Better Outrun port for Amiga

[TuRRIcaNEd]

Hi all, thanks for the replies so far...

Originally Posted by Seiya

this is an Amiga Remake (require much fast CPU, at least Vampire Card or WinUAE + JIT)

That's not the Amiga port - that's the original Cannonball Engine. The Amiga Vampire/RTG Cannonball port tends to slow down with high object count, has the backgrounds turned off and (currently) uses a set of demoscene MOD files to replace the music:
[ Show youtube player ]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

The Sega Saturn port (Sega Ages Compilation) was the first version with a hidden real 60fps support option. It's as smooth as the Cannonball Mod. The orginal Arcade version runs indeed with 30fps only (internal engine).

Yup, that's what I said above too!

Cannonball also fixes quite a few bugs in the original code - including the hardware limitation on sprite count. You can see it sometimes in the Gateway level where only half of the cross-pillars are sometimes displayed (with the original hardware, if the logic tries to draw more sprites than it can handle, some are simply not drawn).

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

One question, do you have access to the outrun assets or know how to extract them ?

I know how to get all the sprites and gfx objects out of the arcade roms

Just bump me if you need my help

Thank you! As you can see from the DPaint grabs I've been using the S16 Sprite Viewer utility written by the Cannonball guy to extract the graphics I have so far - I don't think the version available gets all of them though, so if you want to PM me the method you have in mind, please do.

Also - I'd really appreciate some feedback on the MOD conversion I've been working on if folks have time to listen : http://psychodelicacy.net/modplayer.php

[click '[load song]' to access the different tunes ]

Here's a very rough YT vid of a test run using the PC Cannonball engine with my ProTracker version of "Magical Sound Shower" as the music :
[ Show youtube player ]

[jotd]

> I'd really appreciate some feedback on the MOD conversion I've been working on if folks have time to listen

From first seconds of MSS I can say it's VERY GOOD.

[TuRRIcaNEd]

Originally Posted by jotd

From first seconds of MSS I can say it's VERY GOOD.

Aww, thanks... But check the rest before you make a final judgement!

Strictly speaking it's possible to drop my MODs into the Amiga Cannonball port, however the player routine it's using at the moment kills channel 2 of the music for sound effects. I'm hoping we can work together on replacing it with a better, more dynamic replay routine.

[dlfrsilver]

Yes those mods are absolutely excellent in term of quality

Really awesome !

[Amiga1992]

Excellent music TuRRIcaNEd!!!
About Cannonball muting channel 2... one would think that when having a Vampire on board, you could use AHI for sound reproduction, and then you can have an extra channel or two just for the FX...

[jotd]

What about a "music or sfx" menu?

Naaaaaaaah

Ok now I have listened to it almost to the end. Very good work.

Some notes are slightly off in the central steel drum solo during Holland, and also off beat, but I notice it because I have listened to the original a zillion times already. Maybe I could help you fix some parts. Easier than all you already done that is for sure.

[TuRRIcaNEd]

Originally Posted by jotd

What about a "music or sfx" menu?

Amiga Cannonball isn't my project - it belongs to ModernVintageGamer. I'm hoping he and I can work together on sorting the music out though

The project I'm trying to kick off would be an entirely new piece of code based on techniques from the better Amiga driving titles, plus trying to squeeze as many colours as we can out of it without slowing down too much.

Some notes are slightly off in the central steel drum solo during Holland, and also off beat, but I notice it bedause I have listened to the original a zillion times already

Hehehe - that's why it's a beta version (0.94) - some of the drums need tidying up too. I will get around to tweaking it as closely as I can, but that "steel drum wigout" part in particular is really difficult to transcribe, even if you have another version to guide you!

[S0ulA55a551n]

Originally Posted by Seiya

this is an Amiga Remake (require much fast CPU, at least Vampire Card or WinUAE + JIT)
it's an engine that use original mame files
[ Show youtube player ]

Engine that uses mame files ? So not just a mame. Port then ???


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[TuRRIcaNEd]

Originally Posted by S0ulA55a551n

Engine that uses mame files ?

The Cannonball Engine is a portable (as in uses SDL) C++ rewrite of the OutRun arcade program. It uses arcade ROM files (as does MAME), but it doesn't use anything from MAME itself. That said, some source code comments refer to using MAME as a guide...

[Dunny]

Cannonball is a re-implementation of the game logic, not an emulation. It uses the ROMs to extract the levels/graphics/sound resources.

[S0ulA55a551n]

Originally Posted by TuRRIcaNEd

The Cannonball Engine is a portable (as in uses SDL) C++ rewrite of the OutRun arcade program. It uses arcade ROM files (as does MAME), but it doesn't use anything from MAME itself. That said, some source code comments refer to using MAME as a guide...

Ahhh got you just getting the assests from
The Roms.


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[ReadOnlyCat]

Hello kittens,

Originally Posted by Akira

I think A500 would be masochism, I would be happy to get a decent Outrun-like game for stock A1200/CD32 to be honest.

The A500 can get a decent approximation and I will eventually prove it.

Originally Posted by matthey

68020+AGA/RTG is a more realistic target.

Realistic sure, but which leaves most Amiga owners (A500s) without OutRun.
And moreover, the point of the exercise here as Akira mentioned is to target stock hardware, not more powerful hardware that everybody knows can do it.

Originally Posted by Gordon

I don't understand why it's so hard to make a good port. Another sega arcade port, super hang on, is well done. Good frame rate . What's so different?

Super Hang On is a disaster which runs at 15 FPS at best, has horrible controls, jerky motions for opponents, average music and does not play at all like the arcade.
We certainly would not want this as a target.

Originally Posted by TuRRIcaNEd

Getting back to the subject though ( ) the "spec" for DAOP as I see it right now is somewhat like this:

• I intend to start with a simple snapshot of an AGA-based machine for the initial work. This is partially down to my "virtual" dev environment being A1200-based

Great. My plan was to write an A500 version so we will not compete.
However I plan to contact SEGA for an official license and will not do anything if they are opposed to it.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

Great. My plan was to write an A500 version so we will not compete.
However I plan to contact SEGA for an official license and will not do anything if they are opposed to it.

Maybe you should ask the people that wrote Space Harrier for Atari XL what they did about licensing - btw i can help both in graphic and music if needed

[Retro-Nerd]

Super Hang On is a disaster which runs at 15 FPS at best, has horrible controls, jerky motions for opponents, average music and does not play at all like the arcade.
We certainly would not want this as a target.

Well, i hope your A500 Outrun will be that good. Because nothing about Super Hang On you just said is actually true.

[Retro1234]

MY Outrun port will be for 68010 only, so no competition to anyone else but I will contact Nintendo first to make sure they don't object to me contacting Sega and with this action putting Nintendo out of business. First I must contact Donald Trump and make sure it is ok to contact Kim Jong Um about using nuclear technology on my port, Thank you sir.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Well, i hope your A500 Outrun will be that good. Because nothing about Super Hang On you just said is actually true.

SHO was the first ever amiga game I saw after moving up from the Speccy, and it indeed is a thing of beauty.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Dunny

SHO was the first ever amiga game I saw after moving up from the Speccy, and it indeed is a thing of beauty.

But it's an ST port. The graphics could be way way better than that.

16 colors from the ST palette, yuk !

[saimon69]

@dfrsilver

Relative at the time it came out was a ray of hope, though; same year the very disappointing Outrun, bionic commando and Rolling thunder ports were making me think if Amiga ever would be considered commercially worthy of a decent port...

..then came Lotus to show the way

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

But it's an ST port. The graphics could be way way better than that.

16 colors from the ST palette, yuk !

You know, you keep saying that but I don't recall seeing any games you wrote that took advantage of the enhanced miggy hardware...

But anyway. Graphics do not a game make - look at all those thousands of games that were better on the Speccy as opposed to the CPC - despite having demonstrably worse graphics...

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

Great. My plan was to write an A500 version so we will not compete.
However I plan to contact SEGA for an official license and will not do anything if they are opposed to it.

In other words, your plan is to do nothing.

Ah, Retro1234 said it already, but much better:

Originally Posted by Retro1234

MY Outrun port will be for 68010 only, so no competition to anyone else but I will contact Nintendo first to make sure they don't object to me contacting Sega and with this action putting Nintendo out of business. First I must contact Donald Trump and make sure it is ok to contact Kim Jong Um about using nuclear technology on my port, Thank you sir.