Frontier Elite 2, speed comparison

[StevenJGore]

There is definitely a speed increase between running Frontier on an A1200 and an A500. Similarly, there will be a speed increase between running Frontier on an unexpanded A1200 and an A1200 with, for example, a Blizzard 1230IV accelerator card. It's still not perfectly smooth, however, IMHO I don't think the Frontier code is particularly optimised!

Steve.

[StevenJGore]

For the "ultimate" Frontier experience on the Amiga, try running the CD32 version on an accelerated CD32 or A1200. The CD32 version of Frontier was the most recent Amiga version, and the following quote is taken from a review:

The original (floppy) Frontier was compatible with any Amiga with 1 meg of RAM. Various problems and bugs emerged in the wake of the original release, and several revised versions slipped quietly onto the market prior to the launch of the CD32 version. Clearly then the CD32 Frontier executable benefits from all of the revisions, making it the definitive version...

There are a few differences to the basic version. The manual copy protection was not considered necessary and removed, which is in my opinion a good thing. There is one extra item of equipment, a navigational aid which when fitted (strangely taking up naff all cargo space) will let you view and select the nearest spaceport in the system you arrive in without all that zooming around. When landing at outdoor starports you might notice a few extra things like powerlines, and it could just be me but I'd swear that space is a more realistic (darker) blue. Apart from some concessions enabling you to use the joypad to enter your name (CD32 = no keyboard, remember!?) thats it. Oh, and it came in a bigger box...

Unfortunately though, the CD32 version falls short of including texture mapping!

Steve.

[StevenJGore]

The only way to get texture mapping to run chunky to planar conversion (which is accomplished by the AKIKO chip on CD32) or to get a graphics card.

That was my point! The CD32 version could have done texture mapping using the CD32's Akiko chip, but it didn't! :-)