tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post176235904572874875..comments2024-03-27T14:11:33.233+02:00Comments on FRGCB - Finnish Retro Game Comparison Blog: Turbo Esprit (Durell Software, 1986)FRGCB Dudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16754639927704915007noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post-79913686130115024912014-08-01T01:44:50.602+03:002014-08-01T01:44:50.602+03:00Okay, thanks for the suggestion regarding the emul...Okay, thanks for the suggestion regarding the emulator, I'll look into it.<br /><br />As for the scores... No worries - I agree, the scoring system raises a problem in many cases. However, I don't think I'll be changing anything (at least not in the near future), because mostly, it's just a method of raising interest, and hopefully make people comment. Math is the problem, but only because it's the wrong sort of math. I have long known I should be using a scale of 1 to 10, but at some point I figured it might not be any more balanced than how the scores are currently counted. More to the point, it still wouldn't say how good any of the games are in terms of each machine, and I have no idea how to give that sort of scores with any reliability, because my knowledge of hardware is almost next to nothing. As an example - I'd probably give Turbo Esprit pretty bad scores all over, particularly conserning graphics, but if I gave the Amstrad version a 5, the Spectrum version a 6 or a 7, and the C64 version a 3, I wouldn't know if they were fair at all; that's only how I feel about them. That's why I use a ranking order, even if it works even worse. If you really want to know where the main focus of the score lies, look at every game's playability score. If a game has bad gameplay, it rarely matters what it looks like or sounds like. Some gamers might think otherwise, but I think that's probably why, for example, Summer Games Part 1 has had more clicks than Part 2 - the playability has been taken care of in Part 1.FRGCB Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16754639927704915007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post-12490098763162883362014-07-30T21:02:36.897+03:002014-07-30T21:02:36.897+03:00Sure, that certainly is fair enough, thanks for th...Sure, that certainly is fair enough, thanks for the different point of view. My review/comparison was made from the point of view of a person who had never really played the game before, and focused mainly on the aspects which made the initial gameplay experiences as positive as possible, and from my perspective, it just happened to be in the advantage of Spectrum. <br /><br />As for your two questions:<br /><br />1. I probably ignored the attribute clash, because I have grown so accustomed to it that the amount this particular game had of it, didn't really give me the headache some other games do. The Amstrad version may not have attribute clash, and sure, it has more colours, but to a Turbo Esprit beginner, the lack of colours is more comfortable to start with than anything closer to reality. <br /><br />2. As far as I'm concerned, it is, but perhaps not quite as clear. Considering all you have written above, I do understand the need for a lesser score gap for the two, but you must have realised yourself, that the mathematical results rarely correspond with how the different versions compare in reality. I'd say the placings are the same, but the scores are not what they should be. Not that they ever were, but mathematics don't apply to my reality. =P Anyway, for a gamer more suited towards the Amstrad version, of course that version is better for them.<br /><br />In the end, we both agree on that it's all up to the personal preferences of each gamer, making it impossible to choose a true winner. I have no problem with that - in fact, that's what I've been trying to get across to all readers. My comparison results are only my comparison results, from my point of view, but I try to give them all a fair chance, as far as I'm able to.<br /><br />PS. I'm using mostly WinApe and sometimes CPCE for emulating Amstrad. If you have a better suggestion, I'm all ears. =)FRGCB Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16754639927704915007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post-48735041780302328802014-07-30T09:19:35.469+03:002014-07-30T09:19:35.469+03:00I should have written white borders, not white fra...I should have written white borders, not white frames. I'm sorry for that.<br /><br />paperinikAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post-16295431382558494422014-07-29T17:08:41.651+03:002014-07-29T17:08:41.651+03:00Part 4 (last part)
While the Amstrad version is s...Part 4 (last part)<br /><br />While the Amstrad version is slower than the speccy version, they both suffer from the same bad framerate and some strange tearing-like effects. You might think faster is always better, but again there is a different point of view to this. The Amstrad version is a little bit slower but it maintains a stable framerate even if there is a lot of action on the screen. The Spectrum Version on the other hand has a little framerate problem (I tried it on the real machines and on emulators for both versions). The framerate drops every time (and it is a pretty bad drop sometimes) you strafe between the lanes of the road. Of course you need to do that all the time, especially when you are chasing the bad guys. <br /><br />Let’s sum it up:<br /><br />Advantages of the Spectrum<br />- it runs faster<br />- higher resolution<br />- shows some details that are not available on the Amstrad<br /><br />Advantages of the Amstrad <br />- no Attribute Clash<br />- better draw distance<br />- more stable framerate <br />- 16 colors<br />- because of the colors and some details that are not available on the Spectrum the citys of the Amstrad version are not as boring and lifeless as their Speccy counterparts<br /><br />So let me ask you two questions:<br />1. Why did you ignore the Attribute Clash?<br />2. Is this still a clear win for the Speccy?<br /><br />To give you my point of view regarding the second question, I think it’s a draw. Both Versions have their own strength and weaknesses. The playability of both is almost identical. In the end it’s all up to the personal preferences of each gamer. That makes it impossible to choose a winner. Fair enough? <br /><br />paperinik<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post-64162392973785543062014-07-29T17:06:22.385+03:002014-07-29T17:06:22.385+03:00Part 3
If you don’t care about the far away objec...Part 3<br /><br />If you don’t care about the far away objects, well this has an effect on other objects too. Take a look at the traffic lights for example. The traffic lights seem to be living creatures in the Spectrum version. When they are far away they hover/float over the street (yes the street, not the sidewalk), even if they should stand on the sidewalk. If you get closer they hover/float to the sidewalk, but they are still not connected to the ground. <br /><br />I guess it’s needless to say that the Amstrad does not have any of those problems. The traffic lights are hovering there too, but at least they are always connected to the ground and they are always on the sidewalk. Since the Amstrad Version uses 16 colors there is no need for white borders there. Everything is properly colored and because of this easily visible. Plus, while you cannot really see the stop light while driving with full speed on the Spectrum, but you can easily see the stop light in the Amstrad version (no matter how fast you are driving). That’s simply because it’s actually red there (like it should be). If you keep in mind how fast you can die because of this I would guess that this is at least a pretty neat feature. <br /><br />I’m very thankful that you noticed that all versions show a comparable level of detail. Most Spectrum user still spread the urban myth that the Speccy version is the most detailed one. While that is definitely not true, there are still some subtle differences. For example, the turn signals (“blinkers”) work on both versions. But only the Spectrum Version renders a working blinker on the car. The Amstrad version only shows the blinker on the dashboard. But on the other side the Amstrad renders some details that are completely missing on the Spectrum. Most noticeably, the Amstrad has three different types of walls. While there are only white and grey walls on the Spectrum, the walls on the Amstrad have two shades of grey (representing the white and grey walls of the Spectrum), plus there is a grey wall with blue dots on it. This one looks like a wall that has windows in it. It may sound stupid, but because of this (and the colorful cars) the Amstrad citys are less boring than the Speccy ones, which are only build up on endless white walls. Even your own screenshots show this difference quite good.<br /><br />Finally let us take look at something else. Here is a quote from your post: “Any bigger amount of action on the Amstrad screen renders taking good screenshots nearly impossible, as you can see from the shot with a car exploding.” I don’t know what you did there, but I can send you plenty of screenshots (Amstrad) that show a lot of action without the weird tearing effect of your shot. I tried for a few minutes to get a broken screenshot out of my emulator, but it did not work. I guess there is something wrong with your emulator.<br /><br />... to be continued ...<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post-57437793781955169592014-07-29T17:02:07.276+03:002014-07-29T17:02:07.276+03:00Part 2
It’s easy to see that Richardson had to us...Part 2<br /><br />It’s easy to see that Richardson had to use a workaround to prevent the Attribute Clash. There are many of those workarounds, but most of them (especially the ones that are highly praised by Speccy fans) are extremely limited. He finally used a well-known workaround and rendered most of the graphics monochrome (using only two colors). If you take a look at it, the whole city (with the exception of the sky) is drawn in black and white, same for the most cars. This works out pretty good, but even with this workaround the Attribute Clash is still there. It’s easy to notice at the grey colored Walls that appear at the side of tall buildings, at crossroads or at dead end streets. They Clash against the blue color of the sky and the result looks pretty bad. The Clash is still there for almost all other objects too, but it’ very well hidden. Plus, explosions still show the Attribute Clash very much like the blue and red cars. Even if Richardson did a very good job, the Speccy Version suffers from the considerable Attribute Clash that is clearly visible all the time. Of course, the Amstrad version has no Attribute Clash at all.<br /><br />But there is more. All Attribute Clash workarounds come at a cost. It’s always a tradeoff. You can (almost) solve one problem, but that causes some new problems. And in the case of Turbo Esprit it is a pretty bad tradeoff. The question is how to visibly render a black foreground object against an almost black background. Take a look at all sidewalk related objects. For example, the pedestrians are black and they are walking on a black and white colored sidewalk. You need another workaround to make them visible. Because of this all objects are surrounded by a white border (only on the Speccy). This looks very strange and it causes, jet again, even more problems. <br /><br />While you forgot to talk about the weaknesses of the Spectrum Version (Attribute Clash), that didn’t stop you to talk about the strength of it. ;-) Of course I’m talking about the higher resolution (less blockier graphics). But this time around you definitely should risk a second look before start praising this feature. I guess you will (most likely) be surprised. By the way, you wrote that many details are better to see in Spectrum Version because of the higher resolution, but that’s not always true. Some details are only better visible because of those stupid white frames. <br /><br />Since the Amstrad uses the 16 color mode (Mode 0), the resolution of the CPC version is lower than the resolution of the Speccy version. I theory this should be a big advantage for the Speccy, especially in a (pseudo) 3D game. Objects that are far away from the camera should be more detailed on the Spectrum and they should be easier to spot. But surprisingly that’s not the case. In fact, only the objects that are close to the camera are more detailed/less blocky. All other objects are sharper/more detailed in the Amstrad Version. How is that even possible? Well, it’s possible because of the white frames around the objects in the Speccy version. The white frames (they are all around the black cars, the pedestrians, the street lights and the traffic lights) use a lot of pixels. These pixels are only white and cannot be used to draw any new details. Plus, they cover existing details in the background. In the end this causes a loss of the detail that the player can actually see and it destroys the advantage of the higher resolution. And it leads to jet another problem. Even if both versions pretty clearly are able to render an identical draw distance the Amstrad seems to have a noticeable better draw distance. Far away walls seem to suffer from some sort of pop up problem on the Spectrum. Once again, this happens only because of those white pixels that cover other details. Because of this the draw distance (at least the part of it that is visible for the player) is indeed better on the Amstrad.<br /><br />... to be continued ...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7514691251207559863.post-39087589152997982902014-07-29T16:55:10.611+03:002014-07-29T16:55:10.611+03:00Part 1
I played this game (Amstrad CPC Version) a...Part 1<br /><br />I played this game (Amstrad CPC Version) about one or two years after its original release. Unfortunately there never was any hype surrounding this title. And even back then we noticed the problems of the controls very well and died endless times because of it. But still, I know it may sound stupid, somehow we could see/feel how far ahead of its time this game really was. It’s a pity that Durell only created games for four years and later went on to produce business software instead. They were a great gaming company with many extremely talented programmers/game designers. And of course they created many really great games.<br /><br />But let’s take a look at your comparison. A few weeks ago I promised to write some comments about comparisons that, at least from my point of view, show some unfair treatment of the Amstrad CPC versions of games. I’m sorry that this will be a long read and I know that because of my poor english it might be hard to understand it at times. But please give me a chance. I will stay true to the facts and of course you will easily be able to double check everything. I will only compare the Spectrum and the Amstrad Versions of this game; as you know the c64 version is simply a mess and can be ignored.<br /><br />The first thing I noticed was your comment regarding the colors of the cars. You preferred the Spectrum version, because you felt like following many different colors (CPC Version) could be extremely diverting. To be honest, I don’t get this one. If it’s diverting wouldn’t that be a good thing? This is a car chase game. Your only objectives are to find the criminals, to follow them and to finally stop them. Everything that makes this more challenging is actually very welcome and adds to the gameplay. More colors for the cars -> makes it harder to find and follow the bad guys = very good. Think about a real life situation, you wouldn’t expect the crooks to help you by driving the only not black colored car in the whole town, right? At least in my opinion the color scheme used for the conversations of the game should be the preferred one. <br /><br />But your preference for the Speccys color scheme is interesting for another reason too. Please keep in mind that this color scheme was never meant to make it easier to follow the cars of the bad guys. It only exists because of the limited and inferior (compared to the c64 and the CPC) graphics hardware of the spectrum. If you take a closer look at the color scheme of the spectrum version we can easily point out a few things that are much better in the Amstrad version of the game. So let’s do it.<br /><br />We know that Mike Richardson is a very talented programmer. He knew about the Speccys limited graphics and he knew that a game like Turbo Esprit would look horrible if he would actually try to use colorful graphics to create the city. Plus it would become unplayable in that case. The main reason for that is the so called Attribute Clash (or color clash) which is one of the worst features of the Spectrum hardware. It’s important to notice that Attribute Clash is in fact a hardware limitation, even if some die hard Speccy fans still refuse to accept this. This problem is almost exclusive to the Spectrum and it is well known and well documented since the first release of the Spectrum Hardware. The C64 and the Amstrad CPC don’t have this problem at all.<br /><br />If Richardson would have created a colorful city for the Spectrum, the Attribute Clash would have been all over the place. Just take a look at the Attribute Clash of the red and blue cars of the bad guys that is still present in the Speccy Version. Now imagine what would have happened if all cars and all pedestrians would cause the same problems. I think you get the idea (if not, simply take a look at the Spectrum version of Altered Beast).<br /><br />... to be continued ...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com