Spectrum Computing

It's always interesting to see the original
heres Kane:


quite an improvement Sir!

I like that Styx one on yer profile page too

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

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


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!

The original is informative too!

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!

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.

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

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

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.

FANTASTIC! please consider doing one for next year's Xmas tape mag.

Thrust at the top of the LH tree.

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.

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.

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.



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

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.



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!

I wondered about that one, in fact there were a few that I looked at twice or thrice.



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

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

Stoppppppp! Your mind is playing tricks on you now lol.

Andy Green wrote: ↑Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:42 am

Sorry, but I need to retouch a bit your image...

Heh, the festive 'spot the difference' competition?

EDIT - got it, must be blind.

Now the man on the left looks like he is without trousers

Ralf wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:56 pm Now the man on the left looks like he is without trousers

Not if we set bit 7.

I'm sure Andy will be happy to see his screen getting incrementally better...

R-Tape wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:15 pm

Ralf wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:56 pm Now the man on the left looks like he is without trousers

Not if we set bit 7.

I'm sure Andy will be happy to see history screen getting incrementally better...

Excellent. He looked like he was flashing and now he definitely is

I like a lot how the colors were uaed in the winter scene screen.
They give the right feeling of cold and hot, and dark and light.

But there is something that bugs the hell out of me.

The house roof is larger/taller on the front side.
This sense of size is given by the black shadow around the windows on the left.

RMartins wrote: ↑Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:27 pm But there is something that bugs the hell out of me.

The house roof is larger/taller on the front side.
This sense of size is given by the black shadow around the windows on the left.

Ha now you've said it I can't tell. Is it technically wrong or just asymmetric?

It's not unheard of for ski lodges to gave asymmetric rooves. I'm not sure about the windows though, they're flat-on on two sides, which makes the perspective seem a bit off. Not sure you can work around that and the attribute limitations though...

Now that you made me look at it again ...
The roof is higher on top, on the left side of the chimney than on the right.

One could probably retract the roof a bit, to make it center over the windows,
But only trying it will tell, if it works.

Cool screen anyway

Thanks for the kind comments and Happy New Year to you all by the way!

Re: Kane. I love how you guys have changed the skin colour which ironically, I had also played about with before I saw the amended images here LOL. Yellow does seem to suit the two characters on left while leaving the Indian in magenta.

Re: Horace and Friends Ski Lodge. The lodge roof is isometrically correct as I had copied it from a photo I found online although the windows could've been better placed but put anywhere else would've resulted in attribute clash. Although the more I keep looking at it, the more I want to "fine-tune" it lol.

I topped off 2017 with a new loading screen. This time for a fictitious game called Combat Wombat from a comic called Hex Loader that is set in the British computer games industry of the 1980s featuring the humble 48K Spectrum. It's written by Dan Whitehead (veteran games journalist and author of Speccy Nation books). Dan asked if I'd be interested in doing one for him and I couldn't refuse! I have to say that this one has been a real test of my pixel skills and it's taken me considerably longer to do than any others I've done (around 10 hours). Anyhow, hope you all like it!