Spectrum Computing

I'll ask the creator of the video if he is still in contact with Bo and if he'll allow SC to host Fairlight.

Ah, aces, R-Tape, in that case I'll put your name down for purchasing the movie poster print. I've got to put my child through university somehow...

I found it most interesting, that fact that the guy had already explored the multicolor route, usnig the attribute sync replacement with the raster, but found it too limiting, by using a lot of CPU.

Some games, already used it, in a small band, at the time, but mostly if not all, on menus or static screens.

If he would have explored it further, back then, he might have been known as Einar Saukas

redballoon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2018 8:37 pm It’s a decent idea but I refer you to my previous comment I did try a flagpole but I removed it pretty quickly for various reasons. The main non-technical one is that there should be no flagpole.

OK, no flag pole then.

Another possible idea, is to transform the top from having 4 top stones into 5 or just 3.

You can keep the side ones untouched, since they are small enough, and just convert the middle ones.

redballoon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:47 pm I'll ask the creator of the video if he is still in contact with Bo and if he'll allow SC to host Fairlight.

Ah, aces, R-Tape, in that case I'll put your name down for purchasing the movie poster print. I've got to put my child through university somehow...

If he finds a demo of the multicolour game mentioned I'll pay for a year's worth of cheap cider for said offspring*, (as long as they're doing a proper subject).

*or two week's brewdog

RMartins wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:37 pm

redballoon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2018 8:37 pm It’s a decent idea but I refer you to my previous comment I did try a flagpole but I removed it pretty quickly for various reasons. The main non-technical one is that there should be no flagpole.

OK, no flag pole then.

Another possible idea, is to transform the top from having 4 top stones into 5 or just 3.

You can keep the side ones untouched, since they are small enough, and just convert the middle ones.

Nah, it’s done . Changing that to 5 or 3 would require the whole top of the turret to change to reflect that and adding to it means it no longer reflects the version in the film and that’s what it was done for. I also don’t really want to change it as that’s how I intended it, y’see? For lots of various reasons. One of the main ones is that I’ve already researched and planned the sh*t out of an illustration, which means I’m also going to exhaust and rule out things. I don’t get all George Lucas on my artwork and I don’t have all the time in the world to tinker with any of it. You have to know when to finish. I certainly only had a finite time to do this before it was on to the next paying freelance job and when that happens, the previous one is finished. You have to remember that this is a finished commission. It has went through a lot of planning, research and sketching and, as I’ve already mentioned, has reasoning behind everything within it.

The changes coming up for extended movie poster print of this will be to fill out the arch at the top and add the banner with the title and do the sill at the bottom then add the film details. I say fill out but it’s already roughly done as I didn’t finish those parts off when I applied the standard Spectrum screen resolution. The main illustration is finished so I won’t be touching that. I only have a short time to do all that then work starts on another book which has a deadline.

redballoon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:47 pm I'll ask the creator of the video if he is still in contact with Bo and if he'll allow SC to host Fairlight.

Bo Jangeborg mentioned in the video, unfortunately, that he doesn't hold the rights to Fairlight, that's still Softek/The Edge (there's a part about Polish developers wanting to do Fairlight on mobile devices). And considering how the owner of The Edge threatened legal action over the word Edge in various context...

The Grax graphics library sounds fascinating. And his approach to isometric (using a graphics library that can do patterened fills), over using sprites either repeated or sparsely for the backdrop/wall... that's the fundamental concept of the Infinity Engine, used to deliver the original Baldur's Gate.

Has anyone disassembled Fairlight and/or the Grax library? Since it was initially for adding graphics to text adventures, that might have been awesome added to Quill/GAC/PAW built games.

Enjoyed that interview, watched all of it in the end (in bits!). He seems like a cool sorta guy that it would be nice to meet at a retro/Speccy event.

Fairlight was probably my favourite of those iso 3D games - I liked the variety of different room sizes and styles in the game, from claustrophobic corridor rooms to the expansive open outside sections which seem to take up almost the full screen. It's cool to think how he managed that with a relatively small number fill textures. Possibly a reason why I was never that keen on Batman/HoH, which seemed a bit too derivative (graphically) of the Knight Lore style, which was spawning a lot of imitators in the mid 80s.

(Not to say they weren't bad games, just that they didn't really grab me for that reason. But then I didn't think Renegade 3 was that bad so what do I know... ).

I was also surprised to hear he hadn't completed Fairlight, I would have thought it would be a cinch for the author (it's not *too* difficult a game once you know exactly what to do).

More Interview with Bo.

This one is in Swedish and filmed 2014 in Västerås at Retrogathering a Swedish Retro-fair.
https://youtu.be/Zow_vjH_Fyw

This one is from another fair Pixel Heaven 2017
https://youtu.be/vV61QI6XmYY

Cheers
C