Carrier Command site undergoing change

[bfcrusader 10]

It seems like the Carrier Command: Gaea Mission site is now closed and undergoing some changes before becoming available again sometime later. I would take this as a sign that things are progressing, wouldn't you guys say?

[someboy 0]

Yeah! finally some updates are coming!!!

[sav112g 10]

Falls off chair!

News whats that!.

Mind you I started following BF3 over the last month.

[The Masta 0]

Ahhh

Long awaited updates.

[Praelium 0]

Website for those who don't know: http://www.carriercommand.com/

[Wh1sper 0]

What a strange behavior.

First removing old content and then placing a "under construction" page instead...

How a about making the new design fist and then changing the content?

Shame on you thats the early '90

:j:

[someboy 0]

I don't really care as long as they make a great game :)

[gadgetmind 10]

I assume people have seen this youtube video showing work in progress about eight months ago?

Ian

P.S. I recently managed to get the original ST/Amiga/Mac Carrier Command source code off some backup disks. If I can get the agreement of all involved, I'll release it under some suitable licence.

[bfcrusader 10]

I assume people have seen this youtube video showing work in progress about eight months ago?

Ian

P.S. I recently managed to get the original ST/Amiga/Mac Carrier Command source code off some backup disks. If I can get the agreement of all involved, I'll release it under some suitable licence.

That would be so awesome, Ian. You're awesome, period!

Do you think that the sounds in the game will be of good quality in that case? And will the timewarp feature be implemented as well to make a complete package?

[gadgetmind 10]

There are some missing bits for ST/Amiga, namely the equates for the hardware and the disk routines. I may still find these.

It would be possible to integrate the time warp feature, and improved carrier tactics, from the Mac version back into the ST and Amiga ones, but I don't have the time, the inclination, or the required hardware.

I'm not sure that you mean about sound. The ST and Amiga sound was OK, or at least I thought so! The PC sound was nasty as that version predated even things like the Rowland card, however, the PC source is still AWOL.

I was intending the release the source more for the benefit of the curious rather than so it could be rebuilt. With that in mind, I'm working on a bit of background to how we came to write Carrier and what the process involved (mainly lots of anguish!)

I'm also doing a "walk through" of the code as the comments are, err, somewhat lacking.

Ian

[bfcrusader 10]

There are some missing bits for ST/Amiga, namely the equates for the hardware and the disk routines. I may still find these.

It would be possible to integrate the time warp feature, and improved carrier tactics, from the Mac version back into the ST and Amiga ones, but I don't have the time, the inclination, or the required hardware.

I'm not sure that you mean about sound. The ST and Amiga sound was OK, or at least I thought so! The PC sound was nasty as that version predated even things like the Rowland card, however, the PC source is still AWOL.

I was intending the release the source more for the benefit of the curious rather than so it could be rebuilt. With that in mind, I'm working on a bit of background to how we came to write Carrier and what the process involved (mainly lots of anguish!)

I'm also doing a "walk through" of the code as the comments are, err, somewhat lacking.

Ian

I see, that should be very good. And about the sound bit, I meant would it be possible to have the ST/Amiga quality (instead of the awful PC buzzing) along with the timewarp.

I'm guessing that if people get a hand on the source and stuff maybe people will actually mod it enough to perhaps make a PC version with good sounds (perhaps authentic plane and amphibious sounds even?) and add their own timewarp feature if you're not going to.

Although, being a total know-nothing about programming, this is only an uneducated guess on my part. Perhaps anyone knowledgeable could fill in the blanks?

[gadgetmind 10]

Making an updated ST version shouldn't be hard, particularly as there is an ST emulator available. All the disk stuff could be ripped out, and recreating the hardware equates should be easy enough.

The PC version would also be easy to update but this is rather dependent on me actually finding this source; everything is on old 5 1/2" floppies, which have lots of bad sectors, and it was all backed up with an obsolete proprietary program called "Fastback". I think the odds are pretty good but it could take quite some time.

PC sound used to work pretty much like the Sinclair Spectrum in that you had a single bit to twiddle. When you twiddled it, you got a click. Driving it such that you got anything useful could easily cost 10% of your (very limited) CPU cycles. By the time we did Battle Command, there were Roland sound cards. These were hundreds of pounds, rather rare, and the basic version only had musical instrument effects. It's amazing how much a violin can be made to sound like a plane's wheels touching down if you really try!

A few years later, it all changed. If only we'd had even the original 3DFX card in 1988 ...

Ian

[scrapser 11]

I remember the sound of the main carrier quite well when I played it on my Amiga. It reminded me of the movie, "Earth versus the Flying Saucers". LOL

[sav112g 10]

it was a hummmmmmmmm.

[gadgetmind 10]

Sounds effects were always my job, which is a real puzzle as I have never shown any signs of musical ability. I don't recall where all the samples came from, but I do remember a fairly nifty system in there that finds the nearest (and 2nd nearest?) sound source to the current eye/ear location and then mixes and depth queues them. Hmmm, must rootle in the code.

BTW, I also drew nearly all of those icons, which is yet another puzzle as I was regularly turfed out of art lessons for being a waste of raw materials!

Ian

[sav112g 10]

You worked on the original?

Well played I hold in the same regard to that of “Eliteâ€. At the time they were fantastic games.

[gadgetmind 10]

> You worked on the original?

Guilty as charged.

> Well played I hold in the same regard to that of “Eliteâ€. At the time they were fantastic games.

As part of porting Elite to the PC, we got to see the original source code. I find it heartening that it was just as tangled a mess as the stuff we were producing at the time!

Ian

[sav112g 10]

Ok at the time we had Pestel, but not the net as we now know it, so games just worked I cant remember seeing bugs and back then you could not go online and read pages of reports of bugs in Forums. :D

Elite probably did have many bugs, loved it started out as just a few lads building a space game from there bedrooms.

Well what can I say, thank you for your Work back then.

[gadgetmind 10]

Ah, you obviously missed the very first ST release of Carrier, where the enemy carrier would drive onto the island (well, into in, actually) and get stuck!

Ian

[sav112g 10]

Ah, you obviously missed the very first ST release of Carrier, where the enemy carrier would drive onto the island (well, into in, actually) and get stuck!

Ian

Amega it was for me! ;)

[gadgetmind 10]

You'll have to wait for the source release (with author's narrative!) to see the ST release notes and story of the "carrier in island" bug fix, but all the important ST releases were in April '88

The Amiga version lagged behind and here are its release notes.

; Version A1.0 08/07/88 Release version. Bad save game bug found.

; All following on 03/08/88

; Fixed save game bug and tank missile bug.

; Changed disk timing.

; Version A1.1 03/08/88 Rainbird Demo.

; also Release Version A1.1 sent at same time.

I don't recall the detail of either of the bugs mentioned there, or whether the Amiga version A1.0 was actually released. You can see the version by hitting Ctrl-V.

Ian

[sav112g 10]

Well it never bothered me I was too busy trying to blast my way to that other carrier that in truth had warp speed when I did find it. I cant for the life of me remember if I blew it up or just won the map in the game. :confused:

Looking forward to building in the new game.

here just think of the disc space you had to work with back then and the DVD discs now :D

[gadgetmind 10]

Disk space was always a huge issue, and it didn't go away with the arrival of consoles like the Megadrive as those cartridges were small and expensive.

Ian

[Dwarden 1124]

it's being worked on and will come when it's ready :)

[scrapser 11]

I think I mentioned this before but one time while playing my Amiga version I managed to arrive at an enemy island and the enemy carrier was still there. I launched a Walrus and got across the island just in time to see it finish rotating away from the island and depart. When it left it was like watching the Star Trek enterprise jump to warp speed? Very impressive.