How Much did it Cost to Beat Dragon's Lair in 1983?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlTD-ClwWhQ

I am going to look for a way to play Dragon's Lair through emulation.

John Coffey #32

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13954741/?ref_=ttfc_fcr_cr

Playing DOOM on the PC

I had not played DOOM for at least 15 years.  Playing it again makes me happy.  This is partly because of nostalgia, but I think that the game play is the best.

Playing on the Ultra Violent difficulty level feels a bit stressful.  This used to be no problem, but I struggle to get through the levels.  The game has "jump scares" where monsters will suddenly ambush you.

The resolution of DOOM is only 320x200.  This wasn't much of an issue back in 1993, where standard CRT monitors were typically 640x480.  But playing on a modern screen makes the game look chunky.  This is similar to my vision before my recent cataract surgery.  BTW, the SNES and Gameboy Advance versions ran at half this resolution, making the game look even more blurry.

There are alternate downloadable DOOM engines that support higher resolution and maybe more detailed graphics.

Berserk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NKq7jhURg0&t=72s

@john2001plus
9 months ago (edited)
04:00 This game appears to have been programmed in BASIC. The characters move 8 pixels at a time. The scroll is from the bottom, which you could do from BASIC.

The game is just barely better than broken.



1 reply

@chronologicallygaming
9 months ago
We need more comments like this! People said I was crazy or including a broken rating in our system!

OG Doom Tested On High-End 1993 PC - How Well Did It Actually Run?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cpITc1Rrlw

@john2001plus
My first Intel computer was a 486 33 MHz in 1995.  It cost $1200, and I played Doom on it.  At the time, I didn't notice any problem with performance.  I would upgrade the processor a step at a time to 66 MHz and later 100 MHz.  I needed 66 MHz to play Descent, which was more demanding.

The recent Doom news has caused me to click on Doom videos.  (Randy Linden is coming out with a new version of SNES Doom, and I briefly worked with him on the original SNES Doom released in 1995.)  The more I click on Doom videos, the more Doom videos YouTube recommends to me.

This has prompted me to play Doom again.  My current computer is an i7-10700K.  I was a Doom fanatic back in 1995, and I am surprised at how fun it is to play the game again.

My role on the SNES port of Doom

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qxWJFBVwlnc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5PknJvplKg&t=1823s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSlmVbAM_kA&t=4473s

@john2001plus
1 year ago 
1:14:31 I am grateful that Randy keeps bringing up my name in these interviews. My role was minor since I worked on many projects. I don't specifically remember editing levels, but it was so long ago that I don't recall. I know that we were trying to reduce the size of the game to fit on a cartridge. I believe that I was involved in massaging the data, which is something I did on multiple games, especially Dirt Trax FX.

New Super Nintendo Version of Doom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0q3DRWTzMI

The 1993 PC game Doom is my favorite video game.

The 1995 Super Nintendo version of Doom was full of compromises. We had to remove levels to make it fit on a game cartridge. I briefly worked with Randy Linden, but it was so short and so long ago that I didn't remember exactly what I did. Randy credits me with editing levels and game testing, so one website lists me as a level designer—although that description is a bit generous. I mostly just deleted levels, but it was enough to get my name in the credits.

The Super Nintendo hardware wasn't really up to the strenuous task of running Doom, so the game had a low frame rate. Even so, it was a miracle that Randy Linden got as much performance out of the SNES hardware as he did.

I recently saw a YouTube video calling it a terrible version of Doom.

Now, Randy Linden and a company called Limited Run Games have created a new cartridge with some modern hardware to give the game a boost. It eliminates most of the original compromises, making the SNES version almost identical to the PC game.

ROC'N ROPE | Atari 2600 Game from Publisher Coleco

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-KjotKP8bF4

MR. DO | Atari 2600

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Hmg2Aq6yffs

@john2001plus

0 seconds ago
I love the arcade game.  

ALL ATARI ST GAMES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUHtpNFZV38

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
I wrote a videogame for the ST and the Timex Sinclair 2068 called Diamond Mike. The ST version was published by XLent Software in 1986. I saw it on store shelves. (There are videos of it on YouTube.) I am not aware of a downloadable version, but I have a physical copy. 

I am surprised at how good some of these games look. The original ST only had 16 colors from a palette of 512.

NES Games Were Written in Assembly

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kFjSxwijItU

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
I wrote games in Assembly for the SNES, Gameboy Color, Atari ST, and Timex Sinclair 2068.

Comparing Every Star Wars Arcade Game

12 Underrated Atari 7800 Games You Need

What Happened to Arcades?

Defender (Atari 800 | Atari 5200) - Chronologically Gaming

@john2001plus
1 day ago 
My experience watching the home versions of Defender might differ from actually playing them, but just watching the game makes me uncomfortable. First, the music is monotonous—especially since you die so frequently, you keep hearing the same repetitive sound over and over.

My second issue is with the apparent choppiness of the game and its lower resolution compared to the arcade version. Visually, it seems like a much worse experience, although it might still be fun to play. At least twice, it looked like you didn't get hit but died anyway—possibly due to the choppy animation.

I have to admit, it is a great arcade conversion.

From what I've read, the Williams arcade version didn't use hardware sprites to save on costs. As a result, the processor had to work overtime to animate the graphics. The arcade machine used two processors: one for graphics and the other for sound. I believe the scrolling was also handled in software.

The arcade version used a 320x256, 16-color display, which could require up to 41KB of screen data. Considering that a single 6809 processor was responsible for handling all the graphics, that's impressive—though still within the realm of possibility.

BTW, 16 color graphics use 4 bits per pixel. On the Atari ST, this involved 4 parallel bit planes, which was a nightmare to write graphics code for, which I did back in 1986.   However, if the video memory were arranged as two 4-bit pixels per byte, then that would be ideal.  It would be much easier to code for.  (I think I heard that the Apple II GS did this.) If it were me, I would only move objects in increments of two pixels horizontally, which makes the code much simpler, and the user is not likely to notice the difference.


@john2001plus
1 day ago 
I found another source that said that the Defender arcade had 38K of video RAM, two pixels per byte, and only a 1 Mhz 6809.  It lists the graphics resolution as 292x240, which is slightly less than what I posted above.  This may have been deliberate to allow for overscan, as the monitor is designed for 320x256.



@chronologicallygaming
7 hours ago
That's a great analysis of the differences between the arcade and home versions of Defender! I always felt like the home version was a good compromise. Thanks for the comment!


@john2001plus
7 hours ago 
 I agree it is a good compromise.  As I said,  watching and playing might be different, so I will attempt to play the home version through emulation.

I have the Arcade1up version of Defender.  Having to hit a button to reverse direction feels like too many buttons to deal with.

STRAWBERRY POWER BERRY DOUGHNUT | Pac-Man x Krispy Kreme

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tkZ2ZLbWx60

Who was the first video game boss? (And why do we call them that?)

The video points out that having a more powerful enemy at the end of a level started with a Dungeon Crawler in 1974.

Games That Go to the Screaming Limits of the ZX81

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

SALAMANDER (C64 - FULL GAME)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpisB-gGBZY

DO NOT BUY THE NINTENDO SWITCH 2

Magnetic Core Memory

512 byes of RAM costing $2,000:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mrBz9-9qgGw

One of the biggest limiting factors of early computers was the cost of RAM.  In the late 1970s, I remember seeing an advertisement for 64K of RAM costing $1,000.  Today, you can get 64 gigs of DDR4 for under $100.

This is why the Atari 2600 video game system released in 1977 only had 128 bytes of RAM.  

The first TRS-80 came with 4K.  The VIC-20 had 5K.

The Sinclair ZX-81 came with 1K.  Its American counterpart came with 2K.  Both were expandable to 16K.

The Nintendo Entertainment System, first released in Japan in 1983, had 4.25K RAM.

By late 1983, RAM had gotten cheaper, so we saw the Commodore 64 released with 64K, and the Timex Sinclair 2068 with 48K RAM.

The REAL TechDweeb

This is most likley an April fools joke, but maybe the real joke is that it is true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoyGBHJ17_E

Playing Video Games As You Get Older

Why The Hell Are We Already Talking About The Next Xbox?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91iJQN2bbuI

@john2001plus

0 seconds ago
The current console generation is way better than all my computers.

5 Must-See Super Mario Bros Clones!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCDpA2skIuk

Greatest Super Mario Bros Fan Game Ever?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4qW3M2Qobyk

Incredible Donkey Kong Arcade ROM Hacks!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8BnIa-W5Dlk