Atari ST to Amiga: Starquake Amiga Conversion

[Qube]

I've noticed some minor differences - in the ST version the main character appears and teleports using a visual effect, like they are broken up into bits or recombined - this does not happen in the conversion, is that due to an issue translating the visual effect to the Amiga's screen?

Q;

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Qube

I've noticed some minor differences - in the ST version the main character appears and teleports using a visual effect, like they are broken up into bits or recombined - this does not happen in the conversion, is that due to an issue translating the visual effect to the Amiga's screen?

Q;

I found it irritating, whilst that effect happens, you cant move, and a couple of times I lost a life because of it.

[Qube]

True! That floating cross enemy is such a pain sometimes, especially if it appears right over your character.


Q;

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Qube

True! That floating cross enemy is such a pain sometimes, especially if it appears right over your character.


Q;

Yup, no drain of energy, just dead instantly. Not fun the 20th time it happened during testing

[Neil79]

Galahad!

Review done

Starquake Amiga port from ST Finally Lands! First Look

But some games just never even got that treatment. Fortunately there have been efforts in recent years to put that right and actually make these games playable on the Amiga. This week it's the turn of Starquake to get the limelight.

http://www.indieretronews.com/2018/1...t-finally.html

[ross]

I missed this thread till today, so took the opportunity to read it all.

Congratulations Galahad and all others involved for the work done!

[ElectroBlaster]

Thank you so much Galahad! For even attempting to do it let alone going the whole hog and converting it. I never did understand why this game was not released on the Amiga but now that has been addressed

[zzbylu]

Gameplay:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by zzbylu

Gameplay:
[ Show youtube player ]

Nice one.... someone downvoted the video already!

Some people are never happy lol

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Nice one.... someone downvoted the video already!

Some people are never happy lol

Some people are just knob heads mate.

[WayneK]

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

Some people are just knob heads mate.

Hey, I just didn't like the video!


In all seriousness, good job Galahad and all involved, no-one who hasn't tried fully appreciates the amount of work necessary to complete one of these projects.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by zzbylu

Gameplay:
[ Show youtube player ]

Jesus, what Amiga was that recorded on? It's slow as hell! Even the Spectrum version was faster than that!

I used to play the Speccy version to death, and still do. I've seen videos of the ST version and was kinda curious as to what the Amiga port would turn out like. PLEASE tell me you ran that on an unexpanded A500, or are running on PAL rather than NTSC...

[malko]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I took the ST version and then hacked it to work on the Amiga. So basically look for colour pallete routines and replace, find the vblank routine and pointer to screen memory and redirect to something the Amiga can view.

Can be surprisingly quick to get something onscreen, then all the hard work starts to get it to be as much of a game as possible.

I have nothing to work with other than the Atari ST binary file and figure it out.

If the "engine" could be easily adapted to others games, may you consider Road Runner for a next shot (after the Starquake 68000 optimisation) ?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Dunny

Jesus, what Amiga was that recorded on? It's slow as hell! Even the Spectrum version was faster than that!

I used to play the Speccy version to death, and still do. I've seen videos of the ST version and was kinda curious as to what the Amiga port would turn out like. PLEASE tell me you ran that on an unexpanded A500, or are running on PAL rather than NTSC...

I suspect its A500 even though the cracktro points out that it won't be until v1.2 that 68000 will be quicker.

v1.1 is really A1200 and above until I implement the speed improvements to make it quicker.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by malko

If the "engine" could be easily adapted to others games, may you consider Road Runner for a next shot (after the Starquake 68000 optimisation) ?

There is no "engine", its called hacking. There is no solution that fits all conversions.

And i'm pretty sure Codetapper is doing Road Runner but a bespoke Amiga version.

[tomcat666]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I suspect its A500

On A500 it runs at about 1/3 of the speed of that video, it is really in slow motion.
No idea what cpu that video uses, since on unexpanded A1200 020 it runs at perfect speed - the same as Atari ST or ZX Spectrum, which is about twice as fast as the video.

And, Galahad - thanx for this conversion. it is nice to finally see Starquake running on the miggy

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I suspect its A500 even though the cracktro points out that it won't be until v1.2 that 68000 will be quicker.

v1.1 is really A1200 and above until I implement the speed improvements to make it quicker.

Originally Posted by tomcat666

On A500 it runs at about 1/3 of the speed of that video, it is really in slow motion.
No idea what cpu that video uses, since on unexpanded A1200 020 it runs at perfect speed - the same as Atari ST or ZX Spectrum, which is about twice as fast as the video.

And, Galahad - thanx for this conversion. it is nice to finally see Starquake running on the miggy

OMG, thanks guys

I was so looking forward to this game, then I saw the video... I'll test it myself as soon as I get chance.

Looking forward to the updates, Galahad, and good job with the conversion!

[Riempie]

Thx Galahad for this present! Just started this game up. I've played this game a lot on my Atari ST 520FM (before I got my first amiga). I still have the game on a disk part of an Atari Hit Pack collection

I bought a boxed edition of the game at Fusion Retro Books, so looking forward to that.

I've tested the game on my A600 ACA620 with gotek drive. The game crashes occasionally during the intro (cracktro loads fine), but after a couple of retries I was able to play it. My A600 should be ok (fully recapped and repaired), at least I hope it's OK

Will try it on my A1200 when the whdload-version is ready (I have issues with my gotek and original disk drive on my A1200). Or will it boot/work from DF1?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Riempie

Thx Galahad for this present! Just started this game up. I've played this game a lot on my Atari ST 520FM (before I got my first amiga). I still have the game on a disk part of an Atari Hit Pack collection

I bought a boxed edition of the game at Fusion Retro Books, so looking forward to that.

I've tested the game on my A600 ACA620 with gotek drive. The game crashes occasionally during the intro (cracktro loads fine), but after a couple of retries I was able to play it. My A600 should be ok (fully recapped and repaired), at least I hope it's OK

Will try it on my A1200 when the whdload-version is ready (I have issues with my gotek and original disk drive on my A1200). Or will it boot/work from DF1?

No its only configured to run from DF0:, however, it would be no issue to do something on bootup where you could select DF1: as a loading drive and it would work, so i'll consider that for v1.2 as obviously peoples internal drives are getting more flakey.

WHDLoad version might be ready tonight

I don't suppose your Atari version in the documentation has the full credits for the ST version does it?

Jason Brooke did the music, David McLachlan did the graphics, still trying to work out the programmer.

[TjLaZer]

Originally Posted by Dunny

Jesus, what Amiga was that recorded on? It's slow as hell! Even the Spectrum version was faster than that!

I used to play the Speccy version to death, and still do. I've seen videos of the ST version and was kinda curious as to what the Amiga port would turn out like. PLEASE tell me you ran that on an unexpanded A500, or are running on PAL rather than NTSC...

Game does not run on NTSC machines. It would be nice if it did as it would fill the screen and run a tad faster.