(Dread not dead, now Grind and with source) Dread - A Doom clone for Amiga 500 and... Atari ST/STE.

Just now, Muusi said:

That's exactly the problem. It's not like I can just plug a null modem into my PC and transfer files🤔

In this case either hook up a cd drive to your amiga (most cd drives will do) or use a PC formatted 720k disk and then enable pc-drives on your Workbench to read it. Otherwise there 's also the Gotek drive solution or some CF card and adapter. If you do some extra research I'm sure you'll find other solutions as well (and possibly more detailed explanations than what I can provide here). ;)

2 hours ago, tsak said:

It's a plugin, yes. Other than that we use the standard Doom Builder. I think the game doesn't do automatic partitioning yet but that might change. Also KK keeps documentation with any feature added, so there will be instructions for any limitations and keeping the frame rate playable. Basically so far (and from what I've seen myself) the engine is able to render pretty big rooms (or multiple rooms with a clear line of sight) with quite large render distances which are somewhat comparable to vanilla Doom. But the limitations are there and you can't just go wild (not if you want the game to be playable with unexpanded a500s that is).  

Considering the platform that is pretty huge, actually. It means there is definitely room (heh) to get something going on.

Another question. When Dread is released, i could totally see its engine be a great platform to craft new for-Amiga games for (As opposed to the high-end AGA conversions recently seen, like Blood). What's the vision on that?

2 hours ago, tsak said:

As for a Dread megawad (with the assistance of the Doom Community) we definitely would be delighted to see one!

If nothing else i would totally make that thread and see which great mapping minds would take a jive at it!

What's the plan for the native Windows 11 x64 port, preferably with Vulkan support?

18 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Another question. When Dread is released, i could totally see its engine be a great platform to craft new for-Amiga games for (As opposed to the high-end AGA conversions recently seen, like Blood). What's the vision on that?

 

If nothing else i would totally make that thread and see which great mapping minds would take a jive at it!

The release of the engine could potencially help the creation of new similar games for the miggy, however I'm not too optimistic about this. It takes a tremendous amount of time and resources to craft something good and complete, plus given the Amiga community is relatively small, the possibility for this to happen is not substancial. I mean even the much easier (and resource intensive) task of creating simple mods or map packs is next to non existant in the scene (despite Gloom and AB3D being available to modders for ages now). Having said that, I've got ties with various Amiga game devs and artists so there might be attempts to utilise the engine creatively, perhpas for another full title. We'll have to wait and see though, it's way too early for the time being.

Other than that, thanks again for the initiative! :)
 

15 hours ago, Revenant100 said:

What's the plan for the native Windows 11 x64 port, preferably with Vulkan support?

Dread is a retro game for classic Commodore Amiga 500 machines (released in 1987), hense you can currently only play it via emulation (say WinUAE) or on your real Amiga hardware (should you own one). There's no PC port planned for now. I guess KK could effortlessly make one (f.e. wrapping up the necessary roms and the emulator in a single executable - if not for a native port) but due to the game's limitations -being designed for a real retro machine- I guess it cannot realistically compete as a native game for PC. In any case we'll see about that, if there's demand we might consider it. Having said that, the game is so lightweight it could probably run on your 20+ years old calculator (imagine it runs on a 7Mhz 68000 Motorola with 1mb ram - lol) so stuff like Vulkan support is in no way needed ;)  

Now THIS is impressive. 

Reminds me of the game Gloom, also on the Amiga. 

On mercredi 28 juillet 2021 at 4:14 PM, tsak said:

There's no PC port planned for now. I guess KK could effortlessly make one (f.e. wrapping up the necessary roms and the emulator in a single executable - if not for a native port)

I'm sure Revenant was just playing the role of the guy-who-obviously-didn't-read-the-thread-and-ask-clueless-questions for humor, as that's the kind of deadpan jokes he makes. But this would actually be a good idea. At the very least, it'd make the prospect of a "Dread megawad" a lot more likely by making it a lot more convenient for Amiga-less mappers and playtesters to run through the maps.

11 hours ago, Gez said:

I'm sure Revenant was just playing the role of the guy-who-obviously-didn't-read-the-thread-and-ask-clueless-questions for humor, as that's the kind of deadpan jokes he makes.

He, he, I figued that might be the case but since I'm new here I opted to go the safe route :)
 

11 hours ago, Gez said:

But this would actually be a good idea. At the very least, it'd make the prospect of a "Dread megawad" a lot more likely by making it a lot more convenient for Amiga-less mappers and playtesters to run through the maps. 

You know, that's actually a really good point! I'll pass this to KK. Usually in other Amiga game projects we use compiled builds and test them on UAE. This way you can also benchmark the game under various setups (cycle exact a500, a1200, expanded machines e.t.c.). But I have to admit that UAE isn't the most accessible thing in the world (f.e. it comes without the much needed kickstart/OS ROMS). And you also need some Amiga know-how to operate it. In that sense it might be a good idea to have something that lets you test right away. Currently the custom 'tool' we use does have 3d display of the level (as it renders on an Amiga), though you can only roam the level and nothing more.

Update:

Dread took first place in the Sillyventure 2020+1 Summer competition for.... Atari ST/STE.

That's right, this game is now on two platforms!

AtariMania : http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-dread_38958.html

Video:

Starring Mexican doomguy... …In Dread?

@tsak I quite like the reworked Zombiemen and I would love to see them replace their Freedoom counterparts!

The one-level demo has been released for Amiga and ST. Very impressive stuff. Links are in the description to this video.

So this means Dread is possible on the Sega Mega Drive without any expansions or add-ons too, right? I mean, the Mega definitely does have hardware sprites.

6 hours ago, Nikku4211 said:

So this means Dread is possible on the Sega Mega Drive without any expansions or add-ons too, right? I mean, the Mega definitely does have hardware sprites.

We definitely plan to see if a Mega Drive port is possible. Looks like it, but there are plenty stuff to overcome first (ram management being on of them f.e.). 
 

On 9/5/2021 at 9:36 PM, Rudolph said:

@tsak I quite like the reworked Zombiemen and I would love to see them replace their Freedoom counterparts!

Thanks :) Well, honestly I doubt the free-doom project will find any of these useful as there are only frontal frames and their native resolution is lower than normal doom sprites. Having said that, we'd thankfully donate any sources we've got that are direct free-doom reworks (the gun sprites been one set of such assets f.e.) but other new or original stuff we might end up reusing them for the final game eventually.
 

48 minutes ago, tsak said:

We definitely plan to see if a Mega Drive port is possible. Looks like it, but there are plenty stuff to overcome first (ram management being on of them f.e.). 

Yeah, memory is a big wall to hit when porting, especially since the only way to expand RAM for cartridge-based consoles would be in the cartridges themselves.

That 64 kiB of RAM isn't fooling anyone.

Even Doom on SNES required both the 128 kiB of RAM from the SNES and the whatever extra amount of RAM from the Super FX 2.

4 hours ago, Nikku4211 said:

Even Doom on SNES required both the 128 kiB of RAM from the SNES and the whatever extra amount of RAM from the Super FX 2.

The SNES Doom cartridge had 512 kilobits (so, 64kb in modern measurements) of on-cart RAM with which the Super FX 2 chip could cobble together each frame before shunting it off to the console's video memory.

35 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

The SNES Doom cartridge had 512 kilobytes (so, 64kb in modern measurements)

512 kilobits, then.

2 minutes ago, Gez said:

512 kilobits, then.

Yeah, that, derp. I looked that up multiple times to check, dunno how that snuck into the final post. I need an editor.

6 hours ago, tsak said:

We definitely plan to see if a Mega Drive port is possible.

I know someone who'd love to make a Megadrive FPS that wants to know if this would be moddable at all to that end.

It's me. That someone is me.

13 hours ago, tsak said:

Thanks :) Well, honestly I doubt the free-doom project will find any of these useful as there are only frontal frames and their native resolution is lower than normal doom sprites. Having said that, we'd thankfully donate any sources we've got that are direct free-doom reworks (the gun sprites been one set of such assets f.e.) but other new or original stuff we might end up reusing them for the final game eventually.

Oh, I had not thought of that.

Thank you for your good work nonetheless!

9 hours ago, Jayextee said:

I know someone who'd love to make a Megadrive FPS that wants to know if this would be moddable at all to that end.

It's me. That someone is me.

And also that guy at Brasil that made a Duke Nukem 3D port for the Mega Drive.

9 hours ago, Jayextee said:

I know someone who'd love to make a Megadrive FPS that wants to know if this would be moddable at all to that end.

It's me. That someone is me.

Do your worst.

Love the enemy animations

13 hours ago, Jayextee said:

I know someone who'd love to make a Megadrive FPS that wants to know if this would be moddable at all to that end.

It's me. That someone is me.

Why stop there.

Why not also Neo Geo. Its 68k based after all. Or Sharp X68000.

4 hours ago, Nikku4211 said:

And also that guy at Brasil that made a Duke Nukem 3D port for the Mega Drive.

Tec Toy? Its an impressive piece of coding, for sure.

Just goes to show how dedicated the modding community is, after all these years.

6 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Why stop there.

 

Why not also Neo Geo.

The way Neo Geo graphics work means it can't really do this type of 3D, sadly.

(To summarize, literally everything on-screen on Neo Geo is a sprite (which is a bit different from sprites on other hardware), with the exception of a single tilemap layer for HUDs. You can only have so many sprites on screen, and can only manipulate sprites so far.)

6 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Or Sharp X68000.

The X68000 has been coaxed into running Doom... very, very slowly.

8 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Why not also Neo Geo. Its 68k based after all.

It's expensive. :(

2 hours ago, Kinsie said:

The way Neo Geo graphics work means it can't really do this type of 3D, sadly.

 

(To summarize, literally everything on-screen on Neo Geo is a sprite (which is a bit different from sprites on other hardware), with the exception of a single tilemap layer for HUDs. You can only have so many sprites on screen, and can only manipulate sprites so far.)

I know, but you have to think big, haha ;)

2 hours ago, Kinsie said:

The X68000 has been coaxed into running Doom... very, very slowly.

Seems like ideal candidate for Dread! But to get a hold on one of them...

23 minutes ago, Nikku4211 said:

It's expensive. :(

If you use a consolized MVS arcade system, it becomed more manageable.

12 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

If you use a consolized MVS arcade system, it becomed more manageable.

Aren't they still expensive though? :(

2 hours ago, Nikku4211 said:

Aren't they still expensive though? :(

Quite, but not nearly as much as an actual AES.

3 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

Quite, but not nearly as much as an actual AES.

Still probably too expensive for most people. You've still got to be a hardcore collector if you have $ laying around that you want to burn on a literal arcade board.