Supercars 2 AGA

[CaptainNow]

JOTD, I am absolutely over the moon that you have done this!
I *really* hope you continue with it! I would love to see some custom maps in the game (if you need help with that I am sure I can help).

I spoke with Shaun about doing this very project not long ago! He was such a lovely guy about it.

I have subscribed to this thread. Great work!

[Superman]

Runs nicely on my real A1200 with ACA1221 28mhz

Intro parts

[ Show youtube player ]

In game

[ Show youtube player ]

[Neil79]

Originally Posted by jotd

ransom thanks for the video

Featured Supercars 2 AGA on Indie Retro News, then Amiga Bill did a Twitch stream

[jotd]

TBH it's not really AGA yet. Only the menu screens are AGA. Working on the comm screens now.

Then the hard(est) part: make in-game AGA, and if not possible just increase framerate... Let's see.

And also of course create new circuits. I have 2 circuits I have created for my SC3 remake (java). Now I have to see how the info of walls/slopes/jumps, trains & opponents are stored in the track description file & the extra map file of each circuit. Even with the source it's not obvious.

In the meantime if people want to create new circuits, I'd need 5 new ones pick current circuits and copy/paste parts at will until it becomes a new circuit, don't make it too big (memory restrictions)

[Estrayk]

Originally Posted by jotd

Then the hard(est) part: make in-game AGA, and if not possible just increase framerate... Let's see.

Yes please, a better framerate will be amazing!

[Fiery Phoenix]

Would love to see a true AGA of this - well done. Was always a pity the in-game had a washed out / ST port look.

Eitherway, a fantastic game

[Gzegzolka]

I wonder would it be posible to add different tracks settings like tropical islands or could You construct tracks from only existing elements? Also would it be possible to add new effects into game like night curse with turn on lights on cars or just make car lights brighter and everother elements darker. Maybe rain effects or clouds shadows passing on track ground.

[modrobert]

Originally Posted by earok

I was actually wondering if the framerate could be boosted so that it's comparably smooth with the DOS version, if this hasn't already been investigated and ruled out?

Looks like it runs a bit faster/smoother in the scroll with tool type 'CACHE' added for the game icon (WHDLoad).

[saimon69]

Well some suggestions from an ignorant like me:
- different color for enemy cars (should be doable if you convert cars in sprites, then you might need to redo collision routines though)
How many channels are used for sound? If just two i can do some in-game music in two channels for you (actually have some from other projects too to be reused or tweaked) - this however means you have to implement all music player stuff, maybe steal some parts from Lotus like music selector

[jotd]

Was always a pity the in-game had a washed out / ST port look.

err, sorry, game uses EHB in all parts including in-game, so it cannot look like the ST since there's 32 colors + shades which potentially can reach 64 different colors.

The scrolling, on the other hand...

Tropical setup could be done. Not a problem. There aren't tiles or anything. Send a picture of a circuit with shades (I can detect shades with my SC3 editor anyway) and I could use this.

About the music, well I contemplated replacing player/sfx player by phx one, but there's the car engine which is a speed controlled loop and not a sample. I don't remember if the player can leave some channels alone/unmanaged. If it was possible, I could leave engine alone, and even use a 3-channel music for the game, and use phx api to play other sfx (which are samples) in a smart way..

Looks like it runs a bit faster/smoother in the scroll with tool type 'CACHE' added for the game icon (WHDLoad).

did you try CACHE on the normal ECS install to compare to? I'd be interested.


thanks all for the interest in the project.

[saimon69]

I can provide you some two channel mods to do tests

[jotd]

okay! why not!

[Fiery Phoenix]

Originally Posted by jotd

err, sorry, game uses EHB in all parts including in-game, so it cannot look like the ST since there's 32 colors + shades which potentially can reach.

I meant the original pal not this version, it always seemed to have the dull / washed out look, like you see on typical ST ports.

Was there a poster on here a while ago showing some version he was doing with SuperCars 2? Remember it had some snow effect.

Great game, one of the best multi-player games. Great fun and deserves an update

[Retro-Nerd]

Great project, Jotd. Is there any chance to make the tank-like controls a bit more smooth/fluid? This is a generally problem for a few top down racers.

[Galahad/FLT]

Nice effort, always a plus to have the source code

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by Fiery Phoenix

I meant the original pal not this version, it always seemed to have the dull / washed out look, like you see on typical ST ports.

Did not help that there are only two color cars: yours (red) and all others (white) - that reminds me a Bird's Eye version of Lotus 1 - and same sound samples add the feeling

[jotd]

@saimon69 there's also player 2 green car TBH (in 2 player mode)

BTW I also have Lotus I source code lol. But less sure about an AGA version there.

Nice effort, always a plus to have the source code

Yes, code can always be disassembled / resourced (and sometimes programmers left the symbols too), but the real bonus with source code is to have the equates (EQU) and the computations of those equates unexpanded. I had to increase several buffers because of AGA extra planes, and it would have been almost impossible to track down all occurrences of some base equate (+ possible offset) without the source.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the source code assembled almost at first attempt. The only issues were some case issues (lower vs UPPER) for some variables/equates. Then it assembled, and once the files were properly ripped & unpacked, it ran! Then I understood that I could do something cool with that!

Great project, Jotd. Is there any chance to make the tank-like controls a bit more smooth/fluid? This is a generally problem for a few top down racers.

personally I find the controls okay. I'd remove UP/DOWN for weapons if a joypad is used and replace it by REV/FWD, but that's it.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Fiery Phoenix

I meant the original pal not this version, it always seemed to have the dull / washed out look, like you see on typical ST ports.

Was there a poster on here a while ago showing some version he was doing with SuperCars 2? Remember it had some snow effect.

Great game, one of the best multi-player games. Great fun and deserves an update

Shaun Southern Supercars series were both full EHB 64 colors. He really cared we got great games specially taking advantage of the Amiga abilities !

[jotd]

I don't know for Supercars the first opus (tracks look like 16 color to me) but SC2 is definitely EHB so 64 colors and top quality for an ECS game.

But I was really surprised that 64 EHB still look dull because you can't really choose out of 64 colors. You have to pick 32 really different colors and use the other half the best you can (and not waste a dimmer color on the real palette).

Why did commodore implement this EHB crap where one extra normal bitplane would have been better (you can emulate EHB on AGA 6 bitplane with EHB off by duplicating the 32 color palette and dividing each RGB component by 2 for the copy) and same amount of memory & blitter bandwith used... Cheap & stupid.

[skan]

Originally Posted by jotd

...
Why did commodore implement this EHB crap where one extra normal bitplane would have been better (you can emulate EHB on AGA 6 bitplane with EHB off by duplicating the 32 color palette and dividing each RGB component by 2 for the copy) and same amount of memory & blitter bandwith used... Cheap & stupid.

Well, we got some free shadows at least!

Thanks for this project man! With all these AGA ports lately .. it's just like Xmas!