glad you like the changes, I am still working on the 'player hit' animation and physics.

also, the winged familiar is still in there, duck and press jump to summon.

Once you summon the bat, use up and jump to make him attack.

sounds like you're almost there, if at a point where you've done all you can, just give me what needs to be fixed graphics wise and I'll fit your sprite in there best I can.
Like I mentioned before I will do what I can to make them fit, but if it calls for me to rebuild the entire graphic arrangement then I'd rather wait til I'm done coding.  I have a lot of idea going.

Stories are still bouncing around now, I am constantly being restricted by what I can do, and opening other possibilities  I think I may be able to add different costumes depending on your subweapon (for instance you play as simon, but when you equip the Death Sickle, you wear deaths cloak, and your familiar turns into Deaths ghost following you around) I am seeing that this type of thing is very possible and am leaning to a "Death's apprintace" type of story.

Holy @#$%! That Bat usage is kick ass! I just added a bunch of my sprites to the game, going through checking it out, had to stop for a moment to post this message. I'll let you know more about what's going on later.

Okay, played all the way through it. Very good, all looks good so far, I have to tweak a few more things, then when I get the chance I'll see about PM'ing you the hack back with my edits so you can check it out, probably be sometime in the wee hours of the morning, if not then tomorrow sometime.

wow, this is a very exciting moment in the history of these projects. Each artist unknowingly working on opposite ends then colliding.

I've been thinking more about how to use subweapons and familiars, right now I have it so you can only use one or the other, but I though of a doable way to have them both going at the same time. Not only that I am think more about the different costumes idea.

aside from deaths cloak, what if there was a wizard costume with spells as subweapons, and a cat familiar. What if you have a farmer outfit with garlic subweapons and a crow familiar. This system could work kind of like the soul system in the newer Castlevanias. Hmmmm.

Yeah, that totally blew my mind, got me really curious as to what your version of the 8 Eyes Castlevania game was like.

With the bat familiar and sub-weapons not being used at the same time is fine, you are questionably too powerful as is. The bat, there should be a limit or something to how many times it can be summoned, its cool using it, love it, but with it you don't even have to fight the boss yourself, just keep dashing the bat across the screen while you sit at a safe distance. Another, the stopwatch, just how it is with some of the stronger Castlevania bosses, I don't think it should have any effect on the bosses, it lasts too long and they're dead before even getting off many attacks. And obviously the enemies are going to have to have more hit points, at least certain ones, such is the case of the werewolf one that I did, at the moment, he's a one hitter, when it comes time his hit points as well as others need to be adjusted as well as the damage they do to you. And are you thinking of putting bottomless pits in this game?

I don't know much about the newest Castlevanias, though I do know they stray too far from the original premise of what I like most about the early ones. I think you have too many ideas going on at one time for what should just be a straight forward simple hack'n slash platformer. As for the costumes, I dunno, sure there may not be all that much detail into Simon's background, but somehow I don't see this fitting what I'd always figured for his personality. Though multiple characters could fit, say for instance the merchant characters from Castlevania II that give you the oak stake, perhaps someone like him could use sub-weapons such as stake, garlic, and perhaps a couple magic spells like Syfa from Castlevania III. I've always pictured Simon and this guy possibly being allies and fighting side by side.

As for different familiars, maybe a few, and certainly a black cat sounds like a good idea, as well as a ghost, but there needs to be some trade-off, some flaw to using them, and somehow, though crazy as it seems, I actually had the idea that perhaps each time you summon them (or attack with them) it draws a little bit from your health meter, I feel this would balance things out and keep anyone from over-using them to the point of abuse. An idea for some possible element of the story, this takes place after Castlevania II, Simon Belmont after the battle with Dracula is now cursed, possibly becoming a creature of the night himself, hence why he can use these familiars which are naturally evil by nature, also why they suck some of his health away when he wants them to act against what are essentially their own allies, and well, he's on a quest to rid himself of the curse before he is a slave of the darkness, but maybe you have something better in mind. Just some ideas I'm throwing out there.

Sounds Exciting!
Welcome to NA elbolo.

Here are all of the images of all of the bosses (excluding Doppler Simon), every work phase that I went through, as well as the original 8 Eyes boss which each are to take the place of, and the source of the idea. Also are the images for how they look in the rom, all scrambled up. Some of these character aren't quite finished, but there here now so you have a better idea of what I have done so far.





















And here are some other enemy ones that I have ready (sorry, too tired to get the complete images together, but if you know these games well enough all the characters should be recognizable):



I'll see about PMing that rom back to you in a little bit so you can check out what I've done so far in action.

welcome!

these graphics looks great! I am going through and doing color corrections right now.

Hey, thanks. I know that I kind of messed with a few of the flying enemies in there, but I've been going through them all some more (hope you hadn't wasted any time recoloring these yet), I gathered all the flying enemies in the 8 Eyes rom, put them in order of appearance in the rom as well as possible replacements for each. Obviously there's no graphic editing for these enemies, just throwing this out as an idea as you had already done a few but didn't go as far as using more than 3 types for each.  Was wondering, would their behavior be edited to match how they act in the Castlevania games? Can't wait to see what the enemies and bosses look like with their appropriate colors.

check your messages, nice organization.

I played it again, color choices are great, Akmodan especially looks so much better now, the rest that were done look perfect as well. Some you didn't get to yet, Queen Medusa and Dhuron? Medusa should probably be along the same color palette as the Medusa Heads, or perhaps her colors from her giant head form in the first Castlevania. And Dhuron has purple clothing if I remember right, though if he stayed with the palette his is, this actually looks good for him too. Found one problem while playing for the sword-wielding skeleton, a missing tile. See attachments below.

More enemies would be good. Cutting down on frames would make the most sense for extra space, particularly those that only use 2 frames anyway from the Castlevania games such as Medusa Heads, Flying Skulls, Ghosts and the non-blinking Floating Eyes, may even be able to cut down on walking frames since the the Castlevania games typically use less frames, at least for the regular enemies. I'm not sure what other enemies you'd be looking to have, but certainly all the classic ones have to be present, such as Dragon Skull Cannons, and if possible Skele-dragons. Also, being able to change the behavior of the enemies, I'm thinking the hopping slimes from Castlevania 2 as well as Fleamen would be good candidates in place of the Jawa-wannabe enemies. I also think having gargoyles in this game is a must, either the ones from Castlevania 2 or the flying bony ones from Castlevania 3, but none of the current enemies fit their size. The few large ghosts near the end of the Egypt stage that when you hit them they shrink into smaller versions, somehow I think the floating jellyfish from the forest level of Castlevania 3 would be good in its place, but it don't quite fit, but on the plus side, there's a lot of unnecessary frames for the smaller version of these ghosts which can free up some space for larger enemies or whatever. Oh, I like how you chose the eagles from Castlevania 2 in place of the large crow that I had put in for the birds in Africa, better choice, looks better too.

I still want the Cyclops in the game, thinking the guy with the hammer in this game would be good for the Cyclops, perhaps ones such as him and the Werewolf could take more hits and act sort of as mini-bosses, also, have always liked the Minotaur from Symphony of the Night, as well as Slogra and Gaibon, but getting enemies or bosses of those sizes and odd shapes would be difficult, lots of tile rearranging. When I had first done the boss sprites that I had, when starting the one to take the place of the Spaniard fencer I had originally wanted Slogra, but due to his odd shape as well as not appearing in any of the NES games since I was trying to stick to those just on the 8-bit console I ended up going with Dhuron whom proved perfect due to being so similar to Enriquez Bartona, but also, this guy, along with the giant Axe Knight I made should also be regular enemies as they are in the Castlevania games. If possible I still really would like the Cyclops more as a boss, but again as is he doesn't quite work as well as the Axe Knight does for King Amin. Aside from creating what I've done for custom sprites, I do think for the most part much of the sprites wouldn't take much graphical editing, just programming. Let me know what else you may have in mind for enemies, or possibly bosses, at this point I'm not sure what else to do, I have ideas, but still need a good idea of what we have for space and how you want them to be.

Okay I fixed the tile and some more palettes, I sent you a copy.

I'm trying to answer some of your earlier questions.

Will there be a bottomless pits? you ask..

What I plan on doing is making the level design play a lot like Vampire Killer (MSX). This is going to be essentially "Vampire Killer 2".

 I will remove the scrolling altogether, and each screen will have an exit up, down, left, and right.  This will allow players to explore the castle/levels more and will give me the ability to add twice as many enemies (by loading 1 screen half at a time, I won't have to share sprite space).  In some places however there may be bottomless pits, lava, water, spikes, etc.  I may even merge all or some of  the levels together to make larger areas to explore.

Throughout the exploring you will gain items (Sheild, Wings, Boots, Familiars) that will help you gain access to shortcuts around the castle.

If you want to help out with the graphics I will need a lot of custum graphics, all other classic graphics I can rip from the castlevania games.  If you choose to make some you need to think outside of the 8-eyes limitations.  I have the ability to make frames however large or small i need them, so really the sky is the limit, and it would be your chance to do some amazing work.  I like the idea about minibosses you find around the castle such as the cyclops.

P.S. - how do you want your name in the title.

I answered your PM before seeing this message, okay you answered some of my questions. I'll start gathering all of the NES Castlevania sprites and then start brain-storming on possible enemies. I'm curious, if you're doing all this rebuilding of the game, why use 8 Eyes? What does it have in the programming that makes it the choice game to platform off of?

Oh, another question, the bosses that I created I had originally made because they were the best choices to fit within the existing 8 Eyes boss tiles and animations due to my limitations I was forced to stick with using artistic skill limited around that, are these bosses all fine for you, or are there some other boss that you'd really like, prefer to have instead of one of those I had done?

Okay, going over all of the enemies and bosses in the Castlevania series, here are all of my current ideas.

Bosses (mostly sticking to the classic ones, don't really want to go overboard with some oddball choices):

Dhuron (may end up changing him to something else and using him as a regular enemy instead)

Grim Reaper (definitely keeping him, and in the walking form, too many floating versions of him in the series, going to stay with what inspired this version, the one from the original Dracula X game, but may go back and fix a few things, give him a better looking jump animation, will throw sickles at you, maybe even use flying skulls)

Frank & Igor (going to take out a frame or two of walking animations for Igor, adding in another chopping frame which I already have available, this guy may both rush you chopping his axe as well as jump, Frank I'm not sure about yet, but regardless mostly likely will throw something at you)

Medusa (while her general look is going to remain the same, I'm going to go back and do her as I really want to, add some more tail to her)

Axe Knight Lord (not sure about this guy yet, he may end up as a different boss and just be a regular enemy)

Akmodan (need to add more detail, probably make him skinnier, he's too buff for a mummy)

Skull Knight (perfect as is but may simplify to free up some tiles for other enemies)

Dracula (?)

Mini-bosses (must be killed to move on in the level):

Arachne (from the later Castlevania games, but I thought something like her would be perfect for this game, walks back and forth, maybe climbs across the ceiling too, possibly throws spiders and/or spiderwebs)

Cyclops and/or Minotaur (stalks back and forth, uses hammer like his Castlevania 3 version, if I use a minotaur can't see him being much different, not sure what to do with either of these yet)

Doppleganger (obviously an evil version of Simon, but I've been thinking something involving mirrors)

Fishman (a larger version of the fishman enemy, will most likely shoot out a jet of water as well as jumping in and out of the water in his chamber)

Gargoyle (something alone the lines of the Leviathan boss in Castlevania 3, hovers, shoots fireball, probably will turn to stone as a means of defense)

Skeledragon (classic mini-boss, attached to wall, waving up and down, shoots fireballs, can't think of anything new for it at the time)

Two-headed Monster (not sure what exactly I'd like it to look like, maybe I'll just stick with the Castlevania 2 look but beef him up a bit, and he'll continue to shoot fireballs, two at a time while moving quickly back and forth)

Werewolf (werewolf pack leader, paces back and forth, claws at you, also need to add a jump ability to him, this guy needs to not only be strong but somewhat agile as well)

Enemies (again, as with bosses, trying to stick with the classics and ones that I feel relate well with the horror background, trying to stay away from all the magical and fairy type enemies of the later games):

Axe Knight
Bat
Bone Pillar (shoots fireballs in both directions, non-moving, as well as possibly a walking variety of bone pillar)
Crow
Dhuron
Fireman
Fishman
Fleaman
Floating Eye
Flying Skull
Ghost
Giant Spider
Giant Frog
Giant Leech (may latch onto Simon and suck life until shaken off)
Harpy
Man-Eating Plant
Marionette
Medusa Head
Mudman
Owl
Skeleton (bone throwing and non-bone throwing)
Skeleton (Whip Skeleton)
Skeleton (Bone Scimitar)
Slime
Spear Knight
Vulture (in place of the classically used Eagle, I've always thought this series needed vultures instead of eagles)
Werewolf
Wolf/Panther/or Hellhound (don't want too many similar enemies, but while wolves are classic horror, the panther has been used more for the Castlevania series, not sure yet)
Zombie (thinking of having both male and female ones, maybe even children zombies)

Let me know what you think, if there's anything I should add, ideas for existing ones, or ones that you don't think should be in there.

These are things that are on my list to do.

* Fix Flinching
* Make shield defect projectiles.
* Fix familiar programming
* Clear out sub-weapon GFX from player banks
* Add more familiars graphics
* Add Jump Wing graphic and to the player bank ( for simon to have on his back)
* Add familiars

* Remove all enemy data frames and put them in order by scratch, according to the new graphics banks (takes massive amounts of pre-planning)
* Add Sub-weapons to the enemy banks (2 classic and 1 specialty sub-weapons)

Classic Subweapons: Dagger, Cross, Axe, Hoy Water, Stop Watch, Bible

Special Weapons: sicle, black cat, garlic,  medusa head, whatever..)

* Add Candles, and Special Candles to the enemy banks (torches, lanterns, bookcases, chandeliers)
* Add Coins, Money bags, Treasure (Perhaps make a money/store system)
* Add Invincibility crystal, Ring, Whip Upgrade (other power, up items)
* Add life up items to the enemy banks (icecream, egg, coffee, meat, red crystals)
* Add new enemy sprite frames
* Add new enemy behaviors
* Program Special Ability select menu (choose from: Sheild, Wings, Boots, Candle)

* Remove Scrolling
* Add level change when leaving the screen from the right or left

* Remove all level data
* Rebuild level walls, floors, and platforms from a new design
 * Draw level backgrounds and atmosphere
* Add enemy placement

* Redo the music
* Redo the bosses
* Maybe add another character
* Add an ending

Wow. Well, I'll see what I can do on my part. I'll try working on a few of the enemies through the night.

Welcome, The hack looks good so far, can't wait to see what you do with it.

Update:

New Werewolf walking animation:



Been working on this one off and on through the night and afternoon today, a custom version of the fishman, walking animation as well as spitting:



Let me know what you think, if you like 'em, I'll continue to work on them, still gotta do a jumping frame for each as well as try to revise the attack animation for the werewolf.

I think it looks great, very doable.  I like how they look like the original graphic style but with added detail and frames.  This way when we bring in straight gfx rips (like fleaman) they will fit in with your graphics.
On to the list with comments:

Axe Knight
* Axe knight,  even a Disc Knight that shares most of the same graphics)
Bat
* Red ones fly from off the screen at you, Blue hang from ceilings and attack when triggered
Bone Pillar (shoots fireballs in both directions, non-moving, as well as possibly a walking variety of bone pillar)
* mm, I think the stationary one only and save the frames for another enemy in the bank. It's one of the few enemies that takes up hardly any room.
Crow
* Sits on a perch, then attacks, I like the idea of a swarm of these when you walk into a room.
Dhuron
* Classic CV3 but with an alternate attack I'm thinking, shame though cause I like your big one a lot.
Fireman
Fishman
* Your fishman so far is great. I see yellow ones, green ones, red ones
Fleaman
* Fleaman, then Red Rippers that use the same graphics and throw red daggers at you. (possible special sub-weapon he drops)
Floating Eye
* Yes maybe even a rolling eye from the GameBoy games.
Flying Skull
Ghost
* I want to bring the ghosts back from CV1 maybe as a familiar or an enemy
Giant Spider
* maybe even an arachnid lady
Giant Frog
* love the frogs, I considered a frog familiar even.
Giant Leech (may latch onto Simon and suck life until shaken off)
* this is possible (add the leaches from CV2 but have them stick love it)
Harpy
* thought the cv2 graphics could be improved.
Man-Eating Plant
* are these the same ones that you have in there now?
Marionette
* Like the idea once defeated they might drop the doll subweapon
Medusa Head
* The ones I ripped from Vampire Killer I like
Mudman
Owl
Skeleton (bone throwing and non-bone throwing)
Skeleton (Whip Skeleton)
Skeleton (Bone Scimitar)
* always need these, maybe get rid of the whip and sword and come up with unique skels
* some Skels I considered were Farmer skel (drops garlic SubW), Archer skel, head chasing Yorick)
Slime
* Slime will be in there but I ripped their graphics from Vampire Killer, in that game they would fall out of candles randomly, i think I will incorporate them that way.
Spear Knight
* Yes these but also some knights with original weapons
Vulture (in place of the classically used Eagle, I've always thought this series needed vultures instead of eagles)
* Sure, I also want to paint pictures with enemies, like have the vultures eating some bones before they attack you.
Werewolf
* Already think yours is great, maybe give him a rare tough fight appearance
Wolf/Panther/or Hellhound (don't want too many similar enemies, but while wolves are classic horror, the panther has been used more for the Castlevania series, not sure yet)
Zombie (thinking of having both male and female ones, maybe even children zombies)
* yes zombies can be back in full force love this idea.

Other enemies.

Farmer Skels
Succubus - blows heart kisses at you
Ghoul - from CV1
Treeman - other tall enemies like Iron Golem that are one room battles
poltergeist aka Flying books- use these in a library scene
Mummies
Giant Skulls
Crypt Keepers - lantern weilding

I can't think of any right now, but I would like to see some enemies from Symphony brought into this mixed in with classic ones from Vampire killer/Castlevania

do you have any ideas yet about redoing Simon? that is something you could replace now.

Glad you like the werewolf and fishman. And if you like the big Dhuron, then we'll keep 'im, I like him too. Really the only one I'm questionable about is the Axe Knight, but I could probably redesign him further to give him more character, make him stand out more as a boss, gotta think of a good emblem to put on his shield for one thing, my whole thought with using him originally came from Sir Grakul from Super Castlevania IV, but being as I'm not so limited anymore, I could most certainly change him more to my complete satisfaction. And your ideas all sound good too. Most likely the next one I'll be working on is the vulture, probably some corpse tiles as well for them to perch on while they peck at and eat the remains before you get close enough for them to decide that fresh meat is better.

I haven't really given much thought to Simon, but it all depends on when this game takes place, I'd always wanted to see an older Simon with a little bit of a beard, but it may take away from what people are familiar with seeing, and I've always loved his Castlevania 2 outfit. 'Shrugs', I dunno, my main focus has always been on the enemies and worry about what the hero looks like later.

I should play through Castlevania IV, I have it on the wii and should check it out. This hack really started about a year ago after downloading symphony of the night off Xbox live and playing it for the first time. Before that I've played through about every Castlevania game that came out on the GBA and NDS.

I had the same idea of doing an older Simon as well. One with a white beard, perhaps a crown and a cape. Maybe make this the story of his death.

I was thinking more viking  or barbaric like, like a character out of The 13th Warrior movie, kind fits how he looks on the cover art of Castlevania 1 and 2, Simon is just a wandering vampire slayer, don't think the royalty look suits him. As for hair color, I still picture it blonde, just longer and hair on his face, just a several years or more later from Castlevania 2, but again, this wouldn't show as well with the in-game sprites, there's not a lot of room for this kind of detail.

Yes I like this suit as well, but since Simon is different in every castlevania game, it would make since to give him some unique detail. I'll leave it up to you for the simple reason that what I have planned to do as far as programming is going to take me over a year in my estimation, and I am willing to give all duties of storyline and graphics to someone willing to take it on.

I don't know about storyline, was just throwing some ideas out there. Only thing I really care about is that the game plays well, that's all I care about when playing a game, I jump into the action and enjoy the hell out of it, if there's a story I may read through it one time but after that I tend to skip it, don't have time to talk, I'm there to kill monsters.