Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
- HEXdidnt
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Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
I recently posted about the announcement that Rob Evans/wubsoft will be giving his SAM version of Arkanoid II its public debut at RetCon this year. His plan is to make it a tribute to Imagine Software's home conversions - borrowing assets from the Atari ST version, much like the SAM versions of Rick Dangerous and Street Fighter.
This first came to my attention back in February, when I was asked to drop Rob a line asking if he would be interested in attending the show, little realising that I'd actually met him briefly at last year's event. He mentioned his current project and his aim to have it ready in time for the show so, because the RetCon crew love to have something special to show - and particularly now a couple of other GCC members have acquired SAMs - I offered to promote it ahead of time, and he provided a handful of early screenshots:
While not exactly 'involved' in this project, I did notice that the Vaus II pod in the Atari ST version is taller than the arcade sprite (9px tall, not including the shadow, vs 8px in the arcade original), and offered to put together a more arcade-accurate version. Since he'd already had to refer to the arcade game for some of the enemy sprites that weren't quite right on the ST, and vertical space was already somewhat compressed due to the SAM's smaller screen, he was happy to accept.
It's being coded with mouse control in mind, rather than keyboard or joystick, since that's the most precise control method available... and it's also great to have more software that actually makes use of a mouse on the SAM. The couple of very early builds I've seen look very promising. Keep an eye on wubsoft.org and his YouTube channel for more - there are a couple of videos specific to Arkanoid II already.
This first came to my attention back in February, when I was asked to drop Rob a line asking if he would be interested in attending the show, little realising that I'd actually met him briefly at last year's event. He mentioned his current project and his aim to have it ready in time for the show so, because the RetCon crew love to have something special to show - and particularly now a couple of other GCC members have acquired SAMs - I offered to promote it ahead of time, and he provided a handful of early screenshots:
While not exactly 'involved' in this project, I did notice that the Vaus II pod in the Atari ST version is taller than the arcade sprite (9px tall, not including the shadow, vs 8px in the arcade original), and offered to put together a more arcade-accurate version. Since he'd already had to refer to the arcade game for some of the enemy sprites that weren't quite right on the ST, and vertical space was already somewhat compressed due to the SAM's smaller screen, he was happy to accept.
It's being coded with mouse control in mind, rather than keyboard or joystick, since that's the most precise control method available... and it's also great to have more software that actually makes use of a mouse on the SAM. The couple of very early builds I've seen look very promising. Keep an eye on wubsoft.org and his YouTube channel for more - there are a couple of videos specific to Arkanoid II already.
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Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
Thanks to Gordon for posting about this here, I lurked for a bit and now I've made an account. What a great forum!
Everything is going well so far, but I have a couple of backup plans just in case the Sam starts to struggle with the large sprites from the Atari ST version. I'm only using the HEXDidn't bat sprites at the moment but Gord has also made a set of smaller sprites based off the Speccy version which would help a lot, and I'm also interested in doing a rotated 'tate' version in the future.
As you'd expect I'm having to make a few changes here and there and I'm not trying to copy every detail of the ST version. As long as I can create those moments of chaos, like when you get a multi-ball power-up and everything gets crazy for a few seconds, then I'll be happy enough.
Anyone who comes to RetCon will be able to have a copy of the game as it is on the day, but I could also do with some help play testing before then if anyone's interested and has the time. I probably won't be ready for that for another week or so, but I'll post updates here as things progress.
Everything is going well so far, but I have a couple of backup plans just in case the Sam starts to struggle with the large sprites from the Atari ST version. I'm only using the HEXDidn't bat sprites at the moment but Gord has also made a set of smaller sprites based off the Speccy version which would help a lot, and I'm also interested in doing a rotated 'tate' version in the future.
As you'd expect I'm having to make a few changes here and there and I'm not trying to copy every detail of the ST version. As long as I can create those moments of chaos, like when you get a multi-ball power-up and everything gets crazy for a few seconds, then I'll be happy enough.
Anyone who comes to RetCon will be able to have a copy of the game as it is on the day, but I could also do with some help play testing before then if anyone's interested and has the time. I probably won't be ready for that for another week or so, but I'll post updates here as things progress.
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
Always happy to help playtest as you know
Oh - this may be an obvious question, but Keyboard is ok as well as mouse?
Oh - this may be an obvious question, but Keyboard is ok as well as mouse?
Can also be found at SamstersVideos - which does occasionally update when I have time...
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
I'm afraid not! This is mouse only and I really can't see how you'd make keyboard or joystick input work for Arkanoid. You need to be able to get from one side of the screen to the other instantly to have any kind of a chance as it is!
As for play testing, I was hoping to have got a bit more done over the bank holiday weekend but it didn't quite turn out that way. A few more bugs need to be squished and then I'll post an update here.
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
Well, that's very interesting! Thanks for the heads up, I'd never heard of this before.
I've had a quick look at the gameplay on youtube and my initial thought is that the modern game looks considerably easier than the old versions, so the controls would be much less of an issue. That said, I'm up for having a go at recreating something like this if it would help non-mouse-owning Sam peeps.
I'm playing the ST version using my Kensington Orbit trackball via a USB->ST adaptor and I still can't get past about level 6 or 7 most of the time, it's a brutally difficult game!
- flatduckrecords
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Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
I'd be happy to take a look! I do have a mouse.
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
Thanks, I'll send you a PM when it's good to go!
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
May have to buy a mouse interface as mine got misplaced during a move.
Could be worth it though
Could be worth it though
Can also be found at SamstersVideos - which does occasionally update when I have time...
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
Definitely! I put it off for a long time but it's really useful to have, and not just for the games that make use of it. I used it for my Arkanoid level editor and also my sound FX editor and now I couldn't imagine going back to keyboard only for tools like that.
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
I'm sorry for the delay, I've finally had a bit of time to get this into a more working state. There's still plenty to do but I thought it was good enough for a quick teaser showing what it's looking like. I'm not sure why the image came out so small here, if you view it in another tab it's a bit bigger.
RetCon is less than two weeks away now so I'm not expecting to get everything done in time. The moving bricks and some of the more interesting powerups might not make it into the public demo but I'm very happy with how the project is going generally.
My goal is to have a demo ready for testing this weekend, which doesn't leave much time but I think it was always going to go this way. I've learned that programming to a deadline is not much fun and bugs suddenly seem to take longer to find..
More soon!
- flatduckrecords
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Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
If you go back to postlmg.cc and grab the "direct" link from the Share menu, you get a useful link to the original image which can be embedded here:
Anyway, this is looking great! Good luck getting ready for the con.
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
Thanks so much for this, that looks much better!flatduckrecords wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 4:33 pm If you go back to postlmg.cc and grab the "direct" link from the Share menu, you get a useful link to the original image which can be embedded here:
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
What about copyrights? I'd like to port some games from Amiga to ZX Spectrum Next just for fun not profit, but copyright issues, especially regarding to graphics, discourage me.
Re: Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh (ST Adaptation)
I wrote an email to Peter Johnson telling him that I'd been having a go at making a Sam version using his ST graphics and he seemed ok with it. He explained some of the 'making of' secrets which was very cool to hear about. He didn't suggest there would be any problems regarding copyright, although to be fair, I didn't ask.
I appreciate it's not always a popular opinion but I have a strong belief that a free game for an obscure 80's home micro like the Sam should be covered by some kind of 'fair use doctrine'. If I was explicitly sent a cease and desist I'd have to adhere to it, but I wouldn't be very pleased about it to say the least!
I've been reading the thread about the Manic Miner copyright recently so I realise my idealistic views don't always line up with reality! That said, there are all sorts of projects remaking old games for various retro systems that seem to get on just fine.
I can see why that may not hold true for a more modern system like the Next though so TL;DR: who knows!