Discussion: Rygar AGA Edition

[mcgeezer]

Yeah, i’ll add that to the bug list.
Thanks gents

[mcgeezer]

Unfortunately I haven't been feeling well since the weekend so not much coding has been done, however mostly fighting fit again I was able to get back to coding tonight so I've added the scoring and bonus routines.

Still lots of bugs but it's nearly there.... probably another hour work and it'll be sorted.

Note - The sound is not right due to the speed of my systems ability to record and WINUAE running.

http://109.228.4.199/rygarscore.mp4


[ Show youtube player ]

[Reido]

Wow!

[DamienD]

Awesome Graeme

[LieutLaww]

This is looking amazing !

[Foul]

Best WIP ever

[malko]

(what else to say ??)

[mcgeezer]

Here's another hardware performance test video...

On this one I've fixed a shit load of bugs but also brought back the hardware sprites.

I get lots of comments like "Why does it need AGA?", "It should run on OCS?", "Why does it need so much memory?"...

An OCS/ECS machine can't do this - simples.

This means I can start adding the other enemies so things should pick up quite quickly now.

[ Show youtube player ]


http://109.228.4.199/RygarHardwareTest.mp4

Note - If you listen you can probably here the rain bouncing off the conservatory and my little Boy in the background!

Geezer

[Tigerskunk]

No way in hell someone could have produced this game as arcade like as this version is in OCS.

[ross]

Absolutely awesome

[seuden]

Awesome stuff Geezer.

[roondar]

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

Here's another hardware performance test video...

On this one I've fixed a shit load of bugs but also brought back the hardware sprites.

I get lots of comments like "Why does it need AGA?", "It should run on OCS?", "Why does it need so much memory?"...

An OCS/ECS machine can't do this - simples.

This means I can start adding the other enemies so things should pick up quite quickly now.

[ Show youtube player ]


http://109.228.4.199/RygarHardwareTest.mp4

Note - If you listen you can probably here the rain bouncing off the conservatory and my little Boy in the background!

Geezer

Love the new video, it really shows off that the game will be nice and busy

As for the A1200 vs A500 stuff, I've always been surprised at just how many people don't grasp that the 68020+2MB chip+AGA really does offer a lot more power than the base A500 with 1/2 MB of extra memory does.

It's probably because most people feel AGA was a poor upgrade that only offered extra bitplanes and in the process forget the wider sprites/faster bitplane fetches, plus the little details. Details such as the base AGA model being powered by CPU that is over 2x the speed of the old base OCS model and the same new base model having 4x the (chip) memory to play with.

[buzzybee]

Very, very impressive, how fast all elements come together now to build an authentic arcade replication. May I ask: Where did you learn your structured approach towards project management, and which kinds of tools or methods do you use?

[DamienD]

Guys, please don't post comments in any "Entry:" threads under the Coders. Entries section.

This is only for the game authors to post updates in...

Instead, post your comments / feedback in the "Discussion:" threads under the Coders. Contest section.

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by buzzybee

Very, very impressive, how fast all elements come together now to build an authentic arcade replication. May I ask: Where did you learn your structured approach towards project management, and which kinds of tools or methods do you use?

Thanks Richard.

I'm not sure I ever learned a structured way to project management as I tend to just break everything down into smaller chunks so they all become achievable with visual milestones.

When coding I to try and achieve visual and then non-visual outcomes - this helps morale on my side of things as it shows progress for time spent.

It helps to have a love of problem solving and an above average tolerance to being persistent, this comes from my day job in computer security/pen testing, to know when to ask for help but learn from it.

As for tools I just use Excel to track those smaller chunks of work and ordering them, I use Draw.Io (glorified Visio) sometimes to help with ordering, a pen and paper and the usual debuggers.

I use two debuggers in WinUAE and MonAM. WinUAE for debugging the nitty gritty stuff but MonAm for doing general debugging as it's much easier to navigate.

Here is what the project currently looks like from my Excel sheet.

[DamienD]

"Implement animated lava and waterfalls"... lava is done along with the foreground water.

Don't you still need to animate the background waterfalls?

[malko]

Originally Posted by roondar

[...] It's probably because most people feel AGA was a poor upgrade that only offered extra bitplanes and in the process forget the wider sprites/faster bitplane fetches, plus the little details. Details such as the base AGA model being powered by CPU that is over 2x the speed of the old base OCS model and the same new base model having 4x the (chip) memory to play with.

Don't blame them, back in time there was almost only A500 quick ports to A1200. People just were not able to figure out what these specs were all about ...

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by roondar

Love the new video, it really shows off that the game will be nice and busy

As for the A1200 vs A500 stuff, I've always been surprised at just how many people don't grasp that the 68020+2MB chip+AGA really does offer a lot more power than the base A500 with 1/2 MB of extra memory does.
.

I think Geezers problem is the opposite. That these people feel that the OCS should be able to deliver something that is clearly over its capabilities.

Somehow the OCS Amiga has that "wonder machine" stigma to it in the heads of some people, and they think you just are not "1337" enough if you cannot make it display 5 parallax layers at once along 30 Sprites in a gazillion colours.

And with AGA it's even a lot worse.

How these people think that Geezers AGA version (which looks arcade perfect) is achievable on an OCS machine is beyond me. And I'd say I have some experience in OCS coding now.

I concur, that some kind of Rygar is doable on OCS, since Sandruzzo showed us that it is. But definitely not the full arcade experience that Geezer is attempting here..

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Steril707

I think Geezers problem is the opposite. That these people feel that the OCS should be able to deliver something that is clearly over its capabilities.

Somehow the OCS Amiga has that "wonder machine" stigma to it in the heads of some people, and they think you just are not "1337" enough if you cannot make it display 5 parallax layers at once along 30 Sprites in a gazillion colours.

And with AGA it's even a lot worse.

How these people think that Geezers AGA version (which looks arcade perfect) is achievable on an OCS machine is beyond me. And I'd say I have some experience in OCS coding now.

I concur, that some kind of Rygar is doable on OCS, since Sandruzzo showed us that it is. But definitely not the full arcade experience that Geezer is attempting here..

Exactly this ^^^

I've had lots of comments about the specs and you just can't win with these people because they don't understand the limitations of the machines and they just say things without thinking most of the time - I have no option but to ignore them.


If I was building the game for an A500 then there's two options...

- Do it with Dual Playfield and stick with 8 colours BG and 8 colours FG and copper the shit out of it and pray it looks alright, you might reach a decent number of sprites being pushed around with the Blitter... maybe 16ish.
or
- Do away with the Parallax and run in 32 colour mode and pray you have enough DMA to push 20 32x32 sprites around in one frame.

Anyway, that was done to death in Sandruzzo's thread.

Geezer

[roondar]

I hadn't thought of it like that. It does make sense though, the Amiga was hyped to death back in the day in magazines and such and there were all sorts of strange claims about what it could or couldn't do.

As for the OCS version, I agree this has been covered long ago (and Sandruzzo made a rather good attempt, considering hardware limitations). Let's focus on the AGA version again.

I'll be honest, I'm rather looking forward to seeing the background water animate. It's a tiny effect, but it would really 'sell' the look for me - though the masses of flying bats added also helped

Yeah, yeah, I know - gameplay is more important, right