Sword of Sodan. How was it done?

[trydowave]

I was always impressed with this game. The sprites are gigantic. Since the Amiga doesn't have the best sprite capabilities does anyone know how it was pulled off?
Some of the characters look as big as the Art of Fighting Sprites on the Neo Geo!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by trydowave

I was always impressed with this game. The sprites are gigantic. Since the Amiga doesn't have the best sprite capabilities does anyone know how it was pulled off?
Some of the characters look as big as the Art of Fighting Sprites on the Neo Geo!

Probably was done with BOB's not hardware sprites.

If you also check out how fast the game scrolls (its slow), thats why it can blit those large BOB's and look impressive.

[d4rk3lf]

Sorry for going slightly off topic.

I was about to ask the same question for the game: Deliverance.
Very large sprites (not as large as Sword of Sodan, but still...), and is very fast and responsive.

I discovered it recently, and was impressed how it looked and run on my A500.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Sorry for going slightly off topic.

I was about to ask the same question for the game: Deliverance.
Very large sprites (not as large as Sword of Sodan, but still...), and is very fast and responsive.

I discovered it recently, and was impressed how it looked and run on my A500.

Enemies and Stormlord are only in 25frames if I remember correctly, game still looks great though.

[trydowave]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Probably was done with BOB's not hardware sprites.

If you also check out how fast the game scrolls (its slow), thats why it can blit those large BOB's and look impressive.

would it be impossible to scroll fast and smooth with sprites that large? or bobs

[gimbal]

No, not possible. The Amiga was not capable.

(Don't mind me, that's actually only a magic spell which raises the people who can prove it wrong from their slumber).

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by gimbal

No, not possible. The Amiga was not capable.

(Don't mind me, that's actually only a magic spell which raises the people who can prove it wrong from their slumber).

Quickly checked a 320x200 screenshot, and the BOBs seem to be around 64x115 big.

Moving and blitting one of these in 50fpx shouldn't pose a problem, but a couple of them is definitely over the Amigas capabilities.

[trydowave]

i was looking at dangerous streets (which i think has some nice large sprites even though the game is atrocious).
I remember ocs being the same as aga with less colours but after watching some videos on YT it seems that ocs has reduced sprite size.

going back to the point being made that ocs could handle one sprite that size smoothly. do you think it could at least handle two?

(thinking of a art of fighting port, 2 large sprites and one background, no scaling obviously)

if not could AGA handle something like that?

Also. Final Fight, although not very good, has lots of large characters on screen. were these bobs?

thanks

[Tigerskunk]

Depends on fps plus used planes.

Megablast draws tons of stuff each frame, but works at only 16,7 fps.

On 50 fps with 4BPL, you'd not be able to draw more than one of the Sword of Sodan BOBs.

[coder76]

It would be possible to separate scrolling from blitting bobs in a way that would allow 50 FPS for scrolling, but slower FPS for bobs. But this is trickier to implement correctly, as you would need to use the blitter in interrupts (using blitter for scrolling needs to have priority) and also in non-interrupt code at the same time. This would cause problems and result in failed blits, if care is not taken with blitter setup.