Bubble Bobble 4 CPC :)

For those not aware about this, at last a DSK is out for this wonderfull remake for the Amstrad CPC !

http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/cng_bb4cpc.htm

If you have a CPC or if you are using an emulator (i dvice you WinAPE), you MUST download this one. Superb conversion, far better than the official one !

[P-J]

I'll certainly try this out.

It raises an interested question though-- What would some of these early arcade ports have been like if they'd had access to the breadth of resources and information we have now?

I'd wager there'd be a lot more absolute killer games on the 8 & 16-bit formats, for sure. Just look at the Batman demo on the CPC.

[kamelito]

Yep, Batman Forever demo is just amazing !

Eh eh interesting you talk about this demo because i saw it yesterday for the first time on my CPC with bubble bobble 4.

The demo is really incredible yes, but i am partially agree with you. I mean that to do a demo is one think, to do a game totally another one. Most of the demo are using a very big part of memory (sometimes the almost total of memory) for one effect. In a game all is very different, you have many many constraints. To proove that for example you can do a real time zoomer in a demo doesn't proove at all that you can do this in a game. And it doesn't proove that you can't do this too.

I remember one article in the french magazine Joystick written my Andrew Braybrook during the creation of the amiga game "Uridium 2". He was talking about a sinus effect he had to do with a very small size of RAM, comparing it with the same effects on demo.

In my opinion, the main problem at the time was the time left to the developpers to do a game and the total lack of quality control during the process.

Some CPC games are still "the best ever" todays and until a demo group prooves me the contrary, i will think that games like AMC, Barbarian 1 & 2, Operation wolf, Target renegade, Renegade, Gryzor, Robocop or Batman the movie, Chase HQ, Arkanoid 2 are taking advantages of the CPC as much as it could be possible to do. I did read by the past that the two coders Mike Lamb and John Brandwood were doing a competition to save the maximum cycles as possible in Z80 asm.

Games today would be better yes but not necessary as much as we can think. They would be well polished, systematically with demos effects like ruptures, rasters, a better soundtrack. The knowledge would egalize the quality but not necessary make possible "really impossible things".

I am still waiting someone who can make a sequel of Target renegade or Gryzor.

With Paul Kooistra is one of the guys today that can make this possible, Star sabre is really an impressive game with a perfect playability.

And Mr Gonzalez did a so perfect job with BB4, you are THE MAN to achieve this monumental classic cult game !!!

[Interceptor]

looks cool i'll have to check it out, about a million years ago i had the misfortune of doing a review of the official cpc version of bubble bobble, it still pains me today, all that blue and red, yuck.

@interceptor : this new version will be perfect for your eyes now . But also for your hears, because now there is also the legendary tune !!!

[P-J]

How come the sprites flicker so much? Is that normal?

I've tried a couple of different emulators now.

[Retro-Nerd]

Yeah, there are indeed flickering sprites (on hardware too?). Though far better than the original Arcade port.

[Amiga1992]

I Am surprised there was no official version of this for the CPC. Nice one!

This also reminds me that there's a huge space left for games that never were poirted to the Amiga. I wish more people would get into that. It's not a waste of time at all, and it hones your mad coding skills when trying to port a game, specially if you have to deal with limitations and cut downs from the original platform it was created for.

[Retro-Nerd]

Of course there is an official CPC port, but lousy.

[ Show youtube player ]

[gibs]

Just wonderfull !!

I've been following this at the CPC Wiki Forums, and it's looking pretty neat indeed. That and many of the other games - even I have a CPC project planned, but by the time I get time I will probably have an FPGAArcade in hand and be engrossed in programming something for that.

What the modern community has done though is provide the wealth of information so that you have no excuse to make a rubbish game (technically), although getting the most out of the system is still a challenge.

[Amiga1992]

Video of it running.
[ Show youtube player ]

[mikele]

CPC was my favourite 8 bit machine in the 80s and Batman Forever demo just blew my mind! BB4 is amazing too. Now I feel urge to buy a real Amstrad.

[s2325]

I think only loud jumping was really bad in original CPC version of Bubble Bobble.

@s325: yes it was and also the jumps were taking too long time in comparison of cng version where they are really reactive. Bubble bobble wasnt so bad on cpc i agree (i finished it when i was young) but the cng version is really great we are all agree .

The sprites are flckering yes, it is the only thing that can be blamed, but the game is still so good even with this problem.

@hattig : yes it is my opinion too and what i was talking about above : no excuse to do anrubbish game today .

@akira : perfect link to see and hear the big improvements in BB4 !!! Thanks .

Someone should ask CNG is the sprites flickering can be corrected or not (as everyone knows, there can be A LOT of sprites in the screen in this game).

[Cammy]

Are there any good Amstrad CPC emulators anyone would recommend for the Amiga?

I dout a cpc emultor on amiga can run at full speed but i presume that there are some yes, like c64 ones.

[lilalurl]

R-type CPC also got a remake (for 128K computers):
http://www.rtype.fr/Game_Features.html
Gameplay:
[ Show youtube player ]

Comparative video (original version VS remake):
[ Show youtube player ]

[dlfrsilver]

R-type 2012 on CPC is even better than the C64 and 16 bits releases :P hehehe.