Into the Eagles Nest color correction If you disliked the eye hurting colors of the MB version of Into The Eagle's Nest game, just correct it back to the C64 color scheme. It's so easy, I do not get, how MB could release this classic game with such a color scheme, they created a nice intro, and left this two bytes in the game like this...
As I could not find any reference or link to this, I found it useful to add this info to the game's page. (the tile's green is also a little too light, but it is the character local color, modified continuoulsly by the PRG, also the pink gun... eeeh)
BTW now as the game is playable, I uploaded a new Top Score. Looking forward to your results too! :-)
the original MB conversion's color scheme (just for reference). MB version almost looks like a PC CGA game :-D
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction You could catch the chance to put up a trained crack and also add the new color feature, you know I love to see new cracks here 'coz we'd never had a deep cracks' tradition as for other and bigger scenes. That's the reason why in the past years I pushed on this side, even adding here an entry about a very debated subject like the International Standards.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction So if we treat the not failthful colors of the +4 MB conversion as a bug, the new version will be the 100% version of the game, right?
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Oh well nope, 100% refers to a previous imperfect crack, 101% means improvements and addons. It would become a crack with trainers and color fix. I also suggest for a PAL/NTSC fix.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Also missing the Birthday cake with candles in the menu bar... Something that looked more like Colditiz Castle would be cool.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Just kidding. With the color correction and some trainers and NTSC fix it would be all right. It is a legendary game, C64 guys need to see our our platform can do it properly too
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Work on this is underway. I'm going to ramble on about this for a while, maybe just to wrap my own head around it.
First thing is getting the colors right, which involves adjusting every single item, the walls, enemy sprites, etc. Here's the current progress (still needs work):
And the same thing animated:
The two major multicolor colors are two shades of gray. Once this is set correctly, one can see that basically everything in the Plus/4 version was colored wrong :-/ I think Mucsi must have used a black-and-white TV at this time, it's hard to imagine them not seeing how atrocious the colors look.
We have to commend him for the way the sprite was handled though. In the original, everything is done from the charset, with two exceptions: the player, and the little castle at the bottom of the status bar. Mucsi re-used the enemy soldiers as the player sprite, which is "good enough" to make the game work, I guess. His code is a bit slow, which causes the player sprite to flicker when the player walks "up" to the middle of the screen. I've optimized this part already which got rid of the flicker.
While this solution "works", the player is not at all visually distinct from the enemy soldiers, and I would really like to improve this. However, drawing new characters for the player is out of the question, there isn't enough room in the charset. I was mulling this over how to deal with this, and I had the idea of re-drawing the enemy soldiers, so that the majority of the color is taken up by the "per character" color (NOT the two multicolor grays, which are fixed for the entire screen). This would allow each soldier to be colored individually, so the enemies could remain gray (but the little cyan/yellow highlights), but the player would be green.
However... as I was exploring the levels, I came across the prisoner we're supposed to free... and what do you know! He's green! Here's a screenshot with the prisoner (in all his green glory) following the player: That's great news for us, my current thinking is that I will rewrite the sprite conversion to use the "prisoner" characters instead. I wonder why Mucsi didn't do it that way.
That's basically the current state, there's a LOT of work left. A couple of weird things I found: - In the MB version, the colors for the programmer/graphician are swapped for some reason. It's really odd, it's not due to some color mapping, I honestly can't imagine how that happened. - Other than the misspelled "destrayed" message (which is "destroyed" in the original), there's other odd bugs in the Plus/4 version. For example, on the first floor's map, a little up/right from the starting position, there are two "garbled" squares, which are simply just "floor" in the original. (Fixing that is on my to-do list.) - In the original, there are definitely several things that need fixing. For example, the right side yellow panel makes no sense in multicolor. On the above screenshot, you can see that I kept it hires. The vase looks awful, they seem to have messed up the colors. The cold food item in the intro section isn't colored correctly. Those are minor issues.
Other than getting the colors right, I also want to improve the sound and music (those will probably be completely reprogrammed), and add a proper trainer menu. Once it's good enough (probably at least a week, I guess), I will need some help with testing, so let me know if you want to help with that.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Wow! Great work Csabo! Very cool seeing the different screens on top of each other. The colors look really solid on Plus/4 and makes the C64 version look as if the lights have been turned off ha!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Thanks guys! Work is still on-going. What I said about the prisoner's characters above unfortunately didn't pan out: the prisoner does use characters (16 of them), but the game's engine keeps updating the definition of those 16 characters with the 8 possible sprites (4 directions * 2 steps each). Unfortunately there aren't 16 free characters to do the same for the player (not to mention this would probably cause a slight slowdown due to the extra copying). So I'm still mulling over how to solve this, stay tuned.
However, I found two odd/interesting things:
1) For some odd reason, the enemy soldiers' weapon is drawn differently when they are facing left. In all other direction, it's cyan, their per-character color. When the face left, it's gray (one of the multicolor colors). Since the Plus/4 version (still) uses these characters, the same applies to the player, their weapon is green... unless you face left :-/ The only reason I can think of is that maybe cause it's in shadow?... Based on how the walls cast a shadow, the overall light comes from up/right, so if this was the case, the weapon should be gray when the sprites are facing down. Most likely it's just an oversight. I'm planning on re-drawing those few characters.
2) The game has a built-in cheat! Well, not that one, not the Plus/4 version's cheat (pressing MUFFBUSTERS on the title screen, that one is already well known). I discovered it by looking at the code. Unbeknownst to the MB crew, the game already had something very similar The trick is entering "ANDY" (skull) as your name into the high score board. That is: double-quote, ANDY, double-quote, space, skull, space, space. It's easier to see it on a screenshot:
Andy is of course the game's coder When executed correctly, the new game will immediately start with one key in the player's possession.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction I see on Lemon64 someone posted this year, (2023) on the game page comments that they found a built-in cheat mode in the NTSC version by looking at the code..., they also said the code does not work in the PAL version. C64 NTSC version only, enter your name as "HEDGEHOG" including the quotes.
Maybe you have found the PAL code Csabo for the C64 version? Have you tried? You would think, if a hacker found the code it would be PLUS4EVER.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Yep, that seems to be the case, and many things support this. The Plus/4 version is based on the PAL release of the game, while Lemon64 seems to list the NTSC one. Differences: - Each version has a different cheat code. - The title screen music is different (the one you can play on the Lemon64 site is the NTSC one, it differs from the Plus/4 version) - The credits colors are swapped, I mentioned this above (NTSC: "programming" is green, "graphics" is blue, on PAL and in the Plus/4 version it's the other way around).
While digging through the code, I found another issue: the game uses the SID to generate random numbers (a fresh set each time). This however is obviously broken in the Plus/4 version, the memory location that the game reads (which is a SID register on the C64) never changes, therefore the entire "random number table" will be all zeroes.
Have you ever noticed that when you shoot containers open, they are always empty?! This is exactly why (Will be fixed of course.)
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction containers!!! how frustratring it was! I shot 12 container and NOTHING ! Thank you for solving that matter too!
BTW I just noticed that in the C64 version there is a BACKPACK on the antagonist!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @MMS: yeah, the backpack (and different graphics) is the dead giveaway that the player is actually a sprite (and not part of the 256 game characters). As I mentioned above, Mucsi's trick of replacing that with enemy characters is actually very clever.
Unfortunately there aren't 16 free characters to do the same for the player [...]
Well, somehow I managed to squeeze this in. It was a lot of effort, having to update the character set, edit the map tiles, and update the game code for the change character codes (boy, I really hope I didn't break something in the game's engine, this is going to need a lot of testing). So, it's not fully done yet, but...
Finally, this shooter might just end up having actually shooting Stay tuned!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Nicely done Csabo!
So reminded me of Phantom not having the backpack. When it's added it slightly changes things..., you can't stand with your back against the wall any more as the backpack takes up a certain amount of pixels, and if your facing a bad guy that makes you just a tad closer to him ha! But yeah in this case not only have you added something, you have also fixed something!
wow, I did not thought it will be possible, I just wanted highlight how blind I was, because I did not notice this difference when I copied the first pictures here. I really appreciate your time and effort!
BTW I wrote beforehand antagonist and not protagonist LOL I blame the beers :-D
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction A little update; I'm still working on this project. While doing my own testing, I came across a bug which is present in the MB conversion, but not in the original C=64 game, I put up a video about it here.
This makes the Plus/4 version impossible to complete :-/ Is there no game without bugs?!
Anyway, thankfully I found and fixed this bug already. More to come!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction The film with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood is called "Where eagles dare". Very likely that this game and "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" were inspired by it
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction After a lot of toiling, the game is ready for testing. Calling all Plus/4 enthusiasts... If you have time and you're up for it, please contact me (here in the thread, PM on P4W, email, discord). We have to put it through the ringer to make sure everything works. This is the time to find hidden issues or make feature requests.
I'm thinking about 2 weeks should do it. That will give me to finish up packaging the release (title screen and adding the documentation, etc).
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @Csabo I am ready to test it on the weekend! Due to some activities last week was not OK for this, but now I am ready for the task.
Typically I am a good bug reporter, on the other hand I cannot promise I will reach the very end of the game
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @Csabo ah, I did not run to sign in because I guessed you would have several candidates anyway... Ok, I am here if needed. Discord? Which channel?
And I take the chance to ask to @Haegar if his call for music got success in some ways.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Thanks guys, sent! TBH the lack of feedback caused me to sour on this project, the general lack of interest from the scene is undeniable But I'll finish it anyway, just to get it over with. (Also Haegar found someone.)
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction I've just received the beta file of this project, and I didn't tested it yet how it needs, taken by several other Plus/4 related affiliate projects, but a quick play on the YAPE has been enough to understand HOW F3CKING COOL this stuff is! You better keep eyes on it!
Participate actively on anything! Send more hiscores! Cast more votes! Raise more memories! More more mores!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction So I've been a lurker here for a good few years, never posted before (an Amiga guy really although fond of the Plus/4 as first ever family computer & its still going strong ) but I have to say Csabo has done a fantastic job with this by the looks of it. Certainly deserves some positive feedback! I'm really looking forward to giving it a go.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Thank you for your kind words and encouragement regarding my work, even though you haven't fully seen it If you have time to test the game, please contact me (I'm so reachable).
My intent is to have a "definitive" version of the game, and my biggest fear is that as soon as I release it, someone will find a glaring bug. (Or even just point out something obvious that could have been easily improved.) I often tell other folks here when I see something that obviously needed more polish, so I want to lead by example - but we need more eyes. So far only Luca and MMS volunteered, and I send them the game in its current state, but no response so far; I'm sure they are just waiting for the weekend
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @Csabo, yeah I am waiting for the weekend, though I checked my mail continiously, but .... nothing.... I just checked my Spam folder now and Voila! It was there. So finally I got it!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @Csabo I'm short on spare time at the mo but even if I wasn't my gaming abilities, more often than not are pretty minimal …. not a great candidate for a testing role putting it mildly! Still as I say even though I'm just a light casual gamer I look forward to it. I'm sure Luca and MMS will give it a good test run to help you perfect it .
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction I'm sure everyone is waiting with bated breath for this release The work however is still ongoing. Another rare bug has been found in the original game (which is of course present in the Plus/4 version as well):
This is the 3rd one (if I count the C64 bugs, and not the things that only broke during the Plus/4 conversion). Stay tuned (Oh, and if you have time/energy to help test, it would be appreciated.)
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Yeah that was a nasty nasty nasty one indeed!
A brief non-technical explication: when collecting the ammos, the player's sensible area gets expanded in order to collect ammos both in the player's sprite area and in its surroundings. In this particular map zone, ammos and the open crate with jewels are way too close. This causes the calculation of the jewels as being "in the surrounding of the player" to be performed while the expanded area is still active. This mistake makes the consequent empty crate to appear on another location, once the jewel has been collected. This means that the original crate still contains the "unpurged" jewel, which can be collected a second time (double scooore!), and this time the player's sensible area had the time to turn into normal size and everthing goes. But that empty crate rests there!
Oh and yes I second Csabo: any further help in betatesting would be appreciated.
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @MMS oh dear, I checked the pictures, you truly are adding screenshot of hiscore done on an unreleased game, mixing it with the early version, which clearly plays in a different way *facepalm*
You're mixing different things, please keep stored your record, and be ready to properly add'em once the game has been released
EDIT: the game has been now released, so I moved your hiscore there ;)
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction Now I know where Csabo has disappeared in recent months! It's amazing what you have put on the table again bro'!!!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction So, the long moths of relentlessly toiling away on this arduous task finally bore their fruit. Congratulations Csabo!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @Csabo Thank you for the release, it is so great to have nice intros, great music, proper starter screen and CORRECT colors within the game. I wish it would have been available back in the 80s. I have a bright memory when I was (9 - delete) 'I dunno how many years old", we were outside in a park with the class and the teachers. My classmade explained me exactly this game, as his latest fun on C64 (his parents were pretty rich, BTW). I had no clue what is the name of that game, but the concept burned into my brain. He explained the game so vivid and exact, when I saw the MB release, I knew this IS the game. (BTW right after this talk in the park we played some football and I broke my arm really bad... LOL)
@Luca well, I felt it is the same game with corrected colors, no trainer used Thank you for being a man with honor and not deleting my highscore, I worked a lot on it :-)
Anyhow, I just made a new record with the recently released OFFICIAL Csabo game, I am looking for the other gamers too. Frankly speaking, I feel too alone there as #1, pretty unusual feeling, as I am not a great gamer
(BTW after one bottle of wine my reaction time is avg 205 ms - test yours! https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime)
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @MMS oh no, that's absolutely not the same game and plays differently, is actually THIS the point of its release!
Re: Into the Eagles Nest color correction @MMS that's just a fast play to ignite a challenge, but I've been lucky enough to muscularly remember some wise mechanisms of the game since I've played the Mucsi's version for a decently long time.
Moreover, the maps reset at any lift's passage, and all the resources respawn, so, if someone would really go for the hiscore, he can accumulate score simply collecting the lift pass and accumulating some minimum risky points in redundant cycles. I think that is possible to break the score counter this way...
Into the Eagles Nest color correction
