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The Syndicate thread

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 3:19 am
by a31chris
Things I love about the game.

Drive by shootings! Hopping in cars and popping targets as you drive by.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 12:02 am
by Walter_j64bit
I've tried the game but it needs a mouse patch badly!

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 1:58 am
by a31chris
No it doesn't. It's perfectly playable as is.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 9:21 pm
by a31chris
Something has occurred to me. Mike Diskette tried to give Magic Carpet a go on the Jag and had no luck supposedly.

We know the Jag can do textured 3D. HoverStrike etc. Not fantastic but it's there.

I think he was overlooking some Jag fundamentals. He did two 2D games(Sydnicate, Theme Park) on the Jag that have crippling slowdown when they shouldn't have. I believe that for whatever reason he was missing something. 2D is the Jags thing. I believe It should have handled this game, and Theme Park in higher rez and scaling with no slowdown.

Only after he had enough of a handle on the Jag to make it hum along on its strong points could he be in a position to give a realistic assesment of it's weaker points, 3D.

This is my unpopular opinion but his current Jag body of work is saying 'yeah the Jag can't handle these 2D games without slowing to a crawl.'

To sum up since I think what the implied statement says about the Jags abilities made by his current body of work says is incorrect I think his Magic Carpet assessment should be looked at with a different perspective.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 4:17 pm
by Martin III
a31chris wrote:
Thu Sep 07, 2017 9:21 pm
Something has occurred to me. Mike Diskette tried to give Magic Carpet a go on the Jag and had no luck supposedly.

We know the Jag can do textured 3D. HoverStrike etc. Not fantastic but it's there.

I think he was overlooking some Jag fundamentals. He did two 2D games(Sydnicate, Theme Park) on the Jag that have crippling slowdown when they shouldn't have. I believe that for whatever reason he was missing something. 2D is the Jags thing. I believe It should have handled this game, and Theme Park in higher rez and scaling with no slowdown.

Only after he had enough of a handle on the Jag to make it hum along on its strong points could he be in a position to give a realistic assesment of it's weaker points, 3D.

This is my unpopular opinion but his current Jag body of work is saying 'yeah the Jag can't handle these 2D games without slowing to a crawl.'

To sum up since I think what the implied statement says about the Jags abilities made by his current body of work says is incorrect I think his Magic Carpet assessment should be looked at with a different perspective.
For what it's worth, your opinion on the Jaguar versions of Syndicate and Theme Park seems to line up with that of the contemporary critics. While Next Generation, curiously, raved at how "flawless" the conversions are, both GamePro and EGM regarded them as very shoddy ports. Same specific complaints, too: major slowdown and blurry resolution.

Speaking of the contemporary critics, though, they were pretty divided about the use of the Jaguar keypad. Some of 'em said it was shoehorned in and just made the controls needlessly complicated, while others said it worked great and made things work much faster. Anyone here care to share their opinion on the matter?

I can't see Magic Carpet working on the Jaguar. It's not a matter of texturing; it's a matter of the real-time terrain morphing (which at the time was seen as an impressive feat even for the Saturn and PlayStation) and the sheer amount of stuff that the processor has to keep track of all at once.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 5:17 am
by a31chris
I think the keypad is put to awesome use on this game.

Same with Robinson's requiem. I think it controls with the keypad better than the PC version which I also have.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 5:58 am
by a31chris
I don't think that having the processors keep track of things would been what have been a problem if Atari would have been smart and gotten High Voltage Softwares development system. They would have been able to do dual CPUs with the DSP handling sound and helping the GPU out.

And I don't think the morphing effects would have been a big problem either(see Cybermorph and sequel). Also some serious texture undulation Etc in Hover strike. And that game used Ataris crappy renderer. The only overall problem imo would have been that there wouldn't have been as many polygons.

I don't know when Mike tried to do this but I know High Voltage Software had their kickass development set up all ready by May of 95. They sent the paperwork to Atari that if they paid the June 95 milestone for dactyl joust they would have also gotten all of this in the package. I believe with that setup Mike would have been able to pull something off. It wouldn't have been the level of 3D in the PlayStation or Saturn but I believe it would have been 3D on the Jag like we haven't quite seen before.

But that's just my opinion and my opinion is unpopular.

But I'm pretty convinced seeing the evidence that Mike more than anything just get just needed a little help with the architecture. Whether asking a more experienced Jaguar coder or better development system.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 6:04 am
by a31chris
And if the PlayStation could keep track of all those objects the Jaguar surely could. The main area the PSX beats the Jag is in throwing textures on the screen. Not in straight processing power.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 4:46 am
by a31chris
I just rewatched battle of the ports Saturn vs PS1.

https://youtu.be/oLVUJr9FpoA

As for all those objects which are bitmaps in my opinion Jaguar would have no problem with that. Other than that I don't see anything mind blowing in the terrain morphing.The Jaguar definitely does something very similar in Hoverstrike. Or anything mind-blowing overall.

I think a skilled Jaguar programmer/team could pull something off.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 5:44 am
by a31chris
Love this game but it just hands me my ass.

Re: The Syndicate thread

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:32 pm
by a31chris
Lemon Amigas Syndicate playguide. This is a great vid.

https://youtu.be/_0xaRbDsPDE