Spectrum Computing

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!

Damn, these are impressive!

Would two oxen, a sheep, and three goats be enough compensation, if I humbly asked you to redo the loading screen for my shoot-’em-up?

Pretty good, but it doesn't wow me as much as your others. IMO the layout's not quite right and it feels a bit lifeless.

(Sorry, your fault for setting the bar so high )

Thanks for the reminder about Hex Loader, sold.

Nowt wrong with being honest with your opinion, R Tape!! I had several ideas floating around (lots of colour, actual background pic, etc.) but decided to keep to the theme and style of the comic (all in black and white so used minimal colours in the pic with the red/blue bars to give it a "ready for action" look) which Dan Whitehead is really pleased with. I did think about adding a mixture of colour to the Wombat but because of the level of detail, would have resulted in a lot of colour clash, or disfigured sections to compensate. Like I said before, I'm not a professional pixel artist (honest!) and do these because I enjoy doing them.

Back to my roots of doing alternative loading screens. This time for Maziacs. A game I absolutely loved on the Spectrum and ZX81 (called Mazogs). Below is my tribute to this brilliant game.

Great screen for a great game

A couple more...

This one is an alternative loading screen for Galaxian (Atarisoft):




Alternative loading screen for Invaders (Artic Computing. Also known as - wait for it - Space Invaders):

Great stuff Andy! Please don't stop

If I may ask, what are your next plans?

Great work, Andy, as always.

Where've they gone? I saw them this morning and they looked great.

Combat Wombat also encouraged me to buy the 2 issues of Hexloader by the way A good read and interesting to see where it goes, although each issue was a bit short.

R-Tape - yeah, I noticed that yesterday the images weren't there. Showing now though. Must had been a glitch! Well, showing on mobile....



Ralf - pixel art is on hold at the moment. I lost my grip on a cup of tea and it spilled over half my laptop. Quick as a flash I upended it and disconnected all connections. Dried it all out. Fortunately, the laptop is functioning as it was before the spillage. Unfortumately, all USB ports are fried. I use a wired mouse to do screens (laptop doesn't have a wireless port). Taking it to repair shop tomorrow to get an estimate. Hopefully its not going to cost a lot otherwise Im going to habe to wait until I get enough money. After Christmas is not a good time financially lol. My wife said I can use her laptop if need be when shes not using it. Just got to transfer all my art folders and program across. I've had the laptop 5 years. First time I've spilled anything on it.

Andy Green wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:35 pm My wife said I can use her laptop if need be when shes not using it.

Find out which beverage it favors lest you spill something that’s not up its alley on it.

One word: Graph Paper.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:41 pm One word: Graph Paper.

Goes soggy.

Ralf wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:09 pm Great stuff Andy! Please don't stop

If I may ask, what are your next plans?

After much encouragement from many, I've finally set up my own Facebook page seeing as I can't do any pixel art at the moment.

Feel free to Like or comment my page. There is also Amiga art I've done too.

https://www.facebook.com/AndyGreenPixelArt/

Liked!

Thanks, Ralf!

A couple of new ones added - Pac-man and The Chaos Engine. Yep, you read that right. I'm trying a new project called "What if.... <Game name> was released on the ZX Spectrum?".

Great stuff as ever!

( Okay, Pacman is a bit simpler than your usual stuff )

And sure, don't be afraid with loading screens and mockups for games that never happened. It would be cool to see them harnessed in a grid of Spectrum attributes

I would just like to suggest that you make the page public, so that anyone can enjoy you art.
Currently facebook puts a nag screen in the bottom, that fills the entire screen once you start to scroll.

This happens, if you do not have a facebook account or if you are not logged in.

Andy Green wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2018 5:57 pm I'm trying a new project called "What if.... <Game name> was released on the ZX Spectrum?".

I like the idea!

Neat. I'm sure you've got projects and requests coming out of your ears but I'll mention one that needs some love just in case it tickles your fancy - Splat!