Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!well!farren From: farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Lemmings - a tutorial Part V (last) Message-ID: <23937@well.sf.ca.us> Date: 30 Mar 91 09:02:26 GMT References: <23788@well.sf.ca.us> <23837@well.sf.ca.us> Lines: 53 It occurs to me that there is a distinct difference of outlook which is the basis of the disagreements here. Mike and Stephan look at the Amiga, as far as I can tell, as a game machine which just happens to be a computer system as well. Both of them are concentrated pretty much solely on getting the maximum bang from the hardware. Both of them want to use every single resource that is available to make their games snazzier, more impressive, flashier, and quicker. And both of them are probably good at what they do - at least, my email from Mike would indicate that it's certainly true of him, and, by reputation, Stephan as well. I happen to disagree with their outlook very strongly, because it is an outlook which inherently limits what you can do with the Amiga. It puts limits on the game, it puts limits on the user, and it puts limits on the sales - I, for one, will think long and hard before buying any game which shuts down my system, although I did buy Lemmings because it was just too good to ignore. Limits is what it's all about - and I feel that the fewer limits you accept, and the more you try and open up the limits you do have to work under, the better off we all will be. It's all in how you look at it. I propose that if you approach the game design with the attitude "I won't take anything away from the OS unless I absolutely, positively, without a doubt have to", and utilize your skill and cleverness as a programmer to making that so, that you will find that the vast majority of games will NOT require sacrificing the OS. All that I am asking of any programmer is that they work from that basis - not the opposing one which seems to start out with the assumption that you WILL take over the machine, an assumption which makes any other choice much harder to implement. The thing is that despite the protestations of the "take over the machine" folks, I just haven't seen all that many games for the Amiga which, when I looked at them closely, really required the entire machine under any and all circumstances. Yes, there are some - things like Turrican or any of the other very fast shoot-em-ups. But those games are the minority. If you look at the Top Ten list of games, you don't see shoot-em-ups on there very often. Much more popular are things like SSI's AD&D series, Populous, SimCity/SimEarth, and the like - games which absolutely and postively do NOT require a complete takeover of the machine, even though many of them do. I called the refusal of some programmers to even consider operating in an Amiga-friendly way "laziness", and I'll stick to that. If they've done their homework, as Mike and Stephan seem to have done, and have come to a rational conclusion that trashing the OS and taking over the machine is the only way that they can do the game they want to do, then that isn't laziness. If, however, they've just taken over the machine because it's more convenient for them or because they just don't want to do the hard work necessary to make a game Amiga-friendly, then it's laziness, no matter how hard they work to get their custom disk loaders or graphics routines or whatever. -- Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us