Treasure Island Dizzy - alternative colour scheme

[Lee Bee]

Here's my idea for an alternative colour scheme for Treasure Island Dizzy (which I call "Colour Island Dizzy"). Only the attribute colours are changed, nothing else.



I'm not sure if it would actually be possible to make a mod version like this, but if anyone wanted to try, I'd be happy to provide attribute data for every single screen

[TMD2003]

You'd have to dive deep into the code to see how the Olivers handled the graphics. I'd suspect that just recolouring the beach with eight different attribute was never part of the original plan, and those mountain effectsa in the background would take up even more memory.

At least, I don't think it would be possible on the 48K model, but all that extra memory on the 128K can't all have been taken up with the AY soundtrack...

[Lee Bee]

Great reply, thanks!

I really had no idea if it would be possible, or how attribute data is typically stored in these sort of games: Tile-by-tile? In big blocks? Some kind of compression? Or colours just linked directly to sprites? (AndyC reckons it's more like this last one, with paper always black.)

Anyway, this is just my little fantasy (Should have done Fantasy World!) My version of the colours is actually how I "remember" this game in my head - just looking more sunny and daytime-ish.

I thought I'd just throw the idea out there in case anyone ever did some kind of mod. Long-term I'd also like to see this game modded to allow multiple lives, so if you drop the snorkel underwater, it reappears in your inventory when you start again.

At least, I don't think it would be possible on the 48K model, but all that extra memory on the 128K can't all have been taken up with the AY soundtrack...

I also wonder how much space is used by the "Welcome back" speech sample which plays very rarely and some may deem could be dropped?

[Ralf]

It looks nice but I wonder if your colours would be possible without rewriting all the game.

Let's take palm leaves as example. In the original they are all green, in your version they are green with yellow tips.
So your approach requires that each 8x8 pixel area has its own attribute, stored somewhere in the memory.
But is's actually quite possible that inside the code the leaves are a single object having a single colour. In such case
you can't make it more colourful.

Another example, some stone may be red everywhere in the original but have different colours in different locations in
your version. Again it would be impossible to include such info with a simple hack.

I don't promise anything but may try to look into the code and confirm my guesses.

[AndyC]

If I remember correctly, the screens are built from a list of instructions like "platform", "tree trunk" "hut", "palm leaves" etc, with each item being defined a colour. So each drawn item would have to be one colour, as would the entire background (I assume this was to make it easier on the C64 where high resolution mode has an overall shared background. Probably also avoids weird situations when the data is mapped onto the CPC four colour screen where an object could end up with the same foreground/background colour).

[Lee Bee]

I've just checked and there are 510 tiles per screen × 64 screens = 62640 tiles in the full map.

So you couldn't map out every individual tile colour in the 48k version. Even if you only mapped the ink colour, you'd still need a spare 31k.

Then again, I guess a "special edition" mod like this doesn't strictly need to be 48k. But whatever way it was done, it would require new code to assign the tile colours, and that's far bigger in scope than I was originally thinking!

But if anyone ever wants to do it, I can supply all the colour data!

[Ralf]

But if anyone ever wants to do it, I can supply all the colour data!

Finding a coder to turn your graphics into a real game could be hard but maybe you could make a map of the game made of them and
show it here?

Personally I would really like to see it and I guess many people would like too. This recolouring are really nice.

[Lee Bee]

maybe you could make a map of the game made of them and show it here?

Personally I would really like to see it and I guess many people would like too. This recolouring are really nice.

Thanks Ralf I love colour and I know you do too! I've already planned out a lot of ideas about what I'd do for Treasure Island Dizzy, but I haven't created the full map yet and wouldn't want to put all the effort in unless it was going to be used, so for now I will leave this, sorry!

[Lethargeek]

not bad, except the blue boulders (better make it different bright reds) and not sure about the sky/water bright use
as the bright is shared for ink and paper, it will look more like shading than faraway mountains
also underwater sand line look very jagged and eye-soaring

so maybe make it simpler: everything sky bright1, everything underwater (below the wave row) bright0

[TMD2003]

not bad, except the blue boulders (better make it different bright reds)...
so maybe make it simpler: everything sky bright1, everything underwater (below the wave row) bright0

And here is where we run into a terminal problem - I don't know why I didn't see this before. The first two Dizzy games had a characteristic which was probably part of the game engine (I haven't disassembled the entire game so I couldn't confirm it absolutely, but my observations tell me it's 99% likely to be true) - BRIGHT 1 was for background objects that Dizzy could pass through, BRIGHT 0 was for solid objects. You can see it in the opening screen of the original game, with the well, cauldron and the platform in the tree - these are all BRIGHT 0, but the tree and the leaves are BRIGHT 1. And in the opening two screens of Treasure Island Dizzy, the chest is BRIGHT 1, but drop it by the cliff and it's BRIGHT 0.

Fantasy World Dizzy and the following games are a different can of worms - the "BRIGHT 0 = solid" rule no longer applied, so that there could be hidden platforms in the trees and the Amazingly Annoying Illusion under the docks. So these games, onwards, could be recoloured with BRIGHT wherever it's wanted.

Or, for a larger project, Treasure Island Dizzy could be rewritten with the Dizzy Scripting Engine, or Gogin's version from Dizzy Underground (which stopped that game from being the dreaded Distribution Denied), or the one from Crystal Kingdom Dizzy 2017...

[spider]

Here's my idea for an alternative colour scheme for Treasure Island Dizzy (which I call "Colour Island Dizzy"). Only the attribute colours are changed, nothing else.

That does look very good.

I'll confess that I'm not a fan of Dizzy games at all (sorry everyone) but I do like what you've done there.

If I remember correctly, the screens are built from a list of instructions like "platform", "tree trunk" "hut", "palm leaves" etc, with each item being defined a colour. So each drawn item would have to be one colour, as would the entire background (I assume this was to make it easier on the C64 where high resolution mode has an overall shared background. Probably also avoids weird situations when the data is mapped onto the CPC four colour screen where an object could end up with the same foreground/background colour).

That sounds vaguely like (iirc) how Technician Ted has its room data stored, a list of instructions well sort of.

[Ralf]

That sounds vaguely like (iirc) how Technician Ted has its room data stored, a list of instructions well sort of.

I would say it's a very common way (b approach below), from my experience I would say there are two main approaches to store location data:

a) full tile map

A location is made of regular tiles which all are equal size, let's say 16x16 pixels. We store location as table of tile numbers,
ordered by rows or columns like:

5,7,6,5,8
8,3,4,6,7
3,4,5,1,5
3,3,3,2,5
6,7,2,6,8

Please notice that you don't have to keep coordinates for each tile, they are determined by position of the tile in the table.
Spectrum attributes actually work this way.

b) list of objects, object numbers with coordinates

Object1_Nr, Object1_X, Object1_Y
Object2_Nr, Object2_X, Object2_Y
Object3_Nr, Object3_X, Object3_Y
...

Each approach has good and bad sides and workes better in certain cases.

[Lee Bee]

not sure about the sky/water bright use as the bright is shared for ink and paper, it will look more like shading than faraway mountains

Good point. My 'background hills' did accidentally have some mixed brightness. I've corrected this now (below) and I don't consider this a problem any more. It looks fine IMHO:

also underwater sand line look very jagged and eye-soaring

I know what you mean, though it doesn't bother me. Anyway, that kind of terrain only occurs in a couple of screens of the game, so it's not a big issue. As for the multi-coloured underground rocks - I think it looks fun and atmospheric I'll take your views into consideration though, and thanks for your suggestions, I'll try them out!

And here is where we run into a terminal problem […in the original 2 Dizzy games] BRIGHT 1 was for background objects that Dizzy could pass through, BRIGHT 0 was for solid objects.

Fascinating! As a huge Dizzy fan, this is something I never noticed before about those games! But it does not concern me at all. I certainly would not call it a "terminal problem"! LOL

Like it or not, this is my own re-imagining of how I'd like the game to look (you could call it "skinning"!). Any colour "rules" from the original game don't apply to me. Other people are welcome to come up with their own interpretations, this is mine.

I don't actually like the idea of "background" objects being brighter than the foreground - background scenery is normally more faded (this happens in nature, with far away objects fading into the sky colour). So to me, this "rule" seems logically backward, and overturning it would seem like an improvement. The creators themselves may likely agree, since they dropped this from subsequent games, as you say.

I say all of this with immense respect to the creators. I'm not saying the original game "needed fixing", I'm just presenting an alternative, for fun! But I will say that I am a fan of George Lucas, and his idea of remastering and special editions!

[redballoon]

Ah no, the bright 0 blue between the palm trees still uses bright 1 yellow for the sand in the same attribute.

[AndyC]

I don't actually like the idea of "background" objects being brighter than the foreground - background scenery is normally more faded (this happens in nature, with far away objects fading into the sky colour). So to me, this "rule" seems logically backward, and overturning it would seem like an improvement. The creators themselves may likely agree, since they dropped this from subsequent games, as you say.

I suspect it mostly because they wanted the game to appear bright and the vast majority of it is background that Dizzy can walk past. Having the non-passable objects be darker lets the code cheat by checking attributes before moving rather than having to maintain a whole separate array of whether part of the screen is passable or not. It's not uncommon for 8-bit games to sneak a bit of extra memory space by reusing data in this kind of way.

[Lee Bee]

Ah no, the bright 0 blue between the palm trees still uses bright 1 yellow for the sand in the same attribute.

LOL, oops.

I have to say, this was only a sketch, not a final product, and I'm not particularly worried about the 'hills'. I could leave them off entirely if I had to, it's just a small enhancement. I've sketched 3 possible solutions below:

1) Adjust the sand brightness:



2) Move the hills so they're not behind slopes:



3) Make the hills black:



Or I could lose the hills from this screen, it's not important. I use hills on other screens where there is no brightness problem.

[AndyC]

It's great work anyway. It's amazing how much it is like the Treasure Island Dizzy my head imagines playing back in the day, even if that's actually somewhat distanced from the reality.

[Lee Bee]

It's amazing how much it is like the Treasure Island Dizzy my head imagines playing back in the day, even if that's actually somewhat distanced from the reality.

Just goes to show how the Spectrum engages one's imagination! A bit like radio drama. You construct a lot of it in your mind. I remember Treasure Island Dizzy having blue skies and can almost hear the waves splashing

[Lethargeek]

not sure about the sky/water bright use as the bright is shared for ink and paper, it will look more like shading than faraway mountains

Good point. My 'background hills' did accidentally have some mixed brightness. I've corrected this now (below) and I don't consider this a problem any more. It looks fine IMHO:

erm, i didn't mean that but, if you move Dizzy over the "hill" it will become grey instead of white, like in the shadows

as for the sand, another problem is that bright underwater sand doesn't look "underwater"
to me it looks like a perspective projection only for this part of the pic with shoreline moving towards the observer

[Lee Bee]

bright underwater sand doesn't look "underwater"
to me it looks like a perspective projection only for this part of the pic with shoreline moving towards the observer

Good point! I'll definitely keep that in mind (if I'm ever required to create the full thing!)

if you move Dizzy over the "hill" [he] will become grey instead of white, like in the shadows

Colour clash has always been a problem - when Dizzy walks in front of red trees, he turns red, and this is a LOT more distracting than him turning grey.

My own solution for colour clash (this would require special coding) is for Dizzy to "force" bright white only in a small area:

[RMartins]

...
My own solution for colour clash (this would require special coding) is for Dizzy to "force" bright white only in a small area:

You could also embrace the gray white as being in shadow, if the screen was properly filled so that would happen in the proper areas.

[RMartins]

The stairs like look on the sand, doesn't look nice at all.

Like someone mentioned previously, make the sand at water level and above, BRIGHT:1 and the remaining sand (below water level) BRIGHT:0. That will look a lot more natural, overall.

The sun only shines on top

I would also suggest to color the water wave lines, using CYAN for INK and BLUE for PAPER( like it is already).

[Lee Bee]

make the sand at water level and above, BRIGHT:1 and the remaining sand (below water level) BRIGHT:0. That will look a lot more natural, overall.

I would also suggest to color the water wave lines, using CYAN for INK

Good call, Rui! Here are the changes:

[Einar Saukas]

Now underwater area (at the bottom right) has bright blue water and non-bright yellow sand in the same square.

[Lee Bee]

Now underwater area (at the bottom right) has bright blue water and non-bright yellow sand in the same square.

Oops! Sorry.