04-23-2023, 03:18 PM
Mainly just a few C64 rips, so... so... drained...
Shanghai
Very basic compared to the other versions, the C64 version should have done a better job and there are even clones that had managed to do that. Yeah, probably one of the worst official versions of the game out there.
Grand Prix Simulator
Before Codemasters started on licensed F1 games to this day, before Slicks, this is how it all began. Yeah, the cars are literally blobs in both this and the original Amstrad version (the Spectrum version changed it to slightly but looks more like a splodge). Another quickie rip.
Continental Circus
This is another game where the game stretches the sprites but this time horizontally, it makes it look blocky and not much better than Pole Position (an early C64 port). Speed King is another racing game that does this stretching with the results being blocky. My guess is a workaround for the sprite limit that only allows 8 sprites on screen, also from what I do recall some developers had problems with the sprite multiplexer but I don't think this game had any problems.
International Soccer
While Out Run US was the first game to use a newer easier ripping method, this was completed first. Since only the tape release worked on CSFEC, boot up VICE for the original cartridge version and made a snapshot. Then I imported the snapshot into SpritePad, a C64 sprite editor. So many advantages; no offset tweaking, can change the colours of the sprites since it has a built-in palette, can even overlay the next sprite (came in handy for one sprite in Out Run, wish that Spectrum tools offer this too). Downside it is more time consuming because I have to export one sprite at a time, reduce by 50% and remove the 5 pixel border that is around the sprite (and my sprite rips take FAR TOO LONG as it is).
Oh and while it was on the last stretch discovered that at first I thought SpritePad's palette was too dark compared to playing on VICE and CSFEC but then went down the rabbit hole... First I checked Spritemate on its C64 palette, it was more closer to SpritePad than VICE (but not exact). Then I checked on VICE again but changed from PAL to NTSC Sony, getting closer then finally NTSC. It almost matched SpritePad just with one value difference, a margin of error really as they both use the "Pepto" palette. Since the game is a NTSC game (developed in the US), kept the palette while offering the PAL palette from VICE and the CRL 1986 tape release palette from CSFEC. Phew...
Then again there seems to be an argument between Pepto and Colodore palettes while searching around online so I guess the C64 has a similar problem to the NES and the Atari 7800... CSFEC uses Community-Colors that I can't find much info on except in German and VICE also has that palette too.
This is also a classic as this basically inspired... well nearly every side on view football game going just like Exciting Soccer & Tehkan World Cup inspired nearly every top down football game. Without those 3 games and Football Manager... well gaming would be a completely different thing.
Pitstop
When I first started ripping this game and was one of my first modern C64 rips, finding the tape dump was really hard since most places only had cracked disk versions that wouldn't boot up. Already done most of the car but the explosion and the tires were left to do. Then tried the new method.
Funny thing, found the car sprites using CSFEC but couldn't on SpritePad yet found the tires on SpritePad but couldn't on CSFEC. Meaning that the only sprites in the game are the tires, the barriers and the pit crew while the car must be part of the character set. Again since it is a NTSC game done by Epyx, the Pepto palette is the default but also offered the PAL and PAL Eurogold tape palettes as well. The CBS release seems to be undumped but in theory should match the PAL palette.
(Again, missed the deadline... sigh... really could do with an understudy...)
Up'n Down
Remember when the player and the enemy shared the same sprites? Probably for a large chunk of people who play games they wouldn't and something that their parents or even their grandparents will remember but that's what they did back then. (Even in my day, reusing sprites was mainly for enemies in beat 'em ups for palette swaps and Jeff from Double Dragon). Oh and the cartridge version is cut down with two less enemies.
Pole Position
The graphics only look marginally better than the Atari 5200/8-bit versions but to be fair, it was an early game and despite this one of the better racers on the C64 (wonder if it is possible for someone to hack the game to improve them a bit). Managed to start the game on VICE.
Despite the success of the VICE+SpritePad combo for the likes of International Soccer, Up'n Down and Pole Position as well as Out Run, Roland's Rat Race, Chase HQ 2 and Super Bowl Sunday on the way, sadly it still couldn't load Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge on tape. At least it has opened up the C64 library a lot including the return of the two drainers.
Due to the backlog, some rips will still be done via CSFEC though because of progress wise. Super Bowl Sunday would have been done but yet to sheet due to a technical problem. Thought of using a batch conversion method on GIMP because resizing and cropping over 100 sprites manually will take a long time but somehow it doesn't view the sprites in GraphicsGale... Will try the Sprite Sheeter tool.
Oh and a couple of Spectrum rips
Fire & Forget
Motorbike Madness
Possibly my fastest Speccy rip that I've done since it took seconds to rip all of the motorbike, the rest (assembly and presentation) took far longer. As for why... It was very lucky that the bike and the mask were grouped together, all the graphics were on the same bitplane (bitplane 3) and the boundaries were 24x24. By Spectrum standards, an easy rip. Really surprised due to unable to find the graphics for the Amstrad counterpart.
Would have got more down but just seem to struggle... Angel Nieto Pole 500 where sorting out pixel strips and garbage, Sharkey's Moll with the difficulty playing the game on top of a really bad framerate (most videos online can't even get past the first level).
Shanghai
Tiles
Very basic compared to the other versions, the C64 version should have done a better job and there are even clones that had managed to do that. Yeah, probably one of the worst official versions of the game out there.
Grand Prix Simulator
Car
Before Codemasters started on licensed F1 games to this day, before Slicks, this is how it all began. Yeah, the cars are literally blobs in both this and the original Amstrad version (the Spectrum version changed it to slightly but looks more like a splodge). Another quickie rip.
Continental Circus
Car
This is another game where the game stretches the sprites but this time horizontally, it makes it look blocky and not much better than Pole Position (an early C64 port). Speed King is another racing game that does this stretching with the results being blocky. My guess is a workaround for the sprite limit that only allows 8 sprites on screen, also from what I do recall some developers had problems with the sprite multiplexer but I don't think this game had any problems.
International Soccer
Players
Trophy Girl
While Out Run US was the first game to use a newer easier ripping method, this was completed first. Since only the tape release worked on CSFEC, boot up VICE for the original cartridge version and made a snapshot. Then I imported the snapshot into SpritePad, a C64 sprite editor. So many advantages; no offset tweaking, can change the colours of the sprites since it has a built-in palette, can even overlay the next sprite (came in handy for one sprite in Out Run, wish that Spectrum tools offer this too). Downside it is more time consuming because I have to export one sprite at a time, reduce by 50% and remove the 5 pixel border that is around the sprite (and my sprite rips take FAR TOO LONG as it is).
Oh and while it was on the last stretch discovered that at first I thought SpritePad's palette was too dark compared to playing on VICE and CSFEC but then went down the rabbit hole... First I checked Spritemate on its C64 palette, it was more closer to SpritePad than VICE (but not exact). Then I checked on VICE again but changed from PAL to NTSC Sony, getting closer then finally NTSC. It almost matched SpritePad just with one value difference, a margin of error really as they both use the "Pepto" palette. Since the game is a NTSC game (developed in the US), kept the palette while offering the PAL palette from VICE and the CRL 1986 tape release palette from CSFEC. Phew...
Then again there seems to be an argument between Pepto and Colodore palettes while searching around online so I guess the C64 has a similar problem to the NES and the Atari 7800... CSFEC uses Community-Colors that I can't find much info on except in German and VICE also has that palette too.
This is also a classic as this basically inspired... well nearly every side on view football game going just like Exciting Soccer & Tehkan World Cup inspired nearly every top down football game. Without those 3 games and Football Manager... well gaming would be a completely different thing.
Pitstop
Car
Rival
When I first started ripping this game and was one of my first modern C64 rips, finding the tape dump was really hard since most places only had cracked disk versions that wouldn't boot up. Already done most of the car but the explosion and the tires were left to do. Then tried the new method.
Funny thing, found the car sprites using CSFEC but couldn't on SpritePad yet found the tires on SpritePad but couldn't on CSFEC. Meaning that the only sprites in the game are the tires, the barriers and the pit crew while the car must be part of the character set. Again since it is a NTSC game done by Epyx, the Pepto palette is the default but also offered the PAL and PAL Eurogold tape palettes as well. The CBS release seems to be undumped but in theory should match the PAL palette.
(Again, missed the deadline... sigh... really could do with an understudy...)
Up'n Down
Gameplay Sprites
Remember when the player and the enemy shared the same sprites? Probably for a large chunk of people who play games they wouldn't and something that their parents or even their grandparents will remember but that's what they did back then. (Even in my day, reusing sprites was mainly for enemies in beat 'em ups for palette swaps and Jeff from Double Dragon). Oh and the cartridge version is cut down with two less enemies.
Pole Position
Car
The graphics only look marginally better than the Atari 5200/8-bit versions but to be fair, it was an early game and despite this one of the better racers on the C64 (wonder if it is possible for someone to hack the game to improve them a bit). Managed to start the game on VICE.
Despite the success of the VICE+SpritePad combo for the likes of International Soccer, Up'n Down and Pole Position as well as Out Run, Roland's Rat Race, Chase HQ 2 and Super Bowl Sunday on the way, sadly it still couldn't load Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge on tape. At least it has opened up the C64 library a lot including the return of the two drainers.
Due to the backlog, some rips will still be done via CSFEC though because of progress wise. Super Bowl Sunday would have been done but yet to sheet due to a technical problem. Thought of using a batch conversion method on GIMP because resizing and cropping over 100 sprites manually will take a long time but somehow it doesn't view the sprites in GraphicsGale... Will try the Sprite Sheeter tool.
Oh and a couple of Spectrum rips
Fire & Forget
Thunder Master
Enemies
Motorbike Madness
Rider
Possibly my fastest Speccy rip that I've done since it took seconds to rip all of the motorbike, the rest (assembly and presentation) took far longer. As for why... It was very lucky that the bike and the mask were grouped together, all the graphics were on the same bitplane (bitplane 3) and the boundaries were 24x24. By Spectrum standards, an easy rip. Really surprised due to unable to find the graphics for the Amstrad counterpart.
Would have got more down but just seem to struggle... Angel Nieto Pole 500 where sorting out pixel strips and garbage, Sharkey's Moll with the difficulty playing the game on top of a really bad framerate (most videos online can't even get past the first level).