Bryan Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 It was never the top selling computer (nowhere close) Of course, you don't have to be if you can get 3X the price! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 The lame conversion syndrome still goes on. PC games sometimes languish due to concurrent development with PS3/XBox360/Wii. When the generational leap takes place (like now) things get better for a while but then the cycle repeats. C64 does get artifacting (aka chroma distortion) although not as pronounced as Atari and some others since the pixel clock doesn't have the direct relationship to the colour clock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 (edited) And can you think of other games that follow my examples? Threshold (http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=4444) Lunar Leeper (http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2254) Caverns of Callisto (http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=3881) (see also entries in 'MobyGames') Edit: EA's 'One on One' Edited December 17, 2013 by Irgendwer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Several of the Datasoft games like Goonies and Conan. Hey now, Goonies didn't feel like an Apple II game at all. It may not have been especially colorful, but it had decent music and controlled really well. Conan, on the other hand, was awful. Whoever ported that to the Atari just didn't care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Hey now, Goonies didn't feel like an Apple II game at all. It may not have been especially colorful, but it had decent music and controlled really well. Conan, on the other hand, was awful. Whoever ported that to the Atari just didn't care. Okay, Goonies seems like an Apple game with some enhancements. I don't think it uses any PMGs though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Interesting about Goonies. On those days and on a land that never saw an A2 if not by states mags I was untill now thinking that C64 version was from the original A8 when the two suffer the same. Without go out-topic but I also never understood why Boulder Dash is a 4colour (yes I know 5th colour charmode is in top status) on both C64 and A8 and more, why an amazing game and coder don't put our hero in a simple A8 two multicolour PMGs (that the same could easilly be one C64 multicolour hardware sprite). And the coder on C64 knows well the machine (or, at least the gfx man) because the presentation screen is in more than 4colours. And I think the two, A8 and C64 seems to use the machine's capabilities like the hardware scrolling. Is there a chance of BD be an original Apple2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 (edited) BANDITS - a truly great A2 to A8 conversion - even has an apple being eaten to reveal a Fuji core on the title screen! Plays beautifully, uses 4 colour mode to pep up the gfx with DLI, and has authentically apple sound - which actually works VERY well! sTeVE Jose - BD was a A8 original, not an A2 port - the wonderful chard movement with fine scroll catch up is a lovely feel that the other versions lack IMHO Edited December 18, 2013 by Jetboot Jack 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creature XL Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Jose - BD was a A8 original, not an A2 port - the wonderful chard movement with fine scroll catch up is a lovely feel that the other versions lack IMHO Might be that it was a design decision. However, from a coders point of view, it is much easier to use char-sprite then PMG. Because then you do not have to do any checks in which cell the sprite is. Further, it can never happen that the sprite is half-way (say 2 pixels) under a stone or diamond. Although using PMG as overlays would have been possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britishcar Posted December 22, 2013 Author Share Posted December 22, 2013 Ah. I ran across a new "Apple" game. "Bug Attack" by Cavalier, first developed on the A2, ported, etc. It plays normal Pokey sound except when you kill off the boss in a sort of bonus wave, the software declares SUCCESS! and begins to play the music through the built-in speaker on the 800. That's why I love playing games on an 800 -- the damn built-in speaker is just so cool. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 That's why I love playing games on an 800 -- the damn built-in speaker is just so cool. Seriously? Out of all the unique audio/visual hardware features of the 800, THAT is why you loving playing games on it? You know the Apple II and most PCs also have a damn built-in speaker, right? Are their speakers just so cool too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 The Atari built-in speaker is cool. The Apple II built-in speaker is cool. The IBM PC built-in speaker is not cool. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Seriously? Out of all the unique audio/visual hardware features of the 800, THAT is why you loving playing games on it? You know the Apple II and most PCs also have a damn built-in speaker, right? Are their speakers just so cool too? I can understand the sentiment. I have a fondness for sound coming out of places other (and in addition to) than the TV speakers/sound system as well. Everything from the Odyssey2's The Voice to the PS4's controller (and a game like Resogun). It kind of gives certain games an "otherworldly" feel at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 The Atari built-in speaker is cool. The Apple II built-in speaker is cool. The IBM PC built-in speaker is not cool. I generally agree about the IBM PC speaker, but that was also wrangled for some pretty nifty things, including decent music and speech effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 I don't doubt that. I think the IBM PC's speaker's un-cool-ness stems from too many direct comparisons to the adlib & SoundBlaster boards and their clones. It's amusing, in the beginning software would click and beep the speaker, then beginning in 1987'ish for nearly 20-years the PC would use some type of hardware card. And now we're pretty much back to software audio across the board these days. PC audio today consists of a simple D/A converter and loads of software to drive it. The CPU builds up the waveform or plays a pre-stored-in-memory sound clip. And probably is bored to tears doing it! There is no waveform synthesis hardware anymore thanks to the AC'97 audio spec. These dirt-cheap and simple A/D D/A parts are included in every PC's southbridge block, it is so commonplace it is no longer listed on spec charts. When you get a high-quality sound card today you are buying premium low-noise hi-rate A/D D/A, gold connectors, gamer cosmetics, control panels, breakout boxes, multiple I/O options, that sort of thing. When you bought a soundcard back in the day, you'd get a Yamaha FM Synthesizer chip, hardware compression and decompression, hardware wavetable synthesis, hardware dsp, advanced signal processor for speak synthesis and recognition. All sorts of little hardware based assist functions. Hardware everything! Today software does all this and more. Stuff that today's processors can handle while in sleep mode! Intel absorbed the soundcard market, and now they're doing it with graphics and other PC functions. Next up is LAN & Ethernet on the CPU minus the isolation transformer and signal conditioning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC%2797 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlib http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundblaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 TRIVIA: It's interesting to note that Apple Computer Co. was taken to court over the inclusion of the Ensoniq sound chip in the IIgs. Apple Records felt it violated an agreement between itself and Apple Computer Co. which specified the computer company would not produce music-related devices. Since then Apple never included a dedicated sound chip in any future computer. What you say about the iPod and other portable devices? eh? They're not creation tools built around hardware synthesis. They merely manipulate and playback audio streams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I generally agree about the IBM PC speaker, but that was also wrangled for some pretty nifty things, including decent music and speech effects. Back in the days of Windows 3.0/3.1, as you'll remember not every PC had a sound card in it, and NO PC had built-in sound. There was a really cool PC Speaker Driver that allowed all the standard Windows/WAV sounds to be played over the little PC speaker. It sounds lame now, but it was kind of impressive for the time and a PC with no sound. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Back in the days of Windows 3.0/3.1, as you'll remember not every PC had a sound card in it, and NO PC had built-in sound. There was a really cool PC Speaker Driver that allowed all the standard Windows/WAV sounds to be played over the little PC speaker. It sounds lame now, but it was kind of impressive for the time and a PC with no sound. Just because Speaker Driver.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxl Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 It plays normal Pokey sound except when you kill off the boss in a sort of bonus wave, the software declares SUCCESS! and begins to play the music through the built-in speaker on the 800. That's why I love playing games on an 800 -- the damn built-in speaker is just so cool. try this on A800: tritone800.obx 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 The Ultima series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Night Mission pinball - all the sound came through the built in speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I was watching one of the "Matt Chat" interviews on YouTube with Rebecca Heineman last night where she stated her favourite was still the Apple. Quite a good series to watch. Still some titles like Bard's Tale / BattleChess to over to the A8 one day (albeit from either the Apple or C64) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Ogre Battle? Mask of the Sun? Wizards Crown? maybe more SSI stuff... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbking67 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Castle Wolfenstein and Beyopnd Castle Wolfenstein were as Apple II as it gets, speech synthesis and all. Awesome games in spite of the crude graphics... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 (edited) Nothing bugged me more as a C-64 owner than having to deal with Apple II ports. Equally frustrating was being an Atari user and knowing that games were being developed using generic 6502 code instead instead of taking full advantage of the custom chipset so that it could be reused across multiple platforms. Then again, that practice continues today, with exclusive titles often having that "something extra". Then there was the fact that games developed in the XL/XE era were usually constrained to 48K so they would be compatible with the 400/800. That's 33% in the case of an 800XL and less than 50% on the 130XE! When you look at what developers are producing now - focused strictly on getting the most out from their platform of choice - you realize that we could have been playing some truly incredible stuff quite a bit earlier than we were. Imagine if games like Yoomp!, Assembloids, and Ridiculous Reality had been available in 1986. The 8-Bit computers might have put up more of a fight against the NES. At the very least they would have greatly advanced developer perceptions of what was possible. La vie. Like it is with all things human, hind sight is 20/20. Edited July 15, 2014 by pixelmischief 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenjennings Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Drol. It looked so nice on the Apple ][ that it was hard to believe it was running on the Apple. I know it was released on the Atari at some point but I only ever saw it on the Apple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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