DOTT AGA playable on a 1200 030/50 mhz?

[NovaCoder]

I'm attempting to play the classic DOTT on my 1200 but I'm having some config issues. So far I've tried using ScummVM v0.10.0r2 with the 'AGA game data' which runs at an ok speed now that I've installed BlazeWCP but the sound is mostly terrible with loads of drop-outs. I've tried playing around with my AHI settings but that isn't helping.

I've also tried the AGA DOTT package which actually runs too fast on my setup + the sound is pretty nasty.

So has anyone managed to get DOTT running a the correct speed with at least the audio working properly on my kind of setup and if so how did you do it? I know that getting the speech working as well as the music is too much to hope for

Thanks

[blade002]

I should give it a run up on my system when i get a chance mate since i have the exact same A1200 configuration as yourself.

Will let you know the outcome

[alexh]

I love my Amiga. Like nothing else but to play Amiga games on a real Amiga.

But I am also a gamer, I like to play the games in the most enjoyable way possible and the most enjoyable version of DOTT is the talkie CD version. Do yourself a favour, play it on a modern system using an up to date SCUMM VM and enjoy the game much more.

It plays very well on the Wii. The wiimote really adds to the "point n click" experience.

DOTT, like DOOM, QUAKE and all of the other ports to the Amiga, is fun to see once for 5 minutes but it wasn't an Amiga game so (for me) there is no nostalgia playing it on Amiga and it is more fun to play on another system.

[Retro1234]

I like Doom on my Amiga its contected to my Tv and easy to use.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by alexh

I love my Amiga. Like nothing else but to play Amiga games on a real Amiga.

DOTT, like DOOM, QUAKE and all of the other ports to the Amiga, is fun to see once for 5 minutes but it wasn't an Amiga game so (for me) there is no nostalgia playing it on Amiga and it is more fun to play on another system.

Yep I know what you mean Alex but with DOTT it could have so easily been an Amiga AGA game (well, ok maybe an expanded Amiga but still an Amiga). I think you're right though, I may have to play this one on my PC if I want it to run correctly (and esp. if I want the speech which is half the fun).

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by blade002

I should give it a run up on my system when i get a chance mate since i have the exact same A1200 configuration as yourself.

Will let you know the outcome

Ok thanks, let me know if you have more luck than I did

[frikilokooo]

DOTT would be a great game on Amiga if the game had music and graphics synchronized IMO

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

DOTT would be a great game on Amiga if the game had music and graphics synchronized IMO

And it's got the power to do it was well (030 + fast ram), so it's just down to how it's coded. It seems to have real trouble with the music files that are in Midi format and need to be pre-converted into an Amiga friendly format first, it also appears to be using the AmigaOS calls to render all the graphics whereas it would probably be a bit quicker if it used a hand-coded AGA assembler routine for the CP2 renderer.

[pbareges]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

I've also tried the AGA DOTT package which actually runs too fast on my setup + the sound is pretty nasty.

Thanks

on my vanilla 1200 it's quite enjoyable...did you try these :

-when playing adjust talk delay with +/- keys and game speed with Right Shift+G for normal mode (slower) and Right Shift+F to go back to fast mode

[NovaCoder]

Cool, how was the sound though? Did you manage to get speech working?

[Calo Nord]

well, i think the Blizzard 1230/50 and any other 030 CPU are too weak for playing games with SCUMMVM. Maybe you can try it but without any sound to get higher frame rates but that is no fun.
To enjoy scummvm you will need a gfx board and a better cpu

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Calo Nord

well, i think the Blizzard 1230/50 and any other 030 CPU are too weak for playing games with SCUMMVM. Maybe you can try it but without any sound to get higher frame rates but that is no fun.
To enjoy scummvm you will need a gfx board and a better cpu

From what I've seen, a 1230/50mhz AGA machine 'should' be able to do a perfect version of DOTT, even an unexpanded CD32 should be able to manage it....with speech!

DOTT requirements

[TCD]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

From what I've seen, a 1230/50mhz AGA machine 'should' be able to do a perfect version of DOTT.

Sounds like a job for Captain 'start coding then'

[NovaCoder]

Well the first thing I do is rip-out those AmigaOS writePixel calls and replace it with a clever AGA C2P routine....anyone got one going cheap?

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Well the first thing I do is rip-out those AmigaOS writePixel calls and replace it with a clever AGA C2P routine....anyone got one going cheap?

What for? Just use one of the many available WriteChunkyPixel patches (like BlazeWCP f.e.) that can be found on Aminet.

[pbareges]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Well the first thing I do is rip-out those AmigaOS writePixel calls and replace it with a clever AGA C2P routine....anyone got one going cheap?

when i worked on the aga dott version i first contacted the guy supporting latest scummvm ports on amiga os and he told he was already fully supporting blazewcp and that the last scummvm sources were just consuming too much power for our beloved a1200 (even with 030 board expansions...)...that's why i worked from an older port of scummvm which was only supporting a few lucasarts titles...this port was really enough to make day of the tentacle work on a 1200..(i think i let the source code in the archive in case someone is interested to improve it)...

my concern was to implement a decent way to reproduce music and fx on amiga original soundchip...and really YOU SIMPLY CANNOT RENDER SOMETHING GOOD FROM ORIGINAL MIDI FILES, SOME OF THEM INCLUDING UP TO 12 CHANNELS...so i included a free mod player to the source code and used a conversion tool from aminet to convert midi to protracker format...anyone interested could try to perform a better job as i included original midi files in the package also....

what i have not been able to perform is to restrict mod playing to 3 channels and leave one open for sfx playing (i do not master the modplayer/sample C libraries enough)...so when music is playing, sfx is ignored...but it's supported in my version (when no music is played). i had to convert samples to modules also because module player was the only sound rendering tool i was able to integrate to the original source...everything was compiled under winuae with gcc so you're good to go from the latest source code i included if you're interested. as the conversion work was really pain in the ass, i only converted sfx and talks from monster.sou floppy version so you only get the talks from the intro...but once again not a big deal if you have the patience to translate the whole lot of samples included in the big cd monster.sou file...

have a nice one!

EDIT : Sorry just found out that sources are not included in the package...if someone is interested let me know and i will check my pc.

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

Yep I think converting the Midi files into an Amiga format was the right way to go performance-wise.

I'll have a look at the source code, would be very interesting.

Thanks for your efforts Pbareges

[pbareges]

thk you...i posted the whole dev environment as a rar archive under pbareges on magix ftp..sources are under src/scummvm in the archive...good luck!

[TCD]

Thanks for the upload pbareges
Moved to the file server in the folder 'User/pbareges'

[Mad-Matt]

Could the sound server from Adoom be modified and implemented in some way ? It is a fast/low overhead replayer for 16 channel midis and 16 snd effects at a time. ID imagine the instuments file would need tailoring to the game too. Could prolly be faster then vmscumms own sound system.