Stryker's Run
D R Jeffries
|> In article <1995May6.1...@leeds.ac.uk>,
|> csy...@scs.leeds.ac.uk (D R Jeffries) wrote:
|>
|> > wont be in the finished game. The version of the game running on my computer
|> > at the moment has loads of the old sprites running around just itching
|> > to be killed with Stryker's heat seeking rockets, his targeting rockets, his
|> > Raiden (Wavelength?) style weird bendy electricity type thing, his mortar bombs,
|> > his grenades, his rather large laser etc etc.
|> >
|> > David
|>
|> I looked at the screenshots (thanks!) and they are pretty cool :)
|>
|> I have only recently started followig csa.games, and has missed
|> the facts about Stryker's Run.
|>
|> When will it be released, by whom, is it commercial etc., please?
|>
|> Are
Its going to be released at the October Acorn show in London by Davyn Software
- its taken two years and a lot of money to write so yeah, I'm afraid it will
be commercial.
Here's a little something for the Archimedes vs debate - an
Amiga version was planned to be released at the same time. The graphics were
converted across and the code started - three days later and even the A1200
was displaying the 256 colour parallax as a series of stills, so it was
scrapped.
However even with the power of the Acorn machines there is still an
embarrassing lack of quality software - all the sprites in Stryker's Run are
drawn on Deluxe Paint on the A1200 because there's nothing remotely as good on
the Arc (ever tried designing a sprite in Paint?, ProArt?, Atelier?) and all the
rendering has to be done on a PC as the Illusion just isn't up to the job. This
is surely one of the reasons why so many Acorn games are so lame - the
playability's there but the visuals are laughable and unfortunately this has
become the accepted standard. Maybe I'm being unfair, I've seen some stuff in the
pipeline that is a definite improvement - but with Doom, Descent and Magic Carpet
on the PC the Acorn games scene needs to remove its head from the sand, start
looking at where other scenes are going and stop basking in the glory of Elite
and Exile.
David
Berty
csy...@scs.leeds.ac.uk (D R Jeffries) wrote:
> In article <19950507....@hasle.oslonett.no>, ar...@oslonett.no (Are Leistad) writes:
> |> In article <1995May6.1...@leeds.ac.uk>,
> |> csy...@scs.leeds.ac.uk (D R Jeffries) wrote:
> |>
> However even with the power of the Acorn machines there is still an
> embarrassing lack of quality software - all the sprites in Stryker's Run are
> drawn on Deluxe Paint on the A1200 because there's nothing remotely as good on
> the Arc (ever tried designing a sprite in Paint?, ProArt?, Atelier?)
YES! All the graphics in Hamsters were designed in Paint cos its the best sprite
editor on the arc for doing such things. Its a bit painstaking but you get there
in the end!
> and all the
> rendering has to be done on a PC as the Illusion just isn't up to the job. This
> is surely one of the reasons why so many Acorn games are so lame - the
> playability's there but the visuals are laughable and unfortunately this has
> become the accepted standard.
Oh dear... Hamsters wasnt so bad, was it??? I liked it! *sob*
> Maybe I'm being unfair, I've seen some stuff in the
> pipeline that is a definite improvement - but with Doom, Descent and Magic Carpet
> on the PC the Acorn games scene needs to remove its head from the sand, start
> looking at where other scenes are going and stop basking in the glory of Elite
> and Exile.
I have! I have! You think the new game is an improvement, I guess you'll have seen
it by now, huh? Less than half finished as it is with the graphics STILL needing
much rejigging.
> David
Berty.
Paul Boddie
: Its going to be released at the October Acorn show in London by Davyn Software
: - its taken two years and a lot of money to write so yeah, I'm afraid it will
: be commercial.
: Here's a little something for the Archimedes vs debate - an
: Amiga version was planned to be released at the same time. The graphics were
: converted across and the code started - three days later and even the A1200
: was displaying the 256 colour parallax as a series of stills, so it was
: scrapped.
Do you mean that the A1200 was too slow? (I assume that is what you
are trying to say.)
: However even with the power of the Acorn machines there is still an
: embarrassing lack of quality software - all the sprites in Stryker's Run are
: drawn on Deluxe Paint on the A1200 because there's nothing remotely as good on
: the Arc (ever tried designing a sprite in Paint?, ProArt?, Atelier?) and all the
What about the new generation of art packages? Those are all rather
old - unless you mean ProArt24. I realise that they aren't cheap, but
then I wouldn't mind knowing where that 24-bit PD/Freeware art package
mentioned a lot in Acorn User can be found.
: rendering has to be done on a PC as the Illusion just isn't up to the job. This
Illusion?
: is surely one of the reasons why so many Acorn games are so lame - the
: playability's there but the visuals are laughable and unfortunately this has
: become the accepted standard. Maybe I'm being unfair, I've seen some stuff in the
No, I disagree about it being "accepted". Even games such as SF3000
have some bad presentation, lack of consistency and so on, even if
the actual game is excellent. Many people get annoyed about the
quality of presentation, but just have to put up with it.
: pipeline that is a definite improvement - but with Doom, Descent and Magic Carpet
: on the PC the Acorn games scene needs to remove its head from the sand, start
: looking at where other scenes are going and stop basking in the glory of Elite
: and Exile.
Elite and Exile were both very good games. Exile had very good
graphics and animation on the 8-bit machines. Having said that,
we do expect better graphics and animation on 32-bit machines,
and it seems that most software houses took about 4-5 years to
realise this. Some houses were the exception to this.
As an example, way back in '91, one of the few companies who knew
how to present software was Eterna, while certain other houses
were still producing badly presented games. Unfortunately they
"ceased trading", probably due to lack of support.
So, perhaps you are partially right. :-)
Other companies were "accepted".
--
Paul Boddie ce...@caledonia.hw.ac.uk
Computer Science 3 ce...@bonaly.hw.ac.uk
Heriot-Watt University ce...@cee.hw.ac.uk
Edinburgh
------------------------------- http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~ceepb
D R Jeffries
|> D R Jeffries (csy...@scs.leeds.ac.uk) wrote:
|>
|> : Its going to be released at the October Acorn show in London by Davyn Software
|> : - its taken two years and a lot of money to write so yeah, I'm afraid it will
|> : be commercial.
|>
|> : Here's a little something for the Archimedes vs debate - an
|> : Amiga version was planned to be released at the same time. The graphics were
|> : converted across and the code started - three days later and even the A1200
|> : was displaying the 256 colour parallax as a series of stills, so it was
|> : scrapped.
|>
|> Do you mean that the A1200 was too slow? (I assume that is what you
|> are trying to say.)
Yup, we ran the code on an accelerated A1200 and it was far too slow. The
problem is the copper can't do two playfields in 256 colours. Its simply
not possible. (Two playfields in 16 colours and your laughing). This means
to do the game in 256 colours you need to use the processor to blit the
background and foreground. This is where you hit the snag, strip away
the dedicated graphic processors and the A1200 doesn't have the power
to do the dual playfields and all the extra processing the game needs.
|>
|> : However even with the power of the Acorn machines there is still an
|> : embarrassing lack of quality software - all the sprites in Stryker's Run are
|> : drawn on Deluxe Paint on the A1200 because there's nothing remotely as good on
|> : the Arc (ever tried designing a sprite in Paint?, ProArt?, Atelier?) and all the
|>
|> What about the new generation of art packages? Those are all rather
|> old - unless you mean ProArt24. I realise that they aren't cheap, but
|> then I wouldn't mind knowing where that 24-bit PD/Freeware art package
|> mentioned a lot in Acorn User can be found.
|>
I did mean ProArt24. But don't get me wrong, its a great retouching package,
and pretty good if you want to do an oil painting but it wasn't made with
designing game graphics in mind. You can't animate your designs which makes
it really rather difficult to design any sprites. The Archimedes game
scene is stuffed full of examples of sprites designed frame by frame but
not animated while they were being drawn - then they were put in a game
and animated and looked awful. Even Repton 3 came with a sprite animator -
does anyone remember how easy it was to design a sprite that looked good?
Even I managed it!
|> : rendering has to be done on a PC as the Illusion just isn't up to the job. This
|>
|> Illusion?
Illusionist maybe, I can't remember.
|>
|> : is surely one of the reasons why so many Acorn games are so lame - the
|> : playability's there but the visuals are laughable and unfortunately this has
|> : become the accepted standard. Maybe I'm being unfair, I've seen some stuff in the
|>
|> No, I disagree about it being "accepted". Even games such as SF3000
|> have some bad presentation, lack of consistency and so on, even if
|> the actual game is excellent. Many people get annoyed about the
|> quality of presentation, but just have to put up with it.
Maybe accepted was the wrong word, how about 'this has become the standard'?
The guy who owns the A1200 I was talking about is really fond of the
Archimedes, he loves its 'serious' software ie Impression, Artworks but
takes a very dim view of its games with the exception of SF3000 and SR2000
which he played constantly. And I have to agree, some good games, some
brilliantly quirky games (three cheers for Berty!) and a whole lot of dross.
|>
[ Cut ]
|>
|> --
|> Paul Boddie ce...@caledonia.hw.ac.uk
David
A.W. Garrard
D R Jeffries <csy...@scs.leeds.ac.uk> wrote:
>In article <D8D0n...@cee.hw.ac.uk>, ce...@cee.hw.ac.uk (Paul Boddie) writes:
>|> Do you mean that the A1200 was too slow? (I assume that is what you
>|> are trying to say.)
>
>Yup, we ran the code on an accelerated A1200 and it was far too slow. The
>problem is the copper can't do two playfields in 256 colours. Its simply
>not possible. (Two playfields in 16 colours and your laughing). This means
>to do the game in 256 colours you need to use the processor to blit the
>background and foreground. This is where you hit the snag, strip away
>the dedicated graphic processors and the A1200 doesn't have the power
>to do the dual playfields and all the extra processing the game needs.
:-). Having said that, an A1200 *with* Fast RAM is slightly faster than
an A310 (I assume it's being slowed down in your case by planar screen
access, although if you're just blitting this shouldn't be an issue).
Nice to be able to use a 256 colour paletted mode, though...
>|> : However even with the power of the Acorn machines there is still an
>|> : embarrassing lack of quality software - all the sprites in Stryker's Run are
>|> : drawn on Deluxe Paint on the A1200 because there's nothing remotely as good on
>|> : the Arc (ever tried designing a sprite in Paint?, ProArt?, Atelier?) and all the
>|>
>|> What about the new generation of art packages? Those are all rather
>|> old - unless you mean ProArt24. I realise that they aren't cheap, but
>|> then I wouldn't mind knowing where that 24-bit PD/Freeware art package
>|> mentioned a lot in Acorn User can be found.
>|>
>
>I did mean ProArt24. But don't get me wrong, its a great retouching package,
>and pretty good if you want to do an oil painting but it wasn't made with
>designing game graphics in mind. You can't animate your designs which makes
>it really rather difficult to design any sprites. The Archimedes game
>scene is stuffed full of examples of sprites designed frame by frame but
>not animated while they were being drawn - then they were put in a game
>and animated and looked awful. Even Repton 3 came with a sprite animator -
>does anyone remember how easy it was to design a sprite that looked good?
>Even I managed it!
Can't say I've used it, but I agree. But if you can write yourself a game,
surely you can write a decent animated sprite editor? Okay, so you can say
you don't have to 'cos you've got an Amiga, but I have used DP, and I'm
not convinced it's perfect when it comes to sprite editing. But then, I'm
not an artist, so I suppose I wouldn't know.
>|> : rendering has to be done on a PC as the Illusion just isn't up to the job. This
>|>
>|> Illusion?
>
>Illusionist maybe, I can't remember.
You have an Amiga there, and you're using a PC for the rendering? Hmm.
I thought the Amiga buffs spent all their time saying how good their
ray-tracers were (Real3D, LightWave, etc.) - although I gather LightWave
has made it to the PC at last (with no amiga shaped dongle this time).
I'll admit Arch rendering packages are pretty poor (the best seem to be
POVray and QRT, and they're not exactly interactive). Render Bender and
Illusionist are nice and quick at rendering (for a machine with no FPA)
but they don't compete with the state of the art. Nonetheless, I wouldn't
quote Illusionist as the optimal solution.
>|> : is surely one of the reasons why so many Acorn games are so lame - the
>|> : playability's there but the visuals are laughable and unfortunately
this has
>|> : become the accepted standard. Maybe I'm being unfair, I've seen some
>|>
>|> No, I disagree about it being "accepted". Even games such as SF3000
>|> have some bad presentation, lack of consistency and so on, even if
>|> the actual game is excellent. Many people get annoyed about the
>|> quality of presentation, but just have to put up with it.
I wonder whether the palette has something to do with it. People have
tended to pick primary shades on the Arch, since that's what the palette
does best. It may cover the colour space well, and be good for photographic
image conversion, but it's no competition for a customisable palette when
the graphic gets too small to dither. I doubt the 4096 colour limit helped
either.
The Stryker III screenshots are very pretty, but when you see them close
up (on a decent-ish monitor like an AKF60), the colour ranges don't seem
to match properly (graduations have bands), there are areas of blank
colour, and the main character looks blotchy. I'm sure this is not the
fault of the artist, and I'm sure it's not so noticeable when the game is
moving, but compared to the graphics of which a lot of machines are
presently capable, even the best game graphics look cartoonish. On other
platforms, flashback and its genre are outdated. Okay, they're still
fun to play, and they don't look *bad*, but neither do the graphics make
the owner proud of the machine.
Part of this is the limitations of the machine, part of it is how game
designers (specifically graphic designers) have become accustomed to
using them. And, as has been said before, quite a lot of it is due to
the lack of any decent graphic design for the Arc. Don't get me wrong,
Stryker looks quite well done, and I'm sure it will look better in
motion, but I'm not jumping up and down to get the screen shots printed
out to hang on my wall as works of art. I couldn't do better; I just
have this feeling that *something* must be possible. Perhaps some
Risc PC (and later) only games - or something which uses different
graphics on a VIDC20 (and I don't just mean games modes).
I don't know what I want, which is difficult of me, but I do know what
I don't want: something that looks realistic, that doesn't make the
limitations of the computer glare at the player, and that lets the
player concentrate on the game. It depends very much on the kind of
game - patience won't suffer if you only play it in 4 colours, and
SimCity seems to look okay, but something which tries to put you in
a realistic environment needs to try to make it looks less psychadelic.
Andrew Garrard
P.S. Don't give up on Stryker though - it looks good, just not perfect.
Eddie Edwards
> which he played constantly. And I have to agree, some good games, some
> brilliantly quirky games (three cheers for Berty!) and a whole lot of dross.
Not even a whole lot, either. PC users get to pick and choose their dross!
--
Eddie xxx (ed...@powerslv.demon.co.uk, e...@datcon.co.uk, l...@lize.it)
Powerslave Software power...@powerslv.demon.co.uk
- What Do You Want To Kill Today? (tm)
Eddie Edwards
: I wonder whether the palette has something to do with it. People have
: tended to pick primary shades on the Arch, since that's what the palette
: does best. It may cover the colour space well, and be good for photographic
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: image conversion, but it's no competition for a customisable palette when
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What, the Arc's fixed palette? Hah! It doesn't even cover the colour space
well. It's a fucking hack, and I'm just glad that they've sorted it out
with the VIDC 20.
: I don't know what I want, which is difficult of me, but I do know what
: I don't want: something that looks realistic, that doesn't make the
: limitations of the computer glare at the player, and that lets the
: player concentrate on the game.
That's what you *don't* want???!!!
--
Eddie xxx
------- Powerslave Software, PO Box 175, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 6RD -------
---------------- For all your Acorn game conversion needs -----------------
A.W. Garrard
Eddie Edwards <e...@datcon.co.uk> wrote:
>A.W. Garrard (awg...@cus.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
>
>: I wonder whether the palette has something to do with it. People have
>: tended to pick primary shades on the Arch, since that's what the palette
>: does best. It may cover the colour space well, and be good for photographic
>: image conversion, but it's no competition for a customisable palette when
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>What, the Arc's fixed palette? Hah! It doesn't even cover the colour space
>well. It's a fucking hack, and I'm just glad that they've sorted it out
>with the VIDC 20.
If you say so. It does some colour ranges well, and thrown through error
diffusion it comes out okay, for something with only 16 registers (HAM
and halfbrite appeared for the same reason; personally I think HAM is a
better hack, but 256 colours is indubitably better for games, if only
because of the speed difference in manipulation).
>: I don't know what I want, which is difficult of me, but I do know what
>: I don't want: something that looks realistic, that doesn't make the
>: limitations of the computer glare at the player, and that lets the
>: player concentrate on the game.
>
>That's what you *don't* want???!!!
:-) Sorry, I'd been awake for 45 hours. I don't want things which obviously
don't do what I said there (no wonder I confused myself). It's exactly how
those goals are achieved which I am unsure of - but I look forward to
someone doing it.
Andrew had-some-sleep-but-that-doesn't-mean-I'm-not-still-talking-crap Garrard
LES..
(just a shame about the game play in cartoon line :/)
Has anyone got any of their eterna games working with RiscOS 3.1, I
upgraded after they went bust and havent played a game od thiers since :-(
If any one has got any sudgestions about the protection that they used on
the disks I would be very greatfull..
oh for the overkill of blaston......
CYA
LES..
===============================================================================
Iwan Attwood (AKA LES..) | What is LIFE but an excuse for DEATH?
E-mail: ch3...@surrey.ac.uk | What is DEATH but an escape from LIFE?
Home page URL: |
http://www.chem.surrey.ac.uk/~ch31ia | LIFE IS MEARLY A REQUIREMENT FOR DEATH.
===============================================================================
Berty
csy...@scs.leeds.ac.uk (D R Jeffries) wrote:
> Maybe accepted was the wrong word, how about 'this has become the standard'?
> The guy who owns the A1200 I was talking about is really fond of the
> Archimedes, he loves its 'serious' software ie Impression, Artworks but
> takes a very dim view of its games with the exception of SF3000 and SR2000
> which he played constantly. And I have to agree, some good games, some
> brilliantly quirky games (three cheers for Berty!) and a whole lot of dross.
Quirky??? OK, I've had worse press! Anyway my latest thing isnt quirky! Might
post a screen or two in a month? Just so long as everyone doesnt give me
grief over the download time *horror*. Its a bit bigger and lovelier than
anything I've ever done before - including Ixion 2.
Berty.
Berty
e...@datcon.co.uk (Eddie Edwards) wrote:
> A.W. Garrard (awg...@cus.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
>
> : I wonder whether the palette has something to do with it. People have
> : tended to pick primary shades on the Arch, since that's what the palette
> : does best. It may cover the colour space well, and be good for photographic
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> : image conversion, but it's no competition for a customisable palette when
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> What, the Arc's fixed palette? Hah! It doesn't even cover the colour space
> well. It's a fucking hack, and I'm just glad that they've sorted it out
> with the VIDC 20.
Can I just point out a little thing that has been niggling at me upon reading
all this about the Arc's 'fixed' 256 colour palette. If it is so fixed, why
when I do a VDU 19 in a 256 colour mode does it change it??? I think the
problem seems to be NOT that it is fixed, but merely that the results of
changing it are &$*@ unpredictable! Anyone ever tried sitting down and writing
a program to give an approximation to a desirable palette?
Berty - who admits, he could be wrong.
A.T. Smith
[ snip ]
> > What, the Arc's fixed palette? Hah! It doesn't even cover the colour
> > space well. It's a fucking hack, and I'm just glad that they've
> > sorted it out with the VIDC 20.
> Can I just point out a little thing that has been niggling at me upon
> reading all this about the Arc's 'fixed' 256 colour palette. If it is
> so fixed, why when I do a VDU 19 in a 256 colour mode does it change
> it??? I think the problem seems to be NOT that it is fixed, but merely
> that the results of changing it are &$*@ unpredictable! Anyone ever
> tried sitting down and writing a program to give an approximation to a
> desirable palette?
You can change the 256 colour palette, but only in groups of 16 colours.
I have a couple of programs which demonstrate this. The results are
difficult ( but not impossible ) to predict, this was covered with an
in-depth explanation of the 256 colour mode in AU's *INFO section some
time ago now. If anyone from the AU office can remind us which issue it
was it would be quite helpful. ( I'd look it up my self but my stack of
AU's are 150 miles away ).
Alex.
D R Jeffries
|> In article <1995May10....@leeds.ac.uk>,
[ Cut ]
|> >
|> >I did mean ProArt24. But don't get me wrong, its a great retouching package,
|> >and pretty good if you want to do an oil painting but it wasn't made with
|> >designing game graphics in mind. You can't animate your designs which makes
|> >it really rather difficult to design any sprites. The Archimedes game
|> >scene is stuffed full of examples of sprites designed frame by frame but
|> >not animated while they were being drawn - then they were put in a game
|> >and animated and looked awful. Even Repton 3 came with a sprite animator -
|> >does anyone remember how easy it was to design a sprite that looked good?
|> >Even I managed it!
|>
|> Can't say I've used it, but I agree. But if you can write yourself a game,
|> surely you can write a decent animated sprite editor? Okay, so you can say
|> you don't have to 'cos you've got an Amiga, but I have used DP, and I'm
|> not convinced it's perfect when it comes to sprite editing. But then, I'm
|> not an artist, so I suppose I wouldn't know.
DP has so many features apart from simple sprite editing. For example, imagine
a small dog bounds on to the screen and wanders up to Stryker. Stryker doesn't
quite know what to do - is he friendly or not. While Stryker is making up his
mind the dog is right up next yo him. Then.....morphs into a 15foot slavering
monster who proceeds to rip Stryker's head off. About half an hour playing
about with DP provided this animation. I would hate to think how long it would
take and how effective it would be in Paint.
|>
|> >|> : rendering has to be done on a PC as the Illusion just isn't up to the job. This
|> >|>
|> >|> Illusion?
|> >
|> >Illusionist maybe, I can't remember.
|>
|> You have an Amiga there, and you're using a PC for the rendering? Hmm.
|> I thought the Amiga buffs spent all their time saying how good their
|> ray-tracers were (Real3D, LightWave, etc.) - although I gather LightWave
|> has made it to the PC at last (with no amiga shaped dongle this time).
|> I'll admit Arch rendering packages are pretty poor (the best seem to be
|> POVray and QRT, and they're not exactly interactive). Render Bender and
|> Illusionist are nice and quick at rendering (for a machine with no FPA)
|> but they don't compete with the state of the art. Nonetheless, I wouldn't
|> quote Illusionist as the optimal solution.
We do use the Amiga for some rendering - its rather good at knocking up quick
examples of what we want but unfortunately we don't have some of the top-
notch packages you quote. But we do for the PC.
|>
|> >|> : is surely one of the reasons why so many Acorn games are so lame - the
|> >|> : playability's there but the visuals are laughable and unfortunately
|> this has
|> >|> : become the accepted standard. Maybe I'm being unfair, I've seen some
|> >|>
|> >|> No, I disagree about it being "accepted". Even games such as SF3000
|> >|> have some bad presentation, lack of consistency and so on, even if
|> >|> the actual game is excellent. Many people get annoyed about the
|> >|> quality of presentation, but just have to put up with it.
|>
|> I wonder whether the palette has something to do with it. People have
|> tended to pick primary shades on the Arch, since that's what the palette
|> does best. It may cover the colour space well, and be good for photographic
|> image conversion, but it's no competition for a customisable palette when
|> the graphic gets too small to dither. I doubt the 4096 colour limit helped
|> either.
|>
|> The Stryker III screenshots are very pretty, but when you see them close
|> up (on a decent-ish monitor like an AKF60), the colour ranges don't seem
|> to match properly (graduations have bands), there are areas of blank
|> colour, and the main character looks blotchy.
There are several reasons for this. Firstly these are old pictures - I didn't
want to post what we're working on at the moment. Secondly its one of the
drawbacks of doing the graphics on another computer - you lose something
in the conversion, what it needs is for Mike to touch them up on an Arc. This
will happen before the game is released. Thirdly, all the sprites have been
reduced from 640x480 to 320x256. The original sprites will be for the Risc PC
only. I didn't want to post the 640x480s because people would think 'Ah well,
of course you can do that on a Risc PC but what about my A3000'.
|>I'm sure this is not the
|> fault of the artist, and I'm sure it's not so noticeable when the game is
|> moving, but compared to the graphics of which a lot of machines are
|> presently capable, even the best game graphics look cartoonish. On other
|> platforms, flashback and its genre are outdated. Okay, they're still
|> fun to play, and they don't look *bad*, but neither do the graphics make
|> the owner proud of the machine.
|>
The graphics do look better in motion - and when the originals are displayed on
the Risc PC. I'm aware that they don't compete with dedicated teams of
professionals working on the PlayStation but they do compete with Arc, Amiga,
3D0 games (and Mike's getting better all the time). And Stryker has something
PlayStation games lack - playability (or so Edge tells me). I realise I have
exposed myself (huh huh) by slamming other Arc games then posting some piccies
of mine. But I truly believe Arc games should be a whole lot better and that
Stryker, when you see the full version, is going to be a large step on the
way there.
|> Part of this is the limitations of the machine, part of it is how game
|> designers (specifically graphic designers) have become accustomed to
|> using them. And, as has been said before, quite a lot of it is due to
|> the lack of any decent graphic design for the Arc. Don't get me wrong,
|> Stryker looks quite well done, and I'm sure it will look better in
|> motion, but I'm not jumping up and down to get the screen shots printed
|> out to hang on my wall as works of art. I couldn't do better; I just
|> have this feeling that *something* must be possible. Perhaps some
|> Risc PC (and later) only games - or something which uses different
|> graphics on a VIDC20 (and I don't just mean games modes).
|>
|> I don't know what I want, which is difficult of me, but I do know what
|> I don't want: something that looks realistic, that doesn't make the
|> limitations of the computer glare at the player, and that lets the
|> player concentrate on the game. It depends very much on the kind of
|> game - patience won't suffer if you only play it in 4 colours, and
|> SimCity seems to look okay, but something which tries to put you in
|> a realistic environment needs to try to make it looks less psychadelic.
|>
|> Andrew Garrard
|>
|> P.S. Don't give up on Stryker though - it looks good, just not perfect.
I don't intend to. And while its not perfect we're working day and night to
ensure its damn close.s
David
D I Simms
|> In article <1995May11....@datcon.co.uk>,
|> e...@datcon.co.uk (Eddie Edwards) wrote:
|>
|> > A.W. Garrard (awg...@cus.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
|> >
|> > : tended to pick primary shades on the Arch, since that's what the palette
|> > : does best. It may cover the colour space well, and be good for photographic
|> > : image conversion, but it's no competition for a customisable palette when
|> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|> > What, the Arc's fixed palette? Hah! It doesn't even cover the colour space
|> > well. It's a fucking hack, and I'm just glad that they've sorted it out
|> > with the VIDC 20.
|>
|> Can I just point out a little thing that has been niggling at me upon reading
|> all this about the Arc's 'fixed' 256 colour palette. If it is so fixed, why
|> when I do a VDU 19 in a 256 colour mode does it change it??? I think the
|> problem seems to be NOT that it is fixed, but merely that the results of
|> changing it are &$*@ unpredictable! Anyone ever tried sitting down and writing
|> a program to give an approximation to a desirable palette?
|>
The palette is indeed not fixed. You can change some aspects of it. It is
however fixed in the sense that each of the 256 colours cannot be chosen from
the palette of 4096 colours.
Changing the palette does not give unpredictable results if you know what you
are doing :-)
Anyway - someone get Eddie Edwards to comment. I understand he has
experimented with various palettes for his new game :-)
Dan Simms.
A G Jackson
> I have! I have! You think the new game is an improvement, I guess you'll have seen
> it by now, huh? Less than half finished as it is with the graphics STILL needing
> much rejigging.
Um... Which new game would that be?
Adrian
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Adrian Jackson | a.g.j...@durham.ac.uk | 7 Durham Terr., Framwellgate |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cat: Is that what I think it is? |
| Lister: What d'you think it is? |
| Cat: An orange whirly thing in space! |
+---------------[ http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d3jccx/index.html ]----------------+
Ian Hoggarth
>> Maybe accepted was the wrong word, how about 'this has become the
>> standard'? The guy who owns the A1200 I was talking about is really fond
>> of the Archimedes, he loves its 'serious' software ie Impression,
>> Artworks but takes a very dim view of its games with the exception of
>> SF3000 and SR2000 which he played constantly. And I have to agree, some
>> good games, some brilliantly quirky games (three cheers for Berty!) and
>> a whole lot of dross.
Does everyone love SR2000 or what?! BTW, what is the highest level anyone can get onto? I managed about the 3rd round-type-thingy, 2nd race I think, but then it starts to get very tricky. (So I used the PD player editor thing!)
Also, it has support for a serial connection thing. Would it be possible for somebody to write a program or Relocatable module that would let you play the game over the Internet? Or even just over the modem, which would of course be more expensive in terms of phonebills.
Just a thought!
TTFN,
| |_|
|an | |oggarth e-mail: i...@hogg.demon.co.uk
Toby Haynes
Ian Hoggarth <i...@hogg.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Berty wrote:
>
>>>> Maybe accepted was the wrong word, how about 'this has become the
>>> standard'? The guy who owns the A1200 I was talking about is really fond
>>> of the Archimedes, he loves its 'serious' software ie Impression,
>>> Artworks but takes a very dim view of its games with the exception of
>>> SF3000 and SR2000 which he played constantly. And I have to agree, some
>>> good games, some brilliantly quirky games (three cheers for Berty!) and
>>> a whole lot of dross.
>
>Does everyone love SR2000 or what?! BTW, what is the highest level anyone
>can get onto? I managed about the 3rd round-type-thingy, 2nd race I think,
>but then it starts to get very tricky. (So I used the PD player editor
>thing!)
is just the best track of the original - not too difficult - just requires
a lot of practice :) Extra Tracks are more fun - and the first one is
nearly impossible to get right without cheating - there is a big jump
onto a banked curve which requires awesome speed. This requires some
heavy tinkering with the gears so that the car is optimised for this
part of the track. Quite frankly though, most of the rest are pretty
straightforward - excepting the final track, I have completed the lot!
But - has anyone managed to work out the track format so an editor could
be designed - the idea of being able make jumps through loop-the-loops
and so forth we be excellent.
Cheers,
Toby
PS How about a fastest lap competition? Pick a course! No cheating now :)
--
_______________________________________________________________________
Toby Haynes | "Huge gangs of tough, sinewy men roam the valleys
Rm 924, MRAO | terrifying people with their close harmony singing"
Uni. of Cambridge | Blackadder III on Wales
Robert R. Chasmer
> Woo Eterna, now there were some good games..
> (just a shame about the game play in cartoon line :/)
>
> Has anyone got any of their eterna games working with RiscOS 3.1, I
> upgraded after they went bust and havent played a game od thiers since :-(
>
> If any one has got any sudgestions about the protection that they used on
> the disks I would be very greatfull..
Oh yes, I really would please my sister if I could get bubble fair
working again. She couldn't understand why I had to upgrade from Risc OS
2 to 3. As far as she was concerned it just stoped !Bubble from working.
Rob, with a pile of old games that refuse to run on either Risc OS 3.1 or 3.5
-- _____ __ __ ___ ______ __ __
/ __ // / / // | / ____/ / / / / Name : Robert R. Chasmer
/ / /_// /_/ // /| | \ \__ | |/ / E-mail : ch...@city.ac.uk
/ / __ / __ // /_| | \__ \ \ / Course : BSc Computer Science, Yr 2
/ /_/ // / / // __ | ____| | / / Location : City University, London, UK
/_____//_/ /_//_/ |_|/______/ / / http://web.city.ac.uk/~cb159/index.html
________________________________/ /
/_________________________________/ (C) KAOS 95, Acorn Computers for ever.
Berty
A.G.J...@durham.ac.uk (A G Jackson) wrote:
> In article <19950508....@wossname.demon.co.uk>, Be...@wossname.demon.co.uk (Berty) writes:
> > I have! I have! You think the new game is an improvement, I guess you'll have seen
> > it by now, huh? Less than half finished as it is with the graphics STILL needing
> > much rejigging.
>
> Um... Which new game would that be?
My new arcadey adventury type of thing, alas still unnamed! Anyway, you wont
be able to ger your hands on it until October, but I might post a screen or
two from it here for a little criticism. Needs bags more puzzles and new
characters, optimising and a bit bigger map, some tidying up of graphics,
a title sequence and a name yet! Should be good tho'
Berty.
L.J. Gretton
Toby Haynes <tj...@mrao.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>But - has anyone managed to work out the track format so an editor could
>be designed - the idea of being able make jumps through loop-the-loops
>and so forth we be excellent.
I started working on this after I wrote a driver file editor, but exams and all
the other usual distractions got in the way. However, my finals will bo over in
two weeks, and this is one project I'll start working on again. No idea how
successful the outcome will be though...
Liam
Toby Haynes
Simon Challands <sgc...@york.ac.uk> wrote:
>Toby Haynes (tj...@mrao.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
>: PS How about a fastest lap competition? Pick a course! No cheating now :)
>
>Interesting idea. That aforetmentioned Speedway circuit? To prevent cheating,
>the winner could always post a recording of his/her fastest lap somewhere.
Excellent idea - just where? Recordings are fairly short
(about 24k IIRC)- maybe we could put them onto comp.binaries.acorn?
Any objections to that? Cos then we could admire the skill and speed
of a good powersliding course :-) Otherwise it will have to be done via
uuencoded mail. Ill have a look at the courses tonight and try and pick
a couple of favourites. Hmm maybe Speedway.....
Cheers,
Toby
Sam Pay
tj...@mrao.cam.ac.uk (Toby Haynes) wrote:
<stuff deleted)
> I'll have a look at the courses tonight and try and pick
> a couple of favourites. Hmm maybe Speedway.....
>
> Cheers,
> Toby
I would like to take part, but me being the sad person that I am, I could
not. The reason for this is that I havn't managed to get past track 3,
league 1!!!!! (Cringe)
would it be possible for someone to e-mail me a driver for whatever track
the test would be on, solely for the purpose of this race? After all, this
is a test of DRIVING capabilitys, not experience. (Stands by to receve
various comments 'bout my driving skill)
Sam
P.S: Would anyone be interested in doing a killer game league using the
modem connection facility in the prog, or isn't that possible? I've never
tryed it!
--
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d8" "8b 88 8b,
Y8, 88 `8b
`Y8aaaaa, ,adPPYYba, 88,dPYba,adPYba, 88 a8P,adPPYYba, 88 88
`"""""8b, "" `Y8 88P' 88" '8a 88Y88888P" "" `Y8 88 88
`8b ,adPPPPP88 88 88 88 88 ,adPPPPP88 88 88
Y8a a8P 88, ,88 88 88 88 88 88, ,88 Y8, ,88
"Y88888P" `"8bbdP"Y8 88 88 88 88 `"8bbdP"Y8 `Y88bbd"88
8b
Replies to S...@stsm.demon.co.uk Y8a a8P
Flames to anywhere else. "Y8888P"
... See that Abacus, That's your hard drive that is.
Ian Hoggarth
> I would like to take part, but me being the sad person that I am, I could
> not. The reason for this is that I havn't managed to get past track 3,
> league 1!!!!! (Cringe) would it be possible for someone to e-mail me a
> driver for whatever track the test would be on, solely for the purpose of
> this race? After all, this is a test of DRIVING capabilitys, not
> experience. (Stands by to receve various comments 'bout my driving skill)
You can FTP a program called "StuntED" from a few FTP sites. I'm not sure
which though. This prog will let you edit your SR200 players and let you
qualify wherever you like!
Actually, I've just looked and you can FTP it from HENSA. It's file:
"micros/arch/riscos/d/d017/stunted.arc" and is 63760 bytes long. Write back
in this newsgroup when you're all set up!
TTFN,
| |_|
|an | |oggarth i...@hogg.demon.co.uk
Simon Challands
: In article <3p7afu$o...@mailer.york.ac.uk>,
: Simon Challands <sgc...@york.ac.uk> wrote:
: >Toby Haynes (tj...@mrao.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
: >: PS How about a fastest lap competition? Pick a course! No cheating now :)
: >
: >Interesting idea. That aforetmentioned Speedway circuit? To prevent cheating,
: >the winner could always post a recording of his/her fastest lap somewhere.
: Excellent idea - just where? Recordings are fairly short
: (about 24k IIRC)- maybe we could put them onto comp.binaries.acorn?
: Any objections to that? Cos then we could admire the skill and speed
: of a good powersliding course :-) Otherwise it will have to be done via
Don't think that I can get any binary groups here. Well, I don't mind having
it mailed to me if that's the only way.
Simon Challands
E:DEMONSPOOLMAIL
Hoggarth) writes:
>
> Toby Haynes wrote:
>
> > PS How about a fastest lap competition? Pick a course! No cheating now
:)
>
> I'll let you pick the track (only the originals though, coz I don't have
the
> new ones). You are allowed full 100% nitros, megaboosts, tyres etc. and
we'll
> see who gets the fastest.
> Do you think doing it in a solo practice would be best? Once you've
decided
> which track it is to be (any you like coz I've got the SR2000 player
editor),
> let me know in this newsgroup so everyone else knows, and post your
> *truthful* results in this newsgroup with a subject "SR200 Fastest Lap
> Competition".
> So, whaddya say? :-)
I havn't got SR2000 at the moment (lent it to a friend 6 months ago)
but I would recomend the speed track (League 2 Track 2or3 I think)
it's good, not too hard and very fast!
--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\-/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\ "Smoke me a kipper... Can you do that?" -Ace Rimmer /
+-----------------------------------------------------+
/ david...@theridge.demon.co.uk \
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/-\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Sam Pay
i...@hogg.demon.co.uk (Ian Hoggarth) wrote:
Thanks Ian. I have got my car, so where is the race?
--
ad88888ba 8888888ba,
d8" "8b 88 8b,
Y8, 88 `8b
`Y8aaaaa, ,adPPYYba, 88,dPYba,adPYba, 88 a8P,adPPYYba, 88 88
`"""""8b, "" `Y8 88P' 88" '8a 88Y88888P" "" `Y8 88 88
`8b ,adPPPPP88 88 88 88 88 ,adPPPPP88 88 88
Y8a a8P 88, ,88 88 88 88 88 88, ,88 Y8, ,88
"Y88888P" `"8bbdP"Y8 88 88 88 88 `"8bbdP"Y8 `Y88bbd"88
8b
Replies to S...@stsm.demon.co.uk Y8a a8P
Flames to anywhere else "Y8888P"
Pentium PCs make a mistake 9 times out of 9.835935284937258295
Scott
>
>
> PS How about a fastest lap competition? Pick a course! No cheating now :)
> --
Count me in....what course???
Scott...
Ian Hoggarth
> Thanks Ian. I have got my car, so where is the race?
Sorry Sam! I haven't been able to log on to Demon for a few days as they
are having a "dispute" with Yorkshire electricity over the Hull PoP which
has meant that Hull Demon has been offline. Anyway, if you let me look at
StuntRacer tonight, I'll post a message tommorrow sometime letting you and
everybody else know of the track name and number and we'll get on with it!
So, who's in?! (No cheating allowed.)
Simon Challands
: Sam Pay wrote:
Count me in it! I did have another idea, one that is a lot more complicated
and time-consuming, but could have potential. Instead of just one fastest lap
competition, we have several (on different tracks), and award points for
each person who has entered (e.g. 10 for fastest lap, 6 for second, and so
on), and after a certain number of tracks the winner is (obviously) the
person with the most points. The problem with this is one of time and message
propogation (York always seems to be a few days behind), and I have exams
approaching. After exams I only have two weeks before I'm off home and away
from my net access (anyone want to pay for me to keep it going through
Summer? :-)
Simon Challands
Ian Hoggarth
Stunt Racer 200 Competition Please Read
Please also read news posting " ##**SR2000 league starts here**## "
Simon Challands wrote:
> Count me in it! I did have another idea, one that is a lot more
> complicated and time-consuming, but could have potential. Instead of just
> one fastest lap competition, we have several (on different tracks), and
> award points for each person who has entered (e.g. 10 for fastest lap, 6
> for second, and so on), and after a certain number of tracks the winner is
> (obviously) the person with the most points.
Hey! This could have *great* potential! Right then, what do you (and
everyone else who owns SR2000) say to this:
Tonight, I'll go through the tracks and pick out 4 suitable tracks. I'll
post the names of the tracks onto this newsgroup tommorrow, maybe late
tonight... You will then have until, say Sunday to submit your fastest lap
times on the various different tracks, Ok?
However *SUBMIT THE LAP TIMES TO ME* (NOT TO THIS NEWWGROUP), that way you
won't find out other peoples fastest lap times until I post the full list in
this newsgroup.
I will select a track from each of the different "series" in the original
tracks, so there will be one from the first (v. easy), one from the next
(easy), one from the next (tricky, and one from the last (rock hard!).
Now, if the first one is a success, and everyone is happy with it, what
would anyone say to a whole season of SR2000 comps. Everyone does their
fastest laps on various tracks, and posts them to me, and I will post the
results every Monday morning/Sunday evening. (It may have to take place
every fortnight).
***THIS IS A BRIEF OUTLINE***
***PLEASE MAIL ME IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS REGARDING A SR2000 COMPETITION***
_________________________________________________________
Any questions should be mailed to sr2...@hogg.demon.co.uk
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
IF IT IS OK WITH EVERYBODY ELSE, I WILL POST A SET OF
RULES/REGULATIONS/POINTS FOR A WIN ETC. TOMMORROW. THESE WILL BE UPDATED ON
THURSDAY IF I RECEIVE ANY POST REGARDING RULES/IDEAS ETC.
棗棗棗棗櫁櫁櫃櫃櫃槞槞槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槞槞槞櫃櫃棛棛棗棗棗
�...the message poster formerly known as Ian Hoggarth...
i...@hogg.demon.co.uk
棗棗棗棗櫁櫁櫃櫃櫃槞槞槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槝槞槞槞櫃櫃棛棛棗棗棗