Toki

[albino]

Hi guys,

I just wonder why this excellent arcade conversion got such tiny screen?

Was it possible to increase the screen size without loosing other features the

programmer manage to get like parallax scrolling?

[DanScott]

I believe the coin-op was running at 256x240 resolution... I think the Amiga version is the same screen dimensions (although this resolution looks "smaller" on the Amiga)

Many coin-ops of that time used this (or similar) resolution

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by DanScott

I believe the coin-op was running at 256x240 resolution... I think the Amiga version is the same screen dimensions (although this resolution looks "smaller" on the Amiga)

Many coin-ops of that time used this (or similar) resolution

Was going to say the same thing. The arcade game runs at 256x224, they were just trying to be accurate.

I heard people saying this is a bad feature of the Amiga port. It's just they were aiming for best accuracy as possible

[albino]

Thanks for the answer guys..

[heavy]

seems to be 224x200

[Superman]

Toki is an excellent arcade conversion.

[DanScott]

Originally Posted by heavy

seems to be 224x200

Looks like it's 224 on Amiga.. but not far off the original size.

Lots of masked blitting going off there though

[DanScott]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

Was going to say the same thing. The arcade game runs at 256x224, they were just trying to be accurate.

I heard people saying this is a bad feature of the Amiga port. It's just they were
aiming for best accuracy as possible

If I was porting a game that originally was at 256x224 or 256x240, then I'd definitely try to keep the same size as the original. Makes for a much more accurate and authentic conversion (even if there is some extra border space)

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by Superman

Toki is an excellent arcade conversion.

It is indeed. The lack of 2 button make it harder than the arcade version though, and I believe it's lacking one or two enemies here and there... I could get very far on the Arcade version, and I remember playing the Amiga one and not getting attacked at certain spots I would be on the Arcade one... but most of the time it was damn accurate.

The scrolling was kinda messy too. I read somewhere the Amiga version "Fixes the bug the arcade version has with the scrolling". I have no idea of what they were talking about, but on the Amiga version you sometimes have to stop moving a little so the scroll can catch up with the action.

But all in all, an amazingly good conversion indeed.

[heavy]

Originally Posted by DanScott

Looks like it's 224 on Amiga.. but not far off the original size.

yep, on Amiga
see Toki Amiga vs Arcade :
https://amigachaptertwo.wordpress.co...iga-vs-arcade/
(sorry in french)

note: same site for the Z-Out Windows port : Last Out

[Shatterhand]

Just checked a video for the Atari ST version. Also incredibly good and the horizontal scroll keeps up with the action, unlike the Amiga version.

[heavy]

from amigachaptertwo :

The word is to the programmer ...

After contacting Michel Janicki, programmer of the Amiga version, about the differences between the scrolling of the Amiga and Atari ST versions, he told me that indeed an optimization had been made to the Amiga scrolling to make the game more difficult .
Concerning the ST version, these optimizations could not be implemented ...

and the girl is no more blonde

[Shatterhand]

That was a pretty stupid idea IMO.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by albino

Hi guys,

I just wonder why this excellent arcade conversion got such tiny screen?

Was it possible to increase the screen size without loosing other features the

programmer manage to get like parallax scrolling?

Yeah, run the game in WinUAE with a double resolution of "640 x 400" and then all is good

Same for Liquid Kids

[roondar]

Originally Posted by heavy

from amigachaptertwo :

and the girl is no more blonde

Wait, they made an Arcade game more difficult because they could program the Amiga to do scroll differently?
Wow, that's unexpected for sure. Crazy people

[Konrad]

Originally Posted by heavy

from amigachaptertwo :
After contacting Michel Janicki, programmer of the Amiga version, about the differences between the scrolling of the Amiga and Atari ST versions, he told me that indeed an optimization had been made to the Amiga scrolling to make the game more difficult .

Don't understand (or believe) this. The Amiga version has the same pace as the original Arcade version.
And although some might like the speed of the Atari version, I don't. It's simply a complete differente pace as the original.

[DanScott]

If you know how "fast" scroll routines are done on the Atari ST, you'll understand why the scroll mechanic is different from the Amiga

[Konrad]

I'm not sure if I got your point, or if I expressed mine correctly .
Atari version is much too fast for my taste, as it's faster than the Arcade version.
Amiga matches mostly the speed of the Arcade version.

After reading the article I understand what was meant with "scrolling hooked to the player".
Scrolling is hooked in Atari version. In the Amiga version the scrolling is a little more "delayed".

Still I think Amiga version matches the pace and character of the Arcade version better.

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by DanScott

If you know how "fast" scroll routines are done on the Atari ST, you'll understand why the scroll mechanic is different from the Amiga

The thing is that the ST version actually scrolls faster than the Amiga one. It's less smooth but faster, but not to the point of shifting 16 pixels per frame like in some ST games I've seen (which I think, though I may be wrong, would be the only way the ST would be indeed "faster")

It looks like the programmer wanted to do a 1 pixel scroller on Amiga just to show how smooth it can be, but it actually hurts gameplay, because then the scroll can't keep up with the action.

Or the scroll is wating for the blitter to finishing blitting the new tiles, I dunno.

If this was indeed done deliberately it was a very silly decision. It's really annoying to keep "pausing" so the scroll can keep up with you, and at a few points where you fall from a big height, you can die from an enemy before you can even see it because the "camera" wasn't following your movement fast enough.

This scrolling nonsense and the "up for jump" are the only problems with this port. The "up for jump" was impossible to avoid (At least back when the game was made), but if the scrolling was done this on purpose, it was a bad decision and something that *maybe* deserves to be patched, if its possible to do it.

EDIT Compare arcade version at 1:55
[ Show youtube player ]

And Amiga version at 1:30:
[ Show youtube player ]


EDIT 2: Damn it, running both videos side by side... IT IS an amazing Port.....

[DanScott]

Generally, ST scroll routines in games were (in my experience at Core at least) created by having preshifted block "pairs".. then the tile data can be moved to the screen with simple moves... having the blocks preshifted means you need to store the tile-pairs for each pixel of scroll resolution...

I'd imagine on TOKI they probably have a scroll resolution of 4 pixels on the ST... so they would need to store 4 sets of these preshifted pairs.