Contra Hard Corps Color HACK

[LinkueiBR]

Yesterday i decided to finally finish this hack that i TRY to improve ALL the color palettes of this fantastic game.
This game is a pain to try to improve since they use a LOT of shared palettes and in some backgrounds, the developers did a very poor use of colors, like in Castlevania Bloodlines.

Please, give me feedback!

ORIGINAL=/=HACK:

[Bibin]

In general I think these look pretty good, but scene #4 shown I think is a little too liberal. The green used for dark shading on the trees gave the woods backdrop a general "green light" feeling without being explicit. With it just being shades of brown I think that characteristic has been lost.

[Kamahl]

Not a fan of the new portraits. Love everything else. Bibin also makes a good point, but I love the creepy look of the new forest.

[midnightrider]

I hope this and Hyperstone Heist get the same voice decongestion as the Street Fighter games some day, but to be honest, the original coloring never bothered me. That said, I don't think I've run into the scenes in the 5th and 8th sets of images there.

[maxi]

I liked all except the screen with the car and the ocean stage, because everything is darker not in a good way, and the metal of the boat was fine reflecting the ocean's color. The shades you put there don't make sense, since the ocean also reflects light.

[LinkueiBR]

I liked all except the screen with the car and the ocean stage, because everything is darker not in a good way, and the metal of the boat was fine reflecting the ocean's color. The shades you put there don't make sense, since the ocean also reflects light.

The Car and the Boat use the same color palette of the characters

[retrospiel]

AWESOME to see someone tackling this game.


Perfect!


Hm, I like the bright red color for the explosions better in the original. Sky is too dark, maybe try for a blood red sky. And the blue color in the original car looked better, try a brighter shade of metallic grey or metallic blue.


Perfect!


Perfect!


The original blue fence was better, everything else is better in your edit!


I have no opinion here. Either looks fine.


The original definitely was better.


The sky and water in your edit are great, but the boat is not perfect yet....
AND: the original explosions looked MUCH better with the bright red color.


Hm, the new colors for the floor are really nice! Not sure about the hills, maybe play around a bit with different brown-ish shades ? - The sky was already perfect in the original.


Perfect!



My one recommendation is to check out Rocket Knight Adventures as a reference as that is the color style this game would have deserved from Konami.

[LinkueiBR]

Thanks for the feedback, retrospiel!!!
Unfortunately all the vehicles, explosions, items, bullets, some enemies and etc... uses the same Player Color Palette (16 colors) and because of this, changes enhance some shades and worsens others. I will try optimize this palette and the others palette background that you don't liked!

[swingone]

Awesome to see the color improvements on a limited selection of colors. As i was goin through the diferences i noticed that the overscan border area also changed color. It was you changed that or is the system that picks up that? If it was you who changed the color of that, could you make the boarders all black? i ask this because of the crt users, myself included, that have to deal with the geometry settings to hide that crap. Also if its possible to change that on any game? i wouldnt mind to sit down and fix it if its simply to do. Keep the great work!

[LinkueiBR]

Awesome to see the color improvements on a limited selection of colors. As i was goin through the diferences i noticed that the overscan border area also changed color. It was you changed that or is the system that picks up that? If it was you who changed the color of that, could you make the boarders all black? i ask this because of the crt users, myself included, that have to deal with the geometry settings to hide that crap. Also if its possible to change that on any game? i wouldnt mind to sit down and fix it if its simply to do. Keep the great work!

The border color always is the first color of the Background palette and Konami was too lazy that put bright colors values for the background color even if the palette use a black color (colorvalue=0000)

[maxxfarras]

LinkueiBR,

thanks, thanks a lot for reconsider to pick contra hard corps for a color hack! Overall all is looking great with your modifications so far! The graphics look cleaner now and I love it. Keep up the great work! Honestly, never liked me many of the color choices that konami did for this game.

By the way, do you still working with your kid chamaleon color hack? Your previews modifications looked great.
And Kid chamaleon deserve it because it is a pretty fun game

[LinkueiBR]

LinkueiBR,

thanks, thanks a lot for reconsider to pick contra hard corps for a color hack! Overall all is looking great with your modifications so far! The graphics look cleaner now and I love it. Keep up the great work! Honestly, never liked me many of the color choices that konami did for this game.

By the way, do you still working with your kid chamaleon color hack? Your previews modifications looked great.
And Kid chamaleon deserve it because it is a pretty fun game

Yes, i still working on Kid Chameleon and on BT and DD. I don't release these 2 hacks yet because mainly because i have to test ALL the modified palettes of the KID CHAMELEON on the Mega Drive (some colors looks different on real hardware than what is showed on a emulator) and mainly because i think that can look better.

Some Screenshots:

[retrospiel]

^ Ooooooh! That looks really beautiful!



PS: I initially mixed these four screenshots up when posting. Here's the correct feedback for these:



I have no opinion here. Either looks fine.


The original definitely was better.

Unfortunately all the vehicles, explosions, items, bullets, some enemies and etc... uses the same Player Color Palette (16 colors) and because of this, changes enhance some shades and worsens others. I will try optimize this palette and the others palette background that you don't liked!

Hm, yeah the brighter original pastel colors for this palette actually looked quite nice. It's mostly the backgrounds that needed a color hack, not necessarily the sprites.



Oh, and:

Hm, the new colors for the floor are really nice! Not sure about the hills, maybe play around a bit with different brown-ish shades ? - The sky was already perfect in the original. YOURS IS BETTER! (Just missing the brighter sun from the original) ....and the brightest orange was better in the original

[Pyron]

did you edit every stage in the game?
like the altrnate routes and endings screens?

[LinkueiBR]

did you edit every stage in the game?
like the altrnate routes and endings screens?

Yep