Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!mintaka!geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu!rjc From: rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Lemmings - a tutorial Part IV Message-ID: <1991Mar25.050519.29068@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Date: 25 Mar 91 05:05:19 GMT References: <23787@well.sf.ca.us> Sender: daemon@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu (Lucifer Maleficius) Organization: The Internet Lines: 38 Well, I don't care much for multitasking while playing a game, but there is NO excuse for not making a version of a game that can be HD installable. There is NO excuse for not working on 68010,68020,68030, etc. There is NO excuse for not working when a user has extra ram, or a different system configuration (e.g. Amiga 3000). There is only ONE excuse for making a game trash the current state of the system, and that is if you want to make it run for 512k ram A500's and need the extra 80k or so. Any sane programmer can make a game that 1) is HD installable 2) not copy protected 3) saves the state of the OS and restores it when the game is exited 4) works on any hardware configuration I don't care how many excuses euro-hack programmers can give, it IS possible to bang on the hardware and save the state of the OS for restoration. It takes about 30 lines of assembly code to do. Processor detection is easy. Timing is easy, just steal a CIA register and use it instead of CPU delay loops. Running the blitter concurrently with a timed CPU loop is easy, just use the blitter interupt and run the code in chip ram. (note, need to detect the A3000's 32bit chip access and supply a seperate routine) I'm not trying to insult anyone, but I'm sick and tired of games not working with the Fat Agnus chip, fast ram, v1.3 of the OS (yes I have some games that GURU 1.3, but work in 1.2), and screw up the internal clock. With a little care, a game can be written to run on a 512k Amiga 500 with 1.3, and a 32bit A3000 with 2.0. For those non-believers, check out 'Heart of the Dragon'. -- /~\_______________________________________________________________________/~\ |n| rjc@albert.ai.mit.edu Amiga, the computer for the creative mind. |n| |~| .-. .-. |~| |_|________________________________| |_| |________________________________|_|