SWOS2020 Amiga style: what's the reference version?

More
5 months 1 week ago #146902 by Rinusch
Hi there,

First off, a HUGE compliment from me as a newcomer: it's really awesome, the work that has been (and still is) put into this and the result it yielded. Really, very nice to be able to play this great game online and to see how big the community is. SWOS is without a doubt the game I played most in my childhood. I even got the chance to meet Jon Hare in real life during Amiga's 30th anniversary party in Amsterdam and he even signed my Amiga (wow)!
This version really manages to bring back this huge fun factor and the online element including the ranking etc takes it to a new dimension.

Anyway, I'm not a native English speaker so not entirely sure whether the title of this post is clear.
What I mean is: what's the basis for the gameplay when you select Amiga style in SWOS2020? Amiga style, compared to what?
I read people stating the Amiga style is identical to the '96/'97 Amiga version, the last official version Sensible released for the Amiga.
However, it's clearly not. And if you really know the real Amiga version and have played it recently, you can hardly say it's even nearly identical.
The feel of the gameplay is very different. The game is faster and you lose the ball much faster (i.e. it's not quite as sticky) in SWOS2020. Scoring tactics are completely different, I bet most people will have a much, much harder time scoring on the real Amiga version, Players not being on the ball behave differently and when you know a player would have become 'active' on the Amiga version they sometimes won't become active in SWOS2020, but another player will become active instead. Also, a very noticable difference is the referee. In SWOS2020 you'll get a card much easier, even a direct red card is no rarity. All in all, and with utmost respect, it results in a completely different experience.
I played the Amiga version for a couple of hours just last weekend with a friend on his couch so I know what I'm talking about.

In all  honesty, despite my big enthusiasm for SWOS2020, I'm in doubt whether I should dive into it too deeply if I don't want to risk losing the fun playing the Amiga version with my friends for an evening every 2 months or so. This is because I think when you play a game like SWOS, it's like playing on auto pilot to a certain degree. You don't think, you just "do". And currently, this means losing almost every SWOS2020 match, big time, without any chance when I play like I play on the Amiga. I think I will defintately get better, but I'm afraid that would automatically mean I will need to get worse on the real Amiga. And those real life sessions with my friends and them being really competitive is really valuable to me.

So I hope this post won't be taken wrongly. I hope I have made more than clear how much I appreciate the effort and the result and also how much I enjoy playing it. However, it's just not even nearly identical to the Amiga version when you look closely enough.
I'm really curious how others see/experience this!

Very best regards!

PS: Out of curiousity: Is SWOS2020 built from the ground up, or is it re-using the core of the PC DOS version of the game?
 

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
5 months 1 week ago #146904 by thd79
My view is that Amiga 50fps mode in SWOS2020, with Amiga screen mode (rather than widescreen) is near enough identical to the Amiga original. 60fps mode is different - so ignore that one if you want the original. But... there are people that disagree.

I play SWOS2020 a lot (I play in the online leagues), and play the Amiga original on real hardware as well from time to time. Playing in widescreen perhaps gives the feeling of a slower game, as the camera is moving less. But this is just the camera, the speed of the game is actually the same. The input delay is a bit lower on the Amiga hardware, so this makes it feel a bit more sensitive/twitchy at first, but you soon get used to this.

I use the same scoring methods/tactics across both version, and honestly, I don't feel a difference. In all my experiemce so far, I don't think I've ever seen a style of goal that's possible on SWOS2020 but not on Amiga hardware, or vice versa.

SWOS2020 was made from dissassembling the PCDOS game, putting into a modern 'shell', and for the Amiga mode, dissassembling the 68k code and comparing it to the x86 code, and patching in the differences.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
4 months 3 weeks ago - 4 months 3 weeks ago #146909 by Playaveli
Thanks for your post. Nice read!

As thd79 said, SWOS 2020 is a port of the DOS version. However, the Amiga code (96/97 SWOS2 executable) has been disassembled as well and patched into SWOS 2020 to get Amiga gameplay. (The DOS code is 99% identical, btw).

So, first of all... to remove bias and placebo, make sure to start SWOS 2020 with following options:
- Amiga 50 FPS
- Difficulty Normal
- Screen Mode: AMIGA screen (I do recommend widescreen, though. It's awesome to see more the pitch!)

The gameplay is identical to the Amiga version! It runs at the EXACT same speed, and you can score the EXACT same goals and the balls fly the EXACT same curves and lengths etc on an original Amiga and on SWOS 2020 in Amiga mode (see settings above). So when you say "Scoring tactics are completely different", that's absolutely not true.

I agree however, there is a slightly different feel to controller input (different native processor, different native input devices). This is most probable what you are experiencing. Shooting the ball is instant on SWOS 2020, on an Amiga there is some sort of delay to it. Absolutely minimal though.

But that's really about it. Play it with confidence, especially online multiplayer. It will not screw up your fun to play on the original machine.
Last edit: 4 months 3 weeks ago by Playaveli.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.210 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum