SVM - Monkey Island - C64

[Micha1982]

Hey guys,

anyone here knowing if it is possible to port Monkey Island (ega/cga) to the good old C64??

Sounds crazy? But:

Large amounts of data could be load with new hardware like 1541U - large amounts could directly being load via dma in a second directly from sd-card...hundreds of units were sold and other products like Chamäleon will follow!IDE-controller are available too...or SD2IEC-adapter...

You think C64 doesn´t have enough ram? 1541u, for example, provides up to 16Mb...

But i cant find a changelog for sputm, version 1-5, on google...

And what about Indiana Jones?

Do you think such a crazy project is possible?

There are actually one or two projects concerning ManiacMansion and Zak - optimizations in progress, maybe good programmers could contact each other?

No one here who has the ability and time to do such a job?ScummVMC64

[hippy dave]

if ram and storage space aren't a concern, then the limiting factor is likely to be cpu speed. i'm sure monkey island 1 uses a fair bit more cpu power than maniac mansion, and i wouldn't be confident that the c64's old 8 bit cpu is up to the task. i expect someone else will be able to provide a more definitive answer than that tho.

[fingolfin]

This sounds indeed crazy, and utterly pointless

[Micha1982]

This sounds indeed crazy, and utterly pointless

But why?I cant believe that cpu-power is the limitating factor when I see demos like this on unmodified systems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLP-poYb ... re=related
20 years ago, maybe...but today totally new tricks in programming combined with new hardware are available...

[bobdevis]

Ah, you have discovered the demo scene

Yes, those demos are amazing but to squeeze all that power out of such an old computer you have to do pretty much the exact opposite of what ScummVM is doing.

ScummVM is "wasteful" because it is written on layers of abstraction to make it portable and maintainable. You need more horsepower to run it then original game did, but that is ok because even modern mobile phones outperform the old Pentiums.

Those demons are so efficient because they are so optimized for ONE specific platform and written in an almost incomprehensible (and thus unmaintainable) way. Everything is sacrificed for speed.

[Morden]

But why?I cant believe that cpu-power is the limitating factor when I see demos like this on unmodified systems (...) 20 years ago, maybe...but today totally new tricks in programming combined with new hardware are available...

Keep in mind, that tricks used in demos serve an entirely different purpose. While typical C64 plotters and vectors create nice demo effects, they're not what you'd need to implement into a port such as this one.

There are tons of amazing demos for the C64, but name a game which successfully implements the advanced techniques meant as eye candy, with 3D cubes flying about, full-screen hi-res graphics, etc.

That said, "anything is possible" if you manage to find someone determined and skilled enough to do it, but I'm guessing you won't.

People sometimes ask if a game XYZ can be supported by ScummVM, because they would like it to be. I've never seen anyone answer "Sure, we'll get right on it". The answer is usually something like "If you want to do it, we're here to help, but we won't do the work for you. We have enough to do as it is".

It's hard enough to implement a game into ScummVM, let alone write it from scratch, so I think you're out of luck. It's just too big a job. It's like asking a construction worker if he has some spare time to build you a house. Free of charge, of course.

[Laserschwert]

That idea reminds me of these:

[fingolfin]

This sounds indeed crazy, and utterly pointless

But why?I cant believe that cpu-power is the limitating factor when I see demos like this on unmodified systems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLP-poYb ... re=related
20 years ago, maybe...but today totally new tricks in programming combined with new hardware are available...

Of course new hardware is available... PCs running Linux or Windows or *BSD, Mac's running Mac OS X, smartphones... and it's so much easier to write code for them, let alone code that is fast enough...

The only reason I see to bother writing for ancient devices like the C64 is to prove that one can do it... but IMO that is rather pointless these days, there are much cooler and more useful ways to prove how "cool" you are when it comes to programming...

Of course, you could also build a PC with a special connector to your C64, then "port" any program to your C64 by using this "coprocessor"... *g* I.e. when you type "run FOOBAR" it start FOObar on your PC, err, coprocessor .

[lazylazyjoe]

Now it is possible!! Sort of.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/comm ... -a-replic/

[lazylazyjoe]

Commodore USA is back again, making computers starting with the Commodore 64 nettop remake.Get a New c64 case for $250 or $600 for basic nettop confguration (525atom,ion2,2GB,160GB). I would assume you could add any mini-itx board to the case, but they dont say what board the case takes.
http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... VZtdccifL8
EDIT:
2nd link is a video link comparing to original. Key layout and quality is different, but otherwise looks same. Not that I remember, last I I saw one was in 1987. And they're including a commodore/amiga type OS that is supposed to run all 8, 16 32 bit games, via emulation, not sure how theyre distributing it cause the systems come with Ubuntu installed. And if youre too lazy to run their "commodore OS" or one thru Ubuntu, they also have a custom boot menu where it looks like a c64 emu is built into a ROM or something so you can play C64 out of the box(except case only config). Check out their products tab. Theyre going to be remaking the Amiga 1000, 2000, 3000. and theres two all-in-keyboards available now.
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MOD: Can u move this to junkyard. I dont know why I bumped this thread, but think it would be more appropriate for junkyard, and I dont want to double post.

[NovaCoder]

Ah, you have discovered the demo scene

Yes, those demos are amazing but to squeeze all that power out of such an old computer you have to do pretty much the exact opposite of what ScummVM is doing.

ScummVM is "wasteful" because it is written on layers of abstraction to make it portable and maintainable. You need more horsepower to run it then original game did, but that is ok because even modern mobile phones outperform the old Pentiums.

Those demons are so efficient because they are so optimized for ONE specific platform and written in an almost incomprehensible (and thus unmaintainable) way. Everything is sacrificed for speed.

PC versions of Monkey Island 1 & 2 runs using ScummVM on Classic Amiga hardware which only have about 10 MIPS (running in 320x200 8 bit) but you wouldn't want to try porting to anything slower

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj86U8us4G0

As ScummVM develops I expect it to move futher and further away from being able to run on older platforms with their limited MIPS and color depth (which is of course understandable and the right way to go).