Another World ported to FPGA

#1

Post by retro_guy » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:23 PM UTC

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#2

Post by burglins » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:40 PM UTC

I wonder how common were full game VMs in the 90s. For a game older than myself, wouldn't a VM layer incur a great performance penalty on PCs from that time?

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#3

Post by ashleyn » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:44 PM UTC

burglins wrote: post #2

I wonder how common were full game VMs in the 90s. For a game older than myself, wouldn't a VM layer incur a great performance penalty on PCs from that time?

During the heyday of assembly language, VMs were common in business software as well. It made porting to different types of systems easier in a time when standards-compliant C-language compilers targeting a variety of systems did not yet exist or were very expensive.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#4

Post by thepawn1 » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:48 PM UTC

Loved this game. Still holds up...

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#5

Post by erickhill » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:49 PM UTC

"Only Amiga makes it possible" is being replaced by FPGA 30 years later.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#6

Post by thepawn1 » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:50 PM UTC

burglins wrote: post #2

I wonder how common were full game VMs in the 90s. For a game older than myself, wouldn't a VM layer incur a great performance penalty on PCs from that time?

"older than myself"

#rightinthefeels

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#7

Post by 29athrowaway » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:51 PM UTC

The intro was fantastic. Even with a PC speaker / no sound card.

Having to swim away as your first action, and then escape from some kind of lion is one of the most brutal game experiences ever.

Even if you played that game for 1 minute you will remember that game forever.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#8

Post by burglins » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:55 PM UTC

ashleyn wrote: post #3

burglins wrote: post #2

I wonder how common were full game VMs in the 90s. For a game older than myself, wouldn't a VM layer incur a great performance penalty on PCs from that time?

During the heyday of assembly language, VMs were common in business software as well. It made porting to different types of systems easier in a time when standards-compliant C-language compilers targeting a variety of systems did not yet exist or were very expensive.

Oh, I know about the emulation layers of early computers! But I'd assume those programs rarely required frame-perfect input unlike video-games. Wouldn't that be too wasteful and needlessly limit the playerbase?

Edit: after reading through wikipedia, I think maybe a VM wouldn't be that wasteful, since the game is very simple mechanically.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#9

Post by dragontamer » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

burglins wrote: post #2

I wonder how common were full game VMs in the 90s. For a game older than myself, wouldn't a VM layer incur a great performance penalty on PCs from that time?

It was far more important to have the same software work on Amiga, x86 (DOS), Mac and the whole slew of different machines than came and went.

Today we have fewer machines than the great explosive growth of the 80s.

Consider that most 'software' today is JavaScript interpreted by the Web Browser. It's not like those portability concerns didn't exist in the 80s, if anything, it was harder because you had to make your own interpreter back then.

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Many (maybe most?) video games seem to have been written in a VM, at least before Doom / high performance 3d graphics.

I think console games were in C/Assembly for performance.

But 'computer' games at that time was before the standard IBM PC or at least, before the PC won and Microsoft achieved dominance. When you didn't know if Amiga, PC98, IBM PC, Mac, or others would win it only made sense to write a VM.

SCUMM (Monkey Island and many others) comes to mind.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#10

Post by einpoklum » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 5:08 PM UTC

dragontamer wrote: post #9

burglins wrote: post #2

I wonder how common were full game VMs in the 90s. For a game older than myself, wouldn't a VM layer incur a great performance penalty on PCs from that time?

It was far more important to have the same software work on Amiga, x86 (DOS), Mac and the whole slew of different machines than came and went. Today we have fewer machines than the great explosive growth of the 80s. Consider that most 'software' today is JavaScript interpreted by the Web Browser. It's not like those portability concerns didn't exist in the 80s, if anything, it was harder because you had to make your…

> Consider that most 'software' today is JavaScript interpreted by the Web Browser.

I thought most software was MS Excel sheets with interacting formulae :-)