Game idea - Comix Zone

[TroyWilkins]

I recently saw a video on youtube regarding the game "Comix Zone" on the Sega Mega-Drive/Genesis, where they mentioned that the early animations and demonstration of the game was created on an Amiga computer.

It got me wondering, would a port or even a new game based on the same concept be possible on the Amiga? I would think that it could be done on AGA machines with larger storage (Hard disk and/or CD) and look fantastic, but could it be done on OCS/ECS?

[sandruzzo]

Yes, It could be done on Aga stock with maybe fast-ram

[Retro1234]

This might be the original Amiga Animation - [ Show youtube player ]

[TroyWilkins]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

This might be the original Amiga Animation - [ Show youtube player ]

Well found, you could be right. It would have been fairly easy to make up the animation on an Amiga for demonstration purposes, and this was after the AGA machines were released...

I think this concept could be done well on the Amiga if anyone is looking for a project, perhaps not a 1:1 port as unless you used a CD32 pad the controls would need a lot of changes (even then they'd need some modification), but the concept is an interesting one that shouldn't be too tough I'd think - as long as you had someone good enough to do the graphics.

[sandruzzo]

Originally Posted by TroyWilkins

Well found, you could be right. It would have been fairly easy to make up the animation on an Amiga for demonstration purposes, and this was after the AGA machines were released...

I think this concept could be done well on the Amiga if anyone is looking for a project, perhaps not a 1:1 port as unless you used a CD32 pad the controls would need a lot of changes (even then they'd need some modification), but the concept is an interesting one that shouldn't be too tough I'd think - as long as you had someone good enough to do the graphics.

What's the point to do another demo?

[TroyWilkins]

Originally Posted by sandruzzo

What's the point to do another demo?

No, to do another game

[Anakirob]

Originally Posted by TroyWilkins

I recently saw a video on youtube regarding the game "Comix Zone" on the Sega Mega-Drive/Genesis, where they mentioned that the early animations and demonstration of the game was created on an Amiga computer.

It got me wondering, would a port or even a new game based on the same concept be possible on the Amiga? I would think that it could be done on AGA machines with larger storage (Hard disk and/or CD) and look fantastic, but could it be done on OCS/ECS?

I am quite familiar with this game, I played it quite a bit in the late 90's on the MegaDrive and again about fifteen years later on, in an Xbox 360 Sega games compilation. I don't see any reason why a 1:1 port couldn't be done for standard ECS machines even using a programming language such as Blitz. OCS would require a bit of clever memory usage, as Blitz will load graphic data into chipram by default. And some of its routines are for ECS/AGA only.

Sure many MegaDrive ports were for AGA machines, but those tended to do stuff like parallax and/or animated backdrops while drawing reasonably large numbers of sprites. Where this game uses mainly static backdrops and has very few moving objects on screen at any one point in time. Indeed just looking at this game again makes me think that it could be more suited to the Amiga's planar graphics HW than the tiles/sprites MD HW. Just look at the jerky scrolling in the intro, the Amiga could easily do better than that.

Indeed the Amiga version could offer improvements like a larger display. Copper assisted special effects and so on.

Although if one were going to port this to Amiga the obvious base system to aim for would be the CD32, as it has both ample storage and a six button control pad. I'm guessing that this game uses at least 5MB of data, making playing from floppies a less than ideal option.

Also a talented graphic artist is entirely unnecessary. Surely the way to go is to simply rip the graphics from the ROM. A talented sound engineer with a good understanding of FM synthesis on the other hand...

[nobody]

I don't understand this trend to " convert this and convert that", games that already exist and are immediately available on emulators. Spend enormous amount of working hours for a demo then drop it, as many times has happened. Worst of all they are copyrighted material, and you don't want to end up being sued. How about the copyright holder wanting to release for Virtual console or something and then see that some guys are messing with his game and releasing his assets for free here and there.

[sandruzzo]

Originally Posted by nobody

I don't understand this trend to " convert this and convert that", games that already exist and are immediately available on emulators. Spend enormous amount of working hours for a demo then drop it, as many times has happened. Worst of all they are copyrighted material, and you don't want to end up being sued. How about the copyright holder wanting to release for Virtual console or something and then see that some guys are messing with his game and releasing his assets for free here and there.

That's the problem doing an original game for Amiga

[Samurai_Crow]

I have only played Comix Zone on PC distributed as Sega Smash Pack 2. I have seen all 3 endings. I liked it until I beat it but it has about zero replayability. There is no need to do a port, but it was a cool idea at first.

[TroyWilkins]

I'm not really putting forth the idea that a direct port should be done, more along the lines of something using the same concept, although of course then we'd need to come up with our own graphics and story. It just seems to me that it wouldn't be too tough technically to do, and if it's not a port that frees up control methods to perhaps be more suitable to use a joystick with a single fire button.

Of course, to help development, the graphics could be ripped from it and used as placeholders, but that's for more skilled people than I to decide. I just thought it was a game concept that could be done on the Amiga that hasn't been done 10 billion times already, but that may be because nobody would be interested in it, I don't know?

[Anakirob]

I missed a couple of key words in the original post on my first reading, as did a couple of other responders. The key words are ...or even a new game based on the same concept.

Well, that's a different kettle of fish altogether. You will of course need a good graphic artist. But the artist who draws the original artwork need not necessarily have any pixel art experience. The way to go about making a game which is similar in style would be to scan drawings from paper and have a possible second person, who is familiar with the Amiga and oldschool pixel art convert the scans into usable assets. So any comic/graphic novel artist would do. That greatly opens up the field of potential talent to go far beyond Amiga users.

Making a new game gives you the opportunity to fix some of the gameplay issues (of which there are a few) present in the original too. Although I did enjoy the original I would probably only rate it about 8/10, or 80% in the old games mag standard, which is a pretty average score. So there's plenty of room for improvement gameplay wise.

-edit- Troy posted his response while I was typing mine, just though that was worth mentioning.

[s2325]

How about using screen idea from Ridiculous Reality?
[ Show youtube player ]

[sandruzzo]

The problem here is who is willing to do that.

[s2325]

Comix Zone: The Complete History
[ Show youtube player ]

[TroyWilkins]

Originally Posted by s2325

Comix Zone: The Complete History
[ Show youtube player ]

Hahaha yes, that's what I watched and got the idea from

Oh, hang on, this is a new one. I'll find the video I watched and link to it here...

[TroyWilkins]

This is the video that made me think this was a game concept that could work well on the Amiga:
[ Show youtube player ]