New Atari ST conversion coming to Amiga

[meynaf]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

But better a live WIP that can be seen rather than someone saying they are doing something with no tangible results

Certainly, but even better is a playable game

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

And maybe YM emulation won't be as easy as I think, but thats the fun of doing the work, if it was easy, all these games would have been converted years ago

Anyway if you need help, don't hesitate.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by meynaf

Certainly, but even better is a playable game


Anyway if you need help, don't hesitate.

It will only be playable once I sort out the ST mouse packet information to convert to Amiga, once thats done, then at least it can be played

[kamelito]

Thanks for working on that port.
Kamel

[tomcat666]

Wow, one of my favorite 80s games finally coming to Amiga Thank you Galahad !

Hope this trend keeps up...

[lesta_smsc]

This looks like a good game! A bit like Flight of the Amazon Queen?! Keep up the good work Galahad/FLT!

[Amiga1992]

I love these new Atari ST conversions, I think it's great to have these on the Amiga.

But I can't help to notice: remember the days when we complained about Atari ST shovelware? Now we're excited about it

What are the chances of taking these and upgrading them to meet Amiga standards?

[Mequa]

Originally Posted by Akira

But I can't help to notice: remember the days when we complained about Atari ST shovelware? Now we're excited about it

Hah!

I'm wondering if a port of Robotron: 2084 would be feasible? It would be nice to have a native Amiga port of the game which inspired Llamatron.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Akira

I love these new Atari ST conversions, I think it's great to have these on the Amiga.

But I can't help to notice: remember the days when we complained about Atari ST shovelware? Now we're excited about it

What are the chances of taking these and upgrading them to meet Amiga standards?

Theres every possibility of doing that, but personally, i'm more keen on getting them running, and then once thats been done, maybe releasing a more Amigafied version.

Bearing in mind though that I can update the titlescreen to the box image, and maybe get someone to do a better sounding module for the music, and maybe improve the ingame samples, but the main game graphics will still be the same.

[AmigaFriend]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

YM conversion i've been told can be quite painless for Amiga, simply redirecting the YM calls to the correct Amiga registers should get it up and running, and doing it on an interrupt, I can't envisage it getting too heavy.

You mean you're considering making/using a YM sound engine emulation on the Amiga version?

...and great job Galahad!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by xpect

You mean you're considering making/using a YM sound engine emulation on the Amiga version?

...and great job Galahad!

Yes, its what Meynaf did for his Atari conversions. I'd obviously prefer using a module, but, at the moment, virtually all of the 512k of chip ram is used up.

[Whitesnake]

I think from a purists stand point it is good to have a straight 1:1 port of the Atari ST original then an upgraded version later.

Personally the YM chip sound doesn't bother me, I quite like the sound of it in many cases, and on different hardware.

I think International Karate on the Atari ST is a good use case for YM chip sound.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Whitesnake

I think from a purists stand point it is good to have a straight 1:1 port of the Atari ST original then an upgraded version later.

Personally the YM chip sound doesn't bother me, I quite like the sound of it in many cases, and on different hardware.

I think International Karate on the Atari ST is a good use case for YM chip sound.

Weird thing is, the Spectrum 128 version of Where Time Stood Still sounds better!

[chiark]

This is pretty damn cool. Just a query: is the whdload slave also doing the necessary emulation?

[tomcat666]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Weird thing is, the Spectrum 128 version of Where Time Stood Still sounds better!

Exactly... or maybe I am just more used to it since I played the game to death on my +2 128k

Can't wait for the Amiga version though . Hopefully someone can make a decent .MOD conversion of the tune... But even the YM emulation one will do.

[Whitesnake]

Very similar PSG's I'd mostly put it down to a better composer if anything.

[Amiga1992]

How small does the MOD need to be for it to be included on the game, Galahad?

[vulture]

thx Galahad, a really great game!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Akira

How small does the MOD need to be for it to be included on the game, Galahad?

Let me get back to you mate, I might yet make it 1meg only, which then frees up a lot of chip ram, as I can store all the ST graphics in fast ram and just have the Amiga specific stuff and program code in chip ram.

At the moment, 5k would probably be an over exaggeration of how much room is left!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by chiark

This is pretty damn cool. Just a query: is the whdload slave also doing the necessary emulation?

No.

WHDLoad is a useful tool for quick development. If there are any accesses to Atari ST registers I haven't picked up on, if anything tries to access one through an address register, WHDLoad exits immediately and tells me.

Quicker way of debugging, loading the game from hard drive instead of floppy.

Once I have it fully working using WHDLoad, then I'll be able to quickly master a floppy version, and then adapt the WHDLoad version to support that version so everyone starts off with the same version, and thus bug reports become meaningful.

[AmigaFriend]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Weird thing is, the Spectrum 128 version of Where Time Stood Still sounds better!

One thing that can do this is if one tune was developed say in the Spectrum 128 with a AY-3-8910 and then simply transplanted to the ST that uses a YM2149. Also the sound chip frequencies are also different 2Mhz on the ST, 1.77Mhz on the Spectrum, and this would also alter significantly envelope times and tuning.

One good example is the Xenon tune: it sounds ok in the ST, slight off on the Spectrum but sounding better, and absolute shit in the CPC (which has the AY clocked at 1Mhz).

Also, in my opinion, the AY has a much better sound compared to the YM.