Anyone still making Amiga games for 500 / 1200?

[Mrs Beanbag]

@StingRay
Yes there are subtle differences between the different #?Tracker formats but they will still play. ProTracker added a number of extra commands that SoundTracker didn't have so certainly a lot of ProTracker mods would sound wrong in SoundTracker, but you could still load/play/edit them there. It was essentially the same format with minor differences in implementation. There were expections to this, SoundTracker 2.6 for some reason didn't use patterns, but rather had a different sequence for each channel. That was very odd and rather inconvenient.

Of course, you can use (Octa)Med music in games. You can use anything, there are games that use music written in Aegis Sonix but I wouldn't recommend it if performance was a factor (or if you wanted your music to sound any good). SoundTracker became something of a standard in the demo scene and games industry very early on because of a lack of viable competition. Faster formats have appeared since but aren't as well supported. (Octa)Med wasn't designed to be fast, it was designed to sound good and have lots of features.

[amigapd]

Originally Posted by Kola

Im interested to know if any new programmers still write for the 1200?

I started programming for the first time and am quite close to finishing my first Amiga game (Football Manager clone in AMOS http://amosgames.weebly.com/1980s-football-manager.html ) the problem is if you are working as a one man team the project gets held up with other commitments such as work / family etc and it is very easy to plan too large a project. One of the reasons I went for a text based game is that adding music and sprites would have been too much for me on my own.

I will finish off my football manger game - but in order to do this think I will have to scale down my other commitments -

I have plans for another game(s) - but these will be programmed in AMOS too due to my inexperience in programming - although I did pick up a copy of blitz basic on ebay recently as there seemed to be quite a lot of support for that on the forums.

What I would like to be involved in would be a sort of game project which contained lots of mini games where the code could be shared to inspire others to develop the ideas into other games - e.g. I was thinking of a dangermouse game which could have an operation wolf shooting section - hunchback platform section - defender section - with a text adventure linking the mini games together - a bit like snatcher on the Mega CD - then if the code was readily available it might encourage others to expand those ideas further.

Recently there do seem to be a few Amiga games that are under development or have already been released (see Graham's post on Lemon Amiga Forum http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/view...4c2ed888d19d6e) but from my interviews with former public domain / shareware amiga programmers it seems most of them have now moved onto writing for mobile phones and ipads as there is a monetary reward for developing on those platforms.

[lordofchaos]

I had an idea for a game on the Amiga, a simple text/graphic adventure version of Skyrim...My coding skills are so basic I wasn't able to pulll it off..I grabbed some gfx using Vidi 12..

The images attached have been converted to jpeg, their native format is IFF, 64 colour (EHB).

With the right atmosphere perphaps it could be a decent game...copyright on the other hand...

[Amiga1992]

Cool idea, lordofchaos. just change all names and do something, it could be fun!

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by Akira

Cool idea, lordofchaos. just change all names and do something, it could be fun!

Thanks Akira, yup I think it could work...Sort of in the "Magnetic Scrolls" style...A simple graphic above showing your location with a space at the bottom for text...Each scene could have it's own ambient sounds/music...Would need to write a Parser though and I've got no idea how to do that

I'm sure there's enough talented people here on this board to make something if we pulled together

[Predseda]

Kola, please could you answer my PM?

[Amiga1992]

In the learning process is a lot of the fun of making a game I hope I can make an Amiga game soonish! And I have no idea on how to code for the Amiga

[Mrs Beanbag]

I can offer help and tips for anyone who wants to code in AMOSPro or asm.

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by Akira

In the learning process is a lot of the fun of making a game I hope I can make an Amiga game soonish! And I have no idea on how to code for the Amiga

That's cool to hear, sounds like you're itching to use some of that creative energy I'm the same way...I've had many past attempts at creating games, but rarely do they reach their conclusion...I did make a text adventure at school called "Sex Drive", (kinda pervy) basically multiple choices for the player and only one would be correct enabling progression, a matter of trial and error...

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

I can offer help and tips for anyone who wants to code in AMOSPro or asm.

That's very generous of you Mrs Beanbag, personally speaking I think I lack the aptitude for some of the more complex stuff, coding not being one of my strong suits..

[Djay]

During 2011.. i started working on an Tournament style game, using a battle system "borrowed" from Final Fantasy 7

The basic idea is that you choose a character, join a guild and enter battles against various foes, earning rewards such as new swords, spells etc...

The plan was to have a ranking system similar to CoD, where depending on how well you did in the battle you would gain XP.. hidden stats like how long you took to decide what to do, overall battle time even stuff like what buffs you were using decided how much XP you earned...

As you progress you would face harder and harder enemies which would require certain items to beat, if you were unlucky in previous battles you would have to replay battles to get the item

I even thought about stuff like Prestige mode (again from CoD) and an online scoretable, where players could submit a code and this would verify achievements and scores...

What i have so far is very basic, just the battles system in place, with timings for your go and the NPCs go... some calculation is shown on screen.... the basics are in place and other variables can be added really easily as i wrote it with expansion in mind

I had hoped for a graphics artist to come on-board and it also could do with some sound... lol

I have the basic gameplay elements all written down and planned out

Its shame it went to nothing as i was finding the problem solving aspect of coding quite fun

---

I have also had in mind something similar to an off-line (of course) world of warcraft, using a zelda type view point...

[Amiga1992]

Djay, do you want to continue this project? I may be able to help you with graphics and audio.

[Djay]

Originally Posted by Akira

Djay, do you want to continue this project? I may be able to help you with graphics and audio.

let me send you the adf first.... bare in mind this very basic, the stuff that is happening in the background is whats important

for example... everytime you start a battle it remembers how long you had to wait for your turn from the last battle

i played FF7 over and over again to get it feel simular

Use a joystick btw

[lordofchaos]

^Sounds very interesting Djay, would be cool to see a new Amiga product in any shape or form Maybe if you can generate enough interest it can become reality!

Whilst folks are sharing their ideas...here's the design brief I was working to, way out of my current abilities but I can dream...

A non linear sandbox text/graphic adventure, set in the first person view Based on the Skyrim universe.

* Simple RPG stats system which covers, EXP, Health, Armour rating, Magic etc.

* The player is able to explore the world without the fear of screwing up the game, if a certain item is required for progression the player should Always have the opportunity to return and acquire that item.

* The game world it's self would have a day and night cycle, this would Affect what time certain buildings are open or closed, shops and taverns Etc.

* An inventory system similar to Core Designs "Darkmere", a player can Examine a chest and see its contents displayed via an overlay, items could Then be individually taken and stored.

* To add variety to gameplay there could be several mini games, these games If completed successfully could level the character up.

* A versatile text parser which supports all the common text commands, North, East, Examine, Sleep, Talk about.. Etc.

* Dynamic music and ambient sound tracks that change depending on players location (Similar to Chaos Engine and Shadow Of The Beast)

* One main quest which is story driven and additional optional side quests for score and XP.

[amigapd]

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

^
A non linear sandbox text/graphic adventure, set in the first person view Based on the Skyrim universe.

I think this could be achieveable - my answers are based on very limited programming experience and thinking of how these ideas could be implemented using AMOS Pro -

You would need to break this project down into simple steps - I ve been thinking about a text / graphic adventure as my next project and would be more than happy to share the code.

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* Simple RPG stats system which covers, EXP, Health, Armour rating, Magic etc.

I ve been looking at modifying the Games workshop Fantasy Roleplay system for combat - magic would need more thought - In terms of simple steps just having traditional hand on hand combat to start with could be manageable. Most systems are just based on random dice rolls and modifiers which are quite easy to implement in a code structure.0

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* The player is able to explore the world without the fear of screwing up the game, if a certain item is required for progression the player should Always have the opportunity to return and acquire that item.

This just requires detailed planning before coding - would need the game quest drafted in terms of what are the aims of the game - how does the quest progress. Do you have a story already drafted?

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* The game world it's self would have a day and night cycle, this would Affect what time certain buildings are open or closed, shops and taverns Etc.

This should be simple with a simple IF statement based on a time - shops closed IF time is between certain variables

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* An inventory system similar to Core Designs "Darkmere", a player can Examine a chest and see its contents displayed via an overlay, items could Then be individually taken and stored.

I am sure one of my AMOS programming books contains a simple inventory system which could be modified.

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* To add variety to gameplay there could be several mini games, these games If completed successfully could level the character up.

I had thoughts along the same lines for my Danager Mouse adventure - I think opening this up to other programmers to show case their talents would be the easiest way - this could then be contained in a sub routine e.g. in the tavern you are challenged to an arm wrestle - then these can be bolted on at the end of the main programme.

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* A versatile text parser which supports all the common text commands, North, East, Examine, Sleep, Talk about.. Etc.

This is proving the current stumbling block for my project - there is a basic parser contained in one of my AMOS books but when I tried it there were some bugs - again keeping it simple at the start e.g. N, E, W, S and examine, take and use - once this works it could be expanded in the future.

An alternative - but less efficient in terms of coding would be to base the adventure on the Fighting Fantasy books method where there are some options the player can choose at each location.

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* Dynamic music and ambient sound tracks that change depending on players location (Similar to Chaos Engine and Shadow Of The Beast)

This is probably the simplest to code - just load new music track dependent on the location - the main problem would be creating the music - relying on others can be frustrating as other life commitments can hinder their progress and slow production.

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

* One main quest which is story driven and additional optional side quests for score and XP.

Yet again keep it manageable - get the main quest sorted - then add additional options during play testing.

Overall I think this project could be achievable but would require allocating about 12 months too. The biggest challenge is keeping motivated which is why having small goals helps as you feel you are making progress.

I am hoping to have a good blitz on the Football Manager game this weekend then start my second game which will be a text / graphic adventure - at present I am torn between a Danger Mouse theme game and a Lord of the Rings Fantasy type game. Due to my limited programming skills it will be in AMOS Pro.

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by amigapd

Overall I think this project could be achievable but would require allocating about 12 months too. The biggest challenge is keeping motivated which is why having small goals helps as you feel you are making progress.

I am hoping to have a good blitz on the Football Manager game this weekend then start my second game which will be a text / graphic adventure - at present I am torn between a Danger Mouse theme game and a Lord of the Rings Fantasy type game. Due to my limited programming skills it will be in AMOS Pro.

Thanks for the advice amigapd and the useful info, time to dig out the old Amos Pro manuals I suppose and get some basics down (AMOS and STOS are the only lanuages I've ever used) As for the sound and music that shouldn't be a problem, I can write music to a decent fairly decent standard these days, the coding was always the barstard to do.

Be sure to keep us folks updated on your projects, I'm certainly interested in seeing how your fantasy type game turns out.

[commodorejohn]

As long as we've got this thread going, I guess I'll share one of my ideas. I've been on something of a human prehistory kick lately, and I want to make a game set in the late Paleolithic era (for reference, this would be around the tail end of what most people think of as "the Ice Age," some 10-24,000 years ago.) I find the whole subject to be absolutely fascinating, and I've been thinking of how much I enjoyed the old MECC games from the 68k Mac era. The classics, like Oregon Trail, were everything educational software should be; they were good games first and foremost, and drew the player into the subject naturally rather than shoving information at him and demanding answers to trivia questions, and consequently they were much more engaging and more successfully educational.

I'd like to do something sort of like that. It would be a sort of tactical RPG/turn-based strategy game, where you guide a band of humans (and/or Neanderthals) around Ice Age Europe, hunting and gathering food, finding materials for tool-making, defending against large predators, and occasionally interacting with other bands (trading goods or knowledge, making war, or even recruiting new members, as the case may be.) The one obvious shortcoming is that in a setting without any kind of overarching civilization, it's difficult to have much of a plot, but I think it could work in a sort of sandbox way with multiple smaller, independent quests, though I still haven't figured out what the end goal would be.

Gameplay-wise, it would lean more towards the tactical-RPG side of the equation, with a focus on training individual members rather than amassing armies of prefab units. It would follow a sort of Elder Scrolls model where there's nothing preventing any character from learning any skillset (though not all of them are necessarily going to be equally good at the same things,) but since training takes time, and you have to keep up with feeding, equipping, and protecting the whole band, there's not likely to be enough free time to turn every member into an all-powerful omnimath; all the same, with small group sizes and potentially high mortality rates, it pays to cross-train characters so that the loss of a crucial functionary doesn't leave the whole band crippled.

So yeah, that's basically the idea. If you can picture something like the early stages of Civilization crossed with Final Fantasy Tactics, that's not too far off from what I'm going for. This is all still in the brainstorming stage, but hopefully it'll come to something in the not-too-distant future

[rockersuke]

Lordofchaos & amigapd
I've got some acumulated experience writing both menu-based and parser-based text adventure games in BASIC-like languages for 8 and 16 bits computers, including my text adventure games written in AMOS-Pro for the Amiga. In fact, I've been toying with my latest parsing engine this very same evening, right before reading this.
Text-adventuring (both in modern and classic platforms) and Amiga gaming are my favourite hobbys, and I'm glad to know you are considering such projects. Hopefully, they will be finished and mentioned in my work-in-progress web site dedicated to Amiga public-domain text adventures and related tools (provisionally code-named AHAR: Amiga Homebrew Adventure Report ) ... if I ever make it!
My own text adventure project, a game based on the Jhon Carter of Mars universe, is not abandoned, and its parser has improved a lot in the last months... I just need... to get my interest back on it, which I sadly lost time ago in a critical moment due to a combination of disencouraging experiences in several net forums (not exclusively but including Amiga sites) which made me decide to take a break from anything internet related and focus elsewhere.
I hope I'll find the time and motivation back again. In the meanwhile, I haven't got time to get involved with your text-adv projects, but if you think my little games ACS and HHR, can give you any idea, just let me know and I'll happily send you their AMOS-Pro source code.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Kola

Just getting back into my amiga big style.

Im interested to know if any new programmers still write for the 1200?

If not anyone interested?

Hiya,

I've been know to hack together a port or two for Amiga 1200's, currently working on a new port and thinking about the next one

[Mrs Beanbag]

If anyone finds that AMOSPro comes up a little short of their requirements, I have written a few extensions to the language for my own personal use, so if there are any new commands anybody wants, I might be able to provide.

I'm currently working on some code for linked lists, which I was contemplating working into an AMOSPro extension. The lack of dynamic arrays was always a bit of a bind, as well as the only way to reserve memory being by using memory banks, which are limited in number.

[amigapd]

Originally Posted by rockersuke

In the meanwhile, I haven't got time to get involved with your text-adv projects, but if you think my little games ACS and HHR, can give you any idea, just let me know and I'll happily send you their AMOS-Pro source code.

That would be really helpful -