29 replies to this topic

[andy_bernstein]

Good evening Gang,

I just went to the website of Sheddy and it seems that Space Harrier 130XE is now a cartridge project !!! Kind of cool :-)

From his website, advantages brought by the cartridge format:

* More colours on the aliens and backgrounds
* Faster draw routines to keep the speed up
* Larger backgrounds
* More speech samples

More at -> http://www.sheddyshack.co.uk/index.htm

Once this project is completed, it would be nice to see if the 3D engine (if Sheddy is ok with it) could be recycled in an easy way for other 3D Sega Adaptations like Galaxy Force.

AB.

[Albert]

Excellent, thanks for the heads up.

..Al

[emkay]

Good idea to put the scorelines "optical" into the Gamescreen.
It looks much more professional....

I think I have to buy a Cartridge :wink:

[AtariDude]

Wow! I always liked Space Harrier and the screen shots look pretty good. It would be great to have that in cartridge form and I look forward to seeing the finished project

[andy_bernstein]

I'd love to see if the animation engine developed by Sheddy could be recycled for other Sega (pseudo) 3D games like Galaxy Force, Afterburner or Out Run.

We're gonna need a new programming book !

AB.

[Wrathchild]

Would the advantage too be that you wouldn't need a 130XE to play it? :wink:

[andy_bernstein]

Quote

Would the advantage too be that you wouldn't need a 130XE to play it?

Beyond the bank switching, I'll also need to take a look at how Sheddy can get more out of the XE just by using a Cart instead of a Disk.

Sounds very interesting.

AB.

[Heaven/TQA]

i think when shaddy finished space harrier he could easily convert similar games modifing his engine... and knowing how to convert the gfx and to ripp the stuff out of mame roms...

[Sheddy]

Wrathchild said:

Would the advantage too be that you wouldn't need a 130XE to play it?  :wink:

Umm...congratulations on spotting the deliberate mistake.
Nearly always have to change something on the web page after it's up!

[Goochman]

Im dieing for this cart to be released

[Sheddy]

andy_bernstein said:

I'd love to see if the animation engine developed by Sheddy could be recycled for other Sega (pseudo) 3D games like Galaxy Force, Afterburner or Out Run.

We're gonna need a new programming book !

AB.

Ha, ha! Afterburner amd Galaxy Force throw a lot more sprites around than Space Harrier (especially Galaxy Force), and they tilt.... There might be some hope for an Out Run like game, although I imagine the road would have to have a more complex approach (IE slower) than the one taken with the Space Harrier floor. Seeing how long this game is taking me, I don't volunteer to do it myself either!

[analmux]

I'd also like to see a Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega on our 8bits.

Could be a next project for me, if I've got enough time.

Or maybe I/we can start some cooperative/open source project with some Polish coders.

-----
mux

[Sheddy]

andy_bernstein said:

Quote

Would the advantage too be that you wouldn't need a 130XE to play it?

Beyond the bank switching, I'll also need to take a look at how Sheddy can get more out of the XE just by using a Cart instead of a Disk.

Sounds very interesting.

AB.

No great puzzle really Access to 64K plus 1024K (cart) quickly vs 64K(or 128K on 130XE) quickly plus 130K (disk) very slowly.

[andy_bernstein]

I really do love Galaxy Force so I may tackle it myself next summer. Funny enough, I never played the arcade game but only the SMS version -> still an impressive feat for a Z80 based system.

AB.

[Albert]

I'm also looking forward to seeing this released, especially since it'll be in cartridge form now. The improvements listed on the Work In Progress page look encouraging, and I look forward to continued updates. How far along do you think you are from completing and releasing it?

..Al

[Bryan]

Sheddy said:

andy_bernstein said:

I'd love to see if the animation engine developed by Sheddy could be recycled for other Sega (pseudo) 3D games like Galaxy Force, Afterburner or Out Run.

We're gonna need a new programming book !

AB.

Ha, ha! Afterburner amd Galaxy Force throw a lot more sprites around than Space Harrier (especially Galaxy Force), and they tilt.... There might be some hope for an Out Run like game, although I imagine the road would have to have a more complex approach (IE slower) than the one taken with the Space Harrier floor. Seeing how long this game is taking me, I don't volunteer to do it myself either!

C'mon Chris, how big of a cartridge will it take? (grabs soldering iron).

-Bry

[andy_bernstein]

Additional note for Sheddy -> The Antic / GTIA upgrade will give you more graphic possibilities.

I'll test that thing early next year (hopefully Jan).

AB.

[Sheddy]

Albert said:

I'm also looking forward to seeing this released, especially since it'll be in cartridge form now.    The improvements listed on the Work In Progress page look encouraging, and I look forward to continued updates.  How far along do you think you are from completing and releasing it?  

..Al

Thanks Al (and everyone else)

I sorry, but I haven't got a clear estimate on completion/release. It certainly won't be before next Summer. Just depends how much time I can put in.

[Sheddy]

bryede said:

Sheddy said:

andy_bernstein said:

I'd love to see if the animation engine developed by Sheddy could be recycled for other Sega (pseudo) 3D games like Galaxy Force, Afterburner or Out Run.

We're gonna need a new programming book !

AB.

Ha, ha! Afterburner amd Galaxy Force throw a lot more sprites around than Space Harrier (especially Galaxy Force), and they tilt.... There might be some hope for an Out Run like game, although I imagine the road would have to have a more complex approach (IE slower) than the one taken with the Space Harrier floor. Seeing how long this game is taking me, I don't volunteer to do it myself either!

C'mon Chris, how big of a cartridge will it take? (grabs soldering iron).

-Bry

Get out the big iron, Bry! - the full 1MB/8Mbit. Could make good use of an even bigger cart, but as far as I know that hasn't been done yet.

I've got a bit decadent on memory usage with the new sprite drawing routines. To keep the speed up, the largest frames of objects are using a method that takes around 4 or 5 times the amount of memory of a "normal" routine.

With a larger cart I could make more use of that method.

[Sheddy]

andy_bernstein said:

Additional note for Sheddy -> The Antic / GTIA upgrade will give you more graphic possibilities.

I'll test that thing early next year (hopefully Jan).

AB.

Look forward to that

[CharlieChaplin]

Well,
it is great to see SH being released on cartridge. But I do hope that the disk version will be available as well... Maybe a good project for the ABBUC software contest 2004 (or 2005)... see: www.abbuc.de (german, english and other languages). If you take part in this contest you can win a big price and still do not lose the copyright... but only disk-versions will count, since abbuc wants to release the contest programs on their magazine... anyway, can`t wait to get that cartridge... greets, Andreas magenheimer.

[Bryan]

It would be tough to put a 1MB game on disks.

-Bry

[andy_bernstein]

Quote

Well,  
it is great to see SH being released on cartridge. But I do hope that the disk version will be available as well... Maybe a good project for the ABBUC software contest 2004 (or 2005)... see: www.abbuc.de (german, english and other languages). If you take part in this contest you can win a big price and still do not lose the copyright... but only disk-versions will count, since abbuc wants to release the contest programs on their magazine...

C'mon Andreas !

Tell them to switch the contest to cartridge !

While a cart is so expensive to produce that it wouldn't be a solution if distributed through ABBUC's magazine, at least it would augment the limits of the contest and make possible some incredible realizations like Space Harrier XE.

AB.

[Sheddy]

andy_bernstein said:

Quote

Well,  
it is great to see SH being released on cartridge. But I do hope that the disk version will be available as well... Maybe a good project for the ABBUC software contest 2004 (or 2005)... see: www.abbuc.de (german, english and other languages). If you take part in this contest you can win a big price and still do not lose the copyright... but only disk-versions will count, since abbuc wants to release the contest programs on their magazine...

C'mon Andreas !

Tell them to switch the contest to cartridge !

While a cart is so expensive to produce that it wouldn't be a solution if distributed through ABBUC's magazine, at least it would augment the limits of the contest and make possible some incredible realizations like Space Harrier XE.

AB.

Ha Ha!

Please don't get your hopes up too high about the quality of the game though. Of course I want to create something that's playable, but we're not talking about any vast improvements over the existing disk demo here.

My intention is to have the cart image freely available for emulator users. Details of a real physical cartridge are still undecided.

[andy_bernstein]

Sheddy,

I get it (and we all do I presume) but, considering that it's a 'one man situation', what you've done so far is very impressive and already superior to some commercial releases of the late eighties like the "PAL Development" releases (Not to be confounded with the TV standard, I'm thinking of Russell Knight who did Rampage, etc...) .

WAY TO GO !!!

If the GTIA / Antic upgrade is a success, I may give a shot at Galaxy Force but not without the upgrade and probably not without stereo pokey. Damn, I knew I needed a hobby !

Ladies and Gentlemen, have a good day, I'll go back to De Re Atari for now.

AB.