Arcade games that should be ported to the Amiga

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Rastan is a different beast, though. With that parallax and a couple of big objects I'd probably go for a A1200 port here.

What Rastan have that Lionheart doesn't have?

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

What Rastan have that Lionheart doesn't have?

Lots more colours?
If you are happy with all enemies and the background sharing the same 7 colours then have a go at it.

I'd say that it will probably look bad.

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Lots more colours?


I'd say that it will probably look bad.

Like Michael Jackson Bad

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Lots more colours?
If you are happy with all enemies and the background sharing the same 7 colours then have a go at it.

Hey I was just asking. I wasn't being ironic.
I don't know about technical stuff, that's why I asked.

To me, Lionheart looks nicer. Don't know about gameplay, will try Rastan on Mame.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Hey I was just asking. I wasn't being ironic.
I don't know about technical stuff, that's why I asked.

To me, Lionheart looks nicer. Don't know about gameplay, will try Rastan on Mame.

Rastan need 128 colors to be ok. Too many unique colors used, very hard to reduce the colors without making the game awful.

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Hey I was just asking. I wasn't being ironic.
I don't know about technical stuff, that's why I asked.

To me, Lionheart looks nicer. Don't know about gameplay, will try Rastan on Mame.

I think, you can generally say, that games with parallax should be created from the start for the OCS Amigas capabilities. Like it happened with Beast and Lionheart. Then you have a chance that it will look great.

Porting a game that uses parallax to the Amiga will almost always lead to ugly looking compromises.

[carrion]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Rastan need 128 colors to be ok. Too many unique colors used, very hard to reduce the colors without making the game awful.

Looking at Rastan screenshots on internet made me think that it could be done on Amiga 32 colors.
Check out the video I made of color reducing process. I go from 74 colors to 32. Results IMO can be even better when a pixel artist spend some time on retouching, dithering, etc...
http://retronavigator.com/post/18379...o-show-how-the

[albino]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Rastan need 128 colors to be ok. Too many unique colors used, very hard to reduce the colors without making the game awful.

It seems that nothing is possible with you.
You need to have a little faith in the ocs my friend.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by albino

It seems that nothing is possible with you.
You need to have a little faith in the ocs my friend.

Nope. I have already worked out quite a number of coin-op games.

Rastan use a ton colors. In order to pass in 32 colors, a graphic artist is needed. You can't simply tone down the amount of colors so easily.

The A500 can have a version, but the graphics have to redone, you can't kept them as they are and just put the colors from 256 unique colors of it down to 32.

Sorry.

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by carrion

Looking at Rastan screenshots on internet made me think that it could be done on Amiga 32 colors.
Check out the video I made of color reducing process. I go from 74 colors to 32. Results IMO can be even better when a pixel artist spend some time on retouching, dithering, etc...
http://retronavigator.com/post/18379...o-show-how-the

Off course "it can be done". That is almost never the question. There are ZX Spectrum and Master System versions of the game proving it.

It's more about "should it be done".
If in the end it looks like the Apple GS version I don't see the appeal for someone to spend a year converting it to the Amiga.

Your version would have no parallax and no sprites, and don't forget the palette you chose need to work for the whole level and all its enemies, not just one screen.

[drHirudo]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Off course "it can be done". That is almost never the question. There are ZX Spectrum and Master System versions of the game proving it.

It's more about "should it be done".
If in the end it looks like the Apple GS version I don't see the appeal for someone to spend a year converting it to the Amiga.

Your version would have no parallax and no sprites, and don't forget the palette you chose need to work for the whole level and all its enemies, not just one screen.

The Apple IIGS version of Rastan can be easily done on Amiga. And there are even source code for it, in 65812 assembler - https://macgui.com/downloads/?file_id=10698

And there is a thread about it on this forum - http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=94483

Quote from phx there:

IMHO an A500 should easily handle that. There is no parallax scrolling. Not many moving objects. I didn't even see any tile animations or foreground tiles. Would be quite boring to implement.

Once you have the game engine working (IIGS quality), you can try to implement more colors, parallax, better music, etc... and see if A500 can handle that. If A500 can't, just increase the requirements to 2MB Amiga, faster CPU, or even A1200.

[Tigerskunk]

Well, then go for it!

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Hey I was just asking. I wasn't being ironic.
I don't know about technical stuff, that's why I asked.

To me, Lionheart looks nicer. Don't know about gameplay, will try Rastan on Mame.

That is a question worth asking! There is no shame to be had in not knowing the technical details if that is not your field of expertise.
Lionheart uses the Dual Playfield mode which allows for two independently scrollable playfields but restricts the number of colors of the playfields to 7 for the foreground and 8 for the background.
If you look at the first levels, you will notice that all the foreground elements (ground, monsters, platforms, etc.) share the same greenish palette and that this palette only changes vertically: that is the Copper doing its job.
The total number of colors on screen can be quite high but the variety of colors of the foreground is very poor.
In all levels where there is parallax scrolling you will not see any multicolor enemies, only enemies with the same color as the foreground.

In Rastan, however, colors do not usually change vertically it there is a lot of color variety for the background, foreground and enemies: the max 15 colors of Dual Playfield would not work even with the Copper's help.

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Rastan need 128 colors to be ok. Too many unique colors used, very hard to reduce the colors without making the game awful.

I think it can be done though, even while keeping the parallax scrolling (I have a few ideas that I need to experiment with).
Rastan does not require that many moving objects moreover.

[nobody]

Maybe Rastan could be done like Risky Woods with (remade from scratch) 16 color sprites for the background and 16 colors. Amiga had games with better graphics, i think even Risky Woods has better graphics than Rastan. It was almost arcade quality.

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by nobody

Maybe Rastan could be done like Risky Woods with (remade from scratch) 16 color sprites for the background and 16 colors. Amiga had games with better graphics, i think even Risky Woods has better graphics than Rastan. It was almost arcade quality.

Proof positive you can have arcade quality games on the Amiga. However, with this particular game it's like buying luxury chocolate only to find it contains razor blades...The graphics and sound shout play me! The gameplay does not. Sorry to go OT with that, this game gave me much grief back in the day. Looks amazing though..

[Tigerskunk]

I created this demo last summer.. Was an experiment I did with the Inviyya engine.

I always thought a much better game could have been made instead of the Ninja Spirit port we got..

[ Show youtube player ]

For an actual conversion this would need a triple buffer running or going down to 25 fps. You can see slowdown in the video when the objects (lent from Inviyya... ) appear.

But I think it would look actually quite good. Much better then the conversion we got.

[saimon69]

Ninja Spirit Arcade is a work of art! Beautiful colors, atmospheric, evocative soundtrack; another charismatic IREM game from what it looks the same R-Type team+

Every time i load the PC Engine emulator and i play the by far superior port i think that Amiga could have done better; if you need help let me know!

[Wachi]

In the absence of Rastan I'll have to settle for this .....
[ Show youtube player ]

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by Steril707

I created this demo last summer.. Was an experiment I did with the Inviyya engine.

I always thought a much better game could have been made instead of the Ninja Spirit port we got..

[ Show youtube player ]

This looks quite nice! The Ninja Spirit background indeed lends itself well to the sprite approach.

Originally Posted by Steril707

For an actual conversion this would need a triple buffer running or going down to 25 fps. You can see slowdown in the video when the objects (lent from Inviyya... ) appear.

But I think it would look actually quite good. Much better then the conversion we got.

No doubt.
You could also disable the parts of the sprite background which are not visible once they are covered by foreground elements, this would free quite a few DMA cycles.

[JudasEZT]

I think Rastan would be factible for Amiga 500, just no perfect port but conversion with its restrictions.

7 colors for main graphics.. its a crap.. but could be done reasonably well. Of course making some concessions,.. and for example, having some enemies with different colors respect original coin op..

At this very moment I thinking that lions from first stage would be green same as the man-lizards..

That kind of sacrifices.



Rastan and his weapons, possible projectiles, collectables.. could be made with sprites.

Ive already drew time ago a Rastan sprite. I've reduced its wide to 16 pixels.. consist in two sprites of 3 colors superimposed. A third sprite would be the weapon.. easily interchangeable.

Here a video.. [ Show youtube player ]