Camera stoppers thingos - Keen 5

Request patches for Keens 4-6.
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bubbatom
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Camera stoppers thingos - Keen 5

Post by bubbatom »

G'day, haven't visited here in quite a while.

Galaxy modders should know what this is:
Image
Just wondering whether or not there was a sprite for the upright version of this in the Keen 5 sprites. I couldn't find any. If not, no big deal, just would've been nice.

Thanks, Tom.
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Gridlock
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Post by Gridlock »

In K4 the icons for the scrolling blocks are located at the top of the foreground tilesets. Interestingly though, Keen 5 doesn't seem to have a vertical version. I'm not quite sure why...
levellass
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Post by levellass »

Before releasing the game the developers ran a program on it called CanTile, which removes from the graphics any 16x16 tile not used in the level. (Note, not 'makes black'; removes entirely, the entry becomes an empty one.) This is why we can place say easy arachnuts in Keen 4 even though there is no icon for them.

However Keen 5 was far more polished. In addition to that program the programmers had much more experience in level design and found that they really only needed one type of camera stop. (This is logical.) The code for the other kind remains, but the icon for it was removed to fit in more stuff. (You'll notice how jam packed their icon tiles are.)
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bubbatom
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Post by bubbatom »

Interesting. How did you find out about this 'CanTile' program Levellass? And is the tile where the vertical camera stopper wouldve been actually a camera stopper?

Thanks, Tom.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

1.) I had a chat with Tom Hall when trying to get him to cough up the Keen Dreams compression format. (No luck there.) but he told me of all the things that he used to try and get Dreams down to 1 floppy disk. (He also gave me some awesome things I can never, NEVER show anyone. Love the guy.)

2.) The tile that was a camera stopper is now the Keen helmet with a T, it was rerouted, though it should be possible to take a blank sprite tile and make that into a vertical camera stopper.
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ckguy
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Post by ckguy »

levellass wrote:(He also gave me some awesome things I can never, NEVER show anyone. Love the guy.)
Argh levellass why would you even say this argh
levellass
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Post by levellass »

Because he's so darn awesome. I mean seriously, awesomest game designer ever.
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bubbatom
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Post by bubbatom »

Levellass, don't tease ckguy.
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