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VGA to AGI screens

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:14 pm
by Lambonius
Hey all,

Last month's "Kings Quest 5 AGI" thread inspired me to start AGI-ing some of my favorite Sierra VGA screens (just for fun of course; I'm no programmer.)  Anyway, rather than bump up that old thread, I thought I'd just consolidate my work into this new, more generally-titled one.  I'll post more here as I get around to doing them, and if anyone else is interested in doing the same kind of thing, feel free to post here.  :)

Here's one I just finished today.  (It will be quite a while before I do another screen with bricks in it... :o )

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And here is a quick ego that I did (basically Roger from SQ2 with a cape and blond highlights  ;)...He's a little small for these screens though, which is why I am posting him separately; I just wanted to see what he might look like.)

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And here are the older ones from the other thread (I left the very first one from that thread that I did out because I didn't think it was up to snuff with the rest.)

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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:30 pm
by Quest For Glory Fan
These are really cool, how long do they take to make on average? I wonder how long it takes to make them VGA again.

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:46 pm
by Lambonius
Quest For Glory Fan wrote:These are really cool, how long do they take to make on average? I wonder how long it takes to make them VGA again.
Working on them for 2 hours or so at a time?  Probably about 3 or 4 days, give or take.  The last one took a bit longer because I got really bored with the brick walls.  I'm a grad student and a teacher, so my free time is exceedingly limited, or I'd probably have cranked out a few more by now; I do really enjoy making them.

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:15 pm
by greensenshi
Agreed.  I like how you blend the colors nicely.  I can easily recognize what the screen is.  Keep these up, I'd really like to see more.

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:20 pm
by Gronagor
Heh. Nicely done. :)

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:56 am
by Blackthorne519
This is my new favorite thread, man.  I think this is tons of fun.

Bt

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:14 am
by Klytos
Brilliant stuff. It's as enjoyable as looking at ASCII artwork.

I love this stuff.

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:42 pm
by MusicallyInspired
You're a monster, Lambonius! Excellent stuff.

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:20 pm
by Blackthorne519
Lambonius, you're very talented.  Just wanted to say that.

Bt

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:05 pm
by Angelus3K
"And can you feel the love tonight!!!"  :rollin  ;)

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:55 pm
by Quest For Glory Fan
The QFG IV shot in town is my personal favorite. I never thought that could look so nice in AGI.

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:32 pm
by Lambonius
Thanks for the kind words, guys.  I've just started one of the QFGIV slime slope/squid stone/error 47 screen.  ;)  I'm not sure why I keep gravitating towards QFGIV; there are just so many screens in that game that I love.  I suppose I could say that for most of the classics though.  I am toying with the idea of doing a Fate of Atlantis or Monkey Island screen in the AGI style; I think that would be pretty amusing.  :)

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:02 am
by Lambonius
I've been really swamped (no pun intended) with school lately, so I've only been able to pick at this one over the past few weeks.  Finally finished it up tonight though, thank god.   :p  Another QFG4 screen for your perusal.

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PS:  I never noticed just how phallic that squid stone actually is until I started this drawing.  Man.  :p

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:34 pm
by greensenshi
Very nice.  And wow... um... phallic, yea.  It looks even more obvious in the AGI interpretation.  >.>

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:14 pm
by Vildern
Amazing!   :D

And...
greensenshi wrote:Very nice.  And wow... um... phallic, yea.  It looks even more obvious in the AGI interpretation.  >.>
Yeah... that rock in the middle... doesn't look like a rock so much :p

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:19 pm
by jpnuar1
Lambonius wrote:I've been really swamped (no pun intended) with school lately, so I've only been able to pick at this one over the past few weeks.  Finally finished it up tonight though, thank god.   :p  Another QFG4 screen for your perusal.

Image

PS:  I never noticed just how phallic that squid stone actually is until I started this drawing.  Man.  :p
Taking this topic out of the gutter (if only for a short while), while the pic does look nice, I noticed that it'd be impossible for an untrained eye to find the bonsai tree you're supposed to save. Dunno how one would do it, but it seems that were that being made for an actual game, it would somehow have to be more differentiated from the slime covered rocks that pervade the rest of the screen.

Nothing against your own skills though, I only just realized how hard it must've been for game designers back then.

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:55 pm
by Akril
Taking this topic out of the gutter (if only for a short while), while the pic does look nice, I noticed that it'd be impossible for an untrained eye to find the bonsai tree you're supposed to save. Dunno how one would do it, but it seems that were that being made for an actual game, it would somehow have to be more differentiated from the slime covered rocks that pervade the rest of the screen.
I've never seen the original version of this screen before, but is the tree you're talking about 3/5ths of the way down the right side of the screen?

I'm enjoying these ultra-retro screens as well. It's amazing what can be done with only 16 colors.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:46 am
by Lambonius
jpnuar1 wrote:Taking this topic out of the gutter (if only for a short while), while the pic does look nice, I noticed that it'd be impossible for an untrained eye to find the bonsai tree you're supposed to save. Dunno how one would do it, but it seems that were that being made for an actual game, it would somehow have to be more differentiated from the slime covered rocks that pervade the rest of the screen.

Nothing against your own skills though, I only just realized how hard it must've been for game designers back then.
By the time I had begun to put the finishing touches on the screen, I began to notice that as well.  It could probably be made to stand out more, but it's probably worth mentioning that in true old-school AGI games, a lot of the items you had to pick up weren't even visible at all on the screen, let alone being there but just hard to see.  It was always imperative to "Look" thoroughly around every screen or you could easily miss stuff.

And yes, Akril, that's right.  The tree is on the right edge of the screen, partially hidden behind a small pile of rocks.  In my version of the screen there is a small patch of dark blue which makes up part of the shadow of an overhanging ledge just above the top of the tree, if that helps pinpoint it for you.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:41 am
by Lambonius
For all the SQ4 buffs.  :)

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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:23 am
by eriqchang
You know.. these are really works of art. Really really beautifully done. You are drawing these from scratch? I'm impressed. Totally.

My personal requests - screens from King's Quest 5 or an SCI game like Conquests of Camelot! (I know this wasn't VGA but it would be cool to see one of the Camelot screens in AGI!)

You are very talented. Keep up the good work!

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:18 pm
by MusicallyInspired
SQ4 = WIN!

Eriq, you can see a couple renditions I did of Crispin's house in this thread.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:40 pm
by eriqchang
also very good! What a cool idea - AGI graphics have that certain charm don't they? Crispin's house is a good one. It really does look like the screen just popped out of an old Sierra AGI King's Quest game. ;)

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:30 pm
by Lambonius
Yeah, MusicallyInspired's KQ5 pic is what got me into doing these.  I love the old AGI graphics; they do have a certain charm!  :)  I find myself very interested in just how far one can stretch those 16 colors--the way colors look different next to other colors, having to make informed choices to reflect certain hues that are only possible in VGA.  It really is an exercise in color theory, I think.  I'm specifically interested in hitting that balance between the cartoony, simplistic look of the old Sierra AGI games and the use of more intricate optical color blending (you aren't able to actually blend colors like you would in a hand-painted VGA screen, but you can create the illusion of more than 16 hues by putting the right colors next to each other in the right places in a drawing--for example, the dark gray can serve as a dark value for pretty much any color on the palette, depending on how you arrange it on the screen.)

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:45 pm
by Blackthorne519
I really do love these screens.  This is the kind of fun stuff that we used to see in the "old days".  I'm liking the renaissance this is bringing about.

The next step?  Making an AGI mini game!

Bt

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:02 pm
by MusicallyInspired
Heh, we should start a small little group project of like a 1 or 2 room AGI game with a simple story.

Just because.