GBA vs the Neo-Geo hardware wise?
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One-Up
Armored Scrum Object
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I don't know spec-wise (you can probably find them on the net easily), but I can tell you this: I love my NGPC, but the main problem is the fact that it does not have a backlit display. This is really, really annoying (there I am, sitting in the train, almost dead in the last level of Metal Slug 1 and - whoops, a tunnel. Dead I am.). So while the NGPC is cool, this new feature really speaks for modern handhelds.
I think in general power the gba is stronger but in terms of 2d output the neo geo AES/MVS is better since it can handle more sprites. Gba is heavly hurt by its memory limits (Vram is 96KB) & low res (240x160).
Yet for a handheld it gets the job done.
Yet for a handheld it gets the job done.
subbie said:
So true... GBA has severe vram and thus sprites limitations, but it boasts 2 real tiles layers which require near to no processing at all, thing that neogeo cannot do (you must emulate the layers with sprites, hence the lack of multi-layered scrolls (if you want more than 2, considering the per-line sprites limitation of the real neogeo hardware, only by scanline tricks can one produce the illusion, like operation ragnarok).
to put it straight:
GBA:
+ ARM7 processing power (can create real 3D graphics, like VRally)
+ several graphical modes, among which some allow 2 background tiles layers using near 0 cpu power
+ good sound capabilities
+ 24bpp plot draw possible
- verry limited VRAM
- slow memory
- difficult to implement multitasking (personal experience)
NEOGEO:
+ designed for sprites blitter, verry verry fast for that
+ lotsa memory for sprites
+ fast sound processing
+ nice multi-task capabilities of the CPU
+ rasters possible
- overall slow CPU, lack of easy-to-use plot system, preventing anyform of 3D
- limited per-line number of sprites (to avoid desynching with the HSync)
- modest PCM capabilities
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barf said:
Few issues there
1) GBA suports at max 4 scrolling tile layers, Every 1 rotating/scaling layer will cost you 2 scrolling tile layers.
Yet awsome thing is the disp mode reg can be changed at any time. This is how they get mario kart & f-zero to look so nice (do 3 scroll layers at top. then at point in road, swap to 2 tile & 1 rotation/scale layer. rotation/scale layer does road surface while 1 of the tile layers is used to continue with the hud.
Road surfaces in mario kart are created by tweaking the hw scale & rotation registers for a rotation/scale bg layer durrin horizontal blank.
"+ good sound capabilities"
actualy that is a -. Gba has no sound processor, so all is done on the arm7. Not to mention the two fifo channels are only 8bit.
So sound tends to be a bottleneck in gba games.Few other mix notes, gba has a horizontal line sprite limit also (128 8x8 tiles per line). Its sadly easy to fill up when you use rotation sprites set in double mode.
If you need anymore info, ask. i'm a gba developer (dont ask, the games sucked balls that I did.
).
Diggerman
Sakura's Bank Manager
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Subbie that's pretty cool. Honestly nobody here would laugh at you if you told us what games you worked on. If anything, we'd think it's pretty cool to have a coder here who's done professional work.
The Neo really was well designed. A real sprite monster, especially for its time. Amazing to think how long it lasted and remained relevent in the arcade industry. The GBA can't match it, despite being a 32bit system.
The NDS on the other hand, could probably handle a full quality port of a Neo game. Not that it will ever happen, but I do think it could. And we all know PSp can outright emulate Neo hardware very well, which is pretty amazing to think about - a virtual NeoGeo in the palm of your hands. The future really is here now.
The Neo really was well designed. A real sprite monster, especially for its time. Amazing to think how long it lasted and remained relevent in the arcade industry. The GBA can't match it, despite being a 32bit system.
The NDS on the other hand, could probably handle a full quality port of a Neo game. Not that it will ever happen, but I do think it could. And we all know PSp can outright emulate Neo hardware very well, which is pretty amazing to think about - a virtual NeoGeo in the palm of your hands. The future really is here now.
Diggerman
Sakura's Bank Manager
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Ah, so you're the Monkey64 coder? Awesome. I've never tried it, but have heard of it - I wonder how many FPS you can achieve though. I do recall the first N64 emus used to run fairly well on a 300Mhz - 400Mhz PC, if they had the right graphics card.
Well good luck on the project.
And hey - little kids (and soccer moms) like Disney games (I guess) so somebody had to make them.
Well good luck on the project.
And hey - little kids (and soccer moms) like Disney games (I guess) so somebody had to make them.
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subbie said:Lets just say my last one was based on a disney cartoon movie.
I moved on to PSP work which includes my 3d engine Iris and my n64 emu Monkey64.
Great! I've actually started working on Sega Saturn stuff myself... Of course, I'm not getting very far because of my laziness
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the gba certainly is cool hardware
I've only done a little bit of coding, managed to get a blitted sprite on a background etc, and thats about it due to lazyness, but it has some pretty nice hardware tricks like inbuilt gzip rom decompression and the like, or something
I've only done a little bit of coding, managed to get a blitted sprite on a background etc, and thats about it due to lazyness, but it has some pretty nice hardware tricks like inbuilt gzip rom decompression and the like, or something
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yo subbie, you should be proud of the games that you have done. The only thing I can put onto a GBA screen is fingerprints.
BTW, I've heard of that monkey64, but haven't tried it yet. It looks very promising though. Keep up the good work.
BTW, I've heard of that monkey64, but haven't tried it yet. It looks very promising though. Keep up the good work.
subbie said:Few issues there
1) GBA suports at max 4 scrolling tile layers, Every 1 rotating/scaling layer will cost you 2 scrolling tile layers.
Yet awsome thing is the disp mode reg can be changed at any time. This is how they get mario kart & f-zero to look so nice (do 3 scroll layers at top. then at point in road, swap to 2 tile & 1 rotation/scale layer. rotation/scale layer does road surface while 1 of the tile layers is used to continue with the hud.
Road surfaces in mario kart are created by tweaking the hw scale & rotation registers for a rotation/scale bg layer durrin horizontal blank.
"+ good sound capabilities"
actualy that is a -. Gba has no sound processor, so all is done on the arm7. Not to mention the two fifo channels are only 8bit.
Few other mix notes, gba has a horizontal line sprite limit also (128 8x8 tiles per line). Its sadly easy to fill up when you use rotation sprites set in double mode.
If you need anymore info, ask. i'm a gba developer (dont ask, the games sucked balls that I did.
GBA is a bit far, but iirc when i tried a tad the GBA i worked with 2 BG tiles layers, i don t remember the mode, it was really butter-smooth, nice memories really -plus it was not complicated-.
I found the GBA sound capabilities good in the quality way, i could mix a 4 channels module with verry little static and for a verry reasonable CPU cost. On NeoGeo, hello to the 4bits adpcm realm :/
I had some blinking when trying to work on a gba scroller, so i guess it was sprites-per-line issue... but heh, when i was on it tech doc was verry sparse :I -i thought it was my flash cart that didn t have enough throughput bandwidth to feed the vram on the fly.
Ha... i wish i could get a living with games instead of my IT crap...
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stuffmonger
Baseball Star Hitter
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Two words... game gear. Sega had a full color backlit screen while Nintendo was on gameboy pocket. Backlit screens are not new, they've just been improved upon... and don't take 8 batteries to run on anymoreOne-Up said:
barf said:
You might have been the wrong mode is all.
http://thepernproject.com/index.php?system_id=2&page=Tutorials
See tutorial 5.
I can see that compairing audio to the neo geo the gba is nice but compaired to other systems at that time, the GBA was crap. It was a big issue with many developers since to make nice sounding music, you were loosing about 20%-40% of your cpu to mix and process everything.
