[request] Not exactly an ST port.... Black Tiger Redux?

[saimon69]

Yesterday i stumbled again on Black Tiger longplay video.
Never been so disappointed by a US Gold port like that one: graphics was there, playability was there, but the scrooollll.... and the slow speed

Sometimes i wonder if is possible for experienced coders redo the scrolling routines using the blitter rather than those ugly 8x8 push inherited from ST, plus adding in-game music...

[s2325]

It can be worse http://hol.abime.net/5002 http://hol.abime.net/4916

[Asman]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Yesterday i stumbled again on Black Tiger longplay video.
Never been so disappointed by a US Gold port like that one: graphics was there, playability was there, but the scrooollll.... and the slow speed

Sometimes i wonder if is possible for experienced coders redo the scrolling routines using the blitter rather than those ugly 8x8 push inherited from ST, plus adding in-game music...

Of course that is possible but required a lot of work, I think. Today I think about Black Tiger and other very very bad ports on Amiga and would be nice to pimp up some titles. Some time ago I started with Rolling Thunder and when I speed up title of this game from 5 fps or something to 50 fps then I was so disappointed, because title looks so ridiculous. Actually I'm working on some conversions but I have some Amiga game names on my pimp up list and who knows what will be next

[Retro-Nerd]

Actually there is really one good game which needs such an update. Ruff'n Tumble. Should be doable on AGA (with a lot of work), right? btw: Black Tiger Amiga would need more work. The joystick control is nearly unusable, compared to the good arcade version.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Actually there is really one good game which needs such an update. Ruff'n Tumble. Should be doable on AGA (with a lot of work), right? btw: Black Tiger Amiga would need more work. The joystick control is nearly unusable, compared to the good arcade version.

Yeah, the code is directly lifted from the ST one, in the most horrible way.
They have just replaced the I/O routines by ahem.... amiga ones, and there it was

I'm sure ADRdesign could help on the music

Unfortunately, it seems that even reworking a not too big game is a lot of work....

[Asman]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Yeah, the code is directly lifted from the ST one, in the most horrible way.
They have just replaced the I/O routines by ahem.... amiga ones, and there it was

I'm sure ADRdesign could help on the music

Unfortunately, it seems that even reworking a not too big game is a lot of work....

Now I'm really curious how Amiga version of Black Tiger is coded ...

[dlfrsilver]

i did a compare quite a while ago, the main difference is that amiga BT files are hidden on the disk, but concretly, something like 90-95% of the code is the same on both machines.
Only the screen, I/O, disk accesses differs.

[saimon69]

sometimes i think would not be bad to create a bounty system similar to the AROS one for pimping bad games and motivate porters

[saimon69]

some info on the original arcade:
http://www.thepixelpump.com/blacktiger/ports.php
soundtrack as youtube movie:
[ Show youtube player ] [if i have time can work a bit on it]

[dlfrsilver]

i can give all you need (GFX ripped to perfect from the coin-op, as well as the musics. ADR design has made an awesome job on Final Fight AGA music from my rips.)

Maybe you can do something there Saimon ?

EDIT : From the Start, the coin-op use 1024 colors palette (4x256 colors, or 4x 16 palettes of 16 colors).

it's a 256 colors game (PC like palette). each monster has its own palette, so multiply their number x 16 colors.

Backgrounds use exemple on level one 87 colors alone. 87 it's 4x16(64) + almost 2x16 color palettes.

To get the best results, all the sprites for a level must be mixed with the background in order to get a standard computer
palette on 256 colors.

Next : The sprite datas must be sipped from the Coin-op Code program.

[saimon69]

pity am not a coder, not an assembly one at least; i can mod the soundtrack though - however with this thread my intention was to provide some bored coder food for thought...

[dlfrsilver]

It's easy to get via mame the arcade rom code in binary or disassembled. The main problem is that it's Z80 code, not 68000 code.

EDIT1: checked the tiles of the amiga version, it's crap Atari ST PC1 files made under degas elite in 16 colors. Typical ST port shit.

EDIT2 : The coin-op z80 has 64kb of maincode, and 256kb of DATA for sprites and backgrounds (7 banks)

[Asman]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

It's easy to get via mame the arcade rom code in binary or disassembled. The main problem is that it's Z80 code, not 68000 code.

EDIT1: checked the tiles of the amiga version, it's crap Atari ST PC1 files made under degas elite in 16 colors. Typical ST port shit.

EDIT2 : The coin-op z80 has 64kb of maincode, and 256kb of DATA for sprites and backgrounds (7 banks)

There is a Z80 converter to 68000 z80 conv. But I don't know how to use this tool.

[kamelito]

I tried before to compile these Pascal codes without success. These tools are from 1982, todays compilers through out too many error. We need the original compiler, a Pascal expert or port those sources into C.

Kamelito

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

EDIT1: checked the tiles of the amiga version, it's crap Atari ST PC1 files made under degas elite in 16 colors. Typical ST port shit.

I like how you conclude that just because something uses 16 color Atari ST degas pictures it is "typical ST port shit"... It's not like the graphics data can easily be converted at runtime to Amiga format...

Anyway, the game is way too slow to be enjoyable, I doubt the ST version is much faster. The binaries are still in Atari ST format and I am checking the code, not sure I can be bothered to do anything with that game though.

[s2325]

Satan http://hol.abime.net/1838/screenshot is similar and slightly better for me.

[saimon69]

What i wonder however is why that game run at so crappy 6FPS? OK, st port is not that better, but i wonder if is due to "processor fatigue" or bad programming... maybe the original team DID use the z80->68k tool to convert the code and is not optimized

[saimon69]

@dfrsilver
Without using AGA i think with 32 colors (16 fixed 16 changing for each level) and 25fps the graphic conversion might come out good enough

[s2325]

Maybe it's possible to use Backbone to redone this game?

[saimon69]

@s2325
Taking out the climbing spines probably, else i dunno