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Posted By

MMS
on 2022-10-05
15:36:06
 Re: Treasure Island

OFF
@MIK:
Actually HAM was very complex graphics mode, and like the DFLI mode on our computer, it could be used only for static (mainly digitized) pictures, as it was pretty complicated to draw anything in that mode.

BTW I added an Amiga HAM picture to the VDC Challange slideshow happy

ON
Some time ago I made a new FLI starter screen for Treasure Island (unfortunately lost...).

Posted By

Litwr
on 2022-10-04
16:44:04
 Re: Treasure Island

Actually the Amiga 500 can show up to the 368x290 raster with 32/64 colors and the 736x290 raster with 2/4/8/16 colors but only few programs (e.g., Delux Paint) use these maximums. IIRC WB 1.3 can't use 16 colors with 640x256 raster. BTW the Amiga was sold in the UK in larger numbers than in the USA, that helped the Archimedes much. wink And the Amiga missed great Treasure Island.
A link to an online Corvette emu is here.
@javierglez the Apple IIgs had very interesting graphics (256/3200 colors!) and CPU but it was assigned to the losing side of great business wars/strategies.

Posted By

gerliczer
on 2022-10-04
16:04:15
 Re: Treasure Island

How did you manage putting the expression 8 bit home computer designers and MS-DOS in one sentence?

Posted By

javierglez
on 2022-10-04
14:20:19
 Re: Treasure Island

Apparently the QL was released before it was finished and it was very buggy. Early owners must have been pissed off. I think they had to swap the ROMs at some point.

The Acorn ARM line had a long life, from 1987 until the mid-late 90s. I wouldn't say they weren't successful, considering how small was the number of 8 bit home computer designers which managed to bring out +16 bit machines (Apple, Atari, Commodore, MS-DOS).

There were some 8-bit machines with improved graphics, but I doubt there was any intention of keep developing them, but rather just capitalizing on older designs (MSX2, Amstrad CPC+, CoCo3, Sharp X1, Apple II GS)

Posted By

MIK
on 2022-10-04
13:09:13
 Re: Treasure Island

The classic Amiga can display 32 colors at 320x256, 16 colors 640x256 but that does not include overscan which is possible via Workbench and some apps. And as you know many more colors could be displayed using magic such as HAM from a pallette of 4096.

Come 1992 EA claimed to have 64 colors on screen with the game Black Crypt. Not bad for hardware that stretches back to 1985. wink

Posted By

Litwr
on 2022-10-03
18:48:07
 Re: Treasure Island

I used two emulators, maybe they took the screenshots not perfectly but it is 50 Hz.
This Corvette has quite a dramatic history. This computer was designed by two students who initially wanted to have something better than the Tandy TRS-80 they accidentally had encountered. Those students were lucky and got some support. But later guys from Apple bought them and this good project died. A lot of Corvette spare parts were then used to make clones of the ZX Spectrums. Brits had similar sad stories for the QL, and Archimedes. "Business is war" said Jack Tramiel once...
Of course, if the Corvette had become a world known model this could have even let the SU survive. So it likely wasn't the best idea. This computer has quite good graphics, 512x256 16 colors, 8 colors are free. This is better than the QL or CPC. The Amiga standard graphics can only show 320x256 pixels with 16 colors. And the Corvette has a graphic acceleration which allows it to use colors even faster than the IBM PC AT! Of course, the Amiga was much better but the Corvette used only very cheap chips and could outperform the Amiga 500 for some graphic tasks. There is an online emulator for the Corvette somewhere on the net. So anybody can try Treasure Island on it. BTW the first Corvette emu was written in Poland.

Posted By

MIK
on 2022-10-03
06:09:19
 Re: Treasure Island

Great detective work!! happy

So it's Russian and why we have never heard of the computer! To the untrained eye you would say it's an Amstrad CPC 464 looking at the screen shots, however it says it's similar to the MSX with it's Basic. I noticed there was some dithering on the Treasure Island logo and the brown rocks ha! It looks like a faithful version though if a little stretched as if it's 60hz???

I'm not sure why the wiki page says under Graphics, "This computer had advanced graphic capabilities for its time". Obviously they had not seen the Amiga lol. grin

Posted By

Litwr
on 2022-10-02
16:05:08
 Re: Treasure Island

There are a lot of software which were ported from other platforms to the C264 series. However, some piece of C16/+4 software were ported to other platforms. One interesting example is this game. It was ported to the Corvette computer in 1989. I tested this port and I was surprised that it was made very good. Graphics and sound are the same as on the +4. I can only wonder how a man could make such a port in 1989! This man had to know the +4 hardware very well. The Corvette graphics is completely other than on the +4. The Corvette (like the Amstrad CPC) uses only pixel based graphics, while the C+4 usually uses character based graphic modes for games. The sound of the Corvette uses the same beeper as the IBM PC, so it was also not an easy task to convert C+4 music and sound effects. The Corvette uses the Intel 8080 @2.5 Mhz and this makes it generally slower than the +4 but Treasure Island doesn't use all CPU power of the +4 and this helped to do the port. I can also notice that IMHO to convert the 6502 assembly to the 8080 is not easy. It seems that Treasure Island was the only piece of software converted from the C+4 to the Corvette.

Posted By

MIK
on 2022-08-09
23:38:53
 Re: Treasure Island

I could be wrong but for some reason I have 124% in mind as the max that can be achieved???... I have not played it to this level in many years. When I made the screen capture map was maybe the last time I played it to the max. happy

If I'm right there maybe 2 or 3 pirates you have missed, meaning there might be one or more pirates where you can gain a sword from even if you think the space for one to land is a bit tight. That's if my memory is correct.

Posted By

Csabo
on 2022-08-09
14:43:15
 Re: Treasure Island

Yeah, 101% is really good! I also entered the time he took (21 minutes or so) into the "secondary score" field, so if someone else manages to do a 101% run, we can still rank them by who does it faster.

I haven't checked, but perhaps there's even more items that can be picked up, so maybe an even higher percentage is possible.

Posted By

Litwr
on 2022-08-09
11:56:06
 Re: Treasure Island

It may be interesting that for the C64 and Speccy they released a new game The Willow Pattern Adventure in 1985 which uses similar map. They also made a release for the Amstrad CPC.

EDIT. Several months ago I got the best result 100% and thought that it is the best forever. But a month ago @AL82 was able to get 101%. What a fantastic result! The impossible has become possible. I think I can get these 101% too but I will need more than 40 minutes for it.

Posted By

MIK
on 2022-05-29
05:58:08
 Re: Treasure Island

Always fun to go back and check out other versions and compare. One cool thing about our version is that it will run on a C16 with a 16k ram pack, so not really a Plus4 Only game as we once knew it. wink
I still love the music in the Plus4 version, the way it sounds like an accordion is class.

Saboteur! next? happy

Posted By

Lavina
on 2022-05-29
05:50:21
 Re: Treasure Island

It was a very decent game back in the days, one of the favorites of everybody in my childhood. The atmosphere, especially with the music and gfx paved the way for later games with the same pirate era story to absorb us. Monkey Island is one of my all time favorites till this day... And a new part of that game is coming this year. happy

Posted By

Litwr
on 2022-05-29
04:01:48
 Treasure Island

Title:Treasure Island
Category:Game/ArcadeAdventure
Release Date:1985
Language:English
Size:32K
Machine:PAL & NTSC
Code Type:Machine code
Distribution:Commercial/TA
Treasure Island Screenshot


It seems that Treasure Island for the C+4 is the best implementation of this game. It shows pirates and John Silver while versions for the Speccy and C64 show ghosts. The C64 version has bugs that prevent to get 100% score. IMHO it is because the C+4 version appeared a year later and was improved and better tested. It is also interesting that the C64 and C+4 have the same map but several pirates are placed slightly differently and this makes the gameplay a bit different.
BTW I needed about an hour to get 100%...


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