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HEXdidnt — Aliens Vs Predator - The Arcade Game, Intro

#aliensvspredator #arcadegames #samcoupe #mockupdesign #16colour #mockuppixelart #introduction
Published: 2021-05-08 17:38:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 1534; Favourites: 2; Downloads: 0
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Description I found that a tiny snippet of my very old, very crappy ZX Spectrum graphic artwork had found its way onto the website Games That Weren't  late last year, courtesy of Habi Hablóg  circa mid-2015. One screen each from my (probably impossible) attempt to correct Ocean's terrible Spectrum conversion of Dragon Ninja, and the original Spectrum version of my Ocean-style adaptation of the very first Dark Horse Aliens Vs Predator comic book series.

This got me scouring my SAM Coupé disks, both for the SAM demo I'd put together and for any of the Spectrum stuff which I ported over as MODE 1 SCREEN$ before reworking them (very poorly!) for MODE 4.

Made specifically for the SAM - with its extra memory - was this introductory sequence, taken from the opening pages of Issue 1 of the comic. It recounts the arrival of the Predators' egg distribution machine and the destruction of their ship by Dr. Revna, which kicks off the main story, in which unsupervised trainee Predators run rampant, little knowing that a Xenomorph queen has hatched on Ryushi, so they're in for much more trouble than they were expecting.

I skipped a lot of stuff from the story's intro - Dr. Revna finding the craft, the Sheldon family discovering their lethargic Rhynth and the dead facehuggers out on their pastures and, of course, the attack on the Sheldon homestead... but I'm still reasonably proud of the comic-style artwork... even if I did cut, flip and paste the Predators running away from their exploding ship. Not sure now if I'd ever intended to fill in those blanks... Probably not, knowing early 1990s me.

Obviously the fades here have been accomplished via Photoshop - the SAM wouldn't have been able to do it quite the same way...

Also, interesting fact: the AvP comic was my first encounter with the word 'aestivating' (spending a hot or dry period in a prolonged state of torpor or dormancy). Who says comics can't be educational?
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