Short:        Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Author:       Marcin Bednarczyk "Raybeez"
Uploader:     cichy cichy com pl
Type:         game/shoot
Version:      0.9.9-rc.4
Replaces:     game/shoot/raptor.lha
Requires:     ahi.device, RTG (Picasso96 or CyberGraphX) or AGA
Architecture: m68k-amigaos >= 3.1
Distribution: Aminet

AmigaOS 3.x port of Raptor: Call of the Shadows, a classic 2D vertical
scrolling shooter. This port is based on the open-source reverse-engineered
codebase by skynettx/raptor and targets 68030/68060-class Amiga systems
with RTG graphics (Picasso96 / CyberGraphX) or native AGA.

This release replaces 0.9.9-rc.3. The archive is distributed as
raptor.lha so future Aminet updates can replace the same archive name.

What's new in 0.9.9-rc.4:

- Added MP3PRELOAD=ON|OFF for MUSIC=MHI. OFF is the default generic
  streaming path; ON loads the complete selected MP3 into memory and
  plays it from resident data with no MP3 file disk I/O during playback.
- Preload works with any selected MHI driver. WARP is no longer routed
  to preload automatically.
- Reduced the generic MHI stop/status and buffer-reclaim maximum waits
  to 2 ticks each; no other MHI timing loops changed.

The game renders in a fixed 320x200, 8-bit paletted mode on a dedicated
screen. Four native m68k binaries are provided:

- raptor         : 68060 with FPU (recommended)
- raptor_nofpu   : 68060/68EC060/68LC060 soft-float
- raptor_030_fpu : 68030 with external 68881/68882 FPU
- raptor_030     : 68030 soft-float

Sound effects are played through AHI (ahi.device) at the native 11025 Hz
16-bit stereo rate. Music can be played via several backends:

- ADLIB  : lightweight OPL3 emulation (mixed into the AHI stream)
- CAMD   : General MIDI via camd.library (external synth / software synth)
- MHI    : MP3 music via hardware decoder
- WAVE   : pre-decoded WAV files mixed into the AHI stream
- OFF    : no music (the default)

Select from CLI with -music=mhi or from a Workbench icon with the MUSIC=MHI
ToolType. For MHI, MP3 files are read from MP3/. Raptor first tries its
explicit driver candidates while preserving the optional MHIDRIVER=<driver>
override and fallback scan of LIBS:MHI/#?.library.

MP3PRELOAD=OFF is the default and keeps the original MHI path, streaming the
MP3 during playback. MP3PRELOAD=ON loads the complete MP3 into memory before
playback; playback then uses resident MP3 data with no MP3 disk I/O. This
works independently of the selected MHI driver.

Workbench example:
MUSIC=MHI
MP3PRELOAD=ON

CLI example:
-music=mhi -mp3preload=on

For WARP MHI cards, MP3PRELOAD=ON is recommended. Normal streaming produced
audible clicks during track changes on the tested Amiga IDE + WARP setup;
MP3PRELOAD=ON eliminated those clicks in that setup. Other WARP setups may
behave differently.

No music backend is enabled by default; use MUSIC=OFF, MUSIC=ADLIB,
MUSIC=CAMD, MUSIC=MHI or MUSIC=WAVE explicitly as required.

Graphics can be selected with GFX=AUTO|RTG|AGA. The RTG path uses either
Picasso96 or CyberGraphX, trying P96 first, then CGX, then a fallback
320x240x8 mode with letterbox on cards lacking 320x200. The AGA path uses
a custom chunky-to-planar converter. VIDEO=NTSC can be used with the native AGA path (GFX=AGA) to directly
request the native NTSC display mode used by Raptor. No NTSC selection in
Early Startup is required, no reboot into NTSC is required, and nothing in
DEVS:Monitors needs to be changed; VIDEO= has no effect on the RTG path.

Keyboard, mouse and joystick/CD32 pad input work simultaneously. Workbench
icon ToolTypes are supported (GFX, VIDEO, MUSIC, MOUSE, JOYSTICK, etc.).
Persistent audio volumes are stored in amiga.cfg in the game directory.

This is release candidate 0.9.9-rc.4. MP3PRELOAD=ON was confirmed on
real WARP hardware. On the tested Amiga IDE + WARP setup, preload
eliminated the track-change clicks produced by normal streaming.
MP3PRELOAD=OFF with the 2/2 wait limits removed the previously observed
menu / track-change lag on the tested WARP hardware.

Full gameplay has also been tested on real hardware including A2000 with
CyberVision 64/3D, A1200 with PiStorm/Emu68 and A4000 with Picasso IV, as
well as in WinUAE. MHI MP3 playback was verified on an A4000 with ZZ9000
and ZZ9000AX using the MHI driver for the ZZ9000AX card. MUSIC=WAVE was
verified on an A1200 with Blizzard 1260 at 56 MHz, Mediator, Voodoo3 and
AmigaOS 3.2.3.

This project is an AI collaboration: development and documentation were
assisted by AI tools, with final decisions, testing and integration done
by the author.

Original game data files (full v1.2) are required and not included.
See README_AMIGA.md inside the archive for detailed setup, controls,
parameters and troubleshooting.

Project homepage and sources:
https://github.com/RaybeezPL/raptor-amiga-port

Upstream project (reverse-engineered Raptor engine):
https://github.com/skynettx/raptor

License (GPL v2):
https://github.com/RaybeezPL/raptor-amiga-port/blob/main/LICENSE