Dark Bit Factory & Gravity

GENERAL => General chat => Topic started by: Shockwave on September 04, 2008

Title: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 04, 2008
The next challenge will be here soon! We will be having a remakes competition again :)

There will be some differences to before, in that we will provide as much help as we can in ripping original graphics and sound for you to use and we will be making replay routines available in both C, C++ and Freebasic that will allow the accurate playing of exotic formats.

The voting and judging will be different to normal too, the challenge will be held in connection with www.retro-remakes.net , that is a site that is set up for these win32 remakes.

Prize fund is to be increased too, it will be jointly sponsored by me and rbz (thanks old chap!).

If you think you can do the same then you could win some kudos, some cash and support a really amazing site :)

We are still working on the format for the challenge and the rules too, so expect this to start in a couple of weeks ;) So you have all had advanced warning!

This challenge requires quite a lot of skill, but was really popular last time so lets hope it will be cool again.

To get you in the mood, here are some remakes I have made over the last couple of weeks..



The Mighty Druids Bluemax Remake.

Screenshot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/tmd_bluemax.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=c839828dc2874747d4d92ff99b3ed54f363928f9 (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=c839828dc2874747d4d92ff99b3ed54f363928f9)

Comments (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=c839828dc2874747d4d92ff99b3ed54f363928f9 (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=c839828dc2874747d4d92ff99b3ed54f363928f9)


Tarkus Team Topsy Turvy Remake:

Screenshot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/topsyturvy.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=d3ee4d98519398f56e1b5f20740c9dec2206dfdd (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=d3ee4d98519398f56e1b5f20740c9dec2206dfdd)

Comments  (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=d3ee4d98519398f56e1b5f20740c9dec2206dfdd (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=d3ee4d98519398f56e1b5f20740c9dec2206dfdd)


Resistance Rexxmasher Remake:

Screenshot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/rexxmashershot.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=8c5eaedd77cb36029fe6475af05a71174ea5de9b (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=8c5eaedd77cb36029fe6475af05a71174ea5de9b)

Comments (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=8c5eaedd77cb36029fe6475af05a71174ea5de9b (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=8c5eaedd77cb36029fe6475af05a71174ea5de9b)

Share And Enjoy Jumbo Sinus Remake:

Screenshot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/sae_jumbo.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=716de0017eb3282e44217ea4452c679a7545e659 (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=716de0017eb3282e44217ea4452c679a7545e659)

Comments (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=716de0017eb3282e44217ea4452c679a7545e659 (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=716de0017eb3282e44217ea4452c679a7545e659)


The New Masters 10 Earth Bobs Remake:

Screenshot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/earthbobstnm.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=3de3db9b3fffda4d1a51216a880bdcfc5ccae53e (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=3de3db9b3fffda4d1a51216a880bdcfc5ccae53e)

Comments (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=3de3db9b3fffda4d1a51216a880bdcfc5ccae53e (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=3de3db9b3fffda4d1a51216a880bdcfc5ccae53e)

Skid Row Air Supply Trainer Remake:

Screenshot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/airsupplyshot.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=3aad3a1fba7c5a33bc408b01fc28a8042584da64 (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=3aad3a1fba7c5a33bc408b01fc28a8042584da64)

Comments (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=3aad3a1fba7c5a33bc408b01fc28a8042584da64 (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=3aad3a1fba7c5a33bc408b01fc28a8042584da64)

Varez 3.0 Remake:

Screen Shot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/vares_screen.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=8a4a2c43b65795b0aca981ac2a44896dd2683efe (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=8a4a2c43b65795b0aca981ac2a44896dd2683efe)

Comments (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=8a4a2c43b65795b0aca981ac2a44896dd2683efe (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=8a4a2c43b65795b0aca981ac2a44896dd2683efe)

Scoopex Oriental Games Remake:

Screen Shot:
(http://www.retro-remakes.net/screenshots/orientalgames.jpg)

Download:
http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=4d90327831bbb6930e00ad73bca163c3be21e46e (http://www.retro-remakes.net/download.php?prod=4d90327831bbb6930e00ad73bca163c3be21e46e)

Comments (retro-remakes account required):
http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=4d90327831bbb6930e00ad73bca163c3be21e46e (http://www.retro-remakes.net/viewproduction.php?prod=4d90327831bbb6930e00ad73bca163c3be21e46e)
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Xalthorn on September 04, 2008
Well, you know me, I'm always up for a challenge.  Depending on the time scale and the learning curve, this might be out of my league but it won't stop me trying.

I'm curious though.  As it's remaking an old demo and not making something new and unique, how are the 'to be remade' determined?  Do people pick one at random or are they assigned?  Do people get assigned the same ones, etc.

Also, how is the judging done?  Do you essentially run the original and copy side by side to see if they are the same and if they are, they score 100%?  You certainly can't give points based on originality or technical achievements as it's a copy.
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 04, 2008
We want copies of original old school intros really, they can be incredibly difficult or moderately difficult.

At the very least it would mean re-using some original graphics from the original machine.

Stormbringer and I set up a whole site dedicated to remaking these intros from the past.. The thinking is that people will be able to see perfect remakes on their PCs with no need for the original hardware or an emulator.

So far Stormbringer has remade about 90 of them, I have made 16. We will be excluding ourselves from the challenge because we have high standards of what makes it onto retro-remakes.net , a remake needs to be very accurate to be uploaded onto there and because we are not included in the comp we will be able to rate the entries with no bias.

Tetra has programmed an excellent portal for Retro Remakes, but to give you a taster of how difficult it can be, consider the first intro in the post above The intro by "The Mighty Druids".

The font was ripped with Pro-Wizard (on Winuae), I took the font and logo using the built in HRT monitor (page up in winuae), the resolution was doubled to make the intro run in 640X480.

The copperlist colours were copied from the amiga original too.

When I tried to emulate the plasma I had problems because of bugs in the original code which meant that I could only get the plasma movement about 80% accurate.

I was nopt happy with this and ended up with a dissasembly of the original and got the plasma movement much more accurate because of it.

There was one bug of innacurate sin table data and a sin table not matching up that I decided not to emulate because in some Winuae configurations is was less noticeable.

And that's just a plasma intro.

On the other side of the coin there is the Air Supply intro. Just a font and a copperlist :)

Consider remaking something like the RSI megademo or Mental Hangover and the difficulty goes up to a huge scale because if you get it wrong and it's not perfect, people will notice.

So, we are devising a scoring system based on accuracy and difficulty with the factors being multiplied to determine score.

It will be a really cool comp, details that answer all your other points will be in the rules when they are drawn up :)

I hope you can have a go! You'll be really good at it I think :)
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Xalthorn on September 04, 2008
Well, I'll certainly keep an eye out for it, but I'm still wondering who decides what demos need to be redone.  Unless of course the site has a list of demos yet to be converted.

Of course, I could get off my bum and go and check....
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 04, 2008
We'll have a thread where you can reserve one demo at a time :)

Demos that are already on RR will be considered "taken" too :)
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: spitfire on September 06, 2008
Im really exited about this I've wanted to do one of these for a while. Could someone reccomend a demo to copy, im not really familiar with the old cracktros, and Id rather start with something simple.

Are we allowed to redo something like Kefrens desert dream? :D~ that one might be cool as a group effort..
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Xalthorn on September 06, 2008
Quote from: Shockwave on September 04, 2008
The font was ripped with Pro-Wizard (on Winuae), I took the font and logo using the built in HRT monitor (page up in winuae), the resolution was doubled to make the intro run in 640X480.


Judging by the druid one, I'm assuming that the resolution scaling doesn't need to be as precise as the low-res challenge, and anti-aliasing is okay.  I took a screenie of that one and the letters have a 1 pixel alias around them and there are definite single pixel horizontal artefacts in the plasma.

So I guess it's a case of take an original version running in fairly low res and re-work it to still look good and crisp at a higher resolution, scaling up and sometimes smoothing original graphics to stop them looking blocky.  It'll certainly be less restrictive than the last challenge :)
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 06, 2008
Xal,

You must have taken a grab in windowed mode, here is a screen shot of it running in fullscreen mode.

Your hardware will add artifacts to the graphics in windowed mode, it's unavoidable, the intro is completely software rendered and the resoultion is doubled from 320 * 240 to 640 * 480 to accurately preserve aspect ratio.

Accuracy is really important, the goal will be to make a win32 copy of an oldschool intro / demo as perfectly as possible, again, there will will be a full set of guidelines.

Spitfire, I reccomend that you get yourself a copy of Winuae, let us know when you have one and We'll show you where to find thousands of them :)
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: hellfire on September 06, 2008
*if* i find any time, i'll probably go for this (http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=14485) one, because it was done by two friends of mine:
(http://www.pouet.net/screenshots/14485.jpg)
Then again one of the smaller melon dezign (http://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=135&order=type) would be appealing, too...
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 06, 2008
Melon made some great ones, we've already converted several of them;

http://www.retro-remakes.net/search.php?action=group&srchstring=Crystal (http://www.retro-remakes.net/search.php?action=group&srchstring=Crystal)

That TRSI one hasn't been done yet though and is a great intro. I remember it very well.

Btw, Spitfire, if you want to convert Desert Dream it's cool!
Stormbringer is working on Mental Hangover and a fe other bigger demos so if you want to make something ambitious then go ahead!
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Xalthorn on September 06, 2008
Quote from: Shockwave on September 06, 2008
Xal,

You must have taken a grab in windowed mode, here is a screen shot of it running in fullscreen mode.

Your hardware will add artifacts to the graphics in windowed mode, it's unavoidable, the intro is completely software rendered and the resoultion is doubled from 320 * 240 to 640 * 480 to accurately preserve aspect ratio.

Accuracy is really important, the goal will be to make a win32 copy of an oldschool intro / demo as perfectly as possible, again, there will will be a full set of guidelines.

Spitfire, I reccomend that you get yourself a copy of Winuae, let us know when you have one and We'll show you where to find thousands of them :)

LOL

Trust me to noob the screenshot ;)

Although even so, your screenshot is definitely 640x480 resolution with single pixel width horizontal lines.  I'll shut up and wait for the guidelines though :D
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Voltage on September 06, 2008
Bring on this compo.   I've never tried a remake, but I'm keen.

What about remakes of my favourite c64 demos?  I was never really an Amiga man.... cept for stunt car racer, which fucking rocked just quietly.

Is retro remakes looking for c64 stuff?
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 07, 2008
Quote from: Voltage on September 06, 2008
Is retro remakes looking for c64 stuff?

Oh yes, absolutely.

Yes please!
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Dr.Death on September 08, 2008
@Voltage  how about making the famous thrust demo by stoat & tim i allways loved that demo :updance:
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 09, 2008
Just a quick heads up, the last time we ran one of these remake challenges, some people had problems obtaining original music and graphics.

I'll be putting up a little tutorial as soon as I get chance to write it about how to rip graphics, sound and even dissasemble demos to get copperlists and scrolltexts with winuae before the end of the week, and as well as that for the best places to look for the intros in the first place.

We have tinysid replay routine, ufmod and now sc68 to play all kinds of formats in freebasic and C / C++ and I have a library of ripped stuff written in Sidmon, future composer, ron klaren, suntronic, sonic arranger etc. There will also hopefully be help available to rip some of the more tricky songs and a temporary ftp site will be put up to store them all on.
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: spitfire on September 10, 2008
You had links to some other tutorials about ripping aswell last time, where are they?
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Shockwave on September 10, 2008
Can't remember!
Title: Re: Are you up for a challenge?
Post by: Hotshot on September 16, 2008
QuoteYou had links to some other tutorials about ripping aswell last time, where are they?

ooh he talking about RIPPING GFX from demo I think

:cheers: