A Homeschooler's Pensieve: Solar Jetman hack: Spaceman Spiff

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Solar Jetman hack: Spaceman Spiff

This is a hack I am working on, as of a few days ago. I got the idea some time before, but never sat down to experiment with it. Now I have Spiff's graphics completed, including palette changes, and am working on his ship. It's very time-taking to redraw every frame of the ship turning 360 degrees and sort of flipping upside-down in the process (if you've played the game you will know what I'm talking about), especially with a saucer as opposed to the original egg shape of the pod. What's more, I can't get as 3D a look as I'd like,

because the ship and the spaceman share the same color palette; having only 4 colors per sprite to work with in the first place, the ship can only have one color other than yellow, blue, or transparency, all of which are needed for Spiff. This means that the saucer must be a solid red instead of the 3D shading you can see in the screenshot.

This will take a long time to complete, especially since I won't be spending all my time working on it. Technical issues may arise and ideas for the game may change, but I don't intend to abandon this endeavor. Eventually this should join the ranks of fan creations as "Spaceman Spiff: The Hunt for the Flying Tiger!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: You haven't posted in almost a week. I'm getting impatient for more of your humour!; 17/10/08 19:13
Anonymous said...: I've been busy, and my parents went out of town for half a week. Between school, siblings, and a lack of immediately interesting material/time to review other ROM hacks I've played, well...

Okay, I've got one humorous thing I can write up really quickly.

Also, keep an eye on the Tome of Randomness; I'll tack things on there now and then even if I'm not really in a position to write actual posts.; 17/10/08 21:33
Anonymous said...: hey i hope u finish your project! i love solar jetman!!; 16/11/08 10:46

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