New A1200 shooter

[Nebulon]

A new side-scrolling SHMUP for the Amiga 1200 and 4000:

https://www.amigashop.org/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=reshoot

 

[+OLD CS1]

Is this game PAL-only?

[Loafer]

Love the level titles, looks like they went to town with some cool mode-7 type of effects!

[Nebulon]

19 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Is this game PAL-only?

Not sure. Probably.

 

But if you have a 1924 monitor for your A1200, it shouldn't be an issue. Pretty sure a 1084 will work on an A1200 as well.

[+OLD CS1]

48 minutes ago, Nebulon said:

Not sure. Probably.

 

But if you have a 1924 monitor for your A1200, it shouldn't be an issue. Pretty sure a 1084 will work on an A1200 as well.

This is an area of the Amiga in which I have little known experience.  I do not recall ever playing PAL games on my NTSC systems.  I know they will handle the games just fine, and my displays should handle the extra screen real estate and output, but will this game run faster on an NTSC system or will my NTSC system clock down to PAL?  (I should really know this.)

[cbmeeks]

I don't remember the exact procedure, but I think if you hold down the mouse button, you can boot an NTSC 1200 into PAL mode (or vice-versa).  I may not remember the exact details but it's something like that.

 

However, make sure you have a display that will handle both signals.  My 1084S (NTSC) will not handle PAL signals.  Only shows B/W when I try.

[Nebulon]

The top two methods are:

 

1) Hold both mouse buttons when booting and choose PAL. 

 

2) Boot with the Degrader utility diskette, select 50 Hz, click [Survive Reset], reboot.

[+OLD CS1]

I am a spoiled brat when it comes to my Amigas.  I just boot and run stuff from the Workbench.  Ugh, booting into PAL is sooooo 90s   Oh, and I will throw this in.... "just make it RTG!!!!"  I guess I need to experiment with how my PIV and SVGA LCD monitor handle native PAL output.

 

 

[Nebulon]

19 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

I just boot and run stuff from the Workbench.  

 

 

Well, if that's your preferred method, then you could try this little PAL utility:

http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/utilities.html

 

Just run it from AmigaDOS and your machine will switch to PAL mode. I can't recall if I've tried it on an AGA machine. Pretty sure it works fine though.

[eightbit]

I have used the degrader (edit: sorry, that was RELOKICK I was using) util in the past and it works fine for launching PAL Amiga software disks on an NTSC system. I also used to modify my system with a PAL/NTSC switch, but I generally just launch stuff from WHDLoad which takes care of any PAL/NTSC situation for me without doing anything

Edited October 24, 2019 by eightbit

[+OLD CS1]

@eightbit Yeah, +1000 for WHDLoad.

 

@Nebulon Thank you, I will check that out.

[Nebulon]

On 10/22/2019 at 9:19 AM, cbmeeks said:

I don't remember the exact procedure, but I think if you hold down the mouse button, you can boot an NTSC 1200 into PAL mode (or vice-versa).  I may not remember the exact details but it's something like that.

 

However, make sure you have a display that will handle both signals.  My 1084S (NTSC) will not handle PAL signals.  Only shows B/W when I try.

Most 1084 monitors will display both NTSC and PAL. Assuming you're using the RGB cable to hook your Amiga 1200 up to the 1084s CRT, is it possible that you're sending AGA Workbench screen modes that are intended for a Commodore 1942 monitor? Those higher resolutions will also show up as black and white on a 1080 or 1084 display.

[cbmeeks]

On 10/25/2019 at 6:08 PM, Nebulon said:

Most 1084 monitors will display both NTSC and PAL. Assuming you're using the RGB cable to hook your Amiga 1200 up to the 1084s CRT, is it possible that you're sending AGA Workbench screen modes that are intended for a Commodore 1942 monitor? Those higher resolutions will also show up as black and white on a 1080 or 1084 display.

Now that you mention it, the last time I connected my A500 to my 1084S, I used a home-brew S-Video adapter I built to separate the luma/chroma from the Amiga.  Works VERY well.  I was quite proud of that.  ?

 

The last time I connected my Amiga 1200 or Amiga 600, I used the built-in composite and didn't actually try PAL.

 

The last PAL device that I can remember connecting to my NTSC 1084S was actually a PAL C64.  I've also connected a PAL ZX Spectrum.  Both only show B/W.  So the composite inputs definitely don't seem to like PAL inputs.

 

So I have to admit that I'm not sure about PAL modes and the Amiga video cable.  I do remember, when I was young, messing around with high-res modes on that same monitor using the Amiga cable and remembering color on them.  So perhaps you are correct.  I'll have to give that a try again.  Assuming I can find my Amiga video cable.

 

[Nebulon]

Well, for what it's worth, I tried the following and they all scanned both NTSC and PAL successfully -- using the matching Amiga RGB cable:

Commodore 1080 (Toshiba), 1084 (Philips/Magnavox), 1084s (Daewoo), 1902 (Philips/Magnavox).

 

Before you buy an RGB cable, be sure to check the back of the monitor to see if it's a DIN (round) or D-shell (rectangular-ish).

 

Philips/Mag usually use these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-23-pin-female-to-6-pin-DIN-male-monitor-RGB-video-cable-Used/303332375571?hash=item46a004bc13:g:2rsAAOSwglldr-QK

 

Daewoo monitors typically use D-shell:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-23-pin-female-to-9-pin-D-female-monitor-RGB-video-cable-Used/293292762956?hash=item44499c674c:g:QEEAAOSwIRhdr-Xt

 

https://gona.mactar.hu/Commodore/monitor/Commodore_monitors_by_model_number.html

 

[Nebulon]

And I see you can get a better price.... Someone's making new Amiga RGB cables:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMIGA-Monitor-RGB-Kabel-Cable-2-Meter-Analog/322844103990?hash=item4b2b021536:g:8lYAAOSwehZZ7jyj

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-RGB-Monitor-de-Cable-2-Metro-Analogico/323874465672?hash=item4b686c2788:g:-9wAAOSwSlBYwDsh

 

[Daedalus2097]

I'd just like to add that *most* Amigas can easily switch between NTSC and PAL using the early startup menu for later ROM versions, or a degrader disk for earlier (1.x) Kickstart ROM versions. There's a tiny timing difference between them, but it's less than 1% so unlikely to be perceptible. Certainly nothing like games running 20% faster / 17% slower or anything.

 

This capability depends on the machine having a "Fat Agnus" chip however, which is capable of switching on the fly. Earlier Agnus chips can't do this, so the A1000 and some early A500s will be permanently in PAL or NTSC mode without a hardware mod.

 

Pretty much all Commodore monitors can do both NTSC and PAL refresh rates. The colour encoding will be fixed for one or the other, but over RGB that won't matter at all.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Daedalus2097