Commando

[Neil79]

wtf happened to the Amstrad version? C64 beats it by a mile! Any chance of a homebrew version of the latest Commander Arcade that was just released?

[radu14m]

yes, C64 looks far better !

[mr_lou]

I always thought the characters in the C64 version were way too fat. I thought that was rather ugly.
I don't remember the arcade version being like that.

[AMSDOS]

wtf happened to the Amstrad version?

Elite decided to graphically soup up the Atari 2600 version of Commando which is pretty much what the Amstrad version is. The Atari 7800 version is so much nicer with large sprites, animated board sequences, hidden rooms with bonuses and nasties in them, it follows the arcade version nicely.

[SyX]

Any chance of a homebrew version of the latest Commander Arcade that was just released?

Have you taken a look to the credits of that version? I have seen movie credits with less people

In short, you need a team of motivated people for making this project and i doubt that you can reuse anything of the old CPC version.

If you add that in this moment the good guys are until their neck with their own projects, the only way of making this possible is that new people start to learn to code, make graphics and music.

If i worked in making a decent CPC version, i would try to use a mode 0 screen of 160 pixels width, smooth vertical scroll, double buffer and a vertical rupture for the scoreboard. That would mean 128 Kbs RAM + Floppy or 64 KBs RAM + 256 KBs ROM / Cartridge and that is very similar to the 160 KBs cartridge of this new C64 version.

[Neil79]

Oh, well that sure told me 

[Axelay]

wtf happened to the Amstrad version? C64 beats it by a mile!

I suppose that depends on how you measure them.  They both have their problems, but my recollection of the C64 version was of being just too short and too easy, so I'd easily take the CPC version over it, given the CPC comes with a volume control. 

[Carnivius]

Dunno what  you mean.  The C64 version doesn't look that much better.  It's sure got uglier colours.

[Neil79]

Dunno what  you mean.  The C64 version doesn't look that much better.  It's sure got uglier colours.

The ground isn't supposed to be bright green, the character is also green

[Carnivius]

The ground isn't supposed to be bright green, the character is also green

Where is it bright green?  The version I have the ground is that dingey greenish-yellow colour (they simply call yellow in the CPC manual) which is fine for the environment.  And what's wrong with a commando character being in green?  Never much cared for the blue of the arcade version's sprite.   If he'd been rendered in pink on the CPC I could understand the complaint.  Also look at the big walls with the archways.  On the arcade they are brown, on the CPC they are brown/orange and on the C64 they are a very flat looking black and grey.  At least the CPC version is more accurate there and looks more three-dimensional unlike those tiles on the C64 version.  Ain't saying the CPC version is a wonder of graphical achievement but I really can't agree the C64 version looks much better.  I find it extremely bland (especially since C64 sprites lack the amount of colours CPC sprites can do.  All the sprites have dead-looking grey skin).

[twox]

Commando was my favourite game! I agree that C64 got better graphics, but CPC got alot better soundtrack!

[Puresox]

Commando on C64 only has three levels, CPC has Eight , CPC version has great playability , the graphics are not the best admittedly but they're functional.  The music is pretty decent. I always come back to the Amstrad version and enjoy the challenge.

[TMR]

Have you taken a look to the credits of that version? I have seen movie credits with less people

There are eight people credited at the CSDb but half of those were test pilots and one produced an alternative soundtrack which is a nice touch but not essential; it only took three people to do the actual work of pulling apart the original code, drawing revised graphics and installing the upgrades.

If you add that in this moment the good guys are until their neck with their own projects, the only way of making this possible is that new people start to learn to code, make graphics and music.

This should happen anyway - if people want new anything pick up an assembler and figure out how to do it. =-)

[MacDeath]

the CPC version is very fast for an amstrad game, plays well.

graphics are good despite a bit simplified, main issue being the lack of texture for the floor in plain green.
but gotta remember it was a 64K RAM game mostly...

the atari 8 bit version is not that good looking after all.



Atari 8 bit very often looks lke the dual playfield mode0 Amstrad... with more rasters or slightly more sprites colours...

[arnoldemu]

I agree, the cpc version plays well. The graphics are good and the speed is nice.

I think the floor is plain because it makes it faster for the scroll (they are not moving the entire screen, but parts of it and using the green both as background and a quick way to erase the sprites). Yes I would have liked a more accurate conversion with a nice background, but it's still a nice game.

[AMSDOS]

the CPC version is very fast for an amstrad game, plays well.

graphics are good despite a bit simplified, main issue being the lack of texture for the floor in plain green.
but gotta remember it was a 64K RAM game mostly...

the atari 8 bit version is not that good looking after all.



Atari 8 bit very often looks lke the dual playfield mode0 Amstrad... with more rasters or slightly more sprites colours...

At first I thought that might of been a NTSC version of Commando on a 7800, but things like explosion sequences are much different when throwing grenades, though much of the game plays the same as on a 7800 with the improved visuals.