Supercars 2 AGA

[jotd]

Well that's the AGA version. If I set up options to change stuff, then it will look very much like the ECS version.Maybe, maybe the water should be dimmer. We'll see.

ATM only the in-game music is optional.

[TjLaZer]

Looks like a nice improvement as the ECS version seems pretty dark and dull. Keep up the great work!

[jotd]

The ECS version doesn't look like much but is really great graphically & sound wise. It uses EHB (64 colors) for most pictures, and for the shades during gameplay.

But as explained in the AGA enhancement of the car, in ECS it's nearly impossible to have colored cars like that because the same frames are used for all cars, so palette/plane tricks have to be performed. And in 32 colors, only 3 different colors are possible. Programmers did their best, but OCS is frustrating, specially on top down games when you can't use sprites or copper effects to increase the number of colors.

Well, the status bar uses another palette actually but that doesn't really count.

Update: integrated J.M.D. aka Saimon69 2-track tunes for in-game, and redirected sfx to ptplayer too (removing engine sounds). The tunes are really great. I hope I can post an updated version tonight or tomorrow.

[Piramania]

Originally Posted by rare_j

The car colours are really nice.
The blue for the water is a bit too bright (in my opinion) - perhaps thats just because I'm used to all the water being dull green!! Probably could do with being toned back just a little though.

I agree with rare_j - the blue water is a tad too bright (did an image search on "pond from above", and a darker blue or even a bit greenish sems to be more realistic).

But once again - awesome work, jotd!

[ransom1122]

Dark Blue seems better I agree

[jotd]

I'm going to try a darker blue texture

[saimon69]

Maybe with a bit more blue on the RGB scale, right now is on the metallic blue zone - but then if is a shared color might not be possible...

[jotd]

No time for this right now but I agree, the deep blue color looks great. I'll change that in the next release.

In the meantime, I can't resist sharing a new alpha version. There are some wrong colors, some glitches (gates) but it has colored cars and (optional) in-game music (5 different tunes!!) by saimon69. All explained in "history.txt" file.

I've zoned the new alpha. Enjoy.

[saimon69]

Hmm do in need WHDload to use this? I don't have it in my Winuae

[Gzegzolka]

Personally I am in opposition - in my humble idea bright blue watter looks nicer and got more arcade fell. Too much dark blue and it will turn into swamp not lake. Maybe just tune little down bright blue, but keep it nice visually vivid color.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

Personally I am in opposition - in my humble idea bright blue watter looks nicer and got more arcade fell. Too much dark blue and it will turn into swamp not lake. Maybe just tune little down bright blue, but keep it nice visually vivid color.

The current tone is nice, but a bit faint, so a point or two of blue should do it

[jotd]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Hmm do in need WHDload to use this? I don't have it in my Winuae

a non whdload version is planned, but ATM whdload is required for system takeover & file loading.

[DanielAllsopp]

This is great JOTD, I've just got around to playing it, amazing work. As you know, one of my favourite games!

I did get a crash when playing with in-game music selected though. After the course information was finishing I got dumped back out to workbench. Do you need a dump or log or something from that next time I come across it?

Oh, please re-insert the driving school advert back in, part of my childhood seeing that screen Also, did the MF intro go too?

Keep it up, looking good!

[jotd]

the MF intro was removed by mistake (debug mode). I'll reinstate it. Not that enthusiast for the driving school ad, though. Maybe an option

For the in-game music, yeah could be nice to get the .whdl_register file.

[jabybau]

Tried the latest version, if I enable "in-game music" then there's only a black screen when the level starts.

Untick this and all is ok.

Tried using SnoopDos and no errors, please see attached image:

[jotd]

A file is probably corrupt. I'll fix that.

[Whitesnake]

Originally Posted by ExiE

It's a pity that you didn't get your hands on Supercars International DOS sources too
The movement of the cars, including drifting, look really cool in that version.

Having played all three of them quite a lot I'd agree that Supercars International is best game in the series. Obviously this is a matter of opinion but I like the way International plays; It is tight, responsive and faster and the overall feature/presentation is much nicer. I also like the car sprites.

If the source code was available to Supercars International I'd be curious as to what specification would be required to have a similar port and keep it all running in a similar/smooth manner. Maybe at least an 030 at 33Mhz? If I remember on DOS it needs at least a 486 or higher or it will run slow.

[jotd]

I recently tried to play it with dosbox but the scrolling was awful and the game was 1fps.... I'm probably missing a dosbox setting (directX) but couldn't find it.

Shame as I'm sure I played properly years ago on another PC

Porting a game like this needs a full rewrite because the scrolling for instance is completely different. Even with the source, I'm not doing it (note: it's X86 C or asm, not 68000, and as always those DOS to amiga ports will be slow because of display). Ask someone else

I tested the AGA port yesterday evening on my 68060 and it appeared real smooth compared to the ECS version, even with one extra plane. Probably because code now runs in fast ram.

I confirm that the music crashes the game. Strange. It used to work. I'll find the issue, no worries.

I'm too much a fan of Supercars 2 to prefer Supercars International. And I like the way SC2 plays.

However I admit that the SC international screens (some I have ripped for the AGA version ) are better, that there's the Supercars first opus car salesman part, that you can race the tracks backwards (cheap way of getting more tracks WITHOUT redesigning any grrrr....)

And the title music is just great too. I tried to rip it but it's not an Amiga module...

[gimbal]

I like Supercars 2 the most too, except for that first level on easy mode. It's actually one of the harder levels for me due to the really slow speed and the lack of weapons!

[Fiery Phoenix]

I had the scrolling issue on SuperCars International too, but played nice and smooth in DosBox when CPU Cycles set to Max