Attack of the PETSCII robots for the JAG?

[Judas-Prime]

The 8-Bit guy has a really cool game that is being ported to a bunch of platforms including the Amiga and Genesis. I wonder what it would take to port it over to the Jag? The controller would be a perfect for the control scheme and since the Jag shares a Processor with the Amiga and Genesis (68000) there is already some common ground there. He seems really open the sharing the source, I wonder if this would be an easy port or too much of a headache to bring it over to the Jag.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[doctorclu]

Ask the 8-bit guy.

[+CyranoJ]

Nobody wants sub 8-bit shite

 

But in all seriousness, that guy is a nut-case. If he asks you go to go Subway with him, say no.

[LordKraken]

52 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

Nobody wants sub 8-bit shite

I would tend to agree with @CyranoJ here. The fun part with that project is to see it converted to (almost) all existing 8bits platform. I know there is a genesis, an amiga, and even a DOS version in the work, but I'm not sure it would be super appealing for a "64bits" do-the-maths platform.

 

52 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

But in all seriousness, that guy is a nut-case. If he asks you go to go Subway with him, say no.

Hmmm... sounds like there is a funny anecdote to be tell here

[+CyranoJ]

38 minutes ago, LordKraken said:

I would tend to agree with @CyranoJ here. The fun part with that project is to see it converted to (almost) all existing 8bits platform. I know there is a genesis, an amiga, and even a DOS version in the work, but I'm not sure it would be super appealing for a "64bits" do-the-maths platform.

I was actually extracting the urine.  If a game is fun, who cares where it came from or what it is? Too much pretentiousness as it is.

[Zerosquare]

1 hour ago, LordKraken said:

I would tend to agree with @CyranoJ here. The fun part with that project is to see it converted to (almost) all existing 8bits platform. I know there is a genesis, an amiga, and even a DOS version in the work, but I'm not sure it would be super appealing for a "64bits" do-the-maths platform.

The Jaguar is 64 bits. This is a 8 bit game. So obviously, the Jaguar version should support 8 players at the same time.

[agradeneu]

I might agree with LordKraken here . It does not look like an attractive game for the Jaguar platform to me. Even the SNES version looks soso.

[LordKraken]

2 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

I was actually extracting the urine.  If a game is fun, who cares where it came from or what it is? Too much pretentiousness as it is.

Wise words, but for a 16-32-64 bits ports, one would expect a few things, for instance smooth scrolling, which is not the case afaik.

 

Also the game gets mixed reviews, but apparently that's because many people don't RTFM

Edited May 20, 2022 by LordKraken

[Gummy Bear]

2 hours ago, Zerosquare said:

The Jaguar is 64 bits. This is a 8 bit game. So obviously, the Jaguar version should support 8 players at the same time.

I heard it could only support 2 groups of 4 players.

[doctorclu]

4 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

But in all seriousness, that guy is a nut-case. If he asks you go to go Subway with him, say no.

Will also add met the guy at the area Dallas Atari meetings. 

Seemed cool enough.   

 

And I didn't hear him giving invites to Subway to anyone.   ? 

 

 

2 hours ago, agradeneu said:

I might agree with LordKraken here . It does not look like an attractive game for the Jaguar platform to me. Even the SNES version looks soso.

I think the cool factor on this one is:

1) Game made out of PETSCII characters, which 8-bit guy recreated the font in at least the Atari 8-bit version he demoed back in September at the Dallas Atari meeting.

 

2) While simple looking also looks like a fun game.   Never played it to confirm it is, but generally speaking IF a game has good gameplay that is of higher importance to me.

 

3) And of course to see how many platforms this game could be on.  Having the Jaguar in the mix would make another footnote.

 

 

All that said, do I think this game is must see or must have?   Not yet for me.

 

But I would at least try it out.

 

 

[agradeneu]

8 hours ago, LordKraken said:

Wise words, but for a 16-32-64 bits ports, one would expect a few things, for instance smooth scrolling, which is not the case afaik.

 

Also the game gets mixed reviews, but apparently that's because many people don't RTFM

I agree, its not really about the "64 bit" rhetoric, just fix the shockingly terrible scrolling

 

 

 

 

[youxia]

This is a grid-based game, so not sure if the scrolling can actually be fixed?

[The Helper]

If someone ports it over to the ST it sure would be alot easier to get going on the Jag just saying...

[SlidellMan]

I'd rather keep the grid. To change the scrolling to something smoother would tamper with the game's soul.

[agradeneu]

13 hours ago, youxia said:

This is a grid-based game, so not sure if the scrolling can actually be fixed?

Kings of Edom is grid based too. As are most turn based strategy games (Hexagon grid).

 

The animations and scrolling don't need to be that jerky!

 

IMO it's the way it draws sprites/tiles. Makes sense on a 8 bit machines probably.

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by agradeneu

[youxia]

1 hour ago, agradeneu said:

Kings of Edom is grid based too. As are most turn based strategy games (Hexagon grid).

These type of games have much slower pace. If you speeded them up perhaps they would look jerky too. In any case, ok, maybe it could be made to look better, but as it is it's not really a big deal when you are actually playing the game. Definitely not in the "shockingly terrible" category

 

This thread made me finally try this game yesterday and I must say it's not too bad. I'm not that keen on the author himself, not sure why, but a game is a game. The key point, mentioned earlier, is that it's not really an action one but more of a puzzle-exploration affair, something I actually prefer. if it was a bit more complex and polished it could be very good.

[LordKraken]

Having a grid-based game is fine. Maby great games are. Doesn't mean you cannot smooth the scrolling, Kings of Edom is a good example recently. The reason why it's choppy is in the title. It's a game that originally use ascii characters for the PET computer (this is the petscii of the title) so the scrolling can only be 1 character or 1 line at once on that machine. But most ports (if not all) are bitmap based, so there's no reason to retain the choppy scrolling imho.

[+Gemintronic]

Kind of feel if you're doing a port you need to make the same game - including prominent characteristics.  Character based graphics are part of the name in this game.

 

If the original poster could post a bare bones game design document it might serve as inspiration for a play alike.  That would take care of the licensing and expectation issues of a port.

[LordKraken]

2 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

Character based graphics are part of the name in this game.

But almost none of the ports is doing that (some because they dont have a choice to be fair). They are all sprite based, except the original and maybe one or two others 

Edited May 21, 2022 by LordKraken

[+Gemintronic]

10 minutes ago, LordKraken said:

But almost none of the ports is doing that (some because they dont have a choice to be fair). They are all sprite based, except the original and maybe one or two others 

 

I must be looking at different videos of ports.  All of them I've seen have grid based movement that sure looks like character based "scrolling".  PETSCII is a character based technology.  Any port that smooth scrolls is separating itself from the original concept.  My opinion.

[LordKraken]

Grid-based movement = each move/scroll is 8, 16, or 32 or more pixels (a character size in ascii mode), depending on your tile size. It can be instantaneous (you have no choice in ascii mode) or one pixel at a time, until tile size is reached. 

 

The original game is made using (redefined) ascii characters because the Commodore PET doesn't offer a bitmap mode afaik, that's the reason why the came is called "...petscii". As such, characters can only be scroll one character at time, in the four directions. This is the only way to simulate a scrolling in ascii mode.

 

Now looking at the ports, most of them replaced ascii characters with sprites. Just because it looks better I guess, and yes it makes the game title quite irrelevant. But because those ports use sprites, I don't see any reason to not use per-pixel scrolling: You would still scroll by a given amount of pixels (8, 16 or 32) with each move, but it would give a much smoother and visually pleasant result.

Edited May 22, 2022 by LordKraken

[agradeneu]

13 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

 

I must be looking at different videos of ports.  All of them I've seen have grid based movement that sure looks like character based "scrolling".  PETSCII is a character based technology.  Any port that smooth scrolls is separating itself from the original concept.  My opinion.

Which brings up the question: why port it to machines like the SNES (or Jaguar)? It appears like a misfit.

 

[+Gemintronic]

Because you can.  Or, whatever developer enjoys making someone else's game over their own.

 

You're always going to end up disappointing someone with artistic alterations and "improvements".  Kind of like most new Star Trek shows.

[rogneda]

2 hours ago, agradeneu said:

Which brings up the question: why port it to machines like the SNES (or Jaguar)? It appears like a misfit.

 

The game has a nice isometic view. If scrolling is made smooth (like for example in Kings of Edom), and with some enhanced animated sprites, this game could be quite nice (as a 16-bit style game).

Edited May 22, 2022 by rogneda

[doctorclu]

On 5/20/2022 at 7:41 PM, The Helper said:

If someone ports it over to the ST it sure would be alot easier to get going on the Jag just saying...

 

Hmmm... Nuon version!    Increase the Nuon library by an easy 10% right there.