Milon's Secret Castle Mockup

[Kiwi]

 

This is actual mock-up that I recreated from the original NES version. I just finish this scene today and got the sprite working. The lightning sprite, sprite number 8 I think took awhile to appear on the real system. I'll have to recheck the updatesprite() function. The tiles were recreated while the sprites were easier to draw and copy from the original source. I'm planning to draw the indoor section next.

 

 

This is taken from the TV screen. I'm sorry for the bad camera shot. The color bleed is kinda bothering me. I'm using the Atari RF cable with it gold connector thingy screwed into the TV RF port to get superior picture quality. I was wondering if the color bleed(The red energy bar is noticable) is normal or should I open up the Colecovision and clean it out or something. The composite mod seems interesting. I have one question about the composite mod. Using this, is the light pink CV computer color, orange on the television?

 

Thanks.

[youki]

very nice!

[Pixelboy]

very nice!

Yeah, extremely nice!

[retroillucid]

I really enjoyed the NES version... even if its a real though game

 

Great mockup Kiwi

[Kiwi]

 

Forgot to add this one in the original post.

 

 

This is the one I recently drew. This one was tricky and difficult due to Colecovision color pallete and 8x1 color resolution. To make the tiles that are in the background dark like the NES version, I had to dither 2 colors together, so it doesn't interfere with the enemy sprite if they might be the same colors as the background color. Sega Genesis games use dithering technique to achieve different colors. I'll probably draw the sprites and Milon's going to have 5 sprites(each will have different priorities) and the enemies would have 1 or 2 sprites each. The sprites in the NES version are rarely on the same scanline. Enjoy.

[youki]

Milon's going to have 5 sprites(each will have different priorities) and the enemies would have 1 or 2 sprites each.

 

Are you aware that you can only put 4 sprites on the same row on a colecovision?

[Kiwi]

Milon's going to have 5 sprites(each will have different priorities) and the enemies would have 1 or 2 sprites each.

 

Are you aware that you can only put 4 sprites on the same row on a colecovision?

 

Yup . I also visualize how the sprites would work on this system and my observation from other games getting around the sprite limitation.

 

Milons's body is composed with 2 colors, blue and red. His skin is one color. In the NES version, his skin is 16x16 so it'll be in the middle of the body. Either flickering the sprite or load the sprite that has the least amount of pixel last, so it'll drop out while the other that is loaded first can stay on. His weapon the bubbles shoots diagonal up or down. I'll make the sprites next to see what works.

 

Other issue is the dollar amount sprites. I keep thinking that you could upload 8x8 numbers in the spot that counts the money since the sprite are 16x16 mode. And the energy bar is going to be a tricky one to do.

 

This is what my thinking process while doing these mockups.

 

I'll write more, I gotta head on to work.

[Kiwi]

 

This is the current mock-up I made. I made some sprites drop out to drive Youki crazy . But, I stated 5 sprites since Milon's is 24 pixel tall in the NES game, but he is right to ask that. I think I remembered him asking me that 2 or 3 times . Anyway, in the real game, the sprites will flicker hopefully at 30hz like Gulkave. 2 colors for some enemy sprites for the enemies are needed because colecovision's colors are very bright and might make the enemies harder to see since the background might absorb them. Flickering the white color will make it transparent. I haven't view the mock-up on TV yet, but I probably going to change the background brick colors to tan. I changed the money tile graphics.

 

Reason why I made these mock-ups?:

Ever since I learned that Hudson Entertainment got acquired by Konami, I kept thinking about the games they made and how hard they worked to make those game entertaining and fun. The current generation specification is way too high and people are warped that better graphic equals better game. It's time consuming and expensive to produce high end graphic for a screen that display 1920x1080 pixels and 1 million colors. I do wish this generation would bring back ROM cartridge style game.

 

I think limitation is a good thing and it keeps developers thinking how to produce the game and use the resource available to make a fun game. I keep thinking why 1024 bytes of RAM isn't enough for the Colecovision, but I'll find out when I keep learning this stuff.

 

Ever since the Colecovision graphic tools were available and awesome to use, I was able to bring my visualization into reality to see these higher specification game being run on a lower capability system. C programming is something I need to figure out and some of the functions in the book I do not understand how to use. However, I need to get over my anxiety and work on the games I have in progress and gain programming experience to make better games.

 

WARNING for those who are developing:

Not sure if anyone ran into this bug.

Milestone Kilobytes exact or a bit over 16KB or 24KB. I found a bug at 24KB where my ROM filled with mock-up that was a several bytes over 24KB. When I load it, it reset repeatly because it thinks it's 24 KB ROM. When I threw the Puzzli RLE data and programmed that slide to push over that 24KB mark, the ROM was functional since the system is detecting a 32KB ROM and not 24KB ROM. Just pointing that out.

[Austin]

Awesome!

[youki]

Very very nice.

 

Don't forget the "flicking" will be at 25hz on PAL and SECAM console.

 

How much screen do you plan to put in your game?

[mäsäxi]

Looks Great!

 

I just watched nintendo video to compare original to your great looking mock-ups, so I will ask you that will it have flip-screen or "eight pixel scrolling"?

 

I would say we MSX´ers would be interested about MSX port!

[+Yurkie]

I haven't view the mock-up on TV yet, but I probably going to change the background brick colors to tan.

 

What about black bricks with white mortar?

[Kiwi]

Here's a picture of the first level of Milon's Secret Castle mapped out. I forgot to save the nametables as I reconstructed the scene in the nametable editor. I screencapped, crop out the other stuff to get the 256x192 picture and put them all together.

 

This is the final colors I selected. I want to get it as close as the NES version as possible. These are very close.

 

This is level 2 mock-up I just completed. Loves the honeycomb graphics in the original game so much and it shows up here . I set up a column of the 4 money tile and 4 honey tile to fill_vram(0x0???,0xBC,64) load new colors like it did in the NES version.

 

milonsmockup.zip

Here's a ROM file of the series of mock-up for those who has the SD cartridge who want to view these images on the real system. The bottom sprites set-up in the first screen shot are messed up, will correct itself in a minute or so as it phase into places. The other 2 screens with sprite are ok.

 

I'm happy that you all enjoy these mock-up as I enjoy creating them.

 

Game theoretical answers...

 

@Youki As many screens as I can put into this 32KB game. The NES version is 64KB. I think the amount of level will be the same but the level would have to be alter to accommodates the Colecovision hardware.

 

@masaxi 8 tile scrolling in Y direction since when Milon jumps, the screen moves to his jump height and stops there. It's very quick. Then flip screen to get to the second section or a small room. The RAM has to hold the room data and state.

 

I'll probably do one more mockup because I want to draw that Hudson Bee, Key sprite, and figure out how to do sprite flickering.

[+Yurkie]

Here's a picture of the first level of Milon's Secret Castle mapped out. I forgot to save the nametables as I reconstructed the scene in the nametable editor. I screencapped, crop out the other stuff to get the 256x192 picture and put them all together.

 

This is the final colors I selected. I want to get it as close as the NES version as possible. These are very close.

 

This is level 2 mock-up I just completed. Loves the honeycomb graphics in the original game so much and it shows up here . I set up a column of the 4 money tile and 4 honey tile to fill_vram(0x0???,0xBC,64) load new colors like it did in the NES version.

 

milonsmockup.zip

Here's a ROM file of the series of mock-up for those who has the SD cartridge who want to view these images on the real system. The bottom sprites set-up in the first screen shot are messed up, will correct itself in a minute or so as it phase into places. The other 2 screens with sprite are ok.

 

I'm happy that you all enjoy these mock-up as I enjoy creating them.

 

Game theoretical answers...

 

@Youki As many screens as I can put into this 32KB game. The NES version is 64KB. I think the amount of level will be the same but the level would have to be alter to accommodates the Colecovision hardware.

 

@masaxi 8 tile scrolling in Y direction since when Milon jumps, the screen moves to his jump height and stops there. It's very quick. Then flip screen to get to the second section or a small room. The RAM has to hold the room data and state.

 

I'll probably do one more mockup because I want to draw that Hudson Bee, Key sprite, and figure out how to do sprite flickering.

 

 

Maybe you can get J-F to publish it on the the cart with the save battery like LOD. I think he said that you could do a 64k game on it. Would be nice to have a big adventure game for the ColecoVision.

[retroillucid]

Sure! It would be possible to use 64K with saving feature

[mäsäxi]

Thank you for the answers. I hope you allow somebody to port it to MSX and I hope that there will be somebody willing to port it. And I hope that you allow somebody to make a MSX cartridge after that. Yes, I have lots of hopes....

 

Background and sprites do look really fantastic!