Spectrum Computing

Andy Green wrote: ↑Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:57 pm Below is my personalised version of the Quahappy screen.

Ah, very nice!

I thought of "Another world" for a second there.

Andy Green wrote: ↑Sun Jul 22, 2018 5:01 pm What if... Flashback was released on the ZX Spectrum? This is my mock-up screen.

I agree with Ralf about the protagonist (perhaps all black pixels, refined and a bit smaller - more like Target Renegade) but the rest is great. I'm sure you have a huge list of requests but in a similar vein I'd love to see a mockup of Future Wars, the player would be nearly the same

In fact I'd love to see the full Future Wars game on the Speccy!

Future Wars is on my list.

For the observant amongst you, you'll notice that Conrad is no longer is colour but in black instead (image is linked to ZX Art website) to emulate an actual ZX Spectrum sprite. Now all we need is to see him in motion! I hope this mock-up screen version meets approval.

Andy Green wrote: ↑Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:21 am For the observant amongst you, you'll notice that Conrad is no longer is colour but in black instead

Good. I think the coloured one from earier today was terrible. This is much better

Andy Green wrote: ↑Sun Jul 22, 2018 5:01 pm What if... Flashback was released on the ZX Spectrum? This is my mock-up screen.

Flashback & Another World for the Spectrum, ... mmmm!

NOTE TO CODERS:WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR???

Great improvement for the hero!

And now it looks like a real Spectrum game, not a fake Colourful sprites may look fancy for a layman but if you know Spectrum a little bit
you realize that in many cases it wouldn't work well in an actual game when everything is moving.

And speaking of this mansion picture:


when I saw it I remembered loading screen for Ghost Hunters:



Was it some kind of inspiration for you Andy?
Of course your picture is much,much better !

I also see similarities with the intro screen in Rocky Horror Show, with the 'Enter at your Own Risk' message.

I think the inspiration came from the cover of an old DOS game called 'The Legacy'

I think the inspiration came from the cover of an old DOS game called 'The Legacy'

Good spot!
On the other hand all these creepy old mansions look similar, don't they?

Yep. It's from The Legacy although I had no idea at the time when I drew it and only found out the other day. I was provided some images by the game developer for inspirations. I think it was also the cover for a paperback. Couldn't tell you which one though.

New stuff from Andy:

Airborne Ranger

http://zxart.ee/eng/authors/a/andy-gree ... e-ranger1/

It's for this game:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=95

Pretty as usual, her's the original loading screen for direct comparison. Not total crap but truly humble when compared to Andy's work:

This pic demonstrates how hard is drawing faces!

Yes, drawing faces is hard. I did some for my own games and can only confirm. Personally I always struggle with... noses

And people usually turn a lot more attention for faces than for other things. That's our nature.

I recall reading that in modern 3D games where characters are 3D models made of polygons, heads use 50% of polygons of whole model's body even if proportionally head makes maybe 15% of body or so. Heads and faces must be really detailed.

So every wrong detail is immediately noticed. And in pixel art with low resolution one pixel may change all face, from pretty to ugly, from smiling to angry...

Both great screens. Andy's bothered with proper colours which makes it feel more complete for me.

The small soldier on the right is interesting. Andy's gone for the muscular tough guy with black eyes and the tough jutting jaw of a wrestler, the original shows a relatively weedy youngster looking meek, possibly even scared, illustrating the harsh realities of war.

Ralf wrote: ↑Fri Aug 03, 2018 8:16 pm New stuff from Andy:

Airborne Ranger

Great stuff, as usual!
A rare instance of when the original artwork is actually in landscape orientation:

Not trying to be overly critical, but there are some stuff that jump out has not great at first sight.

The soldier on the right, has the lighting reversed (highlight from the right side) on his face and neck, when compared with the rest of the screen or even the original artwork.

The nose of the main character, looks like it has 3 nostrils.
Those thick pixels on the right, make it look really odd.

That white highlight out of the left side of "ranger", could be disguised better.

Couple of new alternative game loading screens:

Roller Coaster (Elite, 1984). Loved (and loathed) this fast and frantic game.



Auf Wiedersehen Pet (Tynesoft, 1984). Loved this TV comedy series back in the day. I bought the game with high expectations. Turned out to be rather disappointing. So decided to do the TV version justice with this screen. Although to be perfectly honest and while I'm honoured many do like my pixel art, I have been determined to get over the obstacle of drawing faces which is quite difficult with few pixels so forgive me if some of the characters are not an entire match.

Nice as usual !

Thanks, Ralf!

Here's another in my What if.... this game was released on the ZX Spectrum? It's First Samurai. An excellent platform game that I had on the Amiga.

A couple more...

'Autumnal journey as dusk'. This one completed my seasons set (Wintry Lodge, Reflections of Tranquillity and Morning expedition)


'The Italian Job'. Fan art screen based on the classic 1969 movie.

Andy Green wrote: ↑Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:27 am
'The Italian Job'. Fan art screen based on the classic 1969 movie.

Great screen and (why not?) a great idea for a game

Andy Green wrote: ↑Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:27 am 'Autumnal journey as dusk'. This one completed my seasons set (Wintry Lodge, Reflections of Tranquillity and Morning expedition)

Could you post the rest of these, or links to them -- as I've not sure I've seen them? That autumnal one is about to become my new Windows 10 wallpaper...

Scott.

Here you go Scott

Wintry Lodge



Reflections of Tranquillity (Spring)



Morning expedition (Summer)



All these and more can be found at ZX Art: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/a/andy-green1/ and my Facebook pixel art page (also contains time lapse videos of tgese being drawn): https://www.facebook.com/AndyGreenPixelArt/