Undead for C64 (our old game project resurrected)

[MJR]

I was not sure if this belongs to off topic or other gaming, but mods can move this if necessary.

My and my friend have now resumed working on Undead for Commodore 64, after abandoning it 30 years ago. We have launched a dev blog chronicling the progress. In the first post I am analyzing C64 game graphics and use of perspective on old japanese arcade belt scrollers. I am also describing step by step on making the new graphics.

https://undeaddevblog.wordpress.com/

Here is a sneak peek on how the new look of the game is going to be like. A screenshot of how it looks in CRT can be found in the blog. 160x100 resolution, 16 colors.



Video of the original 1990-1992 incarnation is here

[Mortificator]

Un-Undead! I don't usually like the aesthetic flavor of C64 graphics, but there are shaping up nicely.

It's interesting how the unreality of the belt-scrolling perspective is constructed in such a way to make it feel right. Like realistically, a sprite should increase in size as it moves down the field and toward the camera... but virtually none (hey Arabian Fight) do that because it looks freakin weird.

[Herr Schatten]

Ooh, I love dev logs like that. Bookmarked. I'm looking forward to following your progress.

The new stuff looks really good. I'd argue that all the anti-aliasing shenanigans not only have aged badly, but never actually looked good, and that clarity of definition always wins out, but I'm really not sure if I had seen this the same way back in 1990. However, I do think that this kind of aesthetic was so common in home computer games of the day, as opposed to console or arcade ones, because their creators very often had a demo scene background, and most were self-taught as well.

It always baffles me how you 6510 coders make do with those measly 3 registers. On the Z80, I have 11 (not counting the shadow registers), and I feel that's already sparse.

[MJR]

Ooh, I love dev logs like that. Bookmarked. I'm looking forward to following your progress.

The new stuff looks really good. I'd argue that all the anti-aliasing shenanigans not only have aged badly, but never actually looked good, and that clarity of definition always wins out, but I'm really not sure if I had seen this the same way back in 1990. However, I do think that this kind of aesthetic was so common in home computer games of the day, as opposed to console or arcade ones, because their creators very often had a demo scene background, and most were self-taught as well.

It always baffles me how you 6510 coders make do with those measly 3 registers. On the Z80, I have 11 (not counting the shadow registers), and I feel that's already sparse.

Thanks everyone

Although I agree that the need for (manual) anti-aliasing has mostly died out these days, I will keep using it though, but with extreme restraint and only if it helps to render the shape and depth, which it sometimes does. These can be very subjective things, though, so I might better avoid getting into any deeper than that. It is true that those anti-aliasing tricks are mostly common with demo scene, which is it's own ecosphere..

I have no idea how 6510 coders do it either, as luckily it's not me but Pekka who will do the coding. But he has 35+ experience on coding by now, so I'll trust he knows what he's doing. I am looking forward to read the next part where he explains what he's been doing with more depth, as I only get to know little bits and pieces by email

[MJR]

We haven't been able to update the blog because development takes priority over the little time we have.. But here is a screen test from the beginning of the first level.

[MJR]

I havent been able to come up with another blog post yet, but if anyone's interested, here are some sprite animations that I've been doing (I am remaking all the graphics from scratch)

[Stevens]

Wow. Kudos for picking up this labor of love decades later.

Setting reminds me a bit if Vigilante, and I love the sprite work.

[MJR]

Wow. Kudos for picking up this labor of love decades later.

Setting reminds me a bit if Vigilante, and I love the sprite work.

Thanks for your comments!

[it290]

Absolutely loving the art and animation here, plus the theme of the game is cool as hell. I'm a big C64 enthusiast and this will be a day one purchase for me for sure. Who's publishing the cart? Also can you speak about the control scheme at all?

[MJR]

Absolutely loving the art and animation here, plus the theme of the game is cool as hell. I'm a big C64 enthusiast and this will be a day one purchase for me for sure. Who's publishing the cart? Also can you speak about the control scheme at all?

Thanks for your comments. We were approached by a publisher, but havent signed anything yet. Surely it will come out as a cartridge + digital file on a way or another, I won't say more because it's too early.

Control scheme will be evolved a bit from the 1990 demo. C64 joystick has only one fire button, which is bit limited, and though there is a game pad with multiple buttons out there, the controls still have to work with traditional 1-button joystick.

I'm sorry I can't comment much else - I haven't got around to assemble new controls yet, so that's why I don't wish to discuss them deeper than that. Once I got them assembled I will probably do a blog post about it. I'm just about to finish all the essential player animations and will move to zombie animations, then zombie / player interact animations - for these I will use our own forthcoming graphics editor that will support assembling little bit more complex operations.

[it290]

Understandable about the controls. Have you considered at least an alternate two-button scheme? I have a gamepad that uses the C64GS scheme for 2-button controls and of course there are a few other options out there. Playing with a single fire button has always been a challenge for this type of game on the 64.

[MJR]

Understandable about the controls. Have you considered at least an alternate two-button scheme? I have a gamepad that uses the C64GS scheme for 2-button controls and of course there are a few other options out there. Playing with a single fire button has always been a challenge for this type of game on the 64.

I am interested about alternative options, at the moment I don't own any 2-button gamepads though. Been on my purchase list for a very long time now. I'd love a controller that had a 2-button support for both C64 and Amiga, as I still play games on both and some CD32 game rips on WHDload use 2-button controls.

[it290]

I am interested about alternative options, at the moment I don't own any 2-button gamepads though. Been on my purchase list for a very long time now. I'd love a controller that had a 2-button support for both C64 and Amiga, as I still play games on both and some CD32 game rips on WHDload use 2-button controls.

They both use the same pin for button 2 (pin 9), but I believe the 64 expects that pin to be connected to 5V when active and the Amiga needs it connected to ground. So maybe doable with a switch, but you'd want to be very sure it was switched correctly before plugging the controller in... not sure if there's a way to build a circuit that lets the controller figure out which computer it's connected to and switch automatically.

[MJR]

I am interested about alternative options, at the moment I don't own any 2-button gamepads though. Been on my purchase list for a very long time now. I'd love a controller that had a 2-button support for both C64 and Amiga, as I still play games on both and some CD32 game rips on WHDload use 2-button controls.

They both use the same pin for button 2 (pin 9), but I believe the 64 expects that pin to be connected to 5V when active and the Amiga needs it connected to ground. So maybe doable with a switch, but you'd want to be very sure it was switched correctly before plugging the controller in... not sure if there's a way to build a circuit that lets the controller figure out which computer it's connected to and switch automatically.

All right, thanks.

There will be some writeup about Undead on January 2022 issue of Zzap!64 (yes, it's coming out again these days).

[Marc]

That's some beautiful animation.
Main sprite looks familiar, Renegade maybe?

[MJR]

That's some beautiful animation.
Main sprite looks familiar, Renegade maybe?

Thanks. But no, never played Renegade much though it does look a bit like Target Renegade on C64. With such low resolution it's bit hard to make much a difference as there is only so many configurations you can knit with those few pixels Generally it's just a riff on 80's mullet haired action hero, Snake Plissken from Escape From New York being the most obvious source of inspiration.

[MJR]

New blog post about Undead. I wrote this entry together with Pekka, who is the programmer of the game. This time it's about coding related things, but it's written in very general level - you don't need to know anything about assembly language in order to understand it.

Ps. Zzap!64 latest issue that has a story about Undead will be released tomorrow; 31.1. Blog post has the link where you can get it.

[MJR]

Last weekend, I had a presentation about this project at ZooParty, where I explained about the history of the game and demonstrated our new animation editor, Necromancer, which is custom-built for animating huge characters on C64 - and most notably - bloody splatter effects. I also announced our plan to manufacture an arcade cabinet for this game (running on Ultimate 64 hardware).

If you are interested to check it out, you can do so here:

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

[MJR]

New blog post, this time about animations and our gfx/animation editor. I originally meant to write this before the zooparty video is out, because their subjects overlap somewhat. But better late than never. Check it out if you want to know more about what we've been up to.

https://undeaddevblog.wordpress.com/202 ... dead-walk/

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

The animations and backgrounds look sensational. Really looking forward to the release of this game.

[MJR]

The animations and backgrounds look sensational. Really looking forward to the release of this game.

Thank you very much

I didn't write it into the blog post, though I mentioned it briefly in the video, we are also planning to create custom arcade cabinet out from this (running on ultimate 64 hardware). Though it is more for personal fun and curiosity, the game will be built so that it should function as coin-op. Whether we will ever manufacture more than one cabinet will be completely up to if there is anyone crazy enough to want to purchase one

[MJR]

The development of tools (graphics and animation tools, coding tools, etc) has finally been completed to a point where my friend is now able to move to the actual game code. Since the old 1990-1992 game code is real spaghetti, it had to be all remade from scratch.

First thing he started to rework from the ground up was the most challenging, the bitmap scroller, and it's now working nicely.

Here is a video of new backgrounds running with new code. The next thing to do would be to start putting the new sprites in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfDnokmrIwg

[MJR]

Some update after almost an year;

I am now programming the prototype myself using Unreal Engine 5; I prefer Unreal over Unity since blueprints are much easier for me to learn. Pekka will then read the blueprints and convert the game logic to C64. On C64 side, the most important things, like bitmap scroller, sprite multiplexer and cartridge streaming were already done early last year. Most of the 2023 I spent by learning to code the prototype myself.

Here is early prototype gameplay.
https://youtu.be/6afbJJhk528

Of course, I am already wondering, why am I not making a shmup already...

[MJR]

Since this is a game project I started in 1990, I decided that I want to make the concept art like I did back in 1990: by pen, on a large sheet of paper!

[MintyTheCat]

I am quite enjoying watching your progress on this.

Lovely pixel work, concepts and artwork - just watching the video that you linked to the Zoo session now.

[MJR]

I am quite enjoying watching your progress on this.

Lovely pixel work, concepts and artwork - just watching the video that you linked to the Zoo session now.

Thanks! Hopefully we will have some major progress this year

[MintyTheCat]

Btw: when I saw that intro I immediately thought of Alice Cooper in The Prince of Darkness. When I heard you reveal the inspiration I started laughing.

[MJR]

Btw: when I saw that intro I immediately thought of Alice Cooper in The Prince of Darkness. When I heard you reveal the inspiration I started laughing.

Well, nice to hear someone's on the same wavelength then

[MJR]

New blog post about Undead, where I talk about prototyping of our game, challenges of game design when picking up something that you originally built as a dumb teenager, how I learned to code and what Remedy Entertainment has to do with it.
My opinions about game design are my own, and probably not applicable to what other developers are doing, don't take them as gospel.

https://undeaddevblog.wordpress.com/202 ... -the-dead/

[MJR]

Today marked a major milestone (for me, personally).. I FINALLY coded the severed flying heads in! Oh Joy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N35IyDcPq2Y