ACE magazine issue 4 had a pre-production screenshot of Basket Master from Imagine and Dinamic which looks pretty different to the final version we all know from Gary Biasillo.
We’ll ignore the fact that there are no hoops just yet, but focusing on the players – we can see that there is a little more detail compared to the final version – with what seems to be hi-res overlays.
The floor is also a little more detailed and wooden based – so overall it is very different to the final version. This suggests that maybe there was a different version in production, or Andrew Sleigh was brought in later on to replace a graphic artist who had to drop off the project.
Gari confirmed to GTW64 that he did indeed do this earlier version, but just had evolved over time. Graphics may have been changed due to issues with the code early on. Gari soon hopefully to confirm!
Do you know anything more about this version?
Contributions: Julio Martin
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I loved Basket Master when it came out. It’s a fun little game and great when playing two players.
I do remember seeing the preview version of the game in Ace magazine, which I used to read on the bus on the way to work. I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw in the preview, but I was certainly pleased when I saw the final release.
I DID the graphics of this game, on 1985, not Andrew Sleigh.
Please, don´t say that again.
Firstly – no need to be rude, i’ll add you onto the credits if you did indeed contribute graphics for this C64 version.
Secondly – Andrew Sleigh is credited on the C64 title screen, so we naturally assumed that he may have been involved on this earlier version that Gari was converting. So the question is if you had any involvement specifically on the C64 conversion of the game, or if you are wishing to have your credit added as you developed the original Spectrum graphics (which Andrew converted)? Will happy correct the write up as required.
Viendo el resultado, mejor haberte quedao calladito, pichita…
My memory is fuzzy on this one but these was the initial graphics that we were using until, for some reason that I don’t recall, we decided to go for a look that more closely matches the Spectrum and Amstrad versions. The hires sprite overlays were dropped as we needed extra sprites for the baskets – two each so that the ball would appear to go through the basket. With this setup, more than eight sprites would be needed on one line, so we reverted to regular hires sprites.
Thanks for the confirmation Gari, i’ll update the entry accordingly!