Newbie's first attempt at a graphics hack

[Jack Spencer Jr]

This is a little hack of Imagic's Moonsweeper into Space Harrier. It still needs work, but it doesn't look too shabby.

sharrier.bin

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I was going to post screen shots, but photobucket appears to be down.

 

Not that it matters, really. It's a pretty simple hack tuning the ship into a little man, the tower thingies into pillars (which need work) and the UFO into a robot thing from Space Harrier.

 

I still need to hack the grafic of several of the other elements and, if I had the talent and know how to do it, alter the gameplay a bit, possibly turning the sun/space segment into a boss stage, while keeping the ground. But stuff like that is beyond my abilities. At least at this point, anyway.

 

Anyway. comments welcomed.

[Pac Munchkin]

Wow Space Harrier huh?

 

Cooooooool!!!!!!

 

I will check this one out I know.

 

Wade

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Well, Moonsweeper is a pretty cool game in the first place. Mad props to the programmer at Imagic that cobbled this one up. The Atari 2600 is an amazing machine when you see the stuff some people had managed to squeeze out of it. (I believe the guy who designed the hardware was shocked when he saw the Night Driver game in action. The system was designed for Combat and Air Sea Battle and little else.)

 

Moonsweeper is impressive because it is one of the few 3-D perspective games for the 2600 and it is one of the more successful ones. Technically, it is a simple vertical shooter, no different from, say, Space invaders or Galaxian. However some primative scrolling and background effects fool the eye into thinking it is 3-D. And by background effects, I naturally mean the planet surface with the alternating dark/light colors giving a sense of forward movement. This effect immediately brought Space Harrier to my mind. However, the limitations of the hardware make it impossible to impliment the flying effect. The Harrier is stuck moving back and forth along the bottom of the screen. We'll just have to live with it.

 

This is mostly just a cosmetic hack instead of a deeper, gameplay altering hack If possible, it would be great to alter the gameplay to better reflect the arcade game. But a cosmetic hack is a good start. It is challenging trying to get the 2600 to mimic the graphics of the arcade game and mapping it onto the play elements. I am rather proud of the robot lander that skids around on the surface. My previous design looked too blocky but then I deleted two pixels, one under each wing, and it was a dramatic improvement.

 

If I ever get to the point of altering the play code, I would do a couple things. Like start on the planet surface. In fact, keep the surface present throughout the game, like the arcade. I would probably turn the space phase into a boss stage, but this will be a tricky item for a total newbie like myself.

 

Upon reflection, I am thinking of calling this hack Moon Harrier in honor of the hacked game it's based on. Anyway, here are some screen shots.

 

 

 

[Pac Munchkin]

Well, Moonsweeper is a pretty cool game in the first place. Mad props to the programmer at Imagic that cobbled this one up. The Atari 2600 is an amazing machine when you see the stuff some people had managed to squeeze out of it. (I believe the guy who designed the hardware was shocked when he saw the Night Driver game in action. The system was designed for Combat and Air Sea Battle and little else.)

 

Moonsweeper is impressive because it is one of the few 3-D perspective games for the 2600 and it is one of the more successful ones. Technically, it is a simple vertical shooter, no different from, say, Space invaders or Galaxian. However some primative scrolling and background effects fool the eye into thinking it is 3-D. And by background effects, I naturally mean the planet surface with the alternating dark/light colors giving a sense of forward movement. This effect immediately brought Space Harrier to my mind. However, the limitations of the hardware make it impossible to impliment the flying effect. The Harrier is stuck moving back and forth along the bottom of the screen. We'll just have to live with it.

 

This is mostly just a cosmetic hack instead of a deeper, gameplay altering hack If possible, it would be great to alter the gameplay to better reflect the arcade game. But a cosmetic hack is a good start. It is challenging trying to get the 2600 to mimic the graphics of the arcade game and mapping it onto the play elements. I am rather proud of the robot lander that skids around on the surface. My previous design looked too blocky but then I deleted two pixels, one under each wing, and it was a dramatic improvement.

 

If I ever get to the point of altering the play code, I would do a couple things. Like start on the planet surface. In fact, keep the surface present throughout the game, like the arcade. I would probably turn the space phase into a boss stage, but this will be a tricky item for a total newbie like myself.

 

Upon reflection, I am thinking of calling this hack Moon Harrier in honor of the hacked game it's based on. Anyway, here are some screen shots.

 

 

 

 

 

You know what would make a great Space Harrier hack, After Burner, I could see that being hacked into Space Harrier, I just downloaded that not long ago, I think it was a prototype game from Atari.

 

Wade

 

By the way I as playing this and it is cool!

Great job!

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I think you may be refering to Radarlock, which is very close to Afterburner (I found it similar to the NES Top Gun cart as that's what I was familiar with) but released in the red box IIUC. It is a good game. Not sure how well it would work as Space Harrier, but impressive 3D on the 2600 is doubly impressive in my book.

 

Thanks. It was a brief bit of work. If I can get the gameplay elements worked on, it would be that much more of an accomplishment for me.

[Pac Munchkin]

You know you are right that explains to me where my Afterburner ROM went I can't find anymore it is called Radarlock.

 

Wait isn't another side scrolling game called Radarlock too, actually not a very good game either. lol

 

Oh I'll check my emulator.

 

Wade

 

Maybe some day I'll hack the other Radar lock into something better?

 

Found it the other game is just called Radar, also called Cruise missile.

That needs a hack bad, I think it could be a better game if it was hacked?

Edited August 28, 2006 by Pac Munchkin

[Pac Munchkin]

Ater playing Radarlock again, I noticed the plane staies centered so your moonsweeper hack seems best suited.

 

It does look good I know that!

 

I am still tossing around some others maybe one of the space games, maybe even zaxxon but that would have to be hacked to the point of the only screen is the space scean, that is beyond my hacking abilities.

 

Wade

[yuppicide]

What's wrong with using the thing here to attach picture?! It's built right into the forum.

[keilbaca]

What's wrong with using the thing here to attach picture?! It's built right into the forum.

 

We feel bad using Albert's server space

 

Well I do at least when I have photobucket I can use.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

That and at least one of the forums I also frequent don't like you doing that, so I'm used to using photobucket instead.