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Bubble Memories Black Edition

Wow, what a difference! Who would think that black backgrounds would look so much better? I always hated those crappy digi backgrounds, too. I will try converting my Jp cart once my programmer arrives. One day, I will have the multi....
 
Hey @rtw it's been a few years and your programming/hacking fingers must be all rested up by now...

How about doing the same thing for Arkanoid Returns? I'd like the simple backgrounds of the original games or even black added to this one. Not sure how hard that would be, but maybe you have some free time?
 
rtw said:
Thank you for the suggestion, I will add it to my "thingsImightdointhefuture" list :D
Currently I am a bit swamped with projects which I need to complete first but at least it is on the list.
Click to expand...
Ha, I bet your list is massive, like everyone else in the hobby! Thank you so much for adding it, no rush and if there is anyway we can help, please let us know.

I think the Arkanoid ones are much better than the BB ones, so it definitely benefited a lot from your work, but after giving Arkanoid a spin :) I realized it could help a bit!
 
I took a look at a playthrough of Arkanoid last night, it seems like there are only 5 screens ? Can you confirm that there are no secret rooms or branching paths like in Bubble Memories ?
 
There are supposedly some hidden levels (51-100), dunno if the backgrounds are different thou..

Unlock Levels 51-100
To play the hidden levels 51-100 (instead of the standard 1-50), first insert a coin at the title screen but BEFORE hitting the Start button, hit Button 1 exactly 3 times, then Button 2 exactly 1 time. Then press Start to begin the game.

If performed correctly, you will begin a new game on Level 51. Be warned that this hidden collection of stages is much harder than the original 50 levels, and there is also a new boss to battle at Level 100!

Also a level select code, to check the levels:

Level Select​

ArkanoidreturnsAC-levelselect.png

This game uses the Taito Code:

  1. Hold the Service Coin button upon booting, and wait until a "SERVICE SWITCH ERROR" message pops up on the screen.
  2. Press 1P Start (x3), Service Coin, then 1P Start again.
Upon this, the player is redirected to a stage select menu, which can be navigated by using 1P Analog.
 
@Pythagoras that's awesome and perfect. Can you do the same thing for Arkanoid and A2? I don't know at all if the backgrounds are usable in AR, but they are SOOOO much better, that if they could be swapped in, it would rock.

Not sure what was going on during the F3 game development time, but digitized pics seemed to be all the rage...
 
To use the tiled backgrounds from Arkanoid would require to convert the bitmapformat and the palette to the one Arkanoid Returns use, or recreate the backgrounds. But that would require to write some tools for it first, so it would be a quite time cunsuming task. To prevent the backgrounds to be displayed (a black background) would be an easier and faster thing to do.

Yes, digitized graphics was popular around that time, Same with the early Amiga games. Was probably a fast and cheap way to get the games out as fast as possible on the new hardware. But most of the time the end result became ugly and uninspiring.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll (we'll) take what we can get, but man, if they could be swapped out... that would be the dream!

I'll take black though, the current ones are ugly as sin.
 
That screenshot is not made my be, I found them online. The pictures to the right in the previous post shows how the original backgrounds looked like. But of some reason they decided to apply a "filter" to make the backgrounds more darkened and blurry. As you can see when you compare the smaller pictures in the corners of the screen. I don't understand why the made that choice since the backgrounds looks so much better without that filter effect...

Anyway, I did a test by removing the background last night, to see how it would look like... The backgrounds are tiled, so It should in theory be quite easy to replace them. But that would require some tool or editor to convert the ones from the Original Arkanoid...


Arkanoid Black.jpg
Arkanoid Black 1.jpg
 
Nice work @Pythagoras !

I was a bit too curious last night and broke out the old code. TAITO changed the format around a bit. Currently I have a generator which removes nearly all the backgrounds.

There are fewer background images in Arkanoid Returns than in Memories so this might not take too long.

As for injecting the old backgrounds into Arkanoid Returns that should be possible but you would need to convert the images to the F3 tiledata format.
 
Too bad we don't have a graphics/tile converter. Have tried tile molester before but that doesn't work on W11. It had been cool to be able to make a setting where you could select the background tiles to use; Arkanoid, Revenge Of Doh or Arkanoid Returns.
 
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