Wing Commander Enhanced V2 (beta)

[earok]

In the zone. Basically I've taken the previous "Wing Commander Enhanced" release by Mad-Matt (which itself uses WCPatch by cdBS) and added a menu (stolen from the WC3 pause menu) for selecting various options.

* English/German - self explanatory. You can pick what language you want without setting the language on the console itself.
* Use CD32 Pad - if you want to use a regular joystick / keyboard combo, just disable this.
* Use Akiko C2P - maybe it's just me, but on a TerribleFired CD32 the game seems much smoother with the original C2P routine. In any case, if you can't or don't want to use the original C2P routine, you can use cdBS's non-Akiko alternative.
* Add Frame Delay - probably not necessary unless there's ever a Vampire CD32, adds a couple of VWAITs per frame to keep the game playable on superfast Amigas.
* Invincibility/Trainer Keys - as described. I'm not exactly sure what the trainer keys are and what they do.


A patched version like this is a requirement for playing on an expanded CD32 - any CD32 with fast ram will not work with the Dangerous Streets bundle version, and any CD32 where Akiko is not available (SX32?) will not work with that either.

It's a beta because it still requires some refinement, but I'd be keen to get any change requests in before it's finalised.


As an aside - a challenge no one has ever been able to pull off is getting the Secret Missions campaign disks to work. Curiously, it's possible to set "H1" on the executable's command line options to show a menu with the two mission campaign buttons (though obviously they don't work). But I'm not sure if it's actually possible to port the DOS data in any meaningful way or if the executable is even capable of recognising addon disk data. I'd be up for putting some money towards a bounty for that if anyone's interested in organising one?

[Amigajay]

Wow great work Earok!
Is that c2p option the original inc with the CD32 version? Its a shame there isnt another version to compare as supposedly there was errors in Nick Pellings code.

[earok]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Wow great work Earok!
Is that c2p option the original inc with the CD32 version? Its a shame there isnt another version to compare as supposedly there was errors in Nick Pellings code.

Cheers!

So far as I can tell, it is the original C2P code except cdBS patched at least one bug with it, this is from the patch source:

.OldC2P:
	 move.w    #$ffff,$17cc(a4)
	 move.b    #$14,$1ef7(a4)      ; Force the chunky buffer in chip
				       ; ram in order to make the original
				       ; c2p work (no more fast to chip
				       ; blits :)))

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by earok

Cheers!

So far as I can tell, it is the original C2P code except cdBS patched at least one bug with it, this is from the patch source:

.OldC2P:
     move.w    #$ffff,$17cc(a4)
     move.b    #$14,$1ef7(a4)      ; Force the chunky buffer in chip
                       ; ram in order to make the original
                       ; c2p work (no more fast to chip
                       ; blits :)))

Ok, confirmed working with fastram, nice for CD32 owners with fastram to get a more playable version, shame Akiko not utilised properly to prob get another 50% boost.

[Gzegzolka]

Awesome project, I hope You will finish it

[earok]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

Awesome project, I hope You will finish it

Cheers, it's practically done but I might put one or two minor tweaks in would love to be able to include the Special Missions if anyone ever works out how to add them.

Edit: I missed this somehow, Doomer's already done the groundwork to rule out a Secret Missions port, at least with the existing executable. I didn't go so deep as to analyze the mission data structure but his conclusion (it won't work because all of the data is incompatible and the game does not try to seek out the secret mission file data) doesn't surprise me.

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=762492&postcount=60

[wairnair]

great!

Erm, where in the zone?

[earok]

Originally Posted by wairnair

great!

Erm, where in the zone?

It's right at the top, "Wing Commander CD32 Enhanced V2.zip"

[wairnair]

I must be silly I can't see it. not among these:
http://grandis.nu:81/eabsearch/searc...xclude=&limit=
browsed through the ftp manually too

maybe due to using anonymous account?
or is it in any way possible, that "the zone" is something else than a folder on the EAB ftp? :| sorry for the noobness

[earok]

Originally Posted by wairnair

or is it in any way possible, that "the zone" is something else than a folder on the EAB ftp?

Yes, that's correct - I believe the Zone on the FTP server is a backup but not the Zone itself.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=26201

Follow the instructions there ^ afterwards you should have "The Zone!" as a link (next to "Log out")

[wairnair]

Found it, did a mission and it's perfect. Thanks a lot!

[earok]

Originally Posted by wairnair

Found it, did a mission and it's perfect. Thanks a lot!

Great! No worries.

I'll have to spend some time playing through it from start to finish, I hadn't bothered before because on a stock CD32 it's so much slower than my memories of it on a 486 but now it's at least reasonable, plus there's the bonus of Amiga music

[wairnair]

Yeah it's now playable. I'm definitely going to give it a go.

[Aladin]

Thanks Earok for these great enhancement

the cd 32 version use the same 256 colour that: ?
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=92955

[earok]

Originally Posted by Aladin

Thanks Earok for these great enhancement

the cd 32 version use the same 256 colour that: ?
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=92955

Yes, CD32 version is 256 colour, so graphically it should be close to (or the same as) the DOS VGA edition.

[wairnair]

Now, a WHDLoadified version of THIS would be awesome. It's ~4.5MB altogether so it should fit in the 8MB of the TF328. Someone with the know-how maybe?

Or... does it just work if copied onto a CF.. I'll check.

UPDATE, apparently it does work from CF, at least I could start a mission and shoot around.

[earok]

Originally Posted by wairnair

Now, a WHDLoadified version of THIS would be awesome. It's ~4.5MB altogether so it should fit in the 8MB of the TF328. Someone with the know-how maybe?

Or... does it just work if copied onto a CF.. I'll check.

UPDATE, apparently it does work from CF, at least I could start a mission and shoot around.

That gives me an idea for the next version actually add an option to copy the entire disc into RAM - after the initial copy, it won't need to load from disc again.

[Seiya]

Great work earok

[Amigajay]

Had a reply from Nick Pelling regarding using Akiko and if the rumour of him not coding for it correctly or not was true.

“Jay: I have no idea what the Akiko code was, and I certainly don't recall usin it. My software renderer drew to a byte-per-pixel buffer, which (as I recall) the CD32 had native support for. It was just a shame I couldn't get the Amiga version going as fast. :-( “

[earok]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Had a reply from Nick Pelling regarding using Akiko and if the rumour of him not coding for it correctly or not was true.

“Jay: I have no idea what the Akiko code was, and I certainly don't recall usin it. My software renderer drew to a byte-per-pixel buffer, which (as I recall) the CD32 had native support for. It was just a shame I couldn't get the Amiga version going as fast. :-( “

Interesting.. for what it's worth, I'm not so sure the Akiko rumor was correct. From memory from what I read in the patch notes, I think the issue was that the C2P routines didn't work correctly on non-Akiko machines even though the intention was for the Akiko to only be optional.

Is there any chance you could ask him about the Secret Mission expansions, if they were ever ported or if there was even a plan to do so? It seems the answer is "no" because of Doomer's research but it'd be interesting if he has any comment.