Release: Popeye

[hasseapa]

Well, I admit the Popeye sprite would probably work better in Popeye Jr or somthing
Maybe I will try to make another one with a somewhat smaller head.

[Jeff-20]

I'm so excited to see this! Popeye on the NES is one of my favorites. I've been begging for a Sega Genesis version from the homebrew community. I thought my VIC was just out of the question.

[hasseapa]

As for the hearts they need to be multicolor otherwise they affect everything they "float" over. I really wanted them red, but then you cant see them againt the background (much of which is also red). On the arcade original they tilt in the wind, but there isn't the resoloution in a single Vic Multi-color character to depict that without them looking more like splodges of bird poo than they already do.

Have a go on my online designer ( http://www.fox-ts.co.uk/vic20sdd/Vic20SDD.htm ) and see if you can come up with a improvement (single char multicolor).

I made an animation which require 4 different frames/chars in each direction. It's impossible to make a single multicolor frame that looks good but when they animate, it looks OK, I think.

Please don't let us bug you about graphical changes. Popeye is a complex game and focus on what you need to eventually get the game done

[hasseapa]

According to a newsgroup post from 2006, Parker Brothers at least began a Vic-20 version of Popeye.

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive ... 00915.html

I used to have prototype cartridges of Q-Bert and Popeye (the regular Parker
black cartridges, without labels, only handwritten stickers on the eproms),
both by Parker. Popeye was an unfinished version, with only the first level
playable, finishing that one showed the other levels as a slide-show. It
looked much better than Q-Bert, IIRC it used multicolor mode. Unfortunately
the eproms started degrading and the game became unplayable eventually.

Considering the goddamn AWFUL Q*bert conversion, I wouldn't expect much. But still, it's a shame if it's gone forever.

[beamrider]

I have now imported the title screen from the Arcade using the import feature that I added to the Screen Character Designer

..and here it is tidied up...

[majikeyric]

Very nice!

[joshuadenmark]

A masterpiece

[hasseapa]

Wonderful. If I was twelve again, I would have an extatic fit!

Makes me wonder what Udo Gertz (who did the great popeyeesque Bongo for Vic) could have come up with.

Mind you, this is the C64 version. His art looked better on Vic as he then had less pixels to mess up.

[beamrider]

Now has initial release. See first post in this thread.

[tokra]

Impressive! Played this for about an hour, but could barely get to the second level and if I did I died there pretty quicky

Difficulty is set fairly easy at the moment

I'm getting old Trainer-POKE?

[Boray]

I just tried it a bit on my Vic-20. Wow! The graphics is very smooth and it plays really well. Very cool!

[Misfit]

Cool,
Difficulty level is harder than C64 version but it's good. (C64 version is too easy)
Thumbs up!

[tokra]

It seems when Bluto reaches down through the platform to hit Popeye, I can stand pretty far away from him and he still gets me. I would think his hand has to touch my player-sprite for it to trigger, but the area seems larger leading to life-loss that seems unfair.

Love the in-game- and intro-music

[beamrider]

Thanks for comments so far:

@tokra:

I'll look into the collision detection. As for trainer + poke, I am not normally in favour of these as I think they spoil the game and reduce it to a mere graphical demo. If people (or their kids/grandkids) really can't pass the first three stages, I'll address it in the next release.

For now, here's a hint: Try to trick bluto into reaching above/below at a time of your choosing by standing horizontally close to him. Just after he does so you can quickly run past in safety - he wont immediately repeat the move (on the first 3 levels anyway ).

Having said that - I've only passed each stage individually but I can mostly pass level 1 without loosing a life. I'm gonna try to complete the first 3 levels myself as well. Setting the right difficulty level is one of the trickiest things to get right.

[tokra]

Just played some more - this time using the "snapshop-image"-feature of VICE to save and reload my progress. I've actually managed to find a bug. Please load the attached snapshot-image in VICE. Bluto has been standing still for some time already, this happens some rare times when I hit the cans that keep flying at me in a close range to Bluto.

I also noticed in level 2, when I eat the spinach and then immediately take the seesaw-trampoline the spinach-music-theme stops playing immediately. I can still hit Bluto though. Then the in-game-music keeps silent until the can-throwing wizards appear at the sides. After that it resumes.

The life-counter works different from the Arcade. Total is 3 lives for both. But on the VIC-20 it counts 3..2..1..Game Over. While the Arcade shows 2..1..0..Game Over. I find the latter more logical.