24-Jul-2020, 3:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-Aug-2020, 2:43 AM by JDGP030302.)
It is not a secret that Chip's Challenge 2 was released with very little modifications to how it was originally designed, Steam integration notwithstanding. I spotted some inconsistencies in the graphics or simply some interesting tidbits. I have compiled them here. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am not mocking the graphics of the game, i like the new style, it is just that some goofs (If not all) could take less than a week to fix, not 15 years.
Centipede
Why they changed the paramecium of the original? Altough i liked that one, i am not irritated (or anoyed) by the change, it would be a mere confusion for me if it not were for the obvious goof for one of the East facing sprites lacking eyes. I miss the paramecium's wacky up and down movement.
Left: Original sprite
Center: How it should look.
Right: Equivalent west facing sprite, from wich i took the eyes.
Explosions
One of the biggest graphical letdowns of this game are the explosions: In Lynx they were 2x2 tiles (24x24 pixels) with 6 frames, but here they are a single tile (32x32 pixels) with 4 frames! Pathetic, explosions deserve respect! 6 entire rows dedicated to these graphics would have been better (2 per kind).
Top row: CC2
Bottom row: Lynx
Graphics unscaled here, Chip for comparison. Note that CC2 does not have an equivalent to Chip's "derez" (gray explosion) since it uses the regular explosion for that, also the water splash is just a recoloring of the other explosion and a random purple pixel in its first frame.
Boots
Comparision to MS:
Flippers: Basically is the same just with a better shading and more colors.
Fire B.: Rather different (the new hiking boots are a recolor of the new design)
Ice: The shape is basically the same, but they are now cleats like in Lynx and not skates (makes sense since they would allow for easier movements in real life).
F. Floors: The lower part looks identical in both games excluding shading. In game, they are now magnet shoes and not suction shoes.
Ice
It is good that the ice here is not a solid cyan color but a more pleasent blue. As a remark, i would have preferred that the ice corners to be a composite sprite like the tracks:
Top row: My "composite" solution
Middle row: How they would look with the composite way
Bottom row: How the corners look in the actual game. Notice the minor inconsistencies in most tiles with the exception of the _| (SE) corner wich look like they rotated the ice patch!
Teeth
In Lynx, the teeths had a tongue (graphic here upscaled). Just a remark, l like the new design's sharp, well teeth.
.
However, i dislike the animation because it seems to show the teeth munching twice per move, when it should be only one. Plus, even if they were the same, why not add a separate space for an up or down facing sprite (probably a north facing sprite would have looked awkward with the new design, but still)? The new east and west facing sprites are an improvement from Lynx, but they have they still have the same number of frames (3).
Tank
The new design for the tanks and the glider are pretty good, detailed and now with a simple 2 frames animation! However, i noticed that there is a small detail missing on one of the frames of the yellow tank:
Left: Sprite with missing detail
Right: How it should look
Also, for some reason the tanks when facing east are one pixel up compared to the other sprites
Walker
I like the new more robotic design, but it happens that the shading is inconsistent, easier to note with the side moving sprites wich turns abruptly to their "neutral sprite". There is a mockup, however, notice that this is temporary and i plan to replace it:
Original - Mockup
Bowling Ball
This one is well shaded. However, it shakes horizontally when moving, wich can be jarring (specially when moving to the east or west):
Logic
One of the biggest additions to the games are the logic and wire tiles. However, i think that having one sprite for each direction for these is a rather ugly waste of space, until i noticed that it was to conserve the shading of the floor under it. However, the tiles happen to lack a single pixel detail in the top right corner compared to the regular floor:
Chips
In this game the chips are marked with the name of the game, said marking are also the only difference between the spritesheet of the CC1 re release and CC2 (the exclusive elements of the former are even in the last). That also means that the label of the toggle chip and chip + were changed even if the items are unused!
Playable characters
Compared to the other graphics, Chip or melinda don't have a lot of shading, but that is not a problem. However,
a big downgrade from Lynx is that the characters don't have sprites for walking while pushing, they just kind of slide! Horrible! There are some mockups for how i think those graphics should look, notice that i also gave the shoes in the background a slightly different color:
Notice that i made Melinda's arms one pixel longer and fixed some weird spots in her side facing sprites. On my ideal version of the game, the old sprites are used in situations that in MS triggers the "oof" clip. Also, likely due to sloppy copy and paste, Chip's hair have a weird rectangle sticking out of his hair:
Original - Fix
Blocks
Rather jarringly, blocks jitters while being pushed, why?. Also, the ice block is a recolor of the dirt one with a little more detail (not necessarily bad):
Things thay may need more animation frames:
Fire boxes, the exit, fire, water, teeths, teleports (?), bowling ball, transmogrifier(?), turtles.
Animations that are too fast:
Fire boxes, ant, centipede, teeths, force floors (the random one is dizziness inducing!), Chip and Melinda (walking).
Disclaimer: I am not mocking the graphics of the game, i like the new style, it is just that some goofs (If not all) could take less than a week to fix, not 15 years.
Centipede
Why they changed the paramecium of the original? Altough i liked that one, i am not irritated (or anoyed) by the change, it would be a mere confusion for me if it not were for the obvious goof for one of the East facing sprites lacking eyes. I miss the paramecium's wacky up and down movement.
Left: Original sprite
Center: How it should look.
Right: Equivalent west facing sprite, from wich i took the eyes.
Explosions
One of the biggest graphical letdowns of this game are the explosions: In Lynx they were 2x2 tiles (24x24 pixels) with 6 frames, but here they are a single tile (32x32 pixels) with 4 frames! Pathetic, explosions deserve respect! 6 entire rows dedicated to these graphics would have been better (2 per kind).
Top row: CC2
Bottom row: Lynx
Graphics unscaled here, Chip for comparison. Note that CC2 does not have an equivalent to Chip's "derez" (gray explosion) since it uses the regular explosion for that, also the water splash is just a recoloring of the other explosion and a random purple pixel in its first frame.
Boots
Comparision to MS:
Flippers: Basically is the same just with a better shading and more colors.
Fire B.: Rather different (the new hiking boots are a recolor of the new design)
Ice: The shape is basically the same, but they are now cleats like in Lynx and not skates (makes sense since they would allow for easier movements in real life).
F. Floors: The lower part looks identical in both games excluding shading. In game, they are now magnet shoes and not suction shoes.
Ice
It is good that the ice here is not a solid cyan color but a more pleasent blue. As a remark, i would have preferred that the ice corners to be a composite sprite like the tracks:
Top row: My "composite" solution
Middle row: How they would look with the composite way
Bottom row: How the corners look in the actual game. Notice the minor inconsistencies in most tiles with the exception of the _| (SE) corner wich look like they rotated the ice patch!
Teeth
In Lynx, the teeths had a tongue (graphic here upscaled). Just a remark, l like the new design's sharp, well teeth.
However, i dislike the animation because it seems to show the teeth munching twice per move, when it should be only one. Plus, even if they were the same, why not add a separate space for an up or down facing sprite (probably a north facing sprite would have looked awkward with the new design, but still)? The new east and west facing sprites are an improvement from Lynx, but they have they still have the same number of frames (3).
Tank
The new design for the tanks and the glider are pretty good, detailed and now with a simple 2 frames animation! However, i noticed that there is a small detail missing on one of the frames of the yellow tank:
Left: Sprite with missing detail
Right: How it should look
Also, for some reason the tanks when facing east are one pixel up compared to the other sprites
Walker
I like the new more robotic design, but it happens that the shading is inconsistent, easier to note with the side moving sprites wich turns abruptly to their "neutral sprite". There is a mockup, however, notice that this is temporary and i plan to replace it:
Original - Mockup
Bowling Ball
This one is well shaded. However, it shakes horizontally when moving, wich can be jarring (specially when moving to the east or west):
Logic
One of the biggest additions to the games are the logic and wire tiles. However, i think that having one sprite for each direction for these is a rather ugly waste of space, until i noticed that it was to conserve the shading of the floor under it. However, the tiles happen to lack a single pixel detail in the top right corner compared to the regular floor:
Chips
In this game the chips are marked with the name of the game, said marking are also the only difference between the spritesheet of the CC1 re release and CC2 (the exclusive elements of the former are even in the last). That also means that the label of the toggle chip and chip + were changed even if the items are unused!
Playable characters
Compared to the other graphics, Chip or melinda don't have a lot of shading, but that is not a problem. However,
a big downgrade from Lynx is that the characters don't have sprites for walking while pushing, they just kind of slide! Horrible! There are some mockups for how i think those graphics should look, notice that i also gave the shoes in the background a slightly different color:
Notice that i made Melinda's arms one pixel longer and fixed some weird spots in her side facing sprites. On my ideal version of the game, the old sprites are used in situations that in MS triggers the "oof" clip. Also, likely due to sloppy copy and paste, Chip's hair have a weird rectangle sticking out of his hair:
Original - Fix
Blocks
Rather jarringly, blocks jitters while being pushed, why?. Also, the ice block is a recolor of the dirt one with a little more detail (not necessarily bad):
Things thay may need more animation frames:
Fire boxes, the exit, fire, water, teeths, teleports (?), bowling ball, transmogrifier(?), turtles.
Animations that are too fast:
Fire boxes, ant, centipede, teeths, force floors (the random one is dizziness inducing!), Chip and Melinda (walking).
*---------------------------------------------------------------*
* The default music in Chip's Challenge 2 have some rather ugly errors that completely ruin them. Would you mind reading this?
* Also, have you heard of Crystal Mines II? It is more related to Chip's Challenge than you may think!
* The default music in Chip's Challenge 2 have some rather ugly errors that completely ruin them. Would you mind reading this?
* Also, have you heard of Crystal Mines II? It is more related to Chip's Challenge than you may think!
