What game would you like converted to the Next?

[smurphboy]

My I respectfully suggest we keep this topic to games you'd like converted to the Next and perhaps move the semi-religious war on the Next itself to another thread?

I think I'm responsible for changing the route of the thread, although I certainly wasn't trying to start a war, just an open discussion. Apologies.

I agree its a great discussion to have, if it can be kept civil and open, and its the joy of threads that they spark off interesting discussions

[Mort]

I would love to see Mercenary or any of the other novagen titles converted , filled vectors anyone ,

Now Starstrike updated would be nice

[Stefan123]

Yes, please, let's avoid turning Spectrum Next discussions on this forum into religious opinion-based debates. If you for some reason don't like the Next that's fine, but please don't use every opportunity to discredit its merits and the team behind it. That is very tiresome and depressing and will only result in Next user's turning away from this forum.

Returning to the subject, here are a few games I would love to see enhanced on the Next (if IP rights were not an issue):

Elite
Fairlight
Where Time Stood Still
Gauntlet
Turbo Esprit
Lord of the Rings / Shadows of Mordor

[ketmar]

Fairlight

this one have to be completely rewritten, i believe. or, rather, rewritten and redrawn. ;-) i mean, there is really no "isometric engine" in there (ok, not to the same extent as in Head Over Heels), backgrounds were painted with lines and pattern fills (mostly), and to get better backgrounds, one have to rip old gfx routines, replace them with new ones, and manually redraw each screen. oooh.

[Stefan123]

Fairlight

this one have to be completely rewritten, i believe. or, rather, rewritten and redrawn. i mean, there is really no "isometric engine" in there (ok, not to the same extent as in Head Over Heels), backgrounds were painted with lines and pattern fills (mostly), and to get better backgrounds, one have to rip old gfx routines, replace them with new ones, and manually redraw each screen. oooh.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot of work but the game would really benefit from some more colours to make the main character and the in-game objects more distinguishable. I loved this game as a kid and played it a lot. I still listen to the AY intro music from time to time, it's magical A shame that the follow-up Fairlight II was released prematurely.

[Stefan]

The game that started my PC gaming (triggered by a tweet yesterday and the Mercenary request above)... F29 Retaliator (not that I have a Next )

[Rorthron]

I don't have a Next, but a version of Bandersnatch would tempt me to change that.

[ketmar]

I loved this game as a kid and played it a lot. I still listen to the AY intro music from time to time, it's magical :) A shame that the follow-up Fairlight II was released prematurely.

yeah. i never knew what i supposed to do in Fairlight, so i was just wandering around. i love Ritman games, but let's be honest: most "filmation style" games are looking like puzzle boards (because they are essentialy puzzle boards ;-). and Fairlight looks like a real place (well, as much as it could with Speccy gfx and isometric projection ;-).

as it requires a rewrite anyway, i'd like to see "Next Fairlight", with more places to visit, more puzzles to solve, and maybe even with some RPG mechanics. this is one of those games that can really benefit from advanced Next features.

[Stefan123]

Here are two more games that I would like to see enhanced on the Next:

Lemmings (let's hope Mike Dailly gets the time to finish this port )
Stunt Car Racer

Here are some 16-bit games that I loved playing and that would be feasible on the Next:

The Secret of Monkey Island
Another World
Worms
Cannon Fodder
Simon the Sorcerer
Kult: The Temple of Flying Saucers

[uglifruit]

3D Ant Attack.

[R-Tape]

I'd like to see a version of R-Type with smooth sprites (including bosses) and starfield (the landscape scroll is already fine), with graphics similar (or heavily inspired by) to the Speccy original. Maybe a few graphical tweaks here and there: fix Dobkeratops's ambiguous looking head; some extra mood-colours.

[Alcoholics Anonymous]

a new spectrum would have had to attack colour clash and limited colours. Those limitations were a function of 1982 costs and technology and would not reflect anything new or competitive made in 1990+.

Cost - yes, technology - no. Dozens of colors in home computer is late 70s, hw sprites is late 70s. Even EGA and blitter are mid-80s...

Sinclair was depending on a brand new technology to make its ULAs (programmable logic) which allowed the cost reductions necessary to make an inexpensive computer. The capacity of these early devices would limit how much integration you could achieve. Other competitors like Commodore and Atari made asics which was out of reach and too risky for a company like Sinclair with limited capital. Contemporary examples using msi parts cost a lot more in part because they weren't integrated into a single ic.

Anyway, you're wrong in both statements about the ULAX. Its concept isn't complicated at all, basically it is just a dumb framebuffer+DSP+blitter (planned as the main feature). The PPU's complexity is projected to be comparable to the Z80 (wider, but more regular). The main limiting factor is RAM speed, not the FPGA capacity. Also bigger screen area with 15-bit color depth independent pixels with a blitter able to refresh it completely several times per frame just cannot be "more limited" by default

It's still more complicated (and that means in gates, not necessarily in concept) A lot of performance in gaming systems comes from hardware acting in parallel. This is why sprites, layers, etc, were mainstays in 2D hardware. Anyway I think it's a worthy project and look forward to seeing how it turns out!

[Lethargeek]

Sinclair was depending on a brand new technology to make its ULAs (programmable logic) which allowed the cost reductions necessary to make an inexpensive computer. The capacity of these early devices would limit how much integration you could achieve. Other competitors like Commodore and Atari made asics which was out of reach and too risky for a company like Sinclair with limited capital. Contemporary examples using msi parts cost a lot more in part because they weren't integrated into a single ic.

Sinclair could always use more than one ULA if he wasn't such a cheapskate.

It's still more complicated (and that means in gates, not necessarily in concept) A lot of performance in gaming systems comes from hardware acting in parallel.

And that's why tile-sprite engines need a lot of gates as well. Definitely more than simple blitters. Probably even more than ULAX PPU, it's hard to tell about the logic gates. It is, however, easy to count that PPU will need less internal memory.

This is why sprites, layers, etc, were mainstays in 2D hardware.

No, because back then the RAM was too slow and/or too costly, that's why.

Anyway I think it's a worthy project and look forward to seeing how it turns out!

Thanks. I don't hate the Next as a whole either. Only the gfx part of it (and the associated ridiculous CPU "extensions")

[Lethargeek]

My I respectfully suggest we keep this topic to games you'd like converted to the Next and perhaps move the semi-religious war on the Next itself to another thread?

I'd love to a Next re-implementation of Dandy / Gauntlet on the Next. We should have a speed and tilemode to really let the gameplay and mechanics shine.

Now speaking of games, i'm genuinely interested in how Flying Shark port remake could be made and then how much will remain of its gfx engine code logic. Especially as

Spoiler

it doesn't do any real scrolling and doesn't output it's software sprites directly either

[toot_toot]

I have a Next and I have to agree with those that are disappointed with the "look" of Next games, but I think that does come down to it not really being focused enough as a product design. It's called the Spectrum Next, but what does that mean? Is it supposed to be like the Sinclair Loki, which would have been in about 1986/87 or should it be like the original Spectrum but with just some enhancements like removing Colour Clash? You could say the original Spectrum Next was the SAM Coupe, but that was really just like a cut down Atari ST. Having too loose a product design or vision and the flexibility of the FPGA has just made the Next too unfocused and that's why you get an inconsistent look for Next games. It's unlike the MEGA65 which is at least trying to replicate a specific piece of hardware, albeit one that was never officially released.

When it comes to games being converted to the Next, I'd love to see original Spectrum games that are improved further with the Next which could be removing colour clash for those games that suffered from it, speeding up the game due to processor limitations or even adding in some basic additional spectrum colour to those monochrome games.

[stupidget]

I've not got a h/w NEXT but have been playing about with ZEsarUX and have to admit that I have been slightly disappointed with the first slew of games. But when I think back to the early games of the Speccy and compare them with releases 3-4 years later then I'm hoping that as people learn more and more tricks on the NEXT then we'll be in store for some amazing games.

With regards to what games I'd like to see converted then I'd say:

Another World
Gynoug (my all time favourite Mega Drive smhup)
Speedball 2 - Brutal Deluxe
Fairlight (more colour and less slow down)
Ghosts and Goblins


I think Melkhiors Mansion (https://www.spectrumnextgames.uk/melkhiors-mansion)is a great example of what's possible with NEXT as it looks stunning, has some nice features and yet still manages to look like it was released in the 80s.

[Pegaz]

Melkhiors Mansion is great, but from the published games, I have to mention Rite of the Druid.
I tried it a couple of days ago and I can say that this is the best Next game so far.

[PeterJ]

Agreed [mention]Pegaz[/mention], the [mention]sunteam[/mention] games are excellent.

[stupidget]

Melkhiors Mansion is great, but from the published games, I have to mention Rite of the Druid.
I tried it a couple of days ago and I can say that this is the best Next game so far.

Yep, finished it a few weeks ago. The images for each location were excellent.

[RMartins]

Join meeee! It’s its palette that gives the Spectrum it’s identity. ...

I think you actually nailed it, on how to defined the essence or identity of the Spectrum.

For me, just needed:
- a faster CPU
- more memory

Bonus features would be something very basic:
- be able to scroll/clip the memory buffer by hardware (saves CPU and would keep the color blocks/clash aligned within scroll offset).
- have a second video layer (by default transparent), capable of each pixel having it's own color, so no color clash on this layer.
- having a Z8410 DMA compatible feature.

The only useful thing besides this, would be a multiply operation for the CPU, but this would already be a stretch goal, which can be implemented by just by having a faster CPU.

The next brought some, but not all of this, as far as I know:
- Scroll, not exactly as described above
- Don't think there is an extra video layer, only sprites
- DMA is supported
- There is a multiply D, E on the ZX80N

NOTE: Still haven't explored the full manual.

[Lethargeek]

Join meeee! It’s its palette that gives the Spectrum it’s identity. ...

I think you actually nailed it, on how to defined the essence or identity of the Spectrum.

How about people with B&W TVs or wrong video connections (quite common in the East)? So i don't think it's about the colors but rather how they were used - sparingly, rarely more than one per moving object, giving Spectrum games distinct clean, poster-like appearance.

Second thing was diversity of the graphics. Doing everything in software meant less restrictions for the programmer aside CPU speed concerns. So even if the frame rate might be inconsistent and less colors used in the playfield, Spectrum games usually had more moving objects of any sizes and shapes, with any overlap order instead of defined layers, and often with more frames of animation than c64 or atari counterparts. And it's another reason i consider new consoleish features inappropriate.

[hitm4n]

Most of the greatest classic speccy games are great as they are. However some were great but also had big problems. Usually a distinct lack of colour to avoid clash or really jarring scrolling. Boulderdash anyone?

One of my most loved games on the Speccytrump is Quazatron.

Create that with smooth scrolling, nicer colours, more level variety and range of robots/weapons/parts (so deeper levels to each world) and i'd be in heaven. If someone gave me a NEXT too

[Nienn Heskil]

as people learn more and more tricks on the NEXT

>28 MHz on a FPGA
>'''tricks'''

Ahahaha oh wow, that's a good one

Spoiler

But, come to think of it, I suppose there's the 'trick devs into adding another useless feature because you're bad and lazy' sorta thing.

[catmeows]

I would like to see Freescape engine/interpreter taking advantage of faster CPU, new instructions and multicolor mode.

[Alcoholics Anonymous]

The next brought some, but not all of this, as far as I know:
..
- be able to scroll/clip the memory buffer by hardware (saves CPU and would keep the color blocks/clash aligned within scroll offset).
- have a second video layer (by default transparent), capable of each pixel having it's own color, so no color clash on this layer.
..

Both of these things were implemented.

The ula can be hardware scrolled by pixel, preserving the colour clash boundaries as expected. The ula also implements the timex modes which pixel scroll as well.

The second video layer with each pixel having its own colour is called layer 2. It's a plain bitmap layer that is normally transparent.

>28 MHz on a FPGA
>'''tricks'''

Why are you still here?

Spectrum:

3.5MHz / 6144 = 569.66 cycles per byte per second

ZX Next:

28MHz / 49152 = 569.66 cycles per byte per second
28MHz / 81920 = 341.79 cycles per byte per second

As colour resolution rises so do the requirements on the cpu. There are many tricks available but not just in the software this time.