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General Category => Games => Topic started by: RockRiver on 13:19, 02 July 18

Title: V9990 for a Spec256 like ports
Post by: RockRiver on 13:19, 02 July 18
AMSDAP came home a few days ago and brainstorming started...

Ok we have the Plus Range Colour Updates (games patched for the plus) but

What about V9990 video chip (powergraph CPC) use combined with old good CPC exclusive games code...
that chip could improves old software with new video modes or more colors?
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/the-sword-of-ianna-any-news-of-cpc-port/msg150642/#msg150642 (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/the-sword-of-ianna-any-news-of-cpc-port/msg150642/#msg150642)

to make something like Spec256
https://web.archive.org/web/20120130231658/http://www.yantragames.com:80/ZX256.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20120130231658/http://www.yantragames.com:80/ZX256.html)
or MSX2 remakes by Pazos/RetroWorks: Abadia; KightLore; Alien8 ...

(Yeah dreaming is free; make code is another story)
Title: Re: V9990 for a Spec256 like ports
Post by: Skunkfish on 14:03, 02 July 18
I believe that the V9990 works (and needs to be programmed) in a very different way to video on a regular CPC, so I don't think we'll see any enhanced versions of old titles.
More likely to see some MSX ports...
Title: Re: V9990 for a Spec256 like ports
Post by: andycadley on 20:18, 02 July 18
Yeah, MSX graphics chips sit external to the main memory and require you to send commands to configure them. You'd basically have to rewrite the entire graphics code to work in a completely different way, unlike Spec256 which basically required you to just update the data (although it was mostly a "fake" and entirely impractical design).
Title: Re: V9990 for a Spec256 like ports
Post by: SRS on 21:21, 02 July 18
How about some fork of cpctelera using v9990 features ? or AGD ?
Title: Re: V9990 for a Spec256 like ports
Post by: keith56 on 22:31, 02 July 18
Quote from: Skunkfish on 14:03, 02 July 18
I believe that the V9990 works (and needs to be programmed) in a very different way to video on a regular CPC, so I don't think we'll see any enhanced versions of old titles.
More likely to see some MSX ports...
You are correct... the V9990 is nothing like the CPC graphic system, and while it's similar to the MSX2 bitmap graphics mode, it's very different to the MSX1 graphics mode too (there's no MSX1 backwards compatibility)
Porting a game to the V9990 would mean rewriting the graphics code, the only plus is that the V9990 is much faster, and has it's own separate memory, so the 'load' on the CPC would be lower.
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