Flying Shark new Amiga port [was: Going to Drop this here :)]

[saimon69]

Another Video: Editing Bunkers for the Game
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[saimon69]

And a base title screen:
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[saimon69]

Second request:
Can some mod please change the thread title to "Flying Shark new Amiga port [was: Going to Drop this here ]" ? Appreciated ^^

[Adrian Cummings]

Haha I remember this being ported to Amiga/AtariST from the coin-op at Catalyst Coders/Images Design in Southsea/Fareham circa 1988

I'll let Rob B. know about the text comments in the later video. I think you'll perhaps find it was ported to AtariST (preshifted tiles) and the code/engine reused 'as was' for Amiga (didn't use h/w scroll).

Wild west days.

[mcgeezer]

Hardly any developer knew about the hardware scrolling on the Amiga back in 1988, I posted about this very topic in my Rolling Thunder thread.

We mustn't be too harsh on the developers, they were simply making a living as best as they can. That probably answers the Why question.

[Adrian Cummings]

On looking at the Atari ST version again just now, it didn't appear to have the horizontal scroll of the coin-op version so not even needing even any preshifted tiles as I first thought it did. I guess it was just easier to use the Atari ST code mostly on the Amiga because in that case there was nothing to actually scroll to horizontally anyway and it made the port quicker?

[Rob68K]

Interesting. Some info as far as I can remember it. This port was done in less than 2 weeks in November 1988 ( I think ) and most of the heavy lifting was done by Rob Hylands. I was really on standby as a consultant because Rob knew absolutely nothing about the Amiga. We were told to get the thing ported as quickly as possible. I did a really crappy interpretation of the music in Soundtracker and a few other jobs but really it was all Rob H. So if you want to know why it wasn't exactly Shadow of the Beast, now you know.

The Atari ST version was coded by Henry Clarke. Karl Jeffery wrote the sprite and scroll systems which I seem to remember used 5 screens to make some use of the limited repointability of the ST's screen memory. The sprites were shifted onto the screen in realtime.

I'm pretty sure the Amiga version did use hardware scrolling but with the amount of sprites and environment masking going on, it was never going to run in a frame. I mean, what does on an OCS Amiga that doesn't obviously look like it's making concessions to do so?

PS - About that movep comment...............

Rob H definitely knew about how it could be used to optimise graphics because it was right at the core of his and Karl's 'EggWhack' routine for Level 4 of R-Type on the ST which they'd just completed at that time. I understand that it's really good for writing characters to the screen on the ST but I'm not aware of where it can be used on the Amiga to speed things up. Always happy to learn though.........?

[saimon69]

Less than two weeks!!!
2022 - we STILL have crunch time and nothing is changed -_-

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Less than two weeks!!!
2022 - we STILL have crunch time and nothing is changed -_-

Well at least it was only two weeks.

[saimon69]

With three we could have had smother scroll and maybe non ST-01 instruments

[saimon69]

Am still looking for someone that want to help Magnus to port the arcade graphics, he is in Facebook or you can send a message in the videos

[Adrian Cummings]

Originally Posted by saimon69

With three we could have had smother scroll and maybe non ST-01 instruments

Not horizontally even in 3 weeks because those ported maps were the 'no sideways scrolling' Atari ST cut down ones in the original 1988 port

I have to say that for a 2 week port the original was damn good really.
I remember my old mate Jason Lihou having to draw everything by eye/hand direct off of the arcade coin-op version - he did a grand job looking back.

Your more advanced scrolling version does look nice tho with the sideways scroll added back in.

Hope you get it all sorted anyway

[saimon69]

Am just the music guy, Magnus is doing the code and we miss someone to port the arcade graphics

By the way, am using sample grabs from Hoot for the instruments and three channel music so to have sound effects;
comes a LITTLE bigger (we are on average 60k for each music) but sound similar to the arcade

[Adrian Cummings]

Ah OK sorry. Is that the same Magnus that is/was working on Scourge of the Underkind with Wayne Asworth?

I'm too busy with real life and Cyberpunks 2 in my little spare time to help personally or even consider taking on the graphics sadly.

Demo above looks good so far tho!

[saimon69]

I am positive is him!
And about being busy in real life i hear you crystal clear! -_-

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by Adrian Cummings

Jason Lihou having to draw everything by eye/hand direct off of the arcade coin-op version

The Atari graphics were done by Robert Hemphill.

The only think I remember Jas doing was adding 16 colours to the title screen because someone thought it would look better with 32. We ended up using 3 or 4 unused colours to include hidden messages which I believe could be revealed by hitting the 'Help' key followed by 'me' and then the Up Arrow.

Google image search 'amiga+flying+shark+hidden+messages'

I just noticed that Jas got the sole credit for graphics on FS Amiga on the title screen so I guess he must have done a bit more than the title screen enhancements? They're all fundamentally Robert Hemphill's graphics though.

I think the only original art in the Amiga version was that graffiti.

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Good initiative. However the graphics are the terrible ones coming from the ST

They're not THAT bad all things considered.

Have you managed to pull all the graphics from the arcade version as a starting point?

What's your ambition here? What spec are you targeting? If RAM/Storage isn't a big deal, why not just stereo sample the audio from the self-test on the arcade machine and just using 2 channels for the music streaming, you'll have 2 spare to do the sound effects? To be honest, I have a similar project in mind where I've already decided I would do that although the game I have in mind uses a lot of repeated patterns in the music so I'd compress the data by taking out those repeats and patching it together.

The arcade board appears to be 68000.
Would a disassembly with IDA, Ghidra or Binary Ninja ( if you've got the dosh ) make a good starting point? Even if it was just to pilfer the attack wave data?

[Adrian Cummings]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

The Atari graphics were done by Robert Hemphill.

The only think I remember Jas doing was adding 16 colours to the title screen...

My now very rusty memory was of Jas actually sitting next to the Flying Shark coin-op and hand converting graphics for it in 16 colours at Catalyst Coders in Southsea. He had not long got the job there as he lived very close by.

I think the project then moved upto Images in Fareham but I have no further input on that.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

They're not THAT bad all things considered.

Have you managed to pull all the graphics from the arcade version as a starting point?

Of course It will take me 3 or 4 days to get all the tiles with the right palettes.

The hardest part are the 8x8 pixels tiles that would need to be reassembled into 16x16 tiles, because the 8x8 tile format is unsuited/not amiga compliant.

The arcade graphics were done by Toaplan on sharp X68000 throught their Toaplan TED editor.

What's your ambition here? What spec are you targeting? If RAM/Storage isn't a big deal, why not just stereo sample the audio from the self-test on the arcade machine and just using 2 channels for the music streaming, you'll have 2 spare to do the sound effects? To be honest, I have a similar project in mind where I've already decided I would do that although the game I have in mind uses a lot of repeated patterns in the music so I'd compress the data by taking out those repeats and patching it together.

We have excellent composers here, Saimon69 and Dr Metune.

The arcade board appears to be 68000. Would a disassembly with IDA, Ghidra or Binary Ninja ( if you've got the dosh ) make a good starting point? Even if it was just to pilfer the attack wave data?

Yes the board use a 68000. The program code was built under OS/9 for X68000 on X68000

It should normally have no C code mixed with ASM.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

What's your ambition here? What spec are you targeting? If RAM/Storage isn't a big deal, why not just stereo sample the audio from the self-test on the arcade machine and just using 2 channels for the music streaming, you'll have 2 spare to do the sound effects?

I was unable to access self test from MAME,since wanted to grab sound effects, but i want to be honest my version is prehistoric

For the music i went to another approach: there is a music player for arcade and FM synth music called Hoot; it allows to enable/disable channels on the tune and to record output as .wav, so i did use it to grab samples and then use it to redo songs in milkytracker in three channels. As you can hear from the video, they sound quite similar BUT different enough to give the port its own personality.
(ok, need some fixes like the fourth channel on the start tune is not silenced and some tune up, but is there)

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