Death Rally Amiga port

[BSzili]

By default the game will use RTG, or if that's not available whatever the OS says is best. To force a specific native monitor type, you can set the "FOCEMODE" tooltype in the icon, e.g.: FORCEMODE=NTSC or FORCEMODE=PAL

[AlphaAmiga]

Thank you I will try that

[AlphaAmiga]

That did it!

Thank you very much, great conversion!

[warci]

can't wait to test this one out! I really need to get a move on to recap my '060 system

[Jacques]

DR is a game I enjoyed a lot on PC in the 90's, so I'm really happy and thankful for the port!
I played it a bit on my Warp1260-equipped Amiga and it basically works for me with AGA PAL and RTG.

I encountered a problem though with FORCEMODE=NTSC, that was a black screen when entering actual game (menus were OK). the NTSC.info was there in DEVS:Monitors.

As for speed, it's sth like 15-21 FPS on 50MHz and up to 47 FPS on 105MHz. What makes the perception worse though, is constant fluctuation of FPS both visibly and on the counter, it's something I didn't recall on PC. Is it something that could be addressed for more constant FPS?

Another great thing would be joystick support, especially CD32-compatible gamepad

Thanks for the great effort!

[BSzili]

Thanks for the feedback! The stuttering is caused by the game's audio mixer. I already rewrote the audio code on top of AHI to solve the uneven framerate, but it's not fit for release yet. The main issue is that the game uses 14 audio channels, and with AHI the more channel you have, the quieter the audio will be: https://www.lysator.liu.se/(faq)/ahi...te/#faq_volume
With 16 channels reserved the audio output is just way too low. It wasn't a wasted effort though, because other sound libraries will be able plugged into the new audio code with minimal effort.

[Jacques]

Great, it's definitely worth waiting. Thank you!

[BSzili]

As a stopgap solution I wired in doomsound.library in and uploaded a new version. Make sure you've got version 38, as older ones didn't support looping sound effects:
https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/DoomSndLibs
Unfortunately I still can't edit the first post, I get database errors for anything besides tiny changes.

[tomcat666]

Originally Posted by BSzili

As a stopgap solution I wired in doomsound.library in and uploaded a new version. Make sure you've got version 38, as older ones didn't support looping sound effects:
https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/DoomSndLibs
Unfortunately I still can't edit the first post, I get database errors for anything besides tiny changes.

It seems to be working just as fine as the previous version, both in RTG and AGA modes. No sound problems at all. Hope the music is closer now

[BSzili]

This change is not related to the music, at least not in any direct way. It's just meant to address the sound mixer related performance problems.

[Jacques]

Thank you, the stuttering is now gone, so the gameplay improved a lot
Am I the only one to observe some intro glitches? That is in PAL, NTSC and RTG, like flashes of white patches.

[BSzili]

Nope, that's "normal" for now. Each frame of the cinematic has a different palette, and sometimes the main process can be pre-empted between the screen and palette update, so you end up seeing a frame with the wrong palette brielfy. I tried to minimize this, but it'll need some more work later.
The stuttering problem is not a 100% fixed either. There are still some cases when the framerate drops, e.g. when a collision happens, which could be related to restarting its sound effect nearly every frame.

[blade002]

That rules me out, got an 030@50 with no FPU.

I pass all the other criteria.

Great work regardless

[BSzili]

Thanks and sorry about this. The game is from the Pentium era, so 68040 is as low as it goes.
We are also back to AHI. It turns out there was a way to boost the volume back, using the AHIET_MASTERVOLUME effect. It's still a bit quieter than it used to be, but this is as high as it can go. Many thanks to koobo for pointing me in the right direction!

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by StevenJGore

-EDIT- Something I just noticed when playing it again, this time with a controller. I have to unplug the controller when in the game menus otherwise it randomly moves the selection and selects things. In game, it works fine.

Yeah I get this also, never noticed at first. Basically it will always select the very first screen of race results, so I never see the race results I participated in, and when I get offered to do dodgy deals with the race fixing guy it will always select "yes" before I get a chance to even think or read about it.

Any fix for this?

[BSzili]

I'll quote myself:

Originally Posted by BSzili

For the controller, I recommend testing it with JoyPortTest using lowlevel.library to see if it produces any spurious inputs:
http://aminet.net/package/driver/input/JoyPortTest
In most of the cases the controller has some compatibility issue with lowlevel.library.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by BSzili

I'll quote myself:

Did the test and seemed to work ok. Mind you seems my lowlevel.library is v40 something. Does it matter what version I have?

[BSzili]

I think that's the version that came with AmigaOS 3.1, so that should be fine. What type of controller is this? If I can grab one, that'll probably be the easiest way to test it. Otherwise I can make a debug version later.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by BSzili

I think that's the version that came with AmigaOS 3.1, so that should be fine. What type of controller is this? If I can grab one, that'll probably be the easiest way to test it. Otherwise I can make a debug version later.

Yeah that later version I used of lowlevel didn't work.

I switched back.

Well you wont be able to use the controller I have without a special adapter as I'm using a PS1 controller.

After more experience with the game, the automatic selection thing seems to happen nearly 100% of the time right after the race, so I never get to see the race results from the lowest division (the one I am usually in ) and whenever the race fixer guy wants to offer me a deal to sabbotage someone else, it clicks yes to the deal before I even read it. I thought perhaps I was touching the analogue sticks slightly each time and as it says "press any button to continue" I figure perhaps that was triggerring it to make a selection so I deliberately turned the analogue sticks off and the same thing happens. And it's always those two place.

Also another thing has happened twice now, but seems random. Playing the game for some time, suddenly the graphics will all go weird and blotched out with like peach colour, then system will crash. Just feeding this back as it could be anything from my system to my accelerator. May be someone else has had the same thing on occassion.

[wiz12]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

whenever the race fixer guy wants to offer me a deal to sabbotage someone else, it clicks yes to the deal before I even read it. I thought perhaps I was touching the analogue sticks slightly each time and as it says "press any button to continue" I figure perhaps that was triggerring it to make a selection so I deliberately turned the analogue sticks off and the same thing happens. And it's always those two place.

Yes, this part with the race fixer guy is bugging the hell out of me and I just figured it had something to do with the game not loading in that section fast enough but good to see it's not just me.