Atari ST games worth porting

[s2325]

How about action-RPG Ynis Witrin - Isle of Glass? [ Show youtube player ]

[Shatterhand]

I just checked the Atari ST port of Slap Fight, and indeed was gobsmacked by the ammount of stuff they got wrong from the arcade game.

For starters, the aspect ratio nearly kills the game. The game seems to be well programmed, but there's a lot of stuff done wrong that could easily be done right.

Slap Fight is such an old, simple game, there's no reason it shouldn't be a near perfect arcade port on Amiga. Geez, even on Atari ST, it should had been a near perfect arcade port... looking at the ST game, I see no reason why it wasn't a proper port of the game, instead of butechering a lot of stuff for no reason.

The arcade game is awesome, even being such a simple game

[s2325]

Maybe Pole Position if will be finished [ Show youtube player ] (warning - loud noise)

[Shatterhand]

You know, I never knew Moon Patrol got an ST release.

I always thought the Amiga could have a perfect port of it, very near, if not 100%, 1:1 port.

Amiga should have had an "IREM CLASSICS" release with Moon Patrol, Kung-Fu Master and Zippy Race

[saimon69]

Zippy race was the favorite of my brother! And also there is an updated version of it by Taito/Toaplan called Rally Bike Challenge; both are simple enough that could be maybe even done in Blitz Basic!

[Aegis]

I always wanted a port of Mike Singleton's Star Trek game on the Amiga

[kamelito]

@Asman
Crystal Castle on the Atari also support monochrome display IIRC so that part can be removed.
Kamelito

[Asman]

@kamelito
Thanks for info, but I already know that

For information: I checked Robotron 2084 and it uses same script like Crystal Castles.

[kamelito]

If the script engine is ported maybe it'll be simpler to port the others games using it, a bit like what E.Chahi did for Another Wolrd.
Kamelito

[meynaf]

Originally Posted by kamelito

If the script engine is ported maybe it'll be simpler to port the others games using it, a bit like what E.Chahi did for Another Wolrd.
Kamelito

The script engine is nothing, it's already ported. It's the script itself that causes trouble, by accessing memory that it shouldn't (like doing screen base -$10000 or some adress in the exe + some value, leading to a free mem area), and even by accessing hardware registers.
Think of it like some Basic program doing POKEs all over the place...

I can only confirm that the script system is indeed the same, though the code isn't identical.

[Asman]

Originally Posted by Frog

Thanks you Meynaf for this conversion !

A question to Asman : is Slap fight still in your working project or do you work on other things ?

Now I'm working on AlterEgo and Chase. I have a lot projects to finish and Slap fight is on list too. But the list is not short.

[ReadOnlyCat]

A question to people doing these nice conversions: why don't you guys contact the rights holders to ask for the right to make an official conversion? Many of them would be fine with it. Eric Chahi and Jordan Mechner have proven to be very tolerant and would probably agree to it, moreover, equivalent versions on GOG (https://www.gog.com) are sometimes available from even very big houses such as EA, Befhesda and the likes at quite a low price fully compatible with the costs of media.

I doubt they would bother to sue after a refusal anyway so that wouldn't change a thing at worse and at best the Amiga would finally have an official version. Could even be available on GOG (via a UAE wrapper a la DosBox) so that could bring you a bit of pocket change and bring some people back to the Amiga.

It can only bring good things for the coder who would do it and the community so why not?
I mean your versions are nice but official acknowledgment would be a real improvement and motivation both for coders and users and would serve as well to advertise the Amiga on official game press sites (cf Putty Squad).

Are any of you guys planning to do it?

[meynaf]

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

A question to people doing these nice conversions: why don't you guys contact the rights holders to ask for the right to make an official conversion? Many of them would be fine with it. Eric Chahi and Jordan Mechner have proven to be very tolerant and would probably agree to it, moreover, equivalent versions on GOG (https://www.gog.com) are sometimes available from even very big houses such as EA, Befhesda and the likes at quite a low price fully compatible with the costs of media.

I doubt they would bother to sue after a refusal anyway so that wouldn't change a thing at worse and at best the Amiga would finally have an official version. Could even be available on GOG (via a UAE wrapper a la DosBox) so that could bring you a bit of pocket change and bring some people back to the Amiga.

It can only bring good things for the coder who would do it and the community so why not?
I mean your versions are nice but official acknowledgment would be a real improvement and motivation both for coders and users and would serve as well to advertise the Amiga on official game press sites (cf Putty Squad).

Are any of you guys planning to do it?

IMO there is no advantage in attempting to contact the right holders, provided they even still exist.
Most of them just don't care anymore - meaning they are useless.
The others will say no - potentially killing the project in the egg.

If you think contacting them is a good thing then just do it. If a company wants an official conversion and is ready to pay me for it then i'll do it.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

A question to people doing these nice conversions: why don't you guys contact the rights holders to ask for the right to make an official conversion? Many of them would be fine with it. Eric Chahi and Jordan Mechner have proven to be very tolerant and would probably agree to it, moreover, equivalent versions on GOG (https://www.gog.com) are sometimes available from even very big houses such as EA, Befhesda and the likes at quite a low price fully compatible with the costs of media.

I doubt they would bother to sue after a refusal anyway so that wouldn't change a thing at worse and at best the Amiga would finally have an official version. Could even be available on GOG (via a UAE wrapper a la DosBox) so that could bring you a bit of pocket change and bring some people back to the Amiga.

It can only bring good things for the coder who would do it and the community so why not?
I mean your versions are nice but official acknowledgment would be a real improvement and motivation both for coders and users and would serve as well to advertise the Amiga on official game press sites (cf Putty Squad).

Are any of you guys planning to do it?

Putty Squad is different, System 3 were getting some seriously bad press over the game with lots of false or misplaced promises to release.

All of these CD32 conversions and ST conversions, there was little or no promises made.

After the efforts ive made, i will be damned if someone with too much time on their hands gets to tell me i cant release my work, whether its illegal or not.

Releasing Starquake is one thing, someone copying the new PS4 Shadow of the Beast and making an updated version for Amiga is quite another.

Once a game is released, there is little a software company can or wants to do about it, and whilst it would be nice to have access to the source code to make a better conversion, im not about to piss about with C or Fortran source code for some ancient ST release that likely is lost to the wind decades ago.

Software companies dont give a shit until they feel the need to give a shit, so i wont be jockeying for their OK anytime soon.

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

After the efforts ive made, i will be damned if someone with too much time on their hands gets to tell me i cant release my work, whether its illegal or not.
[...]
Once a game is released, there is little a software company can or wants to do about it, and whilst it would be nice to have access to the source code to make a better conversion, im not about to piss about with C or Fortran source code for some ancient ST release that likely is lost to the wind decades ago.

Software companies dont give a shit until they feel the need to give a shit, so i wont be jockeying for their OK anytime soon.

I certainly understand your angle especially given the amount of time you (and other similar kittens) have invested in adapting, WHDLoad-slave-ing, debugging, etc. a lot of games.

My take is a bit different in the sense that since GOG shows that companies are willing to be accommodating and allow re-releases of well, good old games at a low fee, this would be a great opportunity to have official versions on the Amiga.

I.e., fix the errors of the past, and allow us - as users, not as coders - to have official releases of much better quality than these companies did. Moreover, the Amiga market is very small sure, but even if coders could get 10% of the 5$ a GOG-Amiga game would cost that would still be appreciable.
Would your refuse 200$ from a GOG Amiga download and your name on the "box" if you could have that for your ST conversions? (I know you are not in for the money, but would you refuse it? )

Finally, not all companies are the same, many original authors still hold the rights to their games and would not object to re-releases, it would not hurt us to target these kittens.

Your points are valid but we cannot assume that all attempts will lead to the same result: not all companies are the same, not all right holders react negatively. If we assume failure before trying then we will never have these things.

The questions worth asking, I think, are:
- do we, as users, want official releases?
- which authors/companies are likely to allow them? (Some will, cf GOG)

That is what should guide us, otherwise we are just speculating.
We would not be doing it for them, but for us.

[TjLaZer]

But these are the ST ports made to run on the Amiga, kind of like an emulator, right? There is no changes made to the game. It just has a new front end.

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

But these are the ST ports made to run on the Amiga, kind of like an emulator, right? There is no changes made to the game. It just has a new front end.

I mentioned GOG has an example of officialization of old stuff and a possible distribution platform example.

My point was that having official releases would be supremely cool so in the cases where they are possible, we should do it.
It doesn't have to be limited to ST adaptations indeed.

[dlfrsilver]

well, they abandoned the plateform, they abandoned the users of the said plateform.

why do you want to push them to make money on us ?

They quit the amiga or the st, it was because both machines went obsolete.

What is the logic behind ?

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

well, they abandoned the plateform, they abandoned the users of the said plateform.

why do you want to push them to make money on us ?

What does this even mean? Companies make financial decisions, not emotional ones. They are not a family member who promised to take care of their children in need...

Look again at Putty Squad: did you complain about it or where you happy?
They had also "abandoned us" because for horrible financial reasons you know...

The question is "would an official acknowledgment that the Amiga community is worth having official version of games be a good thing or a bad one". Refusing it for obscure speculation about prices or emotional reasons makes no sense.

[Predseda]

Putty squad is totally different situation. A portable source was not available and the original Amiga code was complete and really for release.

I can see no point asking for permission for abandonware from other platforms.