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Golden Axe Port - Dev log

Finished implementing my revised sprite routine and the other bits to "complete" the title screen stuff.


Now I have a technical question if there's any other coders here..

Sega System16 sprite shrink operates on 5 bit values for both vertical and horizontal, $00 - $1f.
$00 = full size
$1f = half size

The NeoGeo operates a tad differently. Vertically the value is $ff - $00 which ranges from full size to one pixel.

Horizontally though is a different matter. You can only set the value from $f - $0. Now I understand why, each sprite is 16 x 512, my question is does anyone have any idea how to improve that horizontal shrink resolution over a number of sprites? I would imagine it needs a set of look-up tables based on the number of sprites used.

It may not be essential because the scaling isn't used all that often, but I would like to at least investigate the ability to improve the scaling quality. May open the door to an S16 scaler....
 
h0ffman said:
Horizontally though is a different matter. You can only set the value from $f - $0. Now I understand why, each sprite is 16 x 512, my question is does anyone have any idea how to improve that horizontal shrink resolution over a number of sprites? I would imagine it needs a set of look-up tables based on the number of sprites used.
Click to expand...
A precalculated lookup table is what I would use. Depending on where/how it is used I'd try to use pre-scaled sprites for 50%, 25%, 12.5%, etc. to reduce the sprites-per-line cost.
 
WTF!... Seems I accidentally found a debug function in the original code!

debug.PNG
 
Golden Axe Neo Geo update.. Most of Stage 1 now in place.

For some reason none of the enemies want to attack you apart from charging at you! And the big guys at the end seem to be a LOT heavier.. but we'll get there.

 
This is the most interesting thing to happen on system 16 for a long time, So many of Segas most iconic games on this platform never got a really good home port.

Stunning progress and such a pleasure to watch a master at work. Thankyou!
 
hatmoose said:
This is the most interesting thing to happen on system 16 for a long time, So many of Segas most iconic games on this platform never got a really good home port.

Stunning progress and such a pleasure to watch a master at work. Thankyou!
Click to expand...
Well, it IS exciting, but uh, many of the best S16 games did get home ports, and they were great!
 
So here is a random fact for you today, which I discovered this week.

In an attempt to thwart bootleggers, Sega added some protection mesaures. Inside their custom memory mapper chip is a simple compare function and mapped to addresses $1e0000 and $1f1000. When the game does collision checks, it writes the values to those locations and the memory mapper places a result in memory. The problem is that if you manage to bootleg the board but don't have Segas custom memory mapper, none of the collision checks work.

This is why none of the enemies were attacking the player as they effectively couldn't see you!

Simple code fix has now resolved this.
 
Found this cool site that discusses the various ports of Golden Axe (and other S16 games)
https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Golden_Axe/Versions
My 10 year old brain exploded with the delight and awesomeness of playing Golden Axe at home on my C64 (even tho it wasn’t very good) The Genesis port was much better.
One thing I didn’t realise is that pretty much every modern GA release is emulating the Genesis port. Even as late as 2007 (Xbox arcade) when a “perfect” arcade original port would have easily been possible under emulation, still reheating the Genesis version. At first this was just lazy product development but it might also be a rights issue, maybe music? One of the reasons Shinobi never got a really accurate home release was depictions of Marilyn Munroe and likeness of Spider-Man. Maybe something similar?
 
Really looking forward to this port. I consider myself at a master level with this game, being able to consistently 1cc it. I'm interested in see how accurate this port comes out when all's said and done. If you need any help testing when the time comes, hit me up. I can load it up on real hardware via Darksoft's multi, or Mister FPGA.
 
opt2not said:
Really looking forward to this port. I consider myself at a master level with this game, being able to consistently 1cc it. I'm interested in see how accurate this port comes out when all's said and done. If you need any help testing when the time comes, hit me up. I can load it up on real hardware via Darksoft's multi, or Mister FPGA.
Click to expand...
Cool. DM me here and I can drop you my discord or something.
 
So chaps.. today I discovered that the PC engine cd version exists!!

This got me thinking about maybe a couple of features.

1. Cd audio soundtrack
Potentially add this to cd and / or cart version? CD having it's own soundtrack feels like a very 90s thing to Di.

2. That anime intro!
Worth including?
 
h0ffman said:
Cool. DM me here and I can drop you my discord or something.
Click to expand...
Right on :thumbup:

h0ffman said:
So chaps.. today I discovered that the PC engine cd version exists!!

This got me thinking about maybe a couple of features.

1. Cd audio soundtrack
Potentially add this to cd and / or cart version? CD having it's own soundtrack feels like a very 90s thing to Di.

2. That anime intro!
Worth including?
Click to expand...
I think those additions would be cool if it was an option that can be turned on/off. Perhaps a soft dips selection? I know you're going for authenticity, but I think like sound and an anime intro doesn't really impact the gameplay at all.

Another thing that has wondering is AES support. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't all Neo Geo games have built-in support for either MVS or AES. Is this something you are going to be doing as well?
AES games usually come with a front-end menu for selecting game modes or stages, etc. An Enhanced Version could be selectable from the front-end menu for AES that has the anime/CD soundtrack.
 
h0ffman said:
So chaps.. today I discovered that the PC engine cd version exists!!

This got me thinking about maybe a couple of features.

1. Cd audio soundtrack
Potentially add this to cd and / or cart version? CD having it's own soundtrack feels like a very 90s thing to Di.

2. That anime intro!
Worth including?
Click to expand...
Rockstar devs tend to move on pretty quickly - might be the only chance to get a definitive “best of” version of GA.

The use case here for AES / MVS switch technically sweet.

MVS(arcade) = faithful arcade experience,
AES(home) = anime intros and soundtrack.

Both version run on both platforms. Same codebase, same deployment package. This is such a beautiful usecase fit it gives me goosebumps.
 
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