1987 vs 2015

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Back in the day of 1987, the Arcade machine running this game featured a dual CPU setup consisting of two 8-bit CPUs, the Hitachi HD 6309 @12Mhz and the Hitachi HD 63701 @ 6Mhz.

Regarding RAM, I don't know, but I'd imagine that it would be within 8MB or so; After all it didn't need that much video memory as the resolution was only 256x240 with a 12-bit color palette and 384 colors on screen.

Now in 2015, we get the game for PC, in a version that finally brings us what looks like the arcade version, straight to our home computer and for that we see spec requirements like 1GB ram and 2.4Ghz CPU. X-)

Ofc its based on the fact that your OS takes up a lot of the resources, but still it's quite funny how many more resources we need today, just to run a game.

I haven't played the game on PC though, but the screenshots and video looks very much like I remember the arcade version of the game. :-)

[9999's]

Yeh, same thing is happening to Heroes 3 "HD" remake they're working on.
But it probably has mostly something to do with OS, Steam and supporting new hardware.

[Chargeit]

8MB ram in a 1987 Arcade? Sounds pretty high if you ask me. Hell, I didn't have 8MB of ram in a computer until 1994 or so.

Oh, and the reason it requires more powerful hardware is because it's being emulated. Which means your computer pretends it's whatever hardware was required to run the game in the first place.

*And yea, you should also be able to run the OS and crap while playing the game.

[Everhard Dawnwood]

First of all "within 8MB or so" means that it was most likely not more, but could be less. :-)

I'll admit that I don't see the need for that much, but neither did I expect the need for a dual CPU setup of that size to run that game.

Considering the dual CPU setup with a 12Mhz and 6Mhz CPU, up to 8MB isn't that high because its a custom build machine.

The Commodore Amiga 500 released in 1987 shipped with 512KB of ram but could be expanded up to 9MB and that was after all just a home computer.

Other things like the M1 Synthesizer from Korg came out the year after featuring 4MB memory for samples.

Ofc emulators take up more resources, but theres still a mahusive difference between 1GB memory, 2.4Ghz and the (lets say) 4MB memory and 12+6Mhz.

None the less, my point isn't to state anything like "Hey it looks like this game is poorly made", its merely for putting things into contrast, for those of us who remember 1987 and how impressive arcade machines were at that time compared to what home computers we had available. :-)

[Ginjjii]

the detail in the character skins and lvls is really impressive.

is art dead these days or what

[Geralt]

Originally posted by Dradoh:

the detail in the character skins and lvls is really impressive.

is art dead these days or what

This game is art. You're too young to appreciate it.

[Osten]

My (i80)486 DX2 66(mhz)16mb ram with SB16 and VESA on a 14" 4:3 Monitor
was my first rig that was mine alone.It was a killer beast at the time
(around the early nineties (when ram was actually expensive)).

It ran Doom and Build engine games great along with Descent and
even early 3d games like FX fighter and Bioforge, but I digress...

32-64kb ram max is my "guesstemate".
The rom itself uncompressed is only about 1.2mb

[Red]

Originally posted by Deadpool:

Originally posted by Dradoh:

the detail in the character skins and lvls is really impressive.

is art dead these days or what

This game is art. You're too young to appreciate it.

But... he IS saying that this game is art, not the opposite...

[ShiftUps]

Originally posted by Osten:

My (i80)486 DX2 66(mhz)16mb ram with SB16 and VESA on a 14" 4:3 Monitor
was my first rig that was mine alone.It was a killer beast at the time
(around the early nineties (when ram was actually expensive)).

It ran Doom and Build engine games great along with Descent and
even early 3d games like FX fighter and Bioforge, but I digress...

32-64kb ram max is my "guesstemate".
The rom itself uncompressed is only about 1.2mb

16 MB of ram was huge in those days. I remember it being 90 dollars a megabyte in the early 90's.

[PlanPony]

the game was on android and iso 1st, so maybe you dont need that much power, the required spec might be like that to be relavant to now. Some one should try runing the game on a really slow cpu see what happens.

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Originally posted by Osten:

32-64kb ram max is my "guesstemate".
The rom itself uncompressed is only about 1.2mb

Well if the game itself wasn't more than 1.2MB, it deffo shdnt need more ram than that to run it, I agree on that one. :-)

The main reason for my guess were the CPU setup, because compare it to a Commodore 64 which had 64KB of memory, it had only a 0.9Mhz CPU.

An Amiga 500 featured a 7Mhz CPU and 512KB of memory when it came out in 1987 and it was expandable up to 9MB.

So it kinda made good sense that an arcade machine with more than twice the CPU power, would have so much more memory, but then again, if it wasn't necessary, why have it in there?
So yes, I most likely guessed a little too wildly about the ram spec of the Double Dragon arcade machine. :-D

I did some digging thru google and found that Pacman in the early 80s was a 16KB ROM running off a 3Mhz CPU, 4KB RAM and 2KB VRAM.

However Pacman would run perfectly on the 0.9Mhz C64 as well, but I take it the reason the arcade machine had the 3 times faster CPU, were due to lack of alternatives.
Besides it did pull 60fps in that game, so apparently it was the heavy machinery. :-P


@ShiftyUps - Funny you mention the RAM prices in the early 90s, because I got my first PC (386 DX40) in 1993 and I distinctly remember, me and my buddies talking about it only being 300 Dkr. (about $50) per MB, which were way cheaper than memory upgrades for the Commodore Amiga 500.

@PlanPony - Ive had the same thought earlier today, but I don't have any old PCs left anymore, I threw them out as they got outdated, but yeah it would've been fun. :-D

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Just googled some more and found the CPS-1 an arcade system board from 1988.

It had a Motorola 68000 @ 10-12Mhz and a Zilog Z80 @ 3.5Mhz.
There was 466KB of RAM (64 KB main, 384 KB video, 16 KB cache, 2 KB sound)

Here's a full list of Arcade system boards for those who may be interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_system_board