Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 13 Sep 2024

[@mortenera2294]

Damn! This is getting better and better with every day that passes. If we can get such nice results on a bog standard STE, imagine a well optimized Atari Falcon game

[@gridleaderretro]

It would be very interesting to see what could be done on a Falcon. I assume you've seen the existing "Racer" game on Falcon, and also the Quake engine demos by DML?

[@mortenera2294]

@@gridleaderretro Yeah, I know about these. The Quake II and Half Life demos look amazing aside from the low resolution, but I doubt they would be playable at a decent framerate

[@iratanongrata5973]

@@gridleaderretro I'll throw in another vote for this (or a similar game) being made for the Falcon. It's sad how the ratio of demos to actual games on it is something like 50:1 (or more) :P

[@gridleaderretro]

@@iratanongrata5973 It would be really cool to see more games on the Falcon, but the number of users is minuscule compared to the STE. And unlike STE, emulation isn't that great and I can't afford the real thing. 😁

[@gridleaderretro]

@@mortenera2294 I do wonder how how much potential the Falcon has for a game like this (i.e. throwing sprites around). The Blitter is effectively useless in the Falcon because the 030 can do most things more quickly. But there's no other dedicated graphics hardware and I can't imagine the DSP being that useful in such a scenario.

[@yannleflanchec1687]

great job, releases get better end better each day

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you!

[@Steril707]

It keeps getting better and better...

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you! The positive comments keep me going!

[@estrayk]

more and more progress is being made. how wonderful!

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you!

[@gryz0r]

This is the smoothest thing since Pole Position in the arcades...

[@gridleaderretro]

Unless I'm very much mistaken, the arcade version of Pole Position ran at 25fps. This is actually smoother!

[@gryz0r]

@@gridleaderretro I think it was higher, but can't back up the claim 😁 However, it *did* feel extremely smooth! Refresh rate isn't everything, of course - when PP was played with the proper analogue steering wheel it felt more responsive than my actual car 😂

[@s_t_s4846]

@@gridleaderretro What about Vroom on the ST? I remember it being very fast and smooth.

[@gridleaderretro]

@@s_t_s4846 The problem is that "very fast and smooth" in 2024 means 50+fps. In 1989 we considered 17fps+ to be "very fast and smooth". You may want to revisit Vroom and see just how fast and smooth it is compared to modern standards :)

[@EgoShredder]

F**k**g hell WOW! The 4MB version will be extra special when you find time to work on it. Well done!

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you!

[@roblove2007]

I don't like the fact, that back in the day the just showed the back of the cars only, when they got closer, with respect, they had limitations. Now you show arcade style side of enemy cars. well done. I would buy this game..

[@gridleaderretro]

Ah yes, that really used to annoy me too. The first time I saw the ST conversion of Out Run, I was like "why can't I see the sides of the cars and lorries?" :)

[@retrotronics1845]

Hopefully I will be able to play this over Xmas time as you say. I better find my old XP PC with built in disk drive so I can create a disk for my STE to play it on my large Sony CRT TV for the ultimate experience :)

[@gridleaderretro]

Be sure to post a video of the game running on the large CRT when the time comes!

[@retrotronics1845]

@@gridleaderretro Sure will :) Along with a lot of other Atari games (2600,7800,800XL too) if I finish renovating this 110 year old house lol. Xmas = Atari gaming :)

[@nikkoberserker]

hello ! i'm waiting the final product :-) , i have question , Do you make a physical game pack or only download version ? You working so hard on it ! i hope the best for your project ! take care.

[@gridleaderretro]

I'd love to make a paid-for physical product, but I'd be a bit wary of legal action by whoever now owns the WEC Le Mans IP!

[@alexgunikov4785]

You can’t please this great game . Make it full passage

[@gridleaderretro]

Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you mean :)

[@Persepolis09]

really well done. is this running with 1 meg of ram , if so what could be done with 4 megs?

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you! The most likely usage of additional memory would be smoother scaling for the cars/scenery, and a greater variety of cars/scenery. Perhaps some marginal performance improvements as well resulting in less dropped frames. There's been a lot of discussion already about whether a 4 meg RAM requirement would make it possible to introduce hills whilst retaining the framerate - that's something I may look into in future.

[@Steril707]

Are 4mb common on Atari STs nowadays?

[@gauthiermorand7930]

Adding RAM to STE is quite easy and cheap nowadays. So a 2mb or 4mb release should be a great idea. Did you see my answer about null-modem ? This should be shared on the former Ocean-team members.

[@gridleaderretro]

@@Steril707 I'm led to believe that most STEs have 4 meg nowadays.

[@gridleaderretro]

@@gauthiermorand7930 Thanks Gauthier - I saw your answer regarding null-modem support. We can look into it further after the initial release. I know that at least a few ex-Ocean people are aware of this project - Paulie Hughes being one of them. Feel free to spread the word!

[@ChrisDimitriadis-c8o]

Wiil a demo be available for emulators ?

[@gridleaderretro]

If all goes to plan, the full finished game will be available as a free downloadable disk image (usable with emulators) in December this year.

[@LeGlod]

@@gridleaderretro Ce sera un super cadeau de Noel :-D Merci ;-)

[@ChrisDimitriadis-c8o]

Imagine you program this on Amiga 500

[@gridleaderretro]

Maybe that will happen one day ;)

[@ChrisDimitriadis-c8o]

@@gridleaderretro hope you considered it , you create some amazing results with the STE chipset so using ECS would be 16 bit something...

[@fresnobob-t7o]

Amiga port would be really appreciated!

[@gridleaderretro]

@@fresnobob-t7o Unfortunately it seems that many people in the Amiga community want to see this game ported, but few want to contribute to the effort :(