Pinball Dreams, new game from Batman Group!!

[ukmarkh]

Apparently, it's not pushing the CPC that hard... Doesn't use CPC's full potential.

[||C|-|E||]

I have been playing for quite some time in my modded 464 Plus with the original monitor and I am utterly amazed. What a great job! the scroll is extremely smooth, the game could not be more responsive and there is some great music while you play that changes according to what the ball is doing. Really awesome.

[HAL 6128]

Apparently, it's not pushing the CPC that hard... Doesn't use CPC's full potential.

It doesn't matter in my point of view. A Game fullfills more achievements than technical ones. Entertainement, fun, playability, good sound, AI, story and ... and.. .
Look what have been done the last month stunning games, applications, hardware for the CPC. Seems we are getting pampered. . But, it's also understandable. Regarding the last achievements I'm also wondering what people from 1984/85 would have thought if they had seen such things. Do you think Alan Sugar woulde had been surprised, not by the hardware, but games?

[alex76gr]

Apparently, it's not pushing the CPC that hard... Doesn't use CPC's full potential.

[Gryzor]

This... is.... wow. It just looks like it's running so effortlessly and smooth!!! Indeed I think friction may be on the high side but that's just parameters. What an awesome job!

[VincentGR]

there is some great music while you play that changes according to what the ball is doing. Really awesome.

Yes, like the Amiga version.
Another thing that I saw is the "emulation" of the amiga's mod.
When you hit a bonus on the Amiga, the tracker restarts at the track number that it was left.
This is a very nice touch and sounds like the original.

[khisanth]

It doesn't matter in my point of view. A Game fullfills more achievements than technical ones. Entertainement, fun, playability, good sound, AI, story and ... and.. .
Look what have been done the last month stunning games, applications, hardware for the CPC. Seems we are getting pampered. . But, it's also understandable. Regarding the last achievements I'm also wondering what people from 1984/85 would have thought if they had seen such things. Do you think Alan Sugar woulde had been surprised, not by the hardware, but games?

Well this is a perfect example of what can be done if you don't have a strict time frame to complete it in and you don't have publishers or management pressuring you. Also when you have people who know the hardware and do it for the love of the machine, not some random person who claims they can do it and only does it for the cash.

[VincentGR]

And a video from a real CPC captured by Aris of retrounboxers:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tcsxUtMj5I&feature=em-uploademail

[khisanth]

Wow that looks so good on an actual machine.   

[Ast]

Effectively, it's great on "real hadware" 

[||C|-|E||]

And it is very addictive... I found myself playing in the Amstrad this morning while I was waiting for my girlfriend. It is just like in the old times, when I used to do it before going to school and my grandma was literally dragging me out of the house

[seanb]

And a video from a real CPC captured by Aris of retrounboxers:


[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tcsxUtMj5I[/youtube]&feature=em-uploademail

The amiga version looks great but can you show us the Amstrads? 

[SuTeKH/Epyteor]

The amiga version looks great but can you show us the Amstrads? 

HEY! That IS on an Ams... ... wait a minute! I see what you did there! ^_^

[Overflow]

Brillant conversion so far! Time & effort to be so close to the original, just wow.
 
Very smart choice: everyone knows Pinball Dreams. Thanks to bring CPC under the lights again.
Smart choice (bis) to achieve 50hz responsiveness and use our strengths: colorful gfx, splitscreen and HW-scroll.
Well, I'm not a player, but I can say: Batman Group did it again. Bravo.
 
 

Apparently, it's not pushing the CPC that hard... Doesn't use CPC's full potential.

Hum. Feel free to boo me (I mean: I can live with it) --> I agree with ukmarkh.
From what I see and my own technical experience: PB-preview doesn't use CPC's full potential.
From what I read? 40% on Rhino's scale, 50% of cpu-time available on a frame --> not full potential.
 
Come on! we've just had "Imperial Mahjong" which is (undoubtly) a double- technical achievement: just watch and hear.
Also just look back at past releases: Orion Prime (damm! Arkos again...), R-Type... Big games with much effort (time, love, dedication, etc...) and also technical achievements.
 
 

[ukmarkh]

Care to explain?

[arislab]

Wow that looks so good on an actual machine.   

Effectively, it's great on "real hadware" 

Believe me guys! it's more than words!

Thanks VincentGR!!!

...+ some pics on my actual machine

[Rhino]

I guess the ball lose too much energy (friction too high?). It is particulary noticeable when the ball run the flipper lane.
I cannot make the ball go to the big ramp without using space to give extra energy, even when the ball was running the lane from the beginning (there must be conservation of momentum, added to the flipper move)
Hope this will help.

Thanks for the feedback!
Friction, flippers force, etc.. are adjustable parameters, also I have to play a little more to the original to compare.

Yes, like the Amiga version.
Another thing that I saw is the "emulation" of the amiga's mod.
When you hit a bonus on the Amiga, the tracker restarts at the track number that it was left.
This is a very nice touch and sounds like the original.

Yes, It really is a very demanding game in sound, as it has many jingles and sfxs.

Brillant conversion so far! Time & effort to be so close to the original, just wow.
 
Very smart choice: everyone knows Pinball Dreams. Thanks to bring CPC under the lights again.
Smart choice (bis) to achieve 50hz responsiveness and use our strengths: colorful gfx, splitscreen and HW-scroll.
Well, I'm not a player, but I can say: Batman Group did it again. Bravo.
 
 

Hum. Feel free to boo me (I mean: I can live with it) --> I agree with ukmarkh.
From what I see and my own technical experience: PB-preview doesn't use CPC's full potential.
From what I read? 40% on Rhino's scale, 50% of cpu-time available on a frame --> not full potential.
 
Come on! we've just had "Imperial Mahjong" which is (undoubtly) a double- technical achievement: just watch and hear.
Also just look back at past releases: Orion Prime (damm! Arkos again...), R-Type... Big games with much effort (time, love, dedication, etc...) and also technical achievements.

I think a demo always can better exploit all the capabilities, because you can do many different effects each taking advantage of some hardware peculiarity. But I find it interesting take demoscene common tricks in games. For example, the splitscreen + hardware scroll uses something like your RVI. I do not know if this have been used in games before.

[Rhino]

Congratulations, you did again an awesome job. I have already people from C64 or even Amiga which want to buy a CPC just to play it


but..... i hear them say "the sound is not as good as on c64" behhh XD

hehe, well, they always can say something... the important thing now is to finish it, so we can say that CPC has Pinball Dreams and they not

[Lazy Dude]

The video sounded just amazing.
The time I fire up the demo on my cpc with its 10" cones .... yeh it'll be something to shout about!

[alex76gr]

Care to explain?

The facepalm refers to the style of your comment in relation to the effort that some people put to bring the community something like PD on CPC.

[Targhan]

The facepalm refers to the style of your comment in relation to the effort that some people put to bring the community something like PD on CPC.

The way I understood it, the ukmarkh sentence was actually a joke reference to what Rhino said about Pinball Dreams "only" reaching 40% of the potential of the CPC. No one got it?

[Overflow]

(...) I find it interesting take demoscene common tricks in games. For example, the splitscreen + hardware scroll uses something like your RVI. I do not know if this have been used in games before.

My RVI is Public Domain for years now!
Also remember: I have not been able to code a sample when you asked a few years ago.

For those who may not get it:
the 2nd splitscreen (the main one with pinball table) requires some uncommon hardware trick,
in order to allow 1-pixel precise vertical scrolling & start at required pixel-line within character-line.
To achieve this: likely a few tiny-splits on a single scanline in the left-border before displaying at monitor,
but also (Rhino can confirm?) likely some code adjustment depending on the CRTC type.

To put in a nutshell: some high-end hardware trick.
Many can understand the trick, very few could code it.



 

[Xifos]

Is it different from the split (and r5 usage) used in mission genocide, warhawk, or axys ?

[Ast]

Yes it is... this one is based on crtc reg0... all 7 lines are precalculed to give you the exact pixel Line to display... Rhino Would release soon an example  source for those who wanted to know the trick...
For the other one, just have a look at #e1e, if i remember...

[Puresox]

Well can hardly say anything else , than it looks amazing. When I started watching the C64 version I was worried that the C64 version were going to top it , but it looks like the CPC has got another shining example of what sort of machine it can be . Really you guy's are producing stuff which makes a difference . Well in the weird and wonderful world of Retromania anyhow.
Cheers