Amiga, Commodore and creativity

[Luzur]

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Machine Yearning (4096-byte album) - lftkryo

 

[Luzur]

PAGE 64 guysu

 

[Rincewind]

Because we can
https://www.amigalove.com/viewtopic.php?t=2531

 

[Luzur]

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

For years the most advanced games ported to modern Amigas were Q3A or RtCW, now amigatards can play Doom 3:

 

[Rincewind]

modern Amigas

Those are not Amigas; those are basically PCI-bus equipped PCs.

 

[Luzur]

 

[taxalot]

It's like when they say "Look the NES can play Doom now" when they just add a fucking raspberry pi into a cartridge to stream the game from a PC, or even load the game from a computer that's been retrofitted in a cartridge. It defeats the whole point in a way that reminds me of the "water on mars" meme.

 

[Rincewind]

It's like when they say "Look the NES can play Doom now" when they just add a fucking raspberry pi into a cartridge to stream the game from a PC, or even load the game from a computer that's been retrofitted in a cartridge. It defeats the whole point in a way that reminds me of the "water on mars" meme.

Pretty much. "Modern Amigas" are basically these weird "almost PC" type of computers that lack most things that make an Amiga an Amiga. It started with PPC, so first the 68k Motorola CPU was emulated, then on even newer hardware the custom chips themselves were emulated, so it's basically like running WinUAE (kinda) on an underpowered PC with PCI graphics cards and sound cards. Utterly pointless as I see it.

I personally love OCS Amigas the most, but regardless of that, AGA Amigas are still 100% true Amigas. That whole lineage ends with Amiga 4000 + some 060 accelerator, then it's all downhill starting with PPC / graphics cards / PCI bus, etc.

 

[Rincewind]

System Requirements:

This game was created for the Commodore 64. If you're playing on real hardware, you'll need a 1541/1541 II drive and a joystick.

The game can also be played in a C64 emulator like Vice. There you can play the game with many different controllers or a keyboard.

Features:

• Three worlds with unique graphics, foes, gameplay and soundtracks
• 19 very individual levels, most with several paths to finish
• Choose between two heroes with different strenghts
• Multiple game goals and game endings
• PAL/NTSC support
• Protopad support

You can download a digital version (C64 disk image) of the game and the manual here for free (see downloads below).

poly.play is publishing a boxed version of the game. The box includes a printed manual and a lot of other extras. There are three versions available:

• 5 1/4 " Disk
• Cartridge
• 3,5" Disk

For details and (pre)order visit: https://www.polyplay.xyz

Interesting game with awesome box art. It seems to be heavily inspired by Flood, which is not a bad thing.

https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/flood#information

 

[Luzur]

Grind - A first person shooter for Amiga 500, made with the amazing Dread-Engine (+DEMO)​

'Dread' has been featured many times on Indie Retro News, as with every new update the Amiga 500 looked better than ever with fabulous new textures and new zones to visit. Well if you're looking for more gaming news on this upcoming first person shooter, we have not only been informed that a new demo has been made available, but the latest footage and detailed press release shows that John is true to his word in bringing a Doom-like experience to the Amiga as the holy-grail of Amiga gaming! So without further-ado, here's the latest blurb about this incredible looking game.




'"Darkenward east' is planned to be one of the early levels in the game, taking place in a city area. The map is in it's very early stages and will be overhauled once more levels are introduced and the enemy roster gets more complete (currently there's a lack of low tier enemies and other important classes). This release in general marks the complete transition of the project in regards to its visuals and now fully embraces the Steampunk/Lovecraftian aesthetic with the addition of the new HUD and protagonist, as well as brand new, high quality Weapon designs!"

Here's a list of features still missing (and planned to be added soon) as well as other details that are to be worked next, in order to reach the 'vertical slice' short-term goal:

• Music support for the Amiga version
• SFX overhaul (includes adding ambient stuff and enemy growls)
• Further polish on weapon models
• Complete the weapon models replacement (Chaingun and Missile-launcher are still wip - the demo only features the pistol and shotgun for now)
• Add secondary weapon attacks (using RMB)
• Existing enemies polishing (various high-tech details still need altering or removing from some models)
• Create and add new enemy types
• Complete and add 2 more levels (the previous and the next one). This step will also put to the test the newly added level progression system and pave the way for more levels to come.

System Requirements:

• Amiga - ADF version:
• Minimum: a500 with 512 CHIP and 512 OTHER ram
• Recommended: a1200 + fast ram

Other news:
----------
"Lately the Grind team has grown as various, well-known coders have joined to help with the game's production: Namely BSzili (known for his Amiga ports of Dark Forces, Exhumed, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Blake Stone and others) who's handling the Amiga version and coder Kabuto from the demogroup Titan, looking at a possible Mega Drive version as well! Worth noting is that this latest Patreon-only binary release also included an Atari ST version (though it's not ready for a public showcase yet as it misses key features)."

-Grind's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Grind_Amiga (Demo)

-Grind's Pixelglass page: https://pixelglass.org/#grind

-Grind's Discord server: https://discord.gg/QXGQbkRCxN

 

[Luzur]

Tower and Dragon for the Commodore PET with only 8K has reached version 2.0​

Another Commodore PET news story has appeared in our inbox, as we have recently been informed by the creator 'Jason Cook', that the previously released game of 'Tower and Dragon', has hit version 2.0 and can be enjoyed right now! For those of who haven't heard of this game before however. It is a classic dungeon crawling adventure with primary and offhand weapon, armor, quest storyline, moving walls, teleportation, and unique tilesets and deadly monsters for each dungeon level.


Here is what Jason Cook said about this latest release for the Commodore PET. "With memory tapped out at 8K, version 2 started out modest enough with just optimizing program space to add room decorations. While testing, I realized it was nearly impossible to locate critical tiles for game progression. This caused another optimization programming cycle to include tile animation".

"Animations had such a dramatic impact that I then created an entirely new starting level. The game now starts with your character outdoors just after landing a boat on the shore near an ancient ruin. To complete the outdoor adventure, a key needs to be found to unlock and descend into the depths of the ancient ruin. Monsters in the ruin have been increased in level to compensate for the outdoor adventure. The final boss is significantly tougher".
New in V2.0:

• The game starts with an outdoor adventure!
• There are now animated tiles.
• All levels are fortified with room decorations.
• Game programmed around ROM 1 bugs with the Commodore PET disk drive (IEEE-488), allowing it to work with a disk drive! To get it operating, see project rom1diskmagic.
• 20% improvement in performance.
• As with 1.1, this all runs in only 8K of memory. To make something this complex has been an ongoing battle.
• Unfortunately, character save files from version 1.x are not compatible.
• Fixed screen corruption on save (only effected tape cassette version in some cases).
• As of Version 1.1, supports SNES Game Controller.

https://hub.inktada.com/channel/toweranddragon

 

[Rincewind]

You can't have too many Bruce Lee clones:

https://rgcddev.itch.io/tiger-claw

 

[Azdul]

It's like when they say "Look the NES can play Doom now" when they just add a fucking raspberry pi into a cartridge to stream the game from a PC, or even load the game from a computer that's been retrofitted in a cartridge. It defeats the whole point in a way that reminds me of the "water on mars" meme.

Pretty much. "Modern Amigas" are basically these weird "almost PC" type of computers that lack most things that make an Amiga an Amiga. It started with PPC, so first the 68k Motorola CPU was emulated, then on even newer hardware the custom chips themselves were emulated, so it's basically like running WinUAE (kinda) on an underpowered PC with PCI graphics cards and sound cards. Utterly pointless as I see it.

I personally love OCS Amigas the most, but regardless of that, AGA Amigas are still 100% true Amigas. That whole lineage ends with Amiga 4000 + some 060 accelerator, then it's all downhill starting with PPC / graphics cards / PCI bus, etc.

The whole idea of dedicating even cycles to coprocessors and odd cycles to CPU - 68k Amiga architecture - worked 'mostly fine' in 1985 - when 68000 rarely needed memory access more often than every 2nd cycle. Still - adding Fast RAM inaccessible to coprocessors in some cases radically improved performance.

The architecture first run into troubles in early 90's. Commodore had to outsource AGA manufacturing - as making custom coprocessors that could run on 14 Mhz - to keep up with 68020 - could not be done in-house.

Then architecture reached end of the road: Superscalar architecture of 68060 meant that CPU would need most clock cycles to communicate with memory. Custom coprocessors sharing the same bus do not help - and often make things worse - like when blitter is enabled on Atari MegaSTe machine.

Tony was designed for Atari 8-bit - that's why it has 320x200 monochrome graphics.

What's interesting - despite being designed by Jay Miner - Atari 8-bit architecture does not dedicate specific cycles to 6502 and specific cycles to Antic. Both run at the same time at 2 Mhz - and compete for bus access.

While in Commodore 64 - not designed by Jay Miner - VIC-II uses rising edge of clock signal to access RAM and 6510 uses falling clock edge.

MOS CPU could run at 2 Mhz - after all it does in Atari 8-bit and in C-128 (in 128 mode). But in C-64 CPU had to be slowed down to 1 Mhz - because rest of machine is tightly coupled to CPU clock. In order for CPU to run at 2 Mhz - VIC-II would have to be made using different manufacturing process - and C-64 would have to use very expensive 4 Mhz memory - like BBC Micro does.

Amiga architecture encountered the same roadblocks.

PCs at the time didn't have powerful coprocessors - and CPU could take full advantage of all available clock cycles. DDR RAM uses the same solution as C-64 - except both rising and falling edge of clock signal can be used by CPU.

Once graphics cards started stalling PC CPUs on accesses to video RAM - dual port memory was introduced - which can be read by graphics card and written by CPU at the same time. GDDRAM is a modern descendant of that solution.

 

[Rincewind]

Amiga architecture encountered the same roadblocks.

PCs at the time didn't have powerful coprocessors - and CPU could take full advantage of all available clock cycles. DDR RAM uses the same solution as C-64 - except both rising and falling edge of clock signal can be used by CPU.

Yeah, all true. The classic Amiga architecture was a dead-end—but what a glorious dead-end! My point is, people trying to "resurrect" Amigas inevitably turn them into PCs, partly because of the reasons you mentioned.

Like why would you want to use Firefox on a "modernised" Amiga? Just use any modern OS and modern computer and be done with it. You use Amigas for the demos and its vast game library. Well, maybe some productivity apps for nostalgia, but there are much better productivity apps available these days. Although, DPaint still beats most things for pixeling

We don't know what would've happened if Commodore remained a leading force in the computer business. Eventually, they could have come up with a more scalable and flexible design not coupled strictly to base clock speeds. But it's pure fantasy—the PC was bound to win due to the cheap clones and the flexibility of its more modular design. People just wanted to use the same software at home they had to use at work. Ultimately, I love the Amiga but it was the last, most advanced incarnation of the 80s home computer paradigm, with all the cool things and yeah, all the drawbacks. Maybe Acorn Archimedes is another runner-up, but it was quite obscure.

 

[Luzur]

 

[Luzur]

WELCOME TO WILD WOOD!

The sound and music are a big part of any C64 game and we intend to do justice to the SID chip! Wild Wood is full of atmospheric and dramatic pieces, alongside catchy, energetic compositions.

Every level has its own population of special enemies, perils and rewards, expertly animated; totalling over a hundred unique types so far.

Explore diverse levels including moonlit fields, ancient ruins and cavernous warrens, venturing deep into the ominous woods!
Enjoy vast multi-directional levels, high-speed side-scrolling chases, mighty bosses and much more.
Along the way there are characters to meet and items to aid you – as well as hidden secrets and bonus stages.

The sound and music are a big part of any C64 game and we intend to do justice to the SID chip! Wild Wood is full of atmospheric and dramatic pieces, alongside catchy, energetic compositions.


GRAPHICS

SOUND
Level backdrops and landscapes are on a scale rarely encountered in any C64 game, intricately detailed, full of variety and dotted with huge iconic structures.

https://www.wildwoodgame.co.uk/

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

SNK vs Capcom ported from Neo Geo Pocket straight into C64:

 

[Kev Inkline]

It's like when they say "Look the NES can play Doom now" when they just add a fucking raspberry pi into a cartridge to stream the game from a PC, or even load the game from a computer that's been retrofitted in a cartridge. It defeats the whole point in a way that reminds me of the "water on mars" meme.

Pretty much. "Modern Amigas" are basically these weird "almost PC" type of computers that lack most things that make an Amiga an Amiga. It started with PPC, so first the 68k Motorola CPU was emulated, then on even newer hardware the custom chips themselves were emulated, so it's basically like running WinUAE (kinda) on an underpowered PC with PCI graphics cards and sound cards. Utterly pointless as I see it.

I personally love OCS Amigas the most, but regardless of that, AGA Amigas are still 100% true Amigas. That whole lineage ends with Amiga 4000 + some 060 accelerator, then it's all downhill starting with PPC / graphics cards / PCI bus, etc.

ECS or bust, old-timer!

 

[Rincewind]

ECS or bust, old-timer!

Yeah, OCS/ECS. We're friends?

My current two A500s are rev 8 and rev 6a, so ECS, and I'm pretty sure I had a rev 6a back in the day (bought my A500 in 1990, I think).

But then, I think exactly zero games used any ECS features. You could do the 1/2 MB chip RAM upgrades and that's it. But in practice the 512K trapdoor "slow RAM" was all you actually needed for games.

Writing music and doing gfx is a different story, of course...

 

[Kev Inkline]

Actually, to be honest it may be I had an OCS model, as I think I got it in 1988, but WB was 1.3 for sure.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

SNK vs Capcom ported from Neo Geo Pocket straight into C64:

holy fuck that's some smooth shit. can the c64 really do that stuff?

 

[Luzur]

 

[Luzur]

The RAD is a fairly simple device for the cartridge port of a C64/C128. It works together with a Raspberry Pi and can bypass the computers CPU to do some really heavy lifting and cool stuff while still using the computers VIC2 and SID chip (and the rest of the machine).This way you can run DOOM on the C64. The game runs on the Pi's ARM processor in 50 FPS, but you use the C64 for the keyboard, graphics and sound. It can play samples, and it also features up to 16Mb RAM expansion. How cool is that ?

GitHub RAD: https://github.com/frntc/RAD
RAD-Doom: https://github.com/frntc/RAD-Doom