Double Dragon remake progress update

[Brick Nash]

Hey folks,

I'm a huge pest on here with my questions and as some of you know I'm attempting a version of Double Dragon for the Amiga as the official version really wasn't great. Everyone on here has helped immensely and I thought I'd just show a quick video of where all that good advice has gone.

[ Show youtube player ]

It's only one player and one enemy so far, but most of the player's basic combat moves are in there, although I've yet to attempt the grab moves.

The background is just one big static image as I've no clue how to do map tile scrolling, but for now it does fine for testing. There are boundaries set up so the player can't walk off screen and it's all done with a one button joystick (so far).

I didn't use any of the built in animation functions as I had a thing about doing it all from scratch, so I wrote my own based on countdown timers which takes about eight lines of code each time it's used, and it works pretty well I think. Collisions are just plotted squares overlapping.

The hitsparks weren't in the arcade game, but I quite like them for impact value, although they are a bit erratic at the moment and sometimes don't fire off. There's an issue with depth too as the enemy bob always seems to be about 3 pixels higher than the player (even though their animation frames are the same size) but the enemy seems to have depth priority most of the time.

The biggest issue right now is that some frames of animation in the object editor seem to be horizontally flipping at random so each time the game starts there's some frames or even whole sequences which have been reversed, even after I've corrected them. Again, it's something I'll have to sort.

At the moment it's running on a 68020 with 2MB chip, and it'll probably stay that way as it just slows to a glitchy snail's pace on anything lower. Even the 68010.

I would have compiled it and put it up for everyone to have a play, but I don't actually know how to do that yet haha, I'm still very much a noob.

Anyway that's about it. I've only been at this project for about a week so quite pleased at the progress that's been made and I think I'm getting a good grip on Amos basic now.

Again many thanks to all.

[DamienD]

Well done Brick Nash, looking good!!!

[Brick Nash]

Thanks! I'm having great fun and great headaches with this.

[Dan]

It looks nice, so far.

But i have one question, does the NPC only walk, fall down and stand up ? ;o)

As for compiling, it is easy, after you have installed the compiler.

[Brick Nash]

The enemy? Yeah, I made a ham fisted attempt at an attack routine for him but it's not perfected yet as I was concentrating on the player moves first so I shut it off for now. I'll get around to it though. Got ideas for attack combinations and 50/50 chances of him either going into a flying kick after getting up from being knocked down or just into his walk procedure.

[jotd]

looks great. Awesome! DD2 was good already, but that one is pixel perfect from the arcade (and I like your addition)

The enemy A.I is really the hard part IMHO. Specially because some enemies (like the green punk) are nastier than others. And it has to look like the original A.I... Disassembly of the original game is the only way to get proper attack patterns...

[lantus360]

as someone who owns the PCB - that sprite animation, speed and movement is spot on. well done!

[Brick Nash]

jotd - Thanks. All the graphics are from the arcade with a couple of custom kick animations and then Amiga graded down to a 64 colour palette (it probably uses closer to 32 though). The Williams enemy is from the Megadrive port as, oddly enough for a game this popular, I couldn't find complete sprite sheets from the arcade game for most of the enemies.

And totally, enemy AI is definitely the hard part, but I'm actually basing this port (on terms of quality) on Amiga DD2 as I literally played it to death back in the day until the disk broke and I had to buy a new one. The enemy AI in that was pretty basic but it worked although I'm hoping to include stuff like if 'X' amount of enemies are on one side of the player then maybe one or two will break off and go to the other side.

I know the game pretty well as I'm a beat 'em up fanatic and it was my first NES game back in 1991 too so I think can take a good guess when programming the AI. However, my code is little more than a whole bunch of IF statements wrapped in procedures at the moment so it probably isn't very efficient.

Iantus360 - That's a big compliment, thanks so much!

[eXeler0]

The arcade version is one of my all time favs and you are right, Amiga deserved a far better port, so well done so far!

[vulture]

That's brilliant m8! Keep up the good work! Looks fantastic!

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

jotd - Thanks. All the graphics are from the arcade with a couple of custom kick animations and then Amiga graded down to a 64 colour palette (it probably uses closer to 32 though). The Williams enemy is from the Megadrive port as, oddly enough for a game this popular, I couldn't find complete sprite sheets from the arcade game for most of the enemies.

And totally, enemy AI is definitely the hard part, but I'm actually basing this port (on terms of quality) on Amiga DD2 as I literally played it to death back in the day until the disk broke and I had to buy a new one. The enemy AI in that was pretty basic but it worked although I'm hoping to include stuff like if 'X' amount of enemies are on one side of the player then maybe one or two will break off and go to the other side.

I know the game pretty well as I'm a beat 'em up fanatic and it was my first NES game back in 1991 too so I think can take a good guess when programming the AI. However, my code is little more than a whole bunch of IF statements wrapped in procedures at the moment so it probably isn't very efficient.

Iantus360 - That's a big compliment, thanks so much!

Ah so you finally didn't used the arcade tiles i've uploaded lol

PS : the AI in the arcade machine is HD6309 asm. To me it's chinese like, so no help on that matter.....

[Brick Nash]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Ah so you finally didn't used the arcade tiles i've uploaded lol

PS : the AI in the arcade machine is HD6309 asm. To me it's chinese like, so no help on that matter.....

Sorry dude, I didn't realise you had put up links in that other thread. I'll definitely use them because as I say, the background is just one big static image right now so I can focus on the play mechanics, but when it gets to the scrolling it would be great to have them all ready prepared. Might take me three years to learn how to map scroll mind you haha but having the resources always helps.

Many thanks for that mate, it'll be a big help!

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

PS : the AI in the arcade machine is HD6309 asm. To me it's chinese like, so no help on that matter.....

If you know 68k then 6809/6309 is easy. It's the 68k's little brother after all
Brick Nash - that looks amazing

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Sorry dude, I didn't realise you had put up links in that other thread. I'll definitely use them because as I say, the background is just one big static image right now so I can focus on the play mechanics, but when it gets to the scrolling it would be great to have them all ready prepared. Might take me three years to learn how to map scroll mind you haha but having the resources always helps.

Many thanks for that mate, it'll be a big help!

Well do you want the sprites with the arcade colors ?

I can do them, as well as the ingame objects

[LeCaravage]

[Dan]

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Might take me three years to learn how to map scroll mind you haha but having the resources always helps.

Tome IV extension for Amos pro has got Map Functions, editor, examples etc etc.

Iv just googled for this extension, and by the surprise, this thread showed up : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=82921

... lol

[redblade]

Well done. I read that people say that AMOS is slow, but that seems to be flying. Keep up the good work. Is that running on a 68k ECS machine_ or a 64colour AGA machine?

[Brick Nash]

Dan - Yeah that was my first attempt at learning. I managed to get the extension to install and work but I could just never wrap my head around the actual "how to do it" even though the logic was simple enough. It's been a while since I looked at it so I probably have forgotten what little I knew.

Redblade - At the moment I have it running on a 68020 (no acceleration) with ECS Agnus and 2MB Chip RAM. If I do the same on a 68000 it slows to an unplayable and flickery snails pace. In saying that, it might run much faster when properly compiled and/or my code becomes more efficient than the rather messy pond it is right now, so it may run ok on a 68010 in the future.

[PortuguesePilot]

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Dan - Yeah that was my first attempt at learning. I managed to get the extension to install and work but I could just never wrap my head around the actual "how to do it" even though the logic was simple enough. It's been a while since I looked at it so I probably have forgotten what little I knew.

Redblade - At the moment I have it running on a 68020 (no acceleration) with ECS Agnus and 2MB Chip RAM. If I do the same on a 68000 it slows to an unplayable and flickery snails pace. In saying that, it might run much faster when properly compiled and/or my code becomes more efficient than the rather messy pond it is right now, so it may run ok on a 68010 in the future.

So I guess OCS and 68000 are out of the question. No problem! Just make the game AGA-only and use its advantages: more colours, more hardware, more speed, overall just "more". There's virtually no 68010 processors out there and the ECS margin is narrow too, so just make it AGA. I love the A500 but if it can't make the cut, then too bad. Most of us use an A1200 and/or WinUAE anyway...

[McTrinsic]

RTG possible?
Would allow quite a few A2000-Users and even some A500 (towered) users to enjoy this. And even the one Phoenix-User with a graphics adapter.
Not to mention the A3ks.