From: eas3714@ultb.isc.rit.edu (E.A. Story )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: yet more on the AA chipset...
Date: 20 Aug 92 23:43:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: ultb.1992Aug20.234341.18773
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Originator: eas3714@ultb

In  u894776@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (James McCoull) writes:
>mlelstv@specklec.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Michael van Elst) writes:
>
>Does anyone who reads .advocacy understand how games programs are written?

With a "if it works, dont fix it attitude" apparently.  Its getting
better, but it used to be REALLY bad.  Flight simulators which dont work
on anything but 68000's, arcade games which fail on machines with 1 MEG
chip RAM.. etc..

>Many come from UK, where the AtariST is chosen to be the initial platform for
>development - the developers do not have time to convert their programs from
>a lower level bios style system to AmigaOS, it makes no economic sense.

'Tis not that hard.. maybe they should read a manual sometime.  Its not
like they can't do a little research before starting to port games over
at all..

>The programs of course break on new amigas for the lamest reasons - not
>egocentric programming, but lack of adequate documentation - and sample code.

Er, Hardware reference manual, Libraries, Devices, Autodocs & Includes,
AmigaDOS manual.  Ninth page of the Hardware refernce manual:

* Dont jump into ROM
* Dont mod or depend on format of system stuctures
* Dont depend on locations of system structures
* Dont write spurious data to or interpret data from undefined custom
chip regs
* Dont use priveledged instructions
* Dont use processor speed dependent loops
* Use the CIA's  for timing
* Test your software on various configs
* Dont use self modifying code

THESE are the things which cause the UK programmers' games NOT to work on
all Amigas.  Its plainly spelled out in the PUBLISHED DOCUMENTATION from
CBM.   If they want to make a HD installable game, all they need to
learn how to do is Allocate memory, stop multitasking, take over the
machine, start multitasking and deallocate memory.  They can look up how
to do that in another PUBLISHED MANUAL.  How F**king hard can it be to
read a manual before you start programming a machine?  Sorry, but this
lame crap really irks me.. 

>The games programmers are there to make games, not to talk politely to the OS.

They are there to make SOFTWARE, which will be bought by people who hope
it will run on their machines..  If it doesn't run on all machines, the
programmers haven't done their job... plain and simple.

>IMHO it is easier for CBM to make the decision for them by putting in a BIOS
>rather than trying to train 1000+ amigaos ignorants.

Well, if they weren't so f**kin' lazy, perhaps they would learn the
system before they program it.  It like if I went and tryed to port a
game I wrote on the Amiga to the CD-I machine.  I wouldn't go off half
cocked and try to program it without knowing diddly about it.  I would
get documentation and research a bit so I understood how I could use
CD-I's features to port the game.  There is published documentation on
the Amiga systems, C= has a developers program... what more do you
want?

>What would you prefer? games working on A3000 but without multitasking - or
>game not working on A3000 at all.

Some don't...

>Sure to have game on A3000 + multitasking is great... but it would be foolish
>to expect that from all programmers.

Well, multitasking is a bit much to ask.. but HD access isn't.

-- 
"THAT is a DRY turtle.  That turtle is NOT moist!"
Ezra Story, a student at RIT, and
eas3714@ultb.isc.rit.edu, his trusty(?) mailing address.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy