[request] Not exactly an ST port.... Black Tiger Redux?

[jotd]

My advice: just post some buggy video just to show people where you are in the project. You'll update it later when it's more complete.

don't polish it, no need for it.

[chadderack]

Originally Posted by jotd

My advice: just post some buggy video just to show people where you are in the project. You'll update it later when it's more complete.

don't polish it, no need for it.

Something like

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mg7pbrkyvc...a_aha.mp4?dl=0

[chadderack]

Anyway, for those who don't like cryptic posts (...)

The project is officially underway! There's actual Black Tiger content and code!
It's a pretty modest start, and I should have a more substantial update next time. But here's someone familiar



(I realize the tiles don't really line up... they're just consecutive tiles from the actual Black Tiger data)

You can build/run the source code from here:

https://github.com/admiral68/BTA

[dlfrsilver]

Ah ! The old Fart from Black Tiger XD !

He is squeezed due to his old age, it's bad to get old ahah

[saimon69]

Maybe he can sell you something...

[chadderack]

Maybe he can.



(thought I'd make it up to the old fart by drawing him completely )

Genericizing some code... and everything is coming together pretty quickly. The tiles in this latest code come directly from the encoded (Black Tiger arcade) source--no decoded raw bitmaps here.

Already I'm thinking about the engineering challenges--especially the map tile palettes. They are often are per-tile, which probably means computing a palette that works for what is on screen at any given time.

I'm going to try to blit the Level 1 map to the screen (at least the visible part) in the next update.

[dlfrsilver]

So great, keep up the good work !

[Adropac2]

Black Tiger is such a great game with absolutely beautiful artwork. Even the ST version should have surely been much better. Would love to see this happen

Edit: oh blimey it is. Fantastic news

[saimon69]

Yup, 'alea iacta est' now, sooner or later will happen ^^

[jotd]

good work! I hope you're converting the data to amiga bitplane format at init and not during game, else this is going to crawl (like ST ports )

Personally I don't mind using a python script to create amiga format images beforehand so I use less asm to convert a format that is not useful as is anyway (unless you require the original ROMs to run your game)

[chadderack]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

So great, keep up the good work !

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Adropac2

Black Tiger is such a great game with absolutely beautiful artwork. Even the ST version should have surely been much better. Would love to see this happen

Edit: oh blimey it is. Fantastic news

Ya know it

Originally Posted by saimon69

Yup, 'alea iacta est' now, sooner or later will happen ^^

Originally Posted by jotd

good work! I hope you're converting the data to amiga bitplane format at init and not during game, else this is going to crawl (like ST ports )

Personally I don't mind using a python script to create amiga format images beforehand so I use less asm to convert a format that is not useful as is anyway (unless you require the original ROMs to run your game)

Yeah it would be impossible to use the native bitplanes because the tiles themselves are 4bpp and overlaying sprites on that (which are also 4bpp) would not work.

I have a list of tiles used in each level--which is substantially less than the entire list of tiles in the bitmap... as well as the palettes used... so with some luck I should be able to narrow the palette and list of tiles down. (I use C# in place of python, but... it's just because I have my .NET tools installed and it's easy)

Here's what i have right now... I don't have "reversing" of tiles yet, so part of the level map is backwards (the right side of the screen)

[chadderack]

The Black Tiger source uses a BRG palette. Fixed.

[sparhawk]

I Always loved to play Black Tiger on MAME. Didn't know it before, but I liked it a lot. Nowadays I rarely play on Amiga, but this might change it.

I find it also quite cool and interesting to document your progress here!

[chadderack]

Originally Posted by sparhawk

I Always loved to play Black Tiger on MAME. Didn't know it before, but I liked it a lot. Nowadays I rarely play on Amiga, but this might change it.

I find it also quite cool and interesting to document your progress here!

Thank you, sparhawk! Words like these from dedicated Amiga folks are always great motivators

I got the tiles which are horizontally flipped showing correctly now.



Now, I have to display the correct portion of the dungeon map... the rightmost 4 tiles are wrong.

After that, scrolling!

(I also have to backtrack and address what jotd mentioned with Amiga bitplanes and palettes)

I think user phx (the god of Amiga and vasm) did something wonderful in Solid Gold, so I'll check that code for scrolling hints.

[chadderack]

Now, everything is showing correctly. I was iterating poorly over the tile indexes.



Now, on to bigger and better things

[saimon69]

The more we delve on Black Tiger internals the more i think is a very underrated masterpiece both on game mechanics, graphic, sound and playability - is a pity that is just recognized as such by a niche of gamers

[Adropac2]

Originally Posted by saimon69

The more we delve on Black Tiger internals the more i think is a very underrated masterpiece both on game mechanics, graphic, sound and playability - is a pity that is just recognized as such by a niche of gamers

yes indeed. I've always said it deserves to be in a museum that highlights the type of all round great design these games featured. Black Tiger is especially great in all aspects as well though and I feel and games like this the reason I don't tend to bother so much with modern 2d games. Arcade games pretty much perfected the formula and although by their nature they're rather difficult, the experience of so many of these arcade games is the pinnacle of 2d

Very glad to see chadderack doing this and yes the Arcade certainly doesn't get as much mention as you'd think it should

[chadderack]

SCROLLING...

I'm currently studying both phx's source (Solid Gold) and the ScrollingTricks.lha stuff.

Originally I thought that Black Tiger would need 8-way scrolling, but it doesn't seem to. There are only a couple of cases when the screen scrolls both X and Y at the same time, and it never happens (directly) as a result of player input.

The "player" character has a virtually constant x-position on the screen (I checked this via MAME. Notice that he always is aligned above the "armor" HUD element at the bottom of the screen).

Only when jumping up does the player's y position (on screen) change AND when the screen scrolls vertically after the player lands on a platform. After landing on a platform (whether jumping/falling down or jumping up) the y scrolling happens automatically (without joystick input). I've only seen it do simultaneous X/Y scrolling in the scenario when the player is jumping down (left or right). (Of course, if a player jumps up on to a platform, the screen could scroll vertically (auto) while the player moves to the right or left... which would be more simultaneous X/Y scrolling).

When a player is climbing, you have a constant x and y position on screen, with the screen scrolling up/down.

So... I think what I'll do is simply get an "unlimited" X scroll working first and then approach scroll-Y as a separate problem. I think Y scrolling is simplified because Y only directly scrolls (based on player input) when the player is climbing.

8-way scrolling (in a way that allows a user to change directions less than 16 pixels in the Y direction) isn't needed here... so "Scrolling Tricks" should definitely be on the table.

[Adropac2]

Originally Posted by chadderack

SCROLLING...

I'm currently studying both phx's source (Solid Gold) and the ScrollingTricks.lha stuff.

Originally I thought that Black Tiger would need 8-way scrolling, but it doesn't seem to. There are only a couple of cases when the screen scrolls both X and Y at the same time, and it never happens (directly) as a result of player input.

The "player" character has a virtually constant x-position on the screen (I checked this via MAME. Notice that he always is aligned above the "armor" HUD element at the bottom of the screen).

Only when jumping up does the player's y position (on screen) change AND when the screen scrolls vertically after the player lands on a platform. After landing on a platform (whether jumping/falling down or jumping up) the y scrolling happens automatically (without joystick input). I've only seen it do simultaneous X/Y scrolling in the scenario when the player is jumping down (left or right). (Of course, if a player jumps up on to a platform, the screen could scroll vertically (auto) while the player moves to the right or left... which would be more simultaneous X/Y scrolling).

When a player is climbing, you have a constant x and y position on screen, with the screen scrolling up/down.

So... I think what I'll do is simply get an "unlimited" X scroll working first and then approach scroll-Y as a separate problem. I think Y scrolling is simplified because Y only directly scrolls (based on player input) when the player is climbing.

8-way scrolling (in a way that allows a user to change directions less than 16 pixels in the Y direction) isn't needed here... so "Scrolling Tricks" should definitely be on the table.

having this slowly come together must be be very satisfing

[chadderack]

Video of small scrolling test here
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ko14vps73p..._test.mp4?dl=0

Apologies for video quality; screen capture codec wasn't fast enough to show smooth scrolling. (So, phone camera used)

Originally Posted by Adropac2

having this slowly come together must be be very satisfing

It is in a way. Still a lot of work