R-Type - Amstrad CPC Remake!

[Xyphoe]

Hey guys!

Just alerting you to a fantastic new project on the Amstrad scene - a remake of R-Type for the Amstrad CPC is well under way and nearly complete!



Started by the "Easter Egg" team (Fano, TotO, iXien) back in December 2009 after a discussion on the CPC Wiki Forums (during the discussion about the Rick Dangerous Plus remake) about whether it's possible to improve the graphics and framerate on the Amstrad version has mutated and really become something quite big and special. The Amstrad version was basically a complete port/dump of Bob Pape's excellent Spectrum version, the Amstrad programmer Keith A Goodyer actually turned up on the same forum topic to discuss and tell us his story! Basically he had a very short time to do the Amstrad version, so used Bob Pape's Speccy code but at the price of overheads such as having extra code in the loop doing lookups so the code addressed the Amstrad hardware correctly - this resulted in a much slower game, with stodgy controls, jumpy and sluggish sprite movement, some poor scrolling and graphics that were not optimised for the Amstrad ending up looking a bit nasty.



Well Easter Egg team hit gold when Bob Pape got in touch as he'd found some of this original unfinished Spectrum code and sent it across to them - this became the base for the remake, however 80% of main code has been rewritten (what remains is the excellent enemy sprite placement/movement for example), brand new graphics, sfx, music like you would hear in the arcade original and quite a few new features (you will see in the finished version!) and tweaks. Oh plus new loading, title, game over, continue and high score screens. The game now uses fully the 128k of memory, rather than 64k.

Anyway here is the preview video - enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_GDjT1tivo

[SirClive]

That looks really good.

[Xyphoe]

That looks really good.

Cool! That's a nice comment coming from a Spectrum fan, as your version of R-Type was of course excellent (and also the basis for this!)

[Britnostalgic]

Looks great, runs a heck of a lot faster than the original Amstrad port. Good smooth movement, graphics as they should have been and authentic music.

Constructive pointers:
1. I noticed with Dobkeratops the green alien doesn't pop out, he normally sticks his head out to fire off a few shots.
2. The ship, although animated looks a bit squashed... any chance it good be a touch longer.
3. Along with releasing the 'Force' is there a key or button to quickly recall the 'Force' as in the arcade original. Essential for later levels?
And finally... a bit picky, I know. The laser should change colour when firing. Really adds to the atmosphere.

[Xyphoe]

Looks great, runs a heck of a lot faster than the original Amstrad port. Good smooth movement, graphics as they should have been and authentic music.

Constructive pointers:
1. I noticed with Dobkeratops the green alien doesn't pop out, he normally sticks his head out to fire off a few shots.
2. The ship, although animated looks a bit squashed... any chance it good be a touch longer.
3. Along with releasing the 'Force' is there a key or button to quickly recall the 'Force' as in the arcade original. Essentiall for later levels?
And finally...

the laser should change colour when firing. Really adds to the atmosphere.

Hey dude! I will answer your points!

1) Is that the end of level 1 boss? If so - the green head does pop out! I was just too fast for the little bastard with sending off my weapons See the screen shot in my first post (I edited it to include pics just)

2) I will mention it to them ... it 'feels' right to me, but you've probably played the arcade version more than me. Is it much smaller than the arcade? Remember we have a smaller screen resolution to play in.

3) Yes!!!! Very important this was added .. works over 2 fire buttons! Woop!

4) I agree, the laser should be longer too. Remember it's still unfinished and they're making tweaks

[SexyWayne]

Looks great

[Britnostalgic]

Hey dude! I will answer your points!

1) Is that the end of level 1 boss? If so - the green head does pop out! I was just too fast for the little bastard with sending off my weapons See the screen shot in my first post (I edited it to include pics just)

Good stuff... but you shouldn't be able to inflict damage on that middle section unless he pops his head out! I also noticed the programmer used square tiles for the explosion after killing the boss, looks horrible, the explosion should just be centered around the boss, not the whole screen. Also, the background colour should be grey, not blue when entering the mother ship, and then change to black. Can't remember if the CPC struggles with grey, so their hands were probably tied

2) I will mention it to them ... it 'feels' right to me, but you've probably played the arcade version more than me. Is it much smaller than the arcade? Remember we have a smaller screen resolution to play in.

I own the arcade original, and the R-Types PS1 version. It doesn't look right, the middle section needs to be longer... it's not a res problem. The one thing the Amstrad original did get right was the R9 fighter sprite. It's as if it just needs streaching horizontally a little. Thinking about it, wasn't the R9 Fighters sprite also squashed in the Gameboy version of 'R-TypeDX'?

3) Yes!!!! Very important this was added .. works over 2 fire buttons! Woop!

I'm nursing a semi now... Oh, and how about the option for auto fire / rapid fire? You could press a key to turn on or off

4) I agree, the laser should be longer too. Remember it's still unfinished and they're making tweaks

May the force be with them!

[Xyphoe]

I've just had a message from the programmer saying the scrolling of the bottom playing area looks a lot better and smoother on a real Amstrad, this is of course emulated plus then video framerate when I encoded might not be perfect.

[Xyphoe]

Good stuff... but you shouldn't be able to inflict damage on that middle section unless he pops his head out! I also noticed the programmer used square tiles for the explosion after killing the boss, looks horrible, the explosion should just be centered around the boss, not the whole screen. Also, the background colour should be grey, not blue when entering the mother ship, and then change to black. Can't remember if the CPC struggles with grey, so their hands were probably tied

I own the arcade original, and the R-Types PS1 version. It doesn't look right, the middle section needs to be longer... it's not a res problem. The one thing the Amstrad original did get right was the R9 fighter sprite. It's as if it just needs streaching horizontally a little. Thinking about it, wasn't the R9 Fighters sprite also squashed in the Gameboy version of 'R-TypeDX'?

I'm nursing a semi now... Oh, and how about the option for auto fire / rapid fire? You could press a key to turn on or off

Hey dude ... his head does actual appear but I the 'force' weapon is 'over the top of him' ... I think the force sprite takes precedence and overwrites anything under. Maybe this is a hangover from the Spectrum code to stop colour clash, I'm not sure. Spectrum fans ... does anything occur like this in the speccy original?

Other points you mention, I'll forward on to the programmers. Maybe some time left for tweaks

[SirClive]

That looks really good.

Cool! That's a nice comment coming from a Spectrum fan, as your version of R-Type was of course excellent (and also the basis for this!)

Yeah speccy r-type was an amazing achievement. I was never an Amstrad fan back in the day, but I love the stuff people are putting out now.

[thevulture]

Sweet!. Love seeing what people are doing with 8-Bit systems in the here and now (Amazed at some of the A8 stuff).Looks like the Amstrad just went up a notch in my (humble) opinion.

[Dominoid]

That looks absolutely fantastic. A world away from teh rather lacklustre port we got back in the day (Which I think was a port in turn of the speccy version iirc) Don't suppose there's any plans to release it in cart form is there? I see you're a GX4000 fan too and it'd be nice to have something good to play on it!

[fano]

Thanks for your comments , everything that can help to improve is welcome.An important thing about the project , this is a Speccy port (it is mainly rewritten but it works similary as the Spectrum version) so it inherits some specifities and limits of the Spectrum in rendering system (char based,resolution) or gameplay (collision system).One of the biggest difference with Spectrum version is the Z80 moves here twice data to update the scene (one of reasons it needs 128K)
Bob Pape made an amazing job on Speccy version (he made some gameboy versions too) and i must admit this project changed my mind about the Spectrum.

Sadly , they will be no GX version as GX owns only 64K and no disc drive.There will be no specific Amstrad Plus version too as a R-Type clone is projected to use really Plus range habitilies (let's finish this one before speaking more lol)

(please accept my apologies for my awfull engrish as i am an awfull froggy )

[SirClive]

i must admit this project changed my mind about the Spectrum.

You will find that this project may change alot of opinions of the Amstrad too!

[Shion]

Inevitably, if this remake proves popular, you know I'm going to be a b*stard and make a s*itty movie out of it.