Shadowlands

[AtariCrypt]

Shadow lands Atari ST.png

Calling all Diablo fans... no, wait... Sorry!
But seriously, this is one sweet game and it's years ahead of its time in some ways. I really love this RPG.
URL = https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2018/06 ... lands.html

One of my favourite Atari ST games and something I'm proud to own also.

Any fans here?

[mrbombermillzy]

Funny you should mention Diablo...

Im surprised that no-one has tried to port it to the ST/Falcon/TT seeing as the C source code was accidentally given away on the PSX version.

[AtariCrypt]

I didn't know about that but I'd be shocked if anybody tried to bring it to the ST. It'd be possible on the STe with a reduction to the colours, etc... but would it work overall? Surely this game is too huge for a 4MB machine? But...are there the ppl to put in the time on the ST - Esp compared to the other platforms :/

[mrbombermillzy]

Well, what with all the possible expansions for the Ataris these days... I mean, you can get 64/128Mb into a TT... Even on a lowly ST you have fairly good data storage (4Mb available to the GFX/sound hardware and plenty more Alt RAM and fairly quick solid state HDD options to swap in/out of), so a loaded 4Mb machine could handle it I'd say.

Perhaps even use one of the newly discovered higher res STFM modes?

Worst case, the TT or Falcon should be able to handle it in some form.

[mrbombermillzy]

Sorry for the topic derail, but you seemed interested! :P

So..

here we have a quite playable WIP Amiga version of Diablo: http://www.apollo-core.com/gfx/diablo.mp4?z=NfKmhH

Its running on the A600 Vampire board, I know, but I dont think the GCC compilation has any Apollo 68080 specific stuff going on there, so no reason it cant be targeted to a '030. By the sound of it, the Motorola/Intel endian conversion was a big part.

May have to drop/simplify some bits to run at an acceptable speed but... the 68k code is there!

[AtariCrypt]

Wow that is some serious upgrade they have there for under 400 quid. It's a shame the ST doesn't have something similar (or does it? I don't really follow). But looking at that, I'm sure it would be possible on the Falcon or TT but they're still way behind that 68060 so they'd struggle too? Again, guessing...

Trouble is, is there anybody on the ST/Falcon scene willing to try this? Our little club seems tiny compared to the other retro computers out there with so few new games /etc. I know of a handful of projects "in dev" but they are taking years because it's usually a one-man job and they have real lives getting in the way (ugh i hate real life lol). But it's still nothing compared to the number of releases I see on 8bit Atari, Speccy, Am1ga, etc

Very interesting video though, makes me remember when I played this on my Mac back in the day. It's now on GOG but sadly just PC, which really annoys me lol

[mrbombermillzy]

Its a bit of a sore subject on AF. I think EmuTOS is running on the Vampire.
However..

I think the power users there willing to help with the Atari side conversion are not too fussed in helping because there are no plans for adding a MMU for running Mint and such and the core is proprietary. Thats what I gleaned from scanning over the thread anyway. Forgive me if Ive missed any important points!

Going back to Diablo though, Ive had a quick look at Shadowlands, which seems to be a slower paced multi-character Diablo. If the ST can pull that off, theres a fair chance it can pull off a version of Diablo. F030/TT even more so.