*ALL PHYSICAL COPIES ARE SOLD OUT*: REALMS OF QUEST V (Digital version is available)

[hasseapa]

Sure it would be nice with origInal art but as you say, it would take forever (or alternatively be of really poor quality).

There are great public domain art. This site has some lovely example from the 19th century http://florent.coste.free.fr/galerie/index.php?idx=1
I am not sure they will transfer well to VIC though as they are often detailed and a bit murky.

[Mayhem]

I recall having a C&D against my website a LONG time back for mentioning certain Nintendo titles, let alone even having anything available for download... I think a spider bot was doing an internet trawl for any mentions of videogames.

[Ghislain]

Sure it would be nice with origInal art but as you say, it would take forever (or alternatively be of really poor quality).

There are great public domain art. This site has some lovely example from the 19th century http://florent.coste.free.fr/galerie/index.php?idx=1
I am not sure they will transfer well to VIC though as they are often detailed and a bit murky.

While public domain images are great (and I've used them as well), there is just too much great stuff that is easily accessible from Google Image search. If I apply filters to limit the search result to public domain stuff, I'll be hampered by my choices. Take for example this image that I just converted to VIC-20 format which is one of the better ones that have been made so far:

I used just the face portion of a larger work of art on a publicly accessible internet forum, adjusted the brightness/contrast levels and modified a few pixels and here is the end result. It took me about 30 minutes to do this. But there was a learning curve on how to best produce images like these through a lot of trial and error in my earlier images. The original work was in fairly low resolution (the artist probably only provides higher resolution ones to those who pay for them), but that plays quite well in what I'm trying to do because the resultant image has to fit in and look good as 44*88 pixels.

For sure, I am taking/borrowing/stealing the work of others--those who put in the hard work to compose and create the images. This certainly saves me quite a bit of time.

But the image of the spectral woman will add a certain Gothic element in a portion of the game and this creates atmosphere. There's never been anything like it that was showcased in a VIC-20 game before.

And there's not only that, but I borrow quite a bit from the game mechanics of Oubliette, a 1970s mainframe RPG. Oubliette also influenced Wizardry quite heavily without the latter's attribution, I might add. But only hardcore computer RPG fans would recognize the similarities between my game and the original. In fact, I did _some_ playtesting for the iOS version of Oubliette a few years ago. And _ALL_ computer roleplaying games owe a huge debt to the makers of Dungeons & Dragons which was also inspired heavily by Tolkien.

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal" -- Steve Jobs

Led Zeppelin's song catalog borrowed quite a bit from American blues artists, and they've had to settle lawsuits for these controversies. That doesn't take away from their creativity in how they performed these songs as well as adding their own interpretation of them. And Star Wars of all things, borrows a lot of it's imagery quite heavily from a 1960s comic book:



https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-12-16/ ... -star-wars

And even original artwork on the web probably copy-pastes a lot of elements from others, rather than creating them entirely from scratch. If one looks at Realms of Quest V as a singular work rather than 350 pieces of 44*88 pixel art, then it's basically a collage, pastiche and mashup coming from many existing elements of others' work.

[cbmeeks]

AtariAge.com has sold cartridges that were adaptations of Lady Bug and other arcade classics. I'm not sure if they had permission to do so, or if these games are considered to be abandonware where the copyright holders probably don't care all that much.

I'm a huge fan of AtariAge. However, some of the more popular members there are doing things I really wonder how they are getting away with it. Like taking MSX games and classic arcade games (Donkey Kong, Pac Man, etc.) and upgrading them for the SGM. They are damn near perfect copies. Which, is great to me! However, how legal is it?

I don't dare ask because they start getting really defensive about such questions.

Oh well...sorry about going OT.

[Ghislain]

I'm a huge fan of AtariAge. However, some of the more popular members there are doing things I really wonder how they are getting away with it. Like taking MSX games and classic arcade games (Donkey Kong, Pac Man, etc.) and upgrading them for the SGM. They are damn near perfect copies. Which, is great to me! However, how legal is it?

I don't dare ask because they start getting really defensive about such questions.

Oh well...sorry about going OT.

It's definitely not legal, of course. And while it is "immoral" in the technical sense, they're really just a small vanity publisher using the IP of the big conglomorates and the like. Today's fans of the Atari 2600 are really passionate about a console that is a pop culture icon and the creation of classic arcade ports for that machine provides a form of validation of the video game machine of their youth. I certainly don't hold it against them and I'm certain that the fans who buy these adaptations are quite thrilled about holding physical copies of these games in their hands. The production of these games satisfies a curisosity about "What if X arcade game had been ported to the Atari 2600 back in the day?".

You didn't go OT at all, actually. I was the one who brought up AtariAge.com.

I just finished working on a Giant Skeleton image:

The source which I can attribute it to a Japanese painting from the 1800s, which definitely falls into public domain:

[cbmeeks]

Man, you are an absolute Rembrandt of VIC-20 graphics.

I don't care what your methods are....that's friggin' awesome!

[Ghislain]

Man, you are an absolute Rembrandt of VIC-20 graphics.

I don't care what your methods are....that's friggin' awesome!

Thanks for the endorsement! I hope the end result will live up to everybody's expectations.

I took a break from working on the dungeons and decided to work on City number 15 (actually 16, because they are numbered 0-19), "Minas Maeglindor".

Here are some screenshots:

[hasseapa]

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal" -- Steve Jobs

Doubtlessly all human achievements, whether in science, techonology or the arts, build on previous works. Visual art and music much more so than most people realize.

The quote itself is yet another example
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/

[Ghislain]

Currently working on the latest dungeon, "The Ruins Of Whirlpoole" -- a long, lost underwater civilization where you will encounter adventure, romance and intrigue.

[Ghislain]

There are mermaids in the game.

[mingle]

Mermaid? I thought it was a Page-3 Girl!

[orion70]

I wanna become a fish

[Ghislain]

Thanks, all.

I've been mostly posting updates to my Twitter page: https://twitter.com/hitfan2000

... but here's a compilation of my most recent images for this game.

[mingle]

I've been following this thread from day one and it's looking better than ever.

It's still hard to believe that those images are from a Vic-20 game...

Mike.

[Kakemoms]

Oh, I need to follow you on twitter then. I am "r1a2" on twitter.