Mayhem Accelerator

With Mayhem.. even a game written in SCADS would run at a respectable Z80-ish speed… so you’ve no excuse to not have a go coding one yourself :)

See Sam Revival issue 2 for info on a kart racer I was once developing. Might have to go back to look at that one day, but then the list of bits and pieces I have in various states of completion is rather large!

(oh, and EFTOPTRM, Lemmings, PoP … all very nice at 10MHz! Issue 15 of SR thats going out this weekend has the latest on the accelerator)

Quick edit! The Mayhem Accelerator will be demoed at the ‘UK Pinball Show’ in Birmingham on the 22nd July (i’ll be about there from 12.30 to 5pm or thereabouts with it, loitering by the ‘Retro Fusion’ stand!) [http://www.ukpinballshow.co.uk/]

Colin
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Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

Would the Sam be capable of handling cut down versions of classic Archimedes converts? (with the mayhem accelerator of course!) If I remember rightly only the cream of the crop of Amiga classics made it over the much more powerful (yet much duller!) rivalmachine the Archimedes - Magic Pockets, Xenon II, Gods, Pacmania, Chuck Rock, Speedball II, The Chaos Engine, Twinworld, Lemmings 2, Swiv, Zool and Robocod (and a couple of others of course!)- it would be realy realy nice if the fore mentioned titles got converted over to the Sam - even years after these games were forgotten - it would be surreal to say the least, but it would finnish of the Sam Coupe chronical in style. At least bring Pacmania & TwinWorld on! They are old games but true 16-bit classics that would look cool on Sam!

With the Mayhem Accelerator a heck of a lot more will be possible, i’ve a few of the 16-bit Gremlin games on the back burner at the moment which have been in the pipeline since getting permission to do stuff with old Gremlin titles.

There’s a few other programmers with ideas for games to use with the Mayhem, once the hardware is out i’ll be spending a bit more time getting in touch with more people as well…

Colin
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Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

Although the line up of converts and third party Archimedes titles are somewhat dull compared to some of the more exciting stuff on the rival machines of that generation of computers, the Archimedes line up are a very solid platform that would probably work well on Sam (cut down of course!) if merged with the mayhem (if it lives up to what I’ve read) Most of the Archimedes games are a very good example of the quality that should be expected to be seen on Sam (Prince of Persia looks near enough identical to PC version and Lemmings to the Arc version - only difference - speed.) There isnt too much complicated stuff going on in most of the Arc games (as with Amiga & most PC games of that time) which gives the Sam a bit of a good chance of being able to replicate some of the titles. Obviously games like Doom and Wolfenstein wouldnt have a chance - but the platformers and shooters may probably work fine. I realy hope someone gives it a go - this is probably the last chance the Sam has in showing what its realy capable of now the Mayhem Accelerator is on its way - the fact is there probably isnt enough sam users around anymore that would generate the profits required to pay the programmers for their hard work - which is a shame. Maybe there are more Sam users than we think? Maybe a poll should be done to see exactly how many still use the Sam, and from this we could deduce wether or not it would be worth putting the time and money into reproducing the titles???? - - who knows…..

It’s not really a case of needing a poll and working out if it would be worth the time and the money … It’s safe to say that everything that’s been done for the Sam for years have been labours of love for those involved - there isn’t any real money to be made by writing the next big hit game or that. It’s a case of supporting what’s already there, and encouraging people to do more if they can spare the time - as that’s the key ingredient needed - time!

Going back to the actual porting of games there is also the rights issues for titles especially if they were being sold. With the Sam although the idea of a complete conversion of a major classic game is a very nice thought but not nessesary, a game inspired on something well known is just as good. Take Conquest, that can really be described as a cut down Civilisation - the key features are all there but it’s an original title in it’s own right.

I’m hoping to have coming up in Sam Revival sometime shortly bits and pieces to form a Developer’s Diary, showing what’s going on as there are a few games in early development from a few people. But as everyone says, including myself, it’s all down to having the time!

And it’s not long until the first batch of Mayhem Accelerators are ready, and i’m hoping to have some of the first reactions from real users to it in the next issue of Sam Revival in September.

Colin
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Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

I should take my time replying more, as I always thinks of extra things to say in hindsight!

It’s also a case of everyone having a go, all the stuff sent in to the likes of Fred, Blitz, Soundbyte etc.. etc.. gave the Sam such a community spirit with noone being afraid to have a go at writing something! (On the same lines i’ve got some fresh new stuff for the Sam Revival coverdisk later on this year.)

Gamesmaster and Scads get a new lease of life with the Mayhem with them running over three times faster, so they make an ideal starting ground - a few steps above BASIC before making the jump to assembly.

And there’s always help for programming problems or whatever, had a few in the Sam Revival letters pages so far of the more interesting problems, and more answered directly by email as well - I’m always happy to help out with anything Sam!

Colin
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Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

Why is it obvious that Wolfenstein 3D wouldn’t work? The graphics shouldn’t look too bad with 16 colours. It ran on the 80286 at ~10 MHz… I don’t know how a 20 MHz Z80 would compare, but I wouldn’t be too suprised if it’s fast enough.

I was suprised to learn that Wolfenstein 3D’s source is not actually available under the GPL (although Doom’s is).

There are lots of CPC and ZX Spectrum games and probably some MSX games that would work quite well on the SAM. The two issues are time and copyright.

Something like Wolfenstein 3D may certain be possible.

I did a lot of testing with simple raycasters for 3D as well as a few more advanced ideas for engines in my early research for Chrome (many years ago now!) and the Sam should be up the challenge. I’m in the process of going through all those old work disks digging out the bits and pieces I did as I will be putting an article about the work done on Chrome in the next Sam Revival.

Colin
=====
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

Although the line up of converts and third party Archimedes titles are somewhat dull compared to some of the more exciting stuff on the rival machines of that generation of computers, the Archimedes line up are a very solid platform that would probably work well on Sam (cut down of course!) if merged with the mayhem (if it lives up to what I’ve read) Most of the Archimedes games are a very good example of the quality that should be expected to be seen on Sam (Prince of Persia looks near enough identical to PC version and Lemmings to the Arc version - only difference - speed.) There isnt too much complicated stuff going on in most of the Arc games (as with Amiga & most PC games of that time) which gives the Sam a bit of a good chance of being able to replicate some of the titles. Obviously games like Doom and Wolfenstein wouldnt have a chance - but the platformers and shooters may probably work fine. I realy hope someone gives it a go - this is probably the last chance the Sam has in showing what its realy capable of now the Mayhem Accelerator is on its way - the fact is there probably isnt enough sam users around anymore that would generate the profits required to pay the programmers for their hard work - which is a shame. Maybe there are more Sam users than we think? Maybe a poll should be done to see exactly how many still use the Sam, and from this we could deduce wether or not it would be worth putting the time and money into reproducing the titles???? - - who knows…..

wow - there are 1627 guests online - I’ve never seen so many…maybe the possibilities of the Mayhem Acclerator and potential of possible games is generating all this interest…..bring on some games!

More like something is wrong with the site and timekeeping? It was showing 1600+ guests for a few days now with all posts having the wrong date, and all posts written 0 seconds ago… However, when I logged in it’s showing correct dates and 3 guests online…

But getting back to the subject, there are a lot of possibilities with the Mayhem and plenty of scope for games to use it. Issue 15 of Sam Revival did have 7 pages worth of news on the development, and I’m currently in the middle of putting together a large FAQ for the next issue of Sam Revival regarding the Mayhem. If anyone has any questions or any comments about it, games, demos, possibilities etc the best thing you can do is send me an email directly and it’ll get my attention and included in the magazine and website where possible and it’s always good getting feedback, comments and ideas to kickstart some discussion in the letters pages! (You can email me directly the ‘contact quazar’ link at www.samcoupe.com)

Colin
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Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

Or might actually be the web browser, and not the site at all. All is fine in IE6… but as I had to move to Firefox temporarily I have the problems with the site dates/users/guests when viewing it in Firefox.
(All thanks to a bugged Windows Update that botched up IE6 for XP SP1 users - the supposed update to rectify the problems is running late…! Cheers M$!)

Colin
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Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

I’ve received now the 1-off quantities of the PCBs for the Mayhem Accerlator, which i’m busy soldering up and testing! (Photo up on my website at www.samcoupe.com)

I should be finished all the testing sometime next week - and then i’ll be going ahead and getting a full batch of PCBs made up and getting the preordered units out early in the new year.

Colin
=====
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/