Spectrum Computing

Hello Spectrum people!
New member here, but very old speccy user/fan, since 1984...

Well, I was watching a video of the fabulous "Fruity Frank" game from Kuma on an Amstrad CPC recently and started wondering if porting of this game is nowadays possible on the speccy. With multicolour sprite engines like Nirvana/Bifrost, this shouldn't be impossible anymore. The code could be ported with minor/major modifications from the CPC or the MSX version, and on a 48k speccy with AY soundchip (or a 128) the music could be directly added. The only tricky part would be creating the background gfx and multicolour sprites from scratch.

I know there is already the excellent "Farmer Jack" game from Bob Smith with similar gameplay, but I'd really like to see "the real" Fruity Frank on the Spectrum, in a version as close as possible to the Kuma original. In fact it's one of the VERY few games that I really like on the infamous CPC platform and even though it's somehow a clone of "Mr.Do!" arcade, IMHO it's (still) the most entertaining game of its gender to play on a 8-bit home computer.

Unfortunately I'm not a coder myself, to try this out...
So..., any bold and daring Z80 coders here, to fulfill this holy quest?

kokkiklhs wrote: ↑Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:39 am Hello Spectrum people!

Welcome kokkiklhs! Unusual name!

After the Farmer Jack series there is another MrDo clone in the works. Both choose to embrace colour clash and make it look very good, but I agree a bicolour version would be pretty cool. I don't think it would be a simple port though.

Unfortunately I'm not a coder myself, to try this out...
So..., any bold and daring Z80 coders here, to fulfill this holy quest?

Can you do graphics? You should grab ZX-Paintbrush and do some .btile mockups and see if any coders take the bait

...I do like Mr Do type games.

As R-Tape suggests, one challenge is how to handle the thin borders defining the tunnels; it's difficult to avoid the colour clash which makes it stand out as a Speccy game. Still better than having a mostly monochrome screen though.

Wow, thank you for the welcome and for your ideas/answers, gentlemen!
[mention]R-Tape[/mention], my nickname is greek, doesn't mean something specific and it's supposed to be pronounced koh-kee-klees (like Perikles, Damocles etc.)!
As for graphics, I didn't know about this tool, looks like fun! I may try it, not a bad idea at all!

kokkiklhs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:16 am Wow, thank you for the welcome and for your ideas/answers, gentlemen!
@R-Tape, my nickname is greek, doesn't mean something specific and it's supposed to be pronounced koh-kee-klees (like Perikles, Damocles etc.)!
As for graphics, I didn't know about this tool, looks like fun! I may try it, not a bad idea at all!

Wait, they're not pronounced Pericalls and Damockles. Mind blown. Childhood ruined.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:35 pm

kokkiklhs wrote: ↑Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:39 am Hello Spectrum people!

Welcome kokkiklhs! Unusual name!

I agree, ewgf would be much better.

The challenge would be how to make the horizontal movements look good. The vertical 2 px ones would be smooth enough but would it be incongruous with the horizontal 8 px chunks that will be be (presumably) unavoidable?

Pegaz wrote: ↑Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:21 am I agree, ewgf would be much better.

Careful please, ewgf would be very welcome here (though we might have to increase the words/post limit!) but be aware that there is more than one fan of Mr Do! out there.

I apologize to kokkiklhs, ewgf and all the other Mr Do! fans..., just couldnt resist ...

Spud wrote: ↑Tue Jul 03, 2018 9:57 am Wait, they're not pronounced Pericalls and Damockles. Mind blown. Childhood ruined.

WARNING - brief lesson of greek language follows
Nahhh, the correct greek pronounciation is Pae-ree-klees and Da-moh-klees, respectively! All these names ending with -klees (from greek κλέος=kleos=glory) are being accentuated on the last syllabe.

So, to be ultra-precise with pronounciation, we have Pae-ree-klEEs, Thah-moh-klEEs, koh-kee-klEEs and so on.
Pericles (Περικλής) comes from περί=peri=around+kleos=glory, so this name means a person surrounded by glory.
Damocles (Δαμοκλής-the Δ is actually pronounced in greek like TH in this/that/them etc. and NOT like a D) comes from δήμος/δάμος=damos=people+kleos, so it means glory of/to the people.
kokkiklhs (κοκκικλής) comes from κόκκος=kokkos=means nothing specific+kleos, so it means the glory of kokkos!

Please note the accentuation points over the last "η" on the greek words, which give a clue for the right intonation. Also the "h" letter in my english nickname represents the greek "η" which is in fact pronounced "i", as do the letters "ι, υ, ει, οι, υι" in greek! Easy-peasy!!!

Actually....

WARNING - pedantic classicist

Pericles and Damocles are Classical names. The pronunciation of Greek at that time was quite different from modern Greek. For example, the first letter of Damocles (delta) was then pronounced like an English D, not a modern Greek delta.

The standard English pronunciations of Pericles and Damocles stress the initial syllable: PE-rik-lees and DAM-uh-klees.

Of course a contemporary Greek would pronounce both words differently, and I bow to your authority on the pronunciation of those names in modern Greek.

I don't believe either of you. I'm sticking with Da-mock-alls

You're all wrong. I refer to the time-travelling Bill and Ted, of Bill & Ted's Adventure, greeting philosopher Socrates as "So Crates!"

How about Fruity Frank, then?

After almost 3 years of our previous philological argument on the correct greek names pronounciation .....
...and after the release of the excellent Mr.Do! port for the Speccy, I see no further progress on the subject of this topic...
So I am calling all Speccy coders from around the world to have a look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-6kDNuVSwg

Notice that the colours that this game uses are more or less similar to the Speccy 8+7 palette (apart from some purple, which could be replaced by dark blue). So the original graphics for a multicolour attempt are almost ready from the MSX version... The music is 100% ready and I don't know if part of the disassembled code could be used as well, with the required adjustments.
Would it be THAT difficult???

Yesterday we were celebrating the 39th anniversary of our beloved Spectrum, so this could be a nice project for the 40th, perhaps???