Buggy Boy

[Neil79]

Must admit, I prefer the speed of the C64 version and the graphics of the Amstrad version, can we mash the two up? 

[mr_lou]

I'd be happy to see the game working on the CPC+.

Could just be me of course, but I seem to be unable to control the buggy on my CPC+.

[Ast]

Try this one. it seems working on cpc plus.


After correction, here is the file patched. Have a good fun !

[mr_lou]

Sorry, I don't know what to do with a sna.
I can't copy a sna to my CPC+.
And I don't have any emulators on Linux that allows me to save a sna to anything useful.

I'd need a dsk in order to test.

[Ast]

it's not a problem for me. here is the special version made for you!
may the force be with you!

[Neil79]

Can the original Amstrad Buggy Boy be sped up like the C64 version?

[Ast]

I don't know because i don't really read the code of this game but i think no, because of these old lazy routins.


but, did it really run on cpc plus ?

[mr_lou]

it's not a problem for me. here is the special version made for you!
may the force be with you!

Thanks!
I will check it out soon (I hope).

[Puresox]

The Amstrad version was so lazy , they didn't even put the feature of collecting the flags in the right order.!? A game which is very similar and infinitely better is Live and Let Live , which I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been a project that was to do with Buggy Boy in the first place?

[Nich]

A game which is very similar and infinitely better is Live and Let Live , which I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been a project that was to do with Buggy Boy in the first place?

Both games were developed by the same team (Andy Williams doing the programming, and Pete Tattersall doing the graphics).

Apparently the game was originally being developed by Elite as Aquablast, but Domark's in-house version of Live and Let Die was proving rather disappointing, so they collaborated with Elite and Aquablast was given a James Bond theme and renamed.

[Puresox]

Ah Interesting thanks,surprise surprise , a Domark game being not up to scratch!Mind you , they were good at presentation ,I'll give them that on a lot of there games , there were some nice touches.

[Ast]

sorry, but my first version was bugged. here comes the new one. Hope it will work right this time.


bye.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Unbuggy Boy

[arnoldemu]

Amstrad version:

Mode 0 using the same kind of sprite drawing method as mission genocide and ghost n goblins.

No double buffer. Colour splits used to get more colour.

Sprite drawing could be speeded up a little because of the smaller screen.

poke 5792,0
poke 5793,0

may give more speed but it may slow down and speed up when there is more/less on screen.

[Ast]

Well done! 

[Neil79]

Amstrad version:

Mode 0 using the same kind of sprite drawing method as mission genocide and ghost n goblins.

No double buffer. Colour splits used to get more colour.

Sprite drawing could be speeded up a little because of the smaller screen.

poke 5792,0
poke 5793,0

may give more speed but it may slow down and speed up when there is more/less on screen.

Nice does that mean I can play a buggyboy C64 speed version, with the colours of the Amstrad on my CPC 6128?

[arnoldemu]

Nice does that mean I can play a buggyboy C64 speed version, with the colours of the Amstrad on my CPC 6128?

Maybe.

There are other pokes that could be used to give a little more speed increase but without analysing the whole game it's difficult to know what to optimise. Time for me to get 40Crisis' code into new arnold code and to add some more additions of my own.

[Neil79]

This is what I want the Amstrad version to run like! It already looks  good 


C64 HD! Buggy Boy - YouTube


Instead we get this piss poor effort (SLOW!)

[arnoldemu]

This is what I want the Amstrad version to run like! It already looks  good 


C64 HD! Buggy Boy - YouTube


Instead we get this piss poor effort (SLOW!)

looks like all the road "furniture" is expanded sprites on the c64.

[mr_lou]

looks like all the road "furniture" is expanded sprites on the c64.

I always wondered how the hardware sprites could mean such a big difference in speed. How a machine that's supposedly 4 times faster - but doesn't have hardware sprites, isn't faster anyway.

Does this mean that the CPC plus could have a super fast car game?

[Optimus]

I always wondered how the hardware sprites could mean such a big difference in speed. How a machine that's supposedly 4 times faster - but doesn't have hardware sprites, isn't faster anyway.

Does this mean that the CPC plus could have a super fast car game?

I guess that's because the CPC has double the videoram. I think the most pain in these games is how to fill the road fast. That's already an overkill for CPC. Then you have the sprites. And then the fact that C64 might be roughly 2x times slower than CPC (4x times less mhz, but opcodes take less cycles, 2 for a NOP, 4 for a typical mem operation, while on Z80 4 cycles for a NOP and 8 cycles for a typical mem write). And maybe there is better programming from the side of the C64 too. Although, I consider the CPC version quite smooth and impressive, if you compare it with the majority of racing games on the CPC.

[Carnivius]

Instead we get this piss poor effort (SLOW!)

Although, I consider the CPC version quite smooth and impressive, if you compare it with the majority of racing games on the CPC.

Yeah Neil, I'm a lil puzzled by your definition of 'piss poor effort' is.  Have you not played Outrun on CPC?  Buggy Boy might run slower on CPC than C64 but it's still very smooth and most importantly still very playable.  In some areas the graphics look somewhat better too (those rocks sure get super blocky on the C64 version for example).  I'd hardly class it among the numerous lousy ports.

[Neil79]

Could really do with a side by side comparison in speed, the Amstrad version feels like your car is limited to a 30mph residential area. Whereas the C64 feels like a motorway

[mr_lou]

Yeah Neil, I'm a lil puzzled by your definition of 'piss poor effort' is.  Have you not played Outrun on CPC?  Buggy Boy might run slower on CPC than C64 but it's still very smooth and most importantly still very playable.  In some areas the graphics look somewhat better too (those rocks sure get super blocky on the C64 version for example).  I'd hardly class it among the numerous lousy ports.

I wouldn't call it a "piss poor" speed either. But I admit I found it rather slow too, when I tried it again after many many years. I definitely didn't remember it being this slow.
But I have some good memories of playing Buggy Boy, and looking forward to try it again soon, when I find time to try out the fixed CPC+ version. 

[arnoldemu]

I always wondered how the hardware sprites could mean such a big difference in speed. How a machine that's supposedly 4 times faster - but doesn't have hardware sprites, isn't faster anyway.

Does this mean that the CPC plus could have a super fast car game?

Drawing sprites on the CPC means drawing using the CPU. You need to do both drawing of sprites and then erasing them so they don't leave corruption on the screen.

Hardware sprites are overlaid with hardware so that no cpu time is required to erase where they were. In addition with hardware sprites, you can often magnify them with no penalty.

On the c64 the hardware sprites will be stored in memory, so to display one you need to write x coordinate, y coordinate and where to fetch the sprite from.

On plus, you need to download the graphics into sprite ram, but after that you only need to write x coordinate and y coordinate.


So for example, drawing a sprite and erasing it again could take many hundreds of cycles to do. Positioning a hardware sprite takes no more than about 30 cycles or so. It's a massive difference.

If you use hardware sprites there is more cpu time to do other things, or this means it takes less time to draw a complete frame so the game can run faster.