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Imperial Mahjong by Arkos [web] & Les Sucres en Morceaux [web]
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screenshot added by Targhan on 2016-10-15 11:34:42
platform :
type :
release date : october 2016
  • 26
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popularity : 58%
 58%
  • 0.93
alltime top: #5699
added on the 2016-10-15 11:34:42 by Targhan Targhan

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The game features:

  • Outstanding new graphic modes: EGX (Extended GraphX): displays 16 colors in 320*200 instead of 4.
  • EGX2: displays 4 colors in 640*200 instead of 2.
  • First game on CPC to have digi-drums during the whole game.
  • Sample during the loading of the game at FDC full speed.
  • Introduction music using 3-channel Sample-SIDs, in stereo.
  • More than 30 minutes of music.

Enjoy!
added on the 2016-10-15 11:39:47 by Targhan Targhan
Great game made with awesome technical achievements.
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 12:14:10 by HAL6128 HAL6128
Cool! I need to try it on the real thing.
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 13:37:20 by ham ham
Wonderfull. Amazing tunes and graphics, great gameplay too. Played on the CTM644, will try the GT64 soon. I wonder what EGX could be on the C64 and Atari XE/XL. MODE 1 can display 4 colors 1x1 instead of 2 (but also 16c 8x8 on the C64 like ZX spectrum) So MODE 1 seem much powerfull than before to my eyes :) it seems to have enough colors to draw the main thing and MODE 0 simply add colors, if MODE 1 had only 2 colors I think that optical illusion of 16c in MODE 1 wouldn't work well.. 'straaaaad!
Really nice with the intro tune too!
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 15:28:44 by Buckethead Buckethead
Those game features really rulez!
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 16:41:50 by toms toms
Technically very impressive (no worries that was expected from CargoSoft ;-).
Unfortunately, Mahjong game itself is not my cup of tea so I admit I did not play the game more than few minutes..
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 21:36:06 by norecess norecess
I played Mahjong a long time ago and I was very slow. Now I will try again because the graphics modes and music will keep me.
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 21:57:58 by Optimus Optimus
Had to get WinAPE running and see how is this possible... :-) First I thought it's MODE 1 all right, but with clever colour changes per line. Seemed that far more colours were packed tightly together, though. Then I had to check that my eyes are seeing right, because while I debugged per instruction I saw MODE 0 is being used?!? But it seems all MODE 1? Good thing that I debugged a bit more... :-D Very nicely designed tilesets and good colour choices for MODE 1 parts..! Too bad it's practically impossible to do fast paced games using this mode.
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 23:11:49 by Sparklite Sparklite
Technically top notch..! And fun too: on the second round I got the table cleared.
added on the 2016-10-15 23:14:30 by Sparklite Sparklite
How do those EGX modes work by the way? As a former Atari ST coder I'm curious :)
rulez added on the 2016-10-15 23:56:21 by keops keops
@keops: It's MODE 0/192xNnnx16 colors every even and MODE 1/384xNnnx4 (well chosen) colors every odd line or vice-versa :). It's hard to believe but half of what you're seeing is blocky MODE 0. Especially when you consider how detailed some of the tiles look like (flower-tiles, bird-tile and 1 ball-tile for example).

Years ago I remember testing page flipping so that every other line would toggle MODE 1/0 on every other line with 2 images to get 384xNnnxLotsAColors, but the results were not good at all. I never could imagine that it could look this good without page flipping. Very well designed gfx helps, heaps of course! Practically it looks like 384xNnnx16 colors bitmap, and that in about 26KB: not bad!
added on the 2016-10-16 09:55:33 by Sparklite Sparklite
It simply changes from Mode 0 to Mode 1 every single line, with carefully designed graphics to trick you, if I understood correct. I am also curious if one needs to set split screen for every line (I think you can set every 8 pixels high char, but then another CRTC reg will set char height from 8 to 1 line, though you'd have to change vram address to point to new lines else there will be a pattern repeated every few lines). I don't know if there is something more sophisticated used in this case, but even so it still looks hard enough to use these videomodes in games.
added on the 2016-10-16 12:51:52 by Optimus Optimus
MODE 0.5 ;))
Amazing result!
I'm curious to know how the graphics were made, if they have any specific tool, and if they plan to release it.
rulez added on the 2016-10-16 15:32:10 by Rhino/BG Rhino/BG
@Optimus: no need to touch the CRTC, you can change the screen mode at any horizontal blanking (but not elsewhere in a line)

Oh and yes, great work on the game btw :)
rulez added on the 2016-10-16 17:30:22 by PulkoMandy PulkoMandy
Thank you all for your remarks.

@Sparklite : very happy to read you, and thank you for your very elogious story.

@Keops : this resolution is certainly doable on the Atari ST : 640x200/16 colours. Maybe less impressive with a 512 colours palette (?). On ST, you can also try the flipping between lowres and hires pic. I never seen it. It may have a very soft render.

@Rhino : no special tool. Just old Photoshop (before CS versions) on a CRT screen (important). The first tool is the time, especially for the big size dragon.
added on the 2016-10-16 18:08:02 by Supersly Supersly
Nice !!! Must be played on real hardware.
rulez added on the 2016-10-16 19:41:28 by Beb Beb
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added on the 2016-10-16 20:37:33 by Sparklite Sparklite
The graphics look really impressive!
rulez added on the 2016-10-16 21:32:47 by Exin Exin
Really Great Mahjong game ! I love this one...Wonderfull graphics.
rulez added on the 2016-10-16 21:52:01 by ast ast
Another fine display of sweet CPC graphics for a killer game with huge production value.

Encore une Victoire de CPC.
rulez added on the 2016-10-17 14:40:56 by MacDeath MacDeath
Technical achievement.
Possible nominee for That's not possible on that Platform? the intro screen does not look and sound as a CPC.
Once the cheat understood: still a nightmare to code and to draw.
rulez added on the 2016-10-17 20:49:44 by Overflow Overflow
Works very well. congratulations on this. I did something similar in the concept of having alternating hires and multicolor per line on the c64 some time ago, but utilised color interlacing so that multicolor blocks would mix in together with the hires blocks. first frame would have hires,mcol,hires.. and second one would be mcol,hires,mcol... each line.

Mixed screengrab below

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added on the 2016-10-17 21:39:32 by algorithm algorithm
Hmm... Nice to see similar tricks on C64 as well. Had to check the separate screens on the picture above. With CPC I think I had similar "tearing" patterns with separate screens as below.

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added on the 2016-10-18 22:48:06 by Sparklite Sparklite
the one above used less tolerent luma difference boundaries which generated more flicker. Flicker could have been reduced further by propogating pixels in each field although to freely do this would require same color definitions per field. The method above alternates lines which reduces flicker but not to a satisfactory amount.
added on the 2016-10-18 23:27:01 by algorithm algorithm
Oh, and congrats on the neat mode! :-)
rulez added on the 2016-10-18 23:27:23 by algorithm algorithm
Beautiful graphics, amazing music, addictive gameplay! Top job, guys! ^_^
It sure is a good time to be an Amstrad fan!
rulez added on the 2016-10-19 12:08:00 by SuTeKH/Epyteor SuTeKH/Epyteor
Brillant production, more innovant than 90% of demos released these last 10 years! Graphic side (new mode without flipping), musical side (first original clever SID), and FDC (first sample trackload). The whole result rocks.
rulez added on the 2016-10-19 14:55:30 by Hicks Hicks
Impressive amount of work for a "simple" game
rulez added on the 2016-10-20 15:59:10 by krusty krusty
Impressive level of polishing and use of hardware tricks!
rulez added on the 2016-10-22 23:49:08 by exocet exocet
Huge work!

Nice design, cool GFX, polish interface, great musics!

You have to see it on a CRT screen cause sharp screen spoil the effect
rulez added on the 2016-10-26 23:31:54 by roudoudou roudoudou
What Hicks said. THe game worths a mil!
rulez added on the 2016-11-30 17:53:57 by voxy voxy
Great
rulez added on the 2016-12-05 21:57:54 by Candy Candy
this is outstanding!
rulez added on the 2017-04-21 21:29:04 by RufUsul RufUsul
I have played again this game a few days ago. It's really a nice piece of code/sound/gfx, that's a good way to spend time during holidays :-).
rulez added on the 2017-05-25 20:28:17 by tometjerry tometjerry
Fantastic music-disc! :)
rulez added on the 2017-09-28 16:14:55 by Gʀɪʍʍy Gʀɪʍʍy

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