Pinball Dreams, new game from Batman Group!!

[ASiC]

The tools were not so good back in those days and many people was coding and compiling in the Amstrad itself; the knowledge of the machine was not perfect either, there were tight deadlines, the games had to be released for many systems at the same time... I reckon that all this made a huge difference.

For example, in the particular case of our little adventure it would have been impossible to produce the game if I was not compiling it in Winape and writing the source code in the PC. The source is more than 350KB... imagine to write it with in the Amstrad using a CP/M Plus text editor and without the mouse, it would not even fit in the RAM before compression . Then, compilation itself would take ages and this would make testing a bloody nightmare. Creating the graphics would have been crazy too. There were geniuses, of course, La Abadia del Crimen was entirely developed using a couple of 6128, but Paco Menéndez was a truly awesome programmer.

You are right of course about knowledge and advanced tools.


But dev kits existed back in the day. I remember reading a long time ago about two kits, one based on the Atari St and the other on x86 PC.


My best guess will be that the main culprits were all these different platforms (zx, c64 etc) and the presure from the deadlines.


Although I'd love to hear the opinion from an insider 

[||C|-|E||]

Yes, I know that some of the Spanish companies (like Opera) where using a PC (I think it was a PC) to cross-compile for many 8 bit systems. However, this was in the final years of 8 bit development and the problem was that the kit, as far as I know, did not take advantage of the particular characteristics each the machine. I remember reading that the deadlines, and therefore the recycling of the code, were one of the main issues back in the day. The companies used to give programmers very little time to develop the games and they reached the market even with bugs in some cases. You can read more from a real insider here:

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/rastan-coder/

In that regard, La Abadia del Crimen was an exception. Paco developed the game he wanted to create and only when it was finished it was offered to Opera for the distribution (I hope my memory is not failing me). This made a huge difference.

 

P.D: I also forgot to mention that only a few games of the old times take advantage of the extra RAM in the 6128. This did not help either, but from a commercial point of view the games had to be as compatible as possible. I remember to hear that in some cases it was necessary to employ compression techniques that were killing a full 1 Mhz, or more, in the Z80.
 

[dlfrsilver]

Yes, I know that some of the Spanish companies (like Opera) where using a PC (I think it was a PC) to cross-compile for many 8 bit systems. However, this was in the final years of 8 bit development and the problem was that the kit, as far as I know, did not take advantage of the particular characteristics each the machine. I remember reading that the deadlines, and therefore the recycling of the code, were one of the main issues back in the day. The companies used to give programmers very little time to develop the games and they reached the market even with bugs in some cases. You can read more from a real insider here:

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/rastan-coder/

In that regard, La Abadia del Crimen was an exception. Paco developed the game he wanted to create and only when it was finished it was offered to Opera for the distribution (I hope my memory is not failing me). This made a huge difference.

 

P.D: I also forgot to mention that only a few games of the old times take advantage of the extra RAM in the 6128. This did not help either, but from a commercial point of view the games had to be as compatible as possible. I remember to hear that in some cases it was necessary to employ compression techniques that were killing a full 1 Mhz, or more, in the Z80.

Operasoft was using hardware emulators able to churn out a game on many plateform at the same time.


You should ask Syx about this matter, you'd be mad at the technics used.


However, we've seen too often that the C64 and ZX versions were done by the teams 3/4 of the deadline time, and the 2 last weeks were used to make the CPC version.


This because the CPC was seen as a crap and souless machine in UK. A fact that of course as a french guy i just can't agree with.


The CPC was better than those 2 since it was the last 8 bits coming on the market.

[bjt]

Can't wait to try this. About this time last year I upgraded my 464 with an X-MEM and DDI-1 clone and saw Batman Forever for this first time. I expect this will be a similar experience 

[Puresox]

Is there a tiny bit of Irony ,in the fact that Pinball Dreams was originally published by 21st Century Entertainment , which company was made up of Ex Hewson(I have just learned). And wasn't it Mr Hewson who recently made the comments about the CPC being Soul-less.
 Batman Group have shown what Soul the CPC has. And the serendipity of it being with the Production of Pinball Dreams is awesome.

[ivarf]

Is there a tiny bit of Irony ,in the fact that Pinball Dreams was originally published by 21st Century Entertainment , which company was made up of Ex Hewson(I have just learned). And wasn't it Mr Hewson who recently made the comments about the CPC being Soul-less.
 Batman Group have shown what Soul the CPC has. And the serendipity of it being with the Production of Pinball Dreams is awesome.

Mr Hewson was a Spectrum man by heart

[Puresox]

He produced some great titles for the CPC . Definitely one of my fav Companies . Top titles that most were converted well for our machine , and occasionally surpassed .
 I did find it odd that he said it tbh. Because he was very professional in converting his titles . I  struggle to think of a truly bad title?

[kawickboy]

I don't think that Raphaelle Cecco do have the same opinion. And Hewson without Cecco's games had basically a poor catalog.

[Puresox]

Opinions are like arseholes...and all that.
The games were decently ported. Whether you like the games or not is up to you
Compare System 3, or US Gold  Ports .

[Rhino]

Is there a tiny bit of Irony ,in the fact that Pinball Dreams was originally published by 21st Century Entertainment , which company was made up of Ex Hewson(I have just learned). And wasn't it Mr Hewson who recently made the comments about the CPC being Soul-less.
 Batman Group have shown what Soul the CPC has. And the serendipity of it being with the Production of Pinball Dreams is awesome.

Maybe Hewson did not see the true CPC soul

[ukmarkh]

Maybe Hewson did not see the true CPC soul

Well, Hewson were responsible for a lot of good games on the CPC, so for that I'm thankful.


One person's opinion however, counts for nothing, three million and more CPC users disagree! 

[ivarf]

Well, Hewson were responsible for a lot of good games on the CPC, so for that I'm thankful.


One person's opinion however, counts for nothing, three million and more CPC users disagree!

Do we disagree with this? "Excluding the games made by Raphaele Cecco, the majority of Hewsons full price games for the Amstrad was quick Spectrum ports where little effort were made to use the machines potential."

[ASiC]

Is it me or are the fade-outs remarkably close to the mega drive ones?

[Gryzor]

You Tube link didn't work Mod so just put a link

Always work - either remove https (only works with http automatically) or use the YT button

[Gryzor]

That was Hewson's personal opinion, but had no bearing in how he ran the company. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and, certainly, after struggling with the poor ZX for years on end I can understand why he would feel like that about a more complete machine. So what, give him a break

[Puresox]

That was Hewson's personal opinion, but had no bearing in how he ran the company. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and, certainly, after struggling with the poor ZX for years on end I can understand why he would feel like that about a more complete machine. So what, give him a break

Give me  break ,
It was just an interesting, serendipitous ironic link so I'm going to say something about it . Nothing more  It wasn't just a random attack on the guy . And my comments further on in the thread , were praising the company . Why you feel the need to make a point of this about a month after this comment was made who knows.

[Gryzor]

Give me  break ,
It was just an interesting, serendipitous ironic link so I'm going to say something about it . Nothing more  It wasn't just a random attack on the guy . And my comments further on in the thread , were praising the company . Why you feel the need to make a point of this about a month after this comment was made who knows.

Dude, chill, as our over-the-pond cousins would say. Are you serious? I wasn't even replying to you, it was a whole side-discussion, and if you think you can dictate me or anyone else the time frame within which they may express their opinion, then you got it all wrong.

[bjt]

Finally got a chance to try this on my expanded 464, it rocks! Well done

[Ast]

Waooo! 22 posts for a preview ! 

[Gryzor]

Well, probably well worth it

[TotO]

Waooo! 23 pages for a preview ! 

Fixed. May be because, to much other games give less in their final versions? 

[Neil79]

HOT NEWS
http://www.indieretronews.com/2017/03/pinball-dreams-preview-2-fantastic.html

[Gryzor]

Woot woot!!!!

[||C|-|E||]

Great!!!    I see myself playing a lot when it is released!

[Gryzor]

Where can I buy the machine?