Any hope for a Colecovision version of Galaga in the future using the SGM?

[opcode]

Ok, so

 

1. Check

2. Check

[Pixelboy]

You can't go wrong with Galaga, Eduardo. It's an enduring classic. Who doesn't remember the Galaga cameo in the Avengers movie?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlATaiSuwhM

 

The thing that people will truly appreciate is seeing the action of the arcade game properly and faithfully reproduced on the ColecoVision, even with monochrome aliens. There's something about seeing the aliens appear on the screen and dance in front of the player's ship before going up in formation that makes you go "Yeah, now that's Galaga!". And then it gets even better when you free that previously captured ship and smile gleefully as you start mowing down the next wave of aliens with your newly-acquired twin shots. It's the action that defines Galaga, not the pretty graphics. Just make sure the features and behaviors of the arcade game are all there, and you'll have a hit that people will play over and over again.

[youki]

I would prefer somebody port Galaxian 3 on the CV , i would be lot of more interresting ... and challenging... lol... may be with an Hyper Game Module?

[opcode]

You can't go wrong with Galaga, Eduardo. It's an enduring classic. Who doesn't remember the Galaga cameo in the Avengers movie?

 

Yeah, I saw that. And the funny thing is that they used the MSX version... lol

 

Now that we have come to a decision about the graphic style, monochrome scaled down, it should be easy to port the game, it is gonna run mostly emulated, just like PMC. Games like DKA takes a long time because all the animation stuff that must be emulated, things as simple as DK climbing ladders, jumping sideways and scrolling in the conveyor belt stage take forever to implement because of the massive amount of graphic planning. Galaga on the other hand is even simpler than Arkanoid graphic wise, so most of the work goes on porting the code. And the game is small, just 16KB, using hardware that is similar to Pac-Man, which I am already familiar with...

[Pixelboy]

Now that we have come to a decision about the graphic style, monochrome scaled down, it should be easy to port the game, it is gonna run mostly emulated, just like PMC. Games like DKA takes a long time because all the animation stuff that must be emulated, things as simple as DK climbing ladders, jumping sideways and scrolling in the conveyor belt stage take forever to implement because of the massive amount of graphic planning. Galaga on the other hand is even simpler than Arkanoid graphic wise, so most of the work goes on porting the code. And the game is small, just 16KB, using hardware that is similar to Pac-Man, which I am already familiar with...

Sounds like a winning combination. Too bad Galaga uses more than 1K of RAM.

 

So anyway, perhaps you could put Arkanoid and Penguin Adventure aside and concentrate on Galaga this year, as the other 2014 Opcode release alongside DKA?

[opcode]

Sounds like a good plan, it seems there would be more demand for Galaga than Penguin Adventure or Arkanoid. And besides, I believe we already have enough MSX ports this year.

[CrazyBoss]

And Penguin Adventure will be a hard one 128kb rom..... Might be lucky most of it is DATA and GRAPHICS

[opcode]

Like this...

Edited April 5, 2014 by opcode

[Twin_power]

My two cents.....

 

I'm happy you've given Galaga some more consideration.. The Galata mention in Avengers is funny... Especially to the people who grew up reading the Avengers comics and playing many rounds of Galaga in real Arcades.

 

 

The MSX version is close... . The arcade version is faster with the aliens having more space to fly around.

[Twin_power]

Like this...

I just saw the thumbnail... Thanks for a glimpse...

[+cmart604]

Like this...

Looking good Ed!

[Twin_power]

Galaga....not Galata....

[opcode]

The game is perfectly scaled down 3/4, so it will be much like PMC, running mostly unmodified arcade code, with the frontend doing the magic. We should get as close to the arcade as technically possible with the CV hardware.

[Twin_power]

The beta testers should have some fun with it....

[Twin_power]

I was previewing the Galaga arcade on YouTube and noticed the Galaxian delta wing yellow boss shows up later in the game. Is this aready included in Opcode's version?

[opcode]

If it is in the arcade version, it will be in the SGM version.

[retroillucid]

Like this...

Looking good!

[opcode]

BTW, the MSX video Pixelboy posted is from an European MSX. Actually I believe it was recorded using BlueMSX, which runs in European mode by default (50Hz). Why it doesn't default to a Japanese system is beyond me, but anyways...

 

Here is Galaga MSX running on a Japanese machine:

 

 

Closer to the arcade in speed, but still not perfect. On the other hand, I think it is possible they reduced speed a bit on purpose, to compensate for the Galagans being closer to the player...

[Twin_power]

Noticed something... That staging or when the aliens assemble I was talking about before. On the arcade version when the aliens are In the process of assembling, their initial staging formation moves back and forth horizontally +/- 4 inches ( guess) from center. When the aliens finish assembling their entire formation stops at center screen pulses in and out..... The outer layers look to pulse out almost 2 inches???... Man.... The arcade version us incredibly fast...

 

Got some weird creatures popping up in challenge stages in the 30/40 stages... One looks like the top profile of the science cleass vessel in Star Trek III....USS Grisolm? The other look like a duck with four wings..... Weird stuff.

 

Noticed that the MSX version has the pulsating staging formation; but it is so small you can barely see it. When the aliens are initially staging on the MSX version they don't move back and forth horizontally like the arcade after they find their staging spot. It kind of makes it easier to take the aliens out....

[opcode]

There are any technical considerations for this project.

Galagans will be monochrome, and will have a reduced number of animation frames, from 25 to 9, same as the MSX version. The CV doesn't have enough sprite pattern memory for all the arcade animation frames, nor does it have the mirror and flip bits of the arcade hardware, and loading patterns on the fly like I did in DKA isn't an option here, as the number of Galagans on screen is huge.

My main concern at this point is that the arcade is a beast, with 3 CPUs running in parallel. We are going to find out if the CV CPU can keep up, so that is a risk. In addition to that, the CV CPU will be handling stuff that was done by specialized hardware in the arcade, like the Galagan formation and starfield.

 

So first challenge is to get all 3 CPUs running on the single CV CPU with no slowdown. Then I can think about the frontend, based on how much CPU is left... But again, I am not starting anything until all Team Pixelboy games for this year are done, and both the SGM 2nd run and SGC are behind, which I guess should be around July.

[Pixelboy]

There are any technical considerations for this project.

Galagans will be monochrome, and will have a reduced number of animation frames, from 25 to 9, same as the MSX version. The CV doesn't have enough sprite pattern memory for all the arcade animation frames, nor does it have the mirror and flip bits of the arcade hardware, and loading patterns on the fly like I did in DKA isn't an option here, as the number of Galagans on screen is huge.

My main concern at this point is that the arcade is a beast, with 3 CPUs running in parallel. We are going to find out if the CV CPU can keep up, so that is a risk. In addition to that, the CV CPU will be handling stuff that was done by specialized hardware in the arcade, like the Galagan formation and starfield.

 

So first challenge is to get all 3 CPUs running on the single CV CPU with no slowdown. Then I can think about the frontend, based on how much CPU is left... But again, I am not starting anything until all Team Pixelboy games for this year are done, and both the SGM 2nd run and SGC are behind, which I guess should be around July.

Didn't you create a starfield routine for Moon Cresta? Or was it another game? Perhaps you can use it with Galaga.

 

Anyway, with a starfield, a full formation of tile-based galagans pulsing in and out, and lots of sprites of galagans and shots, in addition to the player's ship and shot sprites, and the tractor beam animation... The CV's CPU is going to overheat, unless the graphic chip burns out first!

[ten-four]

I think the "feelings" will be better if this screen will be changed a little.

 

From this :

 

To this :

[JamesD]

Didn't you create a starfield routine for Moon Cresta? Or was it another game? Perhaps you can use it with Galaga.

 

Anyway, with a starfield, a full formation of tile-based galagans pulsing in and out, and lots of sprites of galagans and shots, in addition to the player's ship and shot sprites, and the tractor beam animation... The CV's CPU is going to overheat, unless the graphic chip burns out first!

I have a hunch the CPU and graphics chip will run at the same temp as if they are just sitting there.

 

 

[Twin_power]

I wonder if the Super Game Cartridge, Opcode talks about in another thread, could be used to boost the memory for all the animations on the actual Galaga arcade? Curious...

[Pixelboy]

I wonder if the Super Game Cartridge, Opcode talks about in another thread, could be used to boost the memory for all the animations on the actual Galaga arcade? Curious...

The ColecoVision doesn't work that way. Nothing within a game cartridge or the SGM can alter the actual capabilities of the video processor inside the CV console. At best, you can use the SGM's RAM as a graphic data buffer, but that's not something that will help with Galaga.