CD32.co.uk release schedule

[earok]

I've been a bit slack with getting things released lately (I keep changing project every five minutes!) so I'm going to try and nail down a release schedule, tentatively one "major" release every second Tuesday and occasionally a smaller update or refresh every other one.

All art and screenshots below are tentative.

===== Cobe's Litil Divil CDXL and Flink CDXL =====
4th July
Update - include CD audio.

===== Eric W Schwartz Collection =====
11th July



===== Gloom CD32 Collection =====
18th July



===== Ultimate Fighters =====
25th July



===== TBA =====

• Turrican Collection update
• Jurassic Park (Both OCS and AGA editions on one disc)
• Giana Sisters Special Edition
• Capital Punishment
• Wonderboy in Monster Land SE, probably as part of a "Master System" collection
• SWOS update
• Community Collection update
• 21st Century Pinball
• Secret Gloom project
• Secret 3D0 conversion
• Gunbee F-99 conversion kit (purchase required)

[Amigajay]

hehe! yeah i did kinda notice you like to swap projects, it is hard when the best part is getting it working, then you have to finish the project off which takes more time!

I noticed on another forum some guy just thinks we chuck some games on a iso and thats it, nevermind getting them all to run on a stock CD32 which requires testing, manually changing the controls, more testing, finding music in the right format, drawing the menu screen, getting it all as small as possible to reduce loading, writing the readme file, getting screenshots and resizing, redoing because the colour count is wrong, re-testing, designing the cover art, uploading it all, writing out the blog page, so i am grateful only if for a few thank you's thats what matters to me, anyone who wants to moan about something pittiful or thinks its a 5 minute job can have a bloody go!

Anyway rant over! Great to see you a schedule, same for me its best to stick to a project before moving on.
Some great sounding releases there particularly the Gloom and Fighters packs!

[jotd]

@amigajay: yeah! it's really a lot of work to make some games work on the CD32.

At any rate wait for the new CD32load version that avoids disk "grinding" problem and is able to run Body Blows AGA.
If you cannot wait, please add READDELAY=2000 to the command line. Without it, some games load more slowly / can lockup / do an horrible "grinding" sound.

[earok]

Cheers guys. @AmigaJay what you do is awesome, it's unfortunate that people have attitudes like that :/

Thanks @JOTD. Truth be told the collection was 90% finished and then I lost all of it (except those images) in my hard drive crash, so I'm not in a huge hurry. In any case I think I can use Body Blows AGA's original HD install if need be.

[NeoHippie2016]

Yeah, thank you again for all your work, guys. Is there a way (beside the actual whdload coders like Stingray), to spend you some money for all that you gave us, the hungry amiga Freaks? And i love your DVD and CD Cover, too! Greetings from Gladbeck, Markus :-)

[kipper2k]

Hi Earok,

I have a general question about ISO images and the CD32. Lets assume that the CD32 has plenty of CF/HDD storage space, fastmem and a higher clock speed, would the CD32 be able to run its games from an ISO image instead of running from the CD. The CD i think is the weak link in the chain so to speak for reading of data unless you have a good disc/laser. Running a game from a mounted image would be far better depending on whether the device has the processing power to handle this ?

Is this a viable option or a pipedream ?

[earok]

Hey Kipper, it's been awhile congrats on the vampire.

So far as I know there's simply no way on a 68K Amiga to mount an ISO and trick the underlying ROM into thinking it's a real disc with 100% reliability. Some CD32 games run from any file system without complaining, others only like to be loaded from a disc (Cannon Fodder and James Pond 3 spring to mind). And even then, an ISO doesn't contain CD music, so I'm not sure how you'd stream that back. I'm not really familiar with the CD32 emulators out there for Amiga 1200 (I think designed for CD32 devs) maybe those would help?


If we had a way of equipping a hard drive to a CD32, you'd be able to run 95% of games through WHDLoad or CD32Load anyway, and just reserve the CD drive for when you want to play a game with CD music.

Fast RAM and higher clock would be awesome. Doom I think is the holy grail of all possible releases for the CD32, but I've never seen it running in 2MB on an Amiga. The Akiko can help with some of the processing load but an 030/040/060 would help with a lot more.

[Riempie]

There is a tool 'simcd32' which can mount cd32 iso's. I managed to run simon the sorceror once on my A1200. Cdda-music doesn't work. It didn't run that smooth because of my slow file-system. It was a long time ago though so don't remember everything..

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

Hi Earok,

I have a general question about ISO images and the CD32. Lets assume that the CD32 has plenty of CF/HDD storage space, fastmem and a higher clock speed, would the CD32 be able to run its games from an ISO image instead of running from the CD. The CD i think is the weak link in the chain so to speak for reading of data unless you have a good disc/laser. Running a game from a mounted image would be far better depending on whether the device has the processing power to handle this ?

Is this a viable option or a pipedream ?

it is possible, but wouldn't work 100% for all games, the main issue would be memory.

Anything that uses AmigaDOS for loading its files and doesn't have memory issues, then of course it should be possible to load from a hard drive, access would be slightly slower, even CDDA music should be possible, but again, it would be slower and there is the chance it would stutter.

for those that use the RNC CD32 loader, then the simple answer is no. They use it primarily because memory is an issue in the first place, and its mostly used on shovelware games.

However, some of these games could well be patched or resourced to bin the RNC loader and recoded to use AmigaDOS instead.

The main issue is how much memory would the HD buffer need to mount ISO images, and whether or not the CD32 would have enough available memory left to make it happen.

Its possible, but its not a trivial task.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by NeoHippie2016

Yeah, thank you again for all your work, guys. Is there a way (beside the actual whdload coders like Stingray), to spend you some money for all that you gave us, the hungry amiga Freaks? And i love your DVD and CD Cover, too! Greetings from Gladbeck, Markus :-)

I can't speak for anyone else, but I just do my CD32 discs for the fun and love of the machine, it's great to see it finally getting some love and games that are more playable thanks to Earok and JOTD, Galahad, Psygore among others, donations are not needed by me, just a will do!

[Amigajay]

Loving the boxart too esp on Ultimate Fighters!

Btw if possible can you add IK+, Panza Kick Boxing and Super Streetfighter 2 : New Challengers AGA (there is a cd32 iso already out there with full pad support) then it would be all the best fighting games in one amazing pack!

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Btw if possible can you add IK+, Panza Kick Boxing and Super Streetfighter 2 : New Challengers AGA (there is a cd32 iso already out there with full pad support) then it would be all the best fighting games in one amazing pack!

If you add "Panza Kick Boxing" you might as well add the sequel; "Best of the Best: Championship Karate": http://hol.abime.net/96

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by DamienD

If you add "Panza Kick Boxing" you might as well add the sequel; "Best of the Best: Championship Karate": http://hol.abime.net/96

Cool, thx, always thought it was the console/Americanized version of the same game!

Edit: wow 1993 and no reviews in any of the main UK Amiga mags at the time, must have crept under the radar, was it even released in the UK?

[earok]

My main concern about SSF2NC is it's so memory tight you need to cut the cache settings in ISOCD, which I suspect would affect loading speed on the other games. Though I guess it might not make much of a difference on CD32Load games, so I'll try it out anyway.


I was going to put SSF2NC on a "Street Fighter" collection but really, the other games aren't well liked to begin with, so yeah I think I'll swap it out with Full Contact.

Full Contact, Panzer and IK+ will go together on a separate "Sports Fighters" release.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by earok

My main concern about SSF2NC is it's so memory tight you need to cut the cache settings in ISOCD, which I suspect would affect loading speed on the other games. Though I guess it might not make much of a difference on CD32Load games, so I'll try it out anyway.


I was going to put SSF2NC on a "Street Fighter" collection but really, the other games aren't well liked to begin with, so yeah I think I'll swap it out with Full Contact.

Full Contact, Panzer and IK+ will go together on a separate "Sports Fighters" release.

Ok, hopefully you can get it going, graphically not great but at least it plays decent and the best SF game on the Amiga.

Yeah a SF collection is pushing it, as said above there's only one half decent SF game on the Amiga!

Ok, if you are having a "Sports Fighters" pack, as Damien said have Best of the Best instead of Panza, plus add Budokan too! Sorry I'll quit with the requests now

[earok]

I've had to put everything back by a month - I'm diving head first into Blitz Basic coding. Hopefully this will mean in future I'll be able to put together higher quality launchers for each of the releases

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by earok

I've had to put everything back by a month - I'm diving head first into Blitz Basic coding. Hopefully this will mean in future I'll be able to put together higher quality launchers for each of the releases

Noo! lol ooh more stuff added to the list!

Intriguing 3DO 'secret project' , the only things i can think of that may be possible is the FMV games converted to CDXL, any hints, and is there a real chance of this or are you just looking into it?!

[Retro1234]

Originally Posted by earok

My main concern about SSF2NC is it's so memory tight you need to cut the cache settings in ISOCD, which I suspect would affect loading speed on the other games. Though I guess it might not make much of a difference on CD32Load games, so I'll try it out anyway.


I was going to put SSF2NC on a "Street Fighter" collection but really, the other games aren't well liked to begin with, so yeah I think I'll swap it out with Full Contact.

Full Contact, Panzer and IK+ will go together on a separate "Sports Fighters" release.

Can you have a look at the SSF2 AGA Ryu and Ken sprite they are the worse in the whole game.
Also is there anyway to play SF2 using the CD32 pad now with CD32Load maybe with the keyboard emulation?

[NeoHippie2016]

Do you create an dvd cover for the ReRelease of Flink CDXL and Litil Divil CDXL?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

I can't speak for anyone else, but I just do my CD32 discs for the fun and love of the machine.

+1, same for me.