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gridleaderretro
Registrace 5. 11. 2010
I'm into retrogaming, emulation, reverse engineering and graphics programming. Joint creator of #LotusSTE and author of Pole Position for the Atari STE.
Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 9 Sep 2024
Check out the newly added speedometer, which looks rather nice IMO but needs a ton of optimisation as it's causing a lot of visible frame drops in this video.
Game now runs on 1 meg machines again after a ton of recent work to reduce the code size. 🎉 🚗🚗
Game now runs on 1 meg machines again after a ton of recent work to reduce the code size. 🎉 🚗🚗
zhlédnutí: 656
Video
Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 03 September 2024 (real hardware)
zhlédnutí 544Před 21 hodinou
Latest build of this in-progress racing game for the stock Atari STE, running on my very own Atari STE! A few issues with the new stars display code, but otherwise looking and sounding great!
Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 1 Sep 2024
zhlédnutí 1,7KPřed dnem
Latest progress on this 50fps racer for the Atari STe. A new scrolling star background has been implemented to liven up the nighttime racing. If you're feeling impatient, skip to 0:30 to see the stars come out!
Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 29 Aug 2024
zhlédnutí 908Před dnem
Latest progress on this 50fps racer for the Atari STE. I've been optimising hard in order to free up enough CPU time to allow for 4 on-screen opponent cars and a YM chiptune without too many frames dropped. Aiming for a December 2024 release of the finished game.
Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 15 June
zhlédnutí 1,5KPřed 2 měsíci
Latest changes to this WIP game for the Atari STE. Refined the car shape (courtesy of great sprite work by Scott Elkington) and added drop shadows. New intermediate animation frames for car steering. Looking more console-like by the day!
Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 10 June (real hardware)
zhlédnutí 788Před 3 měsíci
Another WIP video of my upcoming racing game loosely based upon WEC LE Mans. This time from real hardware rather than emulation - a stock 8MHz STE with 1 meg of memory.
Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 8 June
zhlédnutí 1,8KPřed 3 měsíci
A CZcams update for those that don't follow me on Twitter. - Track now has 3 checkpoints that add time to the counter. - Digital sound effects being added alongside digital engine sound (thanks Junosix & Masteries!) - Difficulty increases as race progresses. Hopefully coming soon: stars at night! 🌙🌃
Atari STE 50fps racing game WIP - 29 March 2024
zhlédnutí 694Před 5 měsíci
I'm working on a new klnd of racing game for the Atari STE. The primary objective is to achieve a (mostly) consistent 50 frames per second framerate to give the game a unique arcade feel that's different from any existing ST game out there. The game won't be packed with modes, features, achievements - it'll be a bare-bones arcade experience with the main attraction being the smoothness and sens...
Power Drift-style graphics engine for the Atari STE
zhlédnutí 2,2KPřed 2 lety
I'm working on a graphics engine for the Atari ST (that will possibly eventually become a game) to mimic the style of Sega's amazing Super Scaler arcade game Power Drift. Something similar has obviously been done previously in the form of the official arcade conversion of Power Drift for the ST, which interestingly supports the Blitter chip in the STE. However, I'm having a go at doing it bette...
Lotus 1 Deconstruction Showdown - Original vs Lotus STE!
zhlédnutí 2,1KPřed 3 lety
This semi-technical video shows the slow-motion rendering of a single frame in both the original Atari ST version of Lotus 1, along with the enhanced Lotus STE. We analyse the technical approaches taken by each version, and get some unexpected outcomes at the end!
Atari ST Power Drift - deconstructed!
zhlédnutí 1,1KPřed 3 lety
This semi-technical video shows the slow-motion rendering of a single frame in Atari ST Power Drift. The game calculates which elements of the world are visible, then draws them all from back to front. Some elements of the world are drawn using the Blitter, and some elements are drawn by the CPU.
Deconstruction of Shadow of the Beast on Atari ST
zhlédnutí 1,3KPřed 3 lety
This shows how a single frame is built up in the Atari ST game "Shadow of the Beast". Unlike the Amiga, the Atari ST lacks dedicated dual playfield hardware scrolling and therefore has to redraw the entire screen on every frame.
Behind The Scenes of Atari ST Racing Games
zhlédnutí 698Před 3 lety
We take a look in slow motion at how the computer builds up the screen display in three different racing games. Do things happen differently to what might be expected? What quirks or small details can we pick out? Are there any inefficiencies that could be improved upon? Music: Vortex by Metre Licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License nultielrecords.blogspot.com/
Behind the scenes: rendering a single frame in F1GP on the Atari ST
zhlédnutí 554Před 3 lety
This is a slow motion video showing what happens during the rendering of a single frame in Geoff Crammond's F1GP for the Atari ST.
The Making of Lotus STE: Cars and Scenery
zhlédnutí 1,3KPřed 3 lety
A short video describing some of the challenges and solutions relating to the development of Lotus STE. Lotus STE is an unofficial update to the original Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge for the Atari ST, intended to make use of the extra hardware in the Atari STE. Music: Echo by Bio Unit, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. freemusicarchive.org/music/Bio_Unit/disquiet/echo-2
Lotus STE Enhanced: FINAL RELEASE DOWNLOAD COMING THIS WEEKEND!
zhlédnutí 563Před 3 lety
Lotus STE Enhanced: FINAL RELEASE DOWNLOAD COMING THIS WEEKEND!
Lotus STE Enhanced - support for STFM with Blitter
zhlédnutí 411Před 3 lety
Lotus STE Enhanced - support for STFM with Blitter
Lotus STE Enhanced: player 1 sky optimisation
zhlédnutí 270Před 3 lety
Lotus STE Enhanced: player 1 sky optimisation
Lotus STE Enhanced: optimisation of lap counter and status panel
zhlédnutí 239Před 3 lety
Lotus STE Enhanced: optimisation of lap counter and status panel
Lotus STE Enhanced - development update
zhlédnutí 375Před 3 lety
Lotus STE Enhanced - development update
Lotus STE Enhanced: comparison with Amiga version
zhlédnutí 1,8KPřed 3 lety
Lotus STE Enhanced: comparison with Amiga version
Lotus 1 STE Enhanced: Blitter rendering of background mountains
zhlédnutí 284Před 3 lety
Lotus 1 STE Enhanced: Blitter rendering of background mountains
Lotus 1 STE Enhanced - Alaska track from hard level
zhlédnutí 262Před 3 lety
Lotus 1 STE Enhanced - Alaska track from hard level
Atari ST Jaguar XJ220 preview - Australia track
zhlédnutí 437Před 3 lety
Atari ST Jaguar XJ220 preview - Australia track
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge - Atari ST vs Atari STE
zhlédnutí 3,9KPřed 3 lety
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge - Atari ST vs Atari STE
Perfect !!!!!!
Thank you!
Looks very controllable in the corners for overtaking, as well as the great graphics as usual, keep up the good work :)
Thank you! I'm more of a graphics programmer than a game designer so your words are reassuring!
Sheeeeeeeet! Great tune too!
Thanks @gryz0r! Tune is by legendary ST scene musician Dma-sc.
Sad to think those other cars are just being driven round those tracks continuously, just always waiting to see if a Player 1 would appear to brighten up their world.
when the speed gets going, it reminds me of death race c64
Not sure whether to be flattered or offended 😁
great job very impressive on a STE
Thanks! It's taking some effort to get this level of performance out of the old STE but I'm quite happy with it so far!
Love the Le Mans theming
Almost makes up for Ocean not releasing the official port of WEC back in the day, huh? :)
wow!
Thank you!
is this intended to be a port of Wec Le Man on the STE ?
Although what you see here is obviously heavily inspired by WEC, the primary goal is to create a racing game for the crusty STE hardware that runs at a silky smooth 50fps. Any features (the obvious one being hills) that would prevent the game running at 50fps won't be considered for inclusion.
It's sad how people are always asking for more and more features. The Atari STE might be a better machine than its older brother, but 1MB is barely even enough for a game like this. Others should appreciate this project for what it does rather than what it doesn't
Somebody who understands the technical challenges I'm up against! Thank you! 🎉
Wrong.
I like it! 😃
Thank you!
It looks brilliant, are you planning to implement heights on the road ? you know, up and down the road. I don't know how much raster time you will have left before you don't have time to get it to 50fps, but i think it would be awesome. what do you think?
Put it like this - I've just implemented a puny speedometer using a few multiples and divides and it's absolutely crippled the framerate. 😬 I can't begin to imagine how many further multiplies and divides would be required to get convincing hills to display like Lotus does, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do it with this level of detail at 50fps. 😞 Literally the only thing I can think of is that ALL of the calculations would be done offline and the road routine would be played back like a movie. It would be very heavy on memory though, and that's just the beginning of the problems I can think of!
@@gridleaderretro I didn't mean that implementing it would be easy, I was just asking because I didn't know how limit you were with framerate. I see you're on the limit, I just want to express my gratitude for the current state of development. Few things at 50fps we see in STe. congratulations!.
@@estrayk Yeah, it's a constant battle to keep things running at 50fps as I add new features. I added this simple speedo indicator yesterday and it's now dropping frames all over the place :) Indeed, part of my motivation for developing this is that there are so few 50fps games out there for the ST/STE and I was wondering why! Now I know ;)
Nice speedometer indeed. No Hope to consider 2mo/4mo enhancements ?
No plans for any major new features (e.g. hills) for 2/4 meg machines. I might do a 4 meg version after the initial release with object/car sprites that move and scale more smoothly - that wouldn't be too much hassle.
And a null-modem mode ?
@@gauthiermorand7930 I'm sorry, but I really wouldn't have a clue where to begin!
@@gridleaderretro I'll ask some help on the french Yaronet board. Maybe...
Hello Pole Position Remake Creator
Hello @PMitchell1011Real :)
Looks amazing, will it be compatible with TT, MSTE and Falcons too?
Thanks! The game should be compatible with STE and MSTE on initial release. Subsequent releases may be compatible with Falcon once any Microwire compatibility issues are sorted out. No plans for TT compatibility as it doesn't have a Blitter chip and there aren't enough TT users to justify writing a "Blitter emulator". I do intend to publish the source code upon initial release so that others can make any changes they need.
It's surely nothing that wansn't achieved at 25FPS in Level 2 of Batman the Movie?
What makes you so sure that the driving section of Batman the Movie ran at 25fps? :)
@gridleaderretro I didn't know for sure! Was that 50fps then on the Amiga? Even more amazing! On the standard Atari ST version too?
@@bigd5090 No - quite the opposite! Looking at a video, I think the driving sections of Batman the Movie are running at somewhere between 12-15 fps. The Amiga version looks to be a little smoother than the ST, but still nowhere near 25fps.
it's so so so fast. Are you writing a developer log? I am curious about all the difficulties you've been facing and tricks you're implementing.
No developer log at the moment. Might do a few "the making of" videos once I get it released though!
Your the savor of the ST, lets see Amiga owners weep
Not sure I'm deserving of that title, but I'll try to keep doing cool stuff!
@@gridleaderretro There's always been the lesser interest in the ST, so it's exciting to see something like this.
Yes but....can anybody improve the framerate of Lotus II on an STFM or is Shaun Southern the king of ST coders?
No doubt the framerate of Lotus 2 could be increased - the real questions are "by how much?" and "how long would somebody have to spend on it?" 😀 Shaun Southern did a great job of optimising Lotus 2 for the ST - I suspect he reached a point of diminishing returns and left it there. I suspect the potential gains are in single figure percentage increase of framerate, even with use of the Blitter.
@@gridleaderretro That new homebrew based on WEC Le Mans arcade for the STE is as fast and smooth as Lotus II on the Amiga so an STE port I suspect could be identical. The STFM however like you say is probably highly optimised, I know for a fact there is no chipset bandwidth left spare on the Amiga version hence to run Lotus III with zero frame drops you have to run it on an Amiga 1200 or better model as the RECS system needed some DMA/chipset bandwidth etc and something had to give. Lotus II is the fastest and smoothest STFM 2.5D routine I know of personally.
@@retrotronics1845 That new homebrew based on WEC Le Mans arcade for the STE (my very own project in case you're not aware!) is much smoother than Lotus 2 on the Amiga. Lotus 2 on an OCS/ECS Amiga runs at around 20-25fps I believe, whereas the STE WEC game runs (mostly) at 50fps. But the STE WEC game is doing much less work than Lotus 2 (appearances can be deceptive I know). I personally don't think that Lotus 2 on the STE could be as smooth as the Amiga version without some superhuman effort, although it could come close (as we've done with the STE version of Lotus 1). The Amiga version makes heavy use of the Copper, and even with the extra chips in the STE, all those colour changes have to be done in software with the 68k carrying the burden. It might be possible to get some extra performance out of the STE by upping the memory requirement to 4 meg and making use of memory-intensive techniques such as compiled Blitter sprites (as used by the WEC game). You might also want to check out Crazy Cars 3 for the ST, which to me comes very close to Lotus 2 in terms of accomplishment.
@@gridleaderretro Oh! I didn't know. I must congratulate you on such amazing work for the STE, I saw it on a thread on Amiga forum a couple of weeks ago. Your video is as impressive as the new MegaDrive 2.5D homebrew racing game or better even. PS I have two Mega STEs with 16mhz 68000 if you would like to support the limits ;) Rare machine but I needed a 16mhz ST/STE to play Gauntlet 1 smoother!
would of been nice if this engine could of been used in the Outrun port back in the day ;) (p.s., i know it didnt exist)
Yes ... although one of the reasons this is able to run so fast is that the width of the road is fixed and never changes during gameplay (just like Lotus). Additionally, this engine has no hills, which also helps with performance. An authentic Outrun conversion would feature both a variable width road and plenty of hills. I suspect the best that the ST(E) could do would be something along the lines of the PC Engine version, if you've seen that.
super impressive stuff.
Thank you! Please see more recent videos for the latest progress.
the night time with the lights looks awesome!
Thanks! For such a low-budget effect, I'm pretty pleased with it!
ah this is probably meant to be WEC Le Mans
"inspired by" rather than "meant to be" :)
Woahhhhhhh! I love it! I subscribed to follow the project. I have plenty of disk space left on mu UltraSatan :D
Thank you! I'll try not to keep you waiting for too long :)
This is getting better and better! Great job so far! 👌 I presume that you're already aware of, that in sharp corners parts of the road appear on the opposite side of the screen?
Thank you! The effect you've observed is a quirk of the way the road is rendered. You may notice that it happens in Lotus as well! If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me :)
Can you make the grooves on the tyres flicker like on the arcade/zx spectrum? If I recall correctly, both flicker on the straights, and the internal one during the curves will flicker while the other remains static
Possibly! Although it wouldn't be high on my list of priorities. Note that this game isn't intended to be a direct conversion of the WEC arcade game ... it's more "inspired by". I'm taking the gameplay in my own direction :)
Wow 😍 nice one
Thanks Sophie!
Will you implement road elevation ?
Not in this game - I'm not convinced it's possible at a 50fps framerate. The STE is already pretty stressed with what you see here :)
@@gridleaderretro Even with more RAM ? My MegaSTE is 4Mo, like most of STE nowadays.
@@gauthiermorand7930 It could possibly be done with a huge amount of precalculation and lots of additional memory. But for this game, I'm targeting 1meg STE to make it available to everybody.
Cool! Add the moon!
I really want to do that but I'm struggling a bit with technical constraints. It might be possible if it was to sit very low in the sky, near the mountains.
Epic. Very nice indeed! 👍👍
Thank you! 👍
Amazing work. I wonder if you could make the sky gradient look more intentional by doing the vertical stippling technique like Pico Racer does.
Interesting idea, thanks. I agree it would look nice, but it would also add some complexity to the code and I'm already struggling a bit to maintain 50fps without dropping too many frames!
Can't wait to run it on my machines!
I can't wait to see it running on your machines :)
@@gridleaderretro 😄 👍🏻 at the moment on my desk the ST machine is a Mega STE.
This needs CRT! ;)
I sold my 14 inch Sony Trinitron for next to nothing several years ago :(
1:40 loving what you’re doing with the backgrounds
The magic of that 4096 colour palette :)
Superb mate 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks as always!
The stars really add to it. Such a small change, such a big add to the atmosphere. Also if you are looking at a December release, Sillyventure demo party has a games competition to showcase new releases in December.
Hello ! i love this demo ,i have a complain. I see the arcade version on youtube after i see your version and congrate it's a very good job!!! My complain you haven't the second sprite ( the porsche 911 ) i think it's possible to include it to your game ! The game become more arcade "perfect" if you put the second cars "type 911 porsche" . And the other complain , had the Amstrad soundchip track music !!! it's a perfect tribute to this game if you had this ! Anyway it's just my opinion , but i love your project , this project is going to be a very very good conversion and my proposition seems possible . Your work is great ! Thanks for the work .Take care !
Hi there, and thanks for the feedback. Despite the more than superficial similarities, this isn't intended to be a direct conversion of WEC Le Mans for the Atari STE. It's loosely based upon that game, but is also heavily inspired by my own preferences - firstly, the desire to create the first 50fps 3D racer for the ST, and secondly to create a very stripped-back and frenetic mid-80s style arcade experience. A couple of people have mentioned how much they loved the soundtrack from the CPC version, but our intention is to have an orginal soundtrack from the legendary ST scene musician Dma-sc.
@@gridleaderretro ok i understand your choice , your game is very awesome , think about all purpose , to make an "unofficial" wec le mans version and had extra , make your game like you want i respect that , maybe in the final version had many tribute things ... anyway , i can't wait the final version !!!! i love this demo !
Very impressed, it looks great, but why go with chiptune music when the STE has much better sound capabilities than the original ST?
What's wrong with chiptune music? :) There are a number of reasons: 1) We're using the DMA hardware for engine noise and sound effects (which you might just about be able to hear behind the chiptune) courtesy of a software mixer; 2) This enables us to have a simultaneous YM soundtrack and sound effects; 3) If we did want to play a MOD file, the STE (unlike the Amiga) lacks hardware sound mixing, so we'd need to mix four channels in software which would use 20-30% of CPU time and result in a lower framerate or less stuff on screen; 4) Anyway, if I wanted to hear a MOD file, I'd play an Amiga game or a mid-90s PC game. This is an ST game, and we're paying homage to the rich history of YM music on the ST. (Okay, I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek here, but only partially - some of us actually like chiptunes!)
@@gridleaderretro Don't give in to these comments. YM can produce very solid chip music, plus it evokes more of an arcade feel of cabinets in the 80s. DMA stereo for engine and brake sound is then the perfect complement. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you in the project. If it ends up looking like an arcade version of Wec Le Mans, it will be an absolutely brilliant achievement for STE!
@@petrk2603 Don't fear, the YM music is staying right where it is! Just so that you know, the appearance and feature set of the finished game won't be dramatically different from what you see here. I'd love to have a go at a fully fledged arcade conversion but I don't have the time and the STE wouldn't necessarily be able to do it justice!
@@gridleaderretro A long time ago I programmed some stuff in Amos on Amiga, most of which I didn't finish. I'd like to continue or jump straight into something more efficient, like C or Blitz Basic, but I fully understand your point. There's not a lot of time to waste, and maybe the enthusiasm of younger years isn't quite the same. I occasionally put on newer STE stuff like Metal Slug - something that would have sounded utterly unbelievable to make on STE before, while is clear that programmers must have put a lot of energy into it. I'll keep my fingers crossed either way, just please don't give up (like a lot of other promising projects on other platforms). Good luck!
@@petrk2603 I'm hoping to release this WEC game in December. Keep your eyes peeled!
That is absolutely stunnbing! So fluid!
Ah thank you!
Stunning. Good work this.
Thank you! Cheers!
What the f***! Amazing
That's the kind of reaction that makes all my work worthwhile :)
Seriously cool. This project just keeps getting better!
Thank you!
Looks amazing!!!
Thanks!
Damn, that ST is cooking! Nice work! :)
STe... the normal ST does not have the blitter chip.
Thanks!
Take my money!
This game will be a free download, but I'll gladly accept envelopes (or suitcases) full of cash :)
Holy shit, Atari desperately needed developers like you!
I was a pretty lame developer back in 1989 though :)
This is coming out darn good!
Thank you! Very pleased with it myself too!
Will car crash be as impressive as Burning Rubber on CPC+/GX4000 ? What is ram requirements ? What about a null-modem option like Lotus 2 in a future update ?
See the previous video (29th August I think) for the car flipping animation. Null modem option would be great but I expect to be pretty sick of this project once I've managed to release it! I'll almost certainly release the (not very pretty) source code following release for anybody who wants to build upon it though.
Imagine if we had a Time Machine and sent you back to 1989….
Indeed.
I was there programming on the ST back in 1989, but my prods (mostly STOS) were pretty lame to say the least. Hoping to retrieve the floppies for everybody's amusement some day. :)
@@easyerthanyouthink Okay, I'll no doubt regret feeding the troll, but here goes. :) What a bitter tirade. Make sure you notify the designers and programmers of Crazy Cars 3, Jaguar XJ220, Cisco Heat, Chase HQ, Outrun, Prime Mover etc that their efforts are worthless due to "plagiarism and or copying ideas" from Pole Position and its predecessors. Also worth having a chat with Polyphony about Gran Turismo 7 too. They'll surely want to know.
@@easyerthanyouthink I see you quietly backtracking from your your original statement of "because all his code is plagerised of poleposition and lotus etc etc.". I'm all good with reasonable discussion and debate, but this is anything but (and is a long way from "stating fact" as you put it). All the best with your future endeavours.
Stunning!
Thank you! 😊