Post by Dante Retro Dev in Green Beret comments

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It should have all that! The screen for control config and all. Problem is chipRAM requirements: to run on A500 OCS (512KB chipmem), to have an idea I cannot add a LOADING graphic between scenes, that it crashes out of ChipRAM, let alone adding a full options screen with menus! That's why it feels so "abrupt" when completing stages. It's completely on the limit for Scorpion Engine A500 OCS at the moment. If the requirement is A500+ and A600 (1MB ChipRAM) or even A1200 (2MB ChipRAM), it would have been another story. I did the Castlevania AGA demo to see how much easier it is to do things when there's enough ChipRAM (2MB) and I have to say that doing that Castlevania Sharp X68000 on A1200 is way, WAY easier than squeezing Green Beret on A500!

The shocking part is that so far, the vast majority that I'm seeing is not playing Green Beret on the humble A500, but on a super duper expanded A1200 or superior...

Solo Kazuki2 years ago (1 edit)

Well... it could be separate program for this, as in some games.
About 512kB, it was still in 80's when 1MB begins to be standard. So think about 1MB of ChipRAM and 512kB any RAM. After All many A500 users have much more than this.

Dante Retro Dev2 years ago

1MB ChipRAM and 512KB other RAM would lead to great results. The whole bottleneck is the 512KB ChipRAM which means it's a true OCS game. Which I think is cool, but if you're doing in 68K ASM and have more time to code tools to compress data etc. 1MB Chipmem in my book, would classify the game as ECS game instead of OCS. :) The ideal is 2MB Chipmem/AGA, as my demo of Castlevania shows: I was able to basically put all I needed for first stage (except tree falling with sprite rotation) and it took just a fraction of the development time of Green Beret without none of the bottleneck issues there.

Separate programs for config is a good idea!

Solo Kazuki2 years ago

Of course it's Your decision what to do, but 1MB ChipRAM is not same as ECS. You can have 1MB ChipRAM in OCS machine and still it's OCS machine. Moreover to have more than 0,5MB, You must after all have extension card, and hardly any today have only 0,5MB - it's rather collector's thing. Most of extensions for A500 nowadays have at least 1MB to use it also with A500+.

You found it Yourself that hardly any plays GB on A500 with just 0,5MB extension, so It's maybe right time to force somehow collectors to put out from A500 0,5MB extension and insert at least 1MB one. ;)

Dante Retro Dev2 years ago

Yes, it's like a joke on you that everyone demands your game to run on A500 512KB chipmem but in the end everyone plays on expanded A1200/4000 machines with lots of RAM and CPU. Check my Castlevania AGA demo, it was made more as an exercise: to see that it's way easier to do CASTLEVANIA SHARP X68000 on A1200 (or equivalent) than to do GREEN BERET on A500. No comparison. Green Beret was a nightmare development that I hope to not repeat. Castlevania AGA demo was a dream in comparison. Oh, by the way, you're right, there is 1MB Chipmem in OCS machine (the Commodore CDTV was like that).

Solo Kazuki2 years ago (3 edits)

It's not joke, It's "demand for demand". Some people tend to demand everywhere where demand is possible (and sometimes even where's not). You should get some clues from this, I think. There's one old sentence: "Still is no born anyone who content everyone". Remember that even God's son didn't do that!
For me people who demands this plays most times on UAE. Or they are collectors with opinion "It should run on (let's say) basic configurations or it's not count". Why? Because hardy one today have A500 with just 0.5MB, what I've said already. It's configuration which was obsolete already in 80's and everyone who wants to play everything what needs more than basic settings bought bigger RAM extension. And try to buy JUST 0.5MB of RAM today, almost impossible, everything's 1MB or more (not to mention powerful accelerators). So they're collectors with rare 0.5MB extension in use or they're lie for themself playing "basic settings" on... emulation.
Just saying.

Dante Retro Dev2 years ago

Well said. Also there's the motivation for doing something that feels legit from the day, let's say it was released on the Amiga's heyday: it'd be probably an A500 game with similar specs as this.

I have an Amiga 500 with A501 expansion just like I had back then. Actually there's the fact that I wanted to see it running on "my Amiga". This wish is far from a joke, in fact (that was a bad choice of words.:)) Here's a photo of my A500 with some of my games:

itch.io

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