Hmmm Jaguar owners get Chaos Engine port BUT.....

[ImmortalA1000]

The C64 port of the same game was halted in its tracks because Bitmap Brothers told them to stop.

What is going on?

[alexh]

The Jaguar port will have either used gfx/sfx directly from 16-bit versions OR gfx/sfx made/approved by Bitmap Brothers themselves at the time.

Also the code for the Jaguar game could be identical as the ST/Amiga resulting in the same overall gameplay (as the Jaguar main CPU is 680x0).

The C64 version will have to change all three (GFX, SFX, Code) and will have to have lots of compromises thus won't be representative of the game the Bitmap Brothers made.

The people doing the C64 port could change the gfx/sfx and maps the name and release I'm sure.

[gimbal]

The most likely, logical, boring and non-blamey reason is that the C64 version was turning out to be crap.

[Megalomaniac]

How would you get the Chaos Engine's AI and game logic into 64k, and running at a decent speed on a less than 1Mhz processor? Theoretically A Spectrum version would have more chance of recreating the gameplay than a C64 one, and that's rarely the case for a 90s game. I know the Jaguar wasn't a big commercial success, but I doubt a 1993 C64 release could have outsold the Jaguar version.

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

How would you get the Chaos Engine's AI and game logic into 64k, and running at a decent speed on a less than 1Mhz processor? Theoretically A Spectrum version would have more chance of recreating the gameplay than a C64 one, and that's rarely the case for a 90s game. I know the Jaguar wasn't a big commercial success, but I doubt a 1993 C64 release could have outsold the Jaguar version.

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[alexh]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

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You can see why Bitmap Brothers didn't want to give permission. It's just too far away from the original.

[jotd]

not bad, but looks like NES Zelda at this point...

And Bitmap Bros will NEVER give permission for fan made stuff.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

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That is a newer port demo though. Would be interesting to see if it is possible to implement all the spawning enemies and traps into that demo while running at a playable frame rate.

[DisasterIncarna]

if you look on itch.io there is a LOT of games there that are basically copies of commercial franchises but....altered just enough and are, in several cases, better.

I mean c'mon we have public domain games that are also copies of some commercial games and their still out in the open, just look at an oldie like Alien Bash 2, thats basically 95% chaos engine

So not hard to imagine "something like" chaos engine can/will/maybe already has appeared on the c64, itch.io has LOTS of new games these days which is an unexpected/nice surprise, kinda assumed the amiga would get more stuff made over the c64, but its not, which is weird but still not a bad thing.

[kremiso]

don't underestimate the c64 power

[solaris104]

Game Trax was inspired by Chaos Engine. It is for Atari 8-bit.
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[ImmortalA1000]

For a start that YT video has some bollox palette settings of VICE that look nothing like a real C64 on a real CRT TV. I should know, I've done 2000+ real hardware reviews on that set up for 4 years lol.

But I guess Bitmap Brothers will be getting royalties from Atariage for the Jaguar conversion and fan made stuff earns them nothing as it would be a free release.

I can see their point of view mind, I don't think I've ever seen any new C64 games that come close to the best of the best in coding or pixel art from the golden era of C64 hayday. Certainly nothing to compare to games like Enforcer-Full Metal Blaster by Manfred Trenz. I suspect it's more about the cashola, the Jaguar port should look as good as a twin 68000 based Konami/Capcom arcade but I bet it doesn't