how to draw vintage game picture style with modern tools?

Leisure Suit Harry · Mon 16/05/2011 12:52:16

Hi folks, I want to create a game that ressembles the old Sierra games (LSL3, SQ3) --> 16 colors EGA plus dithering effect.
Has anyone got any suggestions for me how to produce such pictures "easily".

Maybe there is a tool within some program where I can enable such an "EGA mode..."
Or maybe, just maybe, there's a program that can convert digital photos down to 320x200 with only 16 colors.

I know this may be a stupid question, but a graphically non-talented guy simply had to ask it...

Khris · Mon 16/05/2011 14:10:00

Weeee, the graphics program question in technical!

Leisure Suit Harry · Mon 16/05/2011 17:15:48

Quote from: Khris on Mon 16/05/2011 14:10:00
Weeee, the graphics program question in technical!

Well, the drawing is what I tend to begin with --> beginners question. A hint where this question suits better will be very much appreciated :-)

Matti · Mon 16/05/2011 17:36:27

Well, the beginners TECHNICAL board is about the editor and scripting questions juts like it says :

I guess adventure related talk and chat or general discussion would fit better, but this thread will probably be moved anyway..

The most fitting sticky would be this one: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=21021.0

Scavenger · Mon 16/05/2011 17:54:31

(I know this is in the wrong forum, but I have the answer

)
Well, I know for a fact you can make EGA Sierra graphics with SCI Companion:
http://www.mtnphil.com/Games/SCIComp.html
Like, actual SCI graphics, not an imitation.

Khris · Mon 16/05/2011 18:21:33

True, but actual SCI graphics aren't Bitmaps but sets of instructions. I'm pretty sure that's not what LSH is looking for.

Leisure Suit Harry:
There's no shortcut to producing good looking Sierra-style backgrounds; any halfway decent graphics program (photoshop, paint shop pro, the gimp) has the ability to reduce the colors to 16 or some other arbitrary number.
The problem is remapping that to the EGA color scheme.
I googled this and found a commercial solution, the result however is not exactly Sierra like:

That's a painting and a photo, remapped to 16 colors EGA. It's possible to adjust a few parameters but the general result will always look similar.
You'll have to bite the bullet and do what we all do: learn to draw backgrounds.

Leisure Suit Harry · Tue 17/05/2011 18:33:15

Quote from: Khris on Mon 16/05/2011 18:21:33
You'll have to bite the bullet and do what we all do: learn to draw backgrounds.

I feared so. Last night I was dreaming of a "SIERRAfy"-button in "paint" - it did not come true, obviously...

Atelier · Tue 17/05/2011 19:14:58

Quote from: Leisure Suit Harry on Tue 17/05/2011 18:33:15
Last night I was dreaming of a "SIERRAfy"-button in "paint" - it did not come true, obviously...

Have you tried lucid dreaming? lol