Want to recreate/write an old Amiga game in VGA: Faery Tale Adventure

tdg8934

I'm just starting to learn more about VGA and TV and SPIN. I have been playing arround with my new PMC256 board from OldbitCollector: http://propellerpowered.com/shop/ using BASIC and feel comfortable at that level with SPIN. I'm modifying SPIN code to get it to work with various SRAM chips for POKE and PEEK commands in BASIC.

However, for a scrolling game such as Faery Tale Adventure, it was one of my top 5 games at the time with it's wonderful background music. This game was originally written for the Amiga and then ported over to the C64, DOS, Sega Genesis and other systems. To me, the Amiga version and Sega Genesis are the best and I have been playing it recently using a Sega Genesis emulator on my Windows 8 laptop. Sights and sounds from the game are great!

I would like to see if it is possible to recreate this game for the Propeller using VGA. I beleive it is but being somewhat new to SPIN and know very little of PASM, I would like to give it a shot. It may take a year or more with my schedule but who knows. One question I have is if there would be a way to extract the original music from the sega genesis version of the game I am playing into a format that the Propeller can play. I have a Propeller Quickstart with my PMC256 (of which I could write SPIN and/or PASM (yikes) if need be). I also have a second Propeller Quickstart and Human Interface Board coming in the mail today I hope. Im thinking this one would be the best to utilize both the keyboard and mouse but the PMC256 has connections for a keyboard and wii controller.

I just need some ideas on how to approach this game from it being realistic or not. I have the time to put in to learn what ever is needed but may not know of all of what is out there to make it simpler (ie not to re-invent the wheel).

Thanks for your help and comments.

Tim

Rayman

I think it might be possible on Prop 1, but it'd be a lot of work...

Personally, I'd wait for Prop2 and port over an emulator so you can run the original source code...

tdg8934

Thanks Rayman.

I can play the original source code on the Sega Genesis now. I was thinking more in lines of perhaps creating a game similar to this one (but would like the music if possible) and move the character around in the 17,000 scrollable screens (or whatever). Perhaps it would have the same or similar story but I would be in control of what happens in the game for some interesting effects. Not really sure what will happen but just trying to see the feasibility in doing it on a Prop and what would be required to do so.

Thanks,

Tim

Rayman

There's a nice looking game sound generator in OBEX. I think it's called "SiCog" or something like that.


The main hurdle to implementing a copy of that game on Prop1 is probably going to be memory...

tdg8934

Thats a good point about the memory. From what I can find on Wikipedia about the Sega Genesis, it used a 68000 processor with 64kB ram and a Z80 coProcessor with 8 KB ram and it had 64 kB of video ram too. From this alone, I don't think it will be possible on a Propeller.

Thanks again,

Tim

Roadster

Here is something that I started on but it is far from finished, but might be a good starting point for you.
I'm in the process of upgrading the Graphics Api that I released in the summer and here are I few of the features that I'm working on:
command line graphics converter
support for the new vgaplus 256 board
support for sidcod

2x2 scroll demo - Archive [Date 2013.01.24 Time 20.43].zip

tdg8934

Thank you Roadster. I'll take a look at it this weekend. Looks promising for a scrolling explore game or demo.

I appreciate it and hope to try it out on my new Human Interface Board I just got and PMC256 with SRAM too.

Thanks,

Tim

Ahle2

I added Retronitus + music and wrote two rows of code, pheeew!
(YES you are right, the music doesn't fit the "game")

2x2 scroll demo - Archive [Date 2013.01.25 Time 14.15].zip

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

That isn't Faery Tale Adventure, but I'm amazed by what has become possible with the Propeller this last year.

@Ahle2, Do you have an editor/converter for Retronitus yet?

Jeff

Ahle2

This game came out the same year as the first Zelda game. FTA is many times more "revolutionary" than Zelda was in 1986. Compared to FTA, Zelda is a very simple game.

Wiki quotes:
* "At the time of its release the game featured the largest game world yet (over 17,000 computer screens) with no loadings."

* "Loading was synchroneous, and would happen when nearing the boundary of an area, without affecting the smooth scrolling, animation and music"

* "In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 63rd best game of all time, calling it "real time adventure at its Amiga best.""

Ahle2

@OBC
Too many projects going on at the same time + too little motivation to fix that evil bug in the editor.
The sfx/instrument editor part is like 99% finished. The sequencer part is like 76% finished.

Bill Henning

I loved The Fairy Tale on my Amigas!

I think with very clever coding it would be possible even on a Prop1. As someone else suggested, Sidcog would be a good sound driver for it.

If memory serves, it ran in 320x240 16 color mode, but swapped palettes on tile row boundaries (I could easily be wrong). I don't think it was in HAM mode.

If it used 8x8 tiles, you are looking at 40x30 tiles per screen. Using word pointers for tiles, that would be 2400 bytes per screen, plus tile definitions. If there were less than 256 unique tiles per screen, that could be cut to 1200 bytes of "tile ID's" per screen.

256 8x8 tiles would need 8*256*2 bytes (at 4 colors per tile) which is 4096KB worst case (full tile set on-screen). 4 color palette per row would only take 30*4 = 120 bytes per screen.

You would have to get clever with pre-loading neighbouring screens, but if a small pause when loading new screens/maps is acceptable, I think it is feasible even on a Prop1, as long as you have an SD card.

with 17,000 screens, worst case would be 17,000 * (2400+4096+120) = 17,000 * 6616 = 112.472,000 bytes on the SD card (92,072,000 with 1 byte tile index)

A 16 color tile mode would be possible with more sophisticated drivers, but the memory requirements would more than double.

tdg8934 wrote: »

I'm just starting to learn more about VGA and TV and SPIN. I have been playing arround with my new PMC256 board from OldbitCollector: http://propellerpowered.com/shop/ using BASIC and feel comfortable at that level with SPIN. I'm modifying SPIN code to get it to work with various SRAM chips for POKE and PEEK commands in BASIC.

However, for a scrolling game such as Faery Tale Adventure, it was one of my top 5 games at the time with it's wonderful background music. This game was originally written for the Amiga and then ported over to the C64, DOS, Sega Genesis and other systems. To me, the Amiga version and Sega Genesis are the best and I have been playing it recently using a Sega Genesis emulator on my Windows 8 laptop. Sights and sounds from the game are great!

I would like to see if it is possible to recreate this game for the Propeller using VGA. I beleive it is but being somewhat new to SPIN and know very little of PASM, I would like to give it a shot. It may take a year or more with my schedule but who knows. One question I have is if there would be a way to extract the original music from the sega genesis version of the game I am playing into a format that the Propeller can play. I have a Propeller Quickstart with my PMC256 (of which I could write SPIN and/or PASM (yikes) if need be). I also have a second Propeller Quickstart and Human Interface Board coming in the mail today I hope. Im thinking this one would be the best to utilize both the keyboard and mouse but the PMC256 has connections for a keyboard and wii controller.

I just need some ideas on how to approach this game from it being realistic or not. I have the time to put in to learn what ever is needed but may not know of all of what is out there to make it simpler (ie not to re-invent the wheel).

Thanks for your help and comments.

Tim

tdg8934

So far I was able to find the Faery Tale Adventure music online for the C64 (I didn't even know there was a C64 version of the game) in SID format. I used a SID to DMP utility and was able to play it on Oldbitcollector's SID Player on my propeller based PMC 256 board (in 64 color mode) that he sells. The music is pretty bad as compared to the Sega and Amiga versions but for now, i'll take it.

Tim

skylight

Tim how about converting to Wav and using Rayman's Wav Player?

tdg8934

For anyone interested I have started a pretty good version of Faery Tale Adventure on my Nintendo Switch using FUZE4 software from the UK. I have Tambry, the cemetery and Marheim created and all the sprite objects, enemies attacking, etc. it’s a 6 month work in progress . (Tim)

Dave Hein

I like Rayman's comment from 7.5 years ago.

Rayman wrote: »

Personally, I'd wait for Prop2 and port over an emulator so you can run the original source code...

Hey, the P2 is a reality now. Maybe the time has come to implement it like Rayman suggested.