As there were some gfx here and there spread out over the forum threads and news posts. And the demand for screens and update information we decided to open a thread dedicated to our project.

Ok time for some info......

- Moon over Arba Minch was initially an MSXdev'06 entry but exploded into a huge game.
- The game is mainly programmed in C. Assembly is used where needed (eg VRAM manipulation, music replayer, collision detection)
- 13 different levels each with its specific gameplay elements.
- Multiple (sub) bosses.
- We hope to release late 2009 or early 2010.


Time for some screens:






And don't forget the music sample here.


Feel free to ask.........

That screen down-left somehow reminds me of the screenshot of the HAL listing in an ancient MCM..

Apart from that trivia: gfx look very good! All original?

Pretty good gfx!

Wow!!! These gfx are inspired in La Mulana, the best graphic game for inspire. I think you are created one of the 10 best scenario games in the story of msx. Congratulations!

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Apart from that trivia: gfx look very good! All original?

Yes. That is the idea. But as being very new to SCREEN2 mode I have made a very large inspiration library. In the library I have collected all kinds of things that I study (pixel usage, colors, technique, compositions, etc). So it could be that some things look familiar. But I try to be original...........

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Wow!!! These gfx are inspired in La Mulana, the best graphic game for inspire.

Indeed la-Mulana IS the best MSX1 game (although not running on MSX) gfx wise. That game drove me crazy with inspiration. Such good gfx and techniques. The game indeed has a Mulana flavour. We just try to give it a personal spin though..........

Ooh... Forgot to mention the team:

Arturo (ARTRAG) Ragozini
John (Demonseed) Hassink
Richard (Huey) Cornelisse

Looks impressive indeed! Good to see that you're taking your time as well.

And the last shot shows a very recognisable debugging technique. To me anyway.

Really nice looking pics!. The game is growing quality everyday, congrats!

Hehe, indeed the color stripes are a well-known speed meter tool

About speed, being mostly an action arcade game (Monster Hunter was and action RPG and BeTiled a puzzle one), are you finding limitations due the use of C?.

Nice music sample. Cheers to the gfx artist. Seems a really good project, looking to see this thingy released! Again, neat work, keep it up!

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He he, indeed the colour stripes are a well-known speed meter tool

Yes. I even didn't notice them being there

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About speed, being mostly an action arcade game (Monster Hunter was and action RPG and BeTiled a puzzle one), are you finding limitations due the use of C?.

To be honest, I have no real ASM experience. But I think that C can be close to pure ASM speed.
At the moment we are not facing any real speed issue. It's not Aleste with very very much enemies on screen. But if you look at Maze of Galious, Vampire Killer, Usas or The Goonies. Then we do have more action on screen without problems.

Looks very good! But could look even better if MSX2 specs would be used. I Think the reason it looks this good is the excellent usage of black pixels and shadows. Keep up the good work

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Looks very good! But could look even better if MSX2 specs would be used. I Think the reason it looks this good is the excellent usage of black pixels and shadows. Keep up the good work

And it would look even better if PS3 specs were used, but it is not the case.

Excellent work, guys! Graphics look impressive and sound is great too.

Just one question: does the use C language reduce development time when compared to assembler for MSX games? I'm not so sure, and that's why I am asking it. Considering the type of game, assembler won't be required except for some little tricks and speed up the most time-critical routines.

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Looks very good! But could look even better if MSX2 specs would be used. I Think the reason it looks this good is the excellent usage of black pixels and shadows. Keep up the good work

Thanks. We have done some experiments using SCREEN5 and we have done some investigation on GFX9000. But we came to the conclusion that we could not reproduce the same features as in SCREEN2. SCREEN4 would be the only option but then we only have the 8 sprites on a line as an added feature. The color palette is already adapted when running on an MSX2 (or higher). So it's not an option for us anymore.

Anyway pixeling in SCREEN2 gives me an nice retro feeling. Especially the default MSX1 colours....

I do want to make some GFX9000 game in the future. But that is for later (I hope). We have plenty of good ideas we would like to realize. But for now we focus on one main project. Only Demonseed is working on multiple bigger projects at the moment (I'm clueless how he finds the time and inspiration for it ).

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Just one question: does the use C language reduce development time when compared to assembler for MSX games? I'm not so sure, and that's why I am asking it. Considering the type of game, assembler won't be required except for some little tricks and speed up the most time-critical routines.

It does for me. I do not understand ASM very well. So for me C is the only option.
But in general I think it makes it a lot easier to work on the code with multiple persons.
Our game-engine is constructed out of several parts that each perform a task. Sometimes we leave the code alone for some weeks/months. Then the C makes it easier to read and pick it up again.......

Perhaps Arturo can tell more about it. He's the real coder. I main contibution is to introduce bugs (in code and data ).

And could you provide us more details about the game storyboard?