Airshack Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 14 hours ago, Lostdragon said: That's actually more and more hard to create, or better say invent. It was hard already in 80-es of prev. Century, and now, when there are so many games already released ... I’d argue it’s easier to design new games now with modern context aware editors, cross-assemblers, and emulation. The process of code-test-improve has been streamlined significantly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 I think he means new as in new and revolutionary and different. Not new as in just done recently. Look at any typical shooter that comes out in any given year. When was the last time that you saw one that was really different from any of the others in any measurable way? When was the last time you saw any game that seemed really new, and not just a copy of some other game with a little different graphics? I think that's what @ParanoidLittleMan is referring to when he says new. That's how I took his comments anyway. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 5 hours ago, bfollowell said: When was the last time that you saw one that was really different from any of the others in any measurable way? 1993. Doom. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 14 hours ago, bfollowell said: I think he means new as in new and revolutionary and different. Not new as in just done recently. Look at any typical shooter that comes out in any given year. When was the last time that you saw one that was really different from any of the others in any measurable way? When was the last time you saw any game that seemed really new, and not just a copy of some other game with a little different graphics? I think that's what @ParanoidLittleMan is referring to when he says new. That's how I took his comments anyway. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Of course that I meant not game design, coding, and even not graphic when talked about new idea. Gameplay is where is really hard to invent something new, what will be addictive. This with Doom and follower Quake is rather some evolution by me - Castle Wolfenstein was probably first FPS by ID SW, and followers were basically same gameplay - walking in rooms, shoot everything ... By me Tomb Raider was much more original, and probably biggest success on market. But, if we think little - it was pretty much Prince Of Persia in 3D ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostdragon Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 8 hours ago, Airshack said: I’d argue it’s easier to design new games now with modern context aware editors, cross-assemblers, and emulation. The process of code-test-improve has been streamlined significantly. The quote about: "That's actually more and more hard to create, or better say invent. It was hard already in 80-es of prev. Century, and now, when there are so many games already released ..." Came from:ParanoidLittleMan, not myself ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostdragon Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 6 hours ago, bfollowell said: I think he means new as in new and revolutionary and different. Not new as in just done recently. Look at any typical shooter that comes out in any given year. When was the last time that you saw one that was really different from any of the others in any measurable way? When was the last time you saw any game that seemed really new, and not just a copy of some other game with a little different graphics? I think that's what @ParanoidLittleMan is referring to when he says new. That's how I took his comments anyway. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I can remember people trying to mimic Andrew Braybrook'Uridium on the likes of the BBC and Atari 8-bit machines and whilst technically great efforts, the playability just wasn't there. People still doing modern takes on the title to this day. People can take a popular formula and put their own take on it. I was never quite the same fan of Exhumed on Playstation/Saturn that my friend was, but i appalled them for doing something different than the generic space marine setting. I hated Tomb Raider, but couldn't get enough of Soul Reaver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masteries Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 (edited) I contacted the author of the port, the user KK from the scene group Altair He explained me, that all the graphics are runtime converted from chunky mode to planar... that is not the best for an Atari ST/E or Amiga... as well, I suggest to use the 4 MB RAM of a STE in order to place all sprites in a pre-scaled manner, as well pre-scale as many textures as possible, in order to save a lot of CPU power. The chunky to planar conversion is currently the worst part, talking about performance Texture drawing is based in 2 pixels width with larger height such 8 pixels, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32... as well, pre-load and pre-scaling can bring a performance boost, as well working directly in planar mode instead of chunky Due to Dread´s code draws 2 pixels width textures, is better to create a composition of at least 16 pixels, and perform the blitter operation in master mode to draw this texture composition. In order to minimize the number of blitting operations per frame. Edited August 29, 2021 by masteries 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 On 8/28/2021 at 1:02 AM, ParanoidLittleMan said: By me Tomb Raider was much more original, and probably biggest success on market. But, if we think little - it was pretty much Prince Of Persia in Ha, this is what I said when Tomb Raider first released. As far as 'oh man, just another Doom clone?' One of the reasons so many of these come out for the ST / Amiga is because back when they started hitting the PC, there were many many many 'journalists' who insisted that all other platforms died because of not being able to run Doom. I've seen way too many to count that specifically said that about the Amiga, and then so many attempts to show 'hey, we can run such games as well!' that were pretty much ignored by the press because "But it can't run DOOM!" so when the source code was released, every platform eventually got it. Hell, it's been ported to a printer. So yeah, it actually is a technical marvel to see a Doom style game on the ST, especially one that looks SO good. Sure, would I prefer someone spend the time to create Alternate Reality: The Dungeon on 16 bit systems, and then maybe just finish the rest of the games in that series? Well yes, yes I would. But I'll take Dread! This game looks amazing! Will get it for both ST and Amiga, if they're doing a commercial release. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 Dread exec are available for download (including ST version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxhO1ZCOZ-M 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 Awesomeness - gonna go try this out in a bit. Does this demo include support for both ST and STe? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumbleJag Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 Very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickster Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 This is very cool . Runs great on my mega STE!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 Gave this a whirl, it does crash for me from time to time, but it is pretty funny and smooth otherwise...2 bombs I get. I'm using an UltraSatan with PPutnik drivers and my machine specs are in my signature... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 Very cool! Runs pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 There are still some bugs that will crash the game... https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=421736#p421736 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chri O. Posted September 7, 2021 Share Posted September 7, 2021 On 9/6/2021 at 2:43 AM, calimero said: There are still some bugs that will crash the game... Yap i got 11 bombs, game crashes after about 2 min of playing. This is on Atari 1040 STe - 4MB - ICD AdSpeed ST: 16 MHz accelerator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted September 8, 2021 Share Posted September 8, 2021 ^ so it looks like that 16MHz causing crashes... Same is on Falcon. On Mega STe: does it work with 16MHz and cache on? --- KK explain how Dread works on Atari: https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=1505462&postcount=1064 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickster Posted September 8, 2021 Share Posted September 8, 2021 2 hours ago, calimero said: ^ so it looks like that 16MHz causing crashes... Same is on Falcon. On Mega STe: does it work with 16MHz and cache on? --- KK explain how Dread works on Atari: https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=1505462&postcount=1064 It did for me, but I didn't play it too long, but yes, my mega ste was in 16mhz with cache on. I did play the game a couple of times and even let it set at the main menu listening to the music while I was on another computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted September 8, 2021 Share Posted September 8, 2021 Same here. It ran fine on my Mega STe, 16mhz, cache on, no problems. It even started fine from the desktop with ACC's and AUTO folder programs loaded. This was from an internal Ultrasatan. I also tried to run it on my Pak 68/3 equipped STacy running at 40mhz and TOS v3.06. It also started fine from the desktop there, with ACC's and AUTO folder programs loaded. It showed some sprite clipping? for want of a better description? When facing an enemy and firing, the bottom half of the enemy model would "flicker" and disappear then immediately reappear when the gun animation/sound ended. Finally, about about 5-6 minutes of game play, it did crash with 6 cherry bombs. Fortunately, the Pak 68/3 board has a full compatibility mode where you can turn the STacy off, flip a switch and boot back up into TOS v1.4 and an 8mhz 68000. From there Dread ran absolutely fine. Very smooth game. It seems that just a few more "tweaks" might make it run great on all Atari hardware. Great job guys! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterMotorola Posted September 8, 2021 Share Posted September 8, 2021 Dread works on an emulated TT030 using Hatari but with a very low colour palette. However, on my real TT it does not even get to the splash screen. It causes my monitor to display NO SIGNAL and everything is black. ? Anyone else have any luck on a TT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted September 8, 2021 Share Posted September 8, 2021 I tested it on my Mega STE at 16 MHz, of course cache on, for some 10 minutes, and it worked fine. I killed about 5 "negative characters" ? . So, I guess that it may be condition, age of some machines. Or maybe those smartheads did not remove all unnecessary resident SW ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 It seems that Dread run fine on every Mega STe. Problem is on TT/Falcon/Hatari. On Hatari additional problem is color palette: since Hatari does not emulate HBL, whole game use HUD palette: https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=421885#p421885 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted September 12, 2021 Share Posted September 12, 2021 Just got round to playing, I love it and can't wait to play more of it. Still need to find all the secrets and beat the hardest difficulty.Completely distracted me from re-learning STOS this weekendSent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 49.0, Normal, no cheats. Route I've been using -Collect the armour to the left Walk to first room, shoot the guyTurn right, shoot the next guy, but that's the last one I bother to kill.Run forwards, get the key, run back to the first room, turn right, then left, then keep forwards to the end. Definitely room for improvement with my movement - this clunky Atari mouse wasnt built with this game in mind - and it's possible to clip walls in useful places too Surely somebody can beat me?? Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 On 8/29/2021 at 5:18 AM, masteries said: I contacted the author of the port, the user KK from the scene group Altair He explained me, that all the graphics are runtime converted from chunky mode to planar... that is not the best for an Atari ST/E or Amiga... as well, I suggest to use the 4 MB RAM of a STE in order to place all sprites in a pre-scaled manner, as well pre-scale as many textures as possible, in order to save a lot of CPU power. The chunky to planar conversion is currently the worst part, talking about performance Texture drawing is based in 2 pixels width with larger height such 8 pixels, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32... as well, pre-load and pre-scaling can bring a performance boost, as well working directly in planar mode instead of chunky Due to Dread´s code draws 2 pixels width textures, is better to create a composition of at least 16 pixels, and perform the blitter operation in master mode to draw this texture composition. In order to minimize the number of blitting operations per frame. If he used all 4MB on an STe, wouldn't that cause issues with running the game off of an UltraSatan unless the STe had a FastRAM upgrade and the game was patched to use that RAM resource? Wait, FastRAM might require a 68020 or better. RAM upgrades are obviously easier on the Amiga [groan]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.