Totally speculative bicolour 8x8 Jetman ideas…

[DoctorRad]

Resurrecting some ideas from four decades ago, I got sketching… I can't get inline images working, so here's a Google album where I'll also throw any more that I do…

https://photos.app.goo.gl/C5CcoPk4VFRWS8jHA

[PeterJ]

Hi @DoctorRad,

Are you also @Dr_Rad? If so, we need to merge accounts.

You can't upload images (we don't have the storage space). Most users use sites like imgbb. Then you can include images in posts. PM me if you need any help.

[R-Tape]

Very cool UDG. It's funny how so simple an arrangement is obviously someone wielding a bloody big gun! (Pew Pew )

Is it supposed to be straddling more than one character cell? Because you've got too many colours per section in those pics. If you draw them in ZX-Paintbrush as a .btile, it forces you to obey the bicolour restrictions.

[DoctorRad]

I thought it would need 9x9 or 10x10 to work, but this is pretty good I think.

The walking is monochrome with a one-pixel horizontal resolution and one foot staying put during the step, with a twanging aerial. I would like the aerial to twang back to vertical when stationary, I guess, and also when descending.

The flying is Nirvana bicolour with a four-pixel horizontal resolution because of bicolour restrictions, and would also have to be two-pixel vertical resolution for the same reason. If I ever get around to programming anything around this, I would have to do full monochrome first to get everything right, I think… probably in ZX Basic. Been a loooong time since I got my hands dirty with Z80 assembler

[DoctorRad]

Are you also @Dr_Rad? If so, we need to merge accounts.

I've only ever used the full spelling as far as I remember

[DoctorRad]

Let's try again with some image embedding then… I changed the head slightly to make it more helmet-like, I think I prefer it this way.

[DoctorRad]

Is it supposed to be straddling more than one character cell? Because you've got too many colours per section in those pics. If you draw them in ZX-Paintbrush as a .btile, it forces you to obey the bicolour restrictions.

Doh! Yes, for some reason I'd got it in my head that btiles allowed 4x2 colour resolution, when of course it's 8x2, so flying needs revisiting.

[DoctorRad]

A couple more ideas…

Stealth mode: no comms or firing, so aerial retracted and gun away.


Shielded mode (with a turn off part way) like stealth, only with a modicum of protection.

[DoctorRad]

Standing and then flying (without vertical movement for now). I'd like to get the jet exhaust more 'raggedy', but there's limited scope in 8x16.

[Joefish]

Nirvana doesn't let you do 4x2 attributes. A multicolour-enhanced attribute still takes up the whole 8-pixel width of a character cell, even when it's only 1 or 2 pixels high. It doesn't offer any improvements or smooth stepping to attributes in the horizontal direction. If you look at multicolour games where sprites do move in 1- or 2-pixel horizontal steps (e.g. Space Monsters Meets The Hardy), you'll see the sprites are carefully designed so that the attributes can be applied in bands, so that the same colour applies from one side of the sprite to the other. Then the sprite can move horizontally without changing its attributes.

You could maybe do something with 4-pixel horizontal movement. When the man is flying, put his feet in a seated position, and if you can manage a 4-pixel horizontal gap between his feet and the rocket plume, maybe you can always place them in separate coloured character cells horizontally even with a 4-pixel step in movement. But you would be dealing with a sprite 2 characters wide.

In fact, if you're going for 4-pixel horizontal movement, then your sprite is going to need a 16-pixel wide frame. So why not make the character 12-pixels wide? That gives you more detail, and will still fit in that 16-pixel wide frame in either of the 4-pixel positions you need it in.

[DoctorRad]

When I was deluding myself that Nirvana could do 4x2 colour, I was thinking that a 12x12 grid would be possible, rather than 12x12 characters on a 16x16 grid… but obviously that's not possible. However, there may be some scope for 10x10 or 12x12 sprites to simplify animation.

I'm honestly just a bag of ideas at the moment. The original idea I resurrected from the '80s was called 'Jetpatrol', which would basically have been a Scramble / Defender side scrolling shooter. The kind of things that interest me now are more around procedural generation of worlds / platformers / caverns, which I'm trying to work out how to utilise and combine into some sort of world-building game based around sustainability and habitability, fighting against a robot force which seeks to plunder for raw materials. Action segments with puzzle, strategy and a Dan Dare-alike aesthetic are where I'm going at the moment.

This is basically art - and possibly eventually coding - therapy for me at the moment, so no idea how far I will get