! Pinball Dreams is going to be released for CPC classics !

[s2325]

There are new "3D" engines for Amstrad CPC:
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[Sir_Lucas]

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Here's the first video.

[Neil79]

RELEASED!




http://www.indieretronews.com/2016/1...tic-amiga.html

[s2325]

Great, awesome work, better than on GameGear and GameBoy, you know how to handle CPC

[trixster]

Originally Posted by Sir_Lucas

Here's a second preview of Pinball Dreams for C64 from 2012
http://csdb.dk/release/?id=111246



And a video as well:
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That is tremendous. The music on Nightmare is really well done. I'm impressed!

[trixster]

Originally Posted by Neil79

RELEASED!




http://www.indieretronews.com/2016/1...tic-amiga.html

Goodness me, this is amazing too! The graphics are pretty incredible. It's a shame the cpc's sound can't match the C64.

[dlfrsilver]

fabulous, the screen vertical scrolls at 50 fps ! this such such a good job, really higher and better than the C64 demo yay XD !

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by hansel75

Great to see the cpc utilised more now, maybe it is more of a beast then what most people thought, but in the overall scheme of things it's to little to late.

Think about it, commercial classic games used only 10% of this machine.

Well too late ? No, because the computer is still used a lot.

Apart from being a tech showcase that's been 30yrs in the making, it still doesn't make up for the inferior 8bit experience most cpc owners had to endure back in the 80's/90's from dodgy coding compared to the C64.

Yes in many cases. But this was political. There was no reason back in the day for such rubbish games backported.

some people wanted to kill the CPC by rubbishing the games. That's what appears when you look carefully.

If only the coders back then had unleashed the true power of the cpc, then things may of been different and the C64 might not have dominated as much as it did.

So did some great games, like Super cauldron, Prehistorik 2, robocop, chase HQ to name a few ones.

And yes the C64 should have not been that strong, at least on the european market.

[roondar]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Yes in many cases. But this was political. There was no reason back in the day for such rubbish games backported.

I'd disagree with this statement. Your statement assumes that people out to make money by selling software deliberately made their stuff suck just because they liked another computer better. Which, to me, feels like a very strange thing to say.

So let me offer an alternative take:

It takes a lot of time, effort and hence money to make a great port. Just like the ST ports to the Amiga of the time, developers might just have chosen the cheap route because they could sell the results anyway. That's not politically motivated, thats pure capitalism in action

(and yes, it sucks these things happen but there is no conspiracy there - just cash talking)

Now for something more on-topic:
This looks like a wonderful port!

The only thing I'd personally change is how the ball looks (it looks nice, but I don't really like the black outline). That is, however, a giant pile of nitpicking as the game does look great

[hansel75]

I have to admit, graphically that does look very good for the Amstrad and congrats to the people involved in doing such a good port, even if it did take a few decades for CPC users to finally see this level of quality!

But one must remember that it requires a CPC6128 with 128kb of ram(or 464 with ram expansion) in which only a partial amount of CPC users had back in the day!
It's not really fair to compare a 128kb CPC to the C64, if this Pinball dreams port was done on the base CPC464 with only 64kb of ram that the majority of Amstrad users had, then yes it would be fair to compare it to the C64 as it's more of a level playing field.

Also yes it is better then the C64 preview of Pinball dreams, apart from the typically superior C64 audio, but i also highly doubt as much effort went into the C64 port then was put into this CPC 128kb port.

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Think about it, commercial classic games used only 10% of this machine.

Well too late ? No, because the computer is still used a lot.

Yes in many cases. But this was political. There was no reason back in the day for such rubbish games backported.

some people wanted to kill the CPC by rubbishing the games. That's what appears when you look carefully.

So did some great games, like Super cauldron, Prehistorik 2, robocop, chase HQ to name a few ones.

And yes the C64 should have not been that strong, at least on the european market.

My point was that when the CPC was at it's most popular back in the 80's/90's, it was mostly an inferior experience due to crappy ports and bad coding, sure there were a few gems, but the games were mostly better on the C64 due to the smoother graphics from superior sprite and scrolling routines which made them far more playable.

Sure the C64 had some shocking ports and rubbish games as well, but overall the quality of the graphics, audio, gameplay and software range was vastly superior on the C64.
You don't become the worlds No.1 8bit computer for no reason! Also the C64 deserved to be strong and be the best 8bit experience back then, simply because it had the best games!

As for the CPC in current day, sure there are people still using them for nostalgic reasons, but compared to the millions of users back in the day, the quantity of users today would be very small, and these current day efforts make no difference to the experience people had back in the day.

Pinball dreams does show off the potential of a 128kb CPC, but it is still to little to late, and it still doesn't change the fact that it was always one step behind the C64 in the past and this was the experience most CPC had to endure.

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

fabulous, the screen vertical scrolls at 50 fps ! this such such a good job, really higher and better than the C64 demo yay XD !

Also of note, in past debates about 8Bit computers you have repeatedly said that 50hz scrolling etc was not important when defending jerky/low framerate CPC games, but now your praising the fact that a CPC game is running at 50hz!

I also hope we can keep things civilized this time and not have this thread closed, just a friendly debate, and i wont derail this thread any more and take the shine of the amazing efforts from the Batman Group.

Again nice achievement with this Pinball dreams port, it's just a shame that CPC users did not have this kind of quality decades ago when it really mattered the most!

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by roondar

I'd disagree with this statement. Your statement assumes that people out to make money by selling software deliberately made their stuff suck just because they liked another computer better. Which, to me, feels like a very strange thing to say.

So let me offer an alternative take:

It takes a lot of time, effort and hence money to make a great port. Just like the ST ports to the Amiga of the time, developers might just have chosen the cheap route because they could sell the results anyway. That's not politically motivated, thats pure capitalism in action

(and yes, it sucks these things happen but there is no conspiracy there - just cash talking)

I'm not talking about a conspiracy But clearly by reading here and there, it just appears that not only it was pure capitalism, but not only that, the thing is teams just had this :

- "Ok guys you go for an 8 months deadline"

Then they create the assets on either C64/Speccy

- Next they spent a lot of time making the game great on those 2 machines, and finally, once it has to be ported on CPC, "ahaha the coder on CPC will only have 2 weeks to code it!".

In UK at least, the CPC was seen as junk. So most teams treated it as junk.

You see, it was the same with the ST and the Amiga. Nobody can explain why a game like afterburner by activision was so rubbish on the Amiga.

It had to suit the ST ! Since this machine can't cope with lots of animation and big sprites, they went for the small and little road.

When you look at Afterburner US release, you see that the Amiga can deal very well with bigger sprites and graphic parts.

There was a will to focus on specific machines (coders was fanboys as well, they're human after all).

Now for something more on-topic: This looks like a wonderful port!

Yes, a great great port

The only thing I'd personally change is how the ball looks (it looks nice, but I don't really like the black outline). That is, however, a giant pile of nitpicking as the game does look great

the black outline ? what do you mean ?

[zeropolis79]

Always been bias towards teh CPC...

[roondar]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

I'm not talking about a conspiracy But clearly by reading here and there, it just appears that not only it was pure capitalism, but not only that, the thing is teams just had this :

- "Ok guys you go for an 8 months deadline"

Then they create the assets on either C64/Speccy

- Next they spent a lot of time making the game great on those 2 machines, and finally, once it has to be ported on CPC, "ahaha the coder on CPC will only have 2 weeks to code it!".

In UK at least, the CPC was seen as junk. So most teams treated it as junk.

Are you sure about that?

I was not there myself, but all I get from the UK these days is extremely positive vibes regarding the CPC - just read any issue of Retro Gamer or look at the average UK retro channel on youtube - they all feature the CPC and all are talking about what a wonderful machine they felt is was back then.

If anything, I got more of an anti-C64 vibe from UK stuff I've seen (apart from the C64 press of course).

You see, it was the same with the ST and the Amiga. Nobody can explain why a game like afterburner by activision was so rubbish on the Amiga.

It had to suit the ST ! Since this machine can't cope with lots of animation and big sprites, they went for the small and little road.

When you look at Afterburner US release, you see that the Amiga can deal very well with bigger sprites and graphic parts.

There was a will to focus on specific machines (coders was fanboys as well, they're human after all).

I personally don't feel any Amiga release of Afterburner was any good, but that's just me

Yes, a great great port

the black outline ? what do you mean ?

I've attached a small image showing what I mean. And again, this is just my personal point of view - doesn't change that the port is great

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by hansel75

I also hope we can keep things civilized this time and not have this thread closed, just a friendly debate, and i wont derail this thread any more and take the shine of the amazing efforts from the Batman Group.

This is why I posted this
Kind of impossible as long as he is involved in this conversation.

[klx300r]

@ Neil79

love it! congrats to all involved

sadly I never knew one person growing up that had a 128KB Amstrad and actually very few people in my town had a base one too

[s2325]

new video by Nostalgia Nerd:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Amiga1992]

Pretty amazing they kind fit everything, shame about the terrible ball physics and, of course, that choppy scrolling.

[Neil79]

Originally Posted by Akira

Pretty amazing they kind fit everything, shame about the terrible ball physics and, of course, that choppy scrolling.

Yes via an emulator

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[fatbob_gb]

Originally Posted by Akira

Pretty amazing they kind fit everything, shame about the terrible ball physics and, of course, that choppy scrolling.

You cannot judge any CPC game/demo when played on an emulator or even real hardware with an LCD. The CPC has lots of little tricks that only work correctly on a CRT.

[dlfrsilver]

indeed. The CRTC chip is still an hard to emulate chip from the CPC. It can do many things (including hardware scroll horizontal and vertical, but many other things!).

I hope one day for a 100% replicated CPC in software emulator.