looking for SuperHero/Psygnosis demo

[ComputingData]

Maybe not, if I can find the a drive of the same brand/model then there is a good possibility that the will work. The platters should be ok as they are protected by the drive metal itself.

It could be something as simple as the IDE-USB interface isn't compatible with something that old. They are from the early 1990's don't forget.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by ComputingData

Maybe not, if I can find the a drive of the same brand/model then there is a good possibility that the will work. The platters should be ok as they are protected by the drive metal itself.

Hi ComputingData,

A similar thing happened to Charlie, who had an electrical fire fry the controller board of his Qube RiscOS server hard drive.
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=542788&postcount=48

But, after obtaining a replacement board from a company in Hong Kong, he was able to copy the data onto another hard drive.

I wish you the same good luck with your drive!

What is the brand/model of the drive ? Maybe we can help. A model of this period really costs anything, it is more a problem of "to suceed in finding one".

[ComputingData]

Samsung SHD-3172A 356MB
Seagate ST3096A 80GB

The Seagate takes 5 + 12v which might be why it didn't power up?

[Amiga1992]

How was that YouTube video recorded? has the game been compiled? I don't understand.
All the drama on the first page is rather sad, gotta say.

[ComputingData]

The video was recorded before the fire. It's a long story, but the police had everything for a number of years and when I got it back things were slightly messed up - don't ask me how (they didn't win so that might explain a few things). Anyhow, I had object code and data from one version and maps/gfx from another. So they don't sync up right at certain points - for example some things are off by a block (16 pixels), etc...

btw. You're right about the drama.

[Amiga1992]

So can this be restored? The game looks pretty complete.. It's a shame if it was lost.
So much bad luck on the poor game. First raided by the Police, then caught in a fire.. it's as if the game didn't want to be released... maybe it's THE SUPERGENE! :P

[JudasEZT]

Yes, seems like Superhero were cursed. A pity.. you even had it with code sheets for protection.

A pity.

btw, that last parallax looks very sexy! I bet it could have worked cool for a platformer or for a Air Buster clone

[ComputingData]

It seems that way (cursed). I was planning to do a freebie PC version but things like earning money have come in the way for a while. ;p

I did the 16 on 16 scroller 'cause people said it couldn't be done. It seemed like nothing was impossible on the good old Amiga though once you set your mind to it.

[JudasEZT]

Originally Posted by ComputingData

I did the 16 on 16 scroller 'cause people said it couldn't be done. It seemed like nothing was impossible on the good old Amiga though once you set your mind to it.

I would liked a game with those scrollers =)

very few made something really interesting in that department.

[ Show youtube player ] ( bg scroll is not 16 but looks good gameplay is poor )
[ Show youtube player ] ( Just screen size being very reduced and not being all that smooth ( anyway the size screen werent a problem if you zoomed with commodore monitor controls ) )
[ Show youtube player ] ( Very good! altough gameplay itsnt very polished. )


btw, Its good to note that Andy Ingram at least could been part of a good Strider-clone on Amiga.. Leander were a very good game.. and smooth as hell

[ComputingData]

Yep, the gfx were Andy's from the Tiertex Strider conversion - they would have looked great with a special Amiga scroll rather than as an ST port.

[DDNI]

Hi Galahad, whilst you are on a roll, any news of Superhero?

I just got a boxed copy of Lemmings 2 which contained a Superhero and Cytron post card. Kinda set my mind thinking about it again.

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

The utterly annoying thing about Superhero is that the programmer of the game came onto EAB, and I had an email conversation with him about releasing the game as its completed.

It all looked very positive and then he simply stopped answering my emails

Shame really, cos he seemed dead keen to release it.

Oh, and has anyone given John Twiddy / Putty Squad a prod yet? And has anyone given Pierre Adane a prod over Snow Bros?

Sad!

[ComputingData]

I can't find anyone who knows who owns the rights to the Amiga version. It looks like I have copyright, but Psygnosis/Sony have rights to release the Amiga version (and first refusal on SNes/Megadrive!!!). So if it ever gets released it looks like it will be on Android/iOS.

btw, not seen the postcard - can you scan it in an post an image?

Argh, do you mean that you contacted Sony to release the Amiga version and they refused ?!

Just watched the video here [ Show youtube player ]

And the Amiga version seems so good that it don't want to believe that a such game can't be released one day...

What can we do to convince Sony so ? Reminds me dhat happened years ago with Putty squad...

Also i read in the youtube comments that you managed to boot the hard drive, did a copy and launched it in WinUAE ?

[ComputingData]

It's not that they refused - they just did not reply.

I got WinUAE running with the HDD, etc - but I used to send it to a second machine over a parallel cable to a devkit I made. It didn't run directly on the machine I ran the assembler on.

WinUAE also doesn't seem to be able to emulate the hardware trick I used with the colours to get 32k colours rather than 4k colours.

They didn't reply, common attitude unfortunatly...

In french there is a proverb "qui ne dit rien consent" hehe .

Sorry in advance to ask a certainly stupid question (i don't know anything concerning the legal aspects of "can be released or not"), but is the question of the rights really essential to release a game on the Amiga nowodays ?

I mean how did it happen for Snow bros/Liquid kids ? Did the coders have the rights or not ? Did they release the games "like this" without informing anyone ?

Often i ask myself if the company who owns the rights would ever notice a such released 20 years after.

Interesting that your hardware trick isn't emulated propey, Tony Willen would be happy to know how you did this to improve WinUAE .

[ComputingData]

As it's now Sony you never know. They might try something if I release an Amiga version then an Android/iOS version. I really don't want to risk it personally.

Basically it relies on phosphor delay in the TV - on even frames every other scan line I change the colour - then on odd frames every other +1 frame I change the colour. The two colours merge - if you change the same colour then you get 1/2 colour values - increasing the number of bits per colour gun from 4 to 5. WinUAE needs to emulate phosphor delay to reproduce this.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by ComputingData

As it's now Sony you never know. They might try something if I release an Amiga version then an Android/iOS version. I really don't want to risk it personally.

Basically it relies on phosphor delay in the TV - on even frames every other scan line I change the colour - then on odd frames every other +1 frame I change the colour. The two colours merge - if you change the same colour then you get 1/2 colour values - increasing the number of bits per colour gun from 4 to 5. WinUAE needs to emulate phosphor delay to reproduce this.

I think you're over thinking this.

Firstly there should have been a clause in the contract about full title reverting to you if they don't publish in the first instance, which they haven't done.

With respect also, I doubt Sony even know they have publishing rights to this game. Most of the Psygnosis staff that were around when Super Hero was first announced no longer worked there before Sony closed it all down, and with respect again, Sony are barely even doing anything with their backcatalogue. The fact that Shadow of the Beast is getting an airing is a minor miracle, and that was for a game that was MASSIVE back in the day.

I doubt Sony know they about Super Hero, and would they really get all worried about a game that never got released on a format they really didn't give a shit about?

Snow Bros has been released with no problems, Liquid Kids has been released with no problems, there was no licence in place for either of those, and there has been no action from the arcade manufacturers at all.

Personally i'd remove any Psygnosis references and release it, anyone that still works for Sony that was in any way connected to Psygnosis in 1994 won't remember it, because by then, the focus and shift was toward Playstation.

I think you're over worried about a non issue, but hey, 'leaks' occur all the time and out of your power. Can't be held responsible for that

[ComputingData]

I no longer have the contract - house fire.

The second issue (maybe minor/maybe major) is the mismatch between data and gfx - the demo I posted was from two different backups (out of sync with each other). Some work would have to be done.

If I did an Android/iOS version then I'd know more as I was doing it.

[jbenam]

I've just read the entire thread, the game looks AMAZING

I hope you'll find a way to release it, ComputingData!

It's probably as Galahad says - I can't see anyone getting angry over an unpublished game of 20 years ago