Missing content in Batman the movie?

[PatmanQC]

As you can tell from my username I'm a huge Batman fan. I have played through this game numerous times and it is definitely one of my favorites titles on the system. When researching my latest video I came across the MS-DOS version which featured a number of cut scenes that were not in the Amiga or Atari ST version.



As you can see from the enclosed snapshot only one of those were in the final product for the Amiga.

Any idea why that is?

[zygzak]

MSDOS games were intended to be played from HDD with small number of titles which could be played from floppies (for example Budokan). In contrary on Amiga there was an age where publishers pointed games should use as less discs as possible. So it is quite normal that MSDOS games could and had additional content. Sorry, but that is how it was.
Those screens are nothing big deal to be put into Amiga version but then not 2 but maybe 4 discs should be used.

[Galahad/FLT]

ALL those cut scenes were in the Atari ST version.

As Zygzak hinted at, disks were a premium back in the day, a software company could save themselves lots of money by releasing on less disks.

But specifically in the Amiga versions case, I think it was having to rush complete the game for inclusion in the Amiga 500 Batman Pack from Commodore, game was already on 2 disks, and this was in the earlier days when quite a few UK software houses were a little bit reluctant to use packers and compressors until they knew they were reliable enough, and including those pictures meant it wouldn't all fit on those two disks.

What you have to remember is the Atari ST was mainly chip music, so for instance in the game Wolfchild by Core Design, the entire music in the game for the ST version was about 6K, whereas the Amiga version was over 130K for just the title music alone, and back then, samples didn't compress very well, so that would have increased the size of the game for the Amiga and hence the 2 disks.

Soon after the Batman Pack, Ocean then actually used a compressor and released a 1 disk version, but didn't add the pictures. I'm sure with some effort they could be put in.

[malko]

Maybe some knowledgeable could handle those extra in an Amiga "S.E" version ?

[PatmanQC]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

ALL those cut scenes were in the Atari ST version.

As Zygzak hinted at, disks were a premium back in the day, a software company could save themselves lots of money by releasing on less disks.

But specifically in the Amiga versions case, I think it was having to rush complete the game for inclusion in the Amiga 500 Batman Pack from Commodore, game was already on 2 disks, and this was in the earlier days when quite a few UK software houses were a little bit reluctant to use packers and compressors until they knew they were reliable enough, and including those pictures meant it wouldn't all fit on those two disks.

What you have to remember is the Atari ST was mainly chip music, so for instance in the game Wolfchild by Core Design, the entire music in the game for the ST version was about 6K, whereas the Amiga version was over 130K for just the title music alone, and back then, samples didn't compress very well, so that would have increased the size of the game for the Amiga and hence the 2 disks.

Soon after the Batman Pack, Ocean then actually used a compressor and released a 1 disk version, but didn't add the pictures. I'm sure with some effort they could be put in.

Never realized that about the chip tunes the ST version. I also wasn't aware the cut scenes were on the Atari ST version.

Thanks

[PatmanQC]

Related to my original topic question, here is a video on all the various games from the 1989 film including the Amiga conversion

[ Show youtube player ]

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

What you have to remember is the Atari ST was mainly chip music, so for instance in the game Wolfchild by Core Design, the entire music in the game for the ST version was about 6K, whereas the Amiga version was over 130K for just the title music alone, and back then, samples didn't compress very well, so that would have increased the size of the game for the Amiga and hence the 2 disks.

Wonder what did made go the size up, in-game musics in Wolfchild are incredibly tiny for mods (max 30k each - then the fact that those use only two channels is, in this case, secondary)

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

ALL those cut scenes were in the Atari ST version.

As Zygzak hinted at, disks were a premium back in the day, a software company could save themselves lots of money by releasing on less disks.

But specifically in the Amiga versions case, I think it was having to rush complete the game for inclusion in the Amiga 500 Batman Pack from Commodore, game was already on 2 disks, and this was in the earlier days when quite a few UK software houses were a little bit reluctant to use packers and compressors until they knew they were reliable enough, and including those pictures meant it wouldn't all fit on those two disks.

What you have to remember is the Atari ST was mainly chip music, so for instance in the game Wolfchild by Core Design, the entire music in the game for the ST version was about 6K, whereas the Amiga version was over 130K for just the title music alone, and back then, samples didn't compress very well, so that would have increased the size of the game for the Amiga and hence the 2 disks.

Soon after the Batman Pack, Ocean then actually used a compressor and released a 1 disk version, but didn't add the pictures. I'm sure with some effort they could be put in.

Yes. I have proposed to included them. I think i have them somewhere

EDIT : please check the zone, i have zoned the screens in IFF format.

[Dastardly]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Soon after the Batman Pack, Ocean then actually used a compressor and released a 1 disk version, but didn't add the pictures. I'm sure with some effort they could be put in.

I had the Batman Pack and the version I got was the one disk.