Who was the best game engine coder for OCS?

[ImmortalA1000]

I would personally say it was either Shaun Southern (Lotus II, Kid Chaos) or whoever actually did the routines for Beast 1 overground level.

Both of those work really well on even an NTSC Amiga 1000 (so 1985 technology) and wouldn't be shameful on the SNES/Megadrive*.

(the Megadrive has a horrible sound chip)

[crabfists]

Manfred Trenz has got to be a contender? Turrican I and II were an amazing feat.

I used to think the Megadrive's soundchip wasn't very pleasing to the ear but I've changed my opinion over the years. It depends who is coding it. If coded badly it can sound horrible. Someone like Tim Follin can make it sing though. Here is an example:

[ Show youtube player ]

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by ImmortalA1000

I would personally say it was either Shaun Southern (Lotus II, Kid Chaos) or whoever actually did the routines for Beast 1 overground level.

Both of those work really well on even an NTSC Amiga 1000 (so 1985 technology) and wouldn't be shameful on the SNES/Megadrive*.

(the Megadrive has a horrible sound chip)

I recall Beast was originally a technical demo by Paul Howarth showing the Amiga's scrolling capabilities, I wouldn't class it as a good game engine though.

[Predseda]

I always adored Andrew Braybrook's work.

[Tigerskunk]

I'd say Erwin Kloibhofer of Lionheart fame wins that contest from my point of view.

Those massively parallaxing levels have so many things going on at the same time, it's hard to believe it's all running on an OCS machine.

[jotd]

Having seen Shaun Southern source code, and Andrew Braybook disassembly, those are completely different coding styles.

Shaun code is pragmatic and easy to maintain. Andrew's look very technical and micro-optimized.

Both are great coders.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by crabfists

Manfred Trenz has got to be a contender? Turrican I and II were an amazing feat.

I used to think the Megadrive's soundchip wasn't very pleasing to the ear but I've changed my opinion over the years. It depends who is coding it. If coded badly it can sound horrible. Someone like Tim Follin can make it sing though. Here is an example:

[ Show youtube player ]

Programming of Amiga version of both Turrican and Turrican 2 had ZERO to do with Manfred Trenz.

Both were programmed by Holger Schmidt.

Manfred Trenz programmed the C64 version and designed all versions, but Holger actually made it happen on Amiga.

[Marce]

the best engine for ocs is the one that is used in games as superfrog, Assasin etc
the smoothness achieved with that engine is fantastic
I don't know who done it but I imagine was Andreas Tadic or some other member of Team 17

[Galahad/FLT]

Mr.Nutz

Your search is over

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Marce

the best engine for ocs is the one that is used in games as superfrog, Assasin etc
the smoothness achieved with that engine is fantastic
I don't know who done it but I imagine was Andreas Tadic or some other member of Team 17

Andrea's Tadic did Superfrog, Assassin was David Broadhurst

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by Marce

the best engine for ocs is the one that is used in games as superfrog, Assasin etc
the smoothness achieved with that engine is fantastic
I don't know who done it but I imagine was Andreas Tadic or some other member of Team 17

Aren't they like both super generic mono playfield 8 ways scrolling 4 bitplane games?
Super Frog has some fast scrolling at least, but Assassin looks like nothing special imo.

Mr. Nutz has at least that dual playfield and dynamic copper scroll splits in the background layer going on on top of that.

Still, those dual playfield levels in Lionheart beat that massively, imo..

[jotd]

4 bitplanes or 5? both games looks very colored. Unless they mix up multiplexed composite sprites, in which case it's starting to be not that generic.

And Assassin scrolling is as smooth as Superfrog one. Not the same teams tough. Team B did Assassin

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by jotd

4 bitplanes or 5? both games looks very colored. Unless they mix up multiplexed composite sprites, in which case it's starting to be not that generic.

Just looked at the game on Youtube, I am sure Superfrog uses only 16 colors.

With Assassins, my guess is that the background is 16 colors (enhanced by some well placed dithering) as well, but that the enemies (which only one is usually seen on the screen at a time) are also attached sprites like the main character. Both sprites you can see at a time are only 32 pixels wide, which would work with 8 Amiga Sprites.

Well, that's my guess, didn't look at it in UAE and switch Sprites and planes off, etc.

[Marce]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Andrea's Tadic did Superfrog, Assassin was David Broadhurst

yes but I'm almost sure is the same engine used in both games
or I'm wrong?

[jotd]

they probably shared some code, that's probable. David Broadhurst wasn't new, though. He did Led Storm very early on.

And there's no such thing as an "engine". It's just blocks of code that you can reuse from one game to another, adapting & changing it. It's not Scorpion

[alexh]

My vote is for Erwin Kloibhofer, it started with Ghost Battle improved with Lionheart, don't forget The Misadventures of Flink on CD32.

[Marce]

Originally Posted by Tigerskunk

, but Assassin looks like nothing special imo.

Assasin is very very smooth, there is no other Amiga platform game that can overcome that,
well perhaps superfrog

[CCRider]

Originally Posted by ImmortalA1000

(the Megadrive has a horrible sound chip)

Nope.

And even if it had, at least its games have simultaneous music+sfx.

[Marce]

Originally Posted by jotd

they probably shared some code, that's probable. David Broadhurst wasn't new, though. He did Led Storm very early on.

And there's no such thing as an "engine". It's just blocks of code that you can reuse from one game to another, adapting & changing it. It's not Scorpion

yes they must share same blocks of code because they run both in full screen 320x240 + 50 fps both very smooth, not very common in Amiga platform games which most of them run at 300x200 even at 25 fps

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by CCRider

Nope.

And even if it had, at least its games have simultaneous music+sfx.

No consolation when it has a crap sound chip.

Plenty of Amiga games have sfx and music at the same time, that some games didn't is down to laziness.

Have more sound channels on a crap sound chip doesnt suddenly make that crap sound chip sound better lol