Randy California Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Quick and stupid question: how "easy" is it to convert C64 code to Atari? Could anything be done with C64 source code from games? ++ RC ++ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Depends on how well the game logic is isolated from the graphics code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Generally speaking the code's the same, it's just how it gets presented to the outside world that differs. But that difference is something that needs to be allowed for, for example C64 sprite sizes are different (wider but without the option of being as tall) and a lot of games take that for granted. For puzzle games (especially those based on a character screen) it's theoretically quite easy to just pull the game logic apart and rejig it, for action games it gets more difficult... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy California Posted August 4, 2003 Author Share Posted August 4, 2003 Source code from Hagar the Horrible and the newly-released Team Patrol seem to be available. Just wondering if they could be used somehow... Does anybody know how some games were converted from the C64 to the Atari? Check the following games from Mirage Software and the C64 originals: - Operation Blood => Operation Wolf - Special Forces => Operation Hanoi - Ship => Acia - Bang! Bank! => West Bank - Dark Abyss => Task III ++ RC ++ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Being a shoot-em-up fan i noticed Dark Abyss and there are a few more like Humanoid (graphics from Subterranea), Oxygene (backgrounds and main sprite from Uridium), Guard (sprites and possibly background from Tangent) and i'm reasonably sure Lowca is ported graphics too although i don't recognise from where. As to how they're done, i expect the graphics data (and map in some cases) were pulled from the C64 and ported and new code written around them - there have been extensive changes made to the gameplay to allow for the hardware differences. As for using Hagar or Team Patrol's source, TP possibly (and it could even support four joysticks on the Atari without the interface!) but i think Hagar is fairly hardware dependant... =-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 btw... here is a space harrier title screen done in TIP... sorry for the quality but this time it was not taken from emulator but from real machine with digicam... hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 @ TMR check your email... i have some bad news for you... @ emkay yes i know... these pics are "ugly"... but make it better... they went straight through the TQA TIP converter without repainting by our artists and where just a test for sheddy.... hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 and emkay... why are you not taking our TIP PC paint program we used for NUMEN (i posted it somewhere here on atariage... search for my posts and TIP) and draw something extraordinary??? hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 @ TMR check your email... i have some bad news for you... Yeah, just did... thanks for testing the stuff for me. Heresy only works on an emulator, for some reason we're getting distortion in the RMT music and the PMG overlays are still showing up on the real machine so i'm "officially" writing the thing off as a learning experience and not releasing it. i seem to have cycled partly back to "game mode" - today was spent upgrading the Plus/4 work-in-progress of Reaxion and thinking about the possibilities for converting to the Atari; it'd be dead easy to do a four colour port but i'm not entirely happy with that idea... =-) www.cosine.org.uk/games_reaxion_extended.html to see the C64 version, it won't be as colourful and some of the background graphics will need redesigning but fingers crossed it'll look nice. i've had a few other ideas too, just not sure if they're really practical so i need to do a few experiments... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Yeah, just did... thanks for testing the stuff for me. Heresy only works on an emulator, for some reason we're getting distortion in the RMT music and the PMG overlays are still showing up on the real machine so i'm "officially" writing the thing off as a learning experience and not releasing it. Man, I wish I had more time. I'd like to look at it and figure out where your snags are. I've discovered that the emulator is more forgiving on some things than the real thing. I had a screen 'jump' problem on the XL that I couldn't figure out (the emu didn't do it). Finally I discovered that a WSYNC in my code was happening on the same line as a DLI, and sometimes it would delay processing the interrupt. You can't get rid of the PMG overlays. If you use PMG's over a high-rez mode, you're going to see it affect both light and dark pixels. All you can do is shape the overlay to fit the graphics underneath. Can we at least hear the RMT tune Heaven likes so much? -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 You can't get rid of the PMG overlays. If you use PMG's over a high-rez mode, you're going to see it affect both light and dark pixels. All you can do is shape the overlay to fit the graphics underneath. On the emulator the dark shades show up as so close they're not visible (i tuned the colours to find matches) but on the real machine they're far more obvious. I shaped some of the PMGs and got rid of a lot of it but there's a limit to what i can do and i can't even see the problem to fix it! [shrug] Anyway, it taught me a bit about the Atari so that gets passed on to the next project when i decide what it may be... =-) i sort of feel like doing a game of some sort, a puzzler probably... Can we at least hear the RMT tune Heaven likes so much? Hmm, a bit dubious about giving it out until we find out what's causing the distortion on the RMT driver... Since i sent Heaven another RMT tune by Sack and he assembled the driver around it, i know it's not me arsing things up! =-) The tune has been passed on to another project already, so it'll be released with that when we're happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 @ TMR can you send me the RMT source file? i would like to pass it to radek (coder of RMT) to double check... @ bryde nothing can beat the real thing... this is what i have learned from this lesson... even my simple intro for abbuc was running perfect on emulator but was totally fucked up on my 130xe.... do not know why...could be corrupt ATR, boot-loader or whatever... hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 @ TMR you could leave the PMs right and top of the face... because the others where fine (around the pentagram)... not satisfied??? i'll test tomorrow evening the 2nd intro... hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 @ TMR you could leave the PMs right and top of the face... because the others where fine (around the pentagram)... not satisfied??? i'll test tomorrow evening the 2nd intro... hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Ive got my SIO2PC hooked up to my 130XE. If you want anything checked or double checked on the real deal feel free to send it my way. I also have an 800, 800XL and XEGS just in case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 TMR, For fun, I'll run Reaxion and see what I think is the best way to do the gfx. Are there only the 2 tile colors shown in the game? -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 For fun, I'll run Reaxion and see what I think is the best way to do the gfx. Are there only the 2 tile colors shown in the game? [Nods] Yes, "off" and "on" states. What i've been trying to get my head around is being able to copy the player craft from the original without having to sacrifice so many players that i can't use a couple to mask the circuit board on the left to add some colour... i think i have a solution, but i've not tested anything yet and it relies in part on the Plus/4 rejig of the graphics (attached below). =-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 We should have a contest to see who can code a Reaxion screen closest to the 64 version. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheddy Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Dare I say it......but.... overlaid expanded players could work quite well on the tiles on the right (combined with usual char graphics)??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Dare I say it......but....overlaid expanded players could work quite well on the tiles on the right (combined with usual char graphics)??? That's what I'm thinking... Turn PRIOR off, and you could mix a solid player color with the existing shades of gray in the palette. Use PF3 (high char bit in Antic M4) for the green PCB on the left. DLI's could create the colors moving in the score. Hummm.... Basically, if TMR defined the data space for the tiles, the target sprite X,Y, & the scores/time displays, the game could be dropped into a working screen kernel. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 To take back to memories... here a MCS Screenshot again. In addition, it is possible (like Bryede mentioned) to add mixed colors by prior settings... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 We should have a contest to see who can code a Reaxion screen closest to the 64 version. i have an advantage, i've got all the service code for the rest of the game... =-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 Dare I say it......but....overlaid expanded players could work quite well on the tiles on the right (combined with usual char graphics)??? That's what I'm thinking... Turn PRIOR off, and you could mix a solid player color with the existing shades of gray in the palette. Use PF3 (high char bit in Antic M4) for the green PCB on the left. DLI's could create the colors moving in the score. Hummm.... Basically, if TMR defined the data space for the tiles, the target sprite X,Y, & the scores/time displays, the game could be dropped into a working screen kernel. i've got a scheme [manic laughter] erm... idea similar, except i'm probably not planning as many colours - i think i've got seven right now but i'm still examining options... i did think about using expanded players to colour the play area but it'd take three to do that so i couldn't think of a good way to get the player sprite onscreen as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 i did think about using expanded players to colour the play area but it'd take three to do that so i couldn't think of a good way to get the player sprite onscreen as well. Well, that all depends... You've got Player and their Missiles. This gives you up to 80 pixels with 2 players. If you really want to be sneaky, move a player in mid line. I'm sure with enough work it could get really close. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 making P0,P1 a multicolor player leaving you p2,p3,p4 (all 4 missles grouped together to the 5th player) so your neded 3? hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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