Another World ported to FPGA • Hacker News Board

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#31

Post by striking » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:15 PM UTC

derbOac wrote: post #14

Off topic, but I was excited to find out Another World is on Steam... but isn't available to play on macOS 10.15 Catalina or above. The incompatibility with 32-bit makes me extremely frustrated; it seems as if in 2023, with quantum computing, DL models, and people porting games like this to FPGA, there should be a way to get 32-bit software to run on modern hardware. It's bizarre to me. Steam specifically recommends…

You can run Steam in Crossover Games to get some Windows games on your Mac. And Apple has a new compatibility layer themselves, though it takes finagling for the end user to use.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#32

Post by pjmlp » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:32 PM UTC

stevefan1999 wrote: post #23

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?

VM already existed since PL/0 which is the prototype of Pascal. It is also known as P-code and to.be honest it is fine. Especially when you can leverage JIT which trades memory space for gains in speed.

If you mean bytecode as executable format, that originates already in the late 1950's, early 1980's, with microcoded CPUs as the interpreter, from which Burroughs Large Systems is one of the most famous ones.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#33

Post by pbj1968 » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:35 PM UTC

Because of this thread, I finally admitted to myself I was never going to figure this game out and watched a play through on YouTube. 22 minutes! I think I got past the lion once.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#34

Post by nickelpro » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:39 PM UTC

For anyone confused by the HDL, it's the author's custom language: https://github.com/sylefeb/Silice/tree/master

It provides a compiler to Verilog that then can be fed to traditional design flows.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#35

Post by joshvm » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:43 PM UTC

bzzzt wrote: post #19

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?

Depends on what you consider 'full game VM'. Adventure games from Infocom ran all game code on a VM, and so did the graphical adventures from Sierra and LucasArts. The latter two used some native graphics primitives of course.

Scumm is a good example. There was a port for the original DS that ran well enough.

https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Nintendo_DS

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#36

Post by efnx » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:59 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #27

I remember playing Out of this World on my Sega Genesis as a kid, and I could not believe that graphics would ever get better than this; I had never seen fully animated cutscenes like that on my Sega and thought it was incredible. Obviously graphics did get better, but I feel like Another World still holds its own artistically. The graphics are still very stylish and distinct, and upon replaying the game again about…

I found flashback first, on sega. I loved it instantly. Later on I played Out of this World and it took a bit before I got into it. The two are great works of art though.

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#37

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 8:10 PM UTC

pbj1968 wrote: post #33

Because of this thread, I finally admitted to myself I was never going to figure this game out and watched a play through on YouTube. 22 minutes! I think I got past the lion once.

[deleted]

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#38

Post by lightedman » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 8:35 PM UTC

derbOac wrote: post #14

Off topic, but I was excited to find out Another World is on Steam... but isn't available to play on macOS 10.15 Catalina or above. The incompatibility with 32-bit makes me extremely frustrated; it seems as if in 2023, with quantum computing, DL models, and people porting games like this to FPGA, there should be a way to get 32-bit software to run on modern hardware. It's bizarre to me. Steam specifically recommends…

Play the SNES version emulated - it had the best musical score

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#39

Post by theragra » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 8:41 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #27

I remember playing Out of this World on my Sega Genesis as a kid, and I could not believe that graphics would ever get better than this; I had never seen fully animated cutscenes like that on my Sega and thought it was incredible. Obviously graphics did get better, but I feel like Another World still holds its own artistically. The graphics are still very stylish and distinct, and upon replaying the game again about…

I liked flashback so much, I tried to complete it on expert. Stuck somewhere closer to the end, though, cannot defeat slime man

Re: Another World ported to FPGA

#40

Post by Xenoamorphous » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 8:41 PM UTC

29athrowaway wrote: post #7

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.

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

I’ve never player that game, but it’s been engraved in my mind for 30 years just from a 2 min? segment in a promotional VHS tape that came with a videogames magazine.

Also the artwork in the cover is amazing.