Mastertronic Retouch 2

Continuing the retouching theme from my previous blog post is another 'rescued' loading screen from my old tape archive.  Read the post 'Mastertronic Retouch 1' first to understand why these images were pixelled back in the 1980's.

After retouching the loading screens for 'Action Biker' and 'The Captive', it seems next on my list was 'Excaliba', also from Mastertronic.  I've screen grabbed both my 'retouch' as well as the original image and compiled them into an animated GIF below to easier see the changes.

Again, I would like to send an apology to whoever pixelled the original; modifying someone else's work is something I would never do today unless with express permission or by request.  As with previous attempts, 12-year-old me was continuing his experimentation with shading/dithering/antialiasing based on observations of images pixelled by Paul 'Dokk' Docherty and Robin Levy.

I seem to remember (as much as memory will allow) my main beef with the original (shading, or lack thereof aside) was the logo down the left hand side.  In no way did it resemble the logo on the Mastertronic box art in my posession.  This was the first thing I 'corrected', albeit in a vertical direction.  Once complete, I was satisfied that the new logo looked similar to the box art but was a little disappointed that the letters 'l' and 'i' looked a bit 'squiffy', even though I *knew* through magnification that they were 'centred' with the other letters.  Ho-hum.  It was my choice to do it vertical I suppose...

While attempting to copy the logo, I found there wasn't enough room so I had to shift the entire image a few chars to the right to make more room.  As a result of this slide to the right, there was no longer room on the far right to give the room a 3D look as per the original, so this was lost and replaced by an entirely 'flat' 2D wall.  The picture frame was adjusted to 2D to account for this and the footstool and box also had to go in the process, again lack of space.

While shifting everything right, I also took the opportunity to switch out the Mastertronic logo with my improved version.  It should be noted that all these movements and changes were only possible because of the tools built into and the overall 'power' of OCP's 'Advanced Art Studio'!

Other changes?  Well, I think all the shading, dithering and anti-aliasing of just about, er, everything is just about noticeable?!  I realised part the way through that this was turning out to be more than a retouch.  Of the original image, just about all that remained was the 'outline' shapes of the knight, goose and door; even the floor, wall stones and flaming torch were completely pixelled from scratch.

I've converted my 'rescued' final-version Art Studio file to the more commonly used Koala format.  In the download below is the bitmap in Koala format, the bitmap in C64 executable format and the screen dumps which are pictured above, along with the game box art.

To download a zip file containing all this, click here...

I have yet more C15's with some other bitmaps on them and will convert these in time.

Mastertronic Retouch 1

After getting my hands on CRL's 'The Image System' and pixelling some loading screens that were sent to Mastertronic (see earlier posts about 'Space Loading Screen' and blah), I then got my hands on OCP's 'Advanced Art Studio' after reading the review in ZZAP!64.

I still wouldn't have a disk drive for a few more years yet, so had to get the cassette version hoping there was some work-around the 'advice' in the review about the tape version being 'unworkable'.  My solution was to use C15 cassettes to save out my images as they progressed, which I could keep track of easier than larger/longer cassettes.  And it's on these short-tape cassettes that I have found some more of my older pixels, from around the end of 1987.

To learn the new application, I decided to 'retouch' some existing loading screens of games I had in my collection, instead of pixelling anything new, starting with (it seems) Mastertronic's 'Action Biker' and 'The Captive'.

I screen grabbed both of my 'retouches' as well as the original images and compiled them into some animated GIF's below to easier see the changes.  Hopefully, it should be possible to see some improvements?!

Firstly, I would like to send a HUGE apology to Jim Wilson, wherever he may be.  He was the artist who pixelled the original 'The Captive' loading screen; I'm not sure who pixelled the 'Action Biker' screen although there is a chance it was also Jim Wilson since he pixelled many of the Mastertronic loading screens of this era.  The apology is for the fact that I obviously considered it fine to alter someone else's work all those years ago, something I would never do today unless with express permission or by request.  Hey!  I was only 12 going on 13 at the time!

I clearly remember being 'affected' by seeing Paul 'Dokk' Docherty's work in ZZAP!64 and on loading screens of other games I had in my collection.  I was really impressed by his clever use of colours and shading/dithering and even to this day I would have to admit my 'style' (even if I have one) is strongly based/influenced by his, along with Robin Levy and as a result of this influence, my retouches of the Mastertronic screens shown above contain similar shading/dithering techniques and use of colours.

I was happy at the time with my 'Captive' logo and the improvements to 'Clumsy Colin' himself; I was less happy with the 'Action Biker' logo itself, which was based on a smaller image on the inlay card of the game cover.  I just couldn't get the shape or colour to my liking.  I'm glad to see I was morally mature enough to leave Jim Wilson's signature on the Captive bitmap.  Both retouches include the 'improved' Mastertronic logos I had pixelled for my previous loading screen attempts.

I've converted my rescued final-version Art Studio files to the more commonly used Koala format.  In the download below are the bitmaps in Koala format, the bitmaps in C64 executable format and the screen dumps which are pictured above, along with the game box art on which the original artists based their work.

To download a zip file containing all this, click here...

I have a few more C15's with some other retouched loading screens on them and will convert these soon, when I get a bit more time.

Mastertronic - Space Loading Screen

OK, a *real* blast from the past!

I've bought myself yet another C2N from eBay that looked in pretty decent shape and was confirmed working by the seller.  Reason?  I've been rummaging around some very old C64 tapes in the hope of finding some of my real old C64 bitmap work and I've managed to 'rescue' some loading screens!

The screens in question were originally drawn in CRL's 'The Image System', which I used before I got my hands on OCP's 'Advanced Art Studio'.

Here are some almost 30 year old bitmaps, pixelled sometime in 1986...

The bitmaps were pixelled with 'Mastertronic' logos on them because they were sent to said company in an effort to tout for work!  I seem to remember receiving a cheque for the space loading screens - I didn't have my own bank account at the time and had to pay it into my parents account!

The reason the loading screens have 'GAME NAME' on them was because I figured that they could be put on the front of any space type game that Mastertronic were going to publish and the game name could be inserted quite easily.

Although I was 'paid', I don't believe they were ever used; I've gone through every Mastertronic game from just about every archive over the years and have never seen them.  I'm guessing someone at Mastertronic kept them for possible future use, but they never saw the light of day.

They are quite basic in nature, but I'm quite proud of them considering I was around 12 years old at the time.  My sole aim was to produce something half decent since many Mastertronic titles around the time had very colourful, but often quite poorly pixelled loading screens, with no anti-aliasing or shading.

I've converted the Image System files to the more commonly used Koala format.  In the download are the bitmaps in Koala format, the bitmaps in C64 executable format and the screen dumps which are pictured above.  To download, click here...

There are more loading screens on the tapes and I'll post about those once I've had time to convert everything.

SID Doing Paula

'SID Doing Paula' is a C64 music collection released by Arkanix Labs, containing my covers of some of my favourite Amiga 'cracktro' and 'intro' mods.

The collection contains covers of:

• Matkamies by Heatbeat/Carillon
• Crack or Die! by Jugi/Complex
• Bambam by Jozz/TRSI
• Delicate Oooz! by Emax TRSI
• Frequency Shifter by Mr Death/CTR

There is a hidden tune.  'Uridium 2 Loader' by Jason Page is hidden because it's from a commercial game not a cracktro/intro, so technically doesn't fit with the others in the collection.  I had to cover it though because it's a great piece of music.

I also pixelled the graphics for the collection, with a riff on the Amiga boot screen (but with a 5.25" disk instead) in the intro and the main tune selection screen designed to look like an Amiga DOS command line interface screen.  A C64 sprite masquerading as a Workbench pointer indicates the tune that is currently playing.  Coding was by Trooper.

The collection can be downloaded from CSDb here or downloaded directly here...
 
I'll post another blog entry soon with some notes about the SID's in the collection and a link to download the original raw Goattracker song files.

Do yourself a favour. Go and find the original Amiga versions and listen to them too.  And yes, the name of the collection is an attempt to sound a little risqué.