Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!modcomp!srp From: srp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Amiga Development ?? Message-ID: <185@modcomp.UUCP> Date: 18 Oct 89 16:29:43 GMT References: <23145@cup.portal.com> Lines: 75 in article <23145@cup.portal.com>, Bits_of_Magic@cup.portal.com says: ] ] 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. Well, for example, I expect that most of the ports of IBM game programs on the Amiga are done by people that don't take a good look at the whole machine they're porting to. For example, why not put the graphics in HAM (4096 color) mode? There are other games around that are in HAM. The first one was released last year, by Antic Software, I believe. ] I know the Amiga has hardware sprites and software BOBs so animation ] should be easier & cleaner. Great, then they should be used. ] I know the Amiga has a real sound chip so that digitized sound and real ] music are both possible. Again, give us real digitized sounds and music, not the *beep* *beep* stuff we've heard on other ported games. ] 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. Those folks probably have very little experience with machines in a multi-tasking environment. If the machine multi-tasks, it sure would be nice to have games that were well-behaved (ie, don't take over the machine) and have something like a "Pause" feature, so I can stop the game, and go look at the compile I was running in the background and see how it's doing. ] Something else I hear about the Amiga is that the documentation is greatly ] lacking, but I've gotten some recommendations I plan to follow. There's quite a bit of documentation out. The OS/hardware doc set has 4 volumes, and there are numerous books out on the OS. Additionally, Commodore just sent out reprints (suitable for putting in a 3-ring binder) of all the old articles from their developers newsletter. ] 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. A great place to ask questions is in comp.sys.amiga.tech, or a network like CompuServe. There are a lot of folks that can either point you to the docs where the answer is, or can give examples of what you want to do. ] I really do want to do this well, which is why I'm asking. If you can't help, ] get out of the way. As I said before, if you really want to do a port that will make people sit up and take notice, go the extra mile. Re-do the graphics, if possible. Put in digitized sound and music. They might look and sound *OK* if they're ported, but consider how much better they'll look and sound if you use the machine to it's maximum potential. Most game ports don't do this, and as a result we've been very disappointed. Perhaps there are some people here who can give good examples of ports that have worked out well, or good games that were created on the Amiga. A couple I like are DungeonMaster, and Fiendish Freddy's Big Top of Fun. (Other folks might disagree on those, but I liked them). Good luck. ] * Evan Robinson * * -- SR Pietrowicz UUCP: ...!uunet!modcomp!srp CIS: 73047,2313