English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Why is the homebrew scene on the Amiga not as impressive...

Tigerskunk · 07 December 2017, 11:43

After cooling down a bit, I now want to write a few things...
And I think this really belongs in this thread, because these are the things that makes homebrewing for the Amiga so difficult..

First off, the Amiga is hard to develop for.

It's hard to learn all the importnant stuff about DMACON, Bitplane setups, memory management, bitplane Modulos, blit modulos, Minterms, and all these other weird things.

There are like a hundred different things you can do wrong before you have even blitted something to the screen.

And then, you are not developing for one platform, you will have people with a thousand different setups trying to get your game running.

I tested this Christmas game on FS-UAE and an Amiga 1000(with ACA500plus). Seemed to work there. I am aware of that small graphics bug with the higher up standing enemy, but thought it#s okay to release it like this, because frankly I was a bit tired debugging glitches by the end.

Even if you say "hey, this is a short game written for OCS 512K&512K slow" you will have people, like our Neill79 here who probably didn't read this, and will start the game on AGA, and wonder why there are so many graphics bugs. Or wonder why the game is short.

Next, you will have this written by someone on some blog with images of these bugs, and it will kind of irk you, I promise.

You can then start writing something that prohibits all other setups. Which is a lot of work, but probably unavoidable.

Which brings me to my point. I need to work easily ten times harder to get something out on the Amiga than on the C64 or the Vectrex (and even the Atari VCS, which by no means is an easy to develop for console).

On the other side you then have these folks, who think every game coded for the Amiga needs to be the second coming of christ, like those two wankers on youtube probably do.

The christmas game was intended a short gag present for the community.
I think the graphics are well done, and for what it is, it's okay. The music is kind of going on the nerves, but that was kind of the point of it. originally I wanted "last christmas" in it, but that didn't loop so well...

Anyway, I will take a break from Amiga coding for a while.

Have a good time, EAB...

07 December 2017, 11:43	#501
Tigerskunk Inviyya Dude! Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: Amiga Island Posts: 2,770	After cooling down a bit, I now want to write a few things... And I think this really belongs in this thread, because these are the things that makes homebrewing for the Amiga so difficult.. First off, the Amiga is hard to develop for. It's hard to learn all the importnant stuff about DMACON, Bitplane setups, memory management, bitplane Modulos, blit modulos, Minterms, and all these other weird things. There are like a hundred different things you can do wrong before you have even blitted something to the screen. And then, you are not developing for one platform, you will have people with a thousand different setups trying to get your game running. I tested this Christmas game on FS-UAE and an Amiga 1000(with ACA500plus). Seemed to work there. I am aware of that small graphics bug with the higher up standing enemy, but thought it#s okay to release it like this, because frankly I was a bit tired debugging glitches by the end. Even if you say "hey, this is a short game written for OCS 512K&512K slow" you will have people, like our Neill79 here who probably didn't read this, and will start the game on AGA, and wonder why there are so many graphics bugs. Or wonder why the game is short. Next, you will have this written by someone on some blog with images of these bugs, and it will kind of irk you, I promise. You can then start writing something that prohibits all other setups. Which is a lot of work, but probably unavoidable. Which brings me to my point. I need to work easily ten times harder to get something out on the Amiga than on the C64 or the Vectrex (and even the Atari VCS, which by no means is an easy to develop for console). On the other side you then have these folks, who think every game coded for the Amiga needs to be the second coming of christ, like those two wankers on youtube probably do. The christmas game was intended a short gag present for the community. I think the graphics are well done, and for what it is, it's okay. The music is kind of going on the nerves, but that was kind of the point of it. originally I wanted "last christmas" in it, but that didn't loop so well... Anyway, I will take a break from Amiga coding for a while. Have a good time, EAB...