ZX Recoloring project

[rg_software]

Didn't have time for an update yet... However, since several people mentioned that EmuZWin has a potential to do the job "the right way", I tried to investigate the state of that project. It seems that it is effectively abandoned, and the sources are given to Denis Grachev (given that he keeps them locked somewhere). So he is perhaps the only person who can modify the emulator now, and it seems it's far from trivial given its old codebase.

P.S. People suggest using EmuZWin 2.6 instead of 2.7 -- it seems that some bugs @geecab encountered appear on the 2.7 version only.

[ZXDunny]

I would start a new emulator from scratch tbh. They're not terribly hard, just laborious to get right. If all you intend to do is play recoloured games then the accuracy doesn't have to be anything like SpecEMU or its ilk.

[hikoki]

This project might be a good opportunity for the Sam Coupe

[ZXDunny]

This project might be a good opportunity for the Sam Coupe

I'm not sure the Sam Coupe, even with an accelerator, would be able to find and replace the graphics quickly enough.

[Stefan]

This project might be a good opportunity for the Sam Coupe

I'm not sure the Sam Coupe, even with an accelerator, would be able to find and replace the graphics quickly enough.

Even an optimised SAM Coupé port of any title will have trouble since it needs to move four times the amount of graphics data around with only a slightly faster z80.

[geecab]

Rebelstar II is coming on nicely I think. Julian Gollop was clearly influenced by the Aliens film when he programmed this, so I've always wanted to see a full on Aliens version of this game.

The main changes are the Aliens look more like the ones from the film (Black with no eyes). I've also replaced all the members of your squad with the names (and small images) of the film characters.

I replaced about 80 of the sprites (Got about 20 left to do) and as I'm just working with bitmaps in my favored editor it hasn't taken long. I can use the 'block' search feature in my settings.txt, and there hasn't been any performance problems.

[geecab]

Hi all!

The developer of the recoloring tool (rg_software) has been busy fixing bugs, improving performance and adding new features since his first release. The latest version works really well I think

Here is a quick preview of RebelstarII - with new graphics, fonts, music and sound effects. All achieved with the recoloring tool. I'll upload the entire game at some point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sTQy8_eQRw&t=1s

New RebelstarII features:

- All game graphics and fonts have been redrawn/recolored.
- The names of the raiders changed to those from the Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) films.
- Marine and Alien voice samples heard when squad members are selected.
- Menu music and in-game music.
- Motion tracker heard during 'fire mode'.
- Swamp Rat changed to a facehugger.
- Better ending screen.

[ZXDunny]

...do those Aliens have bows and swords?

[hikoki]

Would Super Off Road be a good candidate to be recoloured? Playability could be improved by giving the player a different colur as every car looks the same!

[Stefan]

Would Super Off Road be a good candidate to be recoloured? Playability could be improved by giving the player a different colur as every car looks the same!

I would expect that the same car sprite is used for all cars, so there is only one sprite to colour, resulting in all cars then having that colour.

[geecab]

To be honest hikoki, I would probably recommend that you just play the Arcade/Amiga/ST versions of Super Off Road. That would be the ideal look/sound that I'd be aiming for if I were to improve the Speccy version. That is, unless the Speccy version has something extra that the other versions don't?

This has got me thinking about 3D Stock Car Championship:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=4904
Used to love that game as a kid. Bit of a rubbish looking game with awful sound, but really fun with your mates (could have up to 4 players). I quite fancy giving that a make over sometime

[geecab]

Hi there!

Just thought I'd upload a shorter version of my RebelstarII video. Just wanted to mix together the interesting sections of gameplay and also include footage of the dropship, hopefully making it a bit more exciting for viewers

ZX Recoloring Project: Rebelstar II "Ripley's Revenge"

[geecab]

Hi there!

Thought I'd upload this video of Stormbringer - with new graphics and fonts. All achieved with the recoloring tool. I'll upload the entire game at some point:


ZX Recoloring Project: Stormbringer

[4thRock]

Looks great! My preference would be a more restrained graphic style (keep one colour per sprite, only use the Spectrum palette), but this really shows the potential for this technique! Looking forward

[geecab]

Cool thanks! I know what you mean about a more restrained graphic style. To be honest, I was going for the look of an ST/Amiga game. Incidentally, there was an Atari ST version of Stormbringer, but it wasn't the best

[geecab]

Hi again!

Here is a video of my quick attempt at adding sound and colour to Tomcat (by Players).

I bought this game when I was a kid. Liked the detailed graphics, but you couldn't see the tiny enemy bullets. As everything was the same colour, it was hard to distinguish the enemies, bullets and your own plane from each other. Also, the game was totally silent, no music or sound effects.

I've added menu music, in-game music and made the bullets large & bright blue so that you can see them. I've also added colour to the player's ship and enemies.

I could put more work into ensuring the enemies stay recoloured when other sprites/bullets invade their space, but didn't want to spend too much time on this - Wanted to keep it as an example of what can be achieved in a short space of time.

I still think it is a very unfair game, but being able to see your bullets definitely helps. I can now complete the first level without cheating!


ZX Recolouring Project: Tomcat

[4thRock]

I like this style, I think it improves gameplay and still feels 8-bit.

[toot_toot]

These look great, thanks for doing these!

Interesting choice with Tomcat, a couple of other similar games that could really benefit from coloured bullets are Slap Fight, Flying Shark and maybe even Uridium. Slap Fight in particular was a nightmare at the time, despite it being a decent conversion the amount of times you'd die because of invisible bullets.

[geecab]

Cheers, thanks for taking a look!

Interesting choice with Tomcat, a couple of other similar games that could really benefit from coloured bullets are Slap Fight, Flying Shark and maybe even Uridium. Slap Fight in particular was a nightmare at the time, despite it being a decent conversion the amount of times you'd die because of invisible bullets.

Unfortunately, I don't think the Slap Fight bullets can be recoloured using this tool. The Slap Fight bullets are just a block of 4 pixels, and those pixels get XOR'd as they travel over the landscape (So it would be really difficult for the tool to recognise them).

Flying Shark and Uridium would be good contenders though

[geecab]

Hi again!

Here is a quick video of my work so far with Micronaut One. The original game was silent apart from the 'click' sound when you pressed fire. I've added engine thrusters sound, lasers/sparks sound and title/menu/in-game music (David Whittaker). I've gave the dashboard a new colour scheme, added a red/green cross-hair as well as a few extra things


ZX Recoloring Project: Micronaut One

[4thRock]

could really benefit from coloured bullets

Indeed. Just give one colour (from the Spectrum palette) to each sprite and you can't go wrong.
Improves gameplay, looks nice and still feels like a Spectrum game

[geecab]

Hi again!

A quick preview of my work so far with Batty. I've just recoloured the bats, balls, aliens and bombs (In the original game they were the same colour as the background). I've added a 'get ready' chime, 'game over' chime and title/in-game music by Matthew Westcott (In the original game there were no chimes or music, only spot effects)


ZX Recoloring Project: Batty

[Alone Coder]

Recently we re-coloured Eric and the Floaters and Black Raven for 16 colours (NedoOS project).
This took time, but the result can be run at least on Russian clones (ATM Turbo 2 and on).

[Lethargeek]

Recently we re-coloured Eric and the Floaters and Black Raven for 16 colours (NedoOS project).
This took time, but the result can be run at least on Russian clones (ATM Turbo 2 and on).

Rewriting the original game code for a very different hardware should be called "porting" and "converting", not just "recoloring".