Weird stuff about Batman the Movie

[Optimus]

I noticed at the end that sprite there, appearing just one frame before the action freezes and goes to the end screen. At first I thought it could be an enemy sprite randomly appearing just in time, but check the other longplay and it's exactly the same, and it looks like Batman. So Batman was up there in the tower and managed to get down so fast. Or it's another batman, the evil batman, haha. That could be a good source for a gaming creepypasta.


Just mentioning, it's that little detail that I found curious.

[Optimus]

Also, was the GX4000 version slower than the CPC version? Or is it just my idea?


For example in level 4 (at 7m47s)
[AMSTRAD CPC] Batman the movie longplay part 1/2 - YouTube
vs (at 19s)



Indeed, I just played both sequences, the plain CPC finishes around 2:15 minutes, the CPC+ at 3:00 minutes, and it's linear, just spaceship going to the right, player will finish at specific time independent of gameplay. Maybe one runs at 2 VBL and another at 3?

[Carnivius]

I think Batman rushed down there to watch the Joker splat just to make sure he dies cos comic book villains (and heroes actually) have a nasty habit of cheating death even when you were damn sure they died.   

[arnoldemu]

Yes, the GX4000 version will be slower if played on a real GX4000.
The whole of the GX4000 runs 0.25% slower than a CPC.

[Optimus]

Yes, the GX4000 version will be slower if played on a real GX4000.
The whole of the GX4000 runs 0.25% slower than a CPC.

Really? Can you explain why?
Does it have to do with PAL/NTSC difference? Or lower clock?


p.s. Ok, forget about this, I am just reading it at the Wiki
p.p.s. 0.25%, not 25%. Doesn't seem like much of a difference to me, to produce so slower movement. Unless if the code was tightly timed to be very close under 2VBL, so this difference makes it just over 2VBL and thus going to 3VBL with vsync, but I know, unlikely theory.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Probably from feedback from the CPC version that that level was a bit fast, so they slowed it down for the GX4000, whilst making the shadow nearly invisible to add a bit of difficulty back.

[TFM]

Haha! That's a good laugh! Just sad that they didn't use hardware scrolling for the GX4000 version. It's really way to jerky.

[Joseman]

Didn't the cpc plus version of batman the movie  have more colors than the classic cpc version?

I'm pretty sure cause back in the day i had the two versions and the cpc plus have more colors on screen, perhaps this is the problem being more slower...

[TFM]

Well, at least there are differences in the colors. But it doesn't matter if you have more or less different colors, because you always have to move the same amount of data.
What matters is the size of the scroll area and the size of the software-sprites.


It was mentioned before that the 0.25% slower GX4000 may be just unlucky to fall under the frame barrier, so it takes more often 3 instead of 2 frames. I second that. Also the CPC oG version shows slow down's more often.

[Optimus]

Oh, I was playing the game yesterday and also noticed a lot of music slow down at some places, on my real GX 4000.

[TFM]

They should have done a real rewrite using the GX4000 features instead of a quick hack with couple different colors. 

[MacDeath]

Haha! That's a good laugh! Just sad that they didn't use hardware scrolling for the GX4000 version. It's really way to jerky.

mostly sad it was a straight "disk to cart port"...

[TFM]

Not the best way to promote a new console like the GX4000. Guess only few games show how much the GX could perform. Better games would have made it a real success. And it's not that hard.

[chinnyhill10]

Games didn't come into it. It was slaughtered by the NES having the Turtles pack that Xmas + it also being the Megadrives first big Christmas. All the flash games in the world would counted for nothing against Turtles that Christmas.


When I went to buy my GX4000 the salesman tried to upsell me to a Megadrive, then tried to push the NES on me

[dragon]

They should have done a real rewrite using the GX4000 features instead of a quick hack with couple different colors. 

Better amstrad can be released the gx4000 with a capped asic, that can't support old cpc mode. So programmers cannot port a cpc game directly.

Makes the gx4000 can play old cpc game as no sense.

[Carnivius]

nothing about the GX4000 made any sense. 

[Optimus]

Yeah, for me it's a pitty that some of the games that show GX4000 capabilities lack in gameplay (even Robocop 2, very hard), expect 1 or 2 (Pang and what else?)
Meanwhile, some of the plain CPC ports are the ones I enjoy the most (Batman actually has quite good clever gameplay for even a CPC game, Switchblade is also interesting)
I can't think of a single AAA title, that is both truly great technically and still good to play.

[Executioner]

p.p.s. 0.25%, not 25%. Doesn't seem like much of a difference to me, to produce so slower movement. Unless if the code was tightly timed to be very close under 2VBL, so this difference makes it just over 2VBL and thus going to 3VBL with vsync, but I know, unlikely theory.

The whole machine is 0.25% slower, but it still has the same number of clock cycles per frame, so that's not the problem. It could have been slowed on purpose, or perhaps the patches to use Plus features have added some time to the main game loop and it misses a VBL every now and then, but you'd think that would make it appear jerky.

[TFM]

Well, that points out that the people who made the GX version are not the same who made the original version. Therefore the patches are consuming too much time.


Welcome in the graveyard of the lost VBL 

[andycadley]

I wonder which emulator was used for the normal version. The music sounds too fast (except when a lot is on screen, then it sounds right again) and I don't recall the real version ever doing that. Could be an emulator timing issue?

[jbaudrand]

Me too, I've playing it three weeks ago and I'm 100% sure it was'nt speed up like that.. 

[andycadley]

Seems to be borne out by Xyphoes review, starting at 14:35 and taking about three minutes without any weird slowdown or fast music.

[Optimus]

Haha, in the same sequence on Spectrum, a floating mouse appears.ZX Spectrum Longplay [023] Batman The Movie - YouTube

[Xyphoe]

Seems to be borne out by Xyphoes review, starting at 14:35 and taking about three minutes without any weird slowdown or fast music.

Yea I swear to god that on the first level (GX4000 version) when you first reach the very top of playing area where about 3 or 4 bad guys appear at once the music slows down significantly, and I don't remember that happening on the CPC version.

[Xyphoe]

Also on the GX4000 it doesn't have the noise when you start a level as the screen dissolves into the game.

Another difference.

I wonder if the GX4000 was like an earlier version of the CPC game they accidentally used as the base?