Tinyus Open Beta Released (OCS Gradius port)

[Toni Galvez]

Originally Posted by trydowave

The SG ProPad Joypad works with it.

Sorry that's not a standard Sega Genesis pad. I am not talking about the clones.

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by skyzoo73

I tried the game on Amiga500 (1meg) and Amiga 600 (2meg + 4fast) and I must say that I noticed a big difference in fluidity between the two machines.
- On the Amiga 500 the slowdowns are very present, let's say that the game is 60% smooth 40% slowed down.
- On the Amiga 600, on the other hand, the game is almost perfect (90% fluid 10% slowdowns) and slows down only in very few cases.

In theory, the two Amigas should be very similar in terms of cpu performance, but obviously the 2 mega chips and the fastram on the 600 give a boost on all fronts more than I thought.

The games performance is cpu+blitter bound. If you run in fastmem the code gets executed quicker and you have therefore also more time to blit. Double win!

[jeff b00toNic]

So I made it to the final stage and died halfway trough
which means it doesn't hang or crash.
What i've observerd during gameplay.

Starting a new game with standard options gives me unlimited
credits from stage 3 onwards.
Checkpoints don't work at all.
Quit option Gurus with 87000004(only when started by an icon thoug)

Played it on A1200 ACA1233/40 installed on HDD.

[Havie]

Played a bit more and thought I had got better at the game, then realised collision detection was pretty generous. Indeed the dart like aliens at the beginning of the second level seemed to go through me.

Also, if you had a power token in the bar when you died, didn't you start with speed up highlighted in the arcade? May have been a different number Gradius?

[lilwshu]

Originally Posted by Toni Galvez

Sorry that's not a standard Sega Genesis pad. I am not talking about the clones.

My Mega Drive pad (red start button, standard d-pad) works with 2-button support in Tinyus and pretty much all other Amiga games that work with 2 buttons.

[zero]

Originally Posted by nikosidis

chip does not matter but at once you add fast mem. you double the speed in many operations.

I often wonder how things would have been different if instead of doing 1 meg chip in the A500+ they had gone with 512k chip and 512k fast. It really unlocks a lot of performance.

[buzzybee]

@pink Suppose the sometimes generous / sometimes meticulous collission detection was mentioned elsewhere already; also the fact that sometimes, the enemy wave which enters the screen while playerdeath keeps incoming after respawning.

Other than that I can only thank you for your teams amazing work. Gameflow is perfect, difficulty balancing as hard as it ever was. I hated dying in second stage with all weapons bolted on and respawning with a basic ship in the 80s, and still do. But have to keep coming back. Great port!

[Havie]

Originally Posted by buzzybee

Other than that I can only thank you for your teams amazing work. Gameflow is perfect, difficulty balancing as hard as it ever was. I hated dying in second stage with all weapons bolted on and respawning with a basic ship in the 80s, and still do. But have to keep coming back. Great port!

Ain't that true - that's why Salamander was always my favourite of the two because at least you had a chance to power up a bit when you died.

[mrupp]

Wow, what an excellent port, thank you so much for doing this! It's great fun!

From my testing: Besides the issues already reported here, the game crashed some of my systems when run from Workbench or from Shell but Workbench already loaded.
Tested on:

• A4000/060 (crash --> Guru)
• A3000/030 (freeze)
• A1200/030 (works)
• A500+/ACA500+ (works)

Both systems having trouble had a bit less than 2MB free ChipRAM and lots of FastRAM. They both startup on an RTG screen, but also switching to PAL HiRes didn't help (I tried that because I remembered TinyBobble not liking RTG screens).
The game works perfectly well on both systems when starting the them without Startup-Sequence and running the game from Shell.

Cheers,
Michael-T.

[Photon]

Great initiative!! Can't wait for the final and will play the beta.

Many pages of hype for your project and am I right to assume the first post always has the latest version? So it doesn't get buried in the comments.

[Pollock]

For some reason, it crashes when i exit, causes a guru meditation. And some of the collision detection needs work

crashes when i exit, on an A500+ with a TF536 , and an A1200 with a Vampire.

[Photon]

I agree with collision detection, it doesn't collide when the bobs are touching. But I don't know if it was this way in the arcade version. But I understand it's V0.1 of course and I will play some more.

I would LOVE to see the background picture at the start for 10 seconds before the logo and menu covers it and it fades to darker! Just to take in the beauty <3

[skyzoo73]

Originally Posted by Photon

I agree with collision detection, it doesn't collide when the bobs are touching. But I don't know if it was this way in the arcade version. But I understand it's V0.1 of course and I will play some more.

I would LOVE to see the background picture at the start for 10 seconds before the logo and menu covers it and it fades to darker! Just to take in the beauty <3

Totally agree!

[pink^abyss]

A new update is available on the front page of this thread.
If you find any issues then please let me know.

[Aegis]

Congrats pink^abyss on a fantastic Amiga port - Gradius/Nemesis is my favourite arcade game of all time and I'm impressed at how close your port is to the original.

Two observations though - pulling the joystick left when the Vic Viper is at the left of the screen doesn't manipulate the Options making it impossible to line them up (so you can maximise your score on the volcanoes for instance) and the diagonal control feels really stiff on your port - on the original (or the original emulated) it's really easy to loop the Vic Viper and the options - on your port the movement feels more squared off (if you catch my drift).

Stellar work though!

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by Aegis

Congrats pink^abyss on a fantastic Amiga port - Gradius/Nemesis is my favourite arcade game of all time and I'm impressed at how close your port is to the original.

Two observations though - pulling the joystick left when the Vic Viper is at the left of the screen doesn't manipulate the Options making it impossible to line them up (so you can maximise your score on the volcanoes for instance) and the diagonal control feels really stiff on your port - on the original (or the original emulated) it's really easy to loop the Vic Viper and the options - on your port the movement feels more squared off (if you catch my drift).

Stellar work though!

Thanks for the feedback. Didn't notice the 'left' behavior. Interesting! I will add this to my todo list.
The arcade uses fixedpoint float emulation for positions, which i don't (for performance reasons). The drawback is a more squarish motion of Vic Viper and therefore also the options, tho most people won't notice

[Aegis]

Ugh, I hate to be that guy but anyone familiar with the arcade or PC Engine versions will notice immediately - the movement of the ship is kinda critical to the feel of Gradius. I'll post a video in a bit to better illustrate what I've mentioned.

Not to take anything away from the work you've done - it's awesome - but I wouldn't play this over the PC Engine version simply because it feels clumsy in comparison.

*Edit:* I'm a little rusty, but here's the first three levels from the PSX's Gradius Deluxe Pack (no audio) - note how you line up the Options when you get to the volcanoes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xppmw3r0i...47-30.mkv?dl=1

[Alpha One]

Now after playing this game again I finally know where this melody from one of my vinyls came from. :-)

[ Show youtube player ]

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by Alpha One

Now after playing this game again I finally know where this melody from one of my vinyls came from. :-)

[ Show youtube player ]

Darn, could be an alternate soundtrackl option! ^^

[idrougge]

Version 0.2:
Defeated level 1 boss with upgrade panel at »double«. When reaching level 2, it was still highlighted, but picking up the next upgrade item also highlighted »speedup«.