Midnight Resistance WHDLoad display problems

[Amiga1992]

I am trying to play Midnight Resistance but it is as if the contrast has been turned down a lot. It looks too dark, I can't see a thing!

Is this how the game originally was or is this some sort of problem?

[StingRay]

Use the latest patch and check the CUSTOM1 tooltype, there is an option to use a fixed (i.e. double brightness) palette.

[dlfrsilver]

It's the famous atari ST palette bug

[Nobby_UK]

I just get :

Exception "Access Fault" ($7008)
PC = $9592
Word Read from $8009B

[Codetapper]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

It's the famous atari ST palette bug

Not exactly. Special FX worked in what can only be described as a dungeon, with little if any natural light. Hence their eyes adjusted to the dark and their games had very dark palettes.

If it was Tiertex I would say yes, they were stupid enough to not double the RGB values of their ST ports, but Ian Moran and co were smart guys and the Amiga versions were developed separately. Plus some of their palette entries have values higher than 7!

[Amiga1992]

Thank you guys!

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Plus some of their palette entries have values higher than 7!

vs.

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

$0FFF was just an example - obviously there were no FFF values because everything was < $0777

I might have missed the joke, but I'm also pretty sure it's just the usual missed doubling the values bug of an ST conversion.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Not exactly. Special FX worked in what can only be described as a dungeon, with little if any natural light. Hence their eyes adjusted to the dark and their games had very dark palettes.

If it was Tiertex I would say yes, they were stupid enough to not double the RGB values of their ST ports, but Ian Moran and co were smart guys and the Amiga versions were developed separately. Plus some of their palette entries have values higher than 7!

Hi Look in the whdload readme :

"- Optional Patch to double the palette colours, correcting the error made in the game's conversion".

[Amiga1992]

I can't believe anyone wold commercially release a game with such a horrible fail!

[dlfrsilver]

it's not the only game. There are others : After the war is another one. Those games were made with the ST in mind first.

ah !!! The joys of transcoding

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

it's not the only game. There are others : After the war is another one. Those games were made with the ST in mind first.

ah !!! The joys of transcoding

Now I know why After The War had such horrible colors!

[Amiga1992]

Were people fucking blind or something?
I have to assume the game was SEEN AT to check that, at least, it functions.
And they wouldn't see the colors are ruined? That the screen is almost impossible to see?

[dlfrsilver]

not blind Akira, but hurried to release the fucking games....

[Amiga1992]

I don't see any possible way in which this is worth defending dude. You can't rush something out like this. It's impossible to watch.

[TCD]

Iron Lord is even 'better': Only the cutscene pictures are 'half-bright' while the rest of the game looks fine

[Codetapper]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Hi Look in the whdload readme :

"- Optional Patch to double the palette colours, correcting the error made in the game's conversion".

That's simply a readme by whoever made the patch. I interviewed Ian Moran, it was no ST conversion. He did everything on the Amiga, Joffa Smith and others did the ST versions separately. They often didn't even share code!

There are other games more likely such as Axel's Magic Hammer which has most of the palette dark but one or two entries (light grey from memory) which are higher than $777 so it was a poor choice of colours and not a "forgot to double the values" bug.

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

That's simply a readme by whoever made the patch. I interviewed Ian Moran, it was no ST conversion. He did everything on the Amiga, Joffa Smith and others did the ST versions separately. They often didn't even share code!
.

I don't believe it isn't a bug/mistake. Even if no code was shared the graphics clearly are shared from ST/Amiga and all palette entries were below $777 in midnight resistance.

As amusing as the idea is, I don't think it's a result of poor colour choice due to environment , whatever Ian Moran may say - just no changes made to compensate when the graphics were imported into the Amiga, and maybe the "dungeon effect" meant it wasn't noticed for correction.


Sorry about thread necromancy ... Found this after the game was mentioned on Facebook!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

I don't believe it isn't a bug/mistake. Even if no code was shared the graphics clearly are shared from ST/Amiga and all palette entries were below $777 in midnight resistance.

As amusing as the idea is, I don't think it's a result of poor colour choice due to environment , whatever Ian Moran may say - just no changes made to compensate when the graphics were imported into the Amiga, and maybe the "dungeon effect" meant it wasn't noticed for correction.


Sorry about thread necromancy ... Found this after the game was mentioned on Facebook!

Have to agree.

The Ocean logo is 16 colours but has been adjusted for Amiga, the Midnight Resistance Loading picture is 32 colours and obviously adjusted for Amiga, but first two levels and weapon select screen, no colour value is higher than $666.

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Have to agree.

The Ocean logo is 16 colours but has been adjusted for Amiga, the Midnight Resistance Loading picture is 32 colours and obviously adjusted for Amiga, but first two levels and weapon select screen, no colour value is higher than $666.

No matter how much I read on the topic I can't seem to fathom the idea that this is even possible. It just seems completely improbable that nobody in the production chain did notice nor signal such a very easy to fix problem or that worse, it was noticed and someone decided not to fix it.

It's just like sending your kids to school in their underwear and failing to notice anything wrong or deciding that it's not worth going back home because you already arrived at the school.

I just cannot compute this.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

No matter how much I read on the topic I can't seem to fathom the idea that this is even possible. It just seems completely improbable that nobody in the production chain did notice nor signal such a very easy to fix problem or that worse, it was noticed and someone decided not to fix it.

Maybe they had really bright monitors in their offices?