[Announce, and Artists for] Dan Dare: The recolourisation!

["@lycos.{co.unitedkingdom} >]

Through various dull technical routes, I have created 'Dan Dare: The
recolourisation', which runs the ZX Spectrum original of Dan Dare with
improved graphics. Unfortunately I'm dreadful at graphics, and the
person I found to help me had never even heard of Dan Dare and didn't
even realise that Treens have green skin.

Anyway, should anyone be in the mood for an afternoon's pixel painting
(or a look at what is already done), could they head over to
http://www.loomsoft.net/tdrh/ ? Everything is explained there.

-Thomas

["@lycos.{co.unitedkingdom} >]

> Anyway, should anyone be in the mood for an afternoon's pixel painting
> (or a look at what is already done), could they head over to
> http://www.loomsoft.net/tdrh/ ? Everything is explained there.

Or check out the mirror at http://tdrh.sulevi.org/ if you have any
problem with that. I would very much invite offers of hosting.

-Thomas

[Philip Kendall]

In article <4040c...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com>,

Any clue as to when the source will be available? (or possible even
better, a technical description of the algorithm used?)

Cheers,

Phil

--
Philip Kendall <pa...@srcf.ucam.org>
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/

["@lycos.{co.unitedkingdom} >]

> Any clue as to when the source will be available? (or possible even
> better, a technical description of the algorithm used?)

I've agreed temporary hosting for about a week on the servers already
named as an attempt to get real hosting. I'll definitely include source
on the real site. The algorithm is trivial, and is perfectly explained
by the chaps behind Spec256 - just do as it describes but use attribute
data as a palette table and you pretty much have what I have.

The emulator does work standalone, and will accept a mildly modified
version of .z80 as currently distributed to load any game which doesn't
require special tricks. The format is simple - every RAM page has its
real 16kb, then an additional 128kb holding the widened data. A new
page, 0xff, holds the game palette - 129*256*3 bytes, indexed as:

((attribute << 8) | (palette index))*3 + 0 = R
((attribute << 8) | (palette index))*3 + 0 = G
((attribute << 8) | (palette index))*3 + 0 = B

(128*256 | (palette index))*3 + 0 = R for 8bpp palette
(128*256 | (palette index))*3 + 1 = G for 8bpp palette
(128*256 | (palette index))*3 + 2 = B for 8bpp palette

The 8bpp palette is the one written to your PCs hardware if the emulator
is forced to run in 8bpp mode.

Z80s without extra information will run as per normal, as will snas or taps.

I'll document all this properly, I promise. Source will be open, to
encourage porting.

-Thomas

[the.sentinel]

"@lycos.{co.united kingdom}" <""ThomasHarte\"@lycos.{co.united kingdom}">

wrote in message news:4040c...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

hi!

this is great ... since Spec256 is no longer being updated with more games
it's good to know how it's done so others can do it. Best wishes!

--

=====================================

http://mondodizzy.members.easyspace.com/
.oOo. Pixeling .oOo.

[the.sentinel]

"@lycos.{co.united kingdom}" <""ThomasHarte\"@lycos.{co.united kingdom}">
wrote in message news:4040c...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

im on it. hopefully i can finish them and not screw it up by making a
mistake concerning the pallete.