Why creating this in Apple II was a mistake

[Dark Wombat]

The choice to write this on Apple was a mistake in my opinion. I could have told you that and we are beginning to see the reaction on these forums. There are almost no games on Steam that look like this. Apple II suffered from color bleeding and it has always looked terrible. No one on the official Nox forums will tell you this because...well if you go there and sign up you are obviously already a fan.

I am an Ultima collector and have just about everything. I understand that a lot of the original Ultima games were created on an Apple. I love retro games and have a Commodore system with all the trimmings and a Commodore monitor. I also own an Atari 800 with everything. It is also nice that this game makes use of original Apple diskettes and I assume you can make them into a physical form..

But why would you?

The issue here is this...Commodore computers have a massive following even today. With things like the Ultimate 64. Apple II just does not have the following that the C64 has even in emulation form.

Secondly, as mentioned above the Apple II has bad color bleeding. That might not be the technical name, but I have always felt it just looks bad. Added to that is the fact that this games looks to be designed with a lot of details. Way more than typical Ultima games and with a serif font to boot! Its a complete mess.

I respect the heck out of the technical achievement here but was it ever discussed to create this in C64 or PC to provide a much cleaner looking game?

In all I think this was clearly a missed opportunity. Of course you will please the hardcore Apple fans, but I think you would have been much more successful going the PC or C64 route.

I wish you the best of luck!

[Qoojo]

Seeing this on sale, I was actually coming here to find out if there was a way to reduce blurring because i am not sure my old eyes can deal with it.

[Nox Ffred Dragon]

Автор сообщения: Qoojo

Seeing this on sale, I was actually coming here to find out if there was a way to reduce blurring because i am not sure my old eyes can deal with it.

Thanks for your interest in Nox Archaist!

You are welcome to buy the game, try out the tips below, and request a refund via Steam if it doesn't work out for you.

For background, the CRT effect (/aka color bleed) is part of the game's design. Nox Archaist was developed on a real Apple II computer and it runs on Steam within an Apple II emulator.

You can reduce the effect with the following key sequence:

Ctrl+Shift+I immediately followed by the number 0.
(note: the character to press after Shift is "eye", not 'one" or "el")


There is also an alternate font available, which some people have found easier to read. You can switch between them in the Game Settings menu (press TAB twice, and then 6, arrow down to Toggle Font and press enter).

The press ESC to exit the menu, press Q to save the game, then close the game's application window and launch it again from Steam.


There are some 3rd party Apple II emulators which provide options to render the graphics in ways that are not authentic but are less "blurry". This requires copying the Nox Archaist HDV file from your steam folder and launching it in a different Apple II emulator.

If that is something you are interested in, we're happy to help, just jump on our Discord Server and post in #technical-help.

https://discord.gg/kwcFxVp

[Qoojo]

Thank you. Bought it on gog, since it's drm free there :)

[Captain Electric]

I always thought I'd had it bad growing up playing Ultima III and onward on my old IBM Compaq with bulky 3-color monitor connected, but now I'm not so sure haha. Looks like Apple had more colors but at least I had a sharp display

I feel you on the nostalgia though, now I buy and play those old games on GOG and the retro colors are quite a comfort.

No offense intended btw, your game was still an insta-buy and for all the words that have been spilled in this thread I bet my eyes will need about five minutes to adjust to the aesthetics lol

[mwirkk]

Looking forward to the C64 port and expansions. :)

[Nox Ffred Dragon]

Автор сообщения: Captain Electric

I always thought I'd had it bad growing up playing Ultima III and onward on my old IBM Compaq with bulky 3-color monitor connected, but now I'm not so sure haha. Looks like Apple had more colors but at least I had a sharp display :D:

I feel you on the nostalgia though, now I buy and play those old games on GOG and the retro colors are quite a comfort.

No offense intended btw, your game was still an insta-buy and for all the words that have been spilled in this thread I bet my eyes will need about five minutes to adjust to the aesthetics lol

Thanks for your support! I realize we all were highly influence by the 8-bit computer we grew up with. Glad to hear you are enjoying Nox Archaist and it's Apple II characteristics even though that isn't what you were used to. Thanks for giving it a try!

[Guy]

Do the fonts really have to be pink green and white? cant they be just white?

[Nox Ffred Dragon]

Автор сообщения: Guy

Do the fonts really have to be pink green and white? cant they be just white?

That is the color bleed effect visible on the Apple II with a CRT monitor. However, some Apple II emulators render the font without the color bleed.

Here is an example using the 3rd party emulator AppleWIN.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jz9nr9vrbc4hxo6/Screenshot%202022-08-22%20205955.png?dl=0


If you would like to play Nox Archaist in AppleWIN, here is a download link:

https://github.com/AppleWin/AppleWin

This is a link to a walk through video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz1IkSXK0tQ&t=1s

[Stretch]

Okay so I don't think anything can be done about the colours in the fonts (the colours really mess with word recognition, regardless of the font) but if you use AppleWin you can get rid of the the damned blurriness. Hopefully I'll be able to get on with the game now, at least.
I really hope whatever you guys do next is going to be more accessible.

[Cadwalader]

Little late to the party ... I have less than 10 mins played on this (I kept the game, just to own it and support the developers) I just can't live with the font and the color bleed. I really, really love the idea of a retro RPG ... I hope we'll see something like this for the C64. Sign me up when that's considered!

[GnomeSlayer]

Автор сообщения: Cadwalader

Little late to the party ... I have less than 10 mins played on this (I kept the game, just to own it and support the developers) I just can't live with the font and the color bleed. I really, really love the idea of a retro RPG ... I hope we'll see something like this for the C64. Sign me up when that's considered!

This. I would love to get the game.

[Rik]

Автор сообщения: GnomeSlayer

Автор сообщения: Cadwalader

Little late to the party ... I have less than 10 mins played on this (I kept the game, just to own it and support the developers) I just can't live with the font and the color bleed. I really, really love the idea of a retro RPG ... I hope we'll see something like this for the C64. Sign me up when that's considered!

This. I would love to get the game.

Check out the new pinned post about Nox Companion. I wrote a hack on the emulation layer to remove the text bleed. Normal text will be sharp when you run the game under Nox Companion and select the video mode “Text Optimized”.

[Cadwalader]

Автор сообщения: Rik

Check out the new pinned post about Nox Companion. I wrote a hack on the emulation layer to remove the text bleed. Normal text will be sharp when you run the game under Nox Companion and select the video mode “Text Optimized”.

WOW!!!! THANK YOU!!! I can now play the game! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
This is truly awesome!

[Nox Ffred Dragon]

Автор сообщения: Cadwalader

Автор сообщения: Rik

Check out the new pinned post about Nox Companion. I wrote a hack on the emulation layer to remove the text bleed. Normal text will be sharp when you run the game under Nox Companion and select the video mode “Text Optimized”.

WOW!!!! THANK YOU!!! I can now play the game! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
This is truly awesome!

Glad to hear that, thanks for sharing!

[Adoru]

Well, a mistake is to skip an amazing game because of its platform.
I can understand you, though. In fact, I resisted temptation to buy this game for two years, for the same reason: unreadable texts because of colour bleeding. Also, I've never played an Apple II game before, as I wasn't around in days of its glory, and none of the games I wanted to play later was Apple II exclusive, so I always preferred a version for another (emulated) platform. However, recently I found out that some Apple II emulators have this "text optimised" mode, LinApple (the only Apple II emulator for Linux?) included. So I bought both original game and add-on from official site and must tell that the game is worth every word of praise it gets.