Atari STE 50fps racer - WIP 29 Aug 2024

[@kevcall]

Wow that feels even faster than before. Some nice polish fixing some of the graphic issues. The 4 opponent cars look like they add an extra challenge. Great work!

[@gridleaderretro]

Thanks! Yeah, the issues with corrupted graphics are now resolved. It's taken a fair bit of optimisation to get things running smoothly with 4 opponent cars and music!

[@mortenera2294]

Holy crap, this is bloody amazing! If the Atari STE can handle such a game, I wonder how much untapped potential it has

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you! I think it's fair to say that if we understood the STE in 1990 to the extent that we understand it in 2024, we'd have seen a handful of pretty amazing commercial games released... It's even got to the point where some of the Amiga guys are looking at recent STE prods and asking if they would be possible on the Amiga :)

[@simonebernacchia5724]

@@gridleaderretro present! Would love to see thew rework of outrun ported

[@jasont6287]

@@gridleaderretro I think you are right JT.

[@IntoTheVerticalBlank]

Once you figure out how to work around the STE design, you find that even though it was not "engineered" as well as the Amiga, you can squeeze anm lot out of it. I'd love to be able to do that!

[@trydowave]

@@gridleaderretro Actually. i was about to ask if the trickery used here is similar to the Hang On demo on th Amiga?

[@mr9368]

Looks amazing!!

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you!

[@stunthumb]

This is looking awesome, it always has but now everything just seems just that bit smoother. Tremendous work, can't wait to try it.

[@gridleaderretro]

Ah thank you! Lots of work going into optimisation recently - the game still drops frames from time to time but those occasions are becoming less frequent :)

[@ThisIsPete]

Looking absolutely amazing! I love a good "vanishing point" racer so I will be very excited indeed to try a finished version of this!

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you! Hoping to release as a free download around December this year if all goes to plan.

[@Flashback-Gamer]

Superb visuals and such speed with those amount of cars on the track seriously incredible work here.

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you! I'm on a one-man mission to prove that the STE is not as crap as rubbish as some people might say :)

[@daren42]

Looks so good and buttery smooth. Nice to see Group C cars in a modern game too

[@gridleaderretro]

The conversion of WEC Le Mans that the ST never had :)

[@CFalcon030]

Your engine is amazing.

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you! The fastest CPU instruction is one that never gets executed :)

[@noelsaw]

Looks great! Awesome job!

[@gridleaderretro]

Thank you!

[@8tpercent]

😮😮😮 what dark magic is this 😮😮😮 awesome music too

[@gridleaderretro]

No magic - just the untapped potential of the STE! Time for us to finally show the Amiga community what we're made of! :)

[@s_t_s4846]

Incredibly fast! Almost too fast for my old eyes! :)

[@gridleaderretro]

I feel your pain. I can't handle these speeds either! Hoping some youngsters will come along on release and show us how to play the game!

[@lucasjokiel]

soooo smooooth!

[@gridleaderretro]

It's taking some effort to hold this framerate on the humble STE, I can tell you :)

[@LeGlod]

Impressionnant :)

[@gridleaderretro]

Merci!

[@francois-xavierrobin432]

So so great. Could it be possible to have a light beam coming from the car to the road at night?

[@gridleaderretro]

I'm thinking about it :)

[@salem_ok6732]

This is coming along very nicely, and the optimizations are definitely visible, bravo! Is the chiptune a placeholder or an original (I don't think I've heard that one)?

[@gridleaderretro]

The chiptune is a placeholder for now. The final tune will likely either be an extended version of this one, or something completely different :)

[@nikkoberserker]

I love wec le mans on my Amstrad CPC and there are no 16bits version , i love to have this version for my STE !!!!! can you take the original soundchip music from amstrad cpc version to this STE version ? the soundchip are awesome ! i can't wait the final version! Good job !!!!! Thanks for the video !

[@gridleaderretro]

Hi there. I too was disappointed back in the day that WEC never made it to the ST. That's part of the reason why I'm working on this! The soundtrack will be a custom-made track - possibly an extension of this one, possibly something completely different.

[@jasont6287]

Very impressive m8 Shame the ste's blitter cant be used to fill polygons also m8 or can it? ......

[@gridleaderretro]

The Blitter can be used to draw horizontal spans (whereby a polygon is made up of multiple horizontal spans on different lines) but I'm not convinced that it's discernibly faster than the CPU in practice. There are a couple of ST demos that use the Blitter for filling polygons but I can't remember off hand what they're called.

[@jasont6287]

@@gridleaderretro Isnt there a demo of a f16 fighter jet that does this ?

[@jasont6287]

But i feel it wouldn't be worth it. in reality i would rather have more cpu speed, cache ram and a faster or wider bus

[@jasont6287]

and faster ram with lower wait states

[@gridleaderretro]

@@jasont6287 Possibly. I'm a bit out of touch with the demoscene :)

[@trydowave]

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)

[@gridleaderretro]

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.

[@goddessesstartrekonlinefle3061]

Such great graphics, loved the car flip animation! If you have any cycles to spare, how about some headlight beams at night! :D

[@gridleaderretro]

Looking into the headlight beams but not making any promises :)

[@goddessesstartrekonlinefle3061]

@@gridleaderretro :D