Commodore 64 - cbm64 (sp33dy_09_09_08)

[sp33dy]

As discussed in the Community project thread. Here is the original (but cleaned up) Commodore 64 main menu theme. I'm going to work on creating a generic game layout for the top 100 cbm64 games soon.

Any thoughts??

[hollywood]

Thanks for doing this. I've been waiting for a c-64 thme.

Lance

[cathaldub]

this may be a better image of the monitor to atart off with
http://enr1que.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/c64c_1.jpg

[amchine]

Awesome! You need a picture of the screen from almost straight on in order for the video to fit in right.

[mildanti]

nice i already got a great idea for a game theme for this

[Circo]

We are working on a c64 video set, but its a huge project, if you send me the top 100 i'll see if we can get those vids up.

[The Loafer]

The theme is fine but I do agree, you need to use a monitor pic that has the proper angle OR BBB needs to add x/y/z dimension on viewnig flv's (now THAT would be cool!)

[sp33dy]

Circo,

Very kind of you. It's very hard to decide which set to use as source for top100. I'm tempted to use gamebase and their top 100 viewed:

http://www.gamebase64.com/search.php?ft=1&a=3&d=18

I say this as I have the collection and their tool will identify roms etc... Thoughts? I could go through Zap64 or I personally like lemon64 site (but some people hate that guy for some unknown reason).. Anyone else with suggestion?


As for monitor. I understand what people say, but I personally think the screen looks fine on the main menu. It's not what i intend to use for the default artwork. That was going to be a little different... Still playing with a few ideas. If someone else wants to have a go, feel free to join in.. Maybe a collaboration of efforts for this?

[The Loafer]

Well, I recently came into possession of 3 C64's, 3 1541 drive, a 1084 (I tinnk?) Commodore monitor and.... drum roll please... a real honest to goodness Commodore DESK. IE: I could perhaps set everythnig up and take pics in whatever angle you want, so you could have the perfect angle, though I can't guarantee on the lighting. You'll have to give me until Sunday though, I'm busy as heck until then.

[sp33dy]

Loafer,

A real good shot of the monitor would be ace. I think the rest of the equipment is fine. I've been thinking of tracing the monitor and turning it into a vector image. I think that would look quite neat.

I've not done a lot with this theme (yet), but have cleaned up a few bits and pieces. I've been looking/hunting the artwork needed for the top100 games. Found this interesting link:

http://www.says-it.com/cassette/cassette.php

It generates tape images with supplied text. I'm thinking of using it for all the wheel images (if I can't find a picture of the original). I think this would make it look neat.

Sp33dy

[sp33dy]

Just to keep you posted. I thought I'd show some of the things I've done. Not had much time on this!!!! However, things are moving nicely. I started by tidying up the couple of themes I made for Uridium and Thing on a spring during private beta testing.

The Uridium theme is a little dull. Big background. Tilemap around video and a cover. It also has a ship chasing left/right (with known bug for first movement the wrong way round). I'd like to use the particle system to spray bullets or a ship.

The Thing on a spring is a little more interesting. Same type of layout as above, but the video bounces in on a spring and is suspend from top of screen. Looks nice, although it probably needs scaling up a little as it is a tiny bit small. Thing also arc's in and over and down to right.

As I say, these have had artwork tidied and are full themes.

I then decided to work on Bubble bobble to see what else I could do. Skils are really moving now!!! Title bounces in. Big clear backdrop which I love (adjust for fade correction is such a great option!). I'm chuffed that i've wrapped the video with a bubble and that bounces in to screen and rotates (got to be seen). I'd love to have this float around the screen, but looks as if video is locked out from these rest effects (shame). There is a nice tape that I've created from scracth as there isn't a scan of the tape image itself (I didn't have original copy of this to scan). I know it'd take me 20-40mins to knock a tape out and will get that down significantly soon as I create templates. My main goal with this theme was try the particle system. I love what I've achieve. Floating bubbles with a fade, therefore they become transparent and float over the screen. I can't get the scaling to work, therefore bubbles are all the same size. I'd also love to supply three or four images of bubbles (this would also help with uridium). I could then put different characters in bubbles and have them appear (BBB, any thoughts, as you have taken this as-is I guess from source?). Personally, this is one of my favourite CBM64 games and I know this is my best effort so far.

That then leads me on to Action Biker. I've decided I need to setup the default theme. I'm working on that now. I've included the screen shot to show off the wheel tape images that i plan to roll out. I hope people agree it will look nice.

I've selected a list of about 80 games too. I will post that tomorrow. I'm late to bed and the wife is moaning I'm still up. So sorry for gramatical errors. I've got several issues to resolve. As well as comments for the above, anyone got a view on the following:

1) Which cbm64 gameset would people like me to use. There is gamebase, tosec, I think there might be a no-intro (but i've not collected that set yet), or use sources from say the tape preservation site? I plan to produce a DAT file to rename/collect files and also against the themes themselves. There was a post the other day asking for a tool to manage theme artifacts. This is what we should use!!!

2) I like to see the instructions for game from the tape cover scan. Do people like or dislike these?

3) I'm using the longplay videos. I believe Circo has offered to get priority on my list of games. Once I've posted, these files will be useful. I don't need the official set. However, releasing this drop.. How should it go (guess this is a question to mods). Potentially this could be a big set when I get it going. I would like to get something small up sooner rather than later. Thoughts on this would be great

All the best

Sp33dy

[joebells]

no-intro all the way, I believe if no-intro covers a system thats what we want to be using. I have a "raw" dat that you could work off of in another thread here http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=758

[hollywood]

Great work. I have nice memories of the c-64. I can't wait for this to be released.

[The Loafer]

I like the idea of the tapes, looks good as a wheel though in north america, I don't know anyone who used tape versus the disc drive. Were the games identical tape versus disk aside from the loading time?

One note: your thing on a spring looks maybe too busy because of the background used.

I forgot about my promise to take a pic of the monitor. I can do so this afternoon if you still want it. Sorry about that :(.

[mildanti]

i want to make a theme for one of my most favorite games of all time on the C64
AZTEC CHALLENGE
but theres not to much for artwork except for this
http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/aztec-challenge/cover-art/gameCoverId,83618/

[sp33dy]

Feel free to make other themes. I'm planning to post the cbm64 up when I have 4 or 5 games complete. I'm not far away. I've decided:

1) If I can find tape scan I use that, otherwise I use a blank tape image as template and paste title from cover at top. Works well and only takes two or three mins to create.

2) Tapes are first theme. Disks would be a seperate theme. Most of the games were the same. However, lots of multi-part games, i.e. dragon's lair, infiltrator, etc, etc were either only on disk or just better there. Therefore I planned to revisit those later.

A screen shot of monitor would really help!!! If you can.

I plan to write up how to add to these themes when I've up'd the first lot.

As for the quote about Thing. Yes, it looks busy from screenshot. These screenshots just don't do the theme's justice. The Bubble bobble one is in the same boat. You have to see them before you can like them!!! ;-)

[The Loafer]

Pics of monitor sent but none without the flash, not enough natural light. I'll retake those with tripod on Tuesday... and yes will clean the monitor some more :). Let me know what you think!

[sp33dy]

To be honest, the snaps are great. Best source I've had so far. Will hopefully get using tomorrow evening.. Thanks for the effort

[sp33dy]

Ok, thanks to loafer.. Here is the new main theme. I think the monitor looks great now and I've cleaned up the keyboard. If I rotate the monitor (as I had previously, I seem to get a lot more jaggies. Not sure how to combat that yet!).

I've also included a new image with the tapes on show. Hopefully people will agree this looks neat.

I'm not far away from being able to give an early release of approx 5-6 games in the theme. Have to stop for tonight though :-(

[cathaldub]

Looks excellent now
love the tape wheel, its savage

ah the C64 days
Rick Dangerous was brillant
And microprose soccer music was great lol
I remember thinking power drift was the best cargame ever

[scrapple]

awesome!

[The Loafer]

Well, that monitor looks familiar! eheh no prob, glad to help. Again, let me know if you want me to retake the pic with different lighting etc, but it does look great!

[sp33dy]

Thanks for the positive feedback. Does the main theme now look too busy with the datasette in it (bottom right)? I think it makes sense to include to indicate tapes. I plan to replace this with a disk drive for the floppy games (I think it would have to be put on the main menu too (as there are no sub windows).

I'm going to try to add a few more tapes and default games and get a release out at the weekend if these themes are going to be approved.

*Edit*

I should add. I'm obviously releasing:

1. A main theme
2. Multiple themes within cbm64
3. Have flv's I've converted from longplay video (circo offered to provide video), but in meantime, I have my sample
4. Will have a DAT for roms based on No-Intro

How do I release all this?

I understand the process for option (2) above. However, do I package these individually or as a set?

For option 1, is it a similar fashion to (1) [Although i'll need to give instruction to update database xml to include system].

Shall I provide the flv's via torrents for short term????

Thanks and regards

Sp33dy

[sp33dy]

Right, I've now got the default skin working as well as I could expect. Comments please...

Note, I've got a default background for action biker and have dropped the impossible mission advert as background for that. Therefore it'll be simple now to add lots of games. People can then decide (if they want cbm64 games) to do individual themes.

I've also raised a few requests and bug reports that will aid in this theme.

Unfortunately, I better do some real work now. Just got hooked this morning!!!

[joebells]

Thanks for the positive feedback. Does the main theme now look too busy with the datasette in it (bottom right)? I think it makes sense to include to indicate tapes. I plan to replace this with a disk drive for the floppy games (I think it would have to be put on the main menu too (as there are no sub windows).

I'm going to try to add a few more tapes and default games and get a release out at the weekend if these themes are going to be approved.

*Edit*

I should add. I'm obviously releasing:

1. A main theme
2. Multiple themes within cbm64
3. Have flv's I've converted from longplay video (circo offered to provide video), but in meantime, I have my sample
4. Will have a DAT for roms based on No-Intro

How do I release all this?

I understand the process for option (2) above. However, do I package these individually or as a set?

For option 1, is it a similar fashion to (1) [Although i'll need to give instruction to update database xml to include system].

Shall I provide the flv's via torrents for short term????

Thanks and regards

Sp33dy

I hate to be negative but I think the monitor for this one needs a smidgen more work, I see black and rough edges on the inside part. The two monitor images below look ok just this one?

[sp33dy]

Joebells,

NP. I actually noticed that after I posted. I discovered I'd resized incorrectly by a couple of pixels.. All fixed.. :-)

[The Loafer]

It looks good. For some systems like the CBM64, I may just use the default themes for all games, but the individual themes look good too.

Thanks again!

[sp33dy]

OK, I've just uploaded:

Commodore 64 - cbm64 (sp33dy_09_09_08).zip
Default system theme (install first)

Commodore 64 - default themes (sp33dy_02_10_08).zip
Default game themes + two games (action biker & impossible mission)

Commodore 64 - bubble bobble (sp33dy_02_10_08).zip
Commodore 64 - thing on a spring (sp33dy_02_10_08).zip
Commodore 64 - uridium (sp33dy_02_10_08).zip
Three specific game themes

I've been naughty with the system theme and left the flv in. I've removed flv's from the others. I've got to head to work now and will find a hosting area or torrent tonight for those 5 game flv's. Alternatively, you could go looking for the c64 longplay site or youtube. This is where I got mine from (youtube quality is fine because c64 res was only 320x200 anyway!).

Have fun (I hope), regards

Sp33dy

[sp33dy]

I see someone is downloading files. Please let me know what you think.

Regards

Sp33dy

[hollywood]

I've sampled some of this. Great work. Let me check all the themes and we will see about approving it.

BadBoyBill: Is it possible to have a new download section for C-64 themes?

Lance

[sp33dy]

Hollywood,

Great! Please let me know if you need ought. I've not had time to look into FLV's for 6 themes (I forgot there is a default one for Airwolf too in there). I started looking at the AHK for HL yesterday to make the CCS emulation start/stop better. However, I've got a lot of home commitments this weekend.

Regards

Sp33dy

[hollywood]

I've approved the C-64 main theme. I can't approve the individual c-64 themes until a C-64 section is created.

[sp33dy]

I see a lot of you have started downloading the main c64 theme. Dazz has kindly created the user section for c64 game themes. I'm hoping the default 3 games + 3 unique game themes will be approved in the next 24hrs. I'll then continue to produce additional default themes.

Anyone else want to join in with this work? Private message me if so. I'll want to talk about standards etc. Just to make sure everything stays consistent.

Regards

Sp33dy

[hollywood]

approved the c-64 themes. Please find them in the c-64 download section.

[Dazz]

I've sampled some of this. Great work. Let me check all the themes and we will see about approving it.

BadBoyBill: Is it possible to have a new download section for C-64 themes?

LanceLance,

I have already created the download section for C-64 themes. It is at the bottom of the User Submitted Themes section. It just doesn't have an image yet.

[hollywood]

yeah...I moved them there.

Thanks

[scrapple]

adventure construction set took many an hour of my life back in the day on the c64