Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-02
09:41:39
 |  Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
 In the very end, here comes the final version of the game by Bauknecht that we all have been appreciating since Revision 2015. It took 3 months for the creator (Mad) to break thru the limitations the game!
Majesty Of Sprites was born as a coding experiment under the pretenses of a non-scrolling Giana Sisters' like game, running in multicolor bitmap, full of software sprites, gorgeous backgrounds, evil jumps to perform and diamonds and hearts to collect. 10 game levels grouped by two in 5 worlds have been recreated from the original Majesty Of Sprites Preview, this time with a proper in-game soundtrack composed by 5tarbuck and Degauss, with a pair of tunes by Luca too. All the tracks have been composed in the essential tool Knaecketraecker released by Degauss. However, here comes the real big surprise: three single levels were added, this time with multi-directional bitmap scrolling, to explore hyper-coloured worlds with a global sense of freedom! Mad has really achieved his best performance in designing those levels, we all have never seen so many colours playing on our Plus/4 screens, and with the current graphics by Nero with some help by Decca, the final product simply shines!
 All this stuff, plus presentation pictures, main titles program, loading intros, full ending and hiscore table with saver, lies exactly in one disk side, with no space left! Majesty Of Sprites has been ranked 3rd in the Interactive competition held during the Evoke 2015 party.
Majesty Of Sprites has been released as freeware, but soon a commercial release will be published under the Psytronik label, with cover art by Nero again, on 5.25 disk, a real collectible that you can't miss!
|
|
Posted By
MIK
on 2015-08-04
09:56:13
 | Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Either everyone is hiding on facebook talking about it or they are on holiday???
It's almost a shame Turrican 2 was added, I mean Chapter 2 and wasn't kept back for another time. It could of been the BIG surprise for a sequel. It's amazing you managed to make it scroll and the Turrican touches were very cool including the water falls and the way the screen closes up with blocks when you die. Hats off to you for doing what was thought impossible! 
|
|
Posted By
Gaia
on 2015-08-04
15:19:32
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
myself: holiday but it was released right before we moved out. The multicolor bitmap scroll is a game changer. Never before have ff1a/b tricks been used in platformers.
|
|
Posted By
MIK
on 2015-08-05
06:37:46
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Get back to your holiday!
The possibilities of what could be done have just gone up a gear! As well as platform games how about overhead football, racing games like a Micro Machines clone and even a Space Shooter be it an R-type clone or Thrust clone ect... All in glorious high def MAD Mode. 
|
|
Posted By
Patrick
on 2015-08-05
07:24:26
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
when is the commercial package available??
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2015-08-05
08:51:08
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I think the package will be ready,in a month or so. The cover artwork is not done, yet. MIK: :) , I think I need some freetime first :)
|
|
Posted By
Epy
on 2015-08-07
13:18:49
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Is it possible that will be playable on SD2IEC/JiffyDOS?
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2015-08-08
08:14:29
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Epy: it's somehow not possible to make a good version for SD2IEC at the moment. There are several problems including memorylayout and the destruction of our framework by the kernal loading variables. I tried to build a kernal loading version, however it is no fun to play with it at all. Here is the link https://www.dropbox.com/s/3n77cvlhk66omnp/majestyofsprites_kernal.d64?dl=0 it should also be somehow usable at a 1551, just that it is very slow, too.
I don't think I can do much more at the moment, this version shows a muted flickering screen at the loading times (which happens very often), but you can play it with your SD2IEC, atleast I hope so. Have fun, and don't blame me for this bad version  .
Edit: it seems that if 1551 drive emulation is enabled in yape, the bios routines also do not work! Dunno if I can fix this.. Would be interesting if it works on a SD2IEC.
|
|
Posted By
Epy
on 2015-08-09
18:02:44
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
It works on SD2IEC thank you. Not very slow it has absolutely acceptable speed. There's no problem with flickering, it seems like turbo loading
|
|
|
|
Posted By
Csabo
on 2015-08-10
08:49:56
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I also just got back from vacation and only now had time to look at it. It's a monumental achievement, unlike anything we've seen before. Can't really think of the proper superlatives, but it's truly fantastic Congrats!
|
|
Posted By
Epy
on 2015-08-10
16:22:48
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Mad: This version also works on my SD2IEC. Really good work and really awesome game, thank you.
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-18
02:55:03
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I tested the SD2IEC version on real iron and it works quite fast and neat. Of course, you have to loose the wonders of IRQ loading, but the result is perfect. I put the files to be downloaded on the Majesty Of Sprites page, nonetheless they're not the final ones because today we shall test an ultimate version with storable hiscore too, so stay tuned
Some notes aside: the SD2IEC version doesn't support hiscore saving, I'll talk to Mad in order to have a final release for it where this lack can be clearly shown. The Psytronik release will have some minor fixes, compared to the freeware one, Mad should be recording a notelist about that.
EDIT: SD2IEC version changed to final one, it does not stuck after the hiscore table and has some minor fixes too.
|
|
Posted By
carrion
on 2015-08-20
03:11:02
 | Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Hi
I tried MOS SD2IEC on my device and it crashes every time.
I load the "boot" file and start it.
IT shows Psytronic pic with the hand
It starts to play music and shows the purple (dozer?) pic and hangs - every time.
Any clues? Ideas?
TIA
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-20
03:31:20
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
carrion does it "hangs" with grey screen divided by a snowy rasterline? If so, don't worry, that's the loader! Of course, IRQ loader is disabled on the SD2IEC version, the music has to stop, and after a while in grey, it continues to load.
Oh, I also spotted a terrible terrible bug in the hiscore recording, and it affects for sure the freeware version  The good news is that it has promptly been fixed, and the commercial release will run ok
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2015-08-20
14:19:07
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Carrion, do you use a 1541? The game should work at the moment with a 1541 (prefferably) and also with the SD2IEC. The SD2IEC support should work in order to what people told me. I hope Luca also updates the .zip with the fixed highscore bug and there is also one thing which also could affect the SD2IEC.
One point is that you should only have one device present at your plus4, either a 1541 or a SD2IEC, both devices won't work. I used devicenr 8 for the SD2IEC.
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-20
14:54:54
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Ah so do you wanna change the freeware version too? Ok, let's change it too then Now we have tons of different files for it running worldwide 
D64 file changed, download it again!
|
|
Posted By
Csabo
on 2015-08-20
15:58:39
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I'm not sure if this came up before, but it made me wonder again: why am I losing score when I "kill" enemies? How is it thematically justified? Did I miss something in the backstory or somewhere else that points to this?
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2015-08-20
19:47:22
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I liked the idea. Mostly because it's unique it makes it harder to get a good score (with this few enemies) and is more connected to the "real" world (bad "karma" if you hurt people and so on). Is this a good explanation?
Storywise it's not backed, it's just the idea if you do bad it seems to be easier but you loose (points). It's even better than getting in jail by killing someone :)
Fun fact: It's more of a question why you get points if you kill entities in all the other games (someone must collect all the gold they lose if they where killed or something). I would understand if you kill all the people and get to a destination but why you get points out of it is a little mysterious.
Csabo Hope that's enough of an explanation.
It's mostly because it seems to be a new gameplay idea which makes somehow sense and you really need more skills to do it. And I didn't want to build a "killer" game.
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-20
21:08:40
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
On the other side, shooting at the enemies and kill'em by immortality state let you gain more score!
|
|
Posted By
Degauss
on 2015-08-21
03:25:54
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
A bit OT: Anyone played Hitmen: Blood Money?! I know its a killer game and therefore inappropriate for maintaining a good level of karma, but the game mechanics were very interesting: Eventually you HAVE to kill someone, but only "the bad guy". You get the best score only if you avoid collateral damage and only if you let the kill look like an accident.
|
|
Posted By
Csabo
on 2015-08-21
07:16:50
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
It's a good enough explanation Mad, thanks.
As to your question: why killing entities scores points in most games - well, you phrased it well enough to avoid the real issue In most games it's *enemies* you're killing. Usually backstory explicitly says this, or it's just understood, since this is the norm (lonely hero against the Big Bad Evil's wicked army).
Anyway, it's fine, the players recognize the mechanic soon enough, I was just wonder about the "why" and whether I missed something obvious.
|
|
Posted By
carrion
on 2015-08-21
13:13:42
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
@luca
Silly me...
You are ofcoz right. It works fine after loading.
I have a question related to gameplay though.
What are the rationale behind chapter 1 and 2? They seam like two different aproaches to the same game to me.
|
|
Posted By
Csabo
on 2015-08-21
14:38:25
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I'm pretty sure it's technical, and not thematic: the first instance of the engine did not have scrolling, but levels (and all other stuff for it) were already done. When the 2nd instance of the engine was completed (the one with scrolling), they were added on as extra levels.
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-21
14:54:49
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
carrion the truth is just as Csabo said, Mad did explain it previously, and he also talked about new ideas for a possible part two The audience pressure for a scrolling was so big to force him using it in this first game too, so I wonder what's next into his mind
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2015-08-21
16:26:39
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Carrion: What luca said is somehow to the point.
The second chapter could be some sort of scrolling heaven, i just canceled this concept because of the new move with joystick down.
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-21
17:11:51
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Mad: running in the scrolling screens is cool indeed But I ain't no able to find a link between that and...something you canceled, please explain what you mean with that sentence :o
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2015-08-21
17:50:51
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
The first level of the scrolling ones was called "entering heavens". Later on I implemented that rather funny killing move if you press the joystick down. So i removed the celestial concept. The idea was that heaven is much nicer to play (just by it's definition) than the earthly levels. At the moment it's just another dimension found on another planet.
Luca: Try to hit some enemy with that move, you gain 50 points for it!
|
|
Posted By
Csabo
on 2015-08-22
21:32:05
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
BTW, shameless plug for our Hall of Fame: all the folks how said how much they liked the game... Now that the final version is out, it's time to submit your high score. Even if you don't beat Luca
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-28
14:53:33
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Yeah, let's see some HoF!
Meantime, the German magazine Return has allowed us to have their Majesty Of Sprites colourful review in PDF and for free. Thank you Frank Erstling!
|
|
Posted By
icbrkr
on 2015-08-31
20:31:26
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
For me, it doesn't seem to work with a 1551 at all :/.
It loads, tells me to buy it, loads some more, music starts for a sec, blanks, loads, block fades the screen out and... that's it. Hangs forever. No loading.
... and I copied it to my C16s Thunderdrive (CMD HD clone) and it works fine. I'll admit, this is the first time in my Commodore life that I've had to copy a game to a non-standard Commodore device to get it to work :)
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-09-01
01:55:34
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Oh well, it doesn't have to ork on 1551 at all, just like any specific 1541 IRQ loader
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2015-09-01
15:24:27
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Icbrkr: The game doesn't support the 1551, even the support for the "non standard hardware" is not how the game would look on a 1541, 1581 and all other commodore drives. The fastloading SD2IEC Version (which also runs on other hardware) is just a fallback. The loader supports these drives: 1541, 1541-C, 1541-II, 1570, 1571, 1571CR, 1581, CMD FD.
|
|
Posted By
icbrkr
on 2015-09-03
21:47:17
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Normally I wouldn't care, but the 1551 looks so damn cool next to my C16 I don't want to bring out a beige 1541 Oh well... guess I'll play off the HD.
|
|
Posted By
MMS
on 2015-09-04
19:42:10
 | Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Black paint on 1541
|
|
Posted By
JamesC
on 2015-09-04
23:29:32
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Home Depot (US home improvement stores) carries a chocolate brown spray paint for plastics. A closer match than black, though one will need to create their own "1542" label.
|
|
Posted By
MMS
on 2015-09-05
21:07:04
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Metalheads may use Hammerite black
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-09-11
07:54:09
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Gentlemen, start opening your wallets
|
|
Posted By
Csabo
on 2015-09-11
07:56:15
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
...and then close them immediately and keep waiting, since the above linked page still only ends with "available soon"
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2015-09-11
07:59:58
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Start opening the wallet, releasing no money yet, that's the hint! Here the news is the official re-opening of Psytronik's site.
|
|
|
|
Posted By
gyuszi on workplace
on 2015-11-23
23:02:36
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
See the article! "Blauknekt" So lamers...
|
|
Posted By
Chronos
on 2015-11-24
11:43:04
 | Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Great! Thanks!
|
|
Posted By
carrion
on 2016-01-05
07:03:35
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
MOS took 5th place in game of the year category by 4sceners.de ranking.
http://www.4players.de/4sceners.php/dispbericht/-/81601/0/index.html
congratulations!
my personal feeling.
although Caren is great game for c64 MOS should be higher as it brings totally new quality to c+4 - it's ground breaking.
what you think?
|
|
Posted By
gerliczer
on 2016-01-05
12:56:04
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
@carrion
I don't know anything about the other entries, but the title of the compo was 'Best Scene Game'. If it was something like 'Scene Game with Largest Breakthrough on the Platform It was Presented', then MOS would have had better chance, I think.
Nonetheless, it is a great achievement to be nominated, so I congratulate again all people involved in the making of Majesty Of Sprites.
|
|
Posted By
MMS
on 2016-01-05
18:38:48
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I also agree it is a real gem on Plus/4.
Also, thanks for the link. I enjoyed a lot the weird compo entries too, the 1st is really hilarious
and: SNAPS!!! (you should find which one it was. The 1st wins nothing, ehehe )
|
|
Posted By
3-plus-1
on 2016-01-16
11:19:37
| Please release "Majesty of Sprites (C16 + Plus/4)" with 1551 capability!
I bought "Adventures in Time (C16 + Plus/4)" to let it bring me from Stan Claus last christmas so I had the chance to reactivate my old plus/4 and introduce it to my little daughter. That was a great retro-experience for me and the first time putting her hands on an old joystick!
The most people in germany had their 264er bought in the 1980th in a package together with a datasette or the 1551 disk drive but read about that MOS will only run with the 1541. That would be disappointing!
In my opinion, there are many "old men" waiting to rediscover their plus/4 or expanded C16 from the 1980th (when they were sold in large amounts from discounter "Aldi") but they all have only their old package of hardware and no second disk drive to switch to and the need to buy a floppy drive would be a showstopper. For me it would be.
So, please, make the game on disk ready for both: 1541 and 1551 (perhaps without any fast loader on the backside) ... please!
|
|
Posted By
Luca
on 2016-01-16
16:17:59
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I can confirm that Psytronik will release the version compatible with all devices: 1541/1551/SD2IEC
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2016-01-16
21:39:01
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
3-Plus-1 Here for you a version which should load on any drive and sd2iec (some without fastloading). If it doesn't load type poke 65305,0 to change the backgroundcolor to black and then load the game, it will use kernal loading then.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jx4bsnrgjqw4q4k/majestyofsprites_p4world.d64?dl=0
|
|
Posted By
3-plus-1
on 2016-01-18
12:58:16
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Thanks for the information, Mad ... but it it doesn't help me.
Long ago I borrowed a 1541 from a good friend of mine with a C64 and plugged it into my PC with his the CBM-to-Centronics-cable to copy all my disks. Now I'm not really shure if he still has the 1541 and the cable and it is hard to find a PC with parallel-port anyway to to copy any D64-image to a disk.
Finally, I will wait for the ready-to-run package from Psytronik to buy a legal copy (not all has to be like in the 1980/90th ... or has anyone designed a 1551-to-PC-cable in between, that I could rebuild?
|
|
|
|
Posted By
264er_Fan
on 2016-01-25
09:44:56
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
have ordered it
|
|
Posted By
Spektro
on 2016-02-18
06:20:19
 | Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
I just received Majesty of Sprites Premium version. Wow! Psytronik has made an excellent package for it. Oh, and the game is technically, graphically, and musically amazing Really good work by all involved.
|
|
Posted By
3-plus-1
on 2016-02-20
08:22:48
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Ok, I ordered too. Delivery has not to be fast because the next time I have to play with will be christmas when I will put the package under the christmas tree for myself (and my little daughter) to play with. It makes fun to let her use all the technics through the ages together: She tabs on the HP Touchpad to look for the weather, listens to music on tapes, while learning to read and write in the grammar school there is a nearly 100 year old typewriter, my parents have, to fully mechanically type on papers.
Besides "Majesty of sprites", I read about there will be a second version. Ok, you will focus on the plus/4 just because this was the common 264er system in Uk (and hungary). In germany it was the C16. In 1985 the C16 was ground breaking because until autumn 1985 the cost of any computer was 1.000 DM (or much more) ... and then came the offer from the discouter "Aldi" for a real computer for only 149 DM!
This package included not only the C16 but a datasette too. In my opinion many of the first users bought some Mastertronic or Kingsoft games and did not update their system with a disk drive. They went on after a year or to to get a C64 or Amiga when their prices dropped. But the old package went on the attic.
So, if you want to face a new challenge for "Majesty of sprites II" what about adding a MOS-II-Minigame that will be running on an unexpanded C16 or C116?
I think that could be thrilling. And it opens the chance for a third package on Psytronic: Ultra (Premium disk with cassette tape). Ok, you may ask if that will be interesting for customers, but german nerds are a bit strange this way. I don't know the situation in other countries, but here in germany almost all music-distribution stopped to be delivered on tape. You can have the download, a CD or Vinyl. But there is one very popular series, we call "Hörspiel" that is still beeing professionally produced on CD and tape: "Die drei ???" ("The three investigators").
https://www.facebook.com/DiedreiFragezeichen/photos/a.159305054117124.27996.129415137106116/812028118844811/?type=1&theater
So, a special version on tape to get directly used with any C16 right out of the box? As add on in the "Ultra"-package could be a nice offer for all those who rediscover their C16 or C116 and who have nothing more than all that was in the original starter box ... I would buy one!
|
|
Posted By
Ilyad
on 2021-07-02
15:50:41
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Hałlo
I'm trying to load this game via the Vice emulator on retroarch platform. How is this game controlled? the game does not respond to the joystick in port 2 or 1, it responds to the "O" and "J" keys. is there any instruction to control this game? thank you in advance for your help
|
|
Posted By
Mad
on 2021-07-03
20:04:02
| Re: Breaking Thru Your Own Rules: Majesty Of Sprites Final!
Hi Ilyad!
Vice is currently not a good emulator for the 264 platforms, it almost doesn't do the most basic timing emulations and generally is not a good 264 emulator, currently. On Windows,Mac,Linux you can use Yapesdl or Plus4emu. On Windows preferrably Winyape or Plus4emu. You can test the game this way. The game is controlled with joystick in port 1. I've read that there are good 264 cores for MISTer but it seems Retroarch doesn't supply a good core currently, maybe you have to wait for a good Retroarch core. Sorry I cannot help here currently.. Maybe others have more clue of this.
|
|
