Author Topic: Alex Kidd HD (Read 26757 times)

granz · « **Reply #20 on:** December 13, 2012, 01:44:50 pm »

This is looking pretty awesome so far.

By any chance, would you have any interest in trying your hand at Fantasy Zone in the future? The graphics seem like they would be simple enough to work with, especially considering all the stage backgrounds are repeating, pre-rendered images.

macbee · « **Reply #21 on:** December 14, 2012, 12:06:40 pm »

Quote from: granz on December 13, 2012, 01:44:50 pm

This is looking pretty awesome so far.

By any chance, would you have any interest in trying your hand at Fantasy Zone in the future? The graphics seem like they would be simple enough to work with, especially considering all the stage backgrounds are repeating, pre-rendered images.

Thank you

I guess Fantasy Zone would be a nice title to make Hi-Res graphics in a near future.
It's a small game (1 Megabit, just like Alex Kidd) and the visuals of this game are crazy enough to make me interested on it.

johnny · « **Reply #22 on:** December 16, 2012, 05:03:04 am »

Quote from: macbee on December 13, 2012, 12:39:17 pm

Thank you!
I'd love to see hi-quality sound added to these Roms too.

I would assume if it was able to be done with Sonic Megamix which was basically hacking a Genesis ROM to become a Sega CD iso, than doing the same process with Master System ROMs, wouldn't be too far behind.

macbee · « **Reply #23 on:** December 23, 2012, 08:33:39 pm »

New gameplay video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrqNfv3qiHA

justin3009 · « **Reply #24 on:** December 23, 2012, 11:04:47 pm »

Quite the HDing there! Very nice progress and video in general c:

geishaboy · « **Reply #25 on:** December 26, 2012, 07:42:32 pm »

Holy shit that looks awesome. I wasted many a sunny afternoon playing Alex Kidd as a child. Thanks!

Piotyr · « **Reply #26 on:** December 28, 2012, 02:38:22 am »

Everything but the main character sprite looks great. Dunno Alex looks iffy. No idea what I would do about it beyond maybe losing him a few pounds

macbee · « **Reply #27 on:** December 29, 2012, 12:17:19 pm »

Quote from: Piotyr on December 28, 2012, 02:38:22 am

Everything but the main character sprite looks great. Dunno Alex looks iffy. No idea what I would do about it beyond maybe losing him a few pounds

He looks as fat as the original, japanese Alex Kidd from the mid-1980s.
All Alex sprites (except the ones when he dies) will not be changed. I'm very happy with them.

tigrou · « **Reply #28 on:** January 07, 2013, 02:21:10 pm »

That's just awesome. I'm really impressed by the results. Can't wait to get a playable version

Also : i'm surprised to discover there is almost no project that have been done with HiSMS so far (it have been around since almost 4 years)... I didn't even know the existence of this tool before seeing this thread.

Is it because SMS was not a so popular console ? or because there is nobody that bother doing HD version of old games (too much work, etc)

macbee · « **Reply #29 on:** January 07, 2013, 09:41:49 pm »

Quote from: tigrou on January 07, 2013, 02:21:10 pm

That's just awesome. I'm really impressed by the results. Can't wait to get a playable version

Also : i'm surprised to discover there is almost no project that have been done with HiSMS so far (it have been around since almost 4 years)... I didn't even know the existence of this tool before seeing this thread.

Is it because SMS was not a so popular console ? or because there is nobody that bother doing HD version of old games (too much work, etc)

Thanks Tigrou! I'll probably release a new gameplay video in a week or two.

Your theories (on HiSMS obscurity) make all sense to me. And Botrops (HiSMS creator) tried to let people know about his emulator on message boards years ago - but many people criticized it negatively without even trying to use it.
I can't say for sure but I believe Botrops gave up on HiSMS due to this unnecessary criticism. Only v.0.01 beta 1 was released and there's no mention of older HiSMS projects on Google.

I'll be happy if my Alex Kidd hack helps to do justice to this wonderful tool. It would be amazing to see more HiSMS projects from other romhackers.

tigrou · « **Reply #30 on:** January 08, 2013, 04:07:26 pm »

I just discovered heigboy emulator which give possilibity of recolorizing gb titles easily (by modifying palette of tiles). I tried it and it works fairly good.

Also, since C source is provided (both emulator AND color it utility) and it is clean and easy to read, i guess it would be a good starting point for anyone who want to make a tool similar to HiSMS but for gameboy.

For such tools a good idea would be to generate a file containing only checksums of original 8x8 tiles and the data of their corresponding new, bigger tiles. This way files could be distributed legally, since it would not contain any data from orginal rom, only checksums (this is how ColorIt works, but for palettes).

granz · « **Reply #31 on:** January 08, 2013, 06:04:25 pm »

Quote from: tigrou on January 08, 2013, 04:07:26 pm

I just discovered heigboy emulator

This might be a good approach for colorizing Metroid II. There have been some attempts to produce IPS patches, but no one has been able to overcome the issue of garbage tiles appearing when Samus transitions between different map areas. I think there are also some palette issues in the Queen Metroid's chambers.

I suppose that's another discussion entirely, though...

macbee · « **Reply #32 on:** January 12, 2013, 07:23:57 pm »

New gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNcGK_V960Q

tigrou · « **Reply #33 on:** January 14, 2013, 03:40:49 pm »

really good job as usual, the red balls really looks like sweet and candy

also : i'm always surprised to see how the sandwich at end of level looks... it's a white triangle with a black square on it while in my child memory i remember something more tasty. before posting this I tought it was a emulator bug / glitch but in the end it's not. after some searching i found some arts (flyers, etc) that shows it's actually... a pile of rice ! (maybe not new for most of you but not for me):

http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Alex_Kidd_Miracle_World/Alex_Kidd_Complete_Album_CD_A.jpg

i was able to find a screen with a version that looks like what i remember : http://s3.vidimg.popscreen.com/original/0/eDk3OGl2MTI=_o_sega-master-system-1986-alex-kidd.jpg

question : on youtube video you posted, text is in english so i suppose this version is NTSC-U version am i right ? if so why is meal shown as rice and not as sandwich like (i suppose) PAL (european) version ?

granz · « **Reply #34 on:** January 15, 2013, 05:23:56 pm »

Quote from: macbee on January 12, 2013, 07:23:57 pm

New gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNcGK_V960Q

Still looking good

Too bad something like this wasn't considered for the PS3 release. It's just an emulated port.

urbanopsilva · « **Reply #35 on:** February 25, 2014, 08:50:04 am »

Tigrou, thats not a sandwish, that a Japonese food called ONIGRI

you can take a look at it here:
http://japaneseokrecipe.blogspot.pt/2011/09/onigiri.html

Midna · « **Reply #36 on:** February 25, 2014, 06:02:34 pm »

In some versions of the game the onigiri is replaced with a hamburger. Maybe that's where he got it from?

Drakon · « **Reply #37 on:** February 25, 2014, 08:30:12 pm »

Pretty awesome. Alex kidd should also get redone graphics for the master system that game always needed some better graphics to go along with the nice gameplay.

macbee · « **Reply #38 on:** February 27, 2014, 10:35:53 pm »

Quote from: tigrou on January 14, 2013, 03:40:49 pm

question : on youtube video you posted, text is in english so i suppose this version is NTSC-U version am i right ? if so why is meal shown as rice and not as sandwich like (i suppose) PAL (european) version ?

Sorry for taking more than 1 year to reply.

I'm hacking the game using Alex Kidd in Miracle World (UE) (V1.1) [!] ROM. I don't know exactly how many versions of this game were released.
I used to play the "rice ball version" of Alex Kidd (back in the early 1990s) here in Brazil - so I wanted it on my hack instead of the sandwich.

By the way, this modification of Alex Kidd was featured on Retro Games Magazine (December/2013 edition):

Red Soul · « **Reply #39 on:** March 03, 2014, 08:13:04 pm »

I must say I'm highly impressed by what was achieved here. Having grown up to Sega systems, Alex Kidd filled a large part of my childhood (and also taught me the bittersweet frustration of getting far into a game just to run out of continues ha-ha). Anyway, please keep up the good work, thank you for bringing back so many memories.

As others have mentioned, I'd be particularly happy to see a Zillion HDification, if you ever work on that.