oky2000 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 If ever there was a game specifically designed to use all the custom chip features of the Amiga it was that game (hence all other versions were inferior). Marble Madness/Defender of the Crown did this too but all other machines in 86/87 were inferior to Amiga 1000 not just different/better in the time of SotB. Is there a similar A8 game it would be impossible to get even one aspect of it better than A8 on a rival system because it didn't have the specific features of A8 custom chips say 5 years after its 1980/79 launch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 The A8 version of Alternate Reality is widely considered to be the best version... I dont know about SUPERIOR to other machines/platforms.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 To an extent you might argue Rescue on Fractalus. Atari had the double advantage of generally faster CPU and the lower spec graphics modes, so you have the double whammy of being able to move more memory around and having to do less of it. Realistically, there have been few games that make extensive use of Atari features if you put it in percentage terms. If you expand that to pre-1990 games, then the list gets even smaller. Atari suffered partially due to not having a large market share for a long period. So in the beginning it was a case of lots of "Lame Apple II ports". Then the C-64 and others come along and few companies could justify doing dedicated development on Atari using it's strengths such that the end result mightn't be reproducable on other platforms. Of course it could be argued that in the end, every platform suffered that kind of thing, with parallel development among several machines you end up making compromises across the board. It continued through the Amiga/ST era. It continues today... with us poor PC owners having to put up with lame cut-down capability games that would have run on our hardware 5 years prior - our shiny new CPUs and graphics cards barely raising a sweat thanks to the game being limited to little more than what the console versions can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 POKE 559,35 and c64 people start crying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 To an extent you might argue Rescue on Fractalus. Atari had the double advantage of generally faster CPU and the lower spec graphics modes, so you have the double whammy of being able to move more memory around and having to do less of it. Realistically, there have been few games that make extensive use of Atari features if you put it in percentage terms. If you expand that to pre-1990 games, then the list gets even smaller. Atari suffered partially due to not having a large market share for a long period. So in the beginning it was a case of lots of "Lame Apple II ports". Then the C-64 and others come along and few companies could justify doing dedicated development on Atari using it's strengths such that the end result mightn't be reproducable on other platforms. Of course it could be argued that in the end, every platform suffered that kind of thing, with parallel development among several machines you end up making compromises across the board. It continued through the Amiga/ST era. It continues today... with us poor PC owners having to put up with lame cut-down capability games that would have run on our hardware 5 years prior - our shiny new CPUs and graphics cards barely raising a sweat thanks to the game being limited to little more than what the console versions can do. Very few games were designed around the Amiga chipset as extensively as SotB. Complex but powerful machine, as is the A8. A few games do come to mind that use DLIs or specific screen modes. Just asking more experienced users Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilly Willy Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I think Rescue on Fractalus and The Eidolon are the top of the heap for first person games on the A8. Project M will rival them once it's done. For platformers, I think Necromancer is at the top. For shooters, maybe Drop Zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 haha... POKE 559,35 haha... but Atari ST/Speccy/Armstrad, too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Actually, it's Starraiders. Well, the A800 is a machine of the 70s. Try to find something similar on another "Homecomputer" of that age. The next game could have been Koronis Rift. It outdoes every other sytem of THAT time. If there only weren't the Bugs and the misbalanced playability. And , if Atari still was in Progress, a real Ego Shooter would ave found the place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 using all CHIPs? Alternate Reality:The City (not the Dungeon). Ballblazer. Rescue on Fractalus. Rainbow Walker. Koronis Rift. Slotmachine. Schloss Schreckenstein. Dimension X. Flip Flop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 the Synapse games really shine back in those days as they use clever the A8 abbilities compared to others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sack-c0s Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I think you misunderstood the question a little bit - you keep mentioning games that are playable and fun whereas SOTB was neither of those things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted May 17, 2011 Author Share Posted May 17, 2011 Actually, it's Starraiders. Well, the A800 is a machine of the 70s. Try to find something similar on another "Homecomputer" of that age. The next game could have been Koronis Rift. It outdoes every other sytem of THAT time. If there only weren't the Bugs and the misbalanced playability. And , if Atari still was in Progress, a real Ego Shooter would ave found the place. There was just a few sold in December 1979....hardly a machine of the 70s. I would say only speed was a plus point on rescue on fractalus but graphics/sonics not a huge difference and if the Amstrad CPC version was converted properly it should have been similar speed and look to A8 version with 27 colours and 3.5mhz Z80. Eidolon not really a good choice (the C64 routines were much optimized so there is no difference in speed or colours come to it). Star Raiders too was one I was thinking because it has 16 shades of blue....something you can't do on the C64 or A8 or anything else and the explosions sound good etc. Elektraglide is a good one I think, you could not get the C64 version to look anything like that really due to all the lovely DLIs and better choice of colours available on 256 colour palette. What ever happened to Shadow of the Beast A8 port? I think with a lot of DLIs etc it could look really nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted May 17, 2011 Author Share Posted May 17, 2011 I think you misunderstood the question a little bit - you keep mentioning games that are playable and fun whereas SOTB was neither of those things Better than that NES/SNES Mario rubbish shoved in my face Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Oky... have a look at Dimension X, Rainbow Walker, Ballblazer. All of them use Atari specific custom chips or special ways to handle the display. same goes to Alternate Reality:The City (ok. not sure as you could compare the game with Bard's Tale etc on c64). or have a look at Schreckenstein and it's Splitscreen Action... Is there a c64 game doing that in terms of speed and gameplay? http://atari.fandal.cz/search.php?search=schreckenstein&butt_details_x= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted May 17, 2011 Author Share Posted May 17, 2011 Oky... have a look at Dimension X, Rainbow Walker, Ballblazer. All of them use Atari specific custom chips or special ways to handle the display. same goes to Alternate Reality:The City (ok. not sure as you could compare the game with Bard's Tale etc on c64). or have a look at Schreckenstein and it's Splitscreen Action... Is there a c64 game doing that in terms of speed and gameplay? http://atari.fandal.cz/search.php?search=schreckenstein&butt_details_x= I will check those out from home thanks. You can add technicolor dream from Red Rat software really, whilst an Amiga could easily exceed Spectrum 512 on the ST the C64 does not have those screen modes or 256 colour palette. A8 Attack of the mutant camels has a lot of subtle shading on the skyline for the DLI, that part isn't possible without 16 shades of gold or blue etc on other 8 bits. Doesn't help the C64 version looks like a typed in listing from a mentally challenged artist lol I prefer the VCS 2600 version of ESB to that C64 game lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Check then Pitfall 2, Keystone Capers and many Activision titles which are coming from 2600... they all use the DLIs in a nice way. or check Activision's Pastfinder. I prefer the A8 version because of the colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 the Synapse games really shine back in those days as they use clever the A8 abbilities compared to others. Alley Cat a good example of that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 o, yes... definitly Alley Cat... I have to admit that Synapse was a great publisher for the time being as most of their games were technicly outstanding, invented new game play and had good diversity. Same like the first EA titles. hmmm... where are the good games nowadays? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapse_Software Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 What exactly is the secret to "Dimension X"'s "altered perspective scrolling"? There was an area of the display that had an interrupt on every line. During that time a one pixel line that looked like a checkerboard was displayed. The checkerboard bitmap near the bottom was larger (XXXOOOXXXOOOXXX), and near the top was smaller (XOXOXOXOX). This created the illusion of depth. Left and right motion was created using hardware scroll registers. It was very Atari dependent and ultimately caused most of the problems in the design of the game. It was limited and cumbersome to support, but it was cool looking. The original idea for the display came from Stephen Landrum, one of the geniuses I worked with at Starpath. http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/HALES.HTM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Here is a good example of the Antic power. I try to imagine a game that uses this "wave" effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Actually, it's Starraiders. Well, the A800 is a machine of the 70s. Try to find something similar on another "Homecomputer" of that age. The next game could have been Koronis Rift. It outdoes every other sytem of THAT time. If there only weren't the Bugs and the misbalanced playability. And , if Atari still was in Progress, a real Ego Shooter would ave found the place. There was just a few sold in December 1979....hardly a machine of the 70s. LOL The Facts of the timeline were even more interesting. Starraiders -> 1979 ... C64 ->1982. But no possiblitiy on the stock C64 to run this game in a good framerate. What ever happened to Shadow of the Beast A8 port? I think with a lot of DLIs etc it could look really nice. Another candidate for gr. 7 Fullscreen with 128 colours and Digi Music..... Forget the Demo that has been made yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Another candidate for gr. 7 Fullscreen with 128 colours and Digi Music..... Forget the Demo that has been made yet. Emkay it's GR.7 dependant... Emkay I have an idea... that Galactica's 3D ships and Man (could be like SpaceHarrier guy) could be at GR.7 and a 3D like Space Harrier... Why don't you give a help at the Trailer, Gfxs. and the Music... Maybe Sheddy or others will then takes the Project. That would be Think in that Emkay. Seems a perfect one to Emkay&GR.7 (with your Music&Sounds ) José Pereira. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Here is a good example of the Antic power. I try to imagine a game that uses this "wave" effect. Eagle couldn't this be used in some way for a Man and/or Ship in a Space Harrier way? I'll go and see some videos of Galactica... I am not a greater designer, but the Galactica A8 author seems to be. What we really would need is a good one to get the Game Trailer. Probably Emkay and others could be interested... José Pereira. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 another game in mode9 Space Lobster http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=3104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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