08-06-2023, 03:42 PM
Need sleep...
Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix
Nigel Mansell strikes again! Ripping the rival was tough visually and took an entire day just to check the small sprites (heavily zooming on pixel level, maximising the window to scroll the graphics viewer, constantly checking on the four smallest sizes). Outside of any game on the backlog, won't be doing that again. No shadow masks in this game so yeah, the cars are only designed for the road...
Speed King 2
There was no Speed King on the Spectrum but there was on other systems (even the C16!)... So the sequel is a Speccy exclusive. In their review, Crash compared the game to Full Throttle that coincidentally was done by the programmer of the original C64 Speed King (who also made the infamous Deathchase) telling people to buy that game but in all honesty both Full Throttle and Speed King 2 are forgotten these days. Even Speed King 1 is notable for being one of the few C16 racing games along with Kikstart and Formula One Simulator (all games done by Shaun Southern) plus the speed on the Amstrad/C64 versions.
Also more unused content than used!
Cowboys: The Pistols Fighters
The title is not a typo... Only ripped it because of the graphical style. Finding the bullet took way longer than ripping the rest of the sheets, the latest version of Spectrum Analyser helped since it shows the graphics as green.
More from the Amstrad backlog:
The Cycles
Quick rip. Did look into the C64 version and the rival sprites only store what's on screen in a savestate/snapshot, to make matters worse it crashes if you make and then load a snapshot making it unusable so that's dropped.
Amsoccer
Ripped at 2AM one night and took about 25 (yawn) minutes to rip after taking nearly a year to get around to it, the players are poorly organised in the game... Considered the worst football game on the Amstrad.
TT Racer
Pretty much the first motorbike sim and was way ahead of its time, so much so that it took until the Amiga, PC and the X68000 before that genre started to pop up to the modern day where Milestone keep doing these every year due to their MotoGP license, sometimes two a year even. Considering most motorbike games were of the more arcade chase view (Full Throttle/Speed King/Hang-On/Super Cycle/Grand Prix 500cc) or top down, it was revolutionary and the next one was err... The Cycles releasing 3-5 years after depending on platform. It even had a two player link up function, again something that you rarely see until the Amiga/late DOS era PC/PS1 and some arcade games.
Aladdin's Cave
Done by the same developer as Tales of the Arabian Nights (Version 1) and reuses some of the same graphics too.
Bruce Lee
Not at Golden Harvest. Yeah, I've got that box set and watched a couple of films beforehand (Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon). Bruce was ripped a good while ago and forgot to upload it. The only reason why was because I thought that it was identical to the C64 original however after comparing with Magma's rip, the sprites are different. The poses look similar but they are not with one pose that got dropped and the palette is different (but can be made similar on the C64 depending on the palette settings).
Now for some more el Amstrad rips.
Kong's Revenge
Find Donkey Kong child's play? Here's Kong's Revenge. BIGGER SPRITES, MORE DETAIL. Move over Mario, here's Mike. Full of masculinity, he's even got a gun! Mario might be saving a lady, Mike on the other hand is off to save his "hot" girlfriend whose even naked in the game! TWO STYLES OF GAMEPLAY. It's a platformer and a shooter. Mario would never shoot DK but Mike will kill that Kong! Since it was programmed by the finest of Spanish developers, it'll make the Dark Souls series look like a Game & Watch game. PIXEL PERFECT PLATFORMING. You need the tightest of timing to get to the moving platform on Stage 1 or you'll die, only a minute into the game! Get your copy today at your nearest El Corte Ingles dumpster.
(This is why I don't write gaming marketing)
So yeah, a very tough Donkey Kong styled game that only came out in Spain that not many people know about. The palette for this game reminds me of a CGA PC game, not quite the same but close (it did come out on PC though). Oh and managed to encounter a bug where the controls just died so was unable to get past the first level due to getting stuck where you have to jump over the barrels but can play the final level thanks to the Spanish two part setup that was common in action games.
Target Plus
This was the pack in game with the MHT Gunstick (light gun). The full spider's web isn't shown in the graphics viewer but still included it as it is part of the game.
Tour 91
Grand Prix Master
Cosmic Sheriff
Set in the futuristic year of 2023... Wait... What year is this?
Sootland
Just 4 words to describe this game, "awful, ugly and boring." Possibly one of the worst commercially sold games in Spain and there are better options for games of a similar style e.g. Cosmic Sheriff and if you're getting towards French developed games Bob Morane/Lee Enfield: Space Ace and especially the Empire City 1931 clone Prohibition.
On a technical note, something bothers me with the "sprites". If you look at a screenshot or the game icon, there is some black around the "sprites" but the graphics are in Mode 1 (4 colour mode) for the entire game so changing the black wouldn't change it. Changed the black to pink and still sees the outline. Tried Mode 2 and put the layers together, same result as just ripping from Mode 1 with more work. Only thing that I can think of is the programming that's causing it like a dodgy transparency effect to recognise the Gunstick, then again the game is bugged on Stage 3 even though there are fixed versions that have all 4 levels since 2015.
Space Smugglers
The A-Team
Yep, there's a game based on the TV show but at least it's a bit more fitting for the license compared to the Atari 2600 and the not quite legal C64 games. Then again technology wasn't able to do the license justice back then, closest probably would have been an Ocean styled licensed game where there's a driving stage with the GMC, one where Face tries to persuade the client, a stealth stage to rescue Murdoch and finally a shooting stage either Operation Wolf or Commando/Ikari Warriors style.
Trigger
Solo
I'm surprised that these two weren't ported to the NES due to the graphical design and palette fitting well but then again Nintendo's policies probably would have prevented Opera Soft and don't think that modern homebrew would do another Zapper game due to well... not many people have CRT TVs these days.
That's all the Gunstick games that I'm doing, not doing Bestial Warrior (optional) or Guillermo Tell. There are a couple of other light gun shooting games however they use different hardware (the forever in WIP Operation Wolf uses a joystick for the regular release and ironically Operation Thunderbolt doesn't use a light gun).
Black Beard
Desperado / Gunsmoke
Freddy Hardest
Considered a legendary game in Spain. Apparently influenced by Flash Gordon and Peter Perfect from Wacky Races but in more contemporary terms more like a mixture of Duke Nukem and Jay Leno with a bit of Zapp Brannigan. Also it seems to be the only version where he resembles the artwork. More recently someone has done an article in Spanish about the history of the game that involves miscrediting the character with the programmer, both the Spectrum and Amstrad versions were done at the same time, technical limitations why Freddy Hardest is not blond on the Spectrum, cutting back on animations, the beginning was a tribute to Planet of the Apes (1968) with the rest of the game inspired by films such as Alien and Enemy Mine and that Freddy Hardest in South Manhattan was going to be a different game with the same tone but only some mockups were done on the Amstrad.
There are a few more Spanish games left in the backlog that were close but lacking in time meant that they aren't ready yet. Hundra, Lorna, Ice Breaker, Army Moves (yes...), Gonzzalezz, Simulador Profesional de Tenis, Livingstone 2 and Game Over. Livingstone I Presume is the closest to completion, it's just Stanley's rope and some enemy projectiles left.
Just the one Commodore 64 rip...
Hong Kong Phooey
"Oh looky here, I've managed to sprite rip the great Hong Kong Phooey and I didn't see myself do it." I've watched a few episodes fairly recently since the last time was a long time ago and well it still sort of holds up. Sadly not even the Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu tells me how to rip the nicer looking Amstrad version.
Backlog Progress (aka the ripping pile is just too high, feels like the only one ripping, ripping until 3AM):
Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix
Williams
Rival
Nigel Mansell strikes again! Ripping the rival was tough visually and took an entire day just to check the small sprites (heavily zooming on pixel level, maximising the window to scroll the graphics viewer, constantly checking on the four smallest sizes). Outside of any game on the backlog, won't be doing that again. No shadow masks in this game so yeah, the cars are only designed for the road...
Speed King 2
Rider
Unused Rider
There was no Speed King on the Spectrum but there was on other systems (even the C16!)... So the sequel is a Speccy exclusive. In their review, Crash compared the game to Full Throttle that coincidentally was done by the programmer of the original C64 Speed King (who also made the infamous Deathchase) telling people to buy that game but in all honesty both Full Throttle and Speed King 2 are forgotten these days. Even Speed King 1 is notable for being one of the few C16 racing games along with Kikstart and Formula One Simulator (all games done by Shaun Southern) plus the speed on the Amstrad/C64 versions.
Also more unused content than used!
Cowboys: The Pistols Fighters
Cowboy
Background Objects
The title is not a typo... Only ripped it because of the graphical style. Finding the bullet took way longer than ripping the rest of the sheets, the latest version of Spectrum Analyser helped since it shows the graphics as green.
More from the Amstrad backlog:
The Cycles
Rival
HUD
Quick rip. Did look into the C64 version and the rival sprites only store what's on screen in a savestate/snapshot, to make matters worse it crashes if you make and then load a snapshot making it unusable so that's dropped.
Amsoccer
Players
Ripped at 2AM one night and took about 25 (yawn) minutes to rip after taking nearly a year to get around to it, the players are poorly organised in the game... Considered the worst football game on the Amstrad.
TT Racer
Rival
Pretty much the first motorbike sim and was way ahead of its time, so much so that it took until the Amiga, PC and the X68000 before that genre started to pop up to the modern day where Milestone keep doing these every year due to their MotoGP license, sometimes two a year even. Considering most motorbike games were of the more arcade chase view (Full Throttle/Speed King/Hang-On/Super Cycle/Grand Prix 500cc) or top down, it was revolutionary and the next one was err... The Cycles releasing 3-5 years after depending on platform. It even had a two player link up function, again something that you rarely see until the Amiga/late DOS era PC/PS1 and some arcade games.
Aladdin's Cave
Aladdin
Enemies
The Wizard
Done by the same developer as Tales of the Arabian Nights (Version 1) and reuses some of the same graphics too.
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Ninja
Green Yamo
Not at Golden Harvest. Yeah, I've got that box set and watched a couple of films beforehand (Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon). Bruce was ripped a good while ago and forgot to upload it. The only reason why was because I thought that it was identical to the C64 original however after comparing with Magma's rip, the sprites are different. The poses look similar but they are not with one pose that got dropped and the palette is different (but can be made similar on the C64 depending on the palette settings).
Now for some more el Amstrad rips.
Kong's Revenge
Mike
Kong
Ending
Find Donkey Kong child's play? Here's Kong's Revenge. BIGGER SPRITES, MORE DETAIL. Move over Mario, here's Mike. Full of masculinity, he's even got a gun! Mario might be saving a lady, Mike on the other hand is off to save his "hot" girlfriend whose even naked in the game! TWO STYLES OF GAMEPLAY. It's a platformer and a shooter. Mario would never shoot DK but Mike will kill that Kong! Since it was programmed by the finest of Spanish developers, it'll make the Dark Souls series look like a Game & Watch game. PIXEL PERFECT PLATFORMING. You need the tightest of timing to get to the moving platform on Stage 1 or you'll die, only a minute into the game! Get your copy today at your nearest El Corte Ingles dumpster.
(This is why I don't write gaming marketing)
So yeah, a very tough Donkey Kong styled game that only came out in Spain that not many people know about. The palette for this game reminds me of a CGA PC game, not quite the same but close (it did come out on PC though). Oh and managed to encounter a bug where the controls just died so was unable to get past the first level due to getting stuck where you have to jump over the barrels but can play the final level thanks to the Spanish two part setup that was common in action games.
Target Plus
Chicken
Plate
This was the pack in game with the MHT Gunstick (light gun). The full spider's web isn't shown in the graphics viewer but still included it as it is part of the game.
Tour 91
Cyclist
Grand Prix Master
Rider
Cosmic Sheriff
Enemies
Set in the futuristic year of 2023... Wait... What year is this?
Sootland
Enemies
Objects
Cursor & Effects
Just 4 words to describe this game, "awful, ugly and boring." Possibly one of the worst commercially sold games in Spain and there are better options for games of a similar style e.g. Cosmic Sheriff and if you're getting towards French developed games Bob Morane/Lee Enfield: Space Ace and especially the Empire City 1931 clone Prohibition.
On a technical note, something bothers me with the "sprites". If you look at a screenshot or the game icon, there is some black around the "sprites" but the graphics are in Mode 1 (4 colour mode) for the entire game so changing the black wouldn't change it. Changed the black to pink and still sees the outline. Tried Mode 2 and put the layers together, same result as just ripping from Mode 1 with more work. Only thing that I can think of is the programming that's causing it like a dodgy transparency effect to recognise the Gunstick, then again the game is bugged on Stage 3 even though there are fixed versions that have all 4 levels since 2015.
Space Smugglers
Enemies
Friendlies
Effects
The A-Team
B.A. Baracus
H.M. Howling Mad Murdock
Morania Enemies
Tirania Enemies
Civilians
Yep, there's a game based on the TV show but at least it's a bit more fitting for the license compared to the Atari 2600 and the not quite legal C64 games. Then again technology wasn't able to do the license justice back then, closest probably would have been an Ocean styled licensed game where there's a driving stage with the GMC, one where Face tries to persuade the client, a stealth stage to rescue Murdoch and finally a shooting stage either Operation Wolf or Commando/Ikari Warriors style.
Trigger
Enemies
Solo
Enemies
I'm surprised that these two weren't ported to the NES due to the graphical design and palette fitting well but then again Nintendo's policies probably would have prevented Opera Soft and don't think that modern homebrew would do another Zapper game due to well... not many people have CRT TVs these days.
That's all the Gunstick games that I'm doing, not doing Bestial Warrior (optional) or Guillermo Tell. There are a couple of other light gun shooting games however they use different hardware (the forever in WIP Operation Wolf uses a joystick for the regular release and ironically Operation Thunderbolt doesn't use a light gun).
Black Beard
Black Beard
Enemies
Desperado / Gunsmoke
Enemies
Freddy Hardest
Freddy Hardest
Part 1 Enemies
Part 2 Enemies
Considered a legendary game in Spain. Apparently influenced by Flash Gordon and Peter Perfect from Wacky Races but in more contemporary terms more like a mixture of Duke Nukem and Jay Leno with a bit of Zapp Brannigan. Also it seems to be the only version where he resembles the artwork. More recently someone has done an article in Spanish about the history of the game that involves miscrediting the character with the programmer, both the Spectrum and Amstrad versions were done at the same time, technical limitations why Freddy Hardest is not blond on the Spectrum, cutting back on animations, the beginning was a tribute to Planet of the Apes (1968) with the rest of the game inspired by films such as Alien and Enemy Mine and that Freddy Hardest in South Manhattan was going to be a different game with the same tone but only some mockups were done on the Amstrad.
There are a few more Spanish games left in the backlog that were close but lacking in time meant that they aren't ready yet. Hundra, Lorna, Ice Breaker, Army Moves (yes...), Gonzzalezz, Simulador Profesional de Tenis, Livingstone 2 and Game Over. Livingstone I Presume is the closest to completion, it's just Stanley's rope and some enemy projectiles left.
Just the one Commodore 64 rip...
Hong Kong Phooey
Hong Kong Phooey
"Oh looky here, I've managed to sprite rip the great Hong Kong Phooey and I didn't see myself do it." I've watched a few episodes fairly recently since the last time was a long time ago and well it still sort of holds up. Sadly not even the Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu tells me how to rip the nicer looking Amstrad version.
Backlog Progress (aka the ripping pile is just too high, feels like the only one ripping, ripping until 3AM):
![[+]](images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Spoiler