A8 Elite (Acornsoft):The UK Press Claims-What is the real story here?.

[Avram]

Gotcha. I remember New Atari User had a feature on Zeppelin Games' making of Blinky's Scary School but that's all I've ever come across with that company.

[Lost Dragon]

There was also a look at Zepplin Games and Tynesoft along with Making Of..Draconus i seem to recal in Atari User Magazine back in the day.

Sorry to say, all A8 (and Jaguar/Lynx) interviews i had out are now off (just emailed 10 people to let them know), as the results are simply no longer worth the sheer amount of time it takes to do these things.

I've a few i need in for articles Unseen64/GTW are working on, but that's it from myself.In hindsight it was stupid of me to take more on at a time i was meant to be winding down and finishing off existing ones.

Sorry guys, but Lost A8 games research will have to come from someone else.

[Jetboot Jack]

I have sent John an enquiry about Green Beret etc, no reply yet :-p

 

sTeVE

[Lost Dragon]

Very much appreciated sTeVE.

 

I've had someone do something similar with another Lost A8 game on my behalf, recently, but again there nothing heard back from yet...

 

Plus i've had questions sat with another key Atari player for a few months now, nothing heard there either, despite a few follow up emails.

 

Often turns out to be the case, or was in the past, where contact would be made, questions put, but nothing ever heard from again.

 

Appreciated you taking the time on my behalf, what ever the outcome.

[Lost Dragon]

Thread bump, but this can finally be put to rest (and i cannot believe i'd had the info in front of me all this bloody time, DOH!).

From the 'You ask the questions' section of a feature on David Braben from RetroGamer Magazine

Dave Braben admits that not only was Star Raiders NOT an infulence on Elite, but neither he nor Ian Bell, could afford an A800......

Then question is asked:

Q)Was there an Atari 800 version (of Elite) commissioned?

DB:No, though we did want to do one.But i think by 1984 it was low on the lost, sadly.We had our work cut out doing versions of Elite, both Ian and i, and a number of very dilligent contractors working with our ugly code on 17 different platforms!'.

Guess that's yet another case closed.

[José Pereira]

Thread bump, but this can finally be put to rest (and i cannot believe i'd had the info in front of me all this bloody time, DOH!).

 

From the 'You ask the questions' section of a feature on David Braben from RetroGamer Magazine

 

Dave Braben admits that not only was Star Raiders NOT an infulence on Elite, but neither he nor Ian Bell, could afford an A800......

 

Then question is asked:

 

Q)Was there an Atari 800 version (of Elite) commissioned?

 

DB:No, though we did want to do one.But i think by 1984 it was low on the lost, sadly.We had our work cut out doing versions of Elite, both Ian and i, and a number of very dilligent contractors working with our ugly code on 17 different platforms!'.

 

Guess that's yet another case closed.

Too sad but that's ok as an unfinished version in the Elite case would be equal to nothing. And a w.i.p. we already have by Wratchild.

By the way did you had another conversation with... in what we talked?

Edited November 27, 2015 by José Pereira

[tschak909]

How about one of the two ports that was started be...oh, I don't know... finished?

 

-Thom

[Lost Dragon]

Not perhaps the news i wanted to hear, but at least it's cleared up a lot of rumours over the years and can be seen as giving closure to yet another big name, missing A8 game.

 

Still kicking myself for not spooting it months ago :-)

 

Full credit to RG Magazine here though.I've more often than not been critical when they've interviewed big names and not put the Q's i wanted, which could of cleared up issue of what happened with.....?

 

But here they came through in style.

 

@Jose:PM me and jog my memory please :-).

 

I've been busy looking in lost game claims for various sites (ST Chuck Rock 2, Saturn/CDi Heart Of Darkness etc) i'm not quite sure what conversation you refer to here..have an idea A8 coder?

[Wrathchild]

RG Magazine have made a mistake in this month's edition (Conversion Capers - page 26) as they only listed the Parker Brothers version of Star Wars and left out the Domark Atari 8-bit version.

[Lost Dragon]

That's odd as i'm sure in previous articles they have mentioned Ian Copeland's conversion for Zeppelin Games, which Domark published on the A8.

 

I've not read RG Magazine in many a month, who did the article? maybe it's a simple oversight or maybe the writer simply was'nt aware of the Domark version?.

 

That's been the case before with cross-platform articles, ie System 3's Myth..Article pitched as a Making Of..the ZX Spectrum version, then they've been asked to re-write to cover ALL formats.

 

Writer not aware of C64 cart version, NES version included by Editor and false information supplied from System 3 (in this case that ST version was finished/released).

[Wrathchild]

It was odd as they did have a "version 1" and "version 2" distinguished for the C64, so most likely an oversight.

Despite that, a nice guide to Star Wars and a great separate interview with Mike Hally on his career.

[Lost Dragon]

Sounds like an oversight, they've cropped up before (i seem to recal Lynx Pac-Land missing from a Conversions box-out a while back when they looked at the coin-op).

Doubt many posters on RG Forum will mind, never seemed to be many exactly screaming for more A8 coverage when i was a subscriber to the magazine :-)

[Irgendwer]

Not sure if this insight was posted already (and I'm to lazy to browse if this is really new), but in the German e-book

 

"Lenhardts Spielejahr 1984" ( http://lenhardt.net/buch/- kindle link, but also available as epub)

 

is a quite interesting interview with David Braben (the book is a good read anyway!).

 

In the interview also the "Elite" port from the BBC to C64 is discussed and the problem that the BBC is two times faster than the C64.

Braben replies that in comparison, the C64 had so much more memory which he used to fasten the time consuming calculation of the projections, which is in the C64 version 10 times faster. The use of logarithm tables speed up the calculations enormously.

Furthermore, the BBC version has to do the calculations of the projections twice: One for drawing, and one for clearing. The C64 version caches the points and saves this way a lot of time too.

He tells, that he also optimized the line drawing routines - depending on the angles - on the C64, gaining 15-20 percent speed.

Braben explains he traded memory for speed (the BBC version has to fit in 22k), and used C64 sprites for particle effects and was able to add the waltz music and find a way to reduce the flicker.

 

Why I'm telling this? It seems that the C64 version is be a better source for a port that the BBC original. Maybe Marius can be motivated to have a look, even some sprites are in use...

Edited November 28, 2015 by Irgendwer

[Wrathchild]

The C64 is better suited, in that version they altered the projection model slightly to include the console on the single display whereas the BBC had a greater y-resolution (see Just For Fun).

 

The C64 port was blocked on the replacement of the key scan routine and it should be easy enough to lift the one I implemented for the BBC across to unblock this and move forward, so if anyone does want to collaborate then get in touch.

 

Follow the links on post #38 on this thread for most of the history.

[mariuszw]

The C64 is better suited, in that version they altered the projection model slightly to include the console on the single display whereas the BBC had a greater y-resolution (see Just For Fun).

 

The C64 port was blocked on the replacement of the key scan routine and it should be easy enough to lift the one I implemented for the BBC across to unblock this and move forward, so if anyone does want to collaborate then get in touch.

 

Follow the links on post #38 on this thread for most of the history.

 

I have drop-in replacement for C64 keyboard reading routine. It accepts input value written to $dc00 as input and produces value returned by reading $dc01, so you do not need to change surrounding C64 code.

 

I am interested to take a look at what has been done in C64 port of Elite and collaborate eventually.

 

Mariusz.

[Tezz]

It would be perfect for you both to collaborate on this. We could finally see Elite on the A8

[Heaven/TQA]

Aaaah.... He reduced the flicker on the c64 version??? ok....

 

But yeah... Do the c64 port please

[Wrathchild]

The reduction of flicker done on the C64 by avoiding tearing by not drawing when the raster is in the display window. I didn't employ that in the demo and hence the A8 would be OK in the end.

[Heaven/TQA]

Elite on c64 pal always flickered as far as I remember?

[Irgendwer]

The reduction of flicker done on the C64 by avoiding tearing by not drawing when the raster is in the display window. I didn't employ that in the demo and hence the A8 would be OK in the end.

 

I try to translate that passage from the interview:

 

DB: ..."If you take a C64 emulator and freeze the game, you will notice that always a part of the space-ship is visible. We draw and clear the ship one line after the other. Contrary to the BBC version, where we draw and clear always the complete ship. So there is a moment, where it is black in whole - and that's the reason, that the BBC version seem to flicker more."