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Running Games and Apps.

I Wonder Why Ur-Quan Masters Was Never Ported To..

Teemu Korvenpää

Posts 26
01 Aug 2018 19:13


Starcontrol was really good game on Amiga. The sequal was amazing and sadly Amiga didnt get the port to Starcontrol II. The open source version EXTERNAL LINK  it needs P2 200 to run. Maybe it could run on Vampire?

Pc task should be fine to run Starcontrol II in emulation



Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
01 Aug 2018 19:29


No, we are at P75/060 80Mhz+ ratings with V2 and likely P90+ with V4. Needs larger FPGAs or ASIC.


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
02 Aug 2018 17:28


Why waste time with emulation when you have AMMX enhanced SDL and source code.  The real limitation is the Ogg Vorbis support.

From the website:
To compile UQM, you need to have SDL 1.2.14 (or newer), SDL_image 1.2.10 (with png support), libogg and libvorbis, and zlib installed. See doc/users/unixinstall after unpacking for full instructions.



Don Adan

Posts 38
02 Aug 2018 18:31


Samuel Crow wrote:

Why waste time with emulation when you have AMMX enhanced SDL and source code.  The real limitation is the Ogg Vorbis support.
 
  From the website:
 
To compile UQM, you need to have SDL 1.2.14 (or newer), SDL_image 1.2.10 (with png support), libogg and libvorbis, and zlib installed. See doc/users/unixinstall after unpacking for full instructions.

For me this game can works on 68030 without problem in 320x200 resolution. Original game version uses normal Protracker Amiga modules.
Protracker mods from PC version, are available here:
EXTERNAL LINK


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
03 Aug 2018 09:54


UQM was derived from the 3Do version though.


Don Adan

Posts 38
03 Aug 2018 13:48


Samuel Crow wrote:

UQM was derived from the 3Do version though.

Yes, because PC sources was lost. 3DO has only 12.5MHz ARM CPU, 2MB RAM. I dont know, if 3DO version used CD music or tracker music, but PC version used Amiga tracker music format. If 3DO version used CD music, then better is used CD music too or tracker music from PC version.


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
04 Aug 2018 16:31


Don Adan wrote:

 
Samuel Crow wrote:

  UQM was derived from the 3Do version though.
 

  Yes, because PC sources was lost. 3DO has only 12.5MHz ARM CPU, 2MB RAM. I dont know, if 3DO version used CD music or tracker music, but PC version used Amiga tracker music format. If 3DO version used CD music, then better is used CD music too or tracker music from PC version.
 

  The 3Do was a "talky" version.  Likewise the PT Mod music is used as a fallback version if the 3Do music is not found by UQM.
 
  Ultimately an Amiga port should be trivial on an A1200.  To be an interesting Vampire port, the latest game assets should be used.  Let me see what I can find in that regard.

Found EXTERNAL LINK


Szyk Cech

Posts 191
04 Aug 2018 17:43


Teemu Korvenpää wrote:

it needs P2 200 to run. Maybe it could run on Vampire?

In my opinion:
If it will be recompiled then maybe... The strong point of the Vampire is fast-blast memory controler, and match more memory than P200 ever has. So... you will have to compile the game first, and check your self. If you do it in portable way (as I recommended every time) then you can detect thin-throats with tools like Valgrind or GperfTools (I mean profiling tools under Linux). Then you will have to rewrite most intense using functions in assembler.
Then I am sure it will be running with flying colours...


Don Adan

Posts 38
04 Aug 2018 18:47


If this is talky version, all speechs/samples can be converted to raw or IFF format. And yes this game can works on A1200, but if original graphics will be unchanged then 68030 can be necessary for c2p conversion. This is very funny, original game works with 12.5MHz ARM, SDL port needs Pentium II 200 MHz.


Szyk Cech

Posts 191
04 Aug 2018 18:56


Don Adan wrote:

This is very funny, original game works with 12.5MHz ARM, SDL port needs Pentium II 200 MHz.

This sounds like night mare... I suppose they said something like: "See: we make new game for new machines, so it require P2 200." instead: "See: we port old game and it require 386Sx. 16MHz". If they will say the later I doubt anybody will buy this game. But "It require P2 200MHz" sounds ok from customers point of view...


John Heritage

Posts 111
04 Aug 2018 19:09


For the original Star Control 2 - sys reqs were '386 20 mhz to run well', otherwise AT class system and HDD are required.

I presume this would have run fine if coded back in the day for Amiga 1200 (Amiga modules handled by CPU on the PC side, vs. chipset on Amiga side). 

At the same time I'm not sure if this could have run reasonably well on an Amiga 500 or 600;  they'd have probably had enough memory,  playing the music is no issue.  Graphics are MCGA or VGA -- MCGA was 320x200x256 colors - so at the very least you could drop the palette down.    Use blitter/sprites for solar system/galaxy travel and resource harvesting,  blitter for the 3D Planet animations. 

Was this never ported to Amiga because the 500/600 weren't fast enough?  (i.e. 1200 market was relatively small) or was it just a market decision? 


Szyk Cech

Posts 191
04 Aug 2018 21:18


John Heritage wrote:

  Was this never ported to Amiga because the 500/600 weren't fast enough?  (i.e. 1200 market was relatively small) or was it just a market decision? 

I suppose only some fairy can tell you answers to this questions...


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
05 Aug 2018 09:51


The Vampire enhanced version of SDL could just pull this into reach using AMMX since the Pentium 2 would have been the second earliest system with MMX.  Realistically the talky version used more than 4 voices because the background music played at the same time as the speech.  An A1200 could handle the original but the higher definition UQM-HD that I linked in my previous post would be much better suited to a Vampire system.  EXTERNAL LINK uses modified code but I think scaling was the main addition besides the assets.  One more thing that can help is using Ogg Tremor instead of Ogg Vorbis.


Crow Mohikan

Posts 78
05 Aug 2018 09:56


Ur-quan masters ported to amiga.
 
 
  EXTERNAL LINK   
And  playing very well on me.


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
05 Aug 2018 12:13


crow mohikan wrote:

  Ur-quan masters ported to amiga.
   
   
    EXTERNAL LINK     
  And  playing very well on me.
 

  That requires PPC.  :-P ...Unless it has the source to the build as the GPL 2 license requires...  Found the OS4 port sources:  EXTERNAL LINK


Crow Mohikan

Posts 78
05 Aug 2018 19:12


Samuel Crow wrote:

     
crow mohikan wrote:

        Ur-quan masters ported to amiga.
           
           
            EXTERNAL LINK           
          And  playing very well on me.
       

        That requires PPC.  :-P ...Unless it has the source to the build as the GPL 2 license requires...  Found the OS4 port sources:  EXTERNAL LINK       

     
      But ported to amiga os 3.9. Only you dont have ppc hardware.
I didnt say it to you , it was generic. You know :)
   
     


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
06 Aug 2018 10:15


crow mohikan wrote:

Samuel Crow wrote:

crow mohikan wrote:

Ur-quan masters ported to amiga.
      EXTERNAL LINK            And  playing very well on me.
         

          That requires PPC.  :-P ...Unless it has the source to the build as the GPL 2 license requires...  Found the OS4 port sources:  EXTERNAL LINK       

       
        But ported to amiga os 3.9. Only you dont have ppc hardware.
  I didnt say it to you , it was generic. You know :)

I have a MicroA1 but if you're on OS4 you know that 256 MiB of RAM and 32 MiB of video memory doesn't go very far on PPC.  That's why I want a Vampire v4.  Much more memory efficient.


Szyk Cech

Posts 191
06 Aug 2018 17:22


Samuel Crow wrote:

  That's why I want a Vampire v4.  Much more memory efficient.
 

  When I read you then I believe that v4 will come to us right from ours dreams we dreamed for decades... Because it will give us Amiga we always dream for. Because first Amigas were technology limited machines (besides they takeover machines of their times), the later Amigas were cut down by lack of funds falling company. Now Amigas can be what they always should be!!! Powerfull and spectre/meltdown secure!


Teemu Korvenpää

Posts 26
07 Aug 2018 07:38


Amiga had best port in Star Control 1. Still remember pc version lacked sound. Maybe in future we see SC2/URQM in Amiga :)



posts 19