The original european release of the game was in 1989 and only supported CGA and EGA. The North American release a few months later in 1990 added support for 160x200 Tandy graphics. The PCjr 160x200 mode was created for two reasons: More predictable colors in composite output, and faster screen updates while using 16 colors. It is this latter performance aspect of a 160x200 16-color mode that Action Fighter chose to use it supporting Tandy systems, as 4.77 MHz Tandy systems were common, but slow, and needed all the help they could get. Action Fighter was not the only game to do this; a few others, such as the well-known games Indianapolis 500 and California Games, also were written to use 160x200 when run on a Tandy 1000.
But isn't doing 320x200 in 2 bits (CGA) the same amount of data as 160x200 in 4 bits (Tandy)? Or is there more work to be done due to sprite handling where e.g. more pixels have to be tested for transparency etc.?
@@root42 It's the same bandwidth. The "faster" comment was comparing it to 320x200 16-color which is twice the memory to manipulate (and store). 160x200x16 and 320x200x4 are both 16k. There are slight speedup opportunities working with 4-bit pixels vs 2-bit in assembly as well.
My understanding of the main benefit of the 160x200 graphics mode is that it improves performance, because the CPU needs to push half the data into video memory. There's a Nerdly Pleasures blog post on this, which does also mention composite. It was actually my first contact with anything that can be tied to Tandy, through Sierra-style AGI games. To me, it's somewhat of a final bridge to the "old world" of 8-bit micros, at least with respect to visual identity.
IIRC it would've been reviewed way, way, *way* earlier if any of your other systems at the time could read the disk, but they couldn't so you went with Dark Ages instead. XD
RIGHT, OK, so... Looking back at what I said in my old videos I remember what was going wrong there. I have two computers with 5 1/4" floppy drives, my Tandy 1000 as well as my P120. Back at that point in time, both of those computers were running fine. HOWEVER, the drive in the P120 is a HIGH DENSITY drive and for some bizarre reason it wasn't reading the disk right, while I had no good means to capture footage from the Tandy 1000, let alone grab the game executables and bring them over to a different system since my Tandy 1000 has no means to output files to anything OTHER than its 5 1/4" drive, so I was kinda SOL. :P
I wish there were more games that utilized the 3 channel PCjr / Tandy sound capability. Some of the old Sierra games like Leisure Suit Larry did that. But, it's hard to compete with the awesomeness of the C64's SID chip.
THAT BOMBING SOUND EFFECT IS SO SUPER EFFING ANNOYING HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO US D: ... EEEOOOWWW EEEEOOOWWW EEEEOOOWW EEEEOOOWWW ... lol omfg how did anyone play this.
Please send requests to the eMail address in the credits of these videos so I can track them properly; RUclips comments are not a good way to keep track of them! :B
![Master System Longplay [078] Action Fighter](/img/1.gif)
The original european release of the game was in 1989 and only supported CGA and EGA. The North American release a few months later in 1990 added support for 160x200 Tandy graphics.
The PCjr 160x200 mode was created for two reasons: More predictable colors in composite output, and faster screen updates while using 16 colors. It is this latter performance aspect of a 160x200 16-color mode that Action Fighter chose to use it supporting Tandy systems, as 4.77 MHz Tandy systems were common, but slow, and needed all the help they could get.
Action Fighter was not the only game to do this; a few others, such as the well-known games Indianapolis 500 and California Games, also were written to use 160x200 when run on a Tandy 1000.
But isn't doing 320x200 in 2 bits (CGA) the same amount of data as 160x200 in 4 bits (Tandy)? Or is there more work to be done due to sprite handling where e.g. more pixels have to be tested for transparency etc.?
@@root42 It's the same bandwidth. The "faster" comment was comparing it to 320x200 16-color which is twice the memory to manipulate (and store). 160x200x16 and 320x200x4 are both 16k.
There are slight speedup opportunities working with 4-bit pixels vs 2-bit in assembly as well.
Parts of this game remind of the driving stages from the Ghostbusters game
Spy Hunter x Xevious.
Spevious!
...or Xevihunter. ;)
Huzzah, for both perseverance and preservation!
My understanding of the main benefit of the 160x200 graphics mode is that it improves performance, because the CPU needs to push half the data into video memory. There's a Nerdly Pleasures blog post on this, which does also mention composite.
It was actually my first contact with anything that can be tied to Tandy, through Sierra-style AGI games. To me, it's somewhat of a final bridge to the "old world" of 8-bit micros, at least with respect to visual identity.
I would always die in the flight section as a kid.
I can't believe it's taken this long to get an Action Fighter review. God, it's gotta be like 13 years since you first tried to review it
A little over one month shy of 14 actually. :P
Here's to another 14, my friend
Oh my god thank you is looked up this game and never found anything
IIRC it would've been reviewed way, way, *way* earlier if any of your other systems at the time could read the disk, but they couldn't so you went with Dark Ages instead. XD
RIGHT, OK, so... Looking back at what I said in my old videos I remember what was going wrong there. I have two computers with 5 1/4" floppy drives, my Tandy 1000 as well as my P120. Back at that point in time, both of those computers were running fine. HOWEVER, the drive in the P120 is a HIGH DENSITY drive and for some bizarre reason it wasn't reading the disk right, while I had no good means to capture footage from the Tandy 1000, let alone grab the game executables and bring them over to a different system since my Tandy 1000 has no means to output files to anything OTHER than its 5 1/4" drive, so I was kinda SOL. :P
Tandy 1000s use the same PSG chip as the Master System so it's a bit unfortunate this couldn't sound more like that version.
I wish there were more games that utilized the 3 channel PCjr / Tandy sound capability. Some of the old Sierra games like Leisure Suit Larry did that. But, it's hard to compete with the awesomeness of the C64's SID chip.
Actually, a lot of games DO, it's just that many of them also support AdLib so most people remember THAT, not the 3-voice support. :P
THAT BOMBING SOUND EFFECT IS SO SUPER EFFING ANNOYING HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO US D: ... EEEOOOWWW EEEEOOOWWW EEEEOOOWW EEEEOOOWWW ... lol omfg how did anyone play this.
There is a sound toggle key. :B
@@Pixelmusement Geeee, glad you didn't use it, YOU MONSTER!!!!! :D :D :D
Hahahaha. 😂
Requests; Prehistorik 1 and 2, The Humans, Lost Vikings, Monuments of Mars, Luigi & Spaghetti, Cisco Heat, Zakk Mckracken and the Alien Mindbenders.
Please send requests to the eMail address in the credits of these videos so I can track them properly; RUclips comments are not a good way to keep track of them! :B
Nice game.