jkh@bambam.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) (11/13/90)
Having recently purchased "Their Finest Hour" (a review is forthcoming as soon as I get through enough of the game to provide a well balanced critique) where one cannot help but notice the rather PC'ish graphics (both in resolution and speed). I am now wondering exactly which games DO use the Amiga's graphics (and/or sound) abilities exclusively. I can certainly understand how publishers want to maximize their target audience, but I can't help but feel some trepidation when I notice that the game I'm about to buy runs on everything from the Amstrad to the C64. Would anyone mind sending me a short list of Amiga-Only games? To be fair, I'm also interested in games that take advantage of the Amiga in a graphically (or acoustically) stunning fashion, regardless of whether or not they also run on other platforms. Memory no object, I have 3MB. Jordan
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (11/14/90)
In article <JKH.90Nov13094518@bambam.pcs.com> jkh@bambam.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes: >Having recently purchased "Their Finest Hour" (a review is forthcoming >as soon as I get through enough of the game to provide a well balanced >critique) where one cannot help but notice the rather PC'ish graphics >(both in resolution and speed). Get a faster machine. TFH does *realtime texture mapping*, ok? This is not something for a 68000-based machine to do. I played it on an A3000 and it blew me away! There was *no* noticing the screen updates. The game responed faster than any other flight sims I've ever played. (Except for flight sims on jillion dollar 3D modeling workstations that could display > 100,000 shaded polygons a *second*. :-) So just chill. Better yet, find me any PClone-based flight sim that texture maps plane features (camoflage, insignia), or that keeps track of *EVERY MOVING OBJECT* (including individual bullets!) via a "flight camera" and lets you play the "movie" back from any perspective (following any vehicle, or roaming free in space) including the point-of-view of a falling bomb! (You can also save/load the films to disk.) I have only one complaint about TFH: while it's in stereo, the engine noise seems to come only from one speaker. Solution: run the Amiga sound through $5k worth of reverb, delay and equalizing equipment and play it over 100W of good amp and speakers. :-) -- J. Eric Townsend Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Systems Manager - University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics - (713) 749-2120 EastEnders list: eastender@karazm.math.uh.edu Skate UNIX(r)
uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun) (11/15/90)
Heart of the Dragon uses all 8 sprites (attached) HAM mode adventure screens
and 192 color custom copperlist arcade sequences. It also uses the blitter
for in raster animations.
It is HD installable and works on all amigas, with KS 1.2 or later (2.0X
included). It is an Amiga Specific Program.
-Roger
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd ucsd nosc}!crash!pnet01!uzun
ARPA: crash!pnet01!uzun@nosc.mil
INET: uzun@pnet01.cts.comovb10@cs.kun.nl (Patrick Atoon) (11/17/90)
jkh@bambam.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes: > I am now wondering exactly which games >DO use the Amiga's graphics (and/or sound) abilities exclusively. >I can certainly understand how publishers want to maximize their >target audience, but I can't help but feel some trepidation when I notice >that the game I'm about to buy runs on everything from the Amstrad to >the C64. It doesn't matter if a game runs on most computers, it matters HOW it runs. (E.g.: You don't need an Amiga to run ..... Quest from Sierra Online, it will work just as fast, just as colored as on a EGA PC) These are the games (IM(not always so)HO) that you need to see to re-evaluate your Amiga as a great game machine, which noone (not even Nintendo or Sega) can compare with (Sorry.... getting a bit patriottic, I guess). Check out: Supremacy Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (You'll find this speed nowhere else!) Shadow of the Beast (I or II) For that matter, any Psygnosis game Most Cinemaware games (though not that Arcade-like) Speedball I & II (If this isn't Amiga, I don't know what IS) > Jordan Hope I put you in the right direction, Patrick +-----------------------------------------------------+ | Patrick Atoon | "READY. | | University of Nijmegen | ?OUT OF DATA ERROR." | | E-mail: ovb10@cs.kun.nl | C=64 | +-------------------------+---------------------------+
jkh@bambam.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) (11/20/90)
>Get a faster machine. TFH does *realtime texture mapping*, ok? This >is not something for a 68000-based machine to do. I played it on Do you know what you are talking about? "Realtime texture mapping?" Get real! The thing does polygon fills, blits and 2D matrix scaling and rotation here and there. I've seen no graphics so far that suggest that any sort of texture mapping is being done, at least according to the standard Sutherland/Van Dam definition of the term; perhaps you're using your own private definition of "texture mapping" ? As far as "get a faster machine" is concerned, I have to say that this is simply a lame excuse for lazy programming. Say I write a mega-whizzy Common Lisp package, which I sell for big bucks, but don't implement garbage collection because it's too difficult for me or poses special problems in my implementation. I don't tell my customers this. Later, when the inevitable complaints roll in, I tell everyone "There's no problem, you just need to run this on an Alliant with 64MB of memory and fast VM to handle the paging! Sure I sold it to you knowing you had a lowly Sparcstation. I didn't actually intend for you to *use* it there! C'mon!" Ok, maybe I'm being a bit testy with this reply (I *did* have too much coffee this morning :-) and I do now look forward to playing this machine on the A3000 that I *am* going to buy, but I am still going to give this game a BAD review. If the game was too slow/complex to work properly on unaccelerated A500 and A2000's, the company should have bitten the bullet and *said so*. Sure, they would have lost sales, but it also would have been the Honest thing to do, which would have been a refreshing change! Fact is, this game is *too* slow. I'll review it more completely tonite or tomorrow, but the synopsis is: Nice, detailed, begs to be liked, but too damn slow to play. Who cares if it has hundreds of different mission options (with or without fancy flight camera footage) if trying to do the actual flying frustrates you to tears? I'm sorry, but if you have a 500 or 2000 with a lowly :-) 7Mhz 68000, leave this game on the shelf. A number of German game magazines (Powerplay, Kickstart) share this opinion, so I'm not alone in feeling this way. Also, for the record, I think it should be noted that a number of games do VERY nicely on fast, detailed, animation with only a 68000 to rely on. Lucasfilm's mistake was most probably trying to "Sierra port" TFH from a PC development environment with a minimum of work. Blitter? Use the Amiga's abilities? But that would take time. And cost money. Nawww. Release it now. >So just chill. Better yet, find me any PClone-based flight sim that >texture maps plane features (camoflage, insignia), or that keeps track >of *EVERY MOVING OBJECT* (including individual bullets!) via a Again, I seriously doubt that this is "texture mapping" as opposed to scaling and rotation of bitmap objects, but as far as its flight sim abilities vs other PC sims is concerned, I dunno; I don't play with PC's. I have an Amiga. I bought this game for my Amiga. If someone sells me something for a SPECIFIC MACHINE, I don't really need to know or care how well it runs on other machines, do I? If it runs poorly on my machine, it does me no good to know that it runs better elsewhere; this is merely adding insult to injury. If I had somehow hacked a PC binary to run on a stock Amiga (admittedly impossible, but..) and gotten poor performance, I would deserve whatever I got for using the product on a platform for which it was not intended. When the manufacturer does much the same thing, however, it's inexcusable. >engine noise seems to come only from one speaker. Solution: run >the Amiga sound through $5k worth of reverb, delay and equalizing >equipment and play it over 100W of good amp and speakers. :-) I'll keep that in mind. It'll go well with the other $6000 worth of hardware I need to run TFH. Jordan Hubbard
davidy@sumax.UUCP (David L. Yee) (11/21/90)
I would have to agree Their Finest Hour uses few of the Amiga's capabilities. I have found that if you cut the terrain detail down to its lowest level the game is acceptable to play, though still somewhat frustrating in control response. And the graphics are not Amiga standard. But take heart. I have seen sample screens for the followup product Lucasfilm is readying, "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe." It uses VGA (for the PC) and looks awesome (how it plays of course I cannot say.) But if they do a good job porting it we will have a pretty awesome looking game (at least compared to their previous products.) Now, if only they have the P-38 Lightning in the game..... David L. Yee Email: davidy@sumax.seattleu.edu (BTW- check out the latest Computer Gaming World if you wish to see the SWTF sample screens for yourself.)
brian@sky.COM (Brian Pelletier) (11/22/90)
In article <5651@crash.cts.com> uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun) writes: > >Heart of the Dragon uses all 8 sprites (attached) HAM mode adventure screens >and 192 color custom copperlist arcade sequences. It also uses the blitter >for in raster animations. > This game may look nice, and be `Amiga Specific', but it's a real dog as far as gameplay goes. I had a dealer demo this for me (I almost bought the game just from seeing the Amiga World screen shots...), and I was completely disappointed. It had jerky animation, lousy control, and very few different 'moves' during combat. This is just *my* opinion, of course, but I'd pass on this one... Brian Pelletier, Hardware guy | Disclaimer: These are MY opinions, not SKY's. Sky Computer Chelmsford, MA | Amiga! UUCP: pelletier@grove.uucp (home) UUCP: brian@sky.com (work) | Plink: TACK