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Metroidvania for Atari Jaguar - anyone?


phoboz

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2 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

For an effect idea: Additive/Subtractive transparency.

We have seen some impressive transparency effects on Native... does it take a big impact in performance?

 

We also saw very cool lightning effects in Hover Strike CD... could them be applied to a 2d game... I remember Castlevania Symphony of the Night on PlayStation using lightning effects on certain spots.

 

Not saying this game NEEDS that stuff to be impressive... just want to know a bit more about what is posible in the Jag when it comes to 2D.

 

I am actually a huge Sega Genesis fan, and enjoy watching and reading how coders achieve cool effects in software trough tricks such as scaling and rotation, etc. That since the Genny didn’t have hardware support for such stuff.

 

Given how much more advanced and different the Jag architecture is, I would find it very interesting to read about how you guys achieve those effects on this system and what is posible on .it

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  • 2 weeks later...
20 hours ago, Sapicco said:

Amazing!  I can’t wait for this.   Makes me wonder if contra could be done. 

The controls are very similar to Contra. We have started to work on a boss that uses similar animation techniques as in the later games of that series.

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Asteroite April update.

Thank you Krauser for new music and enemies, @SlidellMan for the pipe tiles:

 

and some initial work on a large BOSS, consisting of several parts, animated using key-frames (like the bosses in later Contra games)

Thank you Krauser for the BOSS parts.

 

 

Edited by phoboz
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  • 2 weeks later...

This is the first real BOSS in Asteroite (no mini-boss like the Alien, and Predator you saw in the earlier videos)

As promised, it features an animation style similar as in the later Contra and Probotector games:

(e.g. using several animated parts, look at the elastic arms etc.)

 

 

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On 4/12/2021 at 10:38 PM, sirlynxalot said:

Wow, when this topic was new I was all like "cool, a little homebrew experiment will come out of this". Now I'm just really impressed with how professional its looking. Great graphics, animation and sound! Nice job with the boss!

Thank you.

Yes, the game has been going trough a gradual improvement process. Thanks to the talented people who have joined the project, as well as your comments on the videos that were published in this thread.

 

Maybe it was a little bit premature to post the earliest videos, I got a lot of comments like: "It looks like an 8-bit game".

For understandable reasons you don't go all in on the artwork before you have a working game engine, so this is what has been happening

More professional artist has been joining this project (after all, I am only a programmer myself)

The main point is that a platformer might look very beautiful on screen-shorts, but if it doesn't play well, if the physics doesn't feel right, then I can guarantee that you won't play it for very long. So this was really my focus from start.

 

When I had a game engine that felt right, then the actual level design, enemy design, item design, and graphical polishing process could begin...

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4 hours ago, thanatos said:

Been watching this topic for a while, and the progress is amazing!

My only comment so far is that the "loading sector" message would be kind of annoying to me.  Just a personal opinion.

 

Yes, but in fact I thought it was needed, because some levels can take up to a few seconds to load. (all graphical data is packed to fit on a cartridge, and needs to be un-packed when needed, because all of it won't fit in RAM at the same time)

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18 hours ago, phoboz said:

Yes, but in fact I thought it was needed, because some levels can take up to a few seconds to load. (all graphical data is packed to fit on a cartridge, and needs to be un-packed when needed, because all of it won't fit in RAM at the same time)

Ah, I see.  Just thought it was a cosmetic thing.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Another status update, this time you see part of the severs, beneath the abandoned factory (which you haven't seen yet)

Also note the new, brown suite of the hero. This will enable the game character to come in contact with the green water in the severs, without instant death (but you will loose energy).

You will also meet the Rat-King mini-boss.

 

 

 

Edited by phoboz
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9 hours ago, Stephen said:

Man this is really shaping up nicely!  Why did we not get games like this BITD?  Who thought that single digit framerate 3D games were the way to go?!?

Yes really, in hindsight it is crazy that there was no way to go than 3D back then blocky, crude, when you could have perfectly beautiful pixel art... and then Atari said...make it look like a playstation game and texture everything. :-D 

 

Really nice progress, I enjoy these videos very much. Haven't seen the roll jump before I think also nice and I dig the music.

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2 hours ago, PeterG said:

Atari said...make it look like a playstation game and texture everything.

The probably wanted something that looked like a PS game on still images. Today, a video is a much more accessible method to learn about new games, and then you see the low frame rate (if that is the case)

 

11 hours ago, Stephen said:

Man this is really shaping up nicely!  Why did we not get games like this BITD?  Who thought that single digit framerate 3D games were the way to go?!?

Most of us has probably got over 3D as something new and exciting, so now we can focus on what we like instead...

 

2 hours ago, PeterG said:

it is crazy that there was no way to go than 3D back then blocky, crude

Yes, I prefer clean, flat shaded polygons over that blocky, ugly look of low resolution textures.

 

2 hours ago, PeterG said:

when you could have perfectly beautiful pixel art...

I fully agree... a big thank you to the artists who helped me with this: Krauser, and @SlidellMan.

Edited by phoboz
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7 hours ago, PeterG said:

Yes really, in hindsight it is crazy that there was no way to go than 3D back then blocky, crude, when you could have perfectly beautiful pixel art... and then Atari said...make it look like a playstation game and texture everything. :-D 

 

Really nice progress, I enjoy these videos very much. Haven't seen the roll jump before I think also nice and I dig the music.

Atari was not able to compete with Nintendos or Segas industry leading standard of 2D games, because artwork and design needed very high production value. 

 

So 3D games were the fresh new thing the Jaguar was really superior compared to the 16 bit systems and Atari even had a little advantage as a forerunner. So 3D games promised to give Atari better returns for relatively modest investments. And the target audience were gamers wanting 3D on a home console. Honestly, we bought a Jaguar for 3D games because the Super Nintendo already offered 2D games in abundance. 

In 1994, you did not buy a Jag to play 2D pixelgames like on the SNES.

 

Now, if we look at the competition in 1994-1995 in terms of 2D, Super Metroid/Donkey Kong released for the SNES -  no chance in hell Atari was able to match that high level of 2D game design/artwork, given how poor their offerings like Crescent Galaxy were. 

If they tried, the press would have slaughtered any rip off with bad reviews, just look at what happened to Bubsy and Raiden. Or even Super Burn Out, that was totally shred to pieces by reviewers for its sprite based pseudo 3D. 

 

For homebrew, its a totally different thing. If you attempt a Metroid game, nobody is expecting you to match or to trump the best offerings like Super Metroid. The competition are other homebrew/hobby games.

 

Edited by agradeneu
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3 hours ago, agradeneu said:

For homebrew, its a totally different thing.

You could also compare this to an "Indie game" as opposed to an AAA game.

 

I am not sure why the term "homebrew" is being used for the Jaguar, as this term seems to refer to games that are developed for a system without a license from the console IP owner. Often using "hacked" tools.

 

However, please note that the Atari Jaguar was declared an open platform by their final IP owner "Hasbro Interactive" in May 1999.

All development can be done using official tools, and the original developer documentation.

So there is nothing that prevents a complete legit game release for the Atari Jaguar, as opposed to many other retro game consoles.

 

Also note that what made the well established game company "Electronic Arts" what they are today, is that they reverse engineered the SEGA Genesis to avoid costly license fees from SEGA. So you could call their very successful games for the Genesis homebrews? (eventually they made a deal, but they used their own "hacked" technology for developing games rather than using the official one)

 

Nevertheless, I think that we have seen some very competent Indie Developed action/adventure games over the years. So if we are to up the competition a little bit, here are a few great examples: Axion Verge, and The Mummy Demastered.

Let's where we end up on this one?...

 

Edited by phoboz
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Nice...never heard of The Mummy Demastered...will check it out. Video looks cool. (Not really related but I just saw a video after that of the Turrican Flashback Collection and completly gutted it's not available on xbox...ack)

 

About the homebrew topic, it might have to do with people already tinkering on the jag with the BJL and and Jaguar server and whatever they had back then long before the jag was made open. You had the "Jaguar underground" and it was all homebrew...

But then again maybe it is just a lable. I'm no historian but if memory serves me right "Indie game" is a rather young term compared to homebrew, at least that is my perception. So from the point I see it you had the homebrews were someone was tinkering with something at home and only a few people had access or it was free or whatever and then in the last few years this other leg of the industry would slowly rise were you wouldn't have a huge team and a costly development but still produce a hit game... in my head it is nothing else than a homebrew only that it sold millions of copies...for example something like Limbo done by three people if I am not mistaken.

 

But you can call you your effort every way you like it looks kick ass no matter how it is labeled. And it is on the Jaguar. :-D 

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