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Codetapper · 03 September 2013, 10:37

I've never seen a thread like this before so thought it might be an interesting idea for some of the programmers on here.

Let's imagine back in the late 80s or early 90s you were employed to convert a game to the Amiga. The boss has just given you the arcade machine and you've got to tell the other people helping you the approach you'll take.

And the developer isn't Tiertex so you didn't have to produce a shitty 16-colour, no-hardware-sprites, rip-off-the-fans-with-an-st-port version. How would you approach converting the game? (I'm thinking OCS/ECS machines here but no harm considering AGA if you prefer).

I've attached a bunch of screenshots and will explain some of the important points:

Original screen size is a modest 256x224
The scrolling gameplay area is only 248x184
The foreground layer is regularly the entire height of the screen (trees on pic 2)
There is a rather large parallax layer, but it does contain a lot of repeated graphics in some cases (pic 3 and 4)
There is tile animation, particularly on the water levels (pic 4). A rather large chunk of the screen can be animating (only 2-3 frames by the looks of it)
Some levels have a static background layer (the sun in the 5th pic)
There appears to be about 5 screens worth of background graphics (16x16 tiles) and then the moving objects are another 5 screens worth of 16x8 pixel graphics
For the majority of the game, it's horizontally scrolling only. In a few caves near the end there's a little vertical only scrolling when you're climbing a rope

To see it in action, watch the [ Show youtube player ].

I'm really curious to know what approach you personally would take if you had to convert this game to the Amiga! eg:

Would you go for 32 colours/half-brite/dual playfield mode?
What memory requirements do you think you could achieve?
What would you use the 8 sprites for?
Would you drop the parallax layer or make it smaller?
Do you think you could make a version of the game running at 50 frames per second or you'd go for 25 (or perhaps 25 for updating everything but smooth scrolling the screen at 50fps to fake it)
How would you handle the water animation? Would you use colour cycling?
Would you double, triple or even single buffer the screen?

Coders, step up to the plate and scribble down your initial thoughts!

PS: I could have picked any old unconverted game, I just picked this one as it has things like a large palette and parallax which can challenge the Amiga.

PPS: Sandruzzo's google drive link

03 September 2013, 10:37	#1
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	Conversion Capers: Rygar I've never seen a thread like this before so thought it might be an interesting idea for some of the programmers on here. Let's imagine back in the late 80s or early 90s you were employed to convert a game to the Amiga. The boss has just given you the arcade machine and you've got to tell the other people helping you the approach you'll take. And the developer isn't Tiertex so you didn't have to produce a shitty 16-colour, no-hardware-sprites, rip-off-the-fans-with-an-st-port version. How would you approach converting the game? (I'm thinking OCS/ECS machines here but no harm considering AGA if you prefer). I've attached a bunch of screenshots and will explain some of the important points: Original screen size is a modest 256x224 The scrolling gameplay area is only 248x184 The foreground layer is regularly the entire height of the screen (trees on pic 2) There is a rather large parallax layer, but it does contain a lot of repeated graphics in some cases (pic 3 and 4) There is tile animation, particularly on the water levels (pic 4). A rather large chunk of the screen can be animating (only 2-3 frames by the looks of it) Some levels have a static background layer (the sun in the 5th pic) There appears to be about 5 screens worth of background graphics (16x16 tiles) and then the moving objects are another 5 screens worth of 16x8 pixel graphics For the majority of the game, it's horizontally scrolling only. In a few caves near the end there's a little vertical only scrolling when you're climbing a rope To see it in action, watch the [ Show youtube player ]. I'm really curious to know what approach you personally would take if you had to convert this game to the Amiga! eg: Would you go for 32 colours/half-brite/dual playfield mode? What memory requirements do you think you could achieve? What would you use the 8 sprites for? Would you drop the parallax layer or make it smaller? Do you think you could make a version of the game running at 50 frames per second or you'd go for 25 (or perhaps 25 for updating everything but smooth scrolling the screen at 50fps to fake it) How would you handle the water animation? Would you use colour cycling? Would you double, triple or even single buffer the screen? Coders, step up to the plate and scribble down your initial thoughts! PS: I could have picked any old unconverted game, I just picked this one as it has things like a large palette and parallax which can challenge the Amiga. PPS: Sandruzzo's google drive link Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Codetapper; 28 June 2016 at 06:29.