Atari-Forum

Here's the first beta release of Cho Ren Sha 68k for the Atari Falcon030.

Requirements:

• Atari Falcon030 with 14 MB RAM (alternative: 4 MB RAM and at least 8 MB Fast-RAM. Please try to boot without accessories and auto folder programs and/or a lower desktop video mode if the program hangs on startup).

Supports:

• Jaguar Pad/Power Pad.
• TV/RGB and VGA.

Features:

• DSP assisted sprite engine.
• Up to 65536 colours.
• Gameplay recording and replay.
• Highscore saving.

Notes:

• The first beta does not support accelerated machines.
• Scrolling will be added later.
• No in game music.
• Should work with an accelerator which guarantees the synchronisation between CPU and DSP (Nemesis, Phantom, Skunk(?), ...).
• Use the arrow keys and the LEFT SHIFT and CONTROL keys if you don't have a joystick attached.
• Sample replay seems to have some problems within the menu.

Known issues so far:

• Please use a "non ST compatible" screen mode before starting the game to avoid a garbled display after exiting the game.
• Needs an original TOS version (like TOS 4.02) due to the usage of the DSP interface.
• Be careful with the "in game settings" to prevent a game freeze.

Please note that there's a special binary for the Hatari emulator (older versions) in case you're having display problems.

Download it here: Cho Ren Sha 68k for the Atari Falcon030 (Beta 1)

Some video impressions (taken from the "X68000 porting" thread):

"Bullet Hell"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87EMhNkTkeo

"Insanity"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voiRnr72YhQ

Have fun!

Edit: issues added.

Woohoooooo!!

I just tried it. It's really fun, incredible sprite action!
I'm not very good at shoot them up, my best score is 392572.

Holy crap that looks smooth! Gonna have to get my machine hooked up again and try it out.

What's the DSP doing for the sprites exactly? i did some pure software sprites and only got up to around 27 16x16 pixel sprites (in true colour) with background before I started losing frames.

This works and looks really great!

The normal version works fine latest Hatari from Mercurial (didn't even try the version for older Hatari versions).

Only minor thing is that when one exits back to GEM desktop, screen is messed.

Needs real TOS as EmuTOS doesn't support DSP XBios() calls yet.

CiH wrote:Woohoooooo!!

DrTypo wrote:I just tried it. It's really fun, incredible sprite action!
I'm not very good at shoot them up, my best score is 392572.

That's not bad! I'm not good at playing it either. Luckily it has a cool replay function to watch all the bosses.

LaceySnr wrote:What's the DSP doing for the sprites exactly? i did some pure software sprites and only got up to around 27 16x16 pixel sprites (in true colour) with background before I started losing frames.

The DSP tracks all the sprite movement on the screen to calculate the differences of the overlapping areas of two successive frames. I.e. the engine processes only the pixels which need to be restored. E.g.: the background on a non moving sprite doesn't need to be restored.

Eero Tamminen wrote:Only minor thing is that when one exits back to GEM desktop, screen is messed.
Needs real TOS as EmuTOS doesn't support DSP XBios() calls yet.

Ah thanks for the report. For the time being please use a "non-compatible" screen mode to avoid the messed screen.

Amazing stuff Anima, thank you for your hard work!

Feels like playing Mame on fast PC

Well done. Can't wait to try it on the real thing. Where did I put my PCI SCSI card?

Works like a charm and what a good reason to make use of my Powerpad, which otherwise just collects dust on the shelf!

EvilFranky wrote:Amazing stuff Anima, thank you for your hard work!

AdamK wrote:Feels like playing Mame on fast PC

Well at least it keeps the framerate playable.

alexh wrote:Well done. Can't wait to try it on the real thing. Where did I put my PCI SCSI card?

bear wrote:Works like a charm and what a good reason to make use of my Powerpad, which otherwise just collects dust on the shelf!

Great! Can you please tell me if the Power Pad works fine with the Beta 1? I just emulated one to check the implementation using Hatari.

Tested on my Falcon with 50Mhz DSP: okay !!! (VGA)

Hi,

Congratulations, it's really a great work.
Do you plan some other ports ?

Thanks a lot

Have fun, stay (H)atari
Laurent

Great! Can you please tell me if the Power Pad works fine with the Beta 1? I just emulated one to check the implementation using Hatari.

Yes it does.

Well this is ridiculously awesome. Looks great!

jvas wrote:Tested on my Falcon with 50Mhz DSP: okay !!! (VGA)

Good news. Thanks for the report.

LaurentS wrote:Congratulations, it's really a great work.
Do you plan some other ports ?

Thanks Laurent!
Well, in short: yes but most probably from a different system. Stay tuned.

bear wrote:Yes it does.

Ah, ok. I am thinking about putting the pause function on the appropriate button. I hope to win today an auction to get a Jaguar Pad for testing.

Mindthreat wrote:Well this is ridiculously awesome. Looks great!

very cool game and its works fine with jagpad.

purpleeagle01 wrote:very cool game and its works fine with jagpad.

Good! I'm afraid to ask but is the pad button assignment ok? It should be A for fire and B for bombs, isn't it? You can also exchange those buttons in the in game options so does that work as well?

Anima wrote:Good! I'm afraid to ask but is the pad button assignment ok? It should be A for fire and B for bombs, isn't it? You can also exchange those buttons in the in game options so does that work as well?

Yes, the jag pad buttons assignment is correct. Default is A for fire and B for bombs.
The exchange option also works well.

DrTypo wrote:Yes, the jag pad buttons assignment is correct. Default is A for fire and B for bombs.
The exchange option also works well.

Thanks.

Does not work on nonstadard RAM configuration 4MB ST-RAM + 10MB (pseudo)FastRAM (BlowUP FX). I can only see some initial picture with a map or so.

ctirad wrote:Does not work on nonstadard RAM configuration 4MB ST-RAM + 10MB (pseudo)FastRAM (BlowUP FX). I can only see some initial picture with a map or so.

What does the initial detection text say? Does it detect the Fast-RAM properly?

Yes. It correctly detects the Falcon 030, FPU and FastRAM.
However, I'm afraid the FX driver makes some nasty things with MMU.

ctirad wrote:Yes. It correctly detects the Falcon 030, FPU and FastRAM.
However, I'm afraid the FX driver makes some nasty things with MMU.

As long as the Fast-RAM is properly accessible via the GEMDOS Mxalloc() function it should work (the MMU is not being used by the game at all). The binary also has the flag set to be loaded into the Fast-RAM area. However, display memory will always be allocated in the ST-RAM area.

Did you notice some HD activity (flashing LED) right after the background appears? Loading and compiling the sprites will take a few seconds to finish.

Since the display memory consumption is quite high I would like to know if booting without any auto folder programs and accessories fixes the problem!?

Aaa! You are right. Just switching desktop to the ST-HI from 640x480x16 did the trick and now it seems to work perfectly.