Atari v Commodore

[Fröhn]

That's odd a standard Piano has 88 Keys, thus 7 bit resulotion.

Piano frequencies are on an exponential frequency scale while POKEY freq register is on a inverse linear scale and SID is on a linear scale.

 

Also don't forget that 16 bit is very useful when smoothly fading from one frequency to another.

 

Analogue(!) is better than 12 Bit Pulse width (which actually seems is only 8 bit)

No it's 12 bit pulse width.

 

Multiple Clockings are better than a standard 1MHz clocking

Multiple clocks only result in two different frequency ranges. It's basically just 1 more bit.

[atariksi]

I prefer Pokey to Sid as the SID sounds cheap.

There you go!

 

from a purely hardware perspective, 4 voices is better than 3, but that being said, the sound of the sid is one of my favorite synthesizers of all time, if not my favorite. crunchy creepy goodness. wizball, rambo II and delta among MANY others

And from a purely hardware perspective:

 

16 bits frequency is better than 8 bits frequency

12 bits pulse width is better than 0 bits pulse width

12 bits filter cutoff frequency is better than 0 bits filter cutoff frequency

4 bits filter resonance is better than 0 bits filter resonance

Triangle+Sawtooth waves are better than no triangle+sawtooth waves

etc

 

Sorry, you did not get into the details of the hardware sound support on Atari. As Emkay pointed out some of the things already, I will add some more. The 8-bits frequency is the default setting. It's more than 16 bits of frequency settings on the Atari. 1.78979Mhz/16-bit or 1.78979Mhz/28*16-bit or 1.78979/114*16-bit and those 16-bit can be 8-bit values as well. The dividors can be scaled using bit 0,5,6 of audioctrl at 53768. Atari has a different approach than C64 in other areas. You can set distortion bits for each channel not envelopes. For hand-made music, it may be better on C64 but digital audio, the envelopes limit of 6ms..24second is way too coarse. If it were in microseconds, it would help in digital audio to get greater bit depth. Pokey does do filtering where one channel is clocked by another-- never used it but it's there in the hardware. Atari does better on digital audio w/multiple multifrequency DACs and better at simulating higher bit depth (unless Supercat can explain his duty cycle method).

[emkay]

Multiple Clockings are better than a standard 1MHz clocking

Multiple clocks only result in two different frequency ranges. It's basically just 1 more bit.

 

3 Clockings. And with the independant filter you can adjust one more octave.

[Rybags]

There's actually 6 frequency ranges, although not all useful:

. normal 64 KHz

. 16 KHz

. 1.79 MHz

 

Then repeat those for 2 voices joined in 16 bit mode, although the 16 KHz mode isn't much use and only part of the 64 KHz mode there would be considered useful.

[atariksi]

To be honest 4bit + 4bit is not equal to 8bit ... It's actually 5bit

 

Well, 5.5 bits if one doesn't mind generating some extra noise at the sample rate (and harmonics thereof) and the sample rate is high enough that aliasing isn't a problem. Set one of the waves to be full-time "on" and the other to 50% duty cycle. Voila--46 output levels instead of 31.

 

The master volume of 0..15 can be run at full throttle but I don't see how you can get a high sampling rate with the envelope registers. Duty cycle method would involve rewriting to sound registers at high frequency or have some other method in mind?

[Allas]

40 - SHANGHAI

 

Atari screenshots

 

A classic puzzle Chinese game. It's very adictive, i have seen other versions on both systems, but this version is from the same company publisher. I prefer the Atari shell instead the C64 version.

 

C64 screenshots

[+CharlieChaplin]

A classic puzzle Chinese game. It's very adictive, i have seen other versions on both systems, but this version is from the same company publisher. I prefer the Atari shell instead the C64 version.

 

Well, some background to Shanghai which you may not know: It was german programmer Peter Sabath who ported the A8 version from the C64. Originally he cracked the C64 version, ported the code and made an A8 version out of it (a pirate version/port at that phase). But luckily (or not?) he asked Activision if they would release his A8 version officially. At first they were not interested, because they thought the A8 market was already too small. But since Peter was a member of Abbuc he wrote about this in the Abbuc magazine and then Wolfgang Burger (Abbuc chief, at that time approx. with 800 members userbase) and some Abbuc members also wrote to Activision and even pre-ordered the game - and so in the end the game was officially distributed by Activision... One can only imagine what would have happened if Activision had refused to publish the game, maybe it would have been around as an unofficial copy (like some protos or 5200 conversions), but maybe it would not have seen the light of day... -Andreas Koch.

[Allas]

A classic puzzle Chinese game. It's very adictive, i have seen other versions on both systems, but this version is from the same company publisher. I prefer the Atari shell instead the C64 version.

 

Well, some background to Shanghai which you may not know: It was german programmer Peter Sabath who ported the A8 version from the C64. Originally he cracked the C64 version, ported the code and made an A8 version out of it (a pirate version/port at that phase). But luckily (or not?) he asked Activision if they would release his A8 version officially. At first they were not interested, because they thought the A8 market was already too small. But since Peter was a member of Abbuc he wrote about this in the Abbuc magazine and then Wolfgang Burger (Abbuc chief, at that time approx. with 800 members userbase) and some Abbuc members also wrote to Activision and even pre-ordered the game - and so in the end the game was officially distributed by Activision... One can only imagine what would have happened if Activision had refused to publish the game, maybe it would have been around as an unofficial copy (like some protos or 5200 conversions), but maybe it would not have seen the light of day... -Andreas Koch.

 

Interesting story, amazing details. I guess now why Shanghai is the last released Activision game for Atari 8bit computers.

[Heaven/TQA]

Peter Sabath is/was a talented A8 programmer. I haven't seen stuff from him for ages...

[twh/f2]

Well, some background to Shanghai

 

indeed amazing story! When I was a kid had used to play this game a lot. I especially enjoyed it's Atari ST mouse support. Actually it was the first commercially distributed game which supported the mouse - true? at least I can't think of other games which did.

 

also I thought that the name "Peter Sabath" sounds to my kind of familiar.

 

well that's what I like so much about Atariage. Years no decades later someone learn new things about an 30 years old computer

 

grx,

\twh

 

p.s.: the 800XL version looks far better, especially the menu layout comes close to the Atari ST version.

[potatohead]

Fun stuff!

 

I like that about this community too. Lots to learn, and often it's very interesting. The Atari story is a good one.

 

This is kind of a tease too. A brief look at where Atari stuff was going, if...

 

(and that's the fun part)

 

The C64 version could easily have gotten a bit more love here, to be fair. As a machine to machine comparison, this one is a nice case study in what happens when the hardware features are not well utilized.

[Tezz]

It's an interesting bit of information about it's history, thanks for that. It also goes to highlight just how disinterested the software houses were with the A8's flagging games sale potential at that time and the lengths people went to to get their wares out there. I liked Peter Sabath's work back then. Where is he now?

[Allas]

41 - RESCUE ON FRACTALUS

 

Atari screenshots

 

Atri have better music, intro, fast animation, playability, a lot of colors from his palette to view the sunshine, sunrise and explosions. In brief, every bit of ROF is better on Atari. For sure one of the top most important games that show Atari Tech at his splendor.

 

C64 screenshots

Edited January 6, 2009 by Allas

[potatohead]

Does the C64 version of this game have the cool looking ship?

[Allas]

Does the C64 version of this game have the cool looking ship?

 

no

[atariksi]

Well, some background to Shanghai

 

indeed amazing story! When I was a kid had used to play this game a lot. I especially enjoyed it's Atari ST mouse support. Actually it was the first commercially distributed game which supported the mouse - true? at least I can't think of other games which did.

 

also I thought that the name "Peter Sabath" sounds to my kind of familiar.

 

well that's what I like so much about Atariage. Years no decades later someone learn new things about an 30 years old computer

 

grx,

\twh

 

p.s.: the 800XL version looks far better, especially the menu layout comes close to the Atari ST version.

 

Is there an 800XL version as in separate from Atari 400/800 version or is there only XL version?

[twh/f2]

Is there an 800XL version as in separate from Atari 400/800 version or is there only XL version?

 

there was no special reason why I mentioned 800XL. I think this game won't run on the 48k 400/800 Atari. I just tested it in the Emulator with "OS-B" and it crashed after the Activision-animation.

 

grtx,

\twh

[Godzilla]

I don't remember ever seeing that launch screen, that looks really cool. Have you done eidolon yet? yea rescue spanks the c64

[spookt]

I don't remember ever seeing that launch screen, that looks really cool. Have you done eidolon yet? yea rescue spanks the c64

 

I never saw the launch screen for years as I had the cassette version and its not on there just the disk version originally. I can't remember if the later XE Rom has it and I can't get to mine at the moment.

 

Yeah - ROF is one of my fave games. I still jump like crazy when a Jaggi jumps up at the window

[Albert]

Yeah - ROF is one of my fave games. I still jump like crazy when a Jaggi jumps up at the window

I remember the first time this happened to me when I had NO IDEA such a thing could occur. I may very well have fallen out of my chair..

 

..Al

[Heaven/TQA]

Yeah - ROF is one of my fave games. I still jump like crazy when a Jaggi jumps up at the window

I remember the first time this happened to me when I had NO IDEA such a thing could occur. I may very well have fallen out of my chair..

 

..Al

 

me too...

[Godzilla]

ROFL Yea, SCARED the KREP out of me too. So few games have managed to do that since. R.E. tries hard, but even on first plays, it was like I was always expecting it. After that, you know when it's happening, yawn.

 

The face huggers that jump up in your face on Jag AVP have scared me so bad that I fell off the bed I was playing on and dropped my controller. That game and fractalus can still get me to this day. Since, in both games, you really never know when it's going to happen, it creates suspense...

 

hmm... I wonder how many video games manage to create genuine suspense and make 'ol Hitchcock proud... Unlike a movie, where the suspense can only be genuine the first time, video games' ability to be more random can create actual suspense over multiple plays...

Edited January 6, 2009 by Godzilla

[potatohead]

LOL!!

 

Same here. A friend an I fired this up in a dark room, on a larger TV. Excellent gaming experience. (that and doing the same thing with Star Raiders) When it popped up, we totally jumped! This is a good game element for sure.

 

I asked about the launch screen because I don't remember seeing it either. Very cool use of the GTIA.

 

Sorry to go OT, but I have to comment on AvP too. One of the scariest games ever. Again, played on a fairly large TV, in the dark room, it's got a wonderful feel.

 

Back to Rescue discussion.

Edited January 6, 2009 by potatohead

[Shawn Jefferson]

To be honest, the C64 probably could have gotten a better instrument panel, but I guess a 1 for 1 port was attempted (which they succeeded at it looks like.)

 

41 - RESCUE ON FRACTALUS

[Rybags]

The '64 title screen looks OK - would go well hacked into the Atari version instead of the kinda bland menu system.