Flying Shark new Amiga port [was: Going to Drop this here :)]

[saimon69]

Are you frustrated? Do the long idle wait make spin your... cubes? Well, ours too!

[ Show youtube player ]

[Rob68K]

Please just finish game.
I want to see this finished.

[Cris1997XX]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

Please just finish game.
I want to see this finished.

How about you guys give him a break and do something else instead? He's probably got a really busy life, just like the rest of us, and he can't spend all his time working on the game.

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by Cris1997XX

How about you guys give him a break and do something else instead? He's probably got a really busy life, just like the rest of us, and he can't spend all his time working on the game.

As one of the 2 coders responsible for the original Amiga port from the ST and one who can see the compromises resulting in that heavily squeezed fortnight of effort, I think it would be understandable that I would be enthusiastic about seeing someone else's attempt at a 'proper' Amiga conversion, not least of all by someone that was so vocally passionate in criticising the original port, which while certainly not perfect in any respects, WAS completed and subsequently published.

I am currently working on another arcade conversion for the unexpanded A500 right now so my criticism doesn't exactly come from a place of not understanding the amount of work involved with this sort of thing. On the contrary, I get it. That's why I get slightly concerned when I see a project like this withering on the vine and effort being put into irrelevant gimmicks like this pause mode when the time spent could have gone into pushing the actual game ahead.

I was never a producer but I have enough experience in game development and with the downward trajectory of enthusiasm reflecting on meaningful progress to know a doomed project when I see it.

Please prove me wrong by completing this game.

[Marconelly]

This is from the Youtube description text of the pause screen video:

To all of you who are interested in this project, in the middle of next month there will be a demo to play test (I hope I don't promise too much). So hold on!

Two more weeks! (hopefully )

[Megalomaniac]

Can't wait to see something playable, this is a promising conversion. In truth the official Flying Shark conversion wasn't one of the worst though - compare it to what we got for 1943 or Scrambled Spirits much later for proof. If I'm correctly understanding that Rob only had 2 weeks to convert it from ST to Amiga, it's impressive that it has noticeably less slowdown than it does on the ST, so perhaps the Amiga custom chips did get some use?

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

it's impressive that it has noticeably less slowdown than it does on the ST, so perhaps the Amiga custom chips did get some use?

I think it's accurate to say that most of the display functions, where it made sense to do so, used the blitter.

I didn't actually have any hands-on coding on the main project, acting 'merely' as a consultant/tools/data wrangler for Rob H who hadn't touched an Amiga before but was already a really good z80 guy and was in the process of finishing off the ST version of R-Type with KDJ.

I also did that terrible music using ST-01 samples which, to be fair, weren't as 'infamous' in mainstream games dev at that time as they became.

I guess what we needed was the excellent 'AY-Emulator' routines that Neil Crossley came up with a couple of years later where you could effectively run an ST sound routine on the Amiga with very little overhead. Sure, it would have sounded exactly the same as the ST version but IMO ( and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this ) that would have been much better.

It has to be said, Henry Clark and Karl Jeffery did an amazing job on the ST version which used a 5 screen 'hardware scrolling' setup which I still haven't managed to fully get my head around. The sprite routines were pretty fast too considering they had to be shifted on the fly with no buffering. I believe Karl did all the tech stuff on FS and then Henry basically did the game on top of that. Karl already had some dealings with 68k from his 'Rampage' conversion to the ST and I believe had previously released some stuff on QL, so he was very much ahead of the game compared to most. Already a good z80 coder before that too.

Right, I'll shut up about non-Amiga stuff now.

But in any case, do you see why I have an enthusiasm for seeing this project get finished? I think if this wasn't happening I'd be perhaps inclined to have a crack at it myself but to be honest, I don't really have a love for the game that I'd need to see it through. In any case, I'm currently in the process of 'fixing my past' with another project which is a pretty big deal and I can't afford to get sidetracked.

So yeah. Come on guys, get it done already.

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

As one of the 2 coders responsible for the original Amiga port from the ST and one who can see the compromises resulting in that heavily squeezed fortnight of effort, I think it would be understandable that I would be enthusiastic about seeing someone else's attempt at a 'proper' Amiga conversion

Nice to see someone from the original team of the old port!
Seems I had missed your earlier posts.

Imho the original port is pretty decent. We're kinda used lately to see most focus on remakes of actual terrible ports. This clearly isn't the case. Except the fact that it falls into the category of straight ST->Amiga
and deviates quite a lot from the arcade. So the idea here is to see whether a more arcade accurate port could be made that also makes better use of the Amiga hardware.

Originally Posted by Rob68K

But in any case, do you see why I have an enthusiasm for seeing this project get finished? I think if this wasn't happening I'd be perhaps inclined to have a crack at it myself but to be honest, I don't really have a love for the game that I'd need to see it through. In any case, I'm currently in the process of 'fixing my past' with another project which is a pretty big deal and I can't afford to get sidetracked.

So yeah. Come on guys, get it done already.

This is a very low priority side project for me and Magnus, so we're taking it slow. Magnus started this a couple years back as an experiment and he's been working on it little by little and on and off ever since. However since my recent involvement a few months back, it has picked up steam quite a lot. Ever since we have done a lot of work while implementing the new gfx and sound, plus a ton of polishing. All and all, level 1 is 100% ready and playable and I'm gonna showcase it in the upcoming Amicamp event (in a week from today). Magnus is also gonna release the demo in the upcoming days or sometime within April (hopefully).

After that I'll try to complete all needed gfx conversions/remakes for level 2 and then the next levels. Again a lot of work but with the sprites ready and the foundation already in place it should not be as difficult (except in lv2 we'll probably need to switch palettes on the fly, so that is a tricky part in regards to the work ahead). Overall I cannot promise anything, either the game being finished or being completed anytime soon. But we're having fun nonetheless and progress is nice so far

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by Tsak

So the idea here is to see whether a more arcade accurate port could be made that also makes better use of the Amiga hardware.

......

But we're having fun nonetheless and progress is nice so far

It's a great idea.

And at this point in history, in this context, there's really no point in doing something unless it's enjoyable.

[zzbylu]

Flying Shark, demo 1 level:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Cris1997XX]

I'm waiting for the comments from people who think the game's music is crap

[skyzoo73]

I tried it now on my A600, and it runs like a charm. Very smooth action, nice big game area, graphics are great. Fantastic job !

[Adropac2]

looks and sounds great. Is this something we'll be able to support financially if we want as it looks like it'll be be worth it

[Rob68K]

This is starting to look really promising. Great job guys.

[Cimmerian]

Demo looks and sounds great!

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by Adropac2

looks and sounds great. Is this something we'll be able to support financially if we want as it looks like it'll be be worth it

I think you'd probably be better supporting 'general development' rather than a single title that isn't properly licensed.

A lot of this retro stuff is likely overlooked all the while it's being done from a 'fan' perspective but I can imagine that once you start making money out of it, you might end up with at the very least a cease and desist from a lawyer.

Yes, we all need to make money and it's always right to be paid for one's work but equally, the original owner of the copyright material can fairly claim the right to also be paid and without a proper license in place, this has the potential to get messy.

[CCRider]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

This is starting to look really promising. Great job guys.

Starting?

I would pay real money for this demo alone.

[AlphaAmiga]

Just loaded it up ony my heavily expanded A1200 - wouldn't recognise either my Competition Pro pad or my Saitek joysticks when they were plugged into port 2 (mouse occupying port one).

Was able to dig out my Cruiser joystick, and after unplugging mouse and plugging that in (still into port 2), game recognised something was happening & I was able play.

Game ran flawlessly and felt nice to play.

[Adropac2]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

I think you'd probably be better supporting 'general development' rather than a single title that isn't properly licensed.

A lot of this retro stuff is likely overlooked all the while it's being done from a 'fan' perspective but I can imagine that once you start making money out of it, you might end up with at the very least a cease and desist from a lawyer.

Yes, we all need to make money and it's always right to be paid for one's work but equally, the original owner of the copyright material can fairly claim the right to also be paid and without a proper license in place, this has the potential to get messy.

yes that sounds sensible

[mahen]

Great work !! Thanks so much