Interface. Screen
Table of Contents:
Table of contents generated with markdown-toc.
This is the entire screen / viewport of the game that we replicate, as captured in 4K / 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution:
Both original game and our clone uses 16 colors (4-bit depth) for all images and graphic elements.
Implemented in: #62.
Screen resolutions:
- The original game runs in 320x200 resolution, but this isn't important, as we don't have access to PC, Amiga or Apple 2 with graphic card or CRT screen that supports such resolution
- The on-line emulator version runs in resolution of your screen and has in-game screen size scaled up to it
- All our screenshots are captured in 4K 3840x2160 resolution which is equivalent of 350x198 resolution from game's era
Conclusion: Most in-game pixels occupies area of 11x11 actual pixels in our screenshots:
Most because difference between original game's resolution (320x200 pixels) and DosBox equivalent (350x198) causes that pixels in certain lines have 10x11 or 11x10 dimensions. And there's pretty much nothing that we can do about this.
An example of this inconclusiveness is given in here. As you can see, to make things even worse, the same element, captured in two or more different screenshots may have more or less 10x11 or 11x10 lines or pixels or may have them in different positions.
Starting from this point we will be providing all dimensions and locations of on-screen elements using dual system: in-game pixels:
- gX, gY, gW, gH → in-game pixels location and dimensions
- aX, aY, aW, aH → absolute (4K resolution) location and dimensions
To ease calculations of location or dimensions of game's elements, you can use captured full screen 4K screenshot resized down eleven times to above mentioned 350x198 resolution:
In this image one actual pixel corresponds to one in-game pixel and both have area of 1x1.
The actual game screen doesn't fill entire viewport (in any resolution) and there are certain margins introduced:
| Margin | gX, gY | gW, gH | aX, aY | aW, aH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Left |
0, 0
|
18, 198
|
0, 0
|
193, 2160
|
| Bottom | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Right |
332, 0
|
18, 198
|
3649, 0
|
193, 2160
|
Definitions:
- gX, gY → in-game location; gW, gH → in-game dimensions;
- aX, aY → absolute (4K resolution) location; aW, aH → absolute (4K resolution) dimensions
The entire game's screen is divided into three sections:
| Screen element | gX, gY | gW, gH | aX, aY | aW, aH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notification Area |
18, 0
|
314, 9
|
193, 0
|
3456, 98
|
| Action Window |
18, 9
|
314, 98
|
193, 98
|
3456, 1080
|
| Control Panel |
18, 108
|
314, 90
|
193, 1189
|
3456, 971
|
Definitions:
- gX, gY → in-game location; gW, gH → in-game dimensions;
- aX, aY → absolute (4K resolution) location; aW, aH → absolute (4K resolution) dimensions
This part of the screen is controlled with mouse. It has so many functionalities that a separate article is written about it.
This part of the interface shows where player currently is or what it is doing. It may contain:
- Map
- Town, including building inners
- River, including Fishing
- Caves and Mines
- Empty wilderness
- Events like Indians, snakes and outlaws
- Food inventory and tools inventory
This part of the screen is operated mostly with keyboard with occasional mouse usage (in town, in tools and food inventory).
Implemented in: #93.
This screen element consists of a single text line, placed in the screen's top. Empty for the most of the time, showing some text on rare occasions:
This is the part of the game interface that is controlled neither by keyboard nor by mouse.
For details on colors, please see: Game. Time and Date → Notification Area.
Implemented in: #22, #51, #52, #129 and in #136.
We use our own Lost Pixelized Font with the following attributes:
-
font-size:36 pt -
font scale:
150% -
font-weight:normal -
line-height:42 pt -
font-family:Lost Pixelized Font -
color:#CFAE6D(207, 174, 109 in RGB model)
At the very beginning (when dinosaurs were still crossing our streets) we've been using Handjet font, also from Google Fonts. But it turned out to be way too narrow for our needs. Then we have tried Pixelify Sans font also from Google Fonts, but we had some problems with it in narrow situations.
Finally, we have decided to use our own, custom-made font that replicates the original font from 1989 game as close as possible.
