"Another World" ported on 8bit Apple II
Okay, this is the third post dedicated to Another World (previous are this and this): I think now it's clear how much I appreciate this game.
In any case, I also love software developing and computer archaeology, so when I've read this article I couldn't help but be interested.
Another World was released for a lot of 16 bit systems (Amiga, PC, Atari ST, Sega Megadrive, Super Nintendo and Apple IIGS).
Vince "Deater" Weaver has developed a porting of the game on the 10-year-older predecessor of Apple IIGS, the Apple II, released in 1977 and powered by a 8bit processor (MOS 6502).
The Apple ][
Apple II was based on Wozniak’s Apple I design, however several new elements were though added to the design : the computer had plastic casing, a rarity at the time.
Apple II also could display color graphics. It was more powerful. included two game paddles and a demo cassette.
Specification (from https://igotoffer.com/apple/apple-ii):
- Processor: CPU: MOS Technology 6502. CPU Speed: 1 MHz. Bus Speed: 1 MHz.
- ROM: 12 kB.
- RAM slots: 1st expansion slot can be used.
- Video: Max Resolution: 6 color at 280 x 192, 4-bit color at 40 x 48. The video controller displayed 40 columns by 24 lines of monochrome, upper-case-only (the original character set matches ASCII characters 0 x 20 to 0 x 5F) text on the screen, with NTSC composite video output suitable for display on a TV monitor, or on a regular TV set by way of a separate RF modulator.
- Storage: Floppy Drive: Optional.
- Input/Output: Serial: Optional expansion card.
- Speaker: Mono.
- Dimensions: 4.25″ high x 15.25″ wide x 17.75″ deep.
- Weight: 11.5 lbs.
The porting
Weaver has implemented all the game in 6502 assembler from scratch and using just the gameplay of the IIGS version as reference.
I've always been impressed by Éric Chahi's "Another World" ("Out of this World" in the US). I especially liked the intro movie. Back in the day I played the DOS version, and later the SNES port.
Recently I was inspired by Paul Nicholas' Pico-8 version. It's dangerous when I see colors and say "hey those aren't too far off what the Apple II can do".
So anyway I made a rough version of the intro movie and first two levels of the game using the Apple II (from 1977) Lores graphics mode.
You might say "Hey, there's already an amazing official Apple IIgs version". That's true, but the Apple IIgs came out 10 years later and has an order-of-magnitude better hardware to work with.
On the GitHub page of the project you can download the sourcecode, and on the project website are also available the disk images.
If you want to test this PoC you may use online emulator like https://www.scullinsteel.com/apple2/ : simply load the disk image downloaded from the website and, enjoy!
