Super Sprint - Atari ST Conversion

[TjLaZer]

How can you all forget: KARATEKA!!! This is a must port for sure!!!!

[girv]

Originally Posted by Computolio

The dude who did OIDS is still around. He even ported it to Mac OS X. I imagine that if someone who knew what he was doing approached him about doing an Amiga port he might be down with it.

[sounds of OidsX in the background]

You just made my friend's day He was an ST guy back in the day and an OS X guy now. We spent many an hour playing Oids!

I even started my own tribute - "Thrustoids" - but it never got beyond a buggy, jerkily scrolling, one level test

[kamelito]

http://www.elols.com/index.php?name=...int%20v0.1beta

[Retroplay]

Hmm Blood Money + Super Sprint..

[kamelito]

Yeah I love that song, but its never start what you hear at start is looping.

With this version in Flash it should be easier to rip the gfx with a flash decompiler.
kml

[kamelito]

Version 1.0 link

http://www.xbox-hq.com/html/modules....c=play&gid=101

[alexh]

Originally Posted by kamelito

Version 1.0 link

Almost unplayable here... way way too fast. Was the original this fast?

[kamelito]

on My MAC its pretty slow at the beginning. The game have a slow pace on the Atari version but it become faster when you got many cars update. At the end the computer car is very fast and you had to make no error to be able to win if ever.

[hitchhikr]

I've been interested in porting ST games to Amiga lately too, as a test i've disassembled Karate Kid II (looks better on Amiga), StarQuake, International Karate, Magnetic Tank, Where time stood still and started to extract Sundog data.

Also the original source code of the ST version of Star Raiders is floating around on the Web.

[kamelito]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index...ttach_id=95165

[Retro1234]

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

I've been interested in porting ST games to Amiga lately too, as a test i've disassembled Karate Kid II (looks better on Amiga), StarQuake, International Karate, Magnetic Tank, Where time stood still and started to extract Sundog data.

Also the original source code of the ST version of Star Raiders is floating around on the Web.

Are those games you Disassembled ready to be assembled?
SunDog will run on 68000 Amiga with ST emulator - Not realy my favorite game but I know its one of the most wished for ST games.

[kamelito]

Using a ST disassembler (don't remember its name) it produced a source code ready to be assembled. (for SS)
kml

[hitchhikr]

Are those games you Disassembled ready to be assembled?
SunDog will run on 68000 Amiga with ST emulator - Not realy my favorite game but I know its one of the most wished for ST games.

Most of them can be re-assembled perfectly but not as Amiga game without heavy modifications, of course.
Sundog is trickier than the others because it did use it's own disk system (i only have the loader part decoded so far).

All in all, the tricky part is to locate the gfx, convert them offline or add routines in the code to convert them after they're being loaded and rewrite the displaying routines for Amiga purposes. Sound parts were horrible enough to need complete rewrite anyway (probably converting the music to .mod or similar format).

I don't think that doing straight ports/exact conversions (a la tiertex & co.) is really an interesting task, there should be some added value in the new versions, like smoother animation, more colors, fixed gameplay, extra game elements, you name it.

[Retro1234]

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

Most of them can be re-assembled perfectly but not as Amiga game without heavy modifications, of course.
Sundog is trickier than the others because it did use it's own disk system (i only have the loader part decoded so far).

All in all, the tricky part is to locate the gfx, convert them offline or add routines in the code to convert them after they're being loaded and rewrite the displaying routines for Amiga purposes. Sound parts were horrible enough to need complete rewrite anyway (probably converting the music to .mod or similar format).

I don't think that doing straight ports/exact conversions (a la tiertex & co.) is really an interesting task, there should be some added value in the new versions, like smoother animation, more colors, fixed gameplay, extra game elements, you name it.

Well sounds great and good luck Sir

[turrican3]

galahad, no news about your conversion ?

[meynaf]

Apparently Galahad got stuck on some part... This game isn't as simple as it looks.
I know, because i disassembled it and started the port (before knowing about this thread).

Graphics are "easy" to do when using my lazy method : vbl screen conversion... but this raises pre-requisites up to '030. As this game has lots and lots of graphical routines, changing them all would be a real pain anyway.

As Super Sprint uses in-screen palette changes, my actual version shows wrong colors but it's not as easy as adding a copperlist because it runs in an intuition screen (multitasking is a nice addition in my taste - and it helps me a lot while debugging).

Sounds can be done with YM emulator unless someone provides me with samples and tracker module for the small musics (note that some games such as Gauntlet already use samples, so there it is less problematic).
YM emulators either use lots of cpu or don't handle envelopes with short timing correctly ; hopefully Super Sprint seems to be fine in that aspect.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by meynaf

Apparently Galahad got stuck on some part... This game isn't as simple as it looks.
I know, because i disassembled it and started the port (before knowing about this thread).

Graphics are "easy" to do when using my lazy method : vbl screen conversion... but this raises pre-requisites up to '030. As this game has lots and lots of graphical routines, changing them all would be a real pain anyway.

As Super Sprint uses in-screen palette changes, my actual version shows wrong colors but it's not as easy as adding a copperlist because it runs in an intuition screen (multitasking is a nice addition in my taste - and it helps me a lot while debugging).

Sounds can be done with YM emulator unless someone provides me with samples and tracker module for the small musics (note that some games such as Gauntlet already use samples, so there it is less problematic).
YM emulators either use lots of cpu or don't handle envelopes with short timing correctly ; hopefully Super Sprint seems to be fine in that aspect.

Thread necromancy aside, I stopped it not because it would have been difficult, it was stopped because in comparison to modern Amiga racing games, Super Sprint was severely lacking.

Studying the ST version quite intensively, I came to the conclusion that the AI for the other cars was virtually non-existant. Cars followed a virtually set route, only changing when gates opened, there just didn't seem to be much of a challenge to the game whatsover.

Compare it to Nitro or SuperCars, and its readily apparent just how woeful the AI in Super Sprint is. Whether or not the Arcade version is different I don't know, but technically the game was never a problem, it was the gameplay mechanics which for most Amiga owners would be too simplistic.

[tomcat666]

Well, we recently recovered an unreleased Atari ST game "Highway Encounter" - which is really a great version - by far the best. The author said that there used to be an Amiga port which was done in a few days since the game was coded in a way it would be simple to port to Amiga. Unfortunetly that port is forever lost.
Stingray did say he is interested in doing an Amiga port, unfortunetly he didn't have time so far. Maybe that would be a more viable game for porting ?
Here is the eab thread about the game:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...hway+encounter

[meynaf]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Thread necromancy aside, I stopped it not because it would have been difficult, it was stopped because in comparison to modern Amiga racing games, Super Sprint was severely lacking.

Strangely enough, on that thread :
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=63042
Super sprint ranks #1 in votes - and by far. Perhaps you can tell them this game just sucks.

About all these "modern Amiga racing games", do they allow 3 human players ?

Moreover, you had people with expectations here. And you just stopped the project, giving no news. Not quite polite IMO.

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Studying the ST version quite intensively, I came to the conclusion that the AI for the other cars was virtually non-existant. Cars followed a virtually set route, only changing when gates opened, there just didn't seem to be much of a challenge to the game whatsover.

Compare it to Nitro or SuperCars, and its readily apparent just how woeful the AI in Super Sprint is. Whether or not the Arcade version is different I don't know, but technically the game was never a problem, it was the gameplay mechanics which for most Amiga owners would be too simplistic.

Oh the nice excuse. You won't convince me with that. Car AI can be rewritten to make a better one. Furthermore, you would have had to write one, as you were doing it from scratch. So this really isn't a valid reason to stop.
You could have said that you're lazy, that you got fed up, that you're not good enough, that you lack relevant graphics, that you don't have time - ok. But not that.

Originally Posted by tomcat666

Well, we recently recovered an unreleased Atari ST game "Highway Encounter" - which is really a great version - by far the best. The author said that there used to be an Amiga port which was done in a few days since the game was coded in a way it would be simple to port to Amiga. Unfortunetly that port is forever lost.
Stingray did say he is interested in doing an Amiga port, unfortunetly he didn't have time so far. Maybe that would be a more viable game for porting ?
Here is the eab thread about the game:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...hway+encounter

Quit OT here.

If you want to speak about other games port, here is a better place :
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=63042&page=2

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by meynaf

Strangely enough, on that thread :
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=63042
Super sprint ranks #1 in votes - and by far. Perhaps you can tell them this game just sucks.

About all these "modern Amiga racing games", do they allow 3 human players ?

Moreover, you had people with expectations here. And you just stopped the project, giving no news. Not quite polite IMO.


Oh the nice excuse. You won't convince me with that. Car AI can be rewritten to make a better one. Furthermore, you would have had to write one, as you were doing it from scratch. So this really isn't a valid reason to stop.
You could have said that you're lazy, that you got fed up, that you're not good enough, that you lack relevant graphics, that you don't have time - ok. But not that.



Quit OT here.

If you want to speak about other games port, here is a better place :
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=63042&page=2

Excuse me, but you're rather rude frankly!

If I CHOOSE to do the conversion or not is entirely MY decision. I give my time freely, and you have no right or expectation for anything else.

Significantly changing the AI of Super Sprint changes the game significantly where its no longer Super Sprint, but a game that looks like Super Sprint but plays completely differently.

Winning attitude you've got there Meynaf, well done