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Island of Secrets Graphic Adventure

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:27 pm
by orion70
Hi guys - I've been away for a while for work, no PC there. From what I see, a lot of people changed their avatars. I like all those pixels! :D

Back on track: do you think it would be technically feasible to add graphic screens to BASIC adventures such as Island of Secrets, or Mystery of Silver Mountain? I'd like to use the pictures in the respective books, and convert them to hi-res screenshots. They will eventually appear either before the description of some locations, or together in a split-screen. I'm afraid I don't manage Minigrafik enough for this, but I'll prepare the screens and ask Mike :wink: .

The colour combination will come from the winner of this poll.

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:33 pm
by Pedro Lambrini
That sounds like a great idea! Island of Secrets would really gain from this - especially the 40 column version. Vic20 Ian is trying to get people talking about the potential of a Voice Synth/Sound cart (maybe with a built-in 40 column cart!). Both of these together could really open up the Vic as a serious adventure game machine... :)

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:40 am
by orion70
Work in progress..

Image

:P

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:03 am
by Pedro Lambrini
Wo, ho, ho! That is really groovy! Can't wait to see some more! :)

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:08 am
by orion70
Here you are Pedro :D

Image

Oh oh... There's a huge snake around grandpa's shack!
No more screenshots now, let me work on this guys, and I hope that some day I will give you a decent graphic adventure!

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:13 am
by ral-clan
Those look great!

Just imagine how the VIC would have flown off shelves if a demo like this could have been running in stores during the early 1980s!

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:30 am
by Pedro Lambrini
These shots do look lovely but, yeah, don't show us anymore so as not to spoil the surprise!

The nicest thing is the pixellation of these images just makes them look all the more quaint. Kind of like pointilism on the Vic! :)

Sometimes it's great to still be a Vic owner!

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:41 am
by Ivanhoe76
I agree with you ral-clan... I really think that those things - i.e. good graphics and sounds to show the real capabilities of the hardware - always missed to early vic software back in the 80s!!! I think that many vic user left the machine because they were not satisfied of the game produced in particular after the arrival of the first c64 games or even looking to those for the speccy that, even if it had not-so-good graphics and sounds, looked much better than vic!!! Now it's time to avenge that sad abandon....

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:42 pm
by orion70
I've split this discussion into a new topic. Stay tuned here for news!

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:37 am
by orion70
Each screen will be in the appropriate combination of colours for that location. So - forget those all-blue screens :D .

Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 11:43 am
by Mike
The title screen really looks good. :)
orion70 wrote:Each screen will be in the appropriate combination of colours for that location. So - forget those all-blue screens. :D
It is also possible, with the output of PGM IMPORT, to change the two intermediate colours afterwards. They are the background, and auxiliary colours, and so are easily changed with two POKEs to the addresses 36878, and 36879.

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:19 am
by orion70
Thanks Mike. It's an interesting feature, though I think I will use only "static colours" screens for this first try.

I'm quite near to the end, having already rendered more than twenty screens (roughly one every four locations), and modified the 22-column version of the adventure to correctly recall them in the places where they're available. IMHO, the result is quite impressive, and adds atmosphere to the game. You will see the final product by the end of this week - maybe before :) .

I used the 22-column version made by Formater, beacause Minigrafik and FAT-40 are not compatible. If Mike will have time in the future, we may produce a 40-col version based on his engine (which I'm not able to use yet :oops: ).

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 3:38 am
by Mike
If you send me the title screen, I can provide the boot loader. So MINIGRAFIK, and the main program are loaded while the title is being displayed. :)

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 4:23 am
by orion70
PM sent :wink: .

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:23 am
by orion70
Work DONE.

There are 29 graphic screens and 80 total locations, so it's roughly one third of the whole adventure with a graphic depiction (a good percentage, IMO :wink: ). Some more screens were added for particular moments of the game or game end - it's up to you to discover them :D .

I hope you'll like it as much as I had fun creating and adding graphic screens!