decolourizing games

[777]

i just had a thought. would some games look better decolorized?

take a look at this for example:

[Einar Saukas]

i just had a thought. would some games look better decolorized?

No.

That was an easy answer. Next question please

[Alessandro]

Not for me. Especially games like Cybernoid which manage to keep colour clash at a minimum.

Mind you, colour clash has never bothered me that much.

[Pegaz]

i just had a thought. would some games look better decolorized?

take a look at this for example:

Some games probably, but not Cybernoid.
Both sequels are amzing as they are, I just didn't notice that color clash was such a problem there.
On the other hand, Transformers would be a good candidate or maybe Everyone's Wally...

[stupidget]

Cybernoid is probably not the best game to choose it’s one of the best looking and relatively clash free games on the Speccy.
Jack and the Beanstalk would be a contender to be made de-coloured, but even doing that wouldn’t make any less of a ball-ache to play.

[blucey]

Please don't Tiertex my favourite colourful games.

[777]

Please don't Tiertex my favourite colourful games.

yeah it just a bad example, i know

[Ralf]

Certainly not.

And you chose a game with really good usage of colour.
Maybe something with a very bad colour clash would benefit from removing the colour but I still doubt it.

And there is also an easy trick to get your result - use black and white TV

[HEXdidnt]

...would some games look better decolorized?

No, definitely not... There might be a few rare exceptions, where the colour clash seems excessive, but so many Spectrum games defaulted to monochrome, the use of colour became a rare treat, and almost a selling point in and of itself. The Spectrum didn't exactly have the most useful colour palette, but it's certainly distinctive.

[clebin]

or maybe Everyone's Wally...

But Everyone's a Wally is such a beautiful game!



The second worst act of vandalism on a British pub this week.

[PeterJ]

Many games were decolourised on other platforms to improve the resolution. I personally don't like it, but I can understand the reason for doing it.

[XTM]

The colour clash like it is shown in the Wally Week series is just horrible. A good amount of Spanish games suffer from this, too.
I find it much less offensive when the sprites take on the colours of the background instead.

[Alessandro]

The colour clash like it is shown in the Wally Week series is just horrible. A good amount of Spanish games suffer from this, too.
I find it much less offensive when the sprites take on the colours of the background instead.

Again, I was never bothered that much by it back in the day, and continue not to be these days. I guess I just got used to that.

[worcestersource]

Again, I was never bothered that much by it back in the day, and continue not to be these days. I guess I just got used to that.

Same here. I feel it just gives the Wally Week games character.

When games were converted, I rather liked it if the programmers and graphic artists made changes for the Speccy. Cabal and Midnight Resistance spring to mind.

However, looking back, the Tiertex games don’t look too bad. I find it was just something in their playability that made them less enjoyable. This could also have been a problem in the original game too. I can’t say Strider and Black Tiger were my gotos when there was Liquid Kids and R Type to play.

[PeterJ]

Again, I was never bothered that much by it back in the day, and continue not to be these days.

Me neither, but I suppose if we all liked the same, life would be boring!

[777]

Certainly not.

And you chose a game with really good usage of colour.
Maybe something with a very bad colour clash would benefit from removing the colour but I still doubt it.

And there is also an easy trick to get your result - use black and white TV

a better example maybe?

[worcestersource]

a better example maybe?

You can see the detail in the graphics better but I quite liked the colourful, blocky original. Also makes me think that’s probably how Tiertex would have converted it.

What this would have done for me, back in the day, would be to inspire me to draw Altered Beast graphics for my (dad’s) Mac Plus. I did a lot of graphical porting to my Mac when I was a kid and loved pixel pushing. Shame I only found a way to code it much later in life.

[Pegaz]

The colour clash like it is shown in the Wally Week series is just horrible. A good amount of Spanish games suffer from this, too.
I find it much less offensive when the sprites take on the colours of the background instead.

Yes, indeed, but on the other hand, making the whole game monochrome is too much of loss, for little or no gain.
The C64 version is a good compromise, because there is no color clash, the game is fast and still in hi-res mode.

[XTM]

Well, I didn't write "making the whole game monochrome", did I? I meant colourful backgrounds, where sprites should take the colour of the background. The way it is in Skool Daze or Renegade.

I also like the approach taken in games like Firelord or Rex, where most of the sprites and (sparse) background detail are in one colour and your character simply will appear behind graphics that are in another colour.

[Bedazzle]

i just had a thought. would some games look better decolorized?

Nearly all the games I saw on Speccy were b/w because of TV set.
Sure, there were shades of gray, but it is still decolorized game.

[equinox]

This is a very interesting question (especially because half of the later Speccy games are monochrome).

Let me remind you of Tarzan Goes Ape (Codemasters), a game that actually gives you the option of monochrome or clash. Does this option actually help anybody? Hmmm.

I suppose an interesting question is: why does almost every game force the player/sprite to adopt the background colours? (Dizzy is red in front of a tree.) Well there are a few games that do the opposite

[

[ionut76]

Not so many colors in Chronos and yet one of my fav games.

[Nick]

Nearly all the games I saw on Speccy were b/w because of TV set.
Sure, there were shades of gray, but it is still decolorized game.

Trying to play Steve Davies Snooker would have been a nightmare. "For those of you watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green."

[XTM]

The 128k version fixed some of those issues

[Lee Bee]

Joking aside, I can understand where the OP is coming from. There is a genuine beauty and a charm to monochrome graphics.

From pencil sketches to comic books, monochrome art has always had an important place throughout history. But with the advent of videogames, the simple beauty of mono was almost instantly lost in favour of full-colour.

Due to the Spectrum's unique limitations, we Spec-chums were in just the right place and time to be fortunate enough to experience monochrome games. The only other thing that really came close was the Game Boy, with its 4 shades of green: