Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!Bits_of_Magic From: Bits_of_Magic@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Amiga Development ?? Message-ID: <23145@cup.portal.com> Date: 16 Oct 89 19:56:56 GMT References: <23123@cup.portal.com> <2886@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 63 > Commodore has made a tremendous effort to add special features to th e >Amiga that allow it to do some amazing things. If you're unsure what these >special features are, just post a message asking (and be prepared for >many megabytes of mail!). > Believe me, a lot of Amiga users would be estatic if they were to >see a port of an IBM program that looks better on the Amiga than it does >on the IBM (as it rightfully should). Without getting into religious wars, what are we talking about? I've had an Amiga 1000 for a long time, since we used it for graphics editing since before Dpaint was available to the public, until Dpaint became available to us on the IBM. I know the Amiga is capable of 32 color graphics as opposed to the IBM's 16 IRGB colors and 256 6-bit RBG colors (both of which we use in this game). I expect (since porting the graphics is not one of my tasks) that Kellyn will either use 16 color or 32 color graphics more or less like what we use in the 256 color IBM mode. I know the Amiga has hardware sprites and software BOBs so animation should be easier & cleaner. I know the Amiga has a real sound chip so that digitized sound and real music are both possible. I know every Amiga comes with a mouse so the mouse interface from the IBM game should do well (although there are things in this world that just don't work as well with a mouse as with a joystick or keyboard). I know the Amiga has a multitasking operating system which most games blow out of the water -- those I've talked to say almost universally "dump the OS and take over the machine" -- which I assume is because it's easier. If it's possible I see no reason not to leave the OS running. Something else I hear about the Amiga is that the documentation is greatly lacking, but I've gotten some recommendations I plan to follow. I often hear from Amiga programmers, "I've seen done, but I can't find any way to do it and it's not in the documentation", which is one reason I'm asking all of these questions. **** MINOR FLAME ON **** So go ahead and be specific. I said I'm a professional and I meant it. I have 6 years of experience as a full-time freelance game programmer on various machines but not including the Amiga. It's important to me to produce a good product, and a lot of what I'm getting is "Don't bother to port IBM products to the Amiga because everybody does it badly" (not from the person I'm replying to here, I must add). If I didn't care, I wouldn't be asking these questions. And to all of who you think any game can't be good on the Amiga because it was released on another machine, grow up! The realities of the marketplace make it a foregone conclusion that the vast majority of games available on the Amiga will be ports, because the Amiga is currently a distant second in game sales. That's not dictated by the authors or programmers of games but by publishers, retailers, and purchasers (that's you!). If you want to see good ports instead of crap, stop insisting that ports will be crap and tell people what you want to see in ports and what you don't want to see in ports. **** MINOR FLAME OFF **** I really do want to do this well, which is why I'm asking. If you can't help, get out of the way. ****************************************************************************** * Evan Robinson * * * * I believe in my tusks. * * bits_of_magic@cup.portal.com * Long live freedom and damn the ideologies, * * * -- Robinson Jeffers, _The Stars Go Over * * Mountain View, CA * The Lonely Ocean_ * ******************************************************************************