X68000 Galaga 88 ported to the Atari Falcon030

[AnimaInCorpore]

How did you manage to get the port done?. Also, why it can't work on another type of Atari computer?. Just interested in the project

Thanks in advance!!!

 

You may take a look at this thread at the Atari-Forum website to learn more about the porting process:

 

http://www.atari-for...hp?f=68&t=24111

 

A first version of a ported game would run on a Atari ST as well but even without any graphic emulation the memory requirement would be 4 MB due to the fact that the memory mapped register space is so big. Emulation of the graphic hardware would add some more megabytes for the video buffers. The reason for the emulation approach is that I don't have to change the original X68000 game code much to get it running on the Atari. In fact, the first running version of PacMania (as shown in the YouTube video) required only less than 20 lines of code changes within the game logic.

 

While working on the emulation layer I learned that the Atari Falcon is an underrated machine even having an unfortunate 16 bit system design. The Videl gives a lot of good options for display configurations and the true color mode is really great for this kind of arcade games. Not optimal but still great.

 

Porting a game to the ST(E) would require many changes within the code. To change the code you have to understand it and this is sometimes... well... hard. At least it would take a lot of time.

 

Cheers

Sascha

[_ThEcRoW]

Thanks for the explanation. It just happens that the x68000 is one of my favourite machines, and seeing a game ported just made me crazy. Will check the link you provided in order to get more info.

By the way, a port for blitter-enhanced ataris would be cool

[Lynxpro]

You may take a look at this thread at the Atari-Forum website to learn more about the porting process:

 

http://www.atari-for...hp?f=68&t=24111

 

A first version of a ported game would run on a Atari ST as well but even without any graphic emulation the memory requirement would be 4 MB due to the fact that the memory mapped register space is so big. Emulation of the graphic hardware would add some more megabytes for the video buffers. The reason for the emulation approach is that I don't have to change the original X68000 game code much to get it running on the Atari. In fact, the first running version of PacMania (as shown in the YouTube video) required only less than 20 lines of code changes within the game logic.

 

While working on the emulation layer I learned that the Atari Falcon is an underrated machine even having an unfortunate 16 bit system design. The Videl gives a lot of good options for display configurations and the true color mode is really great for this kind of arcade games. Not optimal but still great.

 

Porting a game to the ST(E) would require many changes within the code. To change the code you have to understand it and this is sometimes... well... hard. At least it would take a lot of time.

 

Cheers

Sascha

 

 

Very impressive work. I was wondering why it required so much RAM on the Falcon [14MB] when the X68000 shipped with 1MB RAM [albeit with 1MB of Video RAM, err, 512k graphics+32k for sprites] but then you mentioned the emulation factor.

 

Any way of getting the Motorola DSP* to do some "lifting" or even a 68882 co-processor?

 

 

*There's gotta be a way to get the DSP to emulate the Yamaha 2151 sound chip...

[Koji77]

IT's a decade later.... HI!!!!! any updates or new projects... or is a really dead thread:(

 

[JamesWD]

I'm glad you brought this topic back missed it first time round, time to power up the Falcon again . . . . . .