Santa's Xmas Caper

[Sak]

It is always sad to see christmas time coming around and yet, not having a great ST port of Amiga's best christmas game, the Santa's Xmas Caper. I was always wondering why the Atari ST version never came out for this catchy christmas themed game. We see all kinds of remakes and personally I would love to see this great game coming to the ST. Am I the only one having this wish?

 

 

 

I want this in my ST screen, is that too much to ask Santa?

 

 

 

[ggn]

I'm sure asking about it 2 days before Christmas is going to make it happen .

[Sak]

I'm sure asking about it 2 days before Christmas is going to make it happen .

 

Hehe, true, but you know, the red caped chubby guy usually makes flights around the 25th date mark! Who knows what lurks in his bag!

 

Seriously, it is usually (and apparently late as you correctly state!) this time of year that I get a bit of free time, and I manage to have a few hours available to plug in my ST and give it a go, and the usual question comes in mind "If only I had this version on my ST". I have the chance to play it on winuae, but ahhhhh... the real ST thing!

[ggn]

Well, jokes aside... I've never even seen this game so I had to look it up.

 

Is the source code and assets available somewhere? Porting a game requires usually a lot of work and having to reverse engineer it from another platform just adds tons of stuff on the todo list! Also, people usually prefer to do original stuff than get stuck in with other people's code .

 

Finally, seeing as it's a simple horizontal scrolling platformer game maybe you could be interested in Stario's Christmas instead? .

[Sak]

The vice versa scenario occured on Super Sprint, Joust and Gauntlet for the Atari ST being ported to the Amiga recently, so I guess there are people that love having versions on both machines and are capable of doing so. And granted, the ST porting to the Amiga is relatively easy because there is no tech boundary on the Amiga side, it can deliver anything from the ST (maybe compromised a bit speedwise on polygon games like Starglider, but you know what I mean). I am sure an ST version of Santa's Xmas Caper could be ported to the ST, with the necessary sacrifices. Maybe someone that deals with this kind of conversions can give us more details if this is feasible.

 

The Stario Christmas is an ok game but a joke in comparison to SXC.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I looked YouTube video of it. Apart from bigger vertical res. it should be not hard to port to STE. But game just does not seems as something special. Pretty much average.

Try Potsworth & Co. - right now on ST - good scroll, 6 huge maps played with different characters and different skills. Not easy one, but there is trainer, selectable start level ...

[ggn]

The vice versa scenario occured on Super Sprint, Joust and Gauntlet for the Atari ST being ported to the Amiga recently, so I guess there are people that love having versions on both machines and are capable of doing so. And granted, the ST porting to the Amiga is relatively easy because there is no tech boundary on the Amiga side, it can deliver anything from the ST (maybe compromised a bit speedwise on polygon games like Starglider, but you know what I mean). I am sure an ST version of Santa's Xmas Caper could be ported to the ST, with the necessary sacrifices. Maybe someone that deals with this kind of conversions can give us more details if this is feasible.

 

The Stario Christmas is an ok game but a joke in comparison to SXC.

I didn't argue about feasibility - it looks quite possible to do. The only thing I questioned is that given that it's not a well known game a) why should anyone invest the hours to port it (and by that I mean disassembling the code, ripping the graphics and sound, removing all amiga specific code and replacing it with ST/STE friendly code), b) If at least the assets for the game can be found somewhere to save some time.

 

Unless this wasn't a serious request and more like a "wouldn't it be nice if the ST had ____" thread, in which case I was totally off the mark and I apologise .

[Fletch]

I didn't argue about feasibility - it looks quite possible to do. The only thing I questioned is that given that it's not a well known game a) why should anyone invest the hours to port it (and by that I mean disassembling the code, ripping the graphics and sound, removing all amiga specific code and replacing it with ST/STE friendly code), b) If at least the assets for the game can be found somewhere to save some time.

 

Unless this wasn't a serious request and more like a "wouldn't it be nice if the ST had ____" thread, in which case I was totally off the mark and I apologise .

Ggn,

 

I don't think I ever said thanks for your awesome Downfall port for the Falcon. So.... thanks!

 

-Pete

Edited December 23, 2015 by Fletch

[Sak]

@ ggn.. it is more of a wishful thinking rather than a calling to arms. It is a great game (watching it on video does not do it justice) and arguably the best christmas themed one (ok, christmas lemmings too!).

 

@ ParanoidLittleMan.. Potsworth and Co is a great game, more complex and definitely more demanding. I guess we all have our personal favourites, so my wish still stands for an Atari St version of Santa's Xmas Caper.. the festive tune, the colors galore, simple but effective gameplay.. take my word and give it a go on winuae (or real Amiga if you have one) and I am sure you will be looking for it each December!

Edited December 23, 2015 by Sak