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Atari ST Games Ported to the Jaguar


CyranoJ

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I've never tried the ST version of Shadowgate, but the NES version is one of my favorite games, absolutely love the music.

 

Such great music on the NES port! I was first introduced to Shadowgate on my uncle's Macintosh, which of course was in black and white/monochrome. The Mac version was the original release in 1987. There were only sound effects on the Mac version - no music. Later that same year, it was ported to the Atari ST line and the only real difference was that it was in color, albeit at a lower resolution than the Mac's monochrome output; still just sound effects - no music. The NES version in 1989 had a lot of changes, including a complete graphical overhaul and simplification of the layout to make it easier to select different items, etc., and - of course - the inclusion of that awesome soundtrack!

 

So a Jaguar port could be the ST version with a soundtrack similar to the NES version - that would be just swell!

 

Here are some pics for reference. Top one is Macintosh, middle one is Atari ST, bottom one is NES:

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post-47330-0-18968500-1560459828_thumb.jpg

post-47330-0-12025300-1560459842.jpg

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Be patient , when all the "arcade" games of the ST will be convert , may be we'll have all the good sports ST games conversions coming...

I'm only 45 years old I can wait... :)

 

I don't want to encroach on your domain. Hockey is all! Wait, no.... SPEEDBALL RULES!

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Ah well... that escalated quickly

 

Wow, I honestly never knew that there was an EST game like this (I did play the Star Wars game many, many, many years ago in the arcade). Now I may have to invest in a mouse adapter and ST mouse.

 

I wonder if the ST Trackball that Best offers would be good for these games.

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Wow, I honestly never knew that there was an EST game like this (I did play the Star Wars game many, many, many years ago in the arcade). Now I may have to invest in a mouse adapter and ST mouse.

 

I wonder if the ST Trackball that Best offers would be good for these games.

That reminds me, I got an ST Trackball. Just waiting for the mouse adapter and Speedball 2 and Fantasy World Dizzy to arrive. Crap, I have a lot of Jaguar games I need to play, haven't had the time...

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Ha, guess that means things like Ultima II or Phantasie would be out of the question. Wasn't there a TOS port at one point for the Jag? I guess this would need full on GEM though.

 

Oh man, the Ultima games would be AWESOME on the Jaguar.

 

1 - 5 would be PERFECT. 6 and up pretty much needs a PC... but 1-5 are absolutely made for a console!

 

EDIT: Guarantee that Lord British will let you license the games for reproduction on the Atari Jaguar.

Edited by 82-T/A
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Oh man, the Ultima games would be AWESOME on the Jaguar.

 

1 - 5 would be PERFECT. 6 and up pretty much needs a PC... but 1-5 are absolutely made for a console!

 

EDIT: Guarantee that Lord British will let you license the games for reproduction on the Atari Jaguar.

That's odd, I'd think the opposite is true. 1-5 used the keyboard extensively. 6-9 you could use with pretty much just the mouse. 8 especially is like a platform game :P

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Ha, guess that means things like Ultima II or Phantasie would be out of the question. Wasn't there a TOS port at one point for the Jag? I guess this would need full on GEM though.

 

The Jaguar scene is brand new to me (I don't even have one yet, but I've started getting some games haha) - is "GEMAES" code related or something? Please be kind to a non-technical zero Jaguar knowledge guy like myself!

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That's odd, I'd think the opposite is true. 1-5 used the keyboard extensively.

 

"used the keyboard extensively," as in... the up, down, left, and right arrow key... and a couple of shortcut keys?

 

Thing is... there were maybe 12 common shortcut keys that were typically used in the game, and many of them could all be replicated with one key... talk, transact, etc. Most of the other keys could very easily be replicated in the numeric keypad.

 

 

6-9 you could use with pretty much just the mouse. 8 especially is like a platform game :P

 

The mouse was what I was kind of focusing on. I know we have it for the Jaguar now... but a mouse kind of is what I distinguish as being primarily for a computer.

 

 

Really, there were a bunch of games on the Nintendo that were of the same design / play as the old Ultima games. We could debate whether or not the games had the same depth in story-line as the Ultima games... but the mechanics were pretty similar (minus the usual morality stuff). Games like Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy... I tend to think they were all based on the concept created by Ultima.

 

 

They were pretty good on the NES:

 

 

Ultima Exodus (NES):

 

Ultima Quest of the Avatar (NES):

 

Ultima Warriors of Destiny (NES):

 

 

And then they did some for the SNES:

 

Ultima - Runes of Virtue 2 (SNES):

 

Ultima The False Prophet:

 

Ultima The Black Gate:

 

 

I actually have False Prophet and Black Gate in the Super Famicom cartridge waiting to get shipped out to Albert whenever I can get around to it. I have a bunch of other Ultima stuff that I don't want.

 

But, I did keep all the NES and SNES games. I'd say Ultima 6 and Black Gate are largely unplayable on the SNES cause they really need a mouse.

Edited by 82-T/A
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The Jaguar scene is brand new to me (I don't even have one yet, but I've started getting some games haha) - is "GEMAES" code related or something? Please be kind to a non-technical zero Jaguar knowledge guy like myself!

GEM is the graphical environment manager that the ST uses, and AES is... I can't currently think of how to describe it, but GEM/AES makes up the desktop basically of the Atari ST, mixed with TOS it is the OS. So one would have to port over the entire Atari ST operating system to the Jaguar to run some of the games.

 

 

"used the keyboard extensively," as in... the up, down, left, and right arrow key... and a couple of shortcut keys?

 

Thing is... there were maybe 12 common shortcut keys that were typically used in the game, and many of them could all be replicated with one key... talk, transact, etc. Most of the other keys could very easily be replicated in the numeric keypad.

 

 

 

The mouse was what I was kind of focusing on. I know we have it for the Jaguar now... but a mouse kind of is what I distinguish as being primarily for a computer.

 

 

Really, there were a bunch of games on the Nintendo that were of the same design / play as the old Ultima games. We could debate whether or not the games had the same depth in story-line as the Ultima games... but the mechanics were pretty similar (minus the usual morality stuff). Games like Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy... I tend to think they were all based on the concept created by Ultima.

 

 

They were pretty good on the NES:

 

 

Ultima Exodus (NES):

 

Ultima Quest of the Avatar (NES):

 

Ultima Warriors of Destiny (NES):

 

 

And then they did some for the SNES:

 

Ultima - Runes of Virtue 2 (SNES):

 

Ultima The False Prophet:

 

Ultima The Black Gate:

 

 

I actually have False Prophet and Black Gate in the Super Famicom cartridge waiting to get shipped out to Albert whenever I can get around to it. I have a bunch of other Ultima stuff that I don't want.

 

But, I did keep all the NES and SNES games. I'd say Ultima 6 and Black Gate are largely unplayable on the SNES cause they really need a mouse.

Mind you it's been many moons since I played the Ultima games, and most of them were on the Atari 8bit. But I know 1, 3 and 4 there all used pretty much A-Z and the arrow keys. the newer versions that had mouse driven menus would work, but as was pointed out, they're GEM/AES driven.

Best console version of any of the Ultimas is Ultima IV on the Sega Master System :P

Other than that one, I never played the others on console, they were all on the computer. 1 (missed 2) 3, and 4 on the 800XL, and 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 on the PC. PC versions of 6-9 definitely could be done via mouse. Hell, 8 and nine could easily be converted to gamepad use.

 

Like you said some of them were quite unplayable on the SNES, they probably just did a pretty straight conversion, so it probably would have worked better with the SNES mouse?

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Application Environment Services.

 

Pretty much any game using that is not well suited to a Jaguar controller :D

Ha, thanks. Don't know why it wouldn't come to me. Probably because I get bombarded by acronyms all day long.

Too bad, would be cool to see Phantasie on another platform. The ST got all three of them, the Amiga only got 1 and 3.

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I for one welcome our new forum-code overlords!

Once the new 'Downloads' feature is live, this thread should become much nicer!

Way to go @Albert - I recommend subscribing to help out if you haven't.  Don't take AtariAge for granted, there is a LOT of work/expense behind the scenes to keep this all running for everyone.

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On 6/14/2019 at 6:21 PM, leech said:

Mind you it's been many moons since I played the Ultima games, and most of them were on the Atari 8bit.  But I know 1, 3 and 4 there all used pretty much A-Z and the arrow keys.  the newer versions that had mouse driven menus would work, but as was pointed out, they're GEM/AES driven. 

Best console version of any of the Ultimas is Ultima IV on the Sega Master System :P

Other than that one, I never played the others on console, they were all on the computer.  1 (missed 2) 3, and 4 on the 800XL, and 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 on the PC.  PC versions of 6-9 definitely could be done via mouse.  Hell, 8 and nine could easily be converted to gamepad use.

 

Like you said some of them were quite unplayable on the SNES, they probably just did a pretty straight conversion, so it probably would have worked better with the SNES mouse? 

 

It kind of feels like that, actually.

 

The NES versions of the games played *exactly* like how Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy do... and that's a HUGE plus for me. The first Ultima game I played was 6 back in ~1990. I had never played the earlier games until MUCH later. It's not that I wasn't of the age, I just went down the Starflight and AD&D Gold Box Series path. I'm sure most people who had played Ultima 1-5 originally with keyboard probably would be horrified to play them as they've been made for the NES, but I just felt like it made them more playable.

 

But yeah, on the SNES... total disaster. I can't say there'd be any situation where those games would be a fun play. I'd be interested to actually hear from anyone who played them on the SNES (6 and 7) and actually liked them. I think you'd NEED the mouse for the SNES because manipulating objects is beyond painful. As it stands, you move the "mouse cursor" with the D-pad... and good Lord... that's unplayable.

 

I spent all of like 2 minutes playing Ultima 7 on SNES and was done. It's truly meant for PC.

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On 6/14/2019 at 7:39 PM, CyranoJ said:

Application Environment Services.

 

Pretty much any game using that is not well suited to a Jaguar controller :D

 

Though come to think of it, I suppose if the interest was high enough (by both devs and gamers), ports of the Ultima series, Shadowgate, and others that utilized GEMAES would play nicely on the Jaguar if they were made to work with the ST Mouse Adapter that I saw on the AA Store. Looks like Star Wars Arcade and Defender of the Crown are two examples of ST ports that currently support the use of the mouse adapter. 

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On 6/17/2019 at 3:13 PM, 82-T/A said:

 

It kind of feels like that, actually.

 

The NES versions of the games played *exactly* like how Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy do... and that's a HUGE plus for me. The first Ultima game I played was 6 back in ~1990. I had never played the earlier games until MUCH later. It's not that I wasn't of the age, I just went down the Starflight and AD&D Gold Box Series path. I'm sure most people who had played Ultima 1-5 originally with keyboard probably would be horrified to play them as they've been made for the NES, but I just felt like it made them more playable.

 

But yeah, on the SNES... total disaster. I can't say there'd be any situation where those games would be a fun play. I'd be interested to actually hear from anyone who played them on the SNES (6 and 7) and actually liked them. I think you'd NEED the mouse for the SNES because manipulating objects is beyond painful. As it stands, you move the "mouse cursor" with the D-pad... and good Lord... that's unplayable.

 

I spent all of like 2 minutes playing Ultima 7 on SNES and was done. It's truly meant for PC.

Pretty sure the Ultima games were ported to the NES by Japanese companies, which is why they play exactly like the Japanese RPGs of the day.  I think it was '83 or '84 when we spent a full day of not turning off the 800XL and beat the first Ultima, we explored EVERYTHING, 24 hours straight (ah to be able to have the time and patience to do that again...)  Funny thing is, I've never been a big fan of any of the Final Fantasy games.  Though Dragon Warrior was good.  Then again I was very much a Sega / Atari fan, having the Sega Master System and the first Phantasy Star!

7 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

 

Though come to think of it, I suppose if the interest was high enough (by both devs and gamers), ports of the Ultima series, Shadowgate, and others that utilized GEMAES would play nicely on the Jaguar if they were made to work with the ST Mouse Adapter that I saw on the AA Store. Looks like Star Wars Arcade and Defender of the Crown are two examples of ST ports that currently support the use of the mouse adapter. 

I think you missed the point that basically it would require the operating system of the ST to be ported to the Jaguar for that to work.  Defender of the Crown and Star Wars Arcade used direct hardware access, so ignored the OS.  I guess if there were some sort of ST emulator, if Hatari was ported or something.  But then at that point we'd want a keyboard adapter too.  :)  Cheaper to just buy an Atari ST or emulate one on a modern machine.

I'd love to see Phantasie updated and fixed and ported to the Jag, but it also uses GEM. 

What would be cool (though I could be wrong about this) if Cannon Fodder was ported from the ST with proper mouse support.  I don't think the Jag version supports that, and it is much more playable with the Mouse.  I think we already discussed Syndicate somewhere else, about that also being better with a mouse.

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5 hours ago, leech said:

Pretty sure the Ultima games were ported to the NES by Japanese companies, which is why they play exactly like the Japanese RPGs of the day.  I think it was '83 or '84 when we spent a full day of not turning off the 800XL and beat the first Ultima, we explored EVERYTHING, 24 hours straight (ah to be able to have the time and patience to do that again...)  Funny thing is, I've never been a big fan of any of the Final Fantasy games.  Though Dragon Warrior was good.  Then again I was very much a Sega / Atari fan, having the Sega Master System and the first Phantasy Star!

I think you missed the point that basically it would require the operating system of the ST to be ported to the Jaguar for that to work.  Defender of the Crown and Star Wars Arcade used direct hardware access, so ignored the OS.  I guess if there were some sort of ST emulator, if Hatari was ported or something.  But then at that point we'd want a keyboard adapter too.  :)  Cheaper to just buy an Atari ST or emulate one on a modern machine.

I'd love to see Phantasie updated and fixed and ported to the Jag, but it also uses GEM. 

What would be cool (though I could be wrong about this) if Cannon Fodder was ported from the ST with proper mouse support.  I don't think the Jag version supports that, and it is much more playable with the Mouse.  I think we already discussed Syndicate somewhere else, about that also being better with a mouse.

Ah got it. Excuse my ignorance, as I'm getting up to speed on the Jag and am not too familiar with the technical aspects of the ST line either.  Should be receiving my first Jaguar on Monday! 

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22 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

Ah got it. Excuse my ignorance, as I'm getting up to speed on the Jag and am not too familiar with the technical aspects of the ST line either.  Should be receiving my first Jaguar on Monday! 

No worries.  Wonder how feasible it is for someone to write a Gemulator for the Jag... :P  Seems to have enough memory, and could map the faster 68000, blitter, etc.

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