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Xenon 2 Megablast - Manic retro shoot 'em up could be getting a 50fps AGA Amiga edition via mcgeezer!

For those of you who played the shoot em up of Xenon 2 - Megablast on the Amiga in the year of 1989. A game that was developed by The Bitmap Brothers and also released on systems such as the Atari ST, IBM PC, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive and Sharp X68000. Then you might be interested in this latest news story that we've come across via the EAB forums. As Mcgeezer looks to be working on a recoded version for the Commodore Amiga. A new version in which he says "I've decided to try and recode Xenon 2 for AGA running at 50FPS".

No sound?

Although I will be following developments as they progress, and unsure if this will be turned into a super smooth AGA experience. This is what Mcgeezer has said via the EAB post linked HERE. "I'll just get the basic game engine working first and then fix up the graphics/glitches. 5 64px wide hardware sprites make up the background, it's in dual playfield mode with 64x fetch. First playfield is for scrolling terrain and is double height with some support for animated tiles while the other playfield is for sprites. I'll try and use 1 hardware sprite for player bullets and the other two for a multiplexed starfield".

"90% of the code is taken from Devil's Temple because the sprite engine I built was quite efficient and it lends itself to Xenon 2 nicely with the way the player ship can be expanded. Depending on how far I go it might morph into a new game if I can get some people onboard"

And that's all we know so far, so watch this space!

at Sunday, September 15, 2024
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Labels: Amiga, Arcade, Commodore Amiga, Mcgeezer, Retro Gaming, Retrogaming, Shoot em up, Xenon, Xenon 2

27 comments:

  1. Anonymous15 September 2024 at 22:49

    looks very good. well done. if possible please please please sort out the way the fx cuts into the music, it was so off putting, not sure how, but it could use more than just that one tune too. maybe someone like hoffman could create more tracks :) i can dream ,,

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  2. Anonymous15 September 2024 at 23:39

    This is really cool news. I've always loved this game (and I know it's a bit of a Marmite one!!), but always felt the slightly stuttery scrolling was something that made if feel less polished than other Amiga shooters like X-Out (which I read is also getting a Switch / Console re-release as a jazzed up version)!

    Look forward to reading more as this develops.

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    1. Anonymous17 September 2024 at 00:54

      Z out was stunning

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  3. Anonymous15 September 2024 at 23:40

    Always liked Xenon 2 but thought it was a little slow to play - This Possible Update sounds INCREDIBLE. Be Nice if we can have the Original "BOMB THE BASS" Music in there too - Only a Humble ask - Wayne

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    1. Anonymous8 January 2025 at 18:47

      Watching the clip without that tune, it's just not the same

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  4. Anonymous16 September 2024 at 01:59

    There is no reason in making an aga version of xenon 2 without using the enhanced graphic of the chipset...Xenon 2 on cd tv was already better and way smoother(and more difficult..) than the original version! and the sountrack on cd rom is fantastic too!

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  5. Anonymous16 September 2024 at 08:10

    Wouldn't mind an enhanced version of Xennon 2 with some visual and game play improvements, that actually would be kinda cool. If that was followed by an original game that morphed from that code - even better!

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  6. Anonymous16 September 2024 at 10:46

    SUPER NASHWAN POWER

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  7. Andy S16 September 2024 at 12:09

    This looks amazing, look forward to seeing it. So far the CDTV version is peak Xenon II for me, thumping CD soundtrack!

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  8. alexh16 September 2024 at 12:56

    As amazing as this tech demo is, that is all it will be. It's not a modification of the original it's just a tech demo. Getting the rest of the game in will be very hard work.

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  9. Matias Zaya Mendez16 September 2024 at 14:51

    I clicked on the video hoping to hear the music.....ohhh

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  10. Anonymous16 September 2024 at 16:31

    Very nice news! Thanks to other commenters for pointing out the CDTV version. I didn't know it has smoother gameplay.

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  11. Anonymous16 September 2024 at 17:17

    Why using AGA ! As the Amiga version is only an ST port I'm sure OCS can run 50 fps...

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    1. JOTD17 September 2024 at 14:37

      then you can do the OCS version then, prove McGeezer wrong

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    2. Anonymous18 September 2024 at 06:11

      agree the same game at 50 fps is a nice addition but in order to make sense the extra capabilities should be used!

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    3. Anonymous18 September 2024 at 07:38

      If you say so, maybe OCS chipset is less capable than what I think....thanks

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    4. Tigerskunk70718 September 2024 at 10:23

      No way.
      On OCS, Dual Playfield is out of the question because of the lack of colors in one playfield, and using a whole screen background sprite layer would slow everything down massively because there would be no DMA left for blitting BOBs, so we would have a shitty lame low frame rate version again.
      AGA is the only way to go here...

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    5. Anonymous18 September 2024 at 15:30

      As OCS/ECS big fan, I m too enthusiastic with it's capabilities . What we had is probably the best we could pulled out of an Amiga 500....

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    6. Anonymous19 September 2024 at 12:34

      You can never prove an Amiga developer wrong, they're always right even when they're wrong.
      Of course the Amiga original can be improved, whether it can run at twice the speed as the ST version I don't know...

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    7. Anonymous19 September 2024 at 19:18

      That's what I say to myself every time I play Brian the lion.....

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  12. Anonymous16 September 2024 at 17:34

    Great.

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  13. Anonymous17 September 2024 at 10:42

    Molto brutto, corto e end sequence inesistente. Hybris is the best !!!!!

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    1. IndieRetroNews17 September 2024 at 11:37

      I disagree, BANSHEE ;) - By the way, in future can you only post in English as per the rules of the site. As we've had a LOT of abuse that I've come across via Google Translate. So that had to stop thus English ONLY! .

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  14. Ben Yoyo19 September 2024 at 21:11

    The Bitmap Bros were unable to do something superior to 25 Hz back in the days, so this is good news !

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  15. Anonymous21 September 2024 at 14:51

    Would bee nice to see Speedball 2 and Chaos Engine in 50fps too! Whether it would need AGA; well so be it. They both have AGA (palette wise) versions already. I do agree though that there are quite some games out there that at least suggest OCS would be capable enough.

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  16. JOTD1 October 2024 at 22:43

    The Bitmap Brothers sure knew how to design an addictive game, but they were not so great when it came to Amiga programming. The other way round can be said for Team 17... Chaos Engine CD32 runs properly with fast memory though.

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    1. Some dude29 June 2025 at 00:33

      Xenon II's slow and slightly jerky scrolling happened because of chip ram contention, the achilles heel of the OCS Amiga. It would have been difficult to make the game faster without compromising the appearance or sound of the game, so the authors compromised the gameplay slightly instead. It's easier to dazzle an onlooker with samples and flashy graphics than with perfect scrolling and consistent framerates.

      If they simplified the music, reduced the number of sprites or removed the parallax background, they could've made the game perform better, but it's not likely that anyone could have preserved the sound and graphics perfectly while also significantly improving performance, while remaining playable on the lowest end Amigas.

      The goal was to sell games, which meant it needed to be available to the widest possible audience and needed to be attractive to people seeing others playing the game, browsing box art or looking at reviews in a magazine or on TV.

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