> >The source for this [sound] work is 14k in size and when assembled > increases to >40k in Z80 - Sam and 143k on the Amiga and rather amusingly > 780k on the > >PC ( no Idea - perhaps I have missed an optimising flag ). > Sounds about right if you ask me - this is why SAM's so great isn't it. > I'll bet the PC tracker allocated itself a huge chunk of memory just to be > on the safe side. (Cynical whingeing session - - I'll shut up).
Just kidding? The real reasons are: 1. Sam is 8bit, Amiga 16bit, PC 32bit computer 2. You have relocatable ".exe" file on PC, but static "copy of memory" on Sam. That makes much! 3. PC's op.system has several built-in funcions, which cause "hello world" programs to be quite large. But the point is that bigger programs don't grow so fast. Applications have some tables and entry/exit code to initialize, uninitialize and communicate with op.system, which add some kilo-bytes to your exe. (Especially Linux programs I've seen are often several mega-bytes in size! I don't know what's there.....) > Sounds about right if you ask me - this is why SAM's so great isn't it. Nope. This is why Sam's is so shitty. Although it has 512kb RAM, it has 32KB ROM full of shit, there is no possibility of code relocation. I can imagine very easy-to-use system, which can load any executable in any of that 32 x 16kb pages and run it there. The whole "basic" ROM of Sam is very obsolete, although the Basic itself is good. I think it would be much better to have some DOS & utils in 16kb ROM, and load Basic into RAM. This way Sam would be cheaper, since we don't need 32kb ROM. Also, MGT could invest in good C compiler instead of Basic, which could dramatically change the state of the software ( = very little good software for Sam, compared to other computers). But don't be mistaken, I'm not an Atari agent or whatever else. I use Sam Coupe for years, and I know what I want. I'm not going to celebrate and glamorize Sam just because I have one at home. (Unfortunately most people glamorize what they own.) Btw. several assembler programs use whole RAM, but no Basic programs do. basic programs are usually much shorter than "real" software, so they can live besides Basic in RAM. I like e.g.MasterBasic, which adds several very good functions to Basic. > >I take the point about Head-Over-Heels, fantastic game. Isometric sprite > projection >follows on logically as a module on the game engine I have > developed so far. I >think I might implement the rules and a level editor > and leave it to some of you folks >to go put the thing together. If I > recall it was a Crammond game... > Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond? Them of Match Day and Batman fame. As far > as I can see, Head over Heels wasn't *too* 3D - it didn't have more than > one main floor on a screen for a start. I don't know much that game, but I think there must be some pseudo-3D. How you could put your head over your heels without 3D? ;-) Aley
