Is Puzzle Bobble possible on A500/A1200?

[d4rk3lf]

Thanks.

What second?

[saimon69]

ok was not round 24 but round 25 at 24:15

[Tsak]

Puzzle bobble seems deceptively simple but in fact it's not. I think the parallax is one feature that few would notice and none will miss. Better check at 7:28. Theoretically in this round you could add a ton of extra bubbles before bursting them all in an instance. Meaning A LOT of moving parts on screen including falling bubbles, score text, "monster debris" and bubble bursting effects.

[DanScott]

My opinion....

Puzzle bobble is not a game that requires quick reflexes combined with a full frame-rate update to enable perfect gameplay... with that in mind, 25fps would be perfectly ample to get this running on OCS Amiga without any problems whatsoever

[Tsak]

Yup
It's the one compromise which makes the best sense basically. Anything else would mean painful cuts either to the looks or gameplay mechanics of the game. Well, unless someone proves us wrong of course

Having said that I think there are other possibilities to consider. f.e. change the way the bubbles are cleared, so instead of moving everything at once you could do this step by step or in packs. It would be slightly slower for a whole screen to be cleared but if done in a clever and elegant way it can look equally cool and legit. And of course this does not affect the gameplay a bit either.

[DanScott]

Originally Posted by Tsak

Yup
It's the one compromise which makes the best sense basically. Anything else would mean painful cuts either to the looks or gameplay mechanics of the game. Well, unless someone proves us wrong of course

Having said that I think there are other possibilities to consider. f.e. change the way the bubbles are cleared, so instead of moving everything at once you could do this step by step or in packs. It would be slightly slower for a whole screen to be cleared but if done in a clever and elegant way it can look equally cool and legit. And of course this does not affect the gameplay a bit either.

Nope... just do it at 25fps, and match the original movement/design 100%

In my experience, there are a large % of people that can't distinguish between 25fps and 50fps anyway... 25fps is particularly suitable for this kinds of game, due to the gameplay mechanics

[Tigerskunk]

I'd even say you could go down to 17 FPS here. Or do a system where the player input is 50fps, and the rest is 17fps, and it would be okay, since there is no player interaction with the falling Bubbles and stuff.

The 32 colour reduction that was posted looks good, imo. You could even make that a bit better with using the bubble colours on Bub and Bob shading.

[skan]

Originally Posted by Steril707

I'd even say you could go down to 17 FPS here. Or do a system where the player input is 50fps, and the rest is 17fps, and it would be okay, since there is no player interaction with the falling Bubbles and stuff.

Xenon Bubble?

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by skan

Xenon Bubble?

I prefer "Blood Bubble"...

[spiff]

• NTSC bubble 15 fps, playfield , 30 fps pointer update
• Tiertex bubble, as above but do it on CPU, 15 fps everything, us-gold logo and only use atari colour palette.

Bonus points for leaving out sound fx and adding a frame covering 1/3 of the screen. Frame must include us-gold logo, off aspect.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Off course, you can always make a version that looks "okayish". We have had TONS of games whose conversions looked "okayish" on the Amiga.

It's not about looks, that is my point. There's too much focus on looks in all these discussions. It's about FEEL. And feel is helped by looks, but it's not the only thing. Things like the speed things happen at, the flow/rate at which they happen, the little details... just like what Pink did with Tiny Bobble. He focused a lot on the tiny gameplay details, and that sets the game apart.

This also usually becomes the main roadblock for anything to come out. if it can't "look right", it's abandoned.

I always bring up the Neo Geo Pocket color, with tons of super compromised (visually, aurally) games that played like heaven (like all the fighters , Metal Slug, etc), but the technofetishists usually discard it as "not good enough".

"good enough. It's playable.".

It's a game, being playable, feeling right, should be the #1 goal. From the receiver point of view especially. And if you are making a game without the intention of playing a really good game, what are you doing?

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Akira

And if you are making a game without the intention of playing a really good game, what are you doing?

Then you're making Wizard's Castle.

(ffs, is there nothing more to it than walk all the way to the right and then walk all the way back to the left???)

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Then you're making Wizard's Castle.

(ffs, is there nothing more to it than walk all the way to the right and then walk all the way back to the left???)

LOL, shocking game... that's for sure.

I still don't know why I added it to my collection; I blame ransom1122's constant badgering

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by DanScott

My opinion....

Puzzle bobble is not a game that requires quick reflexes combined with a full frame-rate update to enable perfect gameplay... with that in mind, 25fps would be perfectly ample to get this running on OCS Amiga without any problems whatsoever

Too many Amiga games are 25fps or less as it is, we don't need more of them, we need more 50fps games.

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Too many Amiga games are 25fps or less as it is, we don't need more of them, we need more 50fps games.

While I am usually on the 50FPS train in discussions, this is an example of a game where you don't really need to update everything each and in every frame. Especially not those falling bubbles.

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Foebane

we need more 50fps games.

So what are you going to do to make this happen, other than make demands on a forum?

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by britelite

So what are you going to do to make this happen, other than make demands on a forum?

It's not a demand, more like a wish. But I'm certainly not qualified to see that wish come true, never having made games in Assembler but only in AMOS, and puzzle games at that. But I know the Amiga is easily capable of 50fps for something like Puzzle Bobble.

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Foebane

But I know the Amiga is easily capable of 50fps for something like Puzzle Bobble.

Funny how you seem to have all this knowledge, but still not doing anything productive with it.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not really trying to attack you personally. I just find it interesting how there's always a lot of people who just "know" the Amiga (A500 usually) is capable of pretty much anything they come up with, but never really backing these claims up with anything.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by britelite

Funny how you seem to have all this knowledge, but still not doing anything productive with it.

Fair enough, I will refrain from making such remarks from now on, if I don't act on them myself. But can't anyone offer suggestions or wishes on coding without being expected to fulfil them themselves? Am I coming across as demandin- well, I suppose I was. Sorry.

EDIT: Just saw your addendum. Thanks, but I should not act so much like an "armchair expert" when I'm really not.

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Foebane

But can't anyone offer suggestions or wishes on coding without being expected to fulfil them themselves?

Of course you can, as long as you don't actually expect anyone to react on these wishes