Aliens: Neoplasma

[PeterJ]

Now available for the Spectrum Next

✓ PROCESSED

https://zxonline.net/game/alien-game/

[Jbizzel]

I saw this today..looks fab. So excited to fire this up tonight.

Great to see quality coming through for the next

[oO cozy Oo]

Just played this and its very good......Lets hope the Next software titles continue to get better.......

[Lee Bee]

Awesome game. Similar to the amazing Delta's Shadow, also on the Next.

Is it Neoplasma or Neoplasms?

[PeterJ]

It's Neoplasma @Lee Bee. I will edit the post titles. My bad.

[HEXdidnt]

Impressed and puzzled by this game, in equal measure.

The version for original Spectrums looks great, plays well... and then there's the 'upgraded' version on the Next, which uses much the same assets with only minor improvements, as well as the same push-scrolling, which leads to some awkward encounters every now and then. Doesn't really seem to showcase what the machine is capable of... Kinda reminds me of my earliest experiments in porting Spectrum graphics over to the SAM Coupé, to be honest.

Still, great game to play.

[Chris23235]

Impressed and puzzled by this game, in equal measure.

The version for original Spectrums looks great, plays well... and then there's the 'upgraded' version on the Next, which uses much the same assets with only minor improvements, as well as the same push-scrolling, which leads to some awkward encounters every now and then. Doesn't really seem to showcase what the machine is capable of... Kinda reminds me of my earliest experiments in porting Spectrum graphics over to the SAM Coupé, to be honest.

Still, great game to play.

It was never meant to showcase the possibilities of the Next, porting their Spectrum version to the next was a short project after Sanchez Crew finished Vradraks Revenge and looked for something smaller to do. Last thing they said was they will do a full fletched sequel for the Next as their upcoming project. If this happens my guess is it will be a much better showcase for the machine (just as Vradraks Revenge already is).

[SaNchez]

The sequel is planned in the same style as the first part. After the release of Treasure Hunters and Vradak's Revenge, we did some research and came to the conclusion that we need to use the improved features of Next very carefully, as it is very easy to cross the line and the game will lose its Spectrum identity. In my opinion, in the first Neoplasma and Delta's Shadow we kept the feel of Spectrum, and in the near future we plan to stick to the same style.

[HEXdidnt]

It was never meant to showcase the possibilities of the Next, porting their Spectrum version to the next was a short project after Sanchez Crew finished Vradraks Revenge and looked for something smaller to do. Last thing they said was they will do a full fletched sequel for the Next as their upcoming project. If this happens my guess is it will be a much better showcase for the machine (just as Vradraks Revenge already is).

Put like that, it makes a lot of sense.

...we did some research and came to the conclusion that we need to use the improved features of Next very carefully, as it is very easy to cross the line and the game will lose its Spectrum identity.

Oh, I agree absolutely with that - there are some already that have gone completely overboard with the graphics, particularly in the sense of excessive anti-aliasing, but all that does is bring any flaws in the game mechanics into sharper relief, in the sense of "this could have been great, if it weren't for..."

I'd also agree with the sentiment that there's a very fine line before games lose their 'Spectrum identity'. It'd be all too easy to make a game that looks like it could be on the NES or Sega Master System, for example. My only concern for the Next is that, much like a lot of games for the SAM Coupé, people will look at screenshots and video and think "Well, that's not much better than the Spectrum... so why bother?"

To be more specific regarding my original statement, there are elements of scenery where the harsh, square edges of attribute blocks are apparent where they needn't be, which tends to draw my attention away from how great everything else looks. The trick to maintaining the Spectrum feel while making use of the Next's capabilities (in my opinion, so very subjective and your mileage may vary) is to keep the anti-aliasing to a minimum while still taking advantage of the greater freedom offered without the 2-colours-per-attribute-square limit - more along the lines of the Vradark games, in fact.

Ultimately, though, this is just one graphic artist whinging "that's not how I would have done it", so to be taken with a large pinch of salt, not least because I don't even have a Next yet.

Very eager to see a sequel to Neoplasma!

[stupidget]

I really can't wait to get my NEXT in Oct/Nov (hopefully). Many of the initial games for the NEXT tended to look like Amiga games which, for me, was not what I was expecting. I was hoping for the NEXT to deliver games that would look and feel like the evolution of the Spectrum family and seeing games like Aliens: Neoplasma and Tiny Pete really do have that Speccy look and feel, but with zero colour clash and better sound.

[Joefish]

Is that running in a 256 colour mode then? Or is it something like Timex Multicolour with enhanced palette, then sprites on top?
The game looks like it could still be 8x1 attributes, but the score panel suggests per-pixel colours.

[Seven.FFF]

Is that running in a 256 colour mode then? Or is it something like Timex Multicolour with enhanced palette, then sprites on top?
The game looks like it could still be 8x1 attributes, but the score panel suggests per-pixel colours.

In this game's configuration:

Backgrounds are layer 2 256x192, which has 256 palette entries chosen from a total set of 512 (RGB333). Any of the entries can be designated as transparent, but in this case nothing is being shown behind this layer.

Player and other moving objects are 16x16 hardware sprites in a 320x256 canvas, which also has 256 palette entries chosen from a total set of 512 (RGB333), organized as 16 subpalettes with max 16 colours per sprite. Any of the 16 indices can be designated as transparent, so the transparency sticks when the dev switches to a different subpalette. The game logic constrains sprites to 256x192 in this case. It is possible to have compound sprites that move, rotate and scale (in power of two increments) in relation to an anchor sprite, but I'm not sure if these are being used here for the larger objects such as the player.

The parts that look like 8x1 attributes are just an art design choice not a tech constraint. Many other stacked layer configurations are possible, but this game keeps it quite simple. You could just as easily constrain this game design further, so the palette entries are defined with standard Spectrum colours. This would give the mythical "like Spectrum but without colour clash" effect that most users seem to want but most devs are not very interested in catering for.

For anyone interested in the hardware coding possibilities, these two register and port documents fully describe the hardware as seen from the software. Most people, even many devs, tend to prefer a more plain english technical reference, so you may prefer this book a user wrote (PDF and printed copy). It does also have a lot of general Z80 stuff in there that most devs would already know.

[Joefish]

Thanks. Is the 320x256 canvas effectively a borderless overscan mode, such that the inner pixels line up behind the ordinary 256x192 canvas?

[Seven.FFF]

Thanks. Is the 320x256 canvas effectively a borderless overscan mode, such that the inner pixels line up behind the ordinary 256x192 canvas?

Yes, exactly that. There's a flag to turn off that overscan too.

Layer 2 and hardware tilemap also have 320x256 and 640x256 options, and those follow the same 32px-in-each-direction overscan idea. The 640x* modes, as you'd expect, use timex-hires-shaped pixels.

[Chris23235]

The sequel is planned in the same style as the first part. After the release of Treasure Hunters and Vradak's Revenge, we did some research and came to the conclusion that we need to use the improved features of Next very carefully, as it is very easy to cross the line and the game will lose its Spectrum identity. In my opinion, in the first Neoplasma and Delta's Shadow we kept the feel of Spectrum, and in the near future we plan to stick to the same style.

I think you pretty much nailed it with Delta's Shadow, I played it on the Omni and on the Next and while the Next version is even more a looker then the 128 version and even feels better due to the faster scrolling (compared to an Omni running in Turbo mode) both versions had a very distinctive Speccy feel to them.

[Seven.FFF]

The Next does have both instantaneous hardware scrolling and clipping, independently per layer, so that's another thing that can free up CPU cycles for other purposes, almost for free.

The technique is to hardware scroll in one or two of the four directions one line at a time, and then simply redraw the new edge(s) which wrapped and are being replaced. DMA or LDIR can easily handle the horizontal line redraws, and there is a next custom opcode specifically intended for vertical line replacement - LDWS, which is basically an LDIR which increments L and D instead of HL and DE.

One of the conveniences of a 256x192 1-byte-per-pixel screen is you can map all 48K at $0000, and then address $YYXX corresponds to pixel $XX, $YY so the copy is conceptually simple. There are other ways you can map this into the 64K memory space too, but this is the simplest.

The easiest way to do it is to keep a full 256x192 visible, and always do your redrawing in the bottom border/VBI/top border to avoid tearing. Or you can clip one line off each of the four edges (it's unlikely a user will notice or care if they have a 254x190 game) and then you can redraw at any point in the frame.

You can also use clipping to scroll only the main game area easily enough. Set up the clipping windows so that the HUD is drawn in a different non-overlapping layer from the scrolling part.

Actually, you could Next-enhance a standard Spectrum flip screen game by doing a superfast hardware scroll of the standard ULA 6192 byte screen during the flip transitions. It would look pretty similar to the Aliens Neoplasma flip-scroll effect.

[The_Guy222]

The sequel is planned in the same style as the first part. After the release of Treasure Hunters and Vradak's Revenge, we did some research and came to the conclusion that we need to use the improved features of Next very carefully, as it is very easy to cross the line and the game will lose its Spectrum identity. In my opinion, in the first Neoplasma and Delta's Shadow we kept the feel of Spectrum, and in the near future we plan to stick to the same style.

Love your games.

When it comes to "classic Spectrum" vs. NEXT, I wonder if that's something to take advantage of.

There's a Commodore 64 game called "Doc Cosmos," where you have to switch between '1983' and '1987' modes, which are a gameplay/graphics conceit to celebrate the advancement of C64 graphics over that time.



So there could conceivably be a Spectrum NEXT game at some point where you switch between "48K" mode and "NEXT mode." Call it what you like. But you could really highlight, explore, and enjoy those differences.


But anyway, on making "authentic" games for the NEXT.

Authenticity



I am new to the ZX Spectrum, so not the best person to comment on this.

But when I think of improving for 'modern Spectrum,' I think of little touches. Like Torches that can flicker through colours without clashing vs. the background.

Like, you could make a 'Spectrum-shaped' level, but with lights and moving conveyors and detail touches that can exist on their own within Spectrum-sized blocks.


Look at Tiny Dungeons for example. An impressive game:



But, being a 128K game, parts of it are more clearly stuck in Spectrum land.

The moving characters have to be B & W. The torches have a black background. The colours are very gaudy.


On the Spectrum NEXT, you could have colourful sprites that don't clash. You could have a less-gaudy pallette. You could have multi-coloured torch flames that don't clash with the tile below.

So there's one way you could port a game to the NEXT, improving it and keeping its Spectrum-ness.


Neoplasma


For me, Aliens: Neoplasma on the NEXT was fine, but it would have been okay to have a background starfield layer in the windows, and similar. Fake coloured lighting below the lights, on wall decals. Richer creature animations. Some chunky wall blocks could be massaged into more subtle shapes.

What would be really great to see in Spectrum NEXT games is some more depth of gameplay, using the greater RAM and cycles available. You know, more variables like oxygen supply, more 'analog-style' mechanics, flashier inventory and map screens - you know, things you have to cut out when you only have 48-128 K of RAM.

What if Neoplasma for the next had more weapons? Mods? Degradation? Secrets? Bouncier grenades?

So I think Spectrum+NEXT can allow for more mechanics and better interfaces, while still keeping Spectrum-like level design.

[Pegaz]

Love your games.

When it comes to "classic Spectrum" vs. NEXT, I wonder if that's something to take advantage of.

There's a Commodore 64 game called "Doc Cosmos," where you have to switch between '1983' and '1987' modes, which are a gameplay/graphics conceit to celebrate the advancement of C64 graphics over that time.



So there could conceivably be a Spectrum NEXT game at some point where you switch between "48K" mode and "NEXT mode." Call it what you like. But you could really highlight, explore, and enjoy those differences.

Yes, I like such a feature, something similar exists in the modded uncut version of Spectre of Baghdad.
The gameplay and graphics has been further improved, but also its possible to choose highres or multicolor sprites and different color schemes at the beginning of the game.
The main sprite is already done in highres overly tehnic, so visually the game looks impressive.
On Spectrum, I remember that in Three weeks in paradise, it was possible to turn on/off Wally's sprite color on the fly, which prevented color clash, but there may be better examples...

[Twig]

Only played it for a little while (and died a bit!), but so far I'm really enjoying it. Reminds me a bit of Duke 2, lots of running around hitting switches and opening doors.