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From: oyster@uwmacc.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Koronis Rift
Message-ID: <1388@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Apr-87 11:08:02 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1388
Posted: Wed Apr 15 11:08:02 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Apr-87 01:45:04 EST
References: <1586@ihwpt.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: oyster@unix.macc.wisc.edu.UUCP (Vicarious Oyster)
Followup-To: rec.games.misc
Organization: UW-Madison Academic Computer Center
Lines: 45
Keywords: OS9, Level II, Coco3, graphics, SPEED
Xref: utgpu comp.sys.m6809:214 comp.sys.atari.st:2751

In article <1586@ihwpt.ATT.COM> knudsen@ihwpt.ATT.COM (mike knudsen) writes:
<Last nite at our local Coco club meeting I saw a demo
<of Koronis Rift, a graphic realtime adventure game
<that runs under OS9 Level II on the Coco 3.
<I won't talk about the game itself except to say that
<its premise and implementation are very good.
<
<What blew me away was the speed of animated color graphics,
<showing the perspective view out the windshield of your craft
<as it zoomed low over the planet's surface.
<Very much like Microsoft Flight Simulator, only much better--
...
<When I saw it I thought "Impossible!  You can't run this
<fast under OS9, even with the Level II speed poke."
<This morning, I reconsidered: "You can't run this
<fast on an 8-bit micro, like a 1.8 MHz 6809!"
<
<But of course seeing is believing.  This game really
<shows what the Coco3 can do...
...
<And this is a Radio Shack game.

   Correct me if I'm wrong (a phrase which is a given on USENET :-), but
isn't Koronis Rift a LucasFilm game?  I am reasonably sure it isn't a Radio
Shack product, and that it already runs on all kinds of "impossibly slow"
machines (I have in mind particularly the 6502-based Atari 800 series).
When I still had my Atari 1200, I bought another LucasFilm game, The Eidolon,
which had the same kind of fractals-in-realtime panning and zooming action.
Impressive, to say the least, and I still haven't seen it's like on the
ST (I haven't been looking too hard, though).  Of course, given the development
tools that they have at LucasFilm, I guess one shouldn't be *too*
surprised at what comes out of there-- in fact, now that I think of it,
one of the Atari (8-bit) magazines had an article about the games guys
at LucasFilm a year or so ago.  I may just go back and reread the thing;
if anybody wants a reference, send me Email, and I'll make an extra effort
to find the article.

[Follow-ups have been directed to rec.games.misc; I'm not sure why it was
in the ST group to begin with.  If you have any constructive machine-specific
comments, you're quite welcome to keep the discussion here.]
--

 - Joel Plutchak
   uucp: {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster  | BIX: plutch
   ARPA: oyster@unix.macc.wisc.edu                   | BITNET: plutchak@wiscmacc