Hires versus Multicolor in Games

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:12 am

Dumb poll: Consider Hires games (Omega Race, Gridrunner) versus Multicolor games (Dig Dug, Ms. Pacman). Which do you enjoy more?

The hires games don't seem as colorful, but motion can be made more smooth (sprites?). There's also a greater sense of detail. Multicolor games are of course more colorful, but they also look very blocky. (I often found myself explaining that a game was in multicolor mode so someone doesn't think the VIC's graphics are so "simple".

I know many games use a mixture of both, but I find that distracting. It just doesn't seem to blend well.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:33 am

I voted for hires not only because of the greater sense of detail - but because there *is* much more detail (it doubles: 176x184 vs 88x184).

Most of the time, when you play multicolor games you have to keep in mind that VIC graphics can be better than that, and explain to yourself (and other perplexed observers) the meaning of each character: oh, this is the hero, this is Pooka, and this is supposed to be Fygar...

More than that, I often play with the VIC on a B/W monitor.

fgasking · Post by **fgasking** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 3:22 am

I voted Hi-res... Omega Race and Moons Of Jupiter in particular stand out for me.

I'm very curious to see some kind of Hi-res FLI effect for the Vic 20 - maybe the next challenge for the Demo creators?

Gamewise, would it be possible to do hi-res overlays like on the C64?

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:01 am

I voted for both. I think each mode should be used on things that benefits from it. I mixed modes in my Mega Omega game: http://user.tninet.se/~pug510w/datormus ... html#omega

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:56 am

I like hi-res mode better, and I was thinking of Omega Race, too, when I voted.

Not a VIC game, but on the C64 Ultima III and IV were done with solid one colour icons/characters. It looked elegant. In Ultima V they made all the charactes multicolour. I thought it looked much more jumbled & hackish (even though the game was still great).

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:10 am

Unless my eyes betrayed me, the recent Blue Star is an excellent example of mixing hires and multicolour graphics. My VIQ*Bert game a few years ago was not so good, using multicoloured objects reduced resolution to almost none.

So, if there is a way or hack to use both, that's where my vote goes.

Ivanhoe76 · Post by **Ivanhoe76** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:50 pm

My vote has gone to multicolour graphics (I still have in my mind the last GREAT example, the game by kweepa, Blue Star) even if I think that if in the past programmers used hi res graphic to made conversion from arcade or other systems, like they did on zx spectrum, vic (at least with 16k ram or more) would have lasted for long time...

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:14 pm

carlsson, the play area of Blue Star is all multicolour.
Thanks for the kind words.
I voted multicolor, but it was a tough choice. It depends what you're going for really. I've seen good and bad examples of both.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:14 pm

I agree with Carlsson that the best is probably a mixture of both Hires and multicolor.

I think DonkeyKong is either full multicolor or a mixture of both and its one of my favorite games.

I love Omega Race and Lunar Leeper which are both Hires and I would even say almost monochrome but they do seem to be made to play on a black and white TV only and I do find that annoying.

Bandits is, in my opinion, an example of an hires game that uses color intelligently. It almost feels like its multicolor in hires.

d0c · Post by **d0c** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:18 pm

a mixture of both Hires and multicolor

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:08 pm

I'm not so sure about the mixture. I always feel too aware of the differences between the on screen characters in each mode. Multicolor looks almost like a different system all together. It's comparable to having VIC 20 fonts and C64 fonts on the same screen at the same time. It just doesn't blend. Can you really look at Cannonball Blitz and not think of the differences.

Tepic · Post by **Tepic** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 6:42 am

Hires is best. It's not as if the Vic had great colours anyway.

I always prefered the extra detail (ha ha)

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 2:25 pm

Hi-res is always desirable, but there are times when you need to put two colors in a single 8x8 cell. So I still voted combined, because it is a nifty feature and option to implement.

Speaking of sprites, I had developed a small assembly routine that allowed for up to 8 "sprites" made up of 2x2 character, and would smoothly update across any other character and/or sprite -- user-generated or from ROM. I wrote only one Pacman clone game using it, but each monster had its own color and Pacman as well. The problem with all of that was color bleeding as a cell encroached into another. Although multicolor could have been used, losing the smoother motion left/right and detail would have made the clone look ugly.

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:42 am

The most obvious application of a mixture of hires and multicolour, is using text in hires and graphics in multicolour...

Denial

Hires versus Multicolor in Games

Do you prefer games in Hires or Multicolor?

Hires versus Multicolor in Games