Porting an existing Unity game to the Jag.

[TenBoe]

I have a simple question, difficult to answer (because I'm not into coding at all).

 

Could it be realistic to port a game like "Midnight Scenes" https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279700/Midnight_Scenes_The_Highway_Special_Edition/ to the Atari Jaguar?

It is made with Unity (a Point & Click adventure), so I guess you had to port it from the ground of to the Jag. Is it possible to guess how much time it would take? The game ist very short, it has about 4 - 5 scenes. Would it be possible to use the graphics?

 

Of course it would be with the permission of the dev.

 

I know, this is not easy to answer in general and the fact that I'm not a native speaker in English doesn't help to ask all this correctly, but I guess you know what I mean.

 

Plan is, to license this "Midnight Scene" games and bring them as a collection on cartridge. We would pay someone to port this. But right now im figuring out, if this is realistic for someone and how difficult this would be.

 

Thanks so much for your kind advices.

[JagChris]

Probably need to see an actual video of what you're talking about.

[JagChris]

Ok nm video in the OP link.

 

It's interesting what Indie devs come up with.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by JagChris

[LordKraken]

Based on a quick look at the gameplay video, this looks like an old-school point'n click in low resolution. Nothing the Jaguar cannot handle

 

I have one concern though: What is the point of porting an adventure game on a niche retro-console where most fans prefer by far arcade and action games?

Edited February 5, 2022 by LordKraken

[JagChris]

It looks like something the Lynx could do.

 

A lot may prefer arcade action games but that doesn't mean they wouldn't buy something like this. For instance I'm not a big fan of the japanese role-playing genre or it's graphics. I prefer the western roleplaying style but I still bought Kings of Edom.

 

I'm sure I'd buy this if it came out.

Edited February 6, 2022 by JagChris
Burn in hell autocorrect

[+Gemintronic]

You would need to program your own point & click adventure engine from scratch.  That or port ScummVM and abide by GPL 2.

 

I don't see any huge technical issues with the assets shown in the video.  Er, besides ROM size limitations.  Hopefully you're thinking JagCD.

[JagChris]

37 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

You would need to program your own point & click adventure engine from scratch.  That or port ScummVM and abide by GPL 2.

 

I don't see any huge technical issues with the assets shown in the video.  Er, besides ROM size limitations.  Hopefully you're thinking JagCD.

You don't think that could fit in 4mb? It's in black and white.

[+Gemintronic]

1 minute ago, JagChris said:

You don't think that could fit in 4mb? It's in black and white.

 

I'm guessing there's more to the requirements than we're being told.  Not in an evil way.  Just, the OP mentions "games" so I figured assuming only black and white may be premature.

[SlidellMan]

I think it is doable, but it would require a lot of time to code the engine, play test it to make sure there are no bugs, and add support for the ST/Amiga mice.

[agradeneu]

9 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

You would need to program your own point & click adventure engine from scratch.  That or port ScummVM and abide by GPL 2.

 

I don't see any huge technical issues with the assets shown in the video.  Er, besides ROM size limitations.  Hopefully you're thinking JagCD.

Usuallly all graphics data are packed so there is way more data on a cart than 4 MB.

E.g. Rebooted is 16 MB on a 6 MB cart. Gravitic Mines 30 MB on 6 MB cart. Another World fits into 4MB cart.

 

 

[agradeneu]

10 hours ago, JagChris said:

It looks like something the Lynx could do.

 

 

No comment lol

[42bs]

I think the engine must be carefully designed since there is no mouse for pointing. So if the user interface is not well done people get quick frustrated.

[Clint Thompson]

@TenBoe Not sure what is meant by 4-5 scenes, which sounds more like entire sections but just from what was shown in the video, graphically, doing something like that is very possible on the Jag. Though I'm not sure why you would want to. The mouse aspect would be a PITA and the rest would have to be from the ground up, easily 10 times more difficult and time consuming than in Unity.

 

Which leads me back to the "Why" question.

[Gunther]

29 minutes ago, Clint Thompson said:

@TenBoe Not sure what is meant by 4-5 scenes, which sounds more like entire sections but just from what was shown in the video, graphically, doing something like that is very possible on the Jag. Though I'm not sure why you would want to. The mouse aspect would be a PITA and the rest would have to be from the ground up, easily 10 times more difficult and time consuming than in Unity.

 

Which leads me back to the "Why" question.

I think he means stages/levels.

[agradeneu]

30 minutes ago, Clint Thompson said:

@TenBoe Not sure what is meant by 4-5 scenes, which sounds more like entire sections but just from what was shown in the video, graphically, doing something like that is very possible on the Jag. Though I'm not sure why you would want to. The mouse aspect would be a PITA and the rest would have to be from the ground up, easily 10 times more difficult and time consuming than in Unity.

 

Which leads me back to the "Why" question.

Having a cool game on Jaguar?

[TenBoe]

12 hours ago, LordKraken said:

What is the point of porting an adventure game on a niche retro-console where most fans prefer by far arcade and action games?

I don’t see that most fans prefer arcade and action.

Most fans prefer good quality games. And I‘d love to see way more good adventures and rpgs on the Jaguar instead of the next arcade clone (though I love them too).

[LordKraken]

6 minutes ago, TenBoe said:

I don’t see that most fans prefer arcade and action.

Most fans prefer good quality games. And I‘d love to see way more good adventures and rpgs on the Jaguar instead of the next arcade clone (though I love them too).

I didn't say that people don't like adventure game, nor that they wouldn't buy it, just that the Jaguar is not the obvious platform for that genre. In today's world, adventure games are a niche. So we're talking about a niche game for a niche system. That's a lot of time to spend for a game that would probably have a limited audience.

 

But my question was more about why you would like to port a game that is easily accessible and more enjoyable with a mouse and your PC?

Edited February 6, 2022 by LordKraken

[42bs]

IIRC the Sierra Online games used a common engine. So porting such an engine which the allows to play a bunch of games might be a benefit.

[Zerosquare]

As an example of what is achievable (it's more Myst-like than "real" point-and-click adventure, but close enough):

 

[JagChris]

44 minutes ago, LordKraken said:

I didn't say that people don't like adventure game, nor that they wouldn't buy it, just that the Jaguar is not the obvious platform for that genre. In today's world, adventure games are a niche. So we're talking about a niche game for a niche system. That's a lot of time to spend for a game that would probably have a limited audience.

 

But my question was more about why you would like to port a game that is easily accessible and more enjoyable with a mouse and your PC?

The Jag is probably not an obvious choice for games that are available on other platforms, like Another World or a multitude of others. But they're bought for the love of the system. I wish people would quit asking this. The reasons should be obvious now.

[LordKraken]

I gently disagree  

 

Another World is in fact a perfect counter-example. Its release on the Jag fixed an injustice from the past since the game was ported on many systems back in the days. Not only the port is great but it has also an historical value. So I feel it's not a fair comparison  

 

Now if you compare that game to recent homebrews, like "The Last Strike" or "Gravitic Mines" the difference is, apart from the genre, that the latter are Jaguar exclusives and fit the system perfectly. And I can't play them elsewhere... Now I could ask the question differently: Why would you pay 70us$ to play a 3us$ PC game?

 

But anyway, if someone is willing to port that game, why not, nothing forbids it of course, and it's always nice to see new releases on the system. I just think, and that's just my opinion, that this will be a lot of work that could be put into something original (like porting ScummVM for instance).

Edited February 6, 2022 by LordKraken

[+Gemintronic]

9 hours ago, agradeneu said:

Usuallly all graphics data are packed so there is way more data on a cart than 4 MB.

E.g. Rebooted is 16 MB on a 6 MB cart. Gravitic Mines 30 MB on 6 MB cart. Another World fits into 4MB cart.

 

 

 

Maybe I was over estimating what the OPs actual requirements were.  Again, with their mention of "games" the next few titles could be more resource intensive on all multimedia fronts.

 

@TenBoe

You might try Orionsoft to see if they would be available for a development contract.  I have no idea if they are interested in such things but they have Jaguar experience.  At least it would give you an idea of what to expect cost wise.

 

http://onorisoft.free.fr

[JagChris]

4 hours ago, LordKraken said:

I gently disagree  

 

Another World is in fact a perfect counter-example. Its release on the Jag fixed an injustice from the past since the game was ported on many systems back in the days. Not only the port is great but it has also an historical value. So I feel it's not a fair comparison  

 

Now if you compare that game to recent homebrews, like "The Last Strike" or "Gravitic Mines" the difference is, apart from the genre, that the latter are Jaguar exclusives and fit the system perfectly. And I can't play them elsewhere... Now I could ask the question differently: Why would you pay 70us$ to play a 3us$ PC game?

 

But anyway, if someone is willing to port that game, why not, nothing forbids it of course, and it's always nice to see new releases on the system. I just think, and that's just my opinion, that this will be a lot of work that could be put into something original (like porting ScummVM for instance).

There is no genre of game even out of the Jag or Lynx homebrew that isn't better represented for far cheaper, far easier on Steam or some other console. Though perhaps not as historic. 

 

There is a lack of many things in the Jags library. Filling them is in a way correcting an historical injustice. And we only care about this because of our fondness for the system.

 

Plus porting an exising game is a known quantity. That game looks to have great reviews on Steam.

[Clint Thompson]

14 hours ago, agradeneu said:

Having a cool game on Jaguar?

Naturally that is ideal as most people do this sort of thing because they love the hardware, community, because it's fun or a challenge to them in regards to programming/designing, etc. and I'm not trying to deter from that at all.

 

But...

 

It's a 10-minute game that would take many months full time to develop and complete from the ground up (from someone else), stemming from a pre-existing $2.99 Steam title. I want to say Rikki & Vikki on the 7800 is an example where you could get the game for 99 cents on the PC as well but was $59 on the 7800. Thing is, it has 100 levels and high replay value while being 2 player as well, not to mention being something that really pushed the envelope of the 7800 with a custom PCB/chips.

 

Once you beat this game, it's done. I remember a game not so long ago that came out with an asking price of $70 that you could beat in 6 minutes. That didn't end on a very positive note.

[JagChris]

The walkthrough is over an hour long. At any rate people will tackle what they want.