Here's an e-mail from ecco (Steven) that he writes I can share with you.
Contains a bit more information about his graphics, among other things.
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Hi Norbert,
I've had a look through all the links you sent me in your email. Thanks
again.
As to the level mods I made, there is only one missing. I created one of
the snes level mods, that is, using Roomshaker to make Pop1 levels as per
the snes layouts. I noticed there are two already in the archive. I don't
know if one of those is mine or if it got lost somewhere. Not sure how I
will find out, perhaps if it can be compared with the version I still have
on my harddrive. I see the last time I edited that file, according to my
computer, was 27/03/2004 at 8.10pm, if that's of any help.
I seem to also have a few other sets at home by the equally imaginative
names as spf_levels06, 07, 11 and 15, plus 'steven_newlevels1-4'. I expect
all these sets are unfinished to a greater or lesser extent, as otherwise I
would have uploaded them years ago along with the others. Some may only
have one level changed if that.
Ps, maybe you could add an "ecco_" prefix to the existing levels I have. I
was never into creating proper names for my levels.
Concerning the brown spf graphics, it was a combination. Some of the bits
were screenshots from the snes version (hanging skeletons maybe). Other
elements I created myself from scratch (ie the engravings in the walls), or
used the snes as a template and painted over them. The thread you mentioned
is correct in that they are only properly useful with my Levels_08. This
was way before the snes editor existed, at least in my world, and I was
trying to find ways of maximising the graphics variation. I was doing a lot
of experimenting with Poirot's PR tool and slowly but surely worked out
which graphics components could be trimmed or expanded beyond their default
size etc., without making it crash. Some elements like the door from what I
remember, could be enlarged massively beyond the mimimum size necessary for
the program to register as a door, so I used one graphic for the door, and
the other for a competely different graphic. As a result of this, I could
make a pop1 levelset far more interesting visually (although with some
glitches, but I was prepared to live with those for the added benefits they
brought), but these graphics were near useless to anyone but myself, unless
they uncompiled it all and went through all the elements again. I've no
idea if anyone ever did that though.
As to my snes level set I previewed, I always wanted to finish it. It was
about 1/3 complete. I always did take an extrememly long time creating
levels though, making sure they were fun, plausible (with respect to
physics and architecture, ie I didn't like columns and platforms just
suspended in mid air), idiot proof, not frustrating, in the nature of the
originals, and so on. The sort of levels I would like to play myself
With the free time I have these days, it would take me about 12-18 months
minimum to finish them. I have considered releasing what I do have anyway,
but would much prefer to make it a complete set and be done with it once
and for all.
Hope all that was of some help!
PS feel free to copy and paste any of the above into a forum post if you
think anyone would like to know.
Thanks,
Steven
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