Codetapper's relaunched website

[Codetapper]

Calf-shit yellow is a real kiwi farming term here in NZ!

[Master484]

Elfmania is on my wishlist too.

Also an analysis on Mega Typhoon would be interesting, because it can have over 100 moving objects on screen at 50 fps, on a standard A500, which many people think is impossible, and as far as I know no other Amiga game engine is capable of this.

The game itself may not be so great, but the sprite/BOB handling engine is extraordinary and very "high tech", capable of handling arcade coin-op style action with ease.

[attle]

Please keep writing these posts, Codetapper. We all enjoy them a lot.

[Asman]

@Master484
About MegaTyphoon. As I remember correctly. Sprite Multiplexer + Dual playfield (2 x 8 colors).

@Codetapper
Thanks a lot for your analysations. Great work.

[Gzegzolka]

In depth analyses is always welcome - I would love to see some detailed entry about Elfmania, Lionheart or MegaTyphon.

[vulture]

@Asman

Some screens I've captured from Mega Typhoon in the past, the colour count went up to 27 (or was it 24?), not too bad either way!

[Master484]

Some screens I've captured from Mega Typhoon in the past, the colour count went up to 27 (or was it 24?), not too bad either way!

It seems to be a dual playfield game with 8 colors on each playfield, but it gets all those extra colors from the sprites, which have their own palettes, and also it uses mid-level color changes to create the impression of more colors.

Some months ago I did a quick analysis on Mega Typhoon on this thread:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=83866&page=2

Here is the palette setup of the first level:



Despite being an 8+8 dual playfield game, the color count remains around 25 at all times.

[vulture]

I hadn't read your analysis before, it's actually pretty awesome how it does things and kudos to you too for the write up!

[ReadOnlyCat]

Great Pacmania article, thank you CodeTapper!

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Wow really shows the Amiga version was a really good effort for the time (1988) and is appreciated even more when compared to the awful ST version!

It was definitely a better effort than the incompetent gesticulations of Tiertex and friends but their technical choices are still quite puzzling.

They sacrificed color count to avoid masking the PacMan and ghost sprites despite this being a trivial operation for the blitter and they sacrificed fidelity of the level design for the same reason (avoiding a few cheap masking operations).

PacMania could have easily boasted 64 Halfbrite colors on the Amiga without it breaking a sweat but I guess their choices probably reflected tight deadlines which made the use of dual playfield and level modification very seductive options since they simplify the code a little bit.

Originally Posted by Master484

It seems to be a dual playfield game with 8 colors on each playfield, but it gets all those extra colors from the sprites, which have their own palettes, and also it uses mid-level color changes to create the impression of more colors.

Some months ago I did a quick analysis on Mega Typhoon on this thread:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=83866&page=2

[...]
Despite being an 8+8 dual playfield game, the color count remains around 25 at all times.

Oh, thanks for the analysis, I missed it when you posted it but I will pay it a visit immediately after sending this post.

I now understand how MegaTyphoon can draw so many objects so rapidly: the dual playfield mode allows it to avoid masking and redrawing the background and the use of only three planes makes blits even faster.

It is a shame that the chosen palette for the background is really suboptimal, with a higher contrast and dithering compatible color pairs it would have looked much more colorful but as it is the background usually looks really bland.

Still a very competent, original and meritorious effort!

[AmigaGroningen]

GREAT ! website.

I like all the explaining

[vulture]

Starush is (to me) another A500 technical miracle waiting to be explained. Also, an "expansion" to the Brian the Lion analysis concerning the bonus levels with the rotational/skewing fx would be very nice!

[DanScott]

Agree, you should analyse Mega Typhoon

[Codetapper]

For anyone that missed it the other day, Dynamite Dux on the Amiga and ST feature an alternative intro sequence (only viewable by hex editing the disk image or overwriting 5 bytes in memory with an Action Replay cart or similar), and the commonly spread "NUDE" cheat has been corrected/fully written up.

I sent Guru Larry a disk image and video containing the easter egg and he has created a video about it. [ Show youtube player ]

[Codetapper]

The Final Fight comedy entry has been updated to include the hidden end-sequence that Richard Aplin had originally planned to include for anyone using the "SHERIFF FATMAN" cheat mode. Once completing the game, risque versions of the fighter profiles featuring their deaths were planned, but removed at the last minute with a BRA instruction.

I NOP'd out the instruction and written up what would have happened had he left it in. I have also uploaded a video on YouTube about it. [ Show youtube player ]

Here's Guru Larry's other video that includes Final Fight, Cannon Fodder and Dynamite Dux. [ Show youtube player ]