Popeye: Early High Res Games
Scralings, one of the director patrons, asked me to look at 1982 Nintendo's Popeye arcade. It looked like an easy game to port. So I accepted... only to find out that this game has the oddest graphics system.
The character layer is pretty much standard, but the background is drawn by the CPU on a RAM chip, pretty much like any 8-bit computer would do. But then, sprites are the most obscure thing I have seen. They use a special clock, at twice the rate of the character layer and the output seems to be interlaced. This means that sprites are actually drawn using a high resolution screen, whereas characters and background are drawn in low resolution. The full effect of this will only be appreciated on a CRT monitor. I still have to think about how to convert this video to a VGA output.
This approach to video didn't actually catch up. Soon after video games stopped using interlaced video with a single base clock for all elements. Popeye shows how engineers were experimenting with different options to create graphic hardware and is a very interesting game from that point of view. But I wonder: are these early games of interest to my patrons?
Comments (24)
Yes they are, one of the main reasons I got the MiSTer
well this was the game i played in the coffee near my house when i was a child :) but i think the best effort is to make system that has some games and that could be easy to change the machines to play those games :)
So excited!!! But does the way it handles sprites mean they won’t display correctly via hdmi?
I don't think every early game is worthy. Personally I'd only go for games with gameplay that stands the test of time. I've never played this Popeye game.
I'm absolutely interested and it's one of my favorites, but if it's a one-off, it might be something better left for later. I'd like to see more work done on platforms that help to bring multiple games to the MiSTer. I'd rather see your work where it has the most impact.
For-sure!, As this game uses a 4-way joystick. Would it be possible to have an option or enhancement that would block out diagonals if using a 8-way joystick?
+1 on Popeye - and PLEASE keep in mind that many of us will want to connect these to a real 15kHz CRT !
Absolutely, for an interlaced game a connection to a real CRT screen is the only way to really see what is meant to be seen.
Yes, please work on Popeye arcade - this is one of my favourites!
Like Funkycochise I would prefer early Capcom and Konami but you are the boss and I appreciate whatever you choose to do :)
As long as you have steam everything looks fine ;)
Yess yess my favorite game ever 😊😊😊
never liked popeye game, but go on, you surely can gain experience for future arcade ports to mister. :)
It’s not on top of my wanted list, Capcom pre CPS or old Konami are much more of my personal taste. But any core port is valuable !
i dont mind some of the older games, but i think an unreleased arcade game "sky skipper" was recently released on a popeye pcb....and not many exist in the wild......i know theres a mame rom for it.....would br good for preservation......also id like arcade pac land... :)
Personal opinion: I don't have a great interest in the game but I love reading how uncommon rendering systems work :) Did you ever come across the Sega VCO object boards ? Those sound like a nightmare to convert to a fully digital design.
> are these early games of interest to my patrons? Absolutely, yes - at least in my opinion. It's not a must but a very nice game.
Yes! Popeye was my children hero :)
This looks like a interesting project for you Jose
Pound’s? Am I reading it correctly?
I would love to see Popeye on MiSTer!
is it not the same hardware of donkey kong ? early game...maybe city connexion from jaleco.
I don’t know. I have to check...
Note: work on this core is quite advanced but not playable yet.