PANG PLUS
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Updated by SyX and RedAngel

Here is what SyX wrote on CPC Wiki in march 2024, the 12th :

"For me, the motivation to try to fix this game, it was that the most iconic moment in the game, the first level with mount Fuji and the music were wrong.

The songs are now in the correct order, the original song order in the cartridge was so wrong at stupid levels, for example, the intro used the outro song, some levels used the time is ending theme, ... Music player and data is not touched at all, that means the London theme is not correct, it looks that music was not finished at all. But originally this project was a simply patch to restore the game in the original cartridge size.

Because the lack of space in the original cart and the bad compressor used, the original game lacked of Mount Fuji (it was Kenya, the Kilimanjaro mountain); Australia (it was Keyrin and it was another iconic screen from the arcade) and Paris (it was Barcelona). Before RedAngel, I simply ripped and converted those levels from the c64 version. Then I decrunched the backgrounds and patched the game to use ZX0, making possible to have all the backgrounds in the original cartridge size.

After RedAngel offered his help for the graphic side, everything changed. He used the arcade as reference, that means that he redrew every background and chose better palettes by taking care that the dusk and night palettes were so visible as day ones; because in the original game, those palettes were filled with black colour, making really hard to discern the backgrounds in those moments. He always gave priority to more details in the background even if he eliminated some clouds by doing that.

Levels like London was cut in the upper side of the screen, because the compressor was not so good and they need not only to cut levels, even reduce the height of the graphics for putting everything in 128 KBs. Those limitations were eliminated after using the new compressor.

The original game split the 2x16 colours palettes (16 for background + 15 for sprites) in 4x8 colours palettes. First background palette was for the backgrounds and need to be changed for the three moments of the day; the second palette was used for animals, player weapons, platforms, ... The two sprites palettes the first one was used for the balls; and the second one for the two players, and this palette was the same than the second background palette.

RedAngel worked really hard and he was able to use 8 colours + black from the platform palettes for the backgrounds. And in the same way for the balls using 8 colours + white from player sprites. The animals palette and the players palettes are not the same anymore.

He redraw the balls and now are more faithful to the arcade. In the same way, he retouched players, animals, platforms, ...

There is a few bug fixes (I don't remember everyone) and now in the map screen (that RedAngel change the palette to a much better one) you can choose to start in any level, making easier to see the wonderful work that RedAngel made (Maya looks now quasi photographic, even if it is only a palette change).

There is a few things that I was unable to change, for example, the ball collisions. The game engine is testing full cpc hardware sprites, not graphics, then the two small ball sizes use the same number of hardware sprites, 1, even if the small ball is only 8x8 pixels. In the same way, the bigger balls have a lot of empty space in the right hardware sprites. Fixing that, it means to change all the collision system in the engine.

The same would happen with all the possible improvements in the playability; for example, changing the physics to be more like the arcade. Or adding bonus under the bricks. Or adding the extra live bonus; funny thing, the immunity bonus has two frames animation, one is the extra life graphics.

It is possible to add different backgrounds for day, dusk and night; but we vote for not doing that change, because that it would increase the cartridge size and we wanted to show that the game only need more love. Music could be redone perfectly, but originally this was a simply patch and I never though in bringing a musician for the task."

Concerning the non proportional picture of the explorer in the attract mode, SyX wrote this:

"Yes, it is so ugly, because they didn't care about the aspect ratio, making that picture really awful.

We don't fixed that particular graphics, because that graphic is packed in a block with the Pang Logo, the two intermission screens (the ones tat are printed using a zoom) and this picture with the mouth cut in black. The mouth animation is in another block. Then every time one of those pictures is need, the game decrunch first the big block with everything in a 16 KBs buffer and then it is copied to another buffer.

When the picture that the game requires is the intro one, then the first buffer is rewritten with the mouth animations, because they haven't enough memory for having both (you can see how the graphics tears while is moving in the screen, because they are not using a double buffer for making this silly lazy code for drawing it).

It means that for fixing that I need to split that big block in the components. One for the logo, other for the intermission screens and other for the intro and the mouth animation. That it would be logical and faster, because instead of decrunching 16 KBs every time those things are need, only would decrunch the necessary pictures. 

But the problem with this, it is that I would need to fix a few things in the game code. And I am really scared because every time that I touch something in the code, a lot of things get broken. Imagine the state of the game code, if the graphics were made in that crazy rush. 

That is the reason because the ending continue being the same ugly shit, because I would need to code a new ending... and if I am touching so much code, why then I don't fix the collision problem and the bonus and..."
