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Commodore 64 vs Atari 800 Xl


youki

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to be honest I just got so bloody bored of that argument (which seems to be becoming increasingly devoid of factual information and full of 'your opinion doesn't count because you're biased in the wrong way') I just buggered off and started coding a game for the VIC 20. It's sort of a warmup before I bite the bullet and go for the atari 2600 :)

 

I'm guessing people getting bored and wandering off to code something instead is the best thing that can happen there really

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to be honest I just got so bloody bored of that argument (which seems to be becoming increasingly devoid of factual information and full of 'your opinion doesn't count because you're biased in the wrong way') I just buggered off and started coding a game for the VIC 20. It's sort of a warmup before I bite the bullet and go for the atari 2600 :)

 

I'm guessing people getting bored and wandering off to code something instead is the best thing that can happen there really

 

me, too... restarted coding on Beyond Evil...

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Why set the bar so low? Converting from one 8bit to another is a waste of time.

 

I mean given that the C64 can already do a late 80s Konami style arcade game with triple parallax scrolling and 100s of objects moving on screen...

 

So I say you pick a 1990s arcade game from the actual arcade. Maybe Final Fight, maybe Vulcan Venture, anything with multi parallax extremely colourful LARGE graphics with plenty of animation frame and super smooth scrolling. You decide but there is no point converting an old 8bit game or even a 16bit game, stretch the machine to it's maximum. Soundtrack AND special fx too.

Edited by oky2000
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Hi all,

 

Reading the post about Commodore Vs Atari here :

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1624439

 

where commodore 's fan said C64 is the best , and Atari 's fan said A800 is the best.

 

etc. etc.

 

Neither one is "best". Both are obsolete platforms (neither one was even "best" in their heyday). I have to wonder why such a pointless argument bothers certian people.

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  • 5 months later...

Having looked at the Meka emulator and some Docs I think I've got a handle on how the Sega mastersystem works now and seeing as I've got a certain game running (hello TMR!) but not quite complete that's already written in Z80 with the logic and machine dependent stuff separated from each other I might get them done in parallel.

 

I should also get back to my Amiga code too, but right now I'm waiting for job interview results and I need to do as much as I bloodywell can to keep that off my mind so a burst of productivity is needed :)

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Having looked at the Meka emulator and some Docs I think I've got a handle on how the Sega mastersystem works now and seeing as I've got a certain game running (hello TMR!) but not quite complete that's already written in Z80 with the logic and machine dependent stuff separated from each other I might get them done in parallel.

 

i can't remember the specs of the SMS off the top of my head... are the NES graphics i did any good for it?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Having looked at the Meka emulator and some Docs I think I've got a handle on how the Sega mastersystem works now and seeing as I've got a certain game running (hello TMR!) but not quite complete that's already written in Z80 with the logic and machine dependent stuff separated from each other I might get them done in parallel.

 

i can't remember the specs of the SMS off the top of my head... are the NES graphics i did any good for it?

 

sorry it's been so long for a reply - I got the job, so things have been a bit hectic...

 

I think they should be, the only problem with the mastersystem is the lack of control over the palette - you can place colours pretty nicely, but you just don't get much choice in picking them. Basically the palette entries are 4-bit (so the RG can be 0,85,170 or 255) and each tile can use either the first 16 colours or the second. sprites and the border colour have to come from the second 16.

 

But having had a play with the NES screenshot and tweaking it a bit I think they would be usable

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Space Harrier.

 

I believe a port of this game was underway for the Atari 8-bit. See http://www.sheddyshack.co.uk/

 

Was it ever done on the C64?

 

Yes, it exists on C64 :

 

but it has been developped in few month under time/commercial constraint. Now the XL Version is in development for years under no constraint...

 

It's also a single, 64K load on the C64 whilst Sheddy's version is taking just a tad more memory... =-)

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It's a shame the Atari version has taken so long, but understandable, as with any home project.

 

I saw the atari 8 bit video of it on YouTube, I was amazed at the frame rate. The guy has done an outstanding job. Lets hope he finishes it soon!

 

I had an 800XL as a child in the UK. I seem to remember Dixons selling them for £79.00 - Atari must have been losing money on every one they sold. I actually did well out of the deal. My parents had agreed to get me a Commodore 16, but they had sold out (!) at the shop, so they asked me if I would 'accept' an Atari 800XL as a 'consolation'.

 

Of course, I pretended to be disappointed: "Oh. It's OK. No problem." *shrug*

 

Then went to my room and punched the air! "YES!"

 

I never had much software for it, but I programmed the ass of it back in the day...! Kids did that then. Sitting in their rooms with a friend or two writing BASIC games. It's a shame kids these days can't experience that. There was a shortage of Atari info in the UK in the mid 80's. And not knowing another Atari owner didn't help. I can't remember what happened to the machine... Wish I still had it. Still, when I look at 6502 assembly, I have to think "Yack!"... Too many years spoilt on TMS9900 (16-bit) on the TI-99/4A ;)

 

Peace

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Space Harrier.

 

I believe a port of this game was underway for the Atari 8-bit. See http://www.sheddyshack.co.uk/

 

Was it ever done on the C64?

 

Yes, it exists on C64 :

 

but it has been developped in few month under time/commercial constraint. Now the XL Version is in development for years under no constraint...

and with no profit incentive.. doh!

Edited by atarian63
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I had an 800XL as a child in the UK. I seem to remember Dixons selling them for £79.00 - Atari must have been losing money on every one they sold.

 

i think it was to clear stock of the XL series before Atari needed the warehouse space for the XE machines? That's the same deal my parents took advantage of when i wanted an 800XL as well, the first unit had to be returned because it kept falling over to a red screen but the second one lasted about four years... i dragged it up from my parents' place a few weeks back (after two hours in my dad's garage trying to find the machine and the PSU!) and it's not a happy bunny - on powering up it drops into the memory part of the self test and says that most of the RAM is squiffy. =-( i haven't decided what to do about it yet, but it's not going anywhere as such.

 

I never had much software for it, but I programmed the ass of it back in the day...! Kids did that then. Sitting in their rooms with a friend or two writing BASIC games. It's a shame kids these days can't experience that. There was a shortage of Atari info in the UK in the mid 80's. And not knowing another Atari owner didn't help.

 

The 800XL slowed down my learning of machine code, i'd previously hand assembled stuff on the VIC 20 before that point and had a half decent machine code monitor but, because the tools for the A8 were close to non-existent and my parents couldn't afford a disk drive as well as the A8, trying to write any complex program on tape... well, it wasn't an option like it would turn out to be for the C64 about a year later where my first real games were written.

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but it has been developped in few month under time/commercial constraint. Now the XL Version is in development for years under no constraint...

and with no profit incentive.. doh!

 

Yeah, that's probably what is slowing it down so much...! =-)

 

Nah, it's not even vaguely fair to compare a C64 version of a game written twenty odd years ago to an A8 game still in development that needs extra memory to run (the C64 version is a single load), has had as many years as the C64 version had months in development and, from what Sheddy has said, is reliant on the vastly improved toolsets that are available now.

 

The assemblers we've got these days just toast the tools available in the 1980's, even the cross assemblers that some companies utilised were fiddly and difficult to work with - during a visit to System 3, i watched Chris Butler who wrote the C64 version of Space Harrier assembling Turbocharge for testing and even that rig (which was impressive as hell at the time since the receive software was loaded into an Expert cartridge's RAM so it didn't take any space from the C64 and could be triggered with a tap of the restore key) wasn't much less clunky than the homebrew solution i was using at the time.

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Space Harrier.

 

I believe a port of this game was underway for the Atari 8-bit. See http://www.sheddyshack.co.uk/

 

Was it ever done on the C64?

 

Yes, it exists on C64 :

 

but it has been developped in few month under time/commercial constraint. Now the XL Version is in development for years under no constraint...

 

It's also a single, 64K load on the C64 whilst Sheddy's version is taking just a tad more memory... =-)

 

It certainly isn't a fair comparison, and I wouldn't recommend rewriting it for the C64 either for comparison purposes. It'd be a huge amount of work. Art assets alone, if done properly, take more than 2000 frames since we can't scale in real time...

 

It's a shame though. The C64 (and other computer) versions could have been so much better if Elite Systems hadn't been in such a rush to just cash in. I just remember being very disappointed at the time, even with the Amiga version: All their Space Harrier "conversions" give nothing more than a cut down flavour of a couple of stages of the original arcade game. Now I'm not saying that isn't a good idea given the sheer size of the original game, but with a disk version or multi-load it could have been a lot closer. The Japanese console versions were much better than any of the computer versions IMHO

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It certainly isn't a fair comparison, and I wouldn't recommend rewriting it for the C64 either for comparison purposes. It'd be a huge amount of work. Art assets alone, if done properly, take more than 2000 frames since we can't scale in real time...

 

Plus you're running at 160x96 if memory serves, the C64 hasn't a direct relation to that mode so it'd need to render twice as much data per frame... with a RAM expansion it's possible, on stock with just a cartridge or multiload it wouldn't be.

 

The Japanese console versions were much better than any of the computer versions IMHO

 

i agreed up until there matey, the only version i thought was worth the cash was on the 32X and it's the reason i owned that mushroom-shaped thing in the first place. =-)

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i agreed up until there matey, the only version i thought was worth the cash was on the 32X and it's the reason i owned that mushroom-shaped thing in the first place. =-)

 

snap! that's why my brother Nick and I got one too. It was the definitive version at the time, and it darn well should be given that they're running the original code! Before the 32X, the NEC PC Engine and Sharp X68000 ones were the pick of the bunch.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

Well, let's compare?

 

C64 vs Atari 800XL

 

C64 to the left and Atari to the right

 

You can right away see that the colours are much more clean on the Atari. On games like koronis rift the Atari version is superior. When C64 often used one colour the Atari version was multicolored, like in MR Robot for exemple. The Antic chip let Atari produce graphical effects that was inpossible to do on other 8bit computers.

 

For at quick peek, check the attachment. Then check out these screenshot maps. You can't really argue against that Atari 800 XL had the better graphics thanks to better hardware support.

 

atari-vs-commodore-1-png.pngPNG, 669x2256px, 130 KB (0.13 MB)

 

atari-vs-commodore-2-png.pngPNG, 732x2130px, 121 KB (0.12 MB)

 

atari-vs-commodore-3-png.pngPNG, 668x1500px, 93 KB (0.09 MB)

 

atari-vs-commodore-4-png.pngPNG, 732x2555px, 148 KB (0.14 MB)

post-26152-127191302027_thumb.png

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