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New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:07 pm
by Ralf
I hope I'm posting in the right forum, we don't have specialized forum about graphics/art here.

If you don't visit Facebook or ZxArt (a really cool site with Spectrum graphics and music), you could miss that a new talented and very active man emerged recently in out little community. His name is Andy Green and he's doing new loading screens for games that missed them or had very poor ones.

Check them here:
http://zxart.ee/eng/authors/a/andy-green1/

Really good in my opinion.
There was also some work done to include these screens into proper tzx files with custom loaders but I can't find links at the moment.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:35 pm
by R-Tape
Ralf wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:07 pm If you don't visit Facebook
Haven't succumbed to it yet.
Ralf wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:07 pm or ZxArt
Oh yes.

All fantastic SCREEN$, if push came to shove I'd say Kong was my favourite.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:08 pm
by Pegaz
Great screens, MAC finally got competition. :)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:02 am
by Juan F. Ramirez
Thanks for the link. Really impressive stuff!

Jumping Jack or River Raid screens are amazing! I think both games needed improved ones... ;)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 8:43 am
by Ivanzx
Although I think MAC´s level is impossible to reach, Andy´s screen are also unbelievable and a pleasure to see in the original load of the games. Top Notch!

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 8:53 am
by Hikaru
Pretty nice. :)

Ano Gaia, please?

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2017 11:54 am
by redballoon
He's fair churning them out, isn't he? A great body of work for his portfolio, that's for sure.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 12:01 am
by Andy Green
Hey up all! Thank you very much for the very kind comments. I really appreciate it!

I use to do pixel art (both on Spectrum 48K and Commodore Amiga), all purely for own amusement. Sadly, the stuff I did on the Speccy are long gone. I had used OCP Art Studio and The Artist. With the Amiga, it was DPaint III.

Fast-forward several years and I wanted to have another go at pixel art again re-trying Art Studio/The Artist, but found them a tad slow going. So looked for an alternative. ZX Paintbrush is great but I found the wealth of options a bit too much (it's an age thing.... lol). So I settled on Multipaint, which has several 8-bit home computer modes. It's very basic and has a limited number of tools and all I require to draw pics is geometry shapes, a grid and a magnify mode. Stop the Express was the first I did. It gave me a real buzz seeing the end result and receiving positive comments from various Facebook groups so I continued to do more, trying different styles and basically improving with each one. I would never consider to be a "pro" (as I've been called a few times!) as I do these because I enjoy doing them. I've seen other artist's work at the ZX Art website and they are absolutely fantastic.

All I set out to do really, is create loading screens for games that never had one, or had little on them. It's never my intention to "better" those that already do have a decent loading screen as to me, that's discrediting the original artist.

Anyhow, the feedback certainly has been fantastic and it's been a privilage and honour for people to message me requesting pics for their new homebrew ZX Spectrum games as well!

Ralf is correct in saying that my loading screens had been integrated into the game files. These are all in tzx format that includes a turbo loader and "screen reveal" (this has been done by a talented guy called jp). If there's enough interest, I'd be more than happy to upload these somewhere (I think there's around 18 so far).

Thanks again for the kind comments. :D

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 10:44 am
by Ralf
Hello Andy, great to see you here !

You are making these screens at astonishing speed but please don't stop. Give us more, it's top quality 8-)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:42 am
by Andy Green
A couple more I've done recently... :)

Image

Image

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 2:21 am
by Wall_Axe
It's always interesting to see the original
heres Kane:
Image

quite an improvement Sir!

I like that Styx one on yer profile page too

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 11:42 am
by Ralf
This guy is incredible!

I don't remember ever, since 2003 when I started using Internet and browsing Spectrum news that anybody produced so much and so good quality loading screens for Spectrum games. What else can I say, waiting for even more :)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:43 pm
by R-Tape
Wall_Axe wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2017 2:21 am It's always interesting to see the original
heres Kane:
Image

quite an improvement Sir!
Oh I don't know, the original has a minimalist perfection to it, with a conjunctive practicality that perturbs the negative space within the the realm of discourse the distinctive formal juxtapositions.

(modified from an online art critic generator :-p)

It's weird that so many of the top graphic guys, Andy, MACBG, redballoon, Rorthron don't use the (IMO) best ZX graphics package out there!

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:46 am
by Wall_Axe
The original is informative too!

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 5:55 pm
by Rorthron
R-Tape wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:43 pmit's weird that so many of the top graphic guys, Andy, MACBG, redballoon, Rorthron don't use the (IMO) best ZX graphics package out there!
It's very kind of you to include me in this list, but I'm really not in the others' league. And if my graphics manage to look half-decent, it's probably in spite of my methods, not because of them!

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:21 pm
by Morkin
Nice screens, I like the way that some are for games that didn't have loading screens originally.

My favourites are probably 3D Tunnel and Styx. The Pyramid looks pretty cool too.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 11:08 pm
by 5MinuteRetro
Andy Green wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:42 am A couple more I've done recently... :)

Image

Image
Do you take requests? Not that I wish to lower the tone at all but... I always thought Soho Sex Quest deserved a decent loading screen ;)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:02 pm
by Andy Green
Here's a new one. This time not an alternative loading screen. I use to do scenic pics on the Amiga and wanted to prove to myself I could do the same on the Spectrum. So settled for a wintry scene, added a few Spectrum game characters and named the pic, Horace & Friends Ski Lodge. See if you can find them all. :)

Image

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:42 pm
by R-Tape
FANTASTIC! please consider doing one for next year's Xmas tape mag.

Thrust at the top of the LH tree.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:58 pm
by bob_fossil
Great stuff! Green Beret has his winter camouflage on to help him blend into the trunk of the left most tree. And I'm really hoping Robbie the robot is skating on top of the lake and not frozen solid underneath it. :)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:44 pm
by Ralf
This winter picture is great. On ZxArt there is also a version without Speccy characters.

I don't remeber if anybody before on Spectrum draw trees with combination of navy and white colours. They are most contrasting colours non black in Spectrum palette and it's looks really good.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:50 pm
by R-Tape
Yep^ I wish I could do a scene like this. For once the speccy palette has all it needs for a landscape - 5,1,7 for the icy exterior and 2,6 for the glowing warm shalet.

Image

Here are the easy ones, are there any craftily hidden ones?

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 10:12 pm
by Andy Green
R-Tape wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:50 pm Yep^ I wish I could do a scene like this. For once the speccy palette has all it needs for a landscape - 5,1,7 for the icy exterior and 2,6 for the glowing warm shalet.

Image

Here are the easy ones, are there any craftily hidden ones?
You've got 'em all! Well done! Nope, no hidden ones although one person did pick up on what looks like a face directly above Monty Mole. Wasn't the intention LOL.

Thank you all for your very kind comments on my pic though. Really appreciate it! :D

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:56 am
by R-Tape
I wondered about that one, in fact there were a few that I looked at twice or thrice.

Image

From left: sad mutant pig thing, nasty Tyrannosaurus, Maureen Tucker, vomiting Otter.

In fact the chimney's started looking at me funny....Nurse!

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 12:02 pm
by Andy Green
Stoppppppp! Your mind is playing tricks on you now lol. ;)