I was bored yesterday evening so I took the source code for the ST version of Star Raiders (provided by Curt Vendel) from here and started porting it over to the jag :-
![sr1.png]()
![sr2.png]()
![sr3.png]()
![sr4.png]()
![sr5.png]()
I've spent about 10 hours on it so far. The majority of that time was spent converting the original assembler file format to smac format and fixing the resultant assembler errors, warnings and linker issues. The source code is 26+ years old (copyrighted 85/86) so I knew it wasn't going to be an easy ride. The graphics are not reworked for the jag at all![:o]()
. TOM does real time planar to chunky pixel conversion from the game's graphics bitmap back buffer. It was far easier and much more interesting to do it on TOM than convert all the graphics to jag native format. It runs at a good speed on my PAL jaguar. However, I don't currently have an ST set up to compare it against.
There is still a little bit of work to do because the keyboard controls on the original game need mapping to the jag pad as does the ability to select the game's difficulty. The game is hard wired to play as "novice" at the moment, which isn't much of a challenge. The sound is missing as well. I'm not sure what to do about that because I'm not particularly interested in doing an emulation of the ST's sound chip on the jag's DSP.
I'll be updating the thread as the game progresses.
I've spent about 10 hours on it so far. The majority of that time was spent converting the original assembler file format to smac format and fixing the resultant assembler errors, warnings and linker issues. The source code is 26+ years old (copyrighted 85/86) so I knew it wasn't going to be an easy ride. The graphics are not reworked for the jag at all
. TOM does real time planar to chunky pixel conversion from the game's graphics bitmap back buffer. It was far easier and much more interesting to do it on TOM than convert all the graphics to jag native format. It runs at a good speed on my PAL jaguar. However, I don't currently have an ST set up to compare it against.There is still a little bit of work to do because the keyboard controls on the original game need mapping to the jag pad as does the ability to select the game's difficulty. The game is hard wired to play as "novice" at the moment, which isn't much of a challenge. The sound is missing as well. I'm not sure what to do about that because I'm not particularly interested in doing an emulation of the ST's sound chip on the jag's DSP.
I'll be updating the thread as the game progresses.