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Post by gliptitude on Nov 14, 2012 20:01:14 GMT -5
I got this game last weekend and I made this mock-up overlay for fun. www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6phF3QwAdgI kind of rushed through with a simple design, so I would be open to suggestions. As others have said already, I think this game is kind of begging for an overlay. The game action is fairly routine and regimented, so you can easily divide the screen up into sections, without interfering with other parts of the game, (bc there aren't any other parts). The game is really growing on me. Quite addictive. ...The new lightning bolt spawning is superior to the original, from what I have seen in videos. |
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Post by VectorX on Nov 14, 2012 20:14:45 GMT -5
Good job with getting the bar to line up with the score! I would say you lost it though with the controls when you turned off the light, but I think that was just to get the tripods to come closer so you could show us how it worked with the overlay on  So now there's a second overlay for the game, plus now I have to update the damn wiki page on that for it again!  |
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 14, 2012 20:36:59 GMT -5
Ha ha, yes I refrained from shooting there in the end, in order to attract the aliens into the foreground. One problem with my crappy printing process is that the graphics are a bit fogged. This does happen in real life, but it is exaggerated in the video capture. So I thought it necessary to bring the animated aliens into focus a bit more this way.
I have more than one Vectrex and this layout was made to lineup with the one that I play on the most (the one in the video). I tested on another Vectrex and the score bar was way off line! I squeezed the title in at the top because it interfered with the game graphics at the bottom. ...Screen alignment is a pretty big issue with any overlay that requires concrete registration with the game graphics. Plus a lot of homebrews (including this one) which were made without an overlay, really seem to span the whole screen in a way that is difficult to accommodate in an overlay. The player 'tank' and 'droid' are very close to the bottom, and not graphics that you want to cover up.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 14, 2012 21:11:45 GMT -5
I tested on another Vectrex and the score bar was way off line! Yeah I wondered about that, if that would always line up. Apparently that was not the case  The player 'tank' and 'droid' are very close to the bottom, and not graphics that you want to cover up. Yeah, I had noticed that, with the wide horizontal bands of color, I figured you had given enough space to give the image of color without obscuring anything if you could. |
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Post by TrekMD on Nov 14, 2012 21:28:07 GMT -5
That looks great! It's the way I figured it should be done for this game! Good job! You should sell this! |
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 14, 2012 21:43:48 GMT -5
\ Yeah, I had noticed that, with the wide horizontal bands of color, I figured you had given enough space to give the image of color without obscuring anything if you could. Yeah I mainly meant the printed game title (which is generally at the bottom of the overlay), but also the wider boarder at the bottom on the GCE overlays, which has the button key. If you look at the other WotW overlay video that you reference on the wiki page, his title at the bottom of his overlay does interfere with the tank/droid game graphics. I was trying to avoid that. ... Even at the top it is cramped though. The only area I see to squeeze some more border images into is in the upper corners... That looks great! It's the way I figured it should be done for this game! Good job! You should sell this! Thanks for the encouragement. ... What you can't see in the video though is the quality of the material and the print, which is low. It's not something I'd feel good selling as is. ... If you wanted to forward the design to that guy on ebay who makes repro overlays, I could make the file available to you for free. I think his print quality would be similar to mine, but at least his product would be a rigid sheet. Mine is just a flimsy film that they sell at Kinko's. I have another ongoing and evolving Vectrex overlay project that is more important to me. That may eventually lead to some insight on how to make high quality overlays, in which case I would consider a serious project like an official WotW overlay. |
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Post by TrekMD on Nov 14, 2012 22:21:12 GMT -5
That looks great! It's the way I figured it should be done for this game! Good job! You should sell this! Thanks for the encouragement. ... What you can't see in the video though is the quality of the material and the print, which is low. It's not something I'd feel good selling as is. ... If you wanted to forward the design to that guy on ebay who makes repro overlays, I could make the file available to you for free. I think his print quality would be similar to mine, but at least his product would be a rigid sheet. Mine is just a flimsy film that they sell at Kinko's. I have another ongoing and evolving Vectrex overlay project that is more important to me. That may eventually lead to some insight on how to make high quality overlays, in which case I would consider a serious project like an official WotW overlay. I was going to suggest you contact that same person to see if he'd be intersted in making them. It is your design, after all. I can contact him, if you prefer and don't mind sending the design to me. This seller has actually improved the process he uses for overlays and they are better than early on. |
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Post by fury on Nov 15, 2012 1:20:06 GMT -5
Great job on the overlay! You probably have seen this one on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W2HHNEV4MMThe upside down skycrapers at the top of the overlay make this a gem in my book |
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 15, 2012 5:37:42 GMT -5
Great job on the overlay! You probably have seen this one on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W2HHNEV4MMThe upside down skycrapers at the top of the overlay make this a gem in my book Hey, that is the one that I saw, but I didn't notice the skyscraper graphics. (I didn't see this overlay at all until after I made mine and posted the video.) ... But there they are in the "upper corners" that I referred to earlier as the only place I can see to add any overlay embellishments. ... I just think it is too much at the bottom, and that the title especially obscures the game graphics. ... Also would wonder what this (or any design) looks like in the dark. It seems near impossible to really produce any tinted vectors besides blue and green. I thought maybe purple would show and still contrast some with the blue, but really it just looks nearly white, the way red and yellow usually do. I thought about including the city scape somehow, but never thought of putting it at the top. Was thinking more like cabinet art type stuff of outer space, stars, ships, aliens etc. would be appropriate there. ... Maybe a transparent skyline could be made of the boarder between two colors in the overlay, kind of like Spike, but at a scale fitting WotW. I was going to suggest you contact that same person to see if he'd be intersted in making them. It is your design, after all. I can contact him, if you prefer and don't mind sending the design to me. This seller has actually improved the process he uses for overlays and they are better than early on. Here is the actual design, attached to this post. Have at it if you like. I would prefer that you just print a copy or two for your own use, and refer others to the file, rather than distributing physical overlays. I think I remember that that guy will print any design custom and in any number. I'm not too inclined to refine this particular design myself at this point. You may edit it to suit yourself if you like. Like I said earlier, it doesn't line up the same on every Vectrex and was designed to line up with my everyday Vectrex, which is a bit off center. ... Also a production design ought to be a much higher resolution (or a vector file rather than bitmap), which would pretty much require me to completely start over. Making the title was very time consuming as I basically traced it from a photo of the marquee. But I did so at a scale that still produces visible pixelation. You might print it on paper and cut it out to see how it aligns with your Vectrex. The file is sized to print on 8.5" x 11". I would be interested to see or hear about any results with this process. But if I eventually arrived at a really tight design my goal would be a screenprinted product which I would be trying to convince fury to sell on his site. ... I'm not too sentimental about what I've put out there so far. Trek you can message me if you have any questions. Attachments:
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Post by TrekMD on Nov 15, 2012 8:04:17 GMT -5
Thanks glipitude. I think he does print custom ones, so he may be able to print one of these for me.
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 8, 2013 21:33:22 GMT -5
Some modifications made to my first design. I printed this on transparency film again, but haven't cut it out or added the opaque yet, to test on Vectrex with the game. I don't imagine it will play much differently at all, but the skyline border would still be visible in a dimly lit environment. I was thinking a bit along the lines of the Spike overlay here. ... Kind of had an idea to print a thin line of opaque along the whole city skyline. So that you could see it better during game play. But that's a bit risky because I wouldn't really be able to test that (I've been opaquing by hand with a brush). Also expanded the green score box, to accommodate people's off-centered displays hopefully. Still need to test that too, see how it lines up. My goal, which I am becoming more serious about, is a quality screen print edition of maybe 50 copies. Attachments:
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 8, 2013 21:49:17 GMT -5
One thing I am wondering about is if people think it needs a button key. The classic button key from the GCE overlays would not work here because there is not enough room (it would partially block the view of the player tank).
The only semi-feasible idea I had for how to include the button key was to print it very small within the existing red border at the bottom. At first I thought this would be ridiculously small. ... But again looking at the Spike overlay, I suppose it is possible to pull off tiny, legible graphics (Spike border is multiple colors and has a tiny little cartoon on the right border).
The upper corners are available and would not conflict with the game graphics, but I'm afraid putting more text up there would distract from the "War of the Worlds" title. ... Wondering also if "2011" should be included in the printed title?
Still considering putting cabinet graphic type of illustrations in the upper corners. Messed around with that a tiny bit, with no success so far...
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Post by darrin9999 on Feb 8, 2013 22:10:20 GMT -5
Looks great Gliptitude! I`m in for 1 overlay. |
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Post by fury on Feb 9, 2013 4:40:35 GMT -5
Looks good gliptitude |
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Post by TrekMD on Feb 9, 2013 9:55:15 GMT -5
Nice job on that overlay design, Glip.
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