AGA & OCS in the same game

[Megalomaniac]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Had Commodore put the same HD floppy drive in the A1200 than on the A4000 (which would have been logical since you would'nt expect anyone to support HD Drive if its cut you the basic AGA market), I always wondered if it was possible to make dual ECS/AGA games with the base ECS game and the shared gfx/sounds/code of both version on one side of the floppy and every AGA enhancement on the other.
It would have maybe helped a little developpers to support AGA better by just putting the already existing VGA gfx on one side of the floppy) but that suppose that Commodore was having a support developpers policy.

HD drives would have caused extra software incompatibilities - look at the extra issues with the Escom / Amiga Technologies A1200s when they launched.

Beyond that, I don't even know if it was technically possible to write HD disks in a way that DD drives could read half them. It was possible on the ST to get single-sided drives to read half of a double-sided disk (a lot of coverdisks used this, and a few games, with Populous' intro and Carrier Command's music only available on double sided ST drives) but I'm not sure if the same technology could be stepped up to DD disks in HD drives.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by stx2199

smoke trails? I never seen smoke or smoke trails in this game, I think the guys behind the one were fantasizing

In Amiga format they mention them, and even Amiga Power mentions slightly better gfx on the A1200.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

HD drives would have caused extra software incompatibilities - look at the extra issues with the Escom / Amiga Technologies A1200s when they launched.

Beyond that, I don't even know if it was technically possible to write HD disks in a way that DD drives could read half them. It was possible on the ST to get single-sided drives to read half of a double-sided disk (a lot of coverdisks used this, and a few games, with Populous' intro and Carrier Command's music only available on double sided ST drives) but I'm not sure if the same technology could be stepped up to DD disks in HD drives.

I remember using HD floppies on my A1200 back then. You just could'nt access the entire floppy. I was using the CrossDos utility to transfer datas recovered from an online connected Mac to my Amiga.
But maybe my memory is a bit fuzzy, I don't have a floppy drive in my A1200 since more than ten years now.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

In Amiga format they mention them, and even Amiga Power mentions slightly better gfx on the A1200.

Magazines quite often mention features that never made it into the final releases. Only way to know for sure is to take screenshots and compare them.

[sokolovic]

As said elsewhere, the Amiga Power review mention that Lamborghini American Challenge is greatly improved when played on AGA.

Considered that this it was released by Titus at the same time than Quik which is a dual OCS/AGA release, maybe it is possible (but I have no way to confirm this by now).

[Seiya]

i tried both configuration, but i not saw difference in graphics and gameplay

[Predseda]

Bloodfest

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

HD drives would have caused extra software incompatibilities - look at the extra issues with the Escom / Amiga Technologies A1200s when they launched.

Beyond that, I don't even know if it was technically possible to write HD disks in a way that DD drives could read half them.

It's possible, but silly. The extra effort required to duplicate them wouldn't be worth it when two DD disks cost only slightly more than one HD disk, and have higher capacity.

[CCCP alert]

Hmmm dunno about dual format support but when I got my A1200 I played things like Virus/Wings/Simulcra to get the benefit of the 020 in there.

[Megalomaniac]

It's easy to forget how many non-AGA games were enhanced by the A1200's faster processor and extra memory compared to an A500, though those three are in the minority of games pre-dating the A1200 that benefit. Lots of games took advantage of the processor for faster calculations or smoother 3D, and plenty had less loading or extra sound with the extra memory - things like Walker, Worms, Super Skidmarks, Hired Guns and The Settlers all gain at least extra sound on a stock A1200 versus a 1Mb 68000 machine, and something like the Zeewolfs is a bit too slow on a 68000 but much better on an A1200.

[Predseda]

But even Walker and Hired guns benefitted from extra chipmem only, so A600 with trapdoor expansion was enough, it added extra audio. Nothing AGA or CPU related.