macross: Skull Leader, Love Stories, and Remember Me

[Skull Leader]

It's still got some details to fix and work out, but this gives a pretty good idea of what the profiles will look like

Comments? Criticism?

[boinger]

It looks like we'll need a PC98 / Windows 95 computer with a 5.25" floppy drive

to get the Skull Leader Collection to work.

Here's the email back from Deviceside.com to confirm the lack of MSDOS support.

"It sounds like those (games) are in PC98 1232k format, which the FC5025 is not currently able to read. I've added it to the

requested formats list and I can notify you if we add support. However, there are no plans for any additional format

support before the end of the year. As for the 3.5" floppies, you might be able to read them with a USB 3.5" drive.

The following software might be suitable for that: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA013937/editdisk/index_e.html

However, this software will not work with a 5.25" drive attached to the FC5025, and I can't provide any assistance

on using it with a 3.5" drive."

-- Adam Goldman | Device Side Data

Edited November 12, 2014 by boinger

[boinger]

oooh aaah!

How do you do that graphic image upgrade?

Would you be willing / able to post semi-regularly on MW

forum about what you learned about Unity 3D

or what you have learned to get this project done?

Project Diary?

[Skull Leader]

Hmmm, looks like we'll just have to proceed with the regular version of the game for now. If we play the waiting game perhaps an option will present itself. I'm not too upset about that. (not yet anyway)

I did the upgrade using Adobe Illustrator. By doing them as vectored graphics, we can resize to the newer monitor resolutions without any loss of quality.

Honestly it may be a few months before I get down to the nitty gritty of figuring Unity 3D out.... I've got some model commissions I need to finish up for a few veterans and then I can focus a little more on it... in the meantime, it's 5 or 10 minutes here or there converting artwork. It was slow going at first, but I'm getting the hang of it, so I'll be able to whip them out a little quicker.

Of course I'll post regular updates Just don't expect them to be very exciting yet lol.

[mickyg]

All this is very exciting!

Looking forward to seeing a few builds, elsewhere too.

[Skull Leader]

Lol thanks Micky.... I'll have photos up soon

[mickyg]

Good to see things get built. Also good to see you've got other things happening as well. I've been so caught up in life lately that looking at other people's work is all I've got! Happy to see it though. Keep it up, cause I'm sure I'm not the only one with a lack of time right now and work like yours is what keeps us coming back to the hobby!

[Skull Leader]

LOL it always seems like "too many hobbies and not enough time" honestly... and this is a completely new adventure for me... I used to know a decent amount of HTML, but beyond that I've never coded anything in my life, and my wife has literally had to take my hand and teach me how to use illustrator (she lives in it at work, so she can do it blindfolded).

hopefully the results justify the effort!

[mickyg]

Illustrator is an awesome thing to be able to use! So many possibilities. Do you know the power you posess for decal work, for instance? I sort of, almost know what I'm doing with it but still haven't had much success with tracing a decal so I can resize it for a different scale. What you've been able to do with that still frame is very impressive!

[Skull Leader]

Actually my first time using illustrator was to make my own 17 squadron decals for a 1/48 Jaguar I know a little about it!

[Hikaru1234567890]

Wow! Really can't wait till you get this don! Would you be able to make a Mac version?

[Skull Leader]

I know *nothing* about macs or mac programing, but if I can, or if someone who is mac savvy gets on board with this, I'd certainly like to see a port for everyone, Linux included

[Skull Leader]

I went back and refined how I made my pilot portraits... not a great deal of progress (and likely won't be a lot until after the new year) but my methods will help me streamline the portraits... should make them go faster. I will be completely redoing Roy... I've learned a ton in just the 3 profiles I've done, so I want to go back and apply those to Roy.

[Skull Leader]

Hilkaru's profile is done! The pixilation of some of these photos makes it hard to guess exactly how the detail is supposed to be, so some speculation is required. I try to get it as close as possible.

On another upnote, I may have someone to remix the music. "Stone Mcknuckle" has a channel on youtube and has remixed a number of NES game music tracks (I'm particularly fond of his Mega Man work), I've approached him about remixing the game soundtrack for me and we're in the process of negotiation.

[Skull Leader]

Ive got a few minutes at work, So I thought I'd post another update about the intended scope of this project.

When I first set out to do this, I intended it to be an exact port of the PC98 game, with no changes or modifications to preserve the nostalgia factor. The further I begin to dig into all of the details, I've come to realize that I could tweak things a little to make for a better gaming experience.

One of the things I've always disliked about the game is that instead of squadron names, most of the squadrons are simply color coded. This just isnt very exciting, so for the remake, I'll be taking squadrons shown in the VF-1 master file and the SDF-1 squadrons book and putting them in the game. This will not only help modernize the game, but give it a more "authentic" military feel.

Along those lines, if you've ever played the game, you know that when it comes to the valkyries, there is very little or no variation in the color schemes. All the VF-1As are the same color, etc. Since I am including squadrons from the above - listed books, I will be including their paint schemes as well. This will help add some variety and spice things up a little.

Another thing I would like to do is in regards to the music. If possible, All of the original music will be present, but I've thought about adding a few tunes for the battle scenes (the battle music is pretty monotonous), I'm reasonably certain I can render a few new tunes and just cycle through them randomly.

From the outset, these modifications don't seem difficult... definitely time consuming, but I figure while I'm "under the hood", I may as well tune things up.

If you've played the game and you have feedback about what you liked and what you didn't, I'd certainly be interested in hearing about it.

Id like to thank Project Phoenix for his support, help in translations and basically serving as a sounding board for ideas. He will be integral to the success of this project I think! Lastly, Boinger was kind enough to get me the manual for the game. I haven't translated it yet, but it's sure to help in some way, and I'm very thankful for Boinger's support!

In recap:

-I've got 5 pilot profiles done, using a new technique to help streamline and speed up the process (not a big deal to illustrator veterans, but it is to me)

-menu trees for the "inbetween" segments are nearly figured out, I'll be able to begin mapping the character interactions on paper soon.

-I potentially have someone lined up to do the music. It will depend on how busy he is and how much he charges for his efforts

Big to-dos:

-play through the game in its entirety (unless someone wants to do this for me.. possibly multiple times on a chapter by chapter basis)

-LEARN C++.....

"Well now... gonna be a long trip."

(Have a happy new year everyone!)

Edited December 31, 2014 by Skull Leader

[boinger]

That's good news to start off 2015!

Happy New Year to you, too!

[Skull Leader]

Here's a picture update of where I am going into the new year:

Pilot profiles

Started work on the title screen... need to add the color gradients to the text and build the menu box, but it's getting there!

As an interesting aside, given the point and click nature of the game, I may be able to adapt it for android as well!

[Skull Leader]

I've made some sporadic progress over the past few days. I've also set a more specific goal, and future progress past this point will be geared towards reaching that milestone.

First, I've finished a fair few of the pilot profiles... these are probably all I'll do until a little later. I've determined that for the "cannon fodder" pilots, I may add some helmet color variation just to help break things up (as it stands, you could have 2 or 3 identical pilots in a squadron)

the title screen is also nearly done! I still have one or two finishing touches to put on it, but otherwise it's finished! I have the menu box complete as well (where you see the "New Game", "Load Game", etc) but I'm not sure if I need to combine them or keep them separate yet.

also because I wanted to see what all was involved, I started rendering one of the Battroid profile shots... and it's taking longer than I thought it would. Original is on the right, my update on the left (pay no attention to the head)

Lastly, I've got a large part of the prologue story translated. Once I've got all the prologue translated, I'll adjust and clean up the syntax for a proper english translation. I even have the linguistic translation of Vrlitwhai in zentraedi.

This brings me to the goal I have set for myself. By this summer, I want to have a functional title screen and the entire prologue section done (up to where the player assumes control of Hikaru)

I cannot imagine the coding will be too difficult to figure out to make this happen... most of that time will be spent rendering the backgrounds and pictures used in the story.

That's where we are at as of now! I hope everyone had a good holiday!

[Skull Leader]

Just a small update for now... I've started working on the character dialogue pictures for the story section and I've only got 3 left before I start drawing the storyboard pictures (I'm working on Claudia now, I still need to do Shammie and Vrlitwhai)

Edit: I guess I also need to do Focker and Hikaru in his blue flight suit as well.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Skull Leader

[Roy Focker]

Pretty awesome project you got going.

[Skull Leader]

Thanks!

[Skull Leader]

Once I finish Vrlitwhai I'll have enough to get started with, I finished Shammie earlier tonight

Vrlitwhai 7018 is coming along... I've got some details to finish and I may wind up tweaking the colors some (Zentraedi are all sickly greys and greens... hard to get right and make look good )

I'll probably start on the storyboards tomorrow.

[Skull Leader]

So I decided to take a little time off from the art to try coding the title screen

.... holy $#*%, I'm stupid. Why do I get the feeling this shouldn't be this hard?

[Skull Leader]

Well, I set a goal for myself to have a functioning title screen (with music) by the time I went to bed tonight... and I'm proud to say I met that deadline. It isn't totally refined (none of the buttons lead anywhere yet, and you have to go to the task manager to get out of it, and I want to fade the title screen in), but from never having coded anything more than a little HTML during my early college days to this, I'd say I've done alright!

Unity is proving to be a *little* steep on the learning curve, but I'm confident once I get the hang of it, I'll be swinging for the fences. There are a million tutorials out there, so I should be able to find everything that I need.

Another upshot is that I can code in just about any language and Unity will read it... and furthermore, the program can set any project up for just about any platform I want... I code the game once and I can export it for windows, mac, android, or whatever I like, it does all the footwork!

Edited January 17, 2015 by Skull Leader

[Skull Leader]

If you've played the game, you remember that the main game background is a screenshot of the bridge section of the Macross. This is a perennial image because it's there for pretty much the entire game when you aren't in combat (other images layer on top of it at need )

This is a big, awesome image... but it's also packed with a lot of detail that takes time to recreate... this one will take me a while!

[Bub]

This is going to be awesome. Thanks for your dedication.

[Skull Leader]

Thanks, Bub... really do hope the effort justifies the end result! I owe it to macross fans to give it my best.

[Skull Leader]

Omg this is slow going! Any of you who have recreated an image in illustrator understand the struggle... you try to think in terms of layers and build the image from back to front... but it isn't always easy. One of the downsides to such a pixilated image is that some of the background shapes are difficult to discern. In some cases it's just random shapes for texture... other details are more obvious. In either case, I'm doing my best to make an interpretation and recreate the image as closely as I can. The outside part is finished on the left, and now I've begun on the right side.

this one may take a week or more to finish given the amount of time I have to work on it each day.

[mickyg]

Looks fantastic!

[Skull Leader]

So here's a more high-res example of my progress so far..... it isn't super hard, per-say... just very time consuming.

[boinger]

I like it!

[Skull Leader]

The background is almost completely done! I just need to do the lens-flare effect from the spotlights and this one will be all set.

I had to "invent" some detail behind the lens flare just because I don't know how well the new effect will cover it, and I didn't want to just leave a blank space. I at least tried to make surfaces meet each other. Not a perfect pixel-for-pixel translation, but I think it's damn close, and pretty good considering... probably 35-40 hours of work went into creating this. Someone more knowledgable in illustrator probably could've knocked it out much quicker, but I've been learning as I go.

I also included the original beneath it for comparison

Story Background.bmp

Edited January 31, 2015 by Skull Leader

[Skull Leader]

Spending some time working out how I wanna code all of the story and dialogue... I think I'll be using the Fungus plug in for Unity to do this, they seem to be pretty straightforward, and it should interface well with other plugins when I get to working on the combat/strategy sections.

[Skull Leader]

I haven't had much time or energy to work today... I've been down with the flu. But I did manage to get some of the soundtrack ripped (enough to get me to the first mission) though the method I had to use to get it was a little unorthodox, I got what I needed.

[the white drew carey]

Yeah, that was me working on trying to get this translated and, yeah, I lost all but the 1st disk in a HDD crash. If anyone wants to share their copies, please PM me. I would be forever grateful.

I was also toying with the idea of using Construct 2 to remake this game. Although I was just planning on using the original graphics as I am looking more for the gameplay and not an HD upgrade. Partially b/c I want to preserve the retro look of the game (not to knock your updated graphics, Skull Leader, but I think they lose some of the charm...).

p.s.- I'm more than happy to share what translations we got done with this, although you may already be well-past that point.