Can The Amiga CD32 Run Perfect Versions of Capcom CPS1 Games?

[Akiko]

As someone points out earlier in this thread, it's 2021 and memory expansions are cheap.

We now have two readily available open source expansions for the CD32, the 8MB TF328, and the 030,64MB TF330. As said both are open source and there are people on Amibay etc who will quite happily make them on demand.

Instead of arguing about Commodores design decisions, a crippled 020 and 2MB stock memory, make one of these TF cards the new minimum spec configuration, if it makes these types of ports more practical.

[dreadnought]

Why jump through all these hoops when anybody can simply fire up MAME and play the originals?

Ports can be a good thing, from both fun (for users) and educational (for devs) angles, but I think at some point it's just simply not worth the effort.

[lordofchaos]

What you're describing should have been the hardware spec from day one, but hey....
With that kind of power I'm sure the CD32 would have been very capable of some excellent ports, especially CPS1 stuff.

STFII Arcade perfect conversion for sure.. Maybe take a hit with the sound, unless available CPU headroom left for multi channel sound mixing..

[Valken]

I would totally be interested to see an Amiga native, or near native including expansions if required, Ghost n Goblins arcade port. As someone else mentioned, the ARCADE and Sharp X68000 are the near perfect versions. Tight controls, beautiful bitmaps and the original music score especially the X68000!

I like the Amiga, C64 an ST music variations, but that 8 channel music is amazing once you have heard it. I think the CD32 can win over most Amigas due to CD Audio + 4 channel Paula sound here to be near arcade perfect. Just need a faster CPU + more memory to push more 256 color AGA sprites around and to get the graphics fidelity up.

It could even be showcase for 030 + AGA or faster machines if need be as long the Miggy is really pushing it over her hardware.

Here is another game that was inspired and also as beautiful but on a modern PC:

https://locomalito.com/maldita_castilla.php



Maybe an Amiga version can pull it off one day? Would hanging a co processor off it to do some extra lifting such as a Raspberry PI still be considered an Amiga?

[roondar]

The Amiga Ghost & Goblins conversion is quite accurate (setting aside some of the graphics/sound). The only real thing that might have been better is perhaps the frame rate, but overall it's a very nice port. Elite apparently had access to the original code for the game and this is why it's so accurate.

[Valken]

Graphically it is GnG is great on the Amiga, I have no complaints, except for that stupid UP direction to JUMP! Yes one button joysticks were the staple (why oh why) when we had access to multi-button controllers by the time AGA was available...

I HATE, LOATHE IT TO THE BONE as an old school arcade rat!

I want arcade perfect controls so it is button smashing for me. I am sure many members here can and have patched it by now.

[Bren McGuire]

You need to stop with these threads.

Originally Posted by Gilbert

I have always wondered this. I know the resolution won't be exactly the same but could it run arcade perfect Strider and Ghouls n Ghosts for example?

[roondar]

Originally Posted by Valken

Graphically it is GnG is great on the Amiga, I have no complaints, except for that stupid UP direction to JUMP! Yes one button joysticks were the staple (why oh why) when we had access to multi-button controllers by the time AGA was available...

I HATE, LOATHE IT TO THE BONE as an old school arcade rat!

I want arcade perfect controls so it is button smashing for me. I am sure many members here can and have patched it by now.

Amusingly I've always found button to jump to be rather hard to get used to on joystick based systems such as Arcades. Works OK for controllers (especially since D-Pads suck at diagonals), but I still find pressing up to go, well, up more intuitive than using a button.


But I'm 100% aware I'm one of the few that feels this way

[manossg]

Originally Posted by roondar

But I'm 100% aware I'm one of the few that feels this way

2 of the few that feel that way!

[Gilbert]

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

You need to stop with these threads.

Well the Megadrive version of Strider is damm good, not that crazy to ask if a 32bit CD based machine could do an arcade perfect version - it clearly has enough memory to do it.

People are focusing too much on the hardware - instead look at the games.

I also agree the CD32 is true 32 bit. It's all about the data register size and arithmetic operations etc. The address bus size is unimportant!

And did people miss the huge control panel on Amiga Ghouls n Ghosts? Otherwise it's a good version but not the best could be done on the A500. The CD32 version would be about 4 times as good as the A500 one

Originally Posted by roondar

Amusingly I've always found button to jump to be rather hard to get used to on joystick based systems such as Arcades. Works OK for controllers (especially since D-Pads suck at diagonals), but I still find pressing up to go, well, up more intuitive than using a button.


But I'm 100% aware I'm one of the few that feels this way

Yes a button is better but no choice on the earlier Amiga machines. They should have released a 2 button joystick from the beginning really

The arcade version of G 'n' G has a 4 way joystick - so no diagonals at all. Some people find it hard to play coming from the 16 bit versions

[Retro-Nerd]

And did people miss the huge control panel on Amiga Ghouls n Ghosts? Otherwise it's a good version but not the best could be done on the A500.

The big control panel is probably there because it was a 1:1 Atari ST port.

[SSJTrunks69]

simple answer: No

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Gilbert

I also agree the CD32 is true 32 bit.

Doesn't matter if it is 32Bit, without a 32Bit CPU, its never going to run as 32Bit.

[DanScott]

As far as I'm concerned, the CD32 processor is a 32bit CPU.... just because it has a 24bit address bus does not make it a 24bit (or 16bit) CPU

[roondar]

Originally Posted by DanScott

As far as I'm concerned, the CD32 processor is a 32bit CPU.... just because it has a 24bit address bus does not make it a 24bit (or 16bit) CPU

To me, the important thing here is that the ALU and the size of the external data bus both have full 32 bits support. So reading a 32 bit value from memory is just as fast as reading a 16 bit one and, say, adding two 32 bit numbers together is just as fast as adding two 16 bit ones.

So, I fully agree it's a 32 bit CPU.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by roondar

To me, the important thing here is that the ALU and the size of the external data bus both have full 32 bits support. So reading a 32 bit value from memory is just as fast as reading a 16 bit one and, say, adding two 32 bit numbers together is just as fast as adding two 16 bit ones.

So, I fully agree it's a 32 bit CPU.

Being run in 24Bit causes other limitations. Only being able to address 8MB is one of them. Just a shame they didn't all out as a last hoorah and give it a full 020 and some Fast RAM.

[DanScott]

Originally Posted by FOL

Being run in 24Bit causes other limitations. Only being able to address 8MB is one of them. Just a shame they didn't all out as a last hoorah and give it a full 020 and some Fast RAM.

Maximum addressable memory size of the CD32 is not an issue

Playtation only had 2mb RAM and 1mb VRAM


And anyway, this is seriously going off topic...

No, the CD32 can't reproduce accurately a Capcom CPS game.

Quite probably it could quite easily reproduce the previous generation of Capcom games though (Black Tiger, Bionic Commando, Speed Rumber etc...)

[roondar]

The 68EC020 can address up to 16MB of RAM. For the purposes of code, there are no other limitations compared to the standard 68020 (as in, it can run the exact same code). Crucially, it's also just as fast as a standard 68020 running at the same clock speed.

The bottom line is this: if no one had told you there was a 68EC020 in the A1200/CD32 rather than a 'full' 68020, you'd never have known it.

Edit: Dan is right, this is all rather off-topic. And he's also right to say that the CD32 can't do CPS-1 games 1:1.

[DanScott]

Originally Posted by roondar

Edit: Dan is right, this is all rather off-topic. And he's also right to say that the CD32 can't do CPS-1 games 1:1.

I'd love to say it could... but it just doesn't have quite the power unfortunately

Having said that, you could do a fairly faithful reproduction of some of the games, if you're willing to forgo things like parallax etc.. (which in all honestly is only fluff, and doesn't actually add to gameplay).

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by DanScott

Having said that, you could do a fairly faithful reproduction of some of the games, if you're willing to forgo things like parallax etc.. (which in all honestly is only fluff, and doesn't actually add to gameplay).

BUT MUH PARALLAX!


Amiga people get really uppity when you tell them "hey you can have a game that plays exactly as good, but it will look a bit different". Seems like how it feels aesthetically is far more important than how it feels like to play.

That's how we ended up with things like Street Fighter II. but people still complained! (of course, it's shit)
Yet Super Street Fighter II doesn't ever get enough recognition because it looks different (but it plays really, really well).

A weird bunch, these.