Hypothetically... The Empire Strikes Back on the Spectrum

[HEXdidnt]

Off the back of some of my youthful pie-in-the-sky posts, I got talking with @willbrooker about the general concept of videogames as movie adaptations. He challenged me to create a pitch for a new game based upon The Empire Strikes Back, as it might/could have been made for the Spectrum, circa 1988.

Obviously, there are official Star Wars games - Domark's conversions of the Atari arcade games for the Spectrum, not to mention those on the consoles as well - that can't be completely ignored. Also, by 1988, Lucasfilm were taking charge of their properties and either creating games in-house, or at least publishing themselves, having outsourced development. Additionally, there's the fact that Ocean produced some amazing movie adaptations - possibly the most consistent in terms of overall quality and (attempted) fidelity to the source material - and I wanted to aim for that sort of feel.

Now, unencumbered as I am with any understanding of the coding side, there's always the risk that I'll come up with something completely unfeasible so, after putting together my proposal, I figured it would be worth sharing it here for a bit of a sense-check from anyone who has experience in coding.

Ultimately, I felt that the design should:

• Be as original as possible (in the sense of using as little as possible from existing Star Wars games), within the limits of what was possible on the ZX Spectrum back in 1988.
• Present as something that would be possible for both 48K and 128K machines.
• Have a discernible ‘Star Wars’ feel in its presentation.
• Follow at least part of the ESB story, preferably more than one scene, and without deviating too far from the established story.
• Take advantage of the hypothetical ‘licence’ as far as possible (scenery, music, etc.).
• Give the player access to as many vehicles and weapons from ESB as possible.
• Offer at least one lightsaber battle.
• Use more than one character throughout, maybe those who don’t often appear as player characters in games.

I figured that a fairly simplistic, horizontally-scrolling format would be within the capabilities of the Speccy - it's a common enough style, and some excellent examples exist. As a result, some sections ended up pretty similar to existing games (the Hoth sections, in particular, are quite like the Atari 2600 game, more recently adapted to the C64), but that ended up making it a little easier to develop some screenshot mockups (only three so far, but working on a couple more, and trying to figure out some others). The movie is broken down into six levels of game, across four main locations, and (hopefully) covering the main story beats, as follows:

Hoth:
Level 1: The Empire tracks the Rebels
Plot-central sequence establishing how/where the story begins, in which the tide is shown to have turned against the Rebellion, despite the destruction of the Death Star, as described in the movie’s opening text crawl.
Phase 1 - Luke investigating probes

• Foreshadowing the attack on the Rebel base.
• Traverse the icy landscape riding a Tauntaun.
• Follow probe signals and destroy them.
• Environmental hazards only or native creature enemies?
• Time limit for each probe before it locates Rebel installations dotted around the landscape and starts transmitting?
• Each probe requires several hits from Luke’s blaster.
• Wampa as end-of-level boss. After beating it, Luke collapses in the cold.
• Fail state: all energy/lives lost (Luke is lost on Hoth, the Empire eventually wipes out the Rebellion).

Phase 2 - Han rescuing Luke

• Luke is the main character, and must be rescued as he’s important later in the story.
• Similar setup to Level 1, tracing Luke’s last known location.
• Checkpoints at Rebel installations along the way, each indicating the direction of the next site (possibly via Obi-Wan’s Force ghost? Or only to indicate Luke’s actual location?).
• Environmental hazards only, active enemies or a time limit to find and rescue Luke?
• If enemies, more probes as enemies, Imperial Snow Troopers, native creatures?
• No end-of-level boss (necessary?). Possibly build shelter under time limit? Need to collect equipment (beacon, shelter, etc.) from Rebel stores before seeking Luke?
• Fail state: all energy/lives lost, Luke not found in time (Luke and Han are lost on Hoth, the Empire eventually wipes out the Rebellion).
• Deviates from the film, in that Luke investigates only one probe (of five) before getting captured by the Wampa. This could be considered a ‘lose state’, which isn’t a good way to start a game. Additionally, including the sequence where a trapped Luke Force-pulls his lightsaber would seem contrived in a game, despite being true to the film. Additionally, Han’s rescue attempt is described as dangerous, but little of it is shown, so it seems to be achieved easily, under the circumstances, with few complications.
• Controls: left/right - run; down - crouch (and dismount?); up - jump (and mount?); fire - blaster.

Level 2: Assault on the Rebel base
First major battle sequence. Arranged much like the Atari 2600/C64 Empire game, but set over just two waves rather than repeating endlessly with increasing difficulty/enemy numbers.
Phase 1 - vs AT-STs and ground troops, possibly split into a couple of waves of increasing difficulty.

• Defend the Rebels’ fixed gun and radar emplacements.
• Losing the guns means more AT-STs in the next wave.
• Ground troops only require a single hit.
• AT-STs move fast and require multiple hits to the cockpit (legs don’t register a hit and can be flown ‘through’).
• Main aim is to thin out the troops, thereby slowing the attack in Phase 2.
• Fail state: all energy/lives lost after being shot down, or all gun/radar emplacements lost (the Rebel base is defenceless, the fleet is destroyed before they can escape).
• Win state: at least one emplacement remaining when AT-STs and ground troops are all destroyed.

Phase 2 - vs AT-STs and AT-ATs moving toward the Rebels’ power station, possibly split into a couple of waves of increasing difficulty.

• Defend the power station and Rebel base against AT-ATs.
• AT-STs are tougher, based on the number of gun emplacements lost in the first phase?
• AT-ATs move slowly, but are only vulnerable at the cockpit and, even there, require a substantial number of hits (legs don’t register a hit, main body just absorbs everything so the ‘head’ can’t be shot from behind), or to tow-cable (requires flying around the AT-AT).
• Tow-cables must be fired while between an AT-AT’s legs, then weave around the legs to bind and topple them.
• Snowspeeder can only carry 1 tow-cable at a time, additional cables must be picked up from Rebel stockpiles dotted around the map, but the AT-ATs can destroy these stockpiles.
• Time limit, fighting as a distraction to allow the Rebel ships to escape?
• Fail state: all energy/lives lost after being shot down, Rebel base destroyed by AT-ATs (the Rebel fleet is destroyed before they can escape).
• Win state: all AT-ATs destroyed (AT-STs are effectively bonus points on final wave).
• Snowspeeder can take multiple hits before crashing then, in either wave, the player can continue on foot after being shot down, using blaster mainly, with lightsaber, grenades & grapple gun combo vs. AT-ATs, but loses a life after a single hit.
  If moving on foot, the player is vulnerable to fire from ground troops, AT-STs and AT-ATs. Can shoot ground troops, but AT-STs are tougher vs. hand blaster. AT-ATs vulnerable to attack from below via grappling hook (visual indicator on position, automatic action of climbing and lobbing a grenade inside once triggered).
• Controls: In snowspeeder, left, right, up, down - fly; fire - main guns; additional fire - launch tow cable.
  On foot, left/right - run; fire - blaster; additional fire - use grappling hook.

Dagobah:
Level 3: Luke’s training with Yoda
Plot-central scene - Luke’s first real Jedi training, in which he learns more about the Force from Yoda.

• Either direct control, or Track & Field-style joystick waggling (depending on the ‘event’?).
• Running through two or three increasingly complex/dangerous swampland assault courses: bogs, bog creatures, hills, branches, flying creatures, etc. to avoid; vines, trees, etc to climb/swing from.
• Luke is unarmed, and must avoid creatures.
• Altered jump mechanic from level 1 - short press gives a normal jump, hold gives a somersault?
• Force exercises between each course eg. lifting things while balancing on one hand, etc. - probably the best use of joystick waggling, with direct control in the assault courses. Lives are not lost due to failure, the player simply moves on to the next assault course.
• Lightsaber duel with phantom Vader at the end of the final assault course.
• Level ends with the raising of Luke’s X-Wing - deviates from the film in that success is possible for Luke. Failure simply results in Yoda raising the X-Wing, per the events of the film. Alternatively, Luke’s attempt is a sort of demo, which cannot be completed, after which the player takes control of Yoda?
• Lives lost upon failure?
• Fail state: all energy/lives lost during assault course stages or phantom Vader duel (Yoda convenes with Obi-Wan’s Force ghost: “That boy was our last hope” / “No, there is another…”).
• Win state: all courses completed, success in Force exercises, X-Wing raised.
• Controls: On foot, left/right - run; up/down - climb; fire - jump.
  Force exercises, left & right (fast) - build Force power; fire - activate (where appropriate).
  Duel, left/right - advance/retreat; up - jump; down - crouch; fire - swing lightsaber (also in combination with directions).

Deep Space:
Level 4: Millennium Falcon escape/asteroid field
Significant action set piece showcasing Han & Chewie’s piloting skills (“Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1” / “Never tell me the odds”), improvisational skills, and the manoeuvrability of the Millennium Falcon, even when not fully functional.
Phase 1: Navigate the asteroid belt.

• Dodge asteroids of various sizes (indestructible), shoot TIE Fighters (2 hits), TIE Interceptors (1 hit), TIE Bombers (3 hits) and TIE Advanced (4 hits).
• End-of-level boss is the giant worm living inside an asteroid. Made up of overlapping segments to make animation easier/smoother.
• Level ends with the Falcon landing inside a cavern on a large asteroid.
• Deviates from the film in that the worm is only seen coming after the Falcon once they leave the asteroid.
• Fail state: all shields/lives lost (the Millennium Falcon is destroyed in the asteroid field, all hands lost).
• Phase 2: Escape ‘collapsing’ asteroid, shoot more TIE Fighters, etc.
• Starting at takeoff, the Falcon must navigate the cavern, then back through a short burst of asteroids, then more TIE Fighters, etc.
• Star Destroyer as end-of-level boss, played similar to Level 3 of R-Type - Falcon must knock out axial defence turrets x3, lateral quad lasers x2, turbolaser batteries x3, heavy ion cannon x2 and tractor beam targeting array (on the command bridge section). Possibly engines as well?
• Deviates from the film in that the Falcon hides from the Star Destroyers by landing on the back of the bridge section of one of them, then dropping off before the fleet disperses.
• Fail state: all shields/lives lost (the Millennium Falcon is recaptured by the Empire)
• Win state: Hyperdrive repaired, Star Destroyer disabled.
• Level ends with the Falcon going into hyperspace once the Star Destroyer is disabled.
• Controls: left/right/up/down - fly; fire - guns (dorsal and ventral cannons?); additional fire (or double-tap back?) - change direction?

Bespin/Cloud City:
Level 5: Cloud City
Plot-central sequence, in which the tide seems to turn against the protagonists more directly. Multi-directional map featuring key locations from the movie.
Phase 1: Rescue.

• Lando (unarmed) must rescue Leia, Chewbacca, R2 & 3PO before they’re taken aboard an Imperial Shuttle at the main spaceport.
• Hide from Stormtroopers.
• Activate Lobot to bring reinforcements (not necessary, he just brings additional firepower versus the Stormtroopers).

Phase 2: Chase Boba Fett/Rescue Han.

• Leia leads the team through Cloud City in an attempt to intercept Boba Fett before he flies off.
• Stealth/Guns blazing options on gameplay. Not to the extent of Metal Gear (1987, MSX - surprising there was never a Spectrum conversion, it was only ported - badly - to the C64 in 1991), but alcoves in walls can be used to hide (with visual prompts?).
• Stormtroopers only need 1 hit, but lots of them.
• Use R2 to unlock doors?
• Battle with Boba Fett (flies using jetpack, shoots using his own blasters and those of SLAVE-1).
• Boba Fett escapes with Han in SLAVE-1 when defeated.

Phase 3: Cloud City escape.
Lando leads the team back to the Millennium Falcon.

• Fight/avoid Stormtroopers.
• Use R2 to unlock doors.
• No end of level boss? Or one of the other bounty hunters?
• Deviates from the film in that it significantly expands on what happens:
  -Lando activates Lobot by remote in the movie, must find him and activate via control panel in the game.
  -Lando technically leads the team throughout the escape, but is left unarmed almost until they reach the Falcon, vs. the game switching to Leia leading the attempt to rescue Han.
  -Three phases amount to far more gameplay than is suggested in the movie.
• Possibly a fourth phase - adding Luke’s arrival between 2 and 3 or after 3?
• Switching up the focal character would be largely cosmetic, but Lando can unlock doors himself initially, while Leia (and Lando in Phase 3) must rely on R2 due to the Empire takeover of Cloud City.
• Twin Pod Cloud Cars likely relegated to background scenery, as their appearance in the movie was so brief, any attempt to add a level in which they’re flying around would seem contrived.
• Fail state: all energy/lives lost (Han is taken by Boba Fett, Cloud City falls to the Empire, the protagonists are all captured, Luke is turned to the Dark Side).
• Win state: Leia, etc. rescued and returned to the Millennium Falcon.
• Controls: left/right - run; up - hide/enter doorway; down - stop hiding/enter doorway/crouch; fire - shoot (where available); additional fire - use R2-D2 (where available).

Finale: Luke’s duel with Vader
Straight 1-on-1 lightsaber duel, much like Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior (1987), but Vader uses the Force to throw scenery at Luke intermittently.
Phase 1: In the cryogenics room

• Reduce Vader’s health, and he Force-throws Luke out the window.

Phase 2: In the ventilation shaft

• Reduce Vader’s heath, and he reveals his identity.
• Fail state: all energy/lives lost (Luke is turned to the Dark Side)
• Win state: having learned Darth Vader’s true identity, Luke jumps down the ventilation shaft (animated?) and is rescued by Lando, etc. in the Millennium Falcon.
• Controls: left/right - advance/retreat; up - jump; down - crouch; fire - swing lightsaber (also in combination with directions).

Game ends with a recreation of the final scene of the movie - Luke and Leia, with 3PO and R2, watch the Millennium Falcon fly off from a window on the Rebels’ medical barge.

Other bits and bobs I wondered about:

• ‘Attract Mode’ featuring the opening text crawl from ESB to set the scene ahead of the main game menu, and/or upon starting the game.
• Each level could have a brief introduction with one or two images from the movie along with brief expository text, as well as transitional story scenes, memory permitting (maybe on 128K/disk only?). This could correct some of the omissions listed above.
• After Level 1, a short shooting gallery sequence with a fixed number of probes remaining, playing as Han Solo/Chewbacca, as a precursor to the Empire’s assault on the Rebel base.
• Between phases on Level 4, a puzzle game based on fixing the Millenium Falcon’s Hyperspace system. Either joining points on a 2D circuit, or a 2.5D rotating discs puzzle similar to the Astrolabrium wooden puzzle, designed to look like the Hyperdrive Engine itself, as depicted in the book Star Wars: Millennium Falcon - Owner’s Workshop Manual (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/SSP05_hyperdrive).
• Between phases on level 6, a puzzle game based on Chewbacca attempting to fix C-3PO.
• Music: Main Star Wars theme (assuming licence), incidental music based around other elements of the score for each level, or original themed music.

So... that's what I was thinking. I imagined it would (have to) be multiload on 48K, with music and improved audio effects on the 128K machines, and potentially an 'all bells and whistles' version for +3 disk.

This is just a hypothetical exercise, but any feedback on general feasibility would be gratefully received!

[PeterJ]

@HEXdidnt,

I remember typing this in from Your Computer magazine (apologies if I have my Star Wars movies mixed up):

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4 ... le_on_Hoth

[HEXdidnt]

@HEXdidnt,

I remember typing this in from Your Computer magazine (apologies if I have my Star Wars movies mixed up):

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4 ... le_on_Hoth

Wow! Hadn't realised there was an adaptation of the Atari 2600 game for the Spectrum, let alone it being a type-in! Thanks for posting that - I'll have to give it a go at some point.

One of the interesting factors about movie adaptations, generally, and the Star Wars ones in particular is that they tend to focus so heavily on a small part of the movie. Atari's Star Wars arcade game only adapts the Death Star assault, ESB adapts the battle on Hoth, then the Millennium Falcon's flight through the asteroid belt, RotJ is pretty much just the Speeder Bike chase and Millennium Falcon vs. the Death Star, etc. Even the updated 'Trilogy' game only picks a couple of key scenes from each movie.

[R-Tape]

Great post.

So does this sum it up?

Level 1 - side scroller, a bit Star Paws.
Level 2 - side scroller, similar to L1 but with better gameplay
Level 3 - various, Daley Thompson style
Level 4 - horizontal shmup in an asteroid field
Level 5 - Top down map scroller adventure
Level 6 - beat em up between Luke and Darth

I'm not sure though, as much as this is what I would have wanted to play BITD (if done right), it looks too big and varied to work. Looking at the licenses we have, the best ones IMO have an excellent main theme with a few minigames hung on them (e.g. Robocop and Batman), the ones that that follow the story more and be varied end up as a mishmash of substandard minigames (Terminator 2). Basically the better the play, the worse the story; and vice versa. Having said that, The Untouchables manages somewhere inbetween and Red Heat is a terrible main theme with some half-decent minigames hung on it!

If we're looking at contemporary games, one example of a varied game telling a story was Aeon. I could see that working really nicely as a film licence.

I suspect many a licensed game started with ambitious plans like this, and depending on the software house, deadline and coders (and their state of mind), ends up being whittled down to a vertical shmup because the code needed using! To sum up, if you get Activision and Bob Pape on a good day—you're laughing!

[Lee Bee]

Absolutely beautiful! Reminds me of Super Star Wars on the SNES (my favourite Star Wars games):

[HEXdidnt]

Great post.

So does this sum it up?

Level 1 - side scroller, a bit Star Paws.
Level 2 - side scroller, similar to L1 but with better gameplay
Level 3 - various, Daley Thompson style
Level 4 - horizontal shmup in an asteroid field
Level 5 - Top down map scroller adventure
Level 6 - beat em up between Luke and Darth

Thank you!

Some of the description is a little ambiguous still, as I started out thinking through an 'ideal' format, then started paring it down. Basically, everything described would be consistently side-scrolling, with level 5 being somewhere between one of the Gargoyle adventures (Tir Na Nog, Dun Darach, Marsport) and something a bit more straightforwardly action-oriented like the first stage of Platoon, or Aliens: Neoplasma. Level 3 could be a swamp-based Combat School, or it could be cut down to another set of side-scrollers with a Force exercise at the end of each.

I'm not sure though, as much as this is what I would have wanted to play BITD (if done right), it looks too big and varied to work. Looking at the licenses we have, the best ones IMO have an excellent main theme with a few minigames hung on them (e.g. Robocop and Batman), the ones that that follow the story more and be varied end up as a mishmash of substandard minigames (Terminator 2). Basically the better the play, the worse the story; and vice versa. Having said that, The Untouchables manages somewhere inbetween and Red Heat is a terrible main theme with some half-decent minigames hung on it!

Agreed - in terms of play consistency, I was aiming around Batman (hence almost everything side-scrolling). I had toyed with everything being top down, but that would have necessitated 8-directional scrolling and potentially vastly more frames of animation for all levels (nasties coming from 4/8 directions rather than just one or two). I'm aiming to put together some more screenshots, so hopefully that will clarify.

If we're looking at contemporary games, one example of a varied game telling a story was Aeon. I could see that working really nicely as a film licence.

Sadly, the idea was very much to focus on what was common back in 1988 - again, why I ended up with side scrolling for almost everything. If I'd been allowed to go for contemporary stylings, it might have ended up a lot more ambitious.

I suspect many a licensed game started with ambitious plans like this, and depending on the software house, deadline and coders (and their state of mind), ends up being whittled down to a vertical shmup because the code needed using! To sum up, if you get Activision and Bob Pape on a good day—you're laughing!

The 'ideal' plan - the version quickly scrapped as overly ambitious - included the Hoth sections being like Space Harrier (1986)/After Burner(1987), space sections like Galaxy Force (1989), and the Cloud City section being top-down... but concerns about controls (directional or rotational?) and increased graphical requirements (possibly smaller sprites, but needing to move in more directions) informed the decision to plan as much as possible as side-scrolling.

All that said, this is precisely why feedback from a coder will be valuable in tweaking the idea.

[HEXdidnt]

Absolutely beautiful! Reminds me of Super Star Wars on the SNES (my favourite Star Wars games):

Thank you!

While I was obviously aware of the SNES Super Star Wars games before I started, I'd hoped not to crib too much from them - partly because they deviate so much from the story, partly because they're more flashy and overtly action-oriented.

It was only after I'd drafted my ideas that I looked back at the NES games, and found that you can end up on foot in the Snowspeeder level of that, and tackle AT-ATs with the grappling hook and grenade trick. I was initially disappointed that I hadn't come up with something new in terms of gameplay mechanics, but the NES game also allows you to board a new Snowspeeder, which I felt was going too far. Mine is also on a single-plane, where the NES game has 'foreground' and 'background' depending on which direction you're flying.

[HEXdidnt]

Bashed out another screenshot for...

Bespin/Cloud City:
Level 5: Cloud City
Plot-central sequence, in which the tide seems to turn against the protagonists more directly. Multi-directional map featuring key locations from the movie.
Phase 1: Rescue.

• Lando (unarmed) must rescue Leia, Chewbacca, R2 & 3PO before they’re taken aboard an Imperial Shuttle at the main spaceport.
• Hide from Stormtroopers.
• Activate Lobot to bring reinforcements (not necessary, he just brings additional firepower versus the Stormtroopers).

Attempted to save myself a bit of time by basing the appearance of the scenery and sprites somewhat on the SNES game. Reasonably happy with the end result... and this was certainly put together in record time, for me...

[HEXdidnt]

Had some excellent feedback from Allan Turvey via Facebook (Spectrum For Everyone). The upshot is that I'm going to need to rework some of the design document - more than I'd hoped, not as much as I'd feared - and, ideally, reorganise the screen geometry so that the active game area, where scrolling would happen - stays within two strips of 256x64 pixels.

I'll also need to think hard about colour usage. It seems as though keeping to bands of colour will be a winning formula, but the way I've added some colour to the Cloud City screenshot may cause more trouble than it would be hypothetically worth. And the Dagobah mockup I'm working on is much more colourful. I can't just arbitrarily switch from smooth pixel scrolling on some levels, to attribute square scrolling on others.

I wonder how much outcry there would have been, back in 1988, if a Star Wars game was announced as 128K only... Considering the travesty that was the 48K version of Double Dragon 2. The 128K machines had been available since '86 and there were 128K only games around.

Also realised this morning that R2-D2 arrives at Cloud City with Luke... so Phase 1 will have to be adjusted accordingly. Something like, Lando must meet up with Luke to get R2, but activating Lobot is still optional..?

[AndyC]

Well you can change from pixel to attribute scrolling, it just requires more development effort. These things are always swings/roundabouts.

Personally the "bands of colour" approach isn't something I think looks great unless it's very sparing. It just makes the attribute grid look so prominent. I think at that point detailed monochromatic graphics can often look a lot better.

As to the question of a 128 only game? I think by 1988 it would have been acceptable, although most 128K games could easily be multiload 48K titles, especially if broken down into distinct sections like this. Unless you're thinking of a multiload 128 game, which might have been pushing things at the time just because of the sheer amount of loading times involved (unless it was +3 only).

[HEXdidnt]

Well you can change from pixel to attribute scrolling, it just requires more development effort. These things are always swings/roundabouts.

Yes - I suspect the balanced, practical approach would be either/or. One thing I never quite understood about sprite movement was that offsetting the content of each frame, between each frame of animation is a cheaper way to get the appearance of pixel movement rather than attribute block movement, as opposed to asking the code to move the sprite itself by x pixels between each frame. I mean, I've seen that done in various sprite rips, but never considered why it was done that way.

For this hypothetical game, I'm going to need to consider whether attribute square scrolling would be favourite for ALL 'foreground' elements - it should certainly give the impression of speed if it's smooth enough - and then re-jig the background scenery so that, for example, in Level 2, the 'midground' and 'background' don't overlap, allowing for different rates of scrolling in narrow bands.

Personally the "bands of colour" approach isn't something I think looks great unless it's very sparing. It just makes the attribute grid look so prominent. I think at that point detailed monochromatic graphics can often look a lot better.

Very true - which is why I've aimed to limit it to the sky on the Hoth levels and, on the Cloud City mockup, used them to clearly delineate between 'ceiling', 'wall', 'floor' and 'below floor'. I'll be aiming to keep that in mind as I produce additional screenshot mockups.

As to the question of a 128 only game? I think by 1988 it would have been acceptable, although most 128K games could easily be multiload 48K titles, especially if broken down into distinct sections like this. Unless you're thinking of a multiload 128 game, which might have been pushing things at the time just because of the sheer amount of loading times involved (unless it was +3 only).

That was one of my concerns... If multiloading on the 128s could leave more memory free for code, buffers, etc., then that seemed like a viable (if potentially controversial) option... but the loading time may have become an issue. +3 Disk only would make that prospect more viable from one point of view, but then the hit it might have taken in terms of sales, versus the increase production cost would likely cause a developer to re-think.

Thank you, @AndyC - all very interesting and useful... some important things to consider for re-drafting the design document and updating the mockups.

[HEXdidnt]

Off the back of the advice I've received so far today, I've started adjusting the screen geometry, keeping to the 256x64 thirds of the screen and allowing a 16px wide buffer for scrolling on either side of the play area.

Here's the WIP of one of the Dagobah stages:


Haven't quite decided what to do with the extra space in the panel... May end up just being cosmetic... Though now I'm wondering about adjusting the 'silver' frame so it's only around the ESB title, shifting everything else along, and then making the 'radar' bit 16px high...

[Lee Bee]

Absolutely love it! Shame you have to change Cloud City as it looks great as it is.

Just for fun, I thought I'd have a "quick" go at the Star Wars theme tune. Ended up spending ages as it's one heck of a complicated piece and squashing all the parts down into 3 channels isn't easy …

[HEXdidnt]

Absolutely love it! Shame you have to change Cloud City as it looks great as it is.

Just for fun, I thought I'd have a "quick" go at the Star Wars theme tune. Ended up spending ages as it's one heck of a complicated piece and squashing all the parts down into 3 channels isn't easy …

Great work - and thank you!

Since I'd already lost 16px in screen width due to the silver frame, another 16px shouldn't make a huge difference, and the play area only loses 8px in height, which I can easily take out of the 'below floor' on Cloud City. Going to try to amend the other screens today, and will repost when complete.

[HEXdidnt]

OK, so here's the updates so far:



What I've done, based on advice received:

• The play area is now 224x128 - which is two of the 256x64px 'screens' that the full screen is apparently broken up into for coding purposes, minus a 16x128px strip down both of the outer edges, for scroll buffering.
• The panel up the top occupies the whole of the final 254x64px 'screen', with some minor reorganising of the layout, allowing the ESB logo to be slightly taller.
• On Level 2 (Hoth/Snowspeeder), the background landscape is broken up such that none of it overlaps, meaning the individual 'strips' can be scrolled at different rates to give the illusion of parallax. The colourful sky at the top of Levels 1 and 2 can remain static.

I may end up making another adjustment to the panel: shifting the 'radar' below the silver frame of the 'Star Wars/The Empire Strikes Back' logo.

I'm going to presume attribute square scrolling for elements like the Level 1, 3 and 5 platforms, with pixel scrolling background elements where appropriate. Theoretically, I could probably get away with attribute scrolling for the windows on the Cloud City level, just updating at a much slower rate than the main background, to give the impression of distance.

Currently working on an additional Dagobah screen - raising the X-Wing as a joystick-waggling bonus level. After that, I'd like to do one screen with an AT-AT, something of the two end of level bosses for Level 4, and then the final lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader... Not sure how much of that I'll actually get done, but I have a vague idea of what I want them all to look like... And having 'final' screen geometry will help!

[HEXdidnt]

A few more tweaks to the panel, and a quick draft of the end-of-level boss for the first phase of the space battle:


Deviating from the plot of the film, the Falcon takes on the Exogorth before landing inside the asteroid, rather than landing inside the Exogorth and having to escape it after performing their repairs. It's segmented, so the head can move independently of two body sections, allowing it to move (somewhat) smoothly as it wriggles in its tunnel.

Since all it does in the movie is reach out and try to swallow them again, I figure the version in the game will shoot little fireballs... using the typical shoot 'em up pattern of shots fanning out in groups of 5 and 3. Figured it'd also be fun to make them flash between BRIGHT 0 and BRIGHT 1, to highlight that these are things to be avoided...

Also...


Not completely certain I'll keep it this way, but I've shifted the portraits along by 4px, allowing the sides of the frames to be recoloured, and for the portraits themselves to be more colourful.

[Stefan]

I thought this was about The Empire Strikes Back, but that last screen looks like it was based on the THX Remastered Empire Strikes Back.

[HEXdidnt]

I thought this was about The Empire Strikes Back, but that last screen looks like it was based on the THX Remastered Empire Strikes Back.

In what way? Have I unwittingly committed a horrible crime against Star Wars?

[Stefan]

In what way? Have I unwittingly committed a horrible crime against Star Wars?

I'm pretty sure that corridors with scenes of Bespin in the windows were a THX Remastered thing.

[HEXdidnt]

Ah, yes! I see your point.

I was honestly in two minds about windows... On the one hand, it's nice to be able to show external scenery - for example, to indicate that you're getting close to one of the docks - but on the other, adding windows (especially the way I've done it) could hinder smooth scrolling...

To be honest, my main issue was that I find drawing backgrounds - tiled or otherwise - to be about the most enervating thing about designing games and graphics*. An earlier draft of a Cloud City background ended up looking far too plain and empty, so I wanted to break it up with some visible sky, which I could copy-and-paste from the Hoth levels. This became less essential when I started using a more tiled approach, with reference to the SNES game, but I figured I'd put in a smaller window, just to see how it looks.

Of course, there's the argument to be had over which is the 'truer' representation of Cloud City - the original theatrical release or the more recent remasters - but it's very subjective, and so impossible to please everyone.

(* That said, get me talking about graphic design at any length, and you may well form the impression that I find everything about it enervating, if not downright tedious... but I do enjoy it, really!)

[XTM]

All these mock-ups look amazing. I have one tiny suggestion, but it may be a matter of personal preference. It's about the dithering used on this example:


I've seen this kind of pattern dithering many times on all kinds of Speccy graphics, and I personally think it looks a bit ugly and unrefined, maybe it is because it looks a bit "automated" (for the lack of a better word)? I think diffusion-style dither, especially when it is "handmade" like in the pictures by MAC, looks much more "organic" and thus nicer.

[HEXdidnt]

I've seen this kind of pattern dithering many times on all kinds of Speccy graphics, and I personally think it looks a bit ugly and unrefined, maybe it is because it looks a bit "automated" (for the lack of a better word)? I think diffusion-style dither, especially when it is "handmade" like in the pictures by MAC, looks much more "organic" and thus nicer.

Yes, I completely agree... It gives the graphics a kind of 'Tiertex' look, doesn't it?

Essentially, I some elements of the graphics were quickly bodged in Photoshop, purely for the sake of expediency. There are some parts I wanted to spend time on, and others that I just wanted to knock out as quickly as possible. I did try the diffusion dither option, but didn't like the results - I think, if I'd started with a better quality original image, it may have worked out better. The Asteroids were originally taken from something I was working on for the SAM Coupé many years ago - 6 shades of grey - but I seem to have lost the disk those sprites came on, and all I have now is a mockup screenshot. If I'd had the original SAM SCREEN$, I'd have adapted them by hand.

Then again, if I thought for a moment that there was any way to get this game made, I'd probably redraw loads of it. Possibly by hand, on graph paper, for the full nostalgic experience.

[XTM]

Heh, "Tiertex look", now that is a great way to describe it. It conveys the word "half-assed" without actually saying it. Yeah, I think this kind of dithering will always make the graphics look like they were quickly down-converted from another platform that has higher color density/specs - so even if the graphics were not converted, but actually drawn like that (as I'm sure there are artists who will place their pixels one by one in this sort of pattern), to me it will give that impression, can't help it.

At least you're just having a bit of fun here, without too many expectations to make this a real game. I've seen way too many "projects" fall flat on their arse where people came up with all kinds of nice graphics but couldn't find a coder, or the coder simply lost interest.

[redballoon]

Rather than the Exogorth firing fireballs, why not have it firing Mynocks? I’m not sure if they can survive in space, but it makes more sense than fireballs.

As for the Bespin City backgrounds, it’s one if the few things from the remastered special editions that I reckon are fine. It’s probably one of the least invasive changes and definitely works in its favour.

[HEXdidnt]

At least you're just having a bit of fun here, without too many expectations to make this a real game. I've seen way too many "projects" fall flat on their arse where people came up with all kinds of nice graphics but couldn't find a coder, or the coder simply lost interest.

Yes, completely - I guess that's the advantage of how this little project came about. For me, it's pushing all the nostalgia buttons... not just in terms of Star Wars, but in reminding me how much I used to enjoy designing pie-in-the-sky games and SCREEN$ full of graphics as a child, and allowing me to apply tricks I've learnt over the years to a concept I would likely have found too daunting back in those days.

The 'game design' element has been an interesting intellectual challenge and, thanks to forums like this, Facebook groups, and other contacts I've made over the years, I'm actually learning all kinds of practicalities for game design of which I was previously ignorant. As a result, I'm a lot happier with what I've produced in just a couple of weeks on this project than pretty much anything I'd previously done for/on the Spectrum.

While I don't expect anything to come of this specific project - beyond its original remit, that is - it has made me feel more confident about potential future projects... and I might even be tempted to throw my hat into the ring if any coders have a Speccy passion project, but find themselves in need of an artist.