News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu

Recent posts

#11
avatar_McArti0
Programming / Re: Respect for CPC game progr...
Last post by McArti0 - Yesterday at 20:19
Quote from: djaybee on Yesterday at 20:08(Amiga, maybe?)
most probably.
#12
cheap fake DIP 40 for all? ;D
#13
Chinese don't care about it. :D
#14
D
Programming / Re: Respect for CPC game progr...
Last post by djaybee - Yesterday at 20:08
Pinball dreams looks very nice on the CPC, I don't think I had seen it yet. It smells of some fun CRTC trickery. I seem to remember playing it years ago, but I can't remember on which hardware that was (Amiga, maybe?)

The 2600 is a very different kind of beast. Since it doesn't store the whole frame, it's hard to compare it to other machines (in that way, it's similar to the 7800 and the Neo Geo, which expand on the same principles). It's fun to code for it, actually, it doesn't need the same coding skills as most other machines.
#15
licensing issue
#16

I believe other companies will continue to produce it.
#17
@andycadley - You are wrong about colors in 320x200 in C64. There is a whole byte for colors in the letter. 4 bits for background and 4 bits for pen. And ZX has 3 bits for background and 3 bits for pen. For example, it cannot use light and dark green in one letter, but C64 can. It's 160x200, in C64 we have 4 colors per letter, including one common to the entire screen. This allows you to flash whole screen by modifying one byte, which ZX cannot do. And ZX does not have option to use 4 colors per letter.

CPC doesn't have CIRCLE command, who cares? FOR DRAW SIN COS NEXT draws circle faster than the CIRCLE command in ZX. :)
It is similar with the lack of PLOT and DRAW commands in C64. One line of BASIC with FOR POKE NEXT draws vertical and horizontal lines faster than ZX. And diagonal lines are only a bit slower than ZX.

In my opinion it's not true C64 Basic is suck, and Simon's Basic not make Basic better. More useful is few short command in Final cartridge, and even better Black Box. Most important difference is C64 Basic is almost twice faster than ZX Basic, with that you can do everything easier.

There is nothing better in ZX compare to C64. Only sentimental reasons make people like ZX.
#18
My wife and I are both into retrocomputing, and she recently asked me, if I were coding games back then, and if I could only code each game for a single 8-bit machine, which machines would be in my mix over time.

The Apple II starts the list in 1977. Since neither the TRS-80 nor the PET can do graphics, that's an easy choice.

In 1979, the Atari 800. It's got sprites, sound, a variety of useful graphics modes, support for split screen, hardware scrolling. I'm not convinced that the Apple II keeps much of an edge for any use cases other than some very specific niches.

In 1982, I add the C64 in the mix, its sprites are a major upgrade from the Atari, and its graphics modes allow for quite some tricks, such that it's awesome for platformers and for tile-based games. The Atari remains firmly in place for anything that requires a true bitmap framebuffer or hardware scrolling.

The MSX in 1983 opens other possibilities, its graphics chip is quite narrow such that it's very good at what it does well but falls apart quickly in other situations, it's in no way a generalist but I think it can do games that would have been surprisingly difficult up to that point.

In 1984, I'm adding the CPC, for games that need the specifics of its graphics modes, and are OK with the performance cost involved. E.g. 3D racing games. Oddly enough, while I feel that there are few domains where the CPC stands out far ahead of the other machines, I also feel that it's got fewer weaknesses and that there are few 8-bit games that can't be reasonably done on a CPC, and it's the first 8-bit machine that makes me feel that way.

In 1985, the MSX2 pretty much replaces everything in 8-bit, but the Amiga makes 8-bit obsolete. From here, the 8-bit world remains centered on MSX. In 1990, the MSX TurboR is incredibly advanced compared to the CPC Plus.

Note that the ZX Spectrum never makes my list, there's too little that it can do at the time that's out of reach of both the Atari 800 and the C64. Same about the BBC Micro, or the Thomson TO/MO series, or the VIC-20, or the IBM PC against their respective competition at the time, they're all too little too late in my book.
#19
prices may skyrocket soon
Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod