Would an accurate port of the original Xevious arcade be viable on the A500?

A500 · 02 April 2022, 10:23

Hi folks,

Xevious is one of my all-time arcade favourites (spent quite a many coin on it as a kid!), and I've always felt kind of sorry it was never ported to the Amiga. Seeing that we're getting great conversions of other arcade hits of the time (which is bloody fantastic!), the old dream of having the same game experience on my trusty Amiga has resurfaced again. Would this be possible from a technical viewpoint, either on the A500 or at least on the A1200?

S. Campbell · 02 April 2022, 12:25

It'd clearly be possible. Even the Atari ST managed a pretty decent version:

[ Show youtube player ]

And the Sharp X68000, which is pretty comparable to the Amiga power-wise, had a near-perfect one.

[ Show youtube player ]

dreadnought · 02 April 2022, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by S. Campbell

And the Sharp X68000, which is pretty comparable to the Amiga power-wise,

Hmmm....

That's not to say Xevious wouldn't be possible, of course, it's a 1982 game after all.

hitchhikr · 02 April 2022, 13:58

The answer to your question is yes.

A500 · 02 April 2022, 17:41

Thanks everybody for the answers! The ST version looks surprisingly good, I wonder if it has all the features of the original (gameplay and level-wise). The graphics look pretty close to the original. Perhaps it wouldn't be a humongous task to make a conversion using the ST version as a basis?

I sadly lack the skills to code anything worth a mention, but one can always dream and hope....

Galahad/FLT · 02 April 2022, 21:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by A500

Thanks everybody for the answers! The ST version looks surprisingly good, I wonder if it has all the features of the original (gameplay and level-wise). The graphics look pretty close to the original. Perhaps it wouldn't be a humongous task to make a conversion using the ST version as a basis?

I sadly lack the skills to code anything worth a mention, but one can always dream and hope....

I think if anyone were to tackle it, doing it from scratch would be the better option and not be limited by the choices the original ST programmer made.

Only thing I hate about Xevious is the "music", it really would benefit from new actual music, not the crap white noise they used originally.

Gorf · 02 April 2022, 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Only thing I hate about Xevious is the "music", it really would benefit from new actual music, not the crap white noise they used originally.

Thanks for saying it first!
The "music" in this game is some kind of elaborate torture...

saimon69 · 03 April 2022, 01:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Only thing I hate about Xevious is the "music", it really would benefit from new actual music, not the crap white noise they used originally.

Was kinda hypnotic and sorta help focusing, i remember i made a 423000 score on the arcade

A500 · 03 April 2022, 17:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by saimon69

Was kinda hypnotic and sorta help focusing, i remember i made a 423000 score on the arcade

Heh, that's how I remember it also. I'm not sure how I would experience it today though!

S. Campbell · 03 April 2022, 23:42

The sound in Xevious is arguably its most iconic and evocative feature, replacing that with some soft-rawk coder noodling would be a horrific crime.

saimon69 · 03 April 2022, 23:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by S. Campbell

The sound in Xevious is arguably its most iconic and evocative feature, replacing that with some soft-rawk coder noodling would be a horrific crime.

There could be an OST/AST option

Galahad/FLT · 04 April 2022, 00:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by S. Campbell

The sound in Xevious is arguably its most iconic and evocative feature, replacing that with some soft-rawk coder noodling would be a horrific crime.

"iconic" and "evocative"....... has someone changed the definitions of those words?

Arne · 05 April 2022, 02:24

Maybe it would be interesting to hear a music remix, well, maybe more like some further embroidery to break the monotony.

Xevious has some excellent concept art. The main ship is a lot cooler than it the sprite makes it out to be. Then there's the screw-drive tank enemy Grobda which strangely got its own game. And there's also a language and complex backstory. There's a version where the graphics have more interesting hues than the lifeless gray ramp seen in most ports, so that's definitely something I'd like to see in an Amiga version. I think using one of the blitting modes to do realistic transparent drop shadows might be cool (i.e. a palette trick).

Toni Galvez · 07 April 2022, 18:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I think if anyone were to tackle it, doing it from scratch would be the better option and not be limited by the choices the original ST programmer made.

Only thing I hate about Xevious is the "music", it really would benefit from new actual music, not the crap white noise they used originally.

If I remember well, there is a demo of Xevious for Amiga, because I played in mi A1200 in the late 90s.

But I can not find it anywhere.

A500 · 08 April 2022, 11:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toni Galvez

If I remember well, there is a demo of Xevious for Amiga, because I played in mi A1200 in the late 90s.

But I can not find it anywhere.

This came up in a search, seems to be quite recent: https://github.com/mazspork/xevious68k

kamelito · 08 April 2022, 18:34

[QUOTE=Galahad/FLT;1538967
Only thing I hate about Xevious is the "music", it really would benefit from new actual music, not the crap white noise they used originally.[/QUOTE]

It is the case of many early Arcades games and having Amigabport with kinda the same tune is not great IMHO.

kamelito · 08 April 2022, 18:36

Nice find.

saimon69 · 08 April 2022, 20:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamelito

It is the case of many early Arcades games and having Amigabport with kinda the same tune is not great IMHO.

I would keep the original tune as an option for those who appreciates it and add some remixes from other versions like PSX or similar

mcgeezer · 08 April 2022, 22:39

A500 could do xevious ( or slap fight ) with ease
Good project for someone to do for sure.

jotd · 29 January 2023, 23:29

Well, it's not that easy for a 1:1 port because of the strange local palettes the game uses.

Game uses 128 colors, which could be reduced but it also has an OSD. ATM I'm focusing on an AGA port which should run on bare A1200. There are also memory constraints because of all the lookup tables and various palettes to emulate.

This project was initiated by Mark McDougall, a talented coder who is doing the NeoGeo version which is way beyond the amiga version, but the cool thing is: I don't have a clue about how the game works. All Z80 to 68k reverse of the game logic is done by Mark and I "just" have to implement the hardware dependent calls that he designed.

So more like an emulator, but not as slow as MAME, else it would be useless.

http://retroports.blogspot.com/

Here's a WinUAE video to prove the concept. It's highly buggy (lots of gfx glitches) but you get the idea:

[ Show youtube player ]

02 April 2022, 10:23	#1
A500 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Finland Posts: 361	Would an accurate port of the original Xevious arcade be viable on the A500? Hi folks, Xevious is one of my all-time arcade favourites (spent quite a many coin on it as a kid!), and I've always felt kind of sorry it was never ported to the Amiga. Seeing that we're getting great conversions of other arcade hits of the time (which is bloody fantastic!), the old dream of having the same game experience on my trusty Amiga has resurfaced again. Would this be possible from a technical viewpoint, either on the A500 or at least on the A1200?

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02 April 2022, 12:25	#2
S. Campbell Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Left a bit/ Fire! Posts: 323	It'd clearly be possible. Even the Atari ST managed a pretty decent version: [ Show youtube player ] And the Sharp X68000, which is pretty comparable to the Amiga power-wise, had a near-perfect one. [ Show youtube player ]

02 April 2022, 13:58	#4
hitchhikr Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: somewhere else Posts: 511	The answer to your question is yes.

02 April 2022, 17:41	#5
A500 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Finland Posts: 361	Thanks everybody for the answers! The ST version looks surprisingly good, I wonder if it has all the features of the original (gameplay and level-wise). The graphics look pretty close to the original. Perhaps it wouldn't be a humongous task to make a conversion using the ST version as a basis? I sadly lack the skills to code anything worth a mention, but one can always dream and hope....

03 April 2022, 23:42	#10
S. Campbell Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Left a bit/ Fire! Posts: 323	The sound in Xevious is arguably its most iconic and evocative feature, replacing that with some soft-rawk coder noodling would be a horrific crime.

05 April 2022, 02:24	#13
Arne Hobby/Indie gamedev Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Southern Sweden Posts: 110	Maybe it would be interesting to hear a music remix, well, maybe more like some further embroidery to break the monotony. Xevious has some excellent concept art. The main ship is a lot cooler than it the sprite makes it out to be. Then there's the screw-drive tank enemy Grobda which strangely got its own game. And there's also a language and complex backstory. There's a version where the graphics have more interesting hues than the lifeless gray ramp seen in most ports, so that's definitely something I'd like to see in an Amiga version. I think using one of the blitting modes to do realistic transparent drop shadows might be cool (i.e. a palette trick).

08 April 2022, 18:34	#16
kamelito Zone Friend Join Date: May 2006 Location: France Posts: 1,801	[QUOTE=Galahad/FLT;1538967 Only thing I hate about Xevious is the "music", it really would benefit from new actual music, not the crap white noise they used originally.[/QUOTE] It is the case of many early Arcades games and having Amigabport with kinda the same tune is not great IMHO.

08 April 2022, 18:36	#17
kamelito Zone Friend Join Date: May 2006 Location: France Posts: 1,801	Nice find.

08 April 2022, 22:39	#19
mcgeezer Registered User Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Sunderland, England Posts: 2,702	A500 could do xevious ( or slap fight ) with ease Good project for someone to do for sure.

29 January 2023, 23:29	#20
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,160	Well, it's not that easy for a 1:1 port because of the strange local palettes the game uses. Game uses 128 colors, which could be reduced but it also has an OSD. ATM I'm focusing on an AGA port which should run on bare A1200. There are also memory constraints because of all the lookup tables and various palettes to emulate. This project was initiated by Mark McDougall, a talented coder who is doing the NeoGeo version which is way beyond the amiga version, but the cool thing is: I don't have a clue about how the game works. All Z80 to 68k reverse of the game logic is done by Mark and I "just" have to implement the hardware dependent calls that he designed. So more like an emulator, but not as slow as MAME, else it would be useless. http://retroports.blogspot.com/ Here's a WinUAE video to prove the concept. It's highly buggy (lots of gfx glitches) but you get the idea: [ Show youtube player ]

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