Developers working on Retro / Old-School Platforms

[MintyTheCat]

Hello all,

out of interest are there many of the Developers here developing (or planning on) Shmups for Retro platforms such as:

1. famicom/NES
2. PC-Engine
3. Super famicom/SNES
4. Megadrive
5. NeoGeo
6. Saturn
7. DC
8. anything else?

I was kind of getting the impression that the more active of you were working on modern era systems but it did get me wondering...

Cheers,

Minty.

[Herr Schatten]

I am working on a game for the Sega Master System at the moment, but it's not a shmup.

[MintyTheCat]

I am working on a game for the Sega Master System at the moment, but it's not a shmup.

Ah, yes, I recall that we exchanged some E-Mails. The MS was your favourite machine. Thanks.

[trap15]

I do dev on all sorts of consoles and arcade PCBs. Have had stuff going on Sega Master System, Super Nintendo, MSX, X68000, CPS-II, Gameboy Advance, and Wii.

[Artemio]

I am not developing games, but I've ported my 240p suite to snes, genesis, Sega CD, dreamcast, wii and gc.

[MintyTheCat]

I am not developing games, but I've ported my 240p suite to snes, genesis, Sega CD, dreamcast, wii and gc.

Hi Artemio, I know you from Sprites Mind - small world that we live in

[Artemio]

Hello Minty, yes I know you from there as well; but I am a regular here as well. Wanted to chime in, while we wait for the UMDK.

[MintyTheCat]

Hello Minty, yes I know you from there as well; but I am a regular here as well. Wanted to chime in, while we wait for the UMDK.

Indeed, Helder should be able to provide you with one even before we get ourselves together over here in Europe. I have a kit here myself and I can tell you that you will not regret having UMDK.

Cheers,

Minty.

[tiaoferreira]

I drew a race game for mega drive and I'm making graphics for a shmup, this year.

Coming soon

[Chris]

I'm working on a Vectrex (MC6809 assembly) bullet hell style game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJxmtv8VF3E

[spadgy]

Wow - what are you using to code/develop for Vectrex!?

[Chris]

Wow - what are you using to code/develop for Vectrex!?

Motorola 6809 assembly language using AS09 cross assembler:

http://www.kingswood-consulting.co.uk/assemblers/

Development is done on PC with ritualistic testing on emulator (I use both MESS and ParaJVE for this) and occasionally testing on real hardware. Periodic testing on real hardware is important as the analog hardware is not reproduced completely accurately.

In particular:

- Brightness is not emulated very well.
- Flicker (from insufficient frame rate) is not emulated until great extremes
- Drift is not emulated at all - Creating an image on the Vectrex involves directly programming the movement of the electron gun. This is an analog device and as such has limits on precision. If you draw multiple lines this lack of precision compounds until eventually your lines are off registration. To avoid this you need to periodically reset the beam. However, this takes some time and in particular repositioning the beam to continue drawing takes more time. So there's a tradeoff between speed and accuracy. In addition, the severity of this drift varies by machine - depending on how well tuned it is. So you need to work to somewhat worst case scenarios.
- General issues of analog to digital display conversion issues, particularly given different available PC resolutions vs a fixed "resolution" on the Vectrex (essentially rounding issues particularly with scaling that can lead to some slight difference in display between emulator and real).

(More in the dedicated thread as well)

[MintyTheCat]

I'm working on a Vectrex (MC6809 assembly) bullet hell style game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJxmtv8VF3E

That is nice to see someone taking an interest in a pretty old console

I wish you the best of luck with this as it is a step in the right direction I feel.

[tiaoferreira]

CHRIS: VECTREX? YOU ARE A HERO, MAN!


MINTY THE CAT: I'm not dead, man! I'm having too many trouble with g-mail and skype, but I'm ready for action, always!

[MintyTheCat]

CHRIS: VECTREX? YOU ARE A HERO, MAN!


MINTY THE CAT: I'm not dead, man! I'm having too many trouble with g-mail and skype, but I'm ready for action, always!

Hi Tiao,

does your E-Mail not work?

[tiaoferreira]

Now my e-mail is fine,bro! Wait for news!

[mrkotfw]

The Sega Saturn is definitely a viable platform. You have Yaul (my library) and Iapetus.