Why does Rodland have to be such a CPU-demanding game?

MethodGit · 17 June 2012, 20:16

Rodland happens to be one of my favourite games on any platform, like, ever. The easy-to-understand gameplay, the colourful presentation, and the awesome soundtrack managed to sell it to me from day one - and the C64 port was the first version I played as a kid!

I felt it'd be pretty awesome if I could play all versions of this game while on the move, and I many different handhelds with which to do so. Mind you, none of them are any cop at perfectly emulating the Arcade and Amiga versions. I mean, C64, Spectrum, Amstrad, NES, Game Boy... sure. But not these two. =[ Not the best ones.

I have two platforms so far with which I can play Arcade Rodland - Wiz and iPhone 4. And while they perform admirably, none of them can run it at 100% in iMAME4ALL. And even then, iMAME4ALL wouldn't emulate the music correctly (though I'm not knocking it at all, it still sounds decent enough - it's just it's missing a few instruments) due to it being based on an ancient MAME build. Now the iOS world recently saw another MAME effort - MAME4iOS - by the same guys, and it's based on a much newer MAME build, but with it comes the steeper system requirements and, well, turns out an iPhone 4 just chokes miserably emulating Rodland through it, and the situation doesn't improve much (if at all) even with the sound off. I'd love to hear from any lucky iPad 2/3 owner on here if that makes it run any smoother, mind you...

As for Amiga Rodland, I feel I'm less lucky getting a decent portable crack on it. The Wiz (and the Caanoo for that matter) received just one measly rushjob of a GP2X port of UAE4ALL before being abandoned by its short-attention-span-riddled author/porter. Meanwhile, the Pandora receives a billion new UAE4ALL updates up the wazoo (including just-recently added AGA support), despite being on a handheld that no sane gamer with financial concerns would fork out over 350 quid on lest they be afraid to take it out anywhere and possibly lose the bugger. The Dingoo port makes some valiant effort but just falls short of the mark. And I'm not exactly holding my breath for PSPUAE to find the sort of optimizations needed to run it well that the PSP's severely-stressed CPU can handle... (I mean, seriously, what's the game doing in the background that's so taxing on power? It doesn't use parallax scrolling, so what else could it be? But I digress...)

So the only way I can play 'em at glorious full speed would be on my Windows desktop, which kinda kills the portability factor. Am I just unfortunate that this game of all games is such a bitch for all but the ninjaest of PCs to get right?

WayneK · 18 June 2012, 12:40

Get a gameboy + rodland from ebay for £10 - problem solved!

s2325 · 18 June 2012, 12:43

Yes, I think GameBoy and NES versions are still very good. Only Amstrad CPC version is too slow.

Anna · 18 June 2012, 17:12

Have you tried it on the Xperia Play? The Amiga version of Parasol Stars is very playable on it, I have not tried Rodland though.

Anna

MethodGit · 18 June 2012, 18:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayneK

Get a gameboy + rodland from ebay for £10 - problem solved!

Quote:

Originally Posted by s2325

Yes, I think GameBoy and NES versions are still very good. Only Amstrad CPC version is too slow.

I think you two didn't adequately read my post properly. I already *have* devices capable of playing GB and NES Rodland when I want to. But are those the *best* versions of the game?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna

Have you tried it on the Xperia Play? The Amiga version of Parasol Stars is very playable on it, I have not tried Rodland though.

Anna

I'd love to try an Xperia Play if someone is willing to donate one to me.

Or flog one to me for peanuts.

Anna · 19 June 2012, 01:47

I got mine a year ago from Craiglist for $100, I think that they were being sold off cheaply in Argos in the UK a while back as well. They shouldn't be too expensive now.

Amiga1992 · 19 June 2012, 09:39

How do you know the game is CPU intensive? The fact that it runs slow doesn't necessarily mean the CPU is at high use. Actually I am sure the 68000 emulation is the least of the speed taxing problems when emulating an Amiga.

I am sad all developers jumped on that Pandora thing. Uae4all on my Caanoo, albeit a ruhed job, manages to run a lot of games at full speed and it's pretty impressive. If anyone had done a proper port, it would have been awesome.

MethodGit · 19 June 2012, 09:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

How do you know the game is CPU intensive? The fact that it runs slow doesn't necessarily mean the CPU is at high use. Actually I am sure the 68000 emulation is the least of the speed taxing problems when emulating an Amiga.

I am sad all developers jumped on that Pandora thing. Uae4all on my Caanoo, albeit a ruhed job, manages to run a lot of games at full speed and it's pretty impressive. If anyone had done a proper port, it would have been awesome.

Well it's obviously doing something taxing in the background to make it run so jerkily on 'lesser' handhelds compared to other platformers. I just can't put my finger on what.

Out of curiosity, did you manage to make Rodland playable through Caanoo UAE4ALL? I never succeeded with the prior Wiz build and am wondering whether the Caanoo build has any slight advantage that I should be gnashing my teeth about. XD

17 June 2012, 20:16	#1
MethodGit Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: The Streets Age: 39 Posts: 2,731	Why does Rodland have to be such a CPU-demanding game? Rodland happens to be one of my favourite games on any platform, like, ever. The easy-to-understand gameplay, the colourful presentation, and the awesome soundtrack managed to sell it to me from day one - and the C64 port was the first version I played as a kid! I felt it'd be pretty awesome if I could play all versions of this game while on the move, and I many different handhelds with which to do so. Mind you, none of them are any cop at perfectly emulating the Arcade and Amiga versions. I mean, C64, Spectrum, Amstrad, NES, Game Boy... sure. But not these two. =[ Not the best ones. I have two platforms so far with which I can play Arcade Rodland - Wiz and iPhone 4. And while they perform admirably, none of them can run it at 100% in iMAME4ALL. And even then, iMAME4ALL wouldn't emulate the music correctly (though I'm not knocking it at all, it still sounds decent enough - it's just it's missing a few instruments) due to it being based on an ancient MAME build. Now the iOS world recently saw another MAME effort - MAME4iOS - by the same guys, and it's based on a much newer MAME build, but with it comes the steeper system requirements and, well, turns out an iPhone 4 just chokes miserably emulating Rodland through it, and the situation doesn't improve much (if at all) even with the sound off. I'd love to hear from any lucky iPad 2/3 owner on here if that makes it run any smoother, mind you... As for Amiga Rodland, I feel I'm less lucky getting a decent portable crack on it. The Wiz (and the Caanoo for that matter) received just one measly rushjob of a GP2X port of UAE4ALL before being abandoned by its short-attention-span-riddled author/porter. Meanwhile, the Pandora receives a billion new UAE4ALL updates up the wazoo (including just-recently added AGA support), despite being on a handheld that no sane gamer with financial concerns would fork out over 350 quid on lest they be afraid to take it out anywhere and possibly lose the bugger. The Dingoo port makes some valiant effort but just falls short of the mark. And I'm not exactly holding my breath for PSPUAE to find the sort of optimizations needed to run it well that the PSP's severely-stressed CPU can handle... (I mean, seriously, what's the game doing in the background that's so taxing on power? It doesn't use parallax scrolling, so what else could it be? But I digress...) So the only way I can play 'em at glorious full speed would be on my Windows desktop, which kinda kills the portability factor. Am I just unfortunate that this game of all games is such a bitch for all but the ninjaest of PCs to get right?

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18 June 2012, 12:40	#2
WayneK Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Location: Somewhere secret Age: 50 Posts: 365	Get a gameboy + rodland from ebay for £10 - problem solved!

18 June 2012, 12:43	#3
s2325 Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Gargore Age: 43 Posts: 17,789	Yes, I think GameBoy and NES versions are still very good. Only Amstrad CPC version is too slow.

18 June 2012, 17:12	#4
Anna Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: USA Posts: 27	Have you tried it on the Xperia Play? The Amiga version of Parasol Stars is very playable on it, I have not tried Rodland though. Anna

19 June 2012, 01:47	#6
Anna Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: USA Posts: 27	I got mine a year ago from Craiglist for $100, I think that they were being sold off cheaply in Argos in the UK a while back as well. They shouldn't be too expensive now.

19 June 2012, 09:39	#7
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	How do you know the game is CPU intensive? The fact that it runs slow doesn't necessarily mean the CPU is at high use. Actually I am sure the 68000 emulation is the least of the speed taxing problems when emulating an Amiga. I am sad all developers jumped on that Pandora thing. Uae4all on my Caanoo, albeit a ruhed job, manages to run a lot of games at full speed and it's pretty impressive. If anyone had done a proper port, it would have been awesome.

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