Wonderboy

[acidbottle]

New video, now with added sound, with thanks to saimon for that. Thanks to everyone in the entire scorpion community, massive help all of you

Full playthrough of rounds 1 and 2, hope to release something playable very soon, once 1 or 2 snags are ironed out.


[ Show youtube player ]

[saimon69]

hmm bass is too low, need to fix that

[skyzoo73]

Cool! It looks like the arcade!
Only little advice: when you take the fairy the invincibility effect should remain as long as it is still on the screen even when it is flying away.

[Marce]

Originally Posted by acidbottle

New video, now with added sound, with thanks to saimon for that. Thanks to everyone in the entire scorpion community, massive help all of you

Full playthrough of rounds 1 and 2, hope to release something playable very soon, once 1 or 2 snags are ironed out.


[ Show youtube player ]

sfx are ok but the music sucks compared to the arcade version, it sounds as if it were 1 only channel tune
wonderboy master system version music is better I think
can you try to use another wonderboy tune with more sound channels?

[saimon69]

well i did check the mod and bass in the video (channel 2) seems very low, not sure is an audio capture problem or a scorpion replay problem - and music is two channels, like in the arcade, did send a new version with acute lowered - i did consider a remix but then purists will go mad - guess cannot satisfy everybody

[nikosidis]

Originally Posted by saimon69

hmm bass is too low, need to fix that

Yepp, also the fx. I would turn down the main melodi.
That ticking in the sound is not nice.
Other that that it is nice.

[rothers]

This is looking really good! Loving these games being done properly on the Amiga!

[acidbottle]

Thanks for all the comments so far, good and bad. Creating a port is always a give and take task, thankfully the Amiga can handle a fair bit so while it may not be 1:1, I will be happy when the feel of the arcade is spot on.

Perfection in audio was actually my biggest challenge here. I am really grateful for saimon in stepping in with audio he had previously created. The file size of the mod was really tiny so it uses up hardly any chip mem. It definitely isnt a perfect match to the arcade but it is a really good rendition that just needs a little fine tune. I have just received an updated file and will check this out later. Thanks again

If the sfx suck that is entirely my bad! I very hastily ripped the audio from mame and ran through audacity, then reduced the sample rate a lot. It can be improved upon am sure and will have a look another day!

The fairy immune time is thankfully (I hope) quite an easy thing to address, cheers Skyzoo though for pointing that out!

[Radertified]

Additionally, in the arcade some of the apples can be collected by running through them, but here you run under them and would have to jump to collect.

Also the arcade has a sound when you throw your axe, but I'm not hearing it in the video.

Both aren't major. Overall the port seems to be spot on.

[rothers]

I don't think there is anything wrong with improving on the arcade - the Amiga after all is a more powerful machine. Better music/graphics/effects are a plus when comparing it to other systems.

If there was a megadrive port of Wonderboy they would have done exactly that. As long as the gameplay/levels remain the same.

[acidbottle]

I know exactly what you mean with the apples, it happens in quite a few places due to the fact the entire map is based on tiles and not able to position them in an exact x,y co-ordinate. However, I can create separate versions of the apple itself and move the actor's x,y co-ordinate so it would appear in a slightly different spot, which I may do in places though perhaps not all!

The axe sound I did have an issue with so removed it. Like with all the sound fx, if activated rapidly in quick succession they sometimes do not trigger at all, this happened a lot with the axe I think. Possibly a little quirk with Scorpion but will re-visit the sfx at some stage for sure though.

Talking of sound quirks, nikosidis is right, there does appear to be a slight click sound in the main melody. I ran the same mod through milkytracker and it is not there at all so is not the fault of saimon here. May need to adjust the volume a little to, thankfully volume support has now been added.

Just now fixed the fairy issue, now you are immune until it leaves the screen, hooray!

[skyzoo73]

Originally Posted by acidbottle

I know exactly what you mean with the apples, it happens in quite a few places due to the fact the entire map is based on tiles and not able to position them in an exact x,y co-ordinate. However, I can create separate versions of the apple itself and move the actor's x,y co-ordinate so it would appear in a slightly different spot, which I may do in places though perhaps not all!

The axe sound I did have an issue with so removed it. Like with all the sound fx, if activated rapidly in quick succession they sometimes do not trigger at all, this happened a lot with the axe I think. Possibly a little quirk with Scorpion but will re-visit the sfx at some stage for sure though.

Talking of sound quirks, nikosidis is right, there does appear to be a slight click sound in the main melody. I ran the same mod through milkytracker and it is not there at all so is not the fault of saimon here. May need to adjust the volume a little to, thankfully volume support has now been added.

Just now fixed the fairy issue, now you are immune until it leaves the screen, hooray!

Glad you are well disposed towards users who mention bugs, changes. Amiga developers usually tend to be, like, a little self-centered and not prone to advice. Wonderboy is a milestone in arcades, and is dear to many old fans like myself.

[rothers]

Thinking about it even the SMS version made some improvements on the arcade. I seem to remember you could choose to play either 'Wonderboy' or 'Super Wonderboy' on the SMS. I think the reset button selects, something like that. Super Wonderboy was harder.

[vulture]

Great vid! Two things I've noticed if I may:

The axe goes straight and not in an arc (starts high, then lower etc)

The other is on the second stage when having the skateboard... some clouds you are on correctly, others you are 2 - 3 pixels too high.

Keep up the great work!

[acidbottle]

Thanks for pointing these issues out.

The cloud platforms were a known issue and was going to get around to adjusting it, since you mentioned it already I got on the case. I think it should be correctly aligned with the clouds now but will do a few more tests, seemed alright in a small playthrough earlier.

The axe though is an entirely different entity. Projectiles are created using a preset within Scorpion and you can make a few adjustments to customise it. To make them follow the exact rules as the orginal has proven very tricky indeed. I have tried my best to create a similar feeling but know they are not exact. The egg hitting arc was also difficult to replicate in a similar way. In fact the egg situation is worse as you can hit the egg at various speeds/angles which determine the distance you fling it, which I cannot replicate 1:1 whatsoever. Both axe and egg are a best compromise. I tried at least keep the amount of projectiles at 2 max at one time, though this turns to 3 while on the skateboard, on occasion!

As others will point out, these old arcade games have so many little nuances, some are easy to replicate, others are a damn nightmare, unless you are an expert asm or machine code guru

As for Amiga developers, I have noted, from time to time, some developer conflict or another! In general, I think people just get very defensive when attacked, for any reason in life.

[spoUP]

The music seems very loud compared to the sfx. Maybe boost the sfx a little?
The bassline in the music is very clicky too.

Appreciate the port, it's looking better with each update!

[vulture]

@acidbottle

Still, a beautiful job you're doing m8!

[skyzoo73]

I noticed another little thing, when there is the fairy and you destroy the objects on the path the wrong sound is played. Maybe you already knew ...

[acidbottle]

Haha yeah, there is definitely a lot of polish needed

Sadly I have had no time whatsoever in the past couple of weeks to tweak things, as well as a major bug that earok has kindly offered to look at .. with the holidays coming up I hope to get this back on track!

[Anubis]

Just to say that you are doing amazing job m8!

Can't wait for playable demo or perhaps full version.