Graphics For Mark Jones

Funnily enough, Mark didn't work at the offices in Milton Park he worked from home in Poole...

I on the other hand worked at the offices in Blewbury when we moved there in 91/92

@Mark Jones, i loved Cybernoid 1 & 2, Darkmere gfx were absolutely fantastic, but i just saw your online profile, OMG, you did Amstrad Gryzor????( i apologise for being off amiga here but... ) That game looked and moved absolutely stunning for the day, its one of my all time fav games. Being so limited with the hardware those days you did a fantastic job on gryzor, even though mode 0 gfx on the amstrad was crap resolution wise, your gfx looked much better than the arcade version Contra, so much brighter, i downloaded the original for mame but was so disappointed and went back to the amstrad version , i finished the damn thing eventually on my old amstrad, jez it was hard,lol

Please please please post more pix on your webpage, youre missing the heart pic that you mention also can you post any info on your page regarding why flip screen was used instead of scrolling( was it because the amstrad scrolling wasnt the best )? Do you have or even just remember anything that wasnt included in the original game, whether graphics or gameplay.

Again, thanks for the experience and memories, that game ment a lot to me back in the day

[Mark Jones]

Thanks for the kind words. Adding stuff to the old 8-bit/16-sections of the site now. Digging through a ton of stuff.

Work's a little on the light side at present (that's bad) so good time to make some long overdue changes (that's good!).

Mark

www.mjonesgraphics.com

[Mark Jones]

Originally Posted by Stewart Gilray

Actually here's something that will scare Mark rigid...

We used an app on the ST to make the maps for all the games, Cybernoid 1/2, Stormlord, Rubicon, and perhaps some others, it was called "blox" and was by a guy called Garry Knight...

Anyway, we used the app to do maps for ST and Amiga (Amiga versions of games usually used dual playfield mode, so it meant that each layer had to have 8 colours so it was easy for us to use and ST to do the maps...

Anyway, here are some shots I just took of Rubison level 1 ST, I couldn't find the Amiga map files...

You can see the "trigger" blocks in the first shot.

Each map had "banks" of blocks, up to four for each map. We always had two versions of bank 2, one with the trigger blocks visible, the other with a non obvious trigger block, but as far as the game was concerned the block number was the trigger block.

Well, going on 10 years too late I'm finally going to add that to the Rubicon page at the "Eyrie"...After I stop the BLOX induced panic attack....

Mark
www.mjonesgraphics.com (The Dragon's Eyrie)

[Gzegzolka]

Little bump, after a long time. What happened with Mark Jones web page? I can not open it.

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

Little bump, after a long time. What happened with Mark Jones web page? I can not open it.

Mark Jones can be contacted via Facebook or The Ocean Experience forums.

[Gzegzolka]

Thanks
I try to contact him, ask my questions and now I am waiting for answers.
I have found mirror of his site on way back amchine on interent archive.
I found two interesting things. I was playing Dragonstone some time ago and few days ago I found nice pack of Core Design promotional materials.


Those are two images of Mark favorite wizard according to site backup he was going to appear at Dragonstone intro and have bigger role, but in final version he become just bridge guard on level one and You never met him after.

Now for stuff from promotional materials:

Darkstone was first name of this game until Core decide it doesn't sounds good.
I have no idea they actually at start promote game with it's old name.


just different item image for broth soup and items You actually find on next level.


Action shoot. Normally You fight one or two enemies and with more on screen You are certainty dead. I wonder did game was going to be more action oriented or just Core copy-paste some monsters to make this screen-shoot looking better. Also there is rat, in final version I did not see any rats, but I see rats in ripped sprites from Dragonstone.


Again, more monsters on screen and mysterious bottle with "x1" written on it.


Again stuff that are not in final version, seagulls, floating bottle, shark fin.