SHINOBI for Supergrafx : WIP

[touko]

Hi all, it's been a while since my last post here

Like paranoia dragon said, i'am working on a supergrafx version of shinobi 1 arcade .
My goal is to do a near 1:1 conversion .
The project started some years ago on hucard and migrated to scdrom+AC for better results and shorter development time.
Graphics conversion also takes me a lot of time, it's not my domain 

So the result is not bad finaly(some footages here are a bit old and have been improved) :


















14 to 16 sprite's subpalettes will be used for this level:






Here the transition effect:

You can see some videos on my YT channel .
I had to code my own routines for the AC, ADPCM and CD-ROM,because i want to bypass the BIOS. And now i have a very fast CD->AC transfer routine, close to CD max speed of 150ko/s.
I use the SGX's mid-res 336x224 and the SGX's VPC to recreate the bonus stage effects(and others uses), this part should be 100% close to the arcade one (minus some colors of course)

Actually,all the GFX are done and converted to 9 bits and use 1 or more sub-palettes per layer for the backgrounds, i'm finishing the bonus level, then i'll start the last one(all the others parts are done) but the most difficult, the game engine.

[Mathius]

This is very exciting! I was always disappointed with the Shinobi conversions as a kid (though I wouldn't have admitted it out loud). I don't have the "vacuum" Super CD attachment for my SGX so hopefully I could force my Analogue Duo (thanks jtucci!) into a SGX Arcade CD mode.

Thanks again for your hard work!

[touko]

I don't have the "vacuum" Super CD attachment for my SGX

I don't think i'll make a physical version due to copyright,but probably a simple iso to download, so the SSSD3 or krikzz's turbo everdrive pro will do the job .

[Necromancer]

Looking sweet.  I wish I'd bought an SGX back in the day, when they were relatively cheap.

[Paranoia Dragon]

I don't recall if you mentioned this before, but you're saying it's going to be CD now. What are your plans for the music? Use rips of the original arcade soundtrack or are there arranged versions of the music that could be used? Or maybe both the original arcade and arranged?

[touko]

Yeah, the project muted to scdrom+AC i think it's more easy to do it like that, no space constraints and easier/faster to code .
All my future projects will be like this, with the AC, CDROM become a real and good alternative to hucard, mainly with a fast CD->AC transfer routine .I think I'll stick to arcade adaptations only.

What are your plans for the music? Use rips of the original arcade soundtrack

Yes because it's also easy to do 

Or maybe both the original arcade and arranged?

Why not,but i don't know if there is room for the both to be burned on the same CD .

[Paranoia Dragon]

I'm not super familiar with the entire soundtrack of the arcade game. I wonder if it would be good enough to have songs that are approximately the length it takes to beat each level? Maybe two or three minutes each I'm guessing. But maybe any arranged songs that have been made over the years are too long in general?

[touko]

Yes the lenght seems correct 3m30 max for a total of 8 musics .

[Gentlegamer]

Can you finish this faster than the Mega Drive project (a decade+)?

[Paranoia Dragon]

This is probably beyond the scope of what you're aiming to do with this project, but I wonder if there would be any possibility of making an enhanced mode that perhaps uses assets from other games in the series? First and foremost of course the original arcade game. But it might be neat if there was a second mode with more unique tiles and sprites to make it look nicer?

[touko]

Can you finish this faster than the Mega Drive project (a decade+)?

Lol ,i don't know, just doing the bonus level is slow because matching all the arcade ninja positions is not so simple, at least for the first bonus .
Md version is not arcade perfect at all(the bonus level for exemple,is far from perfect too), and have some bugs too, however i hope to be faster .

This is probably beyond the scope of what you're aiming to do with this project, but I wonder if there would be any possibility of making an enhanced mode that perhaps uses assets from other games in the series?

It's a bit complicated because the gfx have not the same resolution,size or style differs too much .

But it might be neat if there was a second mode with more unique tiles and sprites to make it look nicer?

You need a graphic designer for that, except for recoloring as i did here, it's out of reach for me.