Few words about Top Gear 2

[-Acid-]

I always loved TG2 on the Snes the music is great. I played it there before I even owned an Amiga... to me it's better due to the controller and music, I just couldn't get into the Amiga music in the same way.

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by -Acid-

I always loved TG2 on the Snes the music is great. I played it there before I even owned an Amiga... to me it's better due to the controller and music, I just couldn't get into the Amiga music in the same way.

I never owned a Snes. I also think Top Gear 2 is better on Snes. As I said, I tried it on a Snes emulator.

My whole reason for this thread was because I found out with the right Amiga (Fast RAM at least), the ECS version of Top Gear 2 would run as smooth as the Snes version. And look almost identical. I find that the controls with a joystick is smooth. The AGA version or even the ECS version runs like crap on Amigas with no fast RAM. And the AGA version even runs badly with fast RAM. I read someone said the AGA version ran fine on an 040 Amiga. I could test that with WinUAE as the max I have on real Amigas is an 030.

So my conclusion was that the ECS version on an Amiga with Fast RAM is in fact a good drving game for Amiga. At least in my opinion.

[Havie]

Amiga version is better with sound effects in my opinion as just music doesn't work for me. Road view seems quite low too and I keep wanting to look be able to see over the top of the car. Probably all those years of playing 3D racers.

It's ok but I think Lotus and Jaguar are better. I'll try the SNES version on my mini to compare.

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by Havie

Amiga version is better with sound effects in my opinion as just music doesn't work for me. Road view seems quite low too and I keep wanting to look be able to see over the top of the car. Probably all those years of playing 3D racers.

It's ok but I think Lotus and Jaguar are better. I'll try the SNES version on my mini to compare.

Road view should be the same on Amiga VS snes. The game looks identical.

[Havie]

Big brother watches you - this popped on YouTube when I was sorting socks!

[ Show youtube player ]

[Havie]

Also, CD32 version has music and effects - another one to try.

[turrican9]

Nice review. Still I think the ECS version is smoother and mostly the sky shows any difference in colours.

Havie, you should try all versions. I'd love to hear your opinion

Edit: Probably forgot to mention. But there are no real loading times with whdload. But the AGA version takes much longer to transit between the screens. It's a quite long pause when transitioning between screens. This is not the case with the ECS version.

[Havie]

Is the a whdload of AGA version? I have ECS ONE. I will play all and report back then.

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by Havie

Is the a whdload of AGA version? I have ECS ONE. I will play all and report back then.

Yes, there is whdload for AGA

[mtb]

I have tried it on a real a500 with 1mb of ram... really slow really disappointing imho.

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by mtb

I have tried it on a real a500 with 1mb of ram... really slow really disappointing imho.

Yes. It needs some fast RAM to run properly. A stock Amiga 500 with 0.5MB in the trapdoor has 0.5MB chip RAM and 0.5MB slow RAM.

[Havie]

Originally Posted by turrican9

Yes, there is whdload for AGA

I'll search it out - thanks.

[Havie]

OK - first report back. I now have all 3 Amiga versions of the game:

My configuration is A1200 030/50mhz running through scart. 32x CD-rom attached to internal ide. PSX joystick convertor so using PS2 joypad set in CD32 mode.

A500: Seems smoother and graphics seen virtually identical. Music or sound effects. No animation on car tyres. Space to trigger nitro.

A1200: Jerky graphics although they look the same. Music or sound effects. Wheels now animated. Space to trigger nitro. Slow to load (from Whdload anyway).

CD32: Same graphics as A1200. Works with CD32 controls so nitro is now on a button (nice). Wheels are animated. Music from CD so can now have music and sound effects together (although music is not great - Paula sounds better). Loads from CD and is reasonably fast - probably same as A500 Whdload?

Have started experimenting running in NTSC and this gets a full screen. In theory it should be smoother but not sure.

CD32 is coming out on top as controls are better, you can have (dodgy) music and sound effects and when you run in NTSC mode as music is played from CD it doesn't speed up!

Currently played 15 tracks and am strangely addicted! Maybe I was a bit harsh on the game...

More to come in part 2.

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by Havie

OK - first report back. I now have all 3 Amiga versions of the game:

My configuration is A1200 030/50mhz running through scart. 32x CD-rom attached to internal ide. PSX joystick convertor so using PS2 joypad set in CD32 mode.

A500: Seems smoother and graphics seen virtually identical. Music or sound effects. No animation on car tyres. Space to trigger nitro.

A1200: Jerky graphics although they look the same. Music or sound effects. Wheels now animated. Space to trigger nitro. Slow to load (from Whdload anyway).

CD32: Same graphics as A1200. Works with CD32 controls so nitro is now on a button (nice). Wheels are animated. Music from CD so can now have music and sound effects together (although music is not great - Paula sounds better). Loads from CD and is reasonably fast - probably same as A500 Whdload?

Have started experimenting running in NTSC and this gets a full screen. In theory it should be smoother but not sure.

CD32 is coming out on top as controls are better, you can have (dodgy) music and sound effects and when you run in NTSC mode as music is played from CD it doesn't speed up!

Currently played 15 tracks and am strangely addicted! Maybe I was a bit harsh on the game...

More to come in part 2.

Wow. Thanks. So similar findings to me then. Actually I found out by reading the manual that I could double tap the fire button on my joystick for nitro in the ECS version (Guess this goes for AGA aswell). It is not very reliable. Sometimes I have to tap the button many times for the nitro to fire. I am using a Zip Stik.

Looking forward to your next part. Enjoy the game

[Havie]

Yes - I've been sucked in! Racing games are my favourite and I do like the fact that it is circuit based as opposed to one long track. Perhaps not quite a Ridge Racer or Sega Rally but pretty good fun.

[Havie]

Still playing the CD32 version and not sure how many tracks in - maybe more than half way?

I have some more observations:

1) Money is a waste of time as it doesn't take too long to build up enough to get best engine and then what? Should have allowed you to buy tyres and nitros - not even as sophisticated as Super Sprint!
2) You don't seem to get anything for winning a series of races so there is very little motivation to worry about winning (especially as you can qualify by finishing in the top 10 every time). Surely it would have been better to make you have to finish in higher positions as you make your way through the game?
3) As stated before - fuel is worthless and adds nothing to the game as you can't run out or refuel. You have to wonder who was play testing this one?
4) Rain and snow really slow the game down...

But saying all the above - it's reasonably fun and relaxing to play. It's keeping my interest.

Not sure I really like the CD32 music but I have a cunning plan! As the music is running straight of the CD I think I can replace the music files so I just need to decide whether to keep the CD32 track or replace it with the Amiga 500, SNES or Magadrive track? I think it should be possible to mix and match so if we collect a list of which track from which system then I should be able to capture a WAV from YouTube and install into the CD iso? Not making any promises as I have never done this before but looks possible to me.

So if anyone has a suggestion for which system they would like a track from - let me know and I'll build up a favorite list and then try and recreate this as a CD32 iso. There are seven tracks on the CD. This video might help you decide and if you go to YouTube all the tracks are listed in the description.

[ Show youtube player ]

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by Havie

Still playing the CD32 version and not sure how many tracks in - maybe more than half way?

I have some more observations:

1) Money is a waste of time as it doesn't take too long to build up enough to get best engine and then what? Should have allowed you to buy tyres and nitros - not even as sophisticated as Super Sprint!
2) You don't seem to get anything for winning a series of races so there is very little motivation to worry about winning (especially as you can qualify by finishing in the top 10 every time). Surely it would have been better to make you have to finish in higher positions as you make your way through the game?
3) As stated before - fuel is worthless and adds nothing to the game as you can't run out or refuel. You have to wonder who was play testing this one?
4) Rain and snow really slow the game down...

But saying all the above - it's reasonably fun and relaxing to play. It's keeping my interest.

Not sure I really like the CD32 music but I have a cunning plan! As the music is running straight of the CD I think I can replace the music files so I just need to decide whether to keep the CD32 track or replace it with the Amiga 500, SNES or Magadrive track? I think it should be possible to mix and match so if we collect a list of which track from which system then I should be able to capture a WAV from YouTube and install into the CD iso? Not making any promises as I have never done this before but looks possible to me.

So if anyone has a suggestion for which system they would like a track from - let me know and I'll build up a favorite list and then try and recreate this as a CD32 iso. There are seven tracks on the CD. This video might help you decide and if you go to YouTube all the tracks are listed in the description.

[ Show youtube player ]

Isn't the CD32 version as slow as the regular AGA version? The ECS version doesn't slow that much down with rain and snow. Also, did you see you can double tap the fire button for nitro instead of pressing space?

After 64 tracks you will really feel empty inside It's a nice driving game nontheless. Relaxing and straight forward. No stress

I agree in many of your points. Now if we could get music and sound effects at the same time in the ECS version it would be really nice. Have you tried to put "cache" in the tooltip of the CD32 version?

Thanks for your feedback.

[Havie]

Originally Posted by turrican9

Isn't the CD32 version as slow as the regular AGA version? The ECS version doesn't slow that much down with rain and snow. Also, did you see you can double tap the fire button for nitro instead of pressing space?

After 64 tracks you will really feel empty inside It's a nice driving game nontheless. Relaxing and straight forward. No stress

I agree in many of your points. Now if we could get music and sound effects at the same time in the ECS version it would be really nice. Have you tried to put "cache" in the tooltip of the CD32 version?

Thanks for your feedback.

Not asking much here - maybe someone with ASM skills could find he bits that trigger music and change them to trigger CD play using A500 version...

Forgot to try double tap - will have ago with A500 version. Hopefully the password will work from the CD32 version.

Yes, CD32 version is choppy especially in weather. Not sure I can change the tooltype as running from CD but will have an explore. I still don't get why the AGA version would be slower - it really doesn't look any different. Maybe a colour check will show that it has more bitplanes but if this is the case then they are being wasted.

More to explore and I haven't even got the Megadrive and SNES yet.

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by Havie

Not asking much here - maybe someone with ASM skills could find he bits that trigger music and change them to trigger CD play using A500 version...

Forgot to try double tap - will have ago with A500 version. Hopefully the password will work from the CD32 version.

Yes, CD32 version is choppy especially in weather. Not sure I can change the tooltype as running from CD but will have an explore. I still don't get why the AGA version would be slower - it really doesn't look any different. Maybe a colour check will show that it has more bitplanes but if this is the case then they are being wasted.

More to explore and I haven't even got the Megadrive and SNES yet.

Well, there is no way I'm putting a CD-rom in any of my Amigas. CD-roms are dead to me

Well, if you look at the sky the AGA version seems to have more colours. The ECS version has a more gradient sky which is typical for ECS.

[Havie]

I love my cd-rom and it's great exploring old cover disks! Also, not bad for cd-rom games with nice music such as Flink. I cheat and have my cd-rom in an external case and the cd sound goes to a mini speaker in front of the telly. Works well and no need for separate audio mixer.

The AGA could have a nice sky without additional bitplanes though as it could just be an example of a copper created from the wider AGA palette?