BOOSTED GAME COMPARISON

[coonsgm]

Just doing some testing this weekend as part of an Atari accelerator video. I know when I was looking at accelerators, part of the reason was just to tinker, but part was also to see if I could get better game performance.

So along that line of thinking, I thought it might be helpful to do a deep dive into compatibility...really focused on PPera's hard drive adapted games. If there are other hard drive adapted versions, or other libraries to test, let me know. So far just started recording some simple information in Excel and running with first the STE536, but plan on doing the same for ST536, TF536, DFB1x, and CT63.

I know that I have been able to get better compatibility by tweaking some settings, but to begin with, I'm trying to replicate what a "plug and play" experience might be like.

ST accelerator testing.png

[exxos]

Interesting list @coonsgm . I split it off into its own topic.. I don't think anyone has really attempted such a list before.

Largest factor will likely be if the game can be set and will run in TTram as that is where the CPU can access the faster RAM at higher speeds. Generally 3-D games see the best speed increase because of the faster processor and higher speeds for its calculations etc

The main problem is always going to be the graphics system because it is just simply limited to stock speeds. Games which are graphic intensive will likely only benefit from the CPU caches which may only give limited speed increases.

Some games while may not run faster, may actually run a little bit smoother if anything.

[coonsgm]

There are so many games to run through, so if anyone has a game they'd like me to look at post it here!

[exxos]

Castle Master :)

[rubber_jonnie]

I did some comparisons with the 32Mhz STE booster 4 years ago (Stunt Car Racer, Elite 2, F1 GP, Gembench, Hard Drivin' and Street Fighter 2).

Can't believe this was 4 years ago: Booster Comparisons.

Hope somebody finds it interesting.

[coonsgm]

Awesome! Thank you.

[Darklord]

I'd be interested in seeing if Ultima VI gained anything from your tests.

It was the last Ultima for the ST and while it did run from hard drive (even
complete with it's own installer) the game was a tad slow on a bog standard
ST.

Thanks. :)

[Steve]

I suppose it makes sense if it's in video form on YouTube, but as a table of data it doesn't make any sense to me because every booster will be a 'yes' (or a no in the case of a standard 2D thing like lemmings) doesn't that just make the data meaningless? Sorry to point that out 😞 But yeah if it's a video which kind of shows some performance difference then that's fine I suppose.

I think the table of data would make sense if it was simply: 'game' / 'does it benefit from an accelerator'.

[rubber_jonnie]

I suppose it makes sense if it's in video form on YouTube, but as a table of data it doesn't make any sense to me because every booster will be a 'yes' (or a no in the case of a standard 2D thing like lemmings) doesn't that just make the data meaningless? Sorry to point that out 😞 But yeah if it's a video which kind of shows some performance difference then that's fine I suppose.

I think the table of data would make sense if it was simply: 'game' / 'does it benefit from an accelerator'.

I agree, unless you can see a visible comparison it's difficult to know just how much the gain is, unless like with the Frontier tester that has a framerate counter built in it will always be subjective in the eye of the beholder.

Overall I think 3d is where the best gains are to be found, IIRC SF2 saw no real improvement between 8Mhz and 32Mhz.

[coonsgm]

Part of the intent is to set expectations that with most accelerators you lose compatibility in exchange for some performance improvement.

The video would be to show some examples of where the benefit is greatest.

Ultimately VI shows massive improvement btw.