Amiga.org
Operating System Specific Discussions => Amiga OS => Amiga OS -- Development => Topic started by: Starrfoxx on December 29, 2006, 06:56:16 PM
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I feel like I may be biting off more than I can really chew, but I thought I'd ask. (Never hurts to ask.) I think it is neat to see some games like Quake 3 make it to the Amiga, and Freescape looks really good too. I was hoping I might be able to make my own contribution.
The problem is, I know nothing about programming with exception of using Basic on a Commodore 64 many, many years ago. What I would like to do is make a port of my favorite PC game "The Sims" to the Amiga. I was wanting to make that AGA compatible, and minimum to run would be a 68040. I don't know how realistic that is. The graphics on the original "Sims" is pretty basic, so I don't think it would be too bad.
I don't even know where to begin. I assume I would need to get permission from EA Games. Then I would need to get the programming code, which I'm not sure how to go about that. I'm not even sure if they'll charge me for it. And then there's the task of actually porting the code to the Amiga, and I have no clue on how to do that either.
I did see this over on Amigakit:
StormC v4 (Amiga CD) (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=477&osCsid=75aa0d90704b9f2959482b162b955add)
Would this be useful, or is this for experienced programmers? I'm more of a beginner, and like I said I'm probably biting off more than I can really chew here. But I thought it would be nice to port the most popular PC game over to the Amiga community.
The Mac versions of "The Sims" and "The Sims 2" are done by Aspyr Media. I'm not sure what they had to go through to do a port, but I'm interested to find out.
I suppose if a port of this game is way out of my league, I could always do a clone based on The Sims. Perhaps it can be Amiga specific and we can call it "The Migs"? :-P
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You can only truly port software if you have its source code. Then you have to adapt the code so it will compile and run on the target environment.
Since you don't have access to the source code for The Sims, you would have to write a clone from scratch (a reimplementation, not a port).
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moto
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You'd be looking at seven figures (millions of dollars) to even get EA to consider allowing a license of a port of the Sims to another platform, and you'd have to provide them with background on your game development history (as in a catalogue of previously successful published big-name titles by members of your conversion team) so that they can be reasonably confident you will do a decent job of the port and not bring the whole 'Sims' brand into disrepute with a shoddy release. They'd also assign an external producer to the project, to oversee the conversion, and it would have to go through EA's QA process.
In short it'll be about as easy as getting George Lucas to let you make a new official Star Wars movie.
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Licensing impossibilities aside, I doubt 68k CPU's would be enough for The Sims. I presume this is a 3D game?
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EA has a QA department?
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EA will not allow you to use their brand even if you coded a 100% clone from the gound up. An independent clone is the best you can hope for.
But why bother on the amiga? It's vastly more satisfying putting together games on modern platforms. Fast hardware, no more writing your own freakin raycaster, etc. You can write some cool graphics effects in less than 40 lines in c# with xna that would be impossible on any amiga.
Even if you did a nice sims clone on amiga all proper and stuff, only like some 2000 people would even be able to run it.
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Learn to walk before you run. If you only know Commodore Basic then you'll need to get an Amiga Basic first. If you want to program for classic Amiga, I'd recommend getting AmosPro (http://liquido2.com/) even though it doesn't support AGA yet becuase when you first write games you'll probably need to do your own artwork anyway. There is an effort in progress to make an AGA, PowerPC and PC compatible sequel to Amos tentatively called Mattathias. Using Amos to write games will soon become portable.
If you're writing games just for classic Amiga and don't care about getting them to run well on PowerPC or better, then download AmiBlitz (http://blitz2000.gazchap.com/) instead.
Quake3 is out for the AmigaOS version 4 on the PowerPC processors but it has bugs due to the poor implementation of OpenGL currently available.
As for learning C, that's a good idea but a difficult task. StormC 4 is good for classic Amigas but I currently am using a cross-development environment on both Linux and Windows. See Zerohero's website (http://zerohero.se) for free downloads to the GCC cross-compilers and if you want a graphical environment for them, see AmiDevCpp (http://amigaworld.net/modules/mylinks/singlelink.php?lid=612) instead. Of course you'll need to run WinUAE to test your code but that's not a huge problem if you have both a PC and a classic Amiga.
If you have another platform besides classic Amiga, I'd recommend learning sdlBasic (http://www.sdlbasic.altervista.org/main/index.php) since it has been ported to both AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS on the PowerPC. Program games using SDL (http://www.libsdl.org/index.php) and OpenGL which can be easily ported to AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS. Unfortunately these programs slow to a crawl on AmigaOS 3.x due to the old 680x0 processors.
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Lol!
Yeah, I didn't think it would be easy. Well, I'm glad I asked. It gave me a dose of reality there. I did see Quake 3 ported, or actually a patch made for it so I wasn't sure.
As far as another Star Wars movie, actually there are some really good "fan films" out there that are quite impressive. Has anyone seen "Reign of the Fallen" and/or "Dark Alliance"? Excellent stuff.
Ok, well, let's move away from the subject of doing a port and talk about actually building a game "based" on The Sims. I'm not sure if there would be any interest in a project like this. If not, I think my daughter would get a kick out of it since she loves playing the original Sims. It would be a fun pastime also.
I think what I would want to do is get myself an A1200 to program on, or perhaps I could use WinUAE on my laptop. Now what I need is the knowledge. Are there any programs out there to make games for the Amiga or do I need to write it all in code, Amiga Basic, C? I actually have a book somewhere on AmigaBasic. It's a thick book. I think what I need is Amiga Basic for Dummies. :-D
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Don't use AmigaBasic. It has too many bugs and is written by Microsoft. Use Amos or AmiBlitz instead. See my previous post for information.
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As others have said, a clone could be possible, not a direct port. However I think that you're underestimating the amount of effort needed to create a game like that (even one now as relatively old as the original Sims). I'm no programmer myself, but the advice everyone seems to give is to start small: write a few trivial apps, then a game of noughts-and-crosses, then chess, then a simple turn-based strategy game etc.
You might want to have a little look into the SDL library - if you were to write a game with that then it would be easily portable onto the Amiga/PC/anything. Here's my experience: I wrote a nice little isometric engine in C++ and SDL that could do smooth-scrolling, multiple heights, seperate user-placable buildings etc and looked identical to C&C: Red Alert. It ported onto the Amiga with no real modifications, which was very satisfying. The aim was to use it as the basis of a C&C-type RTS game, however that was way to big for a first project, and the code's been in storage for a year or so now. On the other hand, I'd never used anything other than AMOS and Visual BASIC before, having always assumed C/C++ the realm of professionals. After reading a book a book ("teach yourself C++ in 24 hours") it turned out to be a lot easier going than I'd imagined at first.
BTW I don't know how realistic it would be to get something like The Sims working nicely under AGA. While it can display 256 colours, it's dog-slow when doing that.
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Listen to Alx. SDL is nice and ports are for amiga. Skip the basic, c/c++ is nice and sets you up to being able to develop for any platform you like.
And don't forget to give XNA a shot. Stuff written with XNA runs on windows and xbox360. Looks like there is going to be an indie games markit on xbox live, so if you come up with a neat game you could make some coin as well as having fun.
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Hi, first off let me say: great initiative!
Before you get your hands dirty with commercial C compilers, you can try free alternatives like dice, vbcc and gcc. It will save you a few bucks in case you decide it's not your cup of tea.
Porting is unfortunately not just "recompile and run", you may have to rewrite some parts, like the graphics and audio routines, IO handlers (keyboard, mouse, etc) and so on. The audio and graphics may have to be converted to Amiga-friendly formats.
I recommend that you download a free C compiler and start with something extremly easy, just to get the taste of what to expect. Find something that's already multi-plattform, like a command-line utility from the UNIX world. Odds are you'll something like that working with the least amount of work.
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Hi StarrFoxx. I like the name "Migs" and it sounds like a fun game. I'd play it since the little I played of the Sims was rather interesting.
To program something like that myself, though. geeeeeeez :-o What a frightening idea.
For those who might remember, what was that program featured a little person that lived in a house with a dog (or was it a cat), and you "interacted" with it as it went through the motions of doing household activities? I can remember it on the PC a long time ago, as someone had it playing on a store computer. Was the name "little people"? Maybe you could start with something along those lines and build it out from there.
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Amiduffer wrote:
Hi StarrFoxx. I like the name "Migs" and it sounds like a fun game. I'd play it since the little I played of the Sims was rather interesting.
To program something like that myself, though. geeeeeeez :-o What a frightening idea.
For those who might remember, what was that program featured a little person that lived in a house with a dog (or was it a cat), and you "interacted" with it as it went through the motions of doing household activities? I can remember it on the PC a long time ago, as someone had it playing on a store computer. Was the name "little people"? Maybe you could start with something along those lines and build it out from there.
Would that be "AllyCat" ?
msdos game in CGA?
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Amiduffer wrote:
Hi StarrFoxx. I like the name "Migs" and it sounds like a fun game. I'd play it since the little I played of the Sims was rather interesting.
To program something like that myself, though. geeeeeeez :-o What a frightening idea.
For those who might remember, what was that program featured a little person that lived in a house with a dog (or was it a cat), and you "interacted" with it as it went through the motions of doing household activities? I can remember it on the PC a long time ago, as someone had it playing on a store computer. Was the name "little people"? Maybe you could start with something along those lines and build it out from there.
"LIttle Computer People", from EA
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Oh yeah! Little Computer People. Never got the little guy to do anything except stare at me. :lol:
Think thats do-able StarrFoxx?
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Thanks for all the responses!
Well, I'm looking around to see where to start. Amiga SDL sounds like a good start, so I found this site:
Amiga SDL (http://ggreco.interfree.it/sdl.html)
And then I found this for OS4:
OS4 SDL (http://www.rcdrummond.net/amiga/index.html)
I haven't downloaded the file, because I'm at work, but I can go ahead and take a look at this when I get home. My real Amiga isn't internet ready, so I'll go ahead and check this out on WinUAE and my laptop. It'll give me something to read and play around with while on my bus rides to and from work.
BTW, Lemmings is great on my laptop. :-D My daughter likes that game.
Would it be better to program using WinUAE or a real Amiga? I'm guessing if I program with WinUAE, then I'm not addressing the custom chips. I may need to invest in a A1200. It would be nice addition to the "family" since my old A500 is rather dead until I can get it fixed.
Programming-wise, I want to keep my "Sims" clone in mind because it's inspirational to me. I'll keep it simple though, and probably start with something basic like getting a square on the screen, change the color, and get it to move or something.
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I'm guessing if I program with WinUAE, then I'm not addressing the custom chips. I may need to invest in a A1200.
Nooooooooo!
Leave the custom chips be! For one thing, SDL abstracts things to a far higher level than the actual hardware, so you wouldn't be able to access the AGA registers directly using it. More importantly, as soon as you start banging the metal then all semblance of portability disappears - not just to the PC and Mac, but even an expanded A1200 using a graphics card.
The one real benefit of accessing the chips directly is (comparatively) lightning-fast graphics operations, especially for using the special features of the Classic Amiga architecture like the Copper and hardware sprites. If you wanted to write a demo, then this would be essential.
I'd still invest in the A1200 though 8-)
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I think the classic Amiga version of SDL requires a graphics card or WinUAE running Picasso96 to run. Of course SDL programs will compile natively on Windows anyway so why not look into writing SDL programs on your laptop and then let a cross-compiler port them to the Amiga for you.
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Since "Little Computer People" originated on the Commodore 64 it should be possible to do something simple on the Amiga kind of like that. But do keep it simple. It is hard work to write software.
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@Starrfoxx
Source code to the bestseller titles such as Sims is worth hundreds of millions. It is likely never going to be available under open source license (at least not anytime soon, the Sims sequels/kits are still making tons of money).
Quake, Quake 2 and Quake 3 ware ported because the source code was made available for those (thanks Id Software!).
Clone of the Sims is a bit unrealistic, to put it kindly. Learning to program takes years (I've been learning for over 20 years). Programming anything even remotely as complex as the Sims takes years aswell, and you just can't make it alone.
Anyway, if you want to have a quick look, the quake 3 source code (http://ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/quake3-1.32b-source.zip) is available. Porting it for MorphOS was done in hours, as the code was already quite portable. Anyway, browsing this source code should give you some idea what game project might look like. The source code to the MorphOS port (http://bigfoot.morphos-team.net/files/morphosquake3-src.tar.bz2) is also available, in case you want to compare.
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Piru wrote:
Source code to the bestseller titles such as Sims is worth hundreds of millions. It is likely never going to be available under open source license (at least not anytime soon, the Sims sequels/kits are still making tons of money).
This is true. It's still making money. I had seen that Aspyr had made conversions for the Mac, so I figured someone on the Amiga side could also. But then I looked into Aspyr a bit more and found out that they make about 60% of the Mac conversions of a lot of games. So, they probably have the money to get things licensed. I also wasn't sure how involved it was to convert a game. I didn't know if you just have to go line by line on code and rewrite it or some other way.
I can't view the source code on Quake here at work.... it's a blocked site. But that would be interesting to look at.
I'm not going to really know how this is going to work until I do some studying. Thanks for all the responses. I'll let you know what I discover after reading up on the programming.
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@Starrfoxx,
As another beginning programmer that wants to create games for my favorite computer, may I suggest that you start out writing clones of games you like, or original ideas, in a simple language like AMOS, Blitz Basic, etc. and then move up to C or C++ as your programming skills progress. Start with easy projects that you can complete in a relatively short period of time, then upward and onward!
Looking forward to trying your games when they are ready for testing.
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Starrfoxx go for it! Ten years ago I programmed some stuff in sas/c and amos. But I never learnt enough to write a good game. But If i will some spare time i will surely write something. I think for PPC. If I find a good software for it.
There is not much Powerup/warpup software but I will create some. Someone surely will say: why not for pc why for this ancient machine. Just because i love it.
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Starrfoxx.
A commendable posting. However as many have said, maybe a little too adventurous :)
I know this will sound pretty bad but - as some have said already. You need to narrow your scope.
Ignore writing code for the Amiga. Program for Windows. I say this because you will find little help out there on the quirks of AmigaOS programming and almost too much information on programming Windows.
I know. I looked. I write games for fun and have written both Amiga and Windows games. Albeit non-commercially.
I used to run the MiniGL group when there was such a thing so believe me when I say that you will struggle to find decent examples of AmigaOS code on the web.
So try and convince yourself to write a Windows game. Be all means once you have an idea of the basic structure of a game then port that to AmigaOS but I would really advise you to start on Windows.
Also start with Tetris. There are thousands of websites on this "simple" game.
Something that you may want to investigate is
http://www.gamedev.net/
a brilliant resource of code snippets and forums.
Oh and use C++ or C# as both languages are reasonably easy to learn and are again WELL documented. I would advise against using VBCC or GCC look at the Microsoft Express versions (which are free) as these are much more beginner friendly.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualcsharp/default.aspx
Good luck.
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Allen wrote:
I used to run the MiniGL group when there was such a thing so believe me when I say that you will struggle to find decent examples of AmigaOS code on the web.
So you're saying we all should abandon the Amiga and stick to the mainstream? If you ask me, this means we need MORE coders and MORE documentation for the Amiga on the web. Hell, I'm more than willing to write a few tutorials if someone's interested.
Just to give you my POV: I've programmed for 21 years, currently hired as a Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 programmer. I've worked here for two years, developing a major invoice system in C#.Net. I HATE it, but the pay's too good to quit, and I have a family to support.
Give me a bash shell with vim+gmake and I'll write C++/Qt applications twice the speed I do .Net apps in VS2003/2005 at work. Needless to say, I only use Amiga, Mac and Linux at home.
It's all about what you're used to, or what you want to get used to. For him, VS.Net is probably as confusing as any other dev environment.
Please do not mistake this as an attack on you, Allen. I have nothing against you, I'm just being a prick due to my problems with the Microsoft empire and their products. :)
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My advice would be to start with C and SDL and/or OpenGL. SDL for 2D graphics, input, sounds etc. and OpenGL for 3D if you need it.
For quite a while I was a bit "lost" when trying to code with C (instead of AmosPro). Then I started experimenting with OpenGL (thanks to MorphOS' TinyGL) and had my first 3D game, blockmorph (http://jupp3.amigafin.org/blockmorph.png) (blockout clone) running well within a week. OpenGL certainly makes 3D (and why not 2D aswell) drawing very easy (and fast, if you have 3D acceleration), basically you just need to tell it what to draw (you know, points, lines, triangles...) and give the coordinates. BUT if you choose OpenGL, you should really forget about AGA (which you should do anyway, imho)
Later I started using SDL for some things, such as sounds and input handling. Here's an old pic (http://jupp3.amigafin.org/thurst/screenshots/th.png) of my 3D accelerated gravity game, which uses both SDL and OpenGL.
If you're interested in OpenGL, you can check some tutorials here (http://nehe.gamedev.net/) but beware, many of those examples are far from optimal (and in some cases could be optimized a LOT by just moving a few lines) but I still consider them good enough to learn the bare basics. I'd recommend learning vertex arrays asap when you're somewhat comfortable with the basics, that way your code will likely be faster, and also work on OpenGL ES (as used in many mobile devices)
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@skurk
I think his point was more that if you are just beginning to learn C or C++ then there's more resources available for the beginner using MS Visual C++ or VS.NET etc.
Plus the IDEs are very good and much more user friendly than many of the Open Source ones out there.
Also I think that if you ever find yourself advocating using vim (for anything) then you are not thinking of the novice user :-D
Learning a portable language like C or C++ on the PC is ok, then he can bring that experience back to the Amiga. There are major differences but it's not much harder than going from PC to Gameboy Advance development. However starting off on the Amiga could potentially limit his resources unnecessarily.
Just my opinion obviously.
Andy
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Nice post there Bill :-)
>Ignore writing code for the Amiga. Program for Windows.
This on an Amiga forum!? Then people wonder why there is a lack of Amiga software?? If the Amiga is to continue to thrive it needs support, such "Amiga is dead" statements are self-fulfilling prophecies.
>Also start with Tetris. There are thousands of websites on this "simple" game.
Spare us the Tetris clones. As you have said, there are thousands of these. I doubt anyone wants more of these at the expense of more original software. There are many other games which would be more worthwhile to remake. Surely with a little more thought one can come up with something a bit more original and worthwhile to code.
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The problem with the ms .net environments is that they box you in a lot, and in my opinion they don't really teach you much.
I'd start out with C/C++ and then take a look at the .net stuff if you want to churn out a windows application quickly. Especially if you intend to lear no windows and migrate to the amiga.
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Well if you have no experience whatsoever how are you thingking about porting a Pc game to the Amiga.
Besides that the Amiga hardware is to weak to really port games to. The videocards are to slow to really enjoy a pc game that would have been ported.
Speaking for myself i am making an Amiga version of the gameboy advance version of Advance Wars 2 black hole rising. It's no port just reverse engineering Arm code and write from the ground up 680x0 code. At first it will run on a classic Amiga 500/2000 with a bit of a ram expansion.
Later i am thinking to do a A1200 version.
If you are eager to program and write games perhaps that could be an idea for ya. There is enough coding material around for the Gameboy and Amiga to get you started.
My development system is a PC where i use a GBA emulator and WinUAE to write the code on. Later i test it on a classic Amiga to check compatibility. This process of creating a game give much fun. Of course i code in Assembler C++ sux and takes longer to learn.
PC to Amiga is mostly not do-able because the Amiga is far to weak but Gameboy games give's you enough challenges, but dont expect to make an Half-life 2 or Battlefield 2. And a PPC Amiga well its not the real thing ya know!!!!
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Amiduffer wrote:
Oh yeah! Little Computer People. Never got the little guy to do anything except stare at me
Then check out this page (http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/articlelive/articles/26/2/The-House/Page2.html). There's an excellent flash anim of the game running.
He lives, he loves, other human stuff.
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seanys wrote:
Then check out this page (http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/articlelive/articles/26/2/The-House/Page2.html). There's an excellent flash anim of the game running.
He lives, he loves, other human stuff.
Ha ha ha ha! You find the darndest things on the internet. :-o :lol:
If I played that at the office, boy, would I be ridiculed.
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I hope this is not too off topic.
Can the Amiga do matrix math? (Single Instruction Multiple Data)
I guess the FP Math unit would be responsible for this if it is available.
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Can the Amiga do matrix math? (Single Instruction Multiple Data)
It's not "matrix math" it's "SIMD math". Matrix math is well possible without SIMD.
I guess the FP Math unit would be responsible for this if it is available.
Well, not really, as SIMD isn't FPU only. In PowerPC SIMD is in altivec unit, available in G4 and G5 series of CPUs (plus IBM has some stripped down SIMD in some special G3 models). m68k doesn't have SIMD.
All amigas (even unexpanded A1000) can do matrix math.
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Perhaps he used the term "matrix math" because the particular class of numerical calculation that involves a lot of matrices is often well suited to SIMD optimization?
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trekiej wrote:
I hope this is not too off topic.
Can the Amiga do matrix math? (Single Instruction Multiple Data)
I guess the FP Math unit would be responsible for this if it is available.
Some AmigaOne models running AmigaOS 4 have G4 processors with an Altivec SIMD unit, as do some Pegasos IIs running MorphOS. SIMD processing was a little after the time of the Classic Amigas.
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Do AOS4 and MOS save the Altivec Regs during a context switch?
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@bloodline
Yes.
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Piru wrote:
@bloodline
Yes.
That's ok then, I give you all permission to use the Alitvec if it's available ;-)
It would probably be a good idea to develop a matrix/dsp library to abstract the Altivec implementation away from the programmer... for backwards compatibility and future proofing... much in the same way Apple promoted the accelerate framwork.
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Hi friend:
www.feryogi.com/amos.html
there is my amiga game 'wizard' which was coded entirely on amospro. Amospro is really easy to learn..and you could use it to make a game based on the sims.Or many other kind of games. Amospro is great for 2d games, or roleplay/strategy.
Try it!!!
rednova
-mobilis in mobili-
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Clue for the clueless ones:
1) If you don't code, don't give advice. It's most likely wrong.
2) Amiga DOES make it possible. Get a clue:
http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=25778
and for the lazy:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7395031487060167101
ftp://ftp.untergrund.net/users/hellfire/tbl-starstruck-2006.avi
ftp://ftp.untergrund.net/users/acryd/videos/tbl-starstruck.mpg
You can do almost everything you can do on a modern PC (for Sims type games), bar advanced T&L hardware support (vertex/pixel shaders), HDR, etc, and of course advanced sound (3D). It just takes some (or plenty) smarts.
But Sims, AFAIK, doesn't need all that.
3) Clue: as far as code portability and "Amiga quirks", etc, EVERY system has quirks. Speaking of Windows, if you've ever programmed it, it's the king of quirks. Because it's convoluted and has TONS of dead weight.
But furthermore and MOST importantly: WELL WRITTEN CODE IS PORTABLE. PERIOD.
Ask any good programmer. He'll tell you the same. Look at SDL code. Look at id software code (Quake1 and up). As Piru mentioned, Quake3 was ported in a very short amount of time.
4) Finally, the guy himself WANTS to code for the Amiga, so I don't see why the hell some people are suggesting other platforms.
But if we're to suggest, then here's my suggestion Starfoxx guy: Objective-C and Cocoa and OpenGL, using Xcode and InterfaceBuilder on a Mac. Hands down the best object oriented programming environment (my opinion, but then again many people in the past have stated so, including John Carmack and John Romero of id software, you know Doom, Quake, etc. All those were initially coded under the NeXTStep environment using Objective-C, C and NS (ex-Cocoa)). To understand how powerful it is, you have to see it, but here's an example of making your own FULL web browser with 0 lines of code: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/01/23/webkit.html The only caveats with Cocoa is that it doesn't exist on Windoze or Amiga (give me enough time, or hope GNUStep is fully ported).
In general, fsck Windows. It's short-sighted and closed. It's a trap. You will stop learning really quick, and learn following (what M$ says). But it will offer your paying jobs, and plenty, unfortunately. So YOU decide, how to sell your soul...
Seriously now and back to the Amiga part of the issue, you should follow what other people suggested about playing around with AMOS and AmigaBlitz. You have to learn to crawl (because from what you said, you're not even crawling when it comes to code development), before you can get up, before you can walk, and then before you can run. And after that comes SPRINTING. And that's what game development is. For those not in the know, game development is one of the most rigorous fields of programming because it involves programming, interfacing and synchronizing multiple very complicated subsystems. When you program games you have to deal with: IO hardware, disks and files, graphics and sound, timing, synchronization, memory management, even threading/locking and race conditions (if you're want to support many of the modern multi-core CPUs and GPUs), etc. It's not like writing a word processor.
Anyways, good luck in your endeavour, but take it slow, a step at a time, with small and realistic goals. It's do-able, but only if done with the right approach just mentioned.
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>Ask any good programmer. He'll tell you the same.
Yeah, women can't program :-D
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I recently managed to get hold of AMOS Pro, but there is no documentation and I can't find any for the life of me on the web. Of course, without documentation it's like learning a new language - except with nobody to teach you.
(In other words, impossible).
Does anyone have any access to tutorials, commands list... ANYTHING! I love my Amiga to bits and would love to make daft little games for it. Can anyone point me in the right direction??
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For more information on AmosPro, log in to the forums on http://liquido2.com . Also, there's printed copies of the manual for sale at Software Hut (http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/other/books/books1_ind.html) (see the fifth entry on the page linked).
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No offense intended here but everyone has there biases, and I am not attempting to make a personal attack here, but maybe your bias really isn't against Microsoft. I started programming the Amiga back in 85 & 86 with K&R compatible Lattice C.. It's what you get used to and what you like. I went on to work for a company that did animated storybooks for Disney and Universal and others, and I worked on games for those platforms.
From my own experience and yes (I admit I beta tested Direct X 1.0 and over time many other things) I really can't see unless you had some sort of "religious bias" why you wouldn't like Visual Studio. Maybe it's your own feelings holding you back? I do .NET apps every day and I also have done much work with directX (through version 9). Maybe it's that you are doing an invoice system versus game programming that you aren't enjoying things? I will tell you that Visual Studio Express is a great environment for beginning programmers and XNA Game Studio Express is great for creating games. I leverage my old Amiga game development skills very well with Direct X. I also love the new XAML WPF graphics engine. Maybe it's that you are stuck in the land of winforms..
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Hmmm.... a little question...
EA games, or Electronic Arts as they used to name them self.
Did not EA used to be one of the biggest game developer for Amiga in the 80s....?
I do remember having some Electronic Arts games for my Amiga....
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Yisrael48 wrote:
Well if you have no experience whatsoever how are you thingking about porting a Pc game to the Amiga.
Besides that the Amiga hardware is to weak to really port games to. The videocards are to slow to really enjoy a pc game that would have been ported.
Speaking for myself i am making an gameboy advance version of Advance WarsII. At first it will run on a classic Amiga 500/2000 with a bit of a ram expansion.
If you are eager to program and write games perhaps that could be an idea for ya. There is enough coding material around for the Gameboy and Amiga to get you started.
My development system is a PC where i use a GBA emulator and WinUAE to write the code on. Later i test it on a classic Amiga to check compatibility. This process of creating a game give much fun. Of course i code in Assembler C++ sux and takes longer to learn.
So let me get this right, you code 68k assembly and test it on a GBA emulator or you code ARM assembly and test it on UAE. Or both?
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@koaftder
Your assuming someone whould want to code in C# though.
:)
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Pyromania wrote:
@koaftder
Your assuming someone whould want to code in C# though.
:)
I've been introducing myself to C# and Visual Studio 2005 at work for a couple of days and I am pleasantly surprised. It really does seem very good, both the language and most definitely the IDE.
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@Bishman
Why'd you have to dig up this old opinionated thread just to tack a message on the end? If you want to start a new thread with a new title, look for a button on the screen that says New Thread or something similar. :-x
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@SamuraiCrow
Sorry! I realised it was a few months old, but it was still on the first page. When I was searching for tutorials for AMOS I kept getting this thread as a search result early on, so I figured others might get the same result too and if someone gave me a response it could help them.
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Updated my older post. But what we need is an Amiga ala Linux community, but i rather use 3DSMAX then Povray :horse: if you get my grip