Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy™ [HD texture pack]

[swyter]

An unofficial mod that updates and enhances the legibility of this underrated classic —published in 2003 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms— while respecting its venerable original artwork and stylistic choices.

Developed as a texture pack for the Dolphin emulator, targeting its European (PAL) and USA (NTSC) releases.

Page of the GameCube game: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=GXPP78


Screenshots / Comparison







Download / GitHub repository

Get it from here: https://github.com/Swyter/sphinxhd (Direct link to the latest ZIP file)

Useful AR codes

Disable intro videos, NTSC/USA [swy]
042A2ABA 00000000

Disable intro videos, PAL/EU [swy]
042A48CA 00000000

[64fanatic]

This is pretty funny lol! I had just started revving up to do the same game. Small world, though I have NTSC version. I was setting up pixelapse seems easier to use for graphics projects than github. Eh good thing I was checking the game wiki before I kept going.

If you'd like some help, I can continue my playthrough to dump the entire game's textures on NTSC so you can support both regions? I'm also backing up every savepoint save I make. They're in Misc Stuff folder on page I was building. Texture dump isn't completed I'm about half way through the game but lemme know if you want access to the cloud storage I have of it. Hopefully I'll have finished my playthrough by next week.

https://www.pixelapse.com/64fanatic/projects/Sphinx/files

Cheers!

[swyter]

(02-12-2016, 04:27 AM)64fanatic Wrote: This is pretty funny lol! I had just started revving up to do the same game. Small world, though I have NTSC version. I was setting up pixelapse seems easier to use for graphics projects than github. Eh good thing I was checking the game wiki before I kept going.

If you'd like some help, I can continue my playthrough to dump the entire game's textures on NTSC so you can support both regions? I'm also backing up every savepoint save I make. They're in Misc Stuff folder on page I was building. Texture dump isn't completed I'm about half way through the game but lemme know if you want access to the cloud storage I have of it. Hopefully I'll have finished my playthrough by next week.

https://www.pixelapse.com/64fanatic/projects/Sphinx/files

Cheers!

Thanks for the PRIMA guide. I actually found it years ago (I have been planning a refurbishment for a long time), but it was specially invaluable because there's so little high-definition artwork of the game. Original PDFs like this and the game's manual contain lots of vector graphics and font sources, and are often accompanied by concept art and sundry internal stuff.

Something I was worried about was the game's logo, I've searched many, many times for a high resolution version of the SatCM's logo, and there's no trace of it, no press kits, nada. The cover of that guide is a JPG, not ideal, but its great pixel density makes it key for reconstructing a vector version in Inkscape that can be infinitely stretched without quality loss. This is something I'm putting a lot of care in, SVG versions of font atlases, line work and logos.

Otherwise people in the future that need even higher quality replacements can't generate their own. Imagine someone working to improve our -now ridiculously dated- HD textures. For things like restoration of classic games we should think long-term.

--

About the NTSC / PAL texture compatibility, probably most of the textures share hash.
I suppose you are dumping them with a new-ish Dolphin version, that's kind of important.

Next week I'll have a bit more of time to take a look. Anyway, glad that someone else is interested in this hidden jewel too.

[64fanatic]

Yea the games one of my favorites! I'm using Dolphin 4.0 svn 8863 right now so yea fairly new.

Probably impossible to get a better scan out of paper, but paperback is found here: http://www.amazon.com/Sphinx-Cursed-Primas-Official-Strategy/dp/0761543686




That, and possibly emailing people who worked on the game to see if anyone kept anything they worked on who might be willing to help a project like this. Eurocom is dead and gone I doubt it'd be a problem.

Game credits: http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/589667-sphinx-and-the-cursed-mummy/credit
http://www.giantbomb.com/sphinx-and-the-cursed-mummy/3030-12614/credits/


edit: time for some internet investigating:

http://www.abraham-meneu.com/3d_gallery.html
This guy has a sweet old character animation demo reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z90WkziKrc

Darren Weekes doesn't work on games anymore but is active might be able to contact him.
https://mechanized.carbonmade.com/projects/3635050
https://twitter.com/tddaz

http://www.martin-kilcoyne.co.uk/

This guy is still working:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-bee-ba77294b
https://sites.google.com/site/stubeecv/

Found a texture artist along with a super old alpha video:
https://vimeo.com/33126736
http://anaskova.blogspot.ca/

http://www.barrylawless.com/
though he doesn't mention the game at all on his site.

another video with a character reel including sphinx stuff:
Daniel Meitin Roca
http://www.ultrasandwich.com/DanielMeitin_resume.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Qi1clULaM

no art to be found but another possible contact.
https://es.linkedin.com/in/david-munoz-velazquez-298a4217
http://munozvelazquez.blogspot.ca/


another showreel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjYE_qaGS-M
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-luis-garcia-camara-b283aa4


Nice, this one has some good quality art!
Juan Solis https://www.linkedin.com/in/juansolisworks
http://www.solisworks.com/1993/10/more-images-eurocom-ltd-thq-2003.html

Knew about this one before, good art assets.
http://julianromeroart.com/gallery/professional/82

another artist:
http://blog.larsverhoeff.com/

another artist:
http://luisgomezguzman.blogspot.ca/

http://www.santicolomo.com/cv.htm
"3D Artist on the characters team, modelling, texturing and rigging in 3DMax. I especially helped to create the facial animation system for the characters in game, and later I worked as a full time Animator"

senior artist:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefan-scheffers-98338a26

another:
http://www.willihammes.com/demoreel/resume_willi_hammes_2012_web.pdf
http://www.willihammes.com/

[swyter]

(02-12-2016, 06:15 AM)64fanatic Wrote: Yea the games one of my favorites! I'm using Dolphin 4.0 svn 8863 right now so yea fairly new.

Probably impossible to get a better scan out of paper, but paperback is found here: http://www.amazon.com/Sphinx-Cursed-Primas-Official-Strategy/dp/0761543686




That, and possibly emailing people who worked on the game to see if anyone kept anything they worked on who might be willing to help a project like this. Eurocom is dead and gone I doubt it'd be a problem.

Game credits: http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/589667-sphinx-and-the-cursed-mummy/credit
http://www.giantbomb.com/sphinx-and-the-cursed-mummy/3030-12614/credits/


edit: time for some internet investigating:

http://www.abraham-meneu.com/3d_gallery.html
This guy has a sweet old character animation demo reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z90WkziKrc

Darren Weekes doesn't work on games anymore but is active might be able to contact him.
https://mechanized.carbonmade.com/projects/3635050
https://twitter.com/tddaz

http://www.martin-kilcoyne.co.uk/

This guy is still working:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-bee-ba77294b
https://sites.google.com/site/stubeecv/

Found a texture artist along with a super old alpha video:
https://vimeo.com/33126736
http://anaskova.blogspot.ca/

http://www.barrylawless.com/
though he doesn't mention the game at all on his site.

another video with a character reel including sphinx stuff:
Daniel Meitin Roca
http://www.ultrasandwich.com/DanielMeitin_resume.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Qi1clULaM

no art to be found but another possible contact.
https://es.linkedin.com/in/david-munoz-velazquez-298a4217
http://munozvelazquez.blogspot.ca/


another showreel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjYE_qaGS-M
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-luis-garcia-camara-b283aa4


Nice, this one has some good quality art!
Juan Solis https://www.linkedin.com/in/juansolisworks
http://www.solisworks.com/1993/10/more-images-eurocom-ltd-thq-2003.html

Knew about this one before, good art assets.
http://julianromeroart.com/gallery/professional/82

another artist:
http://blog.larsverhoeff.com/

another artist:
http://luisgomezguzman.blogspot.ca/

http://www.santicolomo.com/cv.htm
"3D Artist on the characters team, modelling, texturing and rigging in 3DMax. I especially helped to create the facial animation system for the characters in game, and later I worked as a full time Animator"

senior artist:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefan-scheffers-98338a26

another:
http://www.willihammes.com/demoreel/resume_willi_hammes_2012_web.pdf
http://www.willihammes.com/

Thanks for the references. That previs video is pretty neat, even more if you see how the project ended up looking, with Sphinx not flying and giving more protagonism to the Mummy, which yes, sort of reuses the flying code and mechanics when transforming into the quirky Batmummy. But, yeah, helpful links right here.


Do you like my new logo? Had to paint manually many parts. But I think the result speaks by itself:

Spoiler: (Show Spoiler)

[64fanatic]

That is some very impressive work! Got rid of all the weird old gradient color banding with the red flare, cool.

Nearly done the NTSC playthrough, bit busy with work right now.

I got a bite from one of the game developers! I'll follow up if it leads anywhere. I emailed pretty much everyone I posted before but I can't find anything on Victor online so I'll see if this awesome dude happens to know of a way to contact him. I'll never know what can be dug up if I don't try .

[swyter]

(02-16-2016, 01:20 PM)64fanatic Wrote: That is some very impressive work! Got rid of all the weird old gradient color banding with the red flare, cool.

Nearly done the NTSC playthrough, bit busy with work right now.

I got a bite from one of the game developers! I'll follow up if it leads anywhere. I emailed pretty much everyone I posted before but I can't find anything on Victor online so I'll see if this awesome dude happens to know of a way to contact him. I'll never know what can be dug up if I don't try .

Neat. Made more progress, here are some comparison images, spot the 6 differences:




The good thing about these screenshots is that you can't guess which one is which from their thumbnails.
That's a pretty cool way to see if we have deviated too much from the original instead of refurbishing.

Anyway, feedback and suggestions welcome.

(Remember that all of this is readily available for download in the first post)

[swyter]

More comparison images of repainted stuff, this time around is the turn of the sacred Sword of Osiris:





Bonus image right here: https://i.imgur.com/XBhyHwQ.jpg

[swyter]

So, I just noticed that the NTSC version runs at 60hz, while standard PAL is 50hz. I may have to do a patch to fix that.

Texture-wise I have worked a lot past week, there's new redrawn elements for many HUD items and 3D models, like the Lava Toad, the wooden lever used in Sphinx puzzles, the metallic lever used by the Mummy, the Sword of Osiris, the savepoint monkey statue, the chests opened by Sphinx, reworked health-marking Ankhs and selection screen with elaborated and streamlined designs barely visible at the original resolution. All of this can be experienced by downloading the latest ZIP from my GitHub repository in the first post.

--

In other order of news I have ported my Action Replay code to skip the cumbersome intro to work with the NTSC release. Now covering all game regions:

Disable intro videos, NTSC/USA [swy]
042A2ABA 00000000

Disable intro videos, PAL/EU [swy]
042A48CA 00000000

You are welcome!


Edit: Seems like one can switch to EU RGB60 mode by quickly pressing the configured <B> button when the game begins. If you do so you will get a confirmation screen allowing to you choose between 60 and the original 50FPS in the European version. That will do the trick for now, the framerate difference is pretty evident, way smoother.

[swyter]

Another comparison:




¿Do you know where this is from?


...






¿Do you guys like it?