Tales of Popolon

Enlighted (6011)

06-10-2019, 04:53

Tales of Popolon is great technology demo for MSX, but it is also quite a nice game. It has been designed for 16K MSX1 computers, but also supports MSX tR faster CPU. Because it was released already few years ago, I decited to make a map out of it. It is anyway just a map for people who tend to get lost in 3D-mazes. I didn't want to spoil all of the game by telling exactly what to find from where and how to solve the problems.

The game and instructions can be downloaded from here.

If you are lucky owner of MSX tR, I recommend to download the disk hack that I made instead. It gives much better FPS-rate even on large FOV-settings than the original version.

For random surfer this basic version that runs on browser might be best.

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Van santiontanon

Paragon (1734)

06-10-2019, 06:06

That's awesome, thanks a lot for the maps NYYRIKKI!! (and for the kind words about the game ) Pretty cool usage of the in-game textures to denote the wall types!

Van hamlet

Scribe (4105)

06-10-2019, 07:56

Nice done NYYRIKKI! And pretty cool to see santiontanon in there!

Van NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6011)

06-10-2019, 11:52

santiontanon wrote:

That's awesome, thanks a lot for the maps NYYRIKKI!! (and for the kind words about the game ) Pretty cool usage of the in-game textures to denote the wall types!

Practically all of the graphics and maps are ripped directly from your game. I just rendered them to 2D and rotated some of the levels in order to make Medusa and Keres fit nicely in there and to place the levels to map in somewhat logical order. In first map I used a bit more "artistic impression" and ie. prisoners got wall behind, but rest is pretty much dumped as is from the original data.

BTW if you look closely you can see that there is a small design bug in the game... If you run a circle trough Medusa domain, Keres domain corner and 2nd floor of fortress, you notice that you will go up, up, down and up, so one of the staircases must be mounted wrong way around.

Van NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6011)

06-10-2019, 17:11

SPOILER ALERT: Here is a playthrough video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcFHRy7xDzw

Van santiontanon

Paragon (1734)

07-10-2019, 02:59

Nice!!! Thanks for uploading!! Always very cool to see people playing one's games I have the same question Manuel had in the video, that is your improved version for turbo R, right?

Van tfh

Prophet (3277)

07-10-2019, 10:39

NYYRIKKI wrote:

For random surfer this basic version that runs on browser might be best.

You can also use the following link which will take you to the game instantly:
https://www.file-hunter.com/MSXdev/index.php?id=talesofpopolon

You can use ALT-T to increase the CPU speed.

I am still amazed about this game... Especially that you can fit all of this in 32KByte is stunning. And it really gives me an 3D MoG feeling :)

Van NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6011)

07-10-2019, 11:29

santiontanon wrote:

I have the same question Manuel had in the video, that is your improved version for turbo R, right?

Yes. BTW It is kind of funny that when the FPS rate increases the game starts to feel a bit slow and sticky although it is running in same speed as original, just with more frames. I guess it is some kind of psychological effect caused by smooth moving.

Van NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6011)

07-10-2019, 23:42

I could not help my self wondering, how Tales of Popolon would work as shoot 'em up game...

I just had to try what it could be like Video of my experiment can be seen here:

https://youtu.be/4MSga7mge5w

Van sd_snatcher

Prophet (3608)

08-10-2019, 01:35

NYYRIKKI wrote:

If you are lucky owner of MSX tR, I recommend to download the disk hack that I made instead. It gives much better FPS-rate even on large FOV-settings than the original version.

Tip: If you load the game with ExecROM /Z, you'll have the same kind of speed boost.

Curiously enough, this was what I was doing during the testing stage of this game. I thought that everyone knew about that.

Van santiontanon

Paragon (1734)

08-10-2019, 04:35

As I said in the youtube video, very, very cool hack!!! hahaha Now I want to make a shooter with that engine!

And about the speed of the game with smoother movement, I think you are right! when the FPS are low, I think it's better to have the game slow down, since otherwise, it'll be hard to react. But with smoother movement, you can react better, and the game should be a bit faster. Seriously, after seeing that hack, now I really want to go back to that codebase and do something more with it, thanks a lot for sharing!