philipj

When I ran into this YouTube video, for some reason I thought about this old forgotten topic. It's not really XM related, but just a very interesting video about the very rare "Yamaha DX-1" synthesizer. It's got a great little part on how the DX sound works giving some simple explanations that's easy to understand. Of course the YM2151 chip will never sound nearly as good as the full on DX-1 keyboard, but 9 out of 10 there's probably more than a couple of those chips inside the synthesizer.

I agree... One of my favorite games for the "Playstation 1" was "VS. by THQ". This game has some of the worst graphics I've seen on the system, however it's got one of the most unique fighting engine I've ever played. Compare it with "Fight For Life" for the Jaguar and I think a better fighting engine could've been implemented for FFL. I remember playing VS and wishing they'd put more work into the game, the fighting engine is very engaging once you get over the learning curb.

Well that's why I'm starting off simple with QB64 so I can wrap my head around programming in general... It makes for a great prototyping tool, it's compatible with Windows, Apple, and Android thus becoming a gateway for some indie stuff, and whatever I make with it I can port down to the Jaguar; I'll get to the Motorola 68000 eventually. Although I mentioned QB64 earlier, I also have a copy of "GFA-BASIC" for Windows and an "Atari ST 520" to sort of help me alone (also to control some old synthesizers I own); would be great for experimenting with some things in the 3D department, but before I get to that, I will have already done so in QB64. It's basically a process of gaining understanding, I am more of an artist after all than I am a programmer although I did do some HTML once. Here's a link of some books I ran into on programming 3D on the Motorola... I know the information is old, but still some good today for what I need. Real Time 3D GFX for Atari ST Amiga 3D Graphic Programming in (GFA) BASIC It'll be about 19 or 20 for me with most of those years taking a backseat to programming in favor of real life, but planning for the of future making games just in case. I'm at the point now I just want to know how to program and make games now Jag or no Jag, but no need in letting all of that knowledge of the system go to waste. I was a hair away from letting go till I sold my collection and regretted doing so afterwards. I'm in it for the long haul this time; I still have the "Gorf Lessons", but we both know how he felt about the 68000 (Turn it off)... Since he isn't around any more I got to go a different route in regards to learning Assembly Language. I probably will use those tools you link me to as a starting point for Jaguar programming once I have a good footing on programming the Motorola then use the Reboot tools as a kick-start. Some ground work is already in motion believe it or not; just have to make time for stuff and stay committed. Also I've been eyeballing the "Atari 5200" lately, but that's for another topic.

Well... back in the day, for me, no idea was too big, too small, or too crazy for a very deeply flawed Jaguar system. Like I mentioned earlier I'm a little more sober minded today as I was in yester-years. Not the hardcore mindset I use to have that someone might consider to be idiocy; I didn't know how to program so I had absolutely nothing to loose therefore all bets were off. But that was back in the day, I'm a bit more realistic today about all of that kind of stuff now then I was in my youth... I think my only regret is not being able to prove my theories; I still have my old ideas written down from those old days so I'm glad I still have them... I get to see where my head was when I came up with them versus what's more feasible. But if people don't always get what I post, I perfectly understand and appreciate the feedback and corrections, I wouldn't have gotten this far without them.

Yes I was... Hi res butter smooth 3D graphics; Battle for Naboo looked incredible... Rouge Squadron was a great looking game as well; I had that game and played it often. Another game "Phantom Menace" was a pretty good looking game that shine with the graphics. Great game at the arcade and the N64. Being that both the Jaguar and N64 are two very different systems the Jag using general purpose JRISC instead of the tried and true MIPS the way the PS1 and N64 did, butter smooth 3D graphics isn't possible in the same way for the console to come after it except for when it came to the 2.5D stuff (Doom, Phase Zero, Super Burnout i.e. OP). Not even "Open GL" would work on the Jaguar because it was most likely designed to work on the MIPS even though it was created around the same time the Jaguar was. It became my conclusion 2.5D or fake 3D would be something worth looking into and with the Jag having so many processors there was really no reason why making a smarter 2.5D engine wasn't couldn't be done. I still believe that today as I did in yester-years.

Gotcha...

You're right, that sort of thing is a lot of "nonsense", but if you ever have an ideas and want to post on a forum, that seems like a sure way of getting things started... If you don't want to get hated on or anything like that just keep your silly ideas to yourself and let's pretend that the forum is free to post ideas silly or not.

My mistake... I do get the flops confused sometimes. I'm not really focused on the flops as I am on learning to program in QB64 at the moment. I only painted that picture because it appears your trying to put on some kind of spot like you've done in the past... I mean what do you think I am, chop liver? Words like nonsense and idiocy, I think you enjoy trying to flip people off and get them out of character; It doesn't have to be that way and not trying stir things up here, but it appears like you and others try and stir other people up for whatever reason. I'm just calling it like I see it.

My fault??? I don't know what you're talking about... My world view is just fine, I just call it like I see it. Not quite sure what you're try to impose on me or what picture you're trying to paint of me, but no harm no foul right? SMH

I remember that... it reminds of a YouTube about that machine. The case it pretty decent, but it's been a while since I sat in a dentist chair; don't won't drilling in my mouth no time soon. lol I stand corrected... Was probably thinking about the PS2; I was watching about the system. I think anything that doesn't have the official "Reboot Atari ST" rubber-stamp seal-of-approval will always be considered to be nonsense in the eyes of some people here; It wouldn't matter what I post. That's just MO that prevails consistently, but that's OK. If the people like the games and they're buying, the more power to you; you don't see me publicly saying anything about it... Just as if the people like to keep this topic afloat, then more power the them. I think it was other people keeping this topic going where I hardly post things here like I use to so what does my 2 cent matter; if the people like it, let them keep talking about it. What I post was apart of a distant history; I see nothing wrong putting it out there. Of course you don't have to replace the bios anymore today, but at one time you did if you wanted to program the Jaguar.

I remember that topic... I think he was looking at how Lucas Games hacked the N64 for Rouge Squadron to run butter smooth by replacing the system bios with something more efficient. I think all of that may have stemmed from that old BJL era replacing the physical Atari bios chip with another with BJL burnt on it using the old server card for the Atari ST and Falcon. It would've been cool to have found a software solution for doing something similar on the Jag what Rough Squadron did for the N64... That was some serious hard core shite, remember Battlesphere didn't even use the official encryption Atari provided so it was that sort of mentality about what the Jaguar had to offer. It certainly was what sort of inspired me to at least take a good look at the Jaguar for its strengths and weaknesses to the best of my understanding. Anything that PlayStation 1 or Sega Saturn is all but out of the picture for the Jaguar including Open GL. No modern 3D will do very well on the Jaguar so I would come to the conclusion for tweaking the living daylights out of the Jag was to draw on its strengths (Doom, Super Burnout, Phase Zero) and create something unique and hybrid. The GPU can't access ram like it ought to without a work around that's taxing, however it can handle so many teraflops of math at once thus I'd use that sort of gold nugget to come up with ideas. It was fun and still is to some degree today; I feel like if I get a really good handle on the Jaguar I can do some good stuff with it. Thanks for bringing that up InMain, that was a great memory.

I am... I've been spending time reading up on programming with "QB64" development environment for the PC, MAC, and Android, which seems like a decent place to kick things off. My only thing is I've spent a lot of time reading up on how the Jaguar works collecting info over the years I hate for that knowledge to go to waist. And yes I've been considering developing for more powerful modern console and porting down to retro; it certainly been on my radar to do. Also I've been looking at the "Atari 5200" where I recently got me one from eBay. It's kind of sad Atari wasn't able to over power the NES with the 5200; it certainly was more powerful with better resources, but that's for another topic. lol Don't want to through this topic off in a room full of Atari enthusiast. My desire to dev for the Cojag comes from a long drawn out dream from some years ago when I use to compare the console with the arcade counterpart. I'm a little more sober now versus the hardcore attitude I use to have some years back. ?

Sad to hear... I remember seeing him around here reading topics here and there. My condolences.

Personally... I would love to dev for the Cojag hardware with the 68020 and the extra ram. Only in a perfect world; these days I'm focusing on the basics of programming let alone game making, this time without fail. Although extra and alternative hardware are dream for development, the software content is much needed in the Jag community, but if the Cojag was to ever become a consolized reality, I'm all for it 100%. I've been meaning to get my hands on a Cojag for sometime; I'll probably get one sometime down the road eventually.

Hi Shaggy... I remember reading sometime back the CoJag being redesigned where the board didn't have the same kind of bottlenecks that the game console had, which included one or more chips running on its own bus having about 6MB or more ram...? Eventually ditching the 68020 for the R3K MIPS processor. The cojag specs looks awesome on paper and sounds like a dream console to dev for; something I've always wanted to make games for. I eventually let go of the concept of making something for the Cojag just to sort of get grounded on the fundamentals just making a simple Jag game. It's really too bad considering all of the stories I'd hear about the 68000 hogging bus on the console and what have you, and how it was suggested to just turn the 68K off and just use the JRISC, which I've always thought would be a waist of a good chip not to use it in any manner what-so-ever. A more non-parallel approach to working with the Jag processors was a promising thing to consider at one point. The Jag is quite a unique system; a mixed bag of being very 3D capable, but not as good as the PS1 or the Sega Saturn, but can do everything an SNES or Genesis can do plus more so there's wiggle room for some good things as far as pushing the system to the limit. Can handle Doom well, can handle voxels very well, can do fast zooming/scaling via the OP; I use to refer to the Jaguar as a "2D Monster" and I still do thus it's strength is in the pseudo 3D or 2.5D (fake 3D) stuff. Not to put misinfo out there or anything of that nature, that's just my core stance when it comes to the Jaguar console.

Ok... I can't believe I missed this. This is great. The Lynx is very capable little system with the math co-processors on it. Congrats VR!

Hi Vladr... It's too bad the Lynx doesn't have the kind of following it once did. I wouldn't have gotten into the Jag scene if I hadn't ran into an Atari Lynx, did some internet search on everything Lynx only to run into the Jag scene by accident. I find it interesting that the recent "Ricki and Vicki" game for the Atari 7800 is using the Atari Lynx sound and music library to pull off great music for the game. Quite a nice legacy if you ask me.

I think he guy who ran "Tengen" had fell ill then passed sometime in 1994... Also Jay Miner, the guy who created the "TIA, GTIA, and the CTIA" had passed that very same year; which he was well some years with Amiga, but still that had to have did something to the morale at Atari for those who knew the guy. The following year Jack Tramiel son has a heart attack on top of the Jaguar not doing so well. That particular part of Atari was just done to do any kind of real legacy game making. I don't know what role "Midway" played, but they kept they seemingly kept the name going by rubber stamping their games with the Atari name. Seem like they would've been better to keep things going in that regard into the 2000, but they were busy keeping their own brand thriving with the more modern console of that time (the N64, Dreamcast, PS2, Original XBOX and so forth). Long live Hydro Thunder... ? Ok back to the topic.

Was just listening to some old chip tunes I like to hear from time to time... Would be very cool to hear the XM play tracks like "T2 Arcade" for the Geny. Great use of the old Yamaha DX sound chip.

Ok I was revisiting some old music last night that I made wanted to highlight something that bought back a bit of nostalgia and that's "Pac Man Intermission"... It's one of the first Jaytrax songs I posted here I wanted to shine a light on. The music was inspired by a track from "Ridge Racer 1" for the original "Playstation 1" called "Rotterdam Nation". Just a little something I wanted to briefly highlight during my experimental phase of music making just to see if I could make music of that caliber. It would be the second or third time I've made that kind of music and there was no better theme for such a song than the "Pac Man" theme.

Well from what I understand when they were making the game at the time, the Jaguar originally supported GPU to main without it being broken, but when Atari released the Jag 64 to the public, the GPU accessing main memory was not available to the released systems so the team had to scramble and take shortcuts in order to finish the game on time thus their reason for the game not being as good as they wanted it to be. I know personally it was one of the first games I got for the Jaguar and the box art looks amazing, but game itself just didn't live up to the box art.

Wow...

You're talking about KI for the SNES...? Yes it predates Primal Rage 2, however the graphics and animation can be downsized to something manageable for the Jaguar like the way KI's was downsized for the SNES only the Jag can handle animation much better than the SNES if "Primal Rage 2" graphics as well as the animation if done in similar manner (KI SNES) only with the same level of animation as the arcade version instead of the frame-drop version like the SNES. It's like I'd mention in a previous post a few month back, the Jaguar isn't as good as the PlayStation 1, but it's better than an SNES or Sega Genesis and is possible to hit some sweet-spots that's not quite as good as a Sega Saturn, but much better than an SNES where arcade ports of some games are much more tangible on the Jag than what credit was given to the Jaguar in it's heyday. Or even an independent game with great graphics like "Native" for example and with the Skunkboard and the highly anticipated "SD Cartridge" still in the making, cartridge space shouldn't be a problem anymore. Although the SNES version of KI was limited to smaller sprites and the "Mode 7" effect, the Jag is much more capable than the SNES and can handle SNES style graphics with more animation and some 3D if you're lucky enough to make it all fit in and work smoothly.

It still would be a great show piece for the Jaguar even if some of the animation could be scaled down... Think "Killer Instinct" on the SNES only with better animation. Something like that is possible for the Jag. As far as the human character is concerned, I think they were aiming for the "Bloody Roar" audience that was popular at the time this game was made. That's the only logic I can think of for them doing it in that way.

I thought about a "Weapon Lord" remake for the Jaguar... Not a port but a remake of the game with better graphics and animation. All of the sound and stuff is already there, just improve on what's already there and move it over to the Jaguar. I remember when I rented this game in the 90s and thought it something different than the normal games of that time, but I'd love to remake this for the Jaguar. Just a wishful thought at this point. When the Conan game would come up, I'd often think of this game for some reason.