GroovyBee Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 I was bored yesterday evening so I took the source code for the ST version of Star Raiders (provided by Curt Vendel) from here and started porting it over to the jag :- I've spent about 10 hours on it so far. The majority of that time was spent converting the original assembler file format to smac format and fixing the resultant assembler errors, warnings and linker issues. The source code is 26+ years old (copyrighted 85/86) so I knew it wasn't going to be an easy ride. The graphics are not reworked for the jag at all . TOM does real time planar to chunky pixel conversion from the game's graphics bitmap back buffer. It was far easier and much more interesting to do it on TOM than convert all the graphics to jag native format. It runs at a good speed on my PAL jaguar. However, I don't currently have an ST set up to compare it against. There is still a little bit of work to do because the keyboard controls on the original game need mapping to the jag pad as does the ability to select the game's difficulty. The game is hard wired to play as "novice" at the moment, which isn't much of a challenge. The sound is missing as well. I'm not sure what to do about that because I'm not particularly interested in doing an emulation of the ST's sound chip on the jag's DSP. I'll be updating the thread as the game progresses. 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Nicely done. It's satisfying taking a program from one old system and getting it to work on another. I used on-the-fly conversion of graphics data by the blitter when I did the A8/VBXE conversion of Quadrillion from the C= Plus4. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Liking it! I was not much of a fan of the ST Star Raiders (being more of a Atari 8 fan myself) but I think I would love this on the Jaguar. I generally tend to like ports more on the Jaguar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACrystal2011 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Awesome!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Probably be better than the PS3 version! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Insane! I love it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) Probably be better than the PS3 version! Oh my gawd.... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING when they made the new Star Raiders? The movie files I have seen of that are very lackluster. Actually, new Star Raiders was for the PS3 and not the Xbox 360? At least I had a good deal of fun playing ST Star Raiders (I always dreamed of making a ST cart to add to my Star Raiders collection. I still have the ST floppy of the game even though all other ST equipment aside from Spectre has been exorcised from my house). But yeh ST Star Raiders was fun. Always liked it when you came out of hyperspace and it would say "186,000 miles per second for lightspeed. It's the law." or something goofy like that. Edited October 17, 2012 by doctorclu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Looks great. Just wondering - now you're at this stage, how difficult would it be for 'someone' to take the ST graphics, pretty them up in Photoshop (256 colour, 16 bit colour, whatever) or even recreate them entirely (ensuring the same spatial resolution so that the game doesn't 'know' that they are updated graphics) and then reincorporate them into the game? Hypothetically speaking of course, but just wondering if that's a feasible option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Nicely done. Liking it! Insane! I love it. Thanks for the compliments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OBO Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 You definitely should get bored more often 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Looks great. Thanks for the compliment. Just wondering - now you're at this stage, how difficult would it be for 'someone' to take the ST graphics, pretty them up in Photoshop (256 colour, 16 bit colour, whatever) or even recreate them entirely (ensuring the same spatial resolution so that the game doesn't 'know' that they are updated graphics) and then reincorporate them into the game? Hypothetically speaking of course, but just wondering if that's a feasible option. To use higher colour depth graphics than 4BPP I'd need to put the sprites onto the jag's Object Processor to keep the speed up. To adapt the existing code that much I'd need to understand it much better than I do at the moment. I've already had an offer of improved graphics for the game but I've turned it down. If I was a serious Star Raiders fan I'd probably revamp it big style, but I'm not, so it is what it is I'm afraid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 You definitely should get bored more often I need a sign saying "Dangerous when bored". Hmmmmm...... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I have the St version I like more that A8 version it's a nice update to boot! :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 IIRC this has some GEM menus. How do you plan to implement them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 IIRC this has some GEM menus. How do you plan to implement them? They don't really do much so I'll be using the pad numbers to select the difficulty from the title page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Losbjer Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Is it possible to obtain the image files somewhere for this? I would love to try touching them up just for fun even if it won't be used! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Is it possible to obtain the image files somewhere for this? I would love to try touching them up just for fun even if it won't be used! The game's images are all hard coded in the source as loads of ".dc.w $xxxx, $nnnn, ..." statements. To convert to *.bmp format a tool would need to be written to change the graphics from 4BPP ST planar to 8BPP chunky pixels. Its not a difficult tool to write but unfortunately its not on my radar for this game. In my mind it'd be better to spend that time on an ST YM sound chip emulator running on the jag's DSP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Losbjer Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 What a shame, it looks like a game that would be really fun and quite easy to touch-up. Well well it's really great to see people doing conversions, there's probably lots of abandoned games that people could pick up and convert. If I would have the programming skills I would too. Keep up the good work! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagChris Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 The game's images are all hard coded in the source as loads of ".dc.w $xxxx, $nnnn, ..." statements. To convert to *.bmp format a tool would need to be written to change the graphics from 4BPP ST planar to 8BPP chunky pixels. Its not a difficult tool to write but unfortunately its not on my radar for this game. In my mind it'd be better to spend that time on an ST YM sound chip emulator running on the jag's DSP. Perhaps if you started a thread in the programming section with requests for help in these areas someone else could pick up the torch in that area. It cant hurt to try. Wish I was skilled enough to help you. On another note, this is great stuff! Especially for those of us who never owned an ST!!! I almost bought one last month at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo! Its a good thing I lost my check card or I woulda spent myself into the poorhouse! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Perhaps if you started a thread in the programming section with requests for help in these areas someone else could pick up the torch in that area. It cant hurt to try. Wish I was skilled enough to help you. I'm not sure what you think I should request help with. If somebody wants to convert the bitmap data in the game they can. All they need to do is get the *.zip file from the link in the first post and figure out the sprite sizes and then write a converter. That project could be done in any high level language like PERL or "C". In fact, it'd be a good project for somebody like yourself to take on. However its not something I need to do in order to complete the project. Similarly if anybody wants to write a YM sound chip emulator on the jag's DSP they can. That is a very interesting project for anybody wanting to get to grips with GPU/DSP code in a real world application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagChris Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I'm not sure what you think I should request help with. If somebody wants to convert the bitmap data in the game they can. All they need to do is get the *.zip file from the link in the first post and figure out the sprite sizes and then write a converter. That project could be done in any high level language like PERL or "C". In fact, it'd be a good project for somebody like yourself to take on. However its not something I need to do in order to complete the project. You know what, I think I'll look into this. Thanks for your work GB! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+rdemming Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Similarly if anybody wants to write a YM sound chip emulator on the jag's DSP they can. That is a very interesting project for anybody wanting to get to grips with GPU/DSP code in a real world application. The ST-Sound source code is available which could be a starting point to convert to DSP code if anyone would be interested. But as far as I remember the sound of ST Star Raiders is not so good so better replace it with samples. But an YM DSP player would be great for all those great Mad-Max/Count Zero/Scavenger/Tao/etc. tunes. Robert 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 The ST-Sound source code is available which could be a starting point to convert to DSP code if anyone would be interested. But as far as I remember the sound of ST Star Raiders is not so good so better replace it with samples. But an YM DSP player would be great for all those great Mad-Max/Count Zero/Scavenger/Tao/etc. tunes. Thanks for the link. Looks to be an interesting integer based implementation (ideal for DSPs without a floating point unit like the jags). What is the sound quality like in your opinion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 I didn't get much done yesterday. I've added the font into the game and now you can select the starting difficulty using 1-3 to select between Pilot, Warrior and Commander. Pressing fire button B still starts you at Novice level. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+rdemming Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Thanks for the link. Looks to be an interesting integer based implementation (ideal for DSPs without a floating point unit like the jags). What is the sound quality like in your opinion? The STSound code is also used in the SainT emulator (one of the best for running games/demos). It also supports advanced YM tricks like SID sound. In my ears it sounds like very like a real ST but my ears also think a 128Kbs MP3 is good quality so that does not say much An alternative is to look at the YM source of the excellent Hatari emulator. It has some influences from STsound but also others. Robert 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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