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From: trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: EA Screws ST Owners Again
Message-ID: <230@stag.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Oct-87 09:41:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: stag.230
Posted: Fri Oct  9 09:41:46 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Oct-87 22:37:02 EDT
References: <228@stag.UUCP> <30249@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey )
Organization: Mindtools ST Access Group, Plymouth, MN
Lines: 36
Keywords: Marble Madness

In article <30249@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes:
>
>Well, sorry to rain on your parade Todd, but there really is a reason why
>the graphics are 'better and smoother' on the Amiga. It's those custom 
>chips that are taking care of 50% of the game mechanics.

Hi,
  Don't want to get into a Amiga<->ST controversy, since I have
written graphics applications on both machines so am quite familiar
with the capabilities of both. I didn't say that the Amiga can't be
'better and smoother'...I just meant that Marble Madness doesn't come
close to stretching the Amiga and the style of graphics programmed on
MM on the Amiga would have been very easy to port to the ST...I know,
since I have 1) written smoother toy routines myself on the ST while
learning about the blitter, and 2) have seen much better games (and
smoother) on the ST than MM was on the Amiga...and written in higher
level languages to boot (Pascal and C...although MM might have been as
well, I never got around to looking at the executable while I owned
the Amiga). Base line is that MM 1) doesn't have all that complicated
graphics, 2) doesn't have many sprites to deal with, 3) and isn't color or
resolution hungry...or speed for that matter.

>have to deal with when writing this game. The Amiga was originally planned 
>to be the ultimate killer game machine, it's no suprise that it handles 
>games quite nicely.

Oops..deleted too much...I agree that the Amiga has the potential to
be a better game machine (although it is interesting that more games
(and better ones) keep coming out for the ST about 3-6 months before
they do on the Amiga...I know, not always and some things may not come
out until the ST Blitter takes hold.)

  -Todd Burkey
  trb@stag.UUCP
  (and no, I don't want to write a stupid game to prove a
  point...games are to be played, applications to be written:-)