Warcraft 1 on Amiga. What hardware would it need?

redblade · 21 September 2018, 22:42

Hi. What hardware would Warcraft 1 on the Amiga need? Also would you still need to do c2p?? The PC version ran at 320x200x8 I don't know about the Mac resolution. So may be a A1200 with 2mb fast ram? Would it be able to run off disks like Syndicate? Thanks

Hardware requirements:
PC System Requirements[1]
386/20 with 4MB RAM
MS-DOS 5.0 or Higher
VGA Video Card
Microsoft Compatible Mouse
CD-ROM Required for Movies

Mac System Requirements[1]
68030/68040 or PowerMac
8MB RAM
System 7.1 or Higher
256 Color 13" Video Display
2X CD-ROM

desiv · 21 September 2018, 22:51

IIRC, the original Warcraft was decent size, so I'd say no to running from floppies.
If you are talking a good programmer who is writing this from the ground up for the Amiga, then I think it could be done with a 1200 with some FAST RAM and a hard drive.

Look at Dune II on the Amiga to see an ancestor. An upgraded Dune II AGA engine would probably be able to do an original Warcraft without too much trouble.

It would be interesting, but a LOT of work...
IMHO

An easier method would be to try porting WinWar, which is a rewrite (ground up, no original source) of the original Warcraft, BUT..
Generally, porting these type of programs (Windows/Linux) to the Amiga straight across needs much more resources (look at the awesome ScummVM ports). That would need an accelerated Amiga to probably be reasonable..

desiv

Sir_Lucas · 21 September 2018, 23:33

Warcraft I and II runs very well under Fusion Mac emulation with 030/40.
I'm curious if native version would be possible.

Lord Aga · 22 September 2018, 12:00

Oh man, Warcraft and Command & Conquer, two sore spots in my Amigahood

Warcraft (1) is the simpler of the two, and could be easily done on an A1200 with FAST RAM. A stock A1200 is really gimped with the lack of FAST RAM (much more so than A500/A600). Add 4 MB of FAST RAM and it's a very capable little machine.

Warcraft characters are tiny, buildings static, backgrounds simple, AI slightly above Tetris. As Desiv said, it's basically a smidgen above Dune II in complexity.

meynaf · 22 September 2018, 13:29

I'd say similar specs as the Mac version : AGA machine with 68030 and some fastmem.
It would need to do c2p, but this is not a big problem if only parts of the screen are updated when things move.

Lord Aga · 22 September 2018, 14:11

It may be a silly question, but why would it need Chunky 2 Planar?
The game is 2D with tiny sprites/bobs. Basically a Dune II, which works just fine on a stock A1200.

meynaf · 22 September 2018, 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

It may be a silly question, but why would it need Chunky 2 Planar?
The game is 2D with tiny sprites/bobs. Basically a Dune II, which works just fine on a stock A1200.

Mac display is chunky. Porting it without having to rewrite a significant part of it would require a c2p.

Lord Aga · 22 September 2018, 15:58

Oh, you meant a port, OK I understand now

Don_Adan · 22 September 2018, 18:11

You need: meynaf, motivation for meynaf, good Amiga musician.

Samurai_Crow · 22 September 2018, 20:45

As a further note: Dune 2 had all factions' units identical except for 2 bitplanes that could be either identical masks, inactive, one of each or the converse one of each. That's why the Amiga version was able to fit in one meg of RAM while the PC version took 4 megs.

Warcraft used different artwork for each corresponding unit and structure for the two factions. That means CPU blitting units from fast RAM is unavoidable and should be chunky to save on the mask plane. The tiles of the structures were also animated but if they fit into chip RAM, could be blitted using interleaved bitplanes to get some minimal chipset boost.

A fast RAM expanded CD32 could do it well using CD audio for background music and CDXL cut scenes. Just plan on keeping the frame rates low for the actual game engine.

turrican3 · 22 September 2018, 21:28

I remember a demo ro a sharware which was exactly like warcraft but i don't remember the spec needed nor even the name of the game.
But it worked on a vanillia 1200 if my memory is correct but my memory could be wrong.
If someone remember the game ???

turrican3 · 22 September 2018, 21:32

ok i found it battlecraft.
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...light=warcraft

redblade · 23 September 2018, 02:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

Oh man, Warcraft and Command & Conquer, two sore spots in my Amigahood

Warcraft (1) is the simpler of the two, and could be easily done on an A1200 with FAST RAM. A stock A1200 is really gimped with the lack of FAST RAM (much more so than A500/A600). Add 4 MB of FAST RAM and it's a very capable little machine.

Warcraft characters are tiny, buildings static, backgrounds simple, AI slightly above Tetris. As Desiv said, it's basically a smidgen above Dune II in complexity.

Yeah it would of been great if Warcraft and Command & Conquer were released for the A1200. Kinda know how it feels for the STe owners when the Amiga got Dune II.

@turrican3: I had a bit of trouble trying to get battlecraft to run. It loaded but you couldn't do much, but this scions looks interesting. I will have a look at that.

Also you have the status bar on the left so you don't have to update and scroll all of the 320x200x8 screen.

Retro1234 · 23 September 2018, 11:04

You would need Shapeshifter.

Cammy · 23 September 2018, 18:56

Preferably it would use the graphics from the low-res PC version. The Mac blows up all the graphics to 640x400/480 and ruins them, slowing the game down more than it needs to be and looks shit compared to the low res PC version. A1200 with 2MB Fast RAM should be able to run a port with the PC graphics. 030 needed for the bloated Mac version.

Lord Aga · 23 September 2018, 19:27

Yaay, Cammy's back

Samurai_Crow · 23 September 2018, 21:00

Yay!

meynaf · 23 September 2018, 21:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cammy

Preferably it would use the graphics from the low-res PC version. The Mac blows up all the graphics to 640x400/480 and ruins them, slowing the game down more than it needs to be and looks shit compared to the low res PC version. A1200 with 2MB Fast RAM should be able to run a port with the PC graphics. 030 needed for the bloated Mac version.

Are you saying the Mac resizes the graphics dynamically and they are low res to start with ?

dlfrsilver · 24 September 2018, 00:23

No Meynaf, they used the SVGA PC graphics on the mac version, so it needs a 68030 to make the game run.

nexus · 24 September 2018, 01:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

As a further note: Dune 2 had all factions' units identical except for 2 bitplanes that could be either identical masks, inactive, one of each or the converse one of each. That's why the Amiga version was able to fit in one meg of RAM while the PC version took 4 megs.

Warcraft used different artwork for each corresponding unit and structure for the two factions. That means CPU blitting units from fast RAM is unavoidable and should be chunky to save on the mask plane. The tiles of the structures were also animated but if they fit into chip RAM, could be blitted using interleaved bitplanes to get some minimal chipset boost.

A fast RAM expanded CD32 could do it well using CD audio for background music and CDXL cut scenes. Just plan on keeping the frame rates low for the actual game engine.

in the 90's that was my fastest amiga a CD32 with SX-1 8MB fast
i was able to play MYST just fine Alienbreed 3D FEAR etc ran playable in a everything low config
lol even could emulated PC and play WOLF3D

21 September 2018, 22:42	#1
redblade Zone Friend Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Middle Earth Age: 40 Posts: 2,127	Warcraft 1 on Amiga. What hardware would it need? Hi. What hardware would Warcraft 1 on the Amiga need? Also would you still need to do c2p?? The PC version ran at 320x200x8 I don't know about the Mac resolution. So may be a A1200 with 2mb fast ram? Would it be able to run off disks like Syndicate? Thanks Hardware requirements: PC System Requirements[1] 386/20 with 4MB RAM MS-DOS 5.0 or Higher VGA Video Card Microsoft Compatible Mouse CD-ROM Required for Movies Mac System Requirements[1] 68030/68040 or PowerMac 8MB RAM System 7.1 or Higher 256 Color 13" Video Display 2X CD-ROM

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21 September 2018, 22:51	#2
desiv Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 1,767	IIRC, the original Warcraft was decent size, so I'd say no to running from floppies. If you are talking a good programmer who is writing this from the ground up for the Amiga, then I think it could be done with a 1200 with some FAST RAM and a hard drive. Look at Dune II on the Amiga to see an ancestor. An upgraded Dune II AGA engine would probably be able to do an original Warcraft without too much trouble. It would be interesting, but a LOT of work... IMHO An easier method would be to try porting WinWar, which is a rewrite (ground up, no original source) of the original Warcraft, BUT.. Generally, porting these type of programs (Windows/Linux) to the Amiga straight across needs much more resources (look at the awesome ScummVM ports). That would need an accelerated Amiga to probably be reasonable.. desiv

21 September 2018, 23:33	#3
Sir_Lucas Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Norwich, UK Posts: 667	Warcraft I and II runs very well under Fusion Mac emulation with 030/40. I'm curious if native version would be possible.

22 September 2018, 12:00	#4
Lord Aga MI clan prevails Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 1,443	Oh man, Warcraft and Command & Conquer, two sore spots in my Amigahood Warcraft (1) is the simpler of the two, and could be easily done on an A1200 with FAST RAM. A stock A1200 is really gimped with the lack of FAST RAM (much more so than A500/A600). Add 4 MB of FAST RAM and it's a very capable little machine. Warcraft characters are tiny, buildings static, backgrounds simple, AI slightly above Tetris. As Desiv said, it's basically a smidgen above Dune II in complexity.

22 September 2018, 13:29	#5
meynaf son of 68k Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Lyon / France Age: 51 Posts: 5,323	I'd say similar specs as the Mac version : AGA machine with 68030 and some fastmem. It would need to do c2p, but this is not a big problem if only parts of the screen are updated when things move.

22 September 2018, 14:11	#6
Lord Aga MI clan prevails Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 1,443	It may be a silly question, but why would it need Chunky 2 Planar? The game is 2D with tiny sprites/bobs. Basically a Dune II, which works just fine on a stock A1200.

22 September 2018, 15:58	#8
Lord Aga MI clan prevails Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 1,443	Oh, you meant a port, OK I understand now

22 September 2018, 18:11	#9
Don_Adan Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Warsaw/Poland Age: 55 Posts: 1,957	You need: meynaf, motivation for meynaf, good Amiga musician.

22 September 2018, 20:45	#10
Samurai_Crow Total Chaos forever! Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Waterville, MN, USA Age: 49 Posts: 2,186	As a further note: Dune 2 had all factions' units identical except for 2 bitplanes that could be either identical masks, inactive, one of each or the converse one of each. That's why the Amiga version was able to fit in one meg of RAM while the PC version took 4 megs. Warcraft used different artwork for each corresponding unit and structure for the two factions. That means CPU blitting units from fast RAM is unavoidable and should be chunky to save on the mask plane. The tiles of the structures were also animated but if they fit into chip RAM, could be blitted using interleaved bitplanes to get some minimal chipset boost. A fast RAM expanded CD32 could do it well using CD audio for background music and CDXL cut scenes. Just plan on keeping the frame rates low for the actual game engine.

22 September 2018, 21:28	#11
turrican3 Moon 1969 = amiga 1985 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: belgium Age: 48 Posts: 3,913	I remember a demo ro a sharware which was exactly like warcraft but i don't remember the spec needed nor even the name of the game. But it worked on a vanillia 1200 if my memory is correct but my memory could be wrong. If someone remember the game ???

22 September 2018, 21:32	#12
turrican3 Moon 1969 = amiga 1985 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: belgium Age: 48 Posts: 3,913	ok i found it battlecraft. http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...light=warcraft

23 September 2018, 11:04	#14
Retro1234 Phone Homer Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: 5150 Posts: 5,773	You would need Shapeshifter.

23 September 2018, 18:56	#15
Cammy Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 39 Posts: 1,189	Preferably it would use the graphics from the low-res PC version. The Mac blows up all the graphics to 640x400/480 and ruins them, slowing the game down more than it needs to be and looks shit compared to the low res PC version. A1200 with 2MB Fast RAM should be able to run a port with the PC graphics. 030 needed for the bloated Mac version.

23 September 2018, 19:27	#16
Lord Aga MI clan prevails Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 1,443	Yaay, Cammy's back

23 September 2018, 21:00	#17
Samurai_Crow Total Chaos forever! Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Waterville, MN, USA Age: 49 Posts: 2,186	Yay!

24 September 2018, 00:23	#19
dlfrsilver CaptainM68K-SPS France Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Melun nearby Paris/France Age: 46 Posts: 10,412	No Meynaf, they used the SVGA PC graphics on the mac version, so it needs a 68030 to make the game run.

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