C64: Mass Effect

[Kate-Z]

Well.. not really.. but for the C64 30th anniversary celebrations on twitter/fb/g+ I made these mockups
I created the "loading screen" and after talking to my twitter mob about what the C64 game might be like (300 floppy disks?) I hypothesized that it would 360 scrolling/flipscreen overhead rpg of the Ultima/Times of Lore ilk. With a LOT of multi-load.. including stills based cutscene+text sort of like in the last picture







Eagle-eyed Amiga owners might clock where I pinched the in-game background shot from before I c64'd it up

I cheated a bit with the palette too.. but hey! Maybe awesome coders of today would be able to eke more colours out of it

[Commie_User]

Great looking stuff. But me being me, I perceive a mass of info left out.

Could you show us what those shots look like in reality? And which software package did you use to 'bitcrunch' the pics and how?


I love this kind of stuff. When I saw those Amiga or Windows XP-ish graphic demos I lapped them up. Modern graphics are more recognisable on the 64 than people would think.

[Kate-Z]

I tend not to keep a lot of source imagery once something is finished, but here's what I could find for you:











I loaded the images into "GiMP" worked on them in full colour mode then when each was finished I would resize to 320x200, cropping as necessary. Next I resized again to 160x200, I then reduced the colours to 16 *roughly* within the C64 colour palette, I then resize back to 320x200 but with no filtering in order to get that proper fat-pixel C64 look

[Commie_User]

Ah, now I truly appreciate the effect. Five stars! Thanks Kate.




As it goes, Lman put us onto a simple online applet to do exactly the kind if thing you did in one pass. As usual, I went mad with it: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8170&p=88730#p88708

I had a go with GIMP and I was either missing something or appalled that it didn't seem to do what it claimed. I found my solutions anyway: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8187&p=90228#p90228


I love it when modern PC-type stuff is done on the humble Commodore. That's one reason I love the MSSIAH so much.

[LMan]

Cool stuff, Kate Charm the guys at psytronik to make it happen

[NecroPolo]

Really nice one K8

Next time when you are in C64 mood, you can skip several steps with Project One

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=39261

[Commie_User]

I second that. It's ruddy brilliant!

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8170&p=88730#p88730

[Kate-Z]

Really nice one K8

Next time when you are in C64 mood, you can skip several steps with Project One

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=39261

Whoa! That thing is awesome! Thanks for the headsup, great fun

[NecroPolo]

Whoa! That thing is awesome! Thanks for the headsup, great fun

- hugs -

[Dumper]

Really nice Kate. Now for the finishing touch, really make Mass Effect for the C64.

[NecroPolo]

As an another tool for the quest (The Quest), this brand new native C64 tracker has a quite efficient MIDI to tracker converter:

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=109698

It is under development but later releases will be downwards compatible.

If you don't have a working C64 around, don't worry. Since moving all my stuff in February where I have no place to stand up a 8-bit corner, I create SIDs with VICE and the difference is not something to worry about really:

http://vice-emu.sourceforge.net/

Good hunting

[Kate-Z]

Thanks again! Dont think I can get my head around those C64 trackers tho.. I'm spoilt now by gui's and windows interfaces!

did a final update to my project after finding someone else's nice little 8-bit take on the "Galaxy Map" music from the game:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E370ZJZtrAk[/youtube]

[Commie_User]

You create SIDs using Vice, Necro? Would you mind giving us a walkthrough? I wouldn't mind extracting the music from a few games.



And I'll have a go with the MIDI-to-tracker converter to get me part of the way there. Might be nice to have that in addition to MSSIAH or VSTi to process parts.


Mind, first try not too impressive, as I lose the chords in my MIDI doodle when imported.

http://www.dustybin.org.uk/13.MID

http://www.dustybin.org.uk/13.SWM.PRG

[NecroPolo]

You create SIDs using Vice, Necro? Would you mind giving us a walkthrough? I wouldn't mind extracting the music from a few games.

I mean, my own SID music

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/scener/?id=20082

I'm only interested in creating them so I don't have a clue about ripping tunes out of other programs. If you are interested in that, I'd suggest talking with iAN CooG or Jan Harries. Most probably, they can explain what is what and which is why on bytes level.


SW converter takes a little time and experimenting until it does exactly what you want. I concluded that 3-channel single note MIDI files with regular rhythm patterns give the best results. So first I compose the melody and bassline in 2 channels, I do some noodling on the 3rd (Usually noodling and drums/percussion share the same channel. Or not Me + SID composing = chaos) and I'm there. Or I simplify a multichannel MIDI until I get a root 3-channel single note file. When the structure and notes are okay, I start working on sounds and add all the drums. Sometimes it's tricky to find their place.

Good luck and have nice SIDding

[NecroPolo]

Thanks again! Dont think I can get my head around those C64 trackers tho.. I'm spoilt now by gui's and windows interfaces!

I'm not on a mission of talking you in or out of things, but really, SW is much less of a headache than most of these interfaces you're talking about