STE Game Dev - AGT

[dml]

I don't know if I ever posted in here about the project, but I have been working on an STE game engine called 'AGT' for a number of years now and have slowly put together a YT playlist showing some of the example projects.

 

(If you also read AtariForum this is probably old news, so this is for the benefit of AA readers mainly)

 

 

The source for many of these samples are in the engine repository already, some are new and still being finished/cleaned up. The project can be found on bitbucket as a GIT repo and Wiki resource:

 

https://bitbucket.org/d_m_l/agtools/src/master/

 

The engine is coded in 68k of course and uses the Blitter & other STE hardware features.

 

AGT is really aimed at programmers with a bit of C experience who are interested in working on Atari games but don't want to spend weeks or months developing optimised 68k routines to do the most common tasks on STE hardware. It can't necessarily support every kind of game equally well (certainly not 3D games!) - but it does capture most of the things you'd need to implement a 2D scrolling shooter, platformer, puzzle game or maybe even a tilemap-oriented RPG.

 

 

The game dev side is intended to be C or C++ based. All the samples are coded in C (or 'light C++' for some engine features). Objects on the screen are abstracted through entity objects & viewports which can be given behaviour and interaction rules & responses. With these building blocks you can code up most aspects of your game idea fairly quickly. While writing games is never easy, this does let you get ideas off the ground quickly. It also leaves enough room for you to code things outwith the engine mechanisms where necessary, if handled with care.

 

There are some custom tools provided to convert art assets to use in the engine - different kinds of sprites, backgrounds and palettes.

 

The toolchain uses Vincent's GCC 4.6.4 compiler (although it has integration for BrownELF GCC 6.2 & 7.1 as well) and ggn's RMAC assembler for 68k for the internal stuff.

 

AGT development has generally required Cygwin running under Windows but has recently been updated to work under Linux (using WINE for some of the tools), WSL/Ubuntu Linux and to a lesser extent MacOS (which needs a native version of some of the tools to run under Catalina, which doesn't allow 32bit or WINE stuff to run now).

 

 

This project is an ongoing work-in-progress and sometimes has rough edges. The Wiki is always behind the engine by a couple of steps. The samples aren't all super tidy or consistent. However I do maintain & support it, fixing bugs, adding features etc.

 

 

If you're thinking of kicking off a game on Atari STE, this might be worth a look ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Great contribution Douglas ? I'm sure that someone of C programmers will find it useful, and maybe we will see some new STE game, or some conversion using this engine. Especially in this 'stay home' (without 'please') days.

[+DarkLord]

Been following this thread at Atari-Forum and watching the demos.

 

Amazing stuff! That's all I can say.   

 

[jefffulton]

Simply amazing! 

[ataricrypt]

Astounding potential as I've commented many times AGT sure looks jawwwww-dropping and like nothing else! Fingers are still crossed....

[masteries]

Atari Game Tools are great tools to create content (mainly games    ) for Atari STE, with excellent video hardware libraries and map/sprite tools.

Other users reported that Falcon computer is also compatible.

 

The Metal slug demo clone uses AGT + a 3 voices PCM audio mixer.

DML, the AGT´s author provides excellent support; for both AGT usage and 68k coding as well (the audio mixer works thanks to his support!).

 

 

[sunn]

Maybe Gradius OST could serve as an inspiration for coders. Gradius would be a dream come true for me. As Ste shares the sound chip with MSX we could have authentic MSX music and everything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTj2Nfl0UYA

 

Just one wish: please support standard joystick.

 

Further inspiration: Amiga crowd already got Tinyus.

Edited April 11, 2022 by sunn