into the image of space.

Edited June 23, 2005 by Xebec's Demise

[Xebec's Demise]

unobstructed stats

[8bitclassics]

When I resize to 650x450 it automatically goes to 72 pixels/inch and that is what classics said it should be.

 

Is there a difference between 72dpi and 72pixels/inch?  Or is it just that one is for the monitor and the other, the printer.

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Pixels Per Inch and Dots per Inch are the same, when you resize, you can always go back and change the dpi at the same time.

 

Corey

[Goochman]

Post 43 - thats my vote

[Wrathchild]

Going back to earlier suggestions I made,

here's the text only label with a header.

The alternative here is to use a bitmap from

the game as header instead of the box's.

[Wrathchild]

Secondly, but very messily done, here's a layout

for the text over a background image. I think the

"Philip Price's" could could down in size a little and

then 'Alternate Reality' made a little larger, maybe

even keep the red colour used on the box?

 

Also, the whole backdrop could be decreased in

prominance as was done with the gate in #20?

 

Mark

[carmel_andrews]

Secondly, but very messily done, here's a layout

for the text over a background image. I think the

"Philip Price's" could could down in size a little and

then 'Alternate Reality' made a little larger, maybe

even keep the red colour used on the box?

 

Also, the whole backdrop could be decreased in

prominance as was done with the gate in #20?

 

Mark

879466[/snapback]

 

 

How about asking paradise computing if you can use the original box artwork

 

and have a piccy on the front and back of the cart. (different piccies of course)

[Xebec's Demise]

Do you have a contact for Paradise?

 

Is there a label area on both sides of the flashcart?

[Xebec's Demise]

Secondly, but very messily done, here's a layout

for the text over a background image. I think the

"Philip Price's" could could down in size a little and

then 'Alternate Reality' made a little larger, maybe

even keep the red colour used on the box?

 

Also, the whole backdrop could be decreased in

prominance as was done with the gate in #20?

 

Mark

879466[/snapback]

I prefer the ones with less text obstructing the AR images. If you are going for that much text. as in post #47, then it looks better with a solid background, otherwise it looks cluttered.

 

I am happy to see the new submissions though! It's a nice change going with the U.S. Gold box images.

Edited June 24, 2005 by Xebec's Demise