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phoboz

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Everything posted by phoboz

  1. I have decided to collect homebrew titles ONLY. The reason is that I see no point having things on my shelf that are freely available in digital format. My collection so far: GAMES: Switchblade, Last Strike, Kings of Edom, Another World, Impulse X, Xenon 2, SpideX, Jag Zombies 2, Gravitic Mines, Asteroite, Wormhole 2000.
  2. Check this out, quite promising in my opinion: Hope to see it finalized some day...
  3. I heard that most people take the data from the PC CDROM, as it is probably easier to grab these files using a PC. After the files has been extracted, the Jaguar image needs to be built with these files integrated. So probably you need some kind of Jaguar development environment (to link everything together). I don't know which one they used, but there are several available (like the original Jaguar SDK, the Removers', JagStudio, or individual tools like rmac/jlinker)?
  4. Not in complete form (as I understand) You also need the original CD ROM (or ISO file) to extract the copyrighted material from.
  5. Halloween update, have a nice holiday:
  6. A new video update on Wyvern Tales II:
  7. Yes, I fully agree that there are so many factors to consider for a high performance computing system. Digital Equipment Coorporationion (DEC) made some amazing computers. They went directly from the very popular 16-bit PDP-11 computer to a full 32-bit architecture with the VAX computers. In my opinion, the 386 PC and forward could never achieve the same performance per MHz. The 32-bit mode of the x86 is just an extension of the 286 16-bit mode, not a pure 32-bit mode. Later Digital Equipment Coorporation released the first, and in my opinion only full 64-bit computer system with the Alpha architecture (as as a replacement of the aging VAX system) The x86_64 is not even close to that as the only difference between a 32-bit x86 and the x86_64 is the 64-bit addressing. In the C programming language the only thing you can notice is that a pointer variable (void *) is 64-bit instead of 32, but all the other datatypes are just the same as in 32-bit mode. So in fact the x86_64 does not even perform 64-bit math, it just uses a wider 64-bit datatype to address memory without paging. So in my opinion, the Atari Jaguar is more of a 64-bit system than a modern 64-bit PC. So why does games run faster on modern PCs and consoles? - What they did was to increase the clock frequency to crazy levels (e.g. Gigahertz). Remember that retro consoles have CPUs running at a few MHz, compared to a GHz that is totally crazy. It's like running a very old bicycle using a rocket engine, and trying to patch the frame of the bike to withstand the pressure. DECs computer systems never ran at higher clock rates than a few hundred of MHz, even the 64-bit Alpha, but we're much faster at performing calculations, or servicing 100s of users. So what do we loose by running an ancient computer system like the x86 on steroids (instead of designing new ones like DEC did)? - It has to do with energy vs. performance. A gaming PC with only one CPU can easily consume up to 500 Watts. This power generates a lot of heat, which you need fans to dissipate (now it consumes energy, just to get rid of excess energy). OK, so why care as a single x86 user, I can still afford the electricity bill? - Sure, but imagine running a computing cluster using 600 nodes, then this fact will become important. Not only for your electricity bill, but also for you storage of this cluster that will generate a lot of heat. Eventually other solutions has become popular for efficiency reasons, especially in today's smartphones (you don't want to recharge your phone every 5 minutes, or carry a battery backpack). That's why you much more likely will see an ARM CPU in your smartphone instead of an x86. Which is a fairly newely designed CPU architecture compared to the x86. We even see renewed implementations of the MIPS architecture today (which is the CPU used by the N64 and PS1). DEC, SUN Microsystems are long out of buisness. Companies like IBM and HP does not design their own hardware anymore. In many regards thanks to the combined effort they made to design the next generations mastodont 64-bit CPU called Itanium, which turned out to be a disaster. One of the main reasons is that they tried to solve a classic software problem like scheduling in hardware, compared to how the Russians implemented static scheduling in the compiler for their Elbrus CPU. At least we have a few opinions to the x86 today thanks to ARM for example. Unfortunately modern game consoles is like a gaming PC today, as they have gone back to using x86 instead of developing their own chipsets. One reason is probably because the programmers work on PCs anyway, and no one wants to spend time and money on writing libraries for custom hardware. Instead we use layer on top of layer of legacy and new PC software. So the we pay for the more expensive x86 hardware and pay higher electricity bills instead.
  8. Most likely they do their own ports. There is an instruction here how to make your own Atari ST ports for the Jaguar here: https://reboot.untergrund.net/new-reboot/redirection.html Apparently the most complex task is to convert the ST's planar framebuffer to the Jaguar's chunky mode. Once an algorithm has been done for that, you should be set to start porting any Atari ST game.
  9. Are there any plans to release "the Bomberman" game for the Jaguar? E.g. is it being developed actively or is it just sitting on someone's harddrive?
  10. Probably a better match would be to use the Jaguar's 16bpp RGB mode, unless shadows and highlights are to be implemented. The reason is that converting high color RGB images to CRY produces a little bit different result on some high color images. Someone comparing the Jaguar versions to the SNES version could notice a slightly different look. For example both Doom and Pitfall look darker on the Jaguar. Doom looks better as it also has better lighting effects, while Pitfall is for the worse. Many people forget that the Jaguar also has a high color RGB mode to complement the high color CRY mode. For a SNES port it may even be sufficient to use the 256 (8bpp) RGB mode, as I think that the SNES can only exceed 256 simultaneous colors when using a special combination of background layers.
  11. Not the original code but someone else reverse engineered the GameDrive utility. I don't know if this helps but the code can be found here: https://github.com/cubanismo/open_jaggd
  12. I think you can find them (or links to them) on reboot games homepage. At least the ST conversions that they have made. Piko interactive have also made some ST conversions (e.g. Switchblade, Head over heels, etc.) These you can find on their homepage, but they only sell physical copies, no DLs.
  13. The USB driver for the Skunkboard chip isn't signed by Microsoft. So you either need to disable the Winows signature check, or the much better option is to use the new version of the software: https://github.com/cubanismo/skunk_jcp
  14. I can understand that people find it motivating to earn money on their favourite hobby (by making these videos), I just whish they were more informed about the topic. The message that all of these so called retro video game influencers repeat about the Jaguar has been heavily inspired by a satiric episode that the angry video game nerd made a while ago. I can understand that having seen this episode before even knowing about the Jaguar, they may not be aware about how this have affected their judgement (and the intention of that episode was to be entertaining, not nessesarily accurate) For me, who was a teen (buying new game consoles and playing games at that time), I can only speak based on my personal experience about how it was in my region back then. To be honest, the Jaguar was quite hyped as the first 64-bit console at the time and most of me and my friends had the SNES, Amiga or Megadrive. A few of us had the oppurtinity to play Wolfenstein 3D on a PC (which was widely perceived to be a 32-bit machine). The Jaguar version was far superior in terms of graphics, so everyone were quite convinced about the Jaguar's power. So it was quite a step up from the 16-bit consoles, and most of us wanted one for some time before Sony came along. Due to Sony's huge budget, aggressive marketing and it's ability to attract 3rd party developers, they basically blew everyting else out of the water (even Nintendo became uncool for a few years) So what happened after was something that none of the competitors could protect against, Nintendo just survived because of it's size, and SEGA's gradual decline as a console provider started here. Not even the fantastic Dreamcast could save them later. Not to talk about all the other forgotten consoles of that generation.
  15. You are amazing, not long ago Frogger and now this!
  16. Nice to see aftermarket games being ported from other retro consoles to the Atari Jaguar. Hopefully more Jaguar ports to come, if possible with some enhancements (enabled due to the extra power of the Jaguar) Keep up the good work!
  17. A promising looking game called Megaoids:
  18. Early prototype for a 3D puzzle game. Credits: Programming: PhOBoZ
  19. Credits: Programming: PhOBoZ Artwork: KarlisZabers Music & SFX: Krauser
  20. Frozen Bubble Prototype: Credits: Programming: Sébastien Briais
  21. SinitreX 2000 (WIP) for Atari Jaguar: SinitreX (WIP) for Vectrex:
  22. Footage from 2021: Credits: Programming: PhOBoZ Artwork: AnderLex
  23. BlackHole Reignited - GemTOS prototype release. Info and download: https://fadest.itch.io/blackhole
  24. The Carribean Tavern - GemTOS 2023 Plouf Of Concept release. Info and download: https://fadest.itch.io/the-carribean-tavern
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