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List of CPC Games using hardware scroll during the commercial era...

Started by SyX, 15:02, 07 November 19

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SyX

During the last weeks I have been working in building an exhaustive list with CPC games using hardware scroll during the commercial era from 1984 to 1993 (for games after that I will make another entry in my blog).

You can find the list here:
https://syx.neocities.org/posts/old_games_with_scroll.html

As you can see is a very straightforward list; I put the game, the programmer, the company and an icon with the type of scroll used by the game (Horizontal, Vertical or Multidirectional). My idea for that it is for following the evolution of these techniques in the CPC.

I took the time of testing those games using the WinApe debugger for confirming that they were changing CRTC R12 and R13, but if anybody see something wrong or can help to improve the list by adding more games, only speak and I will fix it fast.

In this moment the list includes 82 games, a lot more than the usual score of games that appears in old lists. You will see that there is 4 games prototypes; I added those prototypes because their developers made previously CPC commercial games using hardware scroll and the code of those games are based usually in the old ones that they made previously.

Maybe the most debatable entry should be Predator, I know, the hardware scroll is only used during the intro, not during the game... but well, at least I could give him a point for trying, hehehe.

Aside of that, I think that I should specify when a game is making an smooth or coarse scroll. And I will need a way of symbolizing that using icons... although I have not the graphics skills :P

Very important thing, this list would not be possible without the help of Axelay, he helped me to fix and add a few entries that or I didn't known or I have been forgotten. Thanks Mate!!! :)

Targhan

Nice list! Quite funny to notice that hardware scrolling doesn't always mean "smooth" game.
Oh, I think Ghouls'N'Ghosts is written twice (in 88 and 99).
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RichTW

Quote from: SyX on 15:02, 07 November 19
Aside of that, I think that I should specify when a game is making an smooth or coarse scroll. And I will need a way of symbolizing that using icons... although I have not the graphics skills :P

Yes, I agree, that's a more interesting indication of progress with the hardware!  Simple hardware scrolling with R12/R13 was always documented and reasonably well known, but the tricks involving R5 to smoothly scroll vertically would have come later, and were probably shrouded in secrecy!

SyX

Quote from: Targhan on 15:13, 07 November 19
Nice list! Quite funny to notice that hardware scrolling doesn't always mean "smooth" game.
Yes, some games can not be saved at all even by banging the metal :P

Quote from: Targhan on 15:13, 07 November 19
Oh, I think Ghouls'N'Ghosts is written twice (in 88 and 99).
Fixed!!! Merci! :)
Quote from: RichTW on 16:23, 07 November 19
Yes, I agree, that's a more interesting indication of progress with the hardware!  Simple hardware scrolling with R12/R13 was always documented and reasonably well known, but the tricks involving R5 to smoothly scroll vertically would have come later, and were probably shrouded in secrecy!
I would not say "more interesting", as you can see, there is not too much commercial era CPC games using hardware scroll (I imagine the numbers in the BBC world are not too much positives too) and because that, we should have an updated list with all the games using this technique in our lovely machine.

Of course, it would be a nice touch to signal those games that were beyond by making smoother scrollers, at least as a token of appreciation to their developers. In the same way, we should show respect for the developers that are using hardware scroll in their CPC productions those days.

I completely agree about R12 and R13 were always documented; but if you have been following the thread about the last released game using hardware scroll, you will see that the biggest discussion was about if the CPC has or not hardware scroll. Yes, it looks stupid to doubt about that in 2019, but well, if those days we can have people that believe the Earth is flat, then why not, sure that we can have people that believe the CPC can not make hardware scroll :P
Only one thing, the R5 trick was used by every CPC game after Mission Genocide (in the same year that Orlando developed Firetrack for BBC), then if this technique was a secret, it was not a secret for too much time; because after that game, every CPC game using vertical hardware scroll used that technique. And before this game, the only CPC game using vertical hardware scroll was Assault in Port Stanley, that used coarse scrolling. Then we could say that R5 technique was standard for the CPC. I think that it is really more interesting how the smooth horizontal hardware scroll was developed.

Although this kind of tests are very time consuming, I would love to have a CPC emulator that let us to do automatized tests as a few gameboy emulators that I have seen, where you pass a list of disks to load, the emulator loads the games, sends keys for start the game and moving the player during two minutes, and logs every CRTC access to a file. Then I will put this pc to work during a week for testing the full CPC catalogue and discover every CPC game using hardware scroll, hehehe.

Axelay

Quote from: Targhan on 15:13, 07 November 19
Nice list! Quite funny to notice that hardware scrolling doesn't always mean "smooth" game.


Well, I think that's not all that different to the way you could look at all the games using mode 0 and have to conclude that using a 16 colour bitmap doesn't always result in a "pretty" game.  ;)

GUNHED

Also check Lightforce and the game with that flame thrower and the missiles in the background (forgot it's name).
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fgbrain

altering the reg12/13 of CRTC doesn't mean hardware scrolling always... it might be a "double buffer" screen swapping.
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SyX

Quote from: fgbrain on 09:02, 10 November 19
altering the reg12/13 of CRTC doesn't mean hardware scrolling always... it might be a "double buffer" screen swapping.
Well, I would imagine that it was implied by the title of this topic and when I said that "I took the time of testing those games using the WinApe debugger for confirming that they were changing CRTC R12 and R13".
Quote from: GUNHED on 21:37, 09 November 19
Also check Lightforce and the game with that flame thrower and the missiles in the background (forgot it's name).
No, Light Force doesn't use hardware scroll, it is very easy to see that, because it uses a vertical HUD making very expensive to use hardware scroll. That flame thrower games, is Trantor? In that case, not hardware scroll too.

GUNHED

No, it's an old one. ... Rocket bases in the background, it scrolls half-screens. If I just could remember. Let you know asap.  :)
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SyX

Quote from: GUNHED on 18:44, 11 November 19
No, it's an old one. ... Rocket bases in the background, it scrolls half-screens. If I just could remember. Let you know asap.  :)
Ah! It must be Green Beret :)
But Green Beret doesn't use hardware scroll, that game is interesting by having the firmware alive and using the firmware call SCR_SET_BASE for having a double buffer in $4000 and $C000. But not hardware scroll at all ;)

GUNHED

Yes, you got it!


Actually I wasn't aware to see so few games actually using hardware scroll. Checked quit some by myself, they are a rare breed. Somehow that came unexpected.  :-\ :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

SyX

Quote from: GUNHED on 20:45, 11 November 19Actually I wasn't aware to see so few games actually using hardware scroll. Checked quit some by myself, they are a rare breed. Somehow that came unexpected.  :-\ :)
At the end of this hard task, I think that we will identify around a hundred of games, more or less, but as you can see, there is not so many CPC games from the commercial era using hardware scroll (less 1%).

And that is a good thing for new games, because hardware scroll is one of the rare things that need to be mastered in the CPC yet. As Axelay has been showing with their games during all those years.

GUNHED

Not only Axel, others too. And btw. I'm not getting tired to tell: Hardware scroll is just super easy!  :) :) :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

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