Lots of rare game pics

[Master484]

New stuff in the Zone: Resolution 101 box and poster scans, and some screenshots for Battle Valley and Star Blaze.

The Resolution 101 poster is small, of size A4, and it looks the same as the Amiga Format advertisement scan already in the miscshot section, but the reverse side has some ads for 3 other Millennium games: Kid Gloves, Cloud Kingdoms and Thunderstrike.

[clenched]

I'll just jump in a minute so you won't think you're talking to yourself.

EDIT:
It's tough to decide where earlier two ads (Z-Out and M.U.D.S.) go. They look like the magazine ads on their own pages but the ads actually came in Turrican2 box. So those two scans may be moved yet.

[Master484]

Yeah things can get a little bit lonely here during these daily update posts.

But I guess things will continue like this for some time still: at the current pace I estimate that all remaining box and disk scans will be done in about two weeks. And at the same time I'll keep dropping those screenshots too; many of them I have in fact taken before even I joined this forum, only some (like the Elite screens) are recent screenshots. But all of them are "new" and haven't been posted anywhere else.

About the Z-Out and MUDS ads, I think theoretically they could be posted to all three entries: Z-Out, Muds and Turrican 2. But because they look similar to the magazine ads, maybe a comment should be added below those that were posted to Z-Out and Muds entries like "an advert included with Turrican 2". And if you put them to the Turrican 2 entry too, then write something like "a double sided poster for other Rainbow Arts titles (front) + (back)".

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I also have another double sided advertisement like this: in the Lotus 1 box there is a GBH advertisement for about 20 other games in the GBH product range, so the scans of this ad could in theory be added to many games in HOL. And in fact I already scanned it some time ago, so if you think it might be useful, then I can easily upload it.

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And new stuff in the Zone: Box scans for Welltris and some extras. Unfortunately I don't have the disk for Welltris...years ago I bought the game from the flea market and it had everything in the box, but for some reason the game disk was a backup copy and the original disk was missing.

Also there are screenshots for Space Crusade Voyage Beyond expansion: http://hol.abime.net/2022

Amongst the screenshots I also put a new double barrel screenshot, because the current one looks a little bit boring I think.

[clenched]

Originally Posted by Master484

Amongst the screenshots I also put a new double barrel screenshot, because the current one looks a little bit boring I think.

Let's leave the existing DBS alone for now. It seems a matter of opinion what makes the best picture. Only one picture can earn the coveted DBS spot. AFAIK the DBS there now meets the HOL specs. Of course if the composer of that picture says it's OK then we will replace it.

If you can watch for a DBS like this:
http://hol.abime.net/1835
I'm happy to fix that. Also I remember reading some cracker group substituted some text in a game. I think that has already been purged though.

[Master484]

Let's leave the existing DBS alone for now. It seems a matter of opinion what makes the best picture. Only one picture can earn the coveted DBS spot. AFAIK the DBS there now meets the HOL specs. Of course if the composer of that picture says it's OK then we will replace it.

Yes maybe it's a matter of taste, and I agree that there is nothing wrong with the existing DBS. But to me it just looks like a placeholder screenshot that was probably put there during the time when the game entry itself was created. This I think because the screen simply shows some marines who have just entered a new level, so quite likely back then someone played for 15 seconds and took that screenshot. And although my new DBS suggestion isn't perfect, it at least shows some of the new enemies that are only found in this expansion pack; the Destructor mark VII and the space ogres. But if it can't get in there, no worries.

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About Sarcophaser, by coincidence I have already made some screenshots for it earlier, so I made a new DBS as well and Zoned it all, together with the box and disk scans of Fire.

And also I sent some screenshots for another game with a DBS problem and no screens: Renegade Legion Interceptor http://hol.abime.net/1223

If you take a look at the current DBS of Renegade Legion Interceptor, the screens look blurry. And when I tried to take screenshots from the game at the standard resolution 320*256, they looked bad, the letter fonts looked messy and so on. And so I tested different settings, and found out that at resolution 640*512 the graphics looked right so I took all screens at size 640*512...in this mode vertically every pixel is two pixels tall but horizontally there are 640 real size pixels. I think on a real Amiga this resolution is achieved with the interlace mode. So I hope this is the correct resolution for the this game, at least it seems to look OK.

Not many games use 640*512, but I think I found at least one: Guild of Thieves http://hol.abime.net/2806/screenshot
At least the letters in it are hi-res, and when clicked the screenshots open to size 640*512.

And also I think Floor 13 uses 640*512 http://hol.abime.net/582
But in this game's page some of the screens look a little bit messy, check out some pics in the screenshot section; the letters look strange and blurry at places, I think this is caused because the screenshots are taken at 320*256 but it's a 640*512 game. And I tried to take some screens from this game using the same settings that I used for Renegade Legion Interceptor, and at 640*512 everything looked OK. So I think I'll still take some more and send them soon.

[clenched]

Well I've learned my lesson about straying from the FAQ. Besides if high resolution screen shots ever become normal, that means making new Brataccas screen shots.

[Belgarath]

There's more games than you realise that need 640x512, especially ones which feature a lot of text. The Renegade Legion DBS definitely needs replacing, apart from the res, it's not even the proper title screen.

I'd also replace the Space Crusade expansion DBS, if you've got a shot that's more illustrative of gameplay then of course it should be replaced, they're not set in stone.

[Master484]

There's more games than you realise that need 640x512, especially ones which feature a lot of text

Yes there seems to be quite a many 640*512 games that have screenshots at 320*256. Some of them have been tagged by the admin, such as here: http://hol.abime.net/2296/screenshot , where both the DBS and screenshots are blurry because of the resolution issue.

But in some cases they have not been tagged, like in the case of Brataccas, which actually has the DBS in the correct 640*512, but all the screenshots are 320*256 and look blurry, most likely someone took them on the wrong resolution by accident.

But I checked a few titles, and it would seem to be the rule that if a game uses the 640*512 hi-res mode, then screenshots too are taken at 640*512. For example Knight Orc http://hol.abime.net/2594/screenshot and Corruption http://hol.abime.net/3094/screenshot , and many other text based adventures.

So I would say that it's safe to replace all such wrong resolution DBS and screenshots that we come across, even if the FAQ says "all screens at 320*256".

So I just uploaded a full set of 640*512 screenshots for Floor 13 to the Zone, you can replace the old ones with them. And I made a new DBS for it as well, in fact I made two DBS's, one showing the newspaper picture and one showing the Floor 13 building, can't decide which one is better, so I leave the decision to you.

And also there is a box and disk scan for Vindicators.

[clenched]

Those are my Brataccas screen shots. I went out of my way to make them look as good as I could at 320x256. The feigned outrage is because not too many of us miss an opportunity to pick on that game. Try to play it and you will understand.

[Master484]

I tried to play Brataccas a little bit, quite a strange game indeed, but I guess the concept was quite advanced back then in 1986: it feels a little bit like Maniac Mansion but with fighting and platforming. But it's quite hard and I couldn't get the controls work with a joystick, only with the mouse I could get the guy move. But yes, I'm happy that someone else is taking the screenshots for this one.

But I did make screenshots and new DBS for two other hires games: Bridge 6.0 and Thexder. In the case of Thexder it's harder to notice the hi-res thing because it still looks OK at lo-res, but when you try to run it at lo-res and hi-res and compare the results, then it becomes clear.

And also I Zoned box, disk and extra scans for Pools of Darkness.

[Master484]

New stuff in the Zone: Box and disk scans for Venus The Flytrap and Better Dead Than Alien.

Also there are screenshots and a new DBS for Ringside. The current DBS is otherwise OK but it has a small problem: there is a black one pixel wide line between the two shots. This line also cuts one vertical pixel column from the in-game screenshot, you can easily notice it in the missing left side border of the left boxer portrait.

And screenshots number 13 and 14 are actually a mini game between the rounds: You must wave the towel by moving the joystick up and down, and this has an effect on how much lost energy your boxer will recover during the rest.

[Master484]

New stuff in the Zone: Barbarian 2 box and disk scans, and screenshots for Rotox and Operation Harrier.

About the disks of Barbarian 2, the current ones on HOL already are of size 640*X, but my disks look different; they don't have a version number written in them, while the HOL disks have "V1.2" in the lower right corner.

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by Master484

Not many games use 640*512, but I think I found at least one: Guild of Thieves http://hol.abime.net/2806/screenshot
At least the letters in it are hi-res, and when clicked the screenshots open to size 640*512.

Regarding Guild of Thieves, it looks like only the text is hires interlace. The graphics definitely look like regular low resolution: look at diagonals, they distinctively show very large pixels which should not be so obvious in high resolution interlace.

Knight Orc seems to use the same mixed resolution: lowres images and highres text.

[Master484]

Regarding Guild of Thieves, it looks like only the text is hires interlace. The graphics definitely look like regular low resolution: look at diagonals, they distinctively show very large pixels which should not be so obvious in high resolution interlace.

Knight Orc seems to use the same mixed resolution: lowres images and highres text.

Yes, most of these text adventures with still pictures use a mixed resolution like that. The text needs to be hi-res so that more of it can be shown on the screen at once, but I guess making the pictures hi-res as well would have taken too much disk space and increased loading times, and so a mixed resolution was the solution.

But some action games too use mixed resolutions, such as Apidya and Agony; in both of them the score displays in the top and bottom are hi-res, but the game area itself is lo-res.

And the HOL entry of Apidya has 640*512 screenshots but Agony has 320*256 screenshots...so I guess the Agony screenshots too should be re-done at 640*512 at some point, although great care is required in this case; the current screens are very good and they are arranged to the format: level intro pic + 2 level screens + level boss. So I think the replacement screenshots should follow this design.

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And new stuff in the zone: box and disk scans for Mighty Bombjack, and screens and new DBS for two hi-res games: Hannibal and Fireteam 2200.

[Master484]

New stuff in the Zone: Box and disk scans for Award Winners Platinum http://hol.abime.net/3350 and screenshots for Ferrari F1 http://hol.abime.net/517

That Award Winners Platinum I got as a Christmas present exactly 20 years ago...I can still remember how I played those games for the first time, Civilization loaded so long that I thought it was broken, but I had lots of fun with Lemmings and challenging the police in Elite 2. And later I found out that Civilization actually worked after all, you just had to wait around 15 minutes until the new world creation was complete lol.

And the texts in the back of the Award Winners box might seem a little bit blurry when zoomed in, but that's the best I could get it; it's a huge box with small text, and when resized to 1024*X the quality drops more than it usually does. But it's still OK I think and looks sharper than the current box scan on HOL.

[Master484]

New stuff Zoned: Box and disk scans for Monster Business and screenshots for Space Harrier 2.

[dlfrsilver]

the actual scans of Monster Business came from a sealed copy i owned.

What is the status of your actual copy ?

[Master484]

the actual scans of Monster Business came from a sealed copy i owned.

What is the status of your actual copy ?

My copy is a used one, I bought it from a supermarket back in the day. It's in good condition, but has a barcode sticker on the back of the box, which partially covers the Ascon logo and part of the text, so in this way the current scans on HOL might be better, even if they are of the old dimensions.

So maybe it's actually better to keep the current scans there, because they're from a sealed copy and are of good quality despite the smaller size.

[clenched]

484 - I found out totally by accident that these were the Captain's (Denis) scans. It probably sounds silly "why so much fuss about his scans?"

I have no idea how long you lurked before joining EAB but almost three years ago the Captain's game collection was almost totally destroyed by fire. So a lot of the disk images and scans we have are because of his hustle.

I couldn't bring myself to just piss that away.

[Master484]

I have no idea how long you lurked before joining EAB but almost three years ago the Captain's game collection was almost totally destroyed by fire. So a lot of the disk images and scans we have are because of his hustle.

I'm sorry to hear that. I have used the HOL for over 10 years, but during this time I haven't really read the forum so much, so I didn't know about this until now.

So I totally understand if Captain's scans can't be replaced just like that, especially if they were from sealed or rare games.

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But anyways Zoned some more stuff again, box and disk scans for Sir Fred and a full set of screenshots for Cosmic Pirate.

Cosmic Pirate uses a hybrid resolution; during gameplay the copyright texts in the bottom of the screen are hi-res, while the game area uses lo-res. So I took all screenshots in 640*512 and made a new DBS as well.