JamesD Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 (edited) If only... I don't even know where I'd *start* working with that beyond oh, there's a BBC version...I figured you'd come to your senses after looking into it. Isometric engines are complex little beasts and the Apple display could not make it easy. A IIgs version probably wouldn't be too bad but it would still be a huge undertaking. Galaga would probably have broader appeal anyway. Edited August 12, 2014 by JamesD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Isometric engines are complex little beasts and the Apple display could not make it easy. A IIgs version probably wouldn't be too bad but it would still be a huge undertaking. Zany Golf and The Immortal are two on the IIGS that immediately come to mind, but, as stated, those were made by a team of developers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 For games that "feel" like Galaga, even the PETSCII game by Henrik Wening is decent despite its semi-graphics mode. I've only played the C64 port, but believe the PET version should be about as playable, perhaps minus sound. So while high resolution and colourful graphics surely add to the game, they're not cruicial, at least not for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Galagon on the Color Computer II is pretty good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 The CoCo has similar limitations to the ][ so I would think it's fair to say if the CoCo can do it, the ][ prolly can. This of course means Bosconian ought to be possible too, although Draconian has its own quirks =P And I recall that C64 clone of Galaga being pretty good for text-only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 The CoCo has similar limitations to the ][ so I would think it's fair to say if the CoCo can do it, the ][ prolly can. This of course means Bosconian ought to be possible too, although Draconian has its own quirks =P Galagon is pretty good for the CoCo, but like several CoCo games, it runs a bit on the sluggish side. Regardless, doing a Galaga-type game on the Apple II is obviously possible given enough time and effort, even if it's not going to replicate the arcade experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 Galagon is pretty good for the CoCo, but like several CoCo games, it runs a bit on the sluggish side. Regardless, doing a Galaga-type game on the Apple II is obviously possible given enough time and effort, even if it's not going to replicate the arcade experience. I'm not going to expect the impossible The 7800, NES and MSX have backup hardware; the 7800 and the NES have faster 6502s. I'd be satisfied if the basic gameplay unique or original to Galaga (e.g., formations, tractor beams, bonus levels) and the music were intact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Galaga was always something I wanted back in the day but it was mysteriously absent on anything including the Atari 8-bits and Apple 2's. And as most have said even the clones were few and far between.. and even if so, they were not "Galaga" the game. We sure as heck had it's predecessor, Galaxian though. It wasn't until many years later I got the cart on the NES (purely out of obligation that I finally found a version) but by that point we were all into SMB and I didn't really care as much. Still would like to see it though... of course it won't be arcade quality.. might be sluggish, but heck.. could be fun Nice Galaga ship ok I had to bite since no one would show it Yep looks pretty nice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 (edited) Doesn't have to be. Look at the MSX port with its monochrome sprites, and it still feels like Galaga. I didn't mean to make monochrome sound bad. Not at all. Anyone wanting perfect fidelity should just go play MAME or drive to the arcade.. The Apple II is a single-cpu system with NO sound or graphics chips, and a funky display map. Eggs-It, Wavy-Navy, Falcons, and.. there are many games that do other things in the background. Take that other stuff away and you have extra cycles toward getting the motions and mechanics right. There are so many previous games which say Galaga is technically possible. Why it wasn't done is indeed a mystery. Edited August 12, 2014 by Keatah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 I didn't mean to make monochrome sound bad. Not at all. Anyone wanting perfect fidelity should just go play MAME or drive to the arcade.. The Apple II is a single-cpu system with NO sound or graphics chips, and a funky display map. Eggs-It, Wavy-Navy, Falcons, and.. there are many games that do other things in the background. Take that other stuff away and you have extra cycles toward getting the motions and mechanics right. There are so many previous games which say Galaga is technically possible. Why it wasn't done is indeed a mystery. Oh, QFT. Falcons is an excellent clone of Phoenix, and Wavy Navy puts a nice interesting twist on Galaxian. Not familiar with Eggs-It, though. The display map can be partially overcome with a lookup table. With so much more contiguous RAM than a console, there's room for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 I wonder if King and Balloon or Tank Battalion would be good choices to port too. The latter is even 6502 and has a more primitive graphics system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 The 0.89 MHz 6809 of the early CoCo is somewhat more powerful than the 1 MHz 6502 of Apple 2. Although CoCo (except model 3) suffers from very poor graphics hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanrunomad Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 The 0.89 MHz 6809 of the early CoCo is somewhat more powerful than the 1 MHz 6502 of Apple 2. Although CoCo (except model 3) suffers from very poor graphics hardware. Ever since picking up a SWTPC 6809, I've wanted to restore it and program on it, just need to make the time. It has more addressing modes and 16-bit features than 6502. Perhaps it will be the first game ever made for that computer. The Vectrex gets all the 6809 love... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 With knightlore now in the spotlight, would galaga be a dead project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 Neither project is even off the ground yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streck Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 We sure as heck had it's predecessor, Galaxian though. I have to say, I was very pleased with Atarisoft's version of Galaxian for the Apple II - crazily, I almost consider it superior to the arcade version for overall feel of gameplay. The sound is terrific too. I'd be satisfied with a version of Galaga that used the same graphics, sounds, and physics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackbag Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 I'll up the ante with this-- a couple of apple 2 HGR sprites that _could_ be used for a galaga port. These are approximations, of course, because the HGR palette and layout limits you quite a bit, but I was able to whip these up over lunch in Blazing Paddles. They seem to be pretty good sizes for use in a game. You could get more detail by having a larger image, but at the expense of losing the screen real estate for all the enemies. In reality, these might still be too big, once you try to fit in all of the enemies into the game. If I remember correctly, Atarisoft's Galaxian and Alien Typhoon's sprites are a bit smaller than these. The largest sprite (the player's ship) is 18 pixels tall by 15 pixels wide, and the rest are a bit smaller than that. I aligned the image to be at the leftmost byte boundary. For an apple II .dsk image with the pic: http://204.16.8.40/other/a2galaga/a2_galaga_pic.dsk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 19, 2014 Author Share Posted August 19, 2014 While large those look REALLY nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackbag Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 While large those look REALLY nice. Thanks! They're zoomed for some reason (forum or browser?) , the original is a bit smaller. http://204.16.8.40/other/a2galaga/a2galaga.png Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 19, 2014 Author Share Posted August 19, 2014 Thanks! They're zoomed for some reason (forum or browser?) , the original is a bit smaller. http://204.16.8.40/other/a2galaga/a2galaga.png Rich I loaded them up in AppleWin, actually, so I got a sense of scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 There are issues with Atariage and .PNG when it comes to sizing and scaling. I bet you the .JPG version would be right-sized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackbag Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Out of curiosity, i drew out a demo board with the existing sprites. It could probably be done with this size, but the enemy sprites might need to be a bit smaller to allow for the appropriate "swooping" motion as they attack. It sort of feels a bit crowded. Also, for each board, you're looking at 41 enemy sprites to animate/move-- 16 "butterflies", 20 "bees", 4 "tractor beamers" and 1 player. You can have 2 shots active at one time, and there's the star animation in the background. That's a lot going on... Disk image with graphics done in Blazing Paddles: http://204.16.8.40/other/a2galaga/a2_galaga_pic.dsk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 Yeah, does feel a little cramped. I support putting the scoreboard on the right to keep the AR closer to the arcade; this is what the MSX and NES ports did too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Would those be software sprites? How does the colour resolution work, any issues with colour clashes that would limit you to 8x8 boundaries or can you plot software sprites of any size next to eachother within a given palette? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 There are some limitations: 1. The color resolution is really 140x192, not 280x192 - color is generated from a pair of pixels, white is readable drawn as if 280, but has tinted fringes on the left and right. 2. Each 7x1 block (at the 280 resolution) can be one of two palettes (black-green-purple-white or black-orange-blue-white). There's no hardware sprite support; just two bitmaps, and the ability to easily page-flip between them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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