English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Would an accurate port of the original Xevious arcade be viable on the A500?

Photon · 31 January 2023, 00:16

I guess if you want the original there's nothing that can replace it, but not only were there quite decent 8-bit ports of this early arcade games, but there were also improved versions on the theme vertical scroller on virtually every platform. When I see this I think of an Apple II game I played ~1983, and Hybris (and before that, Sidewinder, Star Force, etc.)

I'm a great fan of 1984-1988 arcade games, that's when some ideas started to come in. Before that there are some classics of course, not least by Atari Games. And in 1992+ it all turned to fighting games with the odd shooter or driving game. Nobody wanted ideas.

Many of the games before 1984 are too simplistic for me to enjoy now, but there are some. The game loop should pose no problem, or the sound reproduction. Nor the graphics, but that's where accuracy comes in. If the gameplay is addictive, it's addictive in 8 colors. Or 2 colors. If you however hold the Amiga ransom to the per-game random chip sandwich, you can run out of playfields or sprites.

Whereas when they made the game, they too ran out of sprites and playfields and just added more to the prototype.

So here, there is no problem making an exact shooter that plays like this with plenty of wonderful colors on Amiga. Only if you demand it be exactly color-accurate must you use bobs instead of sprites and use RAM the arcade game didn't have.

31 January 2023, 00:16	#27
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,639	I guess if you want the original there's nothing that can replace it, but not only were there quite decent 8-bit ports of this early arcade games, but there were also improved versions on the theme vertical scroller on virtually every platform. When I see this I think of an Apple II game I played ~1983, and Hybris (and before that, Sidewinder, Star Force, etc.) I'm a great fan of 1984-1988 arcade games, that's when some ideas started to come in. Before that there are some classics of course, not least by Atari Games. And in 1992+ it all turned to fighting games with the odd shooter or driving game. Nobody wanted ideas. Many of the games before 1984 are too simplistic for me to enjoy now, but there are some. The game loop should pose no problem, or the sound reproduction. Nor the graphics, but that's where accuracy comes in. If the gameplay is addictive, it's addictive in 8 colors. Or 2 colors. If you however hold the Amiga ransom to the per-game random chip sandwich, you can run out of playfields or sprites. Whereas when they made the game, they too ran out of sprites and playfields and just added more to the prototype. So here, there is no problem making an exact shooter that plays like this with plenty of wonderful colors on Amiga. Only if you demand it be exactly color-accurate must you use bobs instead of sprites and use RAM the arcade game didn't have.