Does the AGA chipset has been fully exploited ?

[roondar]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Going overscan takes away some other stuff as far as I know.

Yeah, overscan on the Amiga is a bit of a mixed bag - you get a nice big screen, but you lose sprites and a bunch of Blitter (and usually CPU) cycles.

The Amiga may have been a tad too flexible for it's own good here - it allows so many different screen sizes and that complicates stuff.

[DanScott]

Slightly off-topic, but I really dislike that the background layer shows through the status bar on Flink!

As for screen widths, many coin-ops were running at 256x224 back in the late 80's, but these were stretched to the full display width (unlike the Amiga that has to settle for a lot of border when displaying a 256 wide screen). I believe the SNES also had 256 wide mode (and the Megadrive too??)

[invent]

Instant thread follow love the idea of finding new ways to further explore the AGA chipset

[britelite]

Originally Posted by DanScott

I believe the SNES also had 256 wide mode (and the Megadrive too??)

Yeah, the Megadrive has both 256 and 320 wide modes, with the 256 mode being stretched horizontally to the same width as the 320 pixel wide mode.

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by DanScott

...unlike the Amiga that has to settle for a lot of border when displaying a 256 wide screen...

didn't know that, it is avoidable in some way, i mean to obtain the same MD/Snes effect ?
in effect, atm i don't remember a single AGA game with a like-streched image

[dodke]

I haven't looked into it but is Flink perhaps running in 2 frames simply because it couldn't do 1 frame constantly? Maybe in places where there are less sprites etc it would be possible to have it smoother. But the game isn't designed with AGA's limitations in mind.

I agree the background showing at the top without the foreground is quite jarring. And the small and smaller viewport options.

[skan]

Originally Posted by kremiso

didn't know that, it is avoidable in some way, i mean to obtain the same MD/Snes effect ?
in effect, atm i don't remember a single AGA game with a like-streched image

H-width control on the 1084 monitor fixes that!
Sorry, couldn't resist!

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by skan

H-width control on the 1084 monitor fixes that!
Sorry, couldn't resist!

Sure, abused method at time lol

[K1200RS21]

you find it how the Putty Squad game for an AGA game ?


[ Show youtube player ]

[touko]

Originally Posted by DanScott

Slightly off-topic, but I really dislike that the background layer shows through the status bar on Flink!

As for screen widths, many coin-ops were running at 256x224 back in the late 80's, but these were stretched to the full display width (unlike the Amiga that has to settle for a lot of border when displaying a 256 wide screen). I believe the SNES also had 256 wide mode (and the Megadrive too??)

If the amiga has a lot of border in 256 pixels wide, it's because unlike the snes and MD, the dot clock doesn't change in 256 pixels, you must use the 320 pixels dot clock to show a 256 one .

For me, aladdin and flink, seem to be originally developed for the classic amiga first, and have been quickly ported to AGA .

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by K1200RS21

you find it how the Putty Squad game for an AGA game ?

i find it ok, colorful, very clean, and it does use indeed a good size of the screen
prolly nothing special, squeezing AGA talking
btw surely better than Oscar, Troll, and Zool AGA, too much things on screen, a mess for the eyes

oh, i did'nt know the coder of Putty Squad AGA is John Twiddy, the same of Aladdin

[sokolovic]

Putty Squad and Aladdin seems to use the same engine that Global Gladiators and Cool Spot, also coded by John Twiddy. AGA seems only used to add extra colors.

AGA also had quarter pixel scrolling, being able to scroll a low res screen with super hi res coordinate, making scrolling smoother. I doubt this was much used back in the day (Marvin's Marvellous Adventure use that features I think)

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Putty Squad and Aladdin seems to use the same engine that Global Gladiators and Cool Spot, also coded by John Twiddy. AGA seems only used to add extra colors.

AGA also had quarter pixel scrolling, being able to scroll a low res screen with super hi res coordinate, making scrolling smoother. I doubt this was much used back in the day (Marvin's Marvellous Adventure use that features I think)

SuperHiRes sprites were also available, and I know of at least one demo that used them for the credit scroll at the end while an effect filled the rest of the screen, and that was "Bizarre Love Triangle" (https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=7215)

[roondar]

The ability to mix sprite/scrolling resolutions is one of AGA's most interesting features. I wonder how many games actually used it?

I could see games where the main character is in hires mode with sprites to get it to look nicer for instance.

[vulture]

@sokolovic

That's exactly right, I recall an article at Amiga Format(?) which stated that Aladdin used an updated version of the (horrible) Cool Spot engine.

[dodke]

@roondar
Super Stardust has the ship in hires and in general makes good use of the hardware. Also the CD32 version is one of the more polished releases for the console.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by dodke

@roondar
Super Stardust has the ship in hires and in general makes good use of the hardware. Also the CD32 version is one of the more polished releases for the console.

But isn't Super Stardust just a highly-polished version of Asteroids? There wasn't much originality there.

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Foebane

But isn't Super Stardust just a highly-polished version of Asteroids? There wasn't much originality there.

You could say that about quite a few of househarque’s games, but they are masters at doing it.

Nex Machina and Robotron being my all time favourite games of all time, they are simply sublime in every sense.

[redblade]

Originally Posted by Foebane

But isn't Super Stardust just a highly-polished version of Asteroids? There wasn't much originality there.

Yeah but the tunnel scene was a real nice effect.

Originally Posted by DanScott

As for screen widths, many coin-ops were running at 256x224 back in the late 80's, but these were stretched to the full display width (unlike the Amiga that has to settle for a lot of border when displaying a 256 wide screen). I believe the SNES also had 256 wide mode (and the Megadrive too??)

How do you calculate the copper list values for a 256x224 screen?

Originally Posted by roondar

The ability to mix sprite/scrolling resolutions is one of AGA's most interesting features. I wonder how many games actually used it?

I could see games where the main character is in hires mode with sprites to get it to look nicer for instance.

In a point in click adventure like DOTT , Sam and Max or an action game?

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by Foebane

But isn't Super Stardust just a highly-polished version of Asteroids? There wasn't much originality there.

Originally Posted by redblade

Yeah but the tunnel scene was a real nice effect.

This game has been often nominated in this thread
do you think it is the better result obtained in AGA chipset squeezing, until now? i mean crude technically talking, setting aside originality and origins (Asteroids)?