SPRITES EVERYWHERE
!
From the Golden Age, one attitude ruled over the rest and was called the
"Try to beat dis" symptom ! Crews followed each other, reproducing the same
kind of effect, improving it and therefore bragging over other crews : yeah we
did better than you suckers ! Or something like that... Childish you think ? I
also do but we're not here to judge other people's work anyway...
So, once again, here they're back : good old sprites furiously moving along
an invisible sinus force, while a static background supports them. There are
days when you feel like you don't wanna hear such stuff anymore, I swear !!!
Leonard already tried to lobotomize us with his old fractal record and others
in the - rightfully called - Nostalgi'o (so boring) demo...
Anyway we can't ignore forces of nature and as every sprite record tends to
spawn endless threads of posting on DHS, we cannot decently ignore new efforts.
Indeed not less than four pretenders, including Lord Leonard himself, tried to
beat the record and enter the golden book of... erm what exactly ???
THE SPICE BOYS CONTRIBUTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some time ago, out favourite weird Swedes struck back with another screen :
this time they were to beat Leonard's (yawn) sprite record ! Their screen shows
the usual sprite thing plus new chiptune, distorted scroller AND spline line !
The scroller is really worth the reading as it reads craptalk for while ! If I
remember well what I read this screen was written on a drunk evening :)
Anyway this "record" of 270 sprites is said to be cheating because the
sinus curve is shorter than the original one, thus preventing the sprites from
waving any further... Who cares ?? I DON'T !! At least the scroller was quite
entertaining and we don't get such sweeties every day ! Nice try, really funny
and shows that the whole sprite thing is kinda fake anyway...
Get it from http://spiceboys.atari.org
LEONARD OWN RECORD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lord "I am the best" is back to beat his own record ! As usual the archived
file will unpack to full blank disk and will definitely NOT run from harddrive,
hmm who said "old school" ?? Then we are presented with either a half-meg or a
1Mb version... Then the now usual sprite screen pops up with the same old music
(by mad max if I remember well ?). Have a look at it yourself :
Impressive isn't it ?? Nay I'm just kidding as this whole sprite review is
finding me bored to death ! This time Leonars offered us a double sprite record
working either on standard or on "upgraded" (meaning 1Mb) machines. The only
difference between the two of them being the number of sprites : I cannot
remember how much it was on 520ST but I know it's 270 PLUS one! in 1Mb version.
What more to say ? Not much, waouh, great, congrats, impressive ! Now you are
happy ? Leave my leg alone then !
Get it from http://leonard.atari.org
SUPREMACY LAST BREATH ?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Strider was to join MJJ Prod, Supremacy gave us a final screen before
dying... (Uh I thought they were long dead :). Their sprite record seems quite
impressive if you consider the small prg size !! Can they beat it especially
as their (only ?) member Strider only codes gfa ??? Thrilling stuff !
It doesn't take long before we get to the spot ! Actually a picture
showing a vinyl labelled 300 sprites (memory guess) keeps spinning around and
that's it ! Actually this is a 300 sprite record !! Now I wanna hear more from
that crew !!! Funny and short, do I need to add some more ??
Get it from http://strider.atari.org
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the lastest record, exclusive stuff !!! This time it comes from
Gwen, a French coder, said to be Chuck/Dune according to DHS. So far nothing
more has been heard from that coder (that is if he's not Chuck :).
As you can see there isn't a lot more to say : the same sprites (only blue
this time) with a blocky horizontal scrolltext at the bottom. Gwen manages to
reach 360 sprites hence slapping Leonard right in da face... well if that
record had been valid of course :) From what I read on DHS and Leonard's hq,
the sprites wave loops too fast. As a consequence it cannot be compared to the
other tries.
Get it from http://leonard.atari.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well well well... That's it and let be honest : these records are BORING !
I don't care at all about such screens anymore. They look ok but show no new
idea at all except for the fake ones :) Besides, we know there's some precalc
involved, this is cheating nothing else. And who knows how many sprites are
actually on screen ?? Can you count them ?? Bah this is purely senseless. I
wish active people used their brain to code decent stuff. Anyway if you think
it's fun, why not ?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
