Daimakaimura (Ghouls 'n Ghosts) for the Atari STE

[EvilFranky]

Great stuff Anima, good to see it on a real 8Mhz STE and 4MB RAM!

[CiH]

Holee Crapski!

[dhedberg]

Hard to believe what I see! Imagine this being released during the first year of the STe. I would have upgraded it to 4MB right away!

[keops]

So cool

[MM41]

I'am always surprised, great!!!

[Estrayk]

Impressive stuff Anima!

[calimero]

How did you solve game logic problem on 8MHz CPU?
You mention that original arcade board have faster 68000 that is almost entirely free for game logic.
Did you rewrite/modify game logic code from original ROM? From video I would say that game logic, enemies, works just fine (just without collision detection).

[dlfrsilver]

How did you solve game logic problem on 8MHz CPU?
You mention that original arcade board have faster 68000 that is almost entirely free for game logic.
Did you rewrite/modify game logic code from original ROM? From video I would say that game logic, enemies, works just fine (just without collision detection).

Anima has not implemented the background playfield, so i guess he spared some cycles

[Anima]

How did you solve game logic problem on 8MHz CPU?
You mention that original arcade board have faster 68000 that is almost entirely free for game logic.
Did you rewrite/modify game logic code from original ROM? From video I would say that game logic, enemies, works just fine (just without collision detection).

The game code is still completely identical to the arcade machine and so the sprite/tile drawing, AI and collision detection routines are obviously not optimal for the Atari STE. In fact, the current state of this port is more like an emulator of the CPS-1 graphics processor running in a VBL routine which calls the game VBL code afterwards.

Btw.: the collision routine has been deactivated in the video using the original MAME "invincibility" cheat, i.e. without cheat the game is completely playable.

The main performance problem now is that the original code does not have to care about any speed limitations when it wants to display more sprites while maintaining a stable 60 Hz frame rate. They have even the time to animate the background tiles. So in conclusion the 12 MHz MC68000 CPU is challenged quite heavily in the worst case. I'll try to compensate the worst case with a speed throttle which limits the frame rate so that the gameplay stays fluid.

Edit to be correct: the whole code is not really identical but the instructions are. Only some addresses have been changed so that the memory mapped registers of the CPS-1 have been moved into a valid Atari memory range.

[matt]

Astonishing stuff. Keep it up!

[Estrayk]

The main performance problem now is that the original code does not have to care about any speed limitations when it wants to display more sprites while maintaining a stable 60 Hz frame rate. They have even the time to animate the background tiles. So in conclusion the 12 MHz MC68000 CPU is challenged quite heavily in the worst case. I'll try to compensate the worst case with a speed throttle which limits the frame rate so that the gameplay stays fluid.

ANima, don't forget the owners of MegaSTE (16Mhz). Can be a good candidate for a perfect port too.

[stormy]

Will this become a full release?

[AtariCrypt]

ANima, don't forget the owners of MegaSTE (16Mhz). Can be a good candidate for a perfect port too.

I gotta second that
But incredible work Anima, keep it up!!

[Ragstaff]

I will third it But I realise the primary focus is the standard STE.
Great work again on this, as usual.

[Anima]

WIP: running through stage 1 to the first boss using the original MAME invincibility cheat on a genuine Atari STE, 4 MB, 8 MHz.

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

[dlfrsilver]

Excellent

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Amazing! I can't believe it is at 8Mhz!

[marss]

Unbelievable

[FedePede04]

amazing... you truly a wizard

[farvardin]

yes it's awesome! Will you release a demo we can try?

[Anima]

yes it's awesome! Will you release a demo we can try?

Yes but at first I need to remove the original program ROM from my program due to (obvious) copyright issues so you have to obtain it from somewhere else (e.g. MAME). Also you'll need 4 MB RAM for sure to run these early public test versions.

[calimero]

Incredible!

Now there is no slowdown when bunch of birds attack you from tree! I just play original video recorded on MAME and speed is same (except boss fight)! This is insane!
I did not have a clue that STe can handle anything like this! I wonder if someone could make Amiga version... (if they manage to overcome RAM issues).

On Atari STe obvious lack of dual playfield remove possibility to get paralax scroll from Arcade version but maybe, Anima you could include background (paralax) graphics by "gluing" it to current background? Or at least clouds...?

[Anima]

Anima you could include background (paralax) graphics by "gluing" it to current background?

I know what you mean and I was thinking about implementing something like that already. Unfortunately this approach works only with generic, i.e. tileable background patterns. This is not always the case here so it wouldn't look right. Well, I'll have a look on what can be done in respect of the RAM requirements and performance to include a more detailed background, though.

[CiH]

Fantastic!

[Xerus]

Every video we see a good progression, nice job.
The framerate is amazing for a small STE.
If you make a Falcon version, will you choose between a better framerate or keep this one and add the parralax?