From: ronnie@lysator.liu.se (Ronnie Sahlberg)
Subject: Re: Sierra is gone
Organization: Lysator Academic Computer Society, Linkoping University, Sweden
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 10:04:25 GMT

Timo.Jantunen@hut.fi (Timo Jantunen) writes:

>In article <1992Nov16.014626.6126@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> elm4@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (Ed Mackey) writes:

>>But of course.  That's because they ported it from a 386 to a 68000, so
>>it slows down and people complain.  What they _should_ be doing is porting
>>it from a 386 to a 68000 plus custom chips and blitter.  Why is this so
>>hard to figure out?
Even if porting to a 68000 plus custom chips this would not be enough on
some games. The graphics is to slow on this machine to perform some of the
things seen on modern peces. 
(with a modern pece i mean an ordinary 486 with a VESAbus VGA card.)
For an example, a game like Wolf3D or clones of that game
(looks REALLY NICE on a 486 with VESA) is not possible to make on an amiga
since the graphics is to slow, even with a blitter/copper guru woirking on the
rendering routines.
What will then happen when the S3 pece graphics cards are the common display
card on peces ??? This is a card that beats the shit out of VESA/VGA cards, and
VESA/VGA cards beats the shit out of amiga graphics.
If not CBM makes something about the amiga graphics real soon,
(and not counting the AGA chips since this is certainly not enough)
we will face a time when even the graphic is vastly inferior compared to
pece graphics, AND I WOULD NOT !!! LIKE THAT TO HAPPEN.

>From what I know, most of Sierra programs are made (mostly) in C (or other
>high level language), because it cuts down coding time (and time is money).
>It is fast enough in 386, but in 68000... And doing assembly code and
>using blitter etc. would take much time. And because Amiga games don't have
>so big markets (yeah, many Amigas sold, but much more PCs, most of which
>aren't used for playing but still), and piracy is lowering sales.
We have still a lot of amiga games that are very impressive regarding 
the graphics, thanks to hard working blitter/copper gurus.
But this can not be for ever, pece graphics is improving very rapidly, and
I think not it would take very long time before even C-coded graphics
adventures like sierra games can perform graphically like some of the
best amiga games.
All it takes is a powerful enough machine and a fast enough graphics card,
AND THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW ON THE PC PLATFORMS.!!!!
We can not allow this to happen, therefore we MUST find a way to make
CBM also see whats happening and make them improve machines/graphics
in the same rate as on the pece platform (or preferably faster) or
else we will soon be using a outdated machine with outdated graphics.
THIS IS NOT THE PROPER WAY IT SHOULD BE, THEREFORE I DEMAND :
   1, CBM to give us machines that beats the shit out of pece-graphics.
   2, companies to write games that given the machines in (1) will
      make Wolf3D look like an outdated spectrum game.


>And how many of them _buys_ games regulary?
>Compared to them who use pirated versions?
Sad but true. I belive this is the main reason for quality games becoming
fewer and fewer on our beloved platform. Most things that is made for amiga
nowdays is poor ports of pece versions.
I remember the time when it was the other way around :
  PCgames were very slow and poor CGA-ports of amiga games
and I think this was the proper way for things to be. Therefore we must take
actions for this to happen :
  1, Never pirate software.!
     ( a lot of shitheads tries to motivate their pirating with stupid
       things like :
       " Ill only trying the game, if its good Ill buy it.".
       Yeah, I bet theyll by it. This is one of the biggest lies in the 
       amiga community. )
  2, Report known pirates to the police or other authorities.
     ( I have personally been a member in a group that collected evidence
       of pirating and then reported the guy.
       IT FELT GREAT. !!! )

>Disclaimer: Don't flame me, kill pirates (for a start).
Good point.
Only if we actually BUY software, we will be able to GET good new software.
The sole purpose of a software company is to make money, if they cannot
make any money (perhaps due to pirating (that IS a problem)) they will
not make any programs either. It is all very simple. AND THIS IS HAPPENING
RIGHT NOW!!!

>// /
>--
>Timo Jantunen _______________________________________  timo.jantunen@hut.fi
>JMT 11 J 204 / I  always  look  to the  dark  side, /   jeti@vipunen.hut.fi
>02150 Espoo / expecting the  worst.  If  something /    jeti@niksula.hut.fi
>Finland    / doesn't go completely wrong, I  have /   d39080u@puukko.hut.fi
>__________/ had a wonderfully pleasant surprise. /     jeti@otax.tky.hut.fi

ronnie sahlberg     ronnie@lysator.liu.se