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Friday 30 November 2012

Weasel on the Go & Monty on The Run Demo

In today's post I'm going to look at two Amiga platform games that from the screenshots look like really nice titles. Unfortunately they also seem to currently be missing in action.

The first game is "Weasel on the go", and the second, a short demo of the classic "Monty on the Run!".

Both titles were worked on by Chris Leathley. Here he is with some background information about the games;
"The First game I did. After coming from the 64 and spending a great deal of time playing 'Monty on the Run!', I wanted to write a similar game on the Amiga.

We worked (mostly Nutcracker members) on the game plan, ideas and graphics. A good friend of mine, Rod Utting did the Music. He had done quite a lot of decent tunes before then and probably churned out about 300-400 by the time he left the Amiga.

The hardest thing about writing games is that there are no real tools for development which is why I wrote the Editor7 program which was the pre-sessor for Freditor!

All the pictures here are from the distribution demo of the game (very early in the development)".
(Weasel on the go)

Chris also reveals on his web site that the title screen was a blatant copy of the Monty on the Run! title screen, and that this was the early demo which he sent to Gremlin Graphics.

Prior to Weasel on the go the team put together a short demo, which played like the original Monty on the Run! Notice the Monty sprite.

(Monty on the Run! 16-bit style)

So, what's become of these games, and are they available to download? Well, I've dropped Chris an email via his web page, and have asked about a few items shown there. Unfortunately have yet to receive a response. I'll probably leave it another month or so and have another go. I've got nothing to lose.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if Weasel and the Monty demo were finally made available to Amiga users across the globe? They both look like polished little titles, and I'm certain they'd be fun to play.

If you'd like to check out details of other games and demos Chris has worked on, point your web browsers over to: http://members.iinet.net.au/~cleathley/gamehistory.html

Thursday 29 November 2012

Halloween Nightmare - A Stunning Backbone Creation

I'd like to go back to late 2007 for today's blog post, and to a Backbone created game called "Halloween Nightmare", of which a demo was released in October of that year.

I realise this isn't new, but until Christian over at AmigaPD.com pointed me in the direction of this I didn't know it existed.

Although this is a demo, and put together in the often sneered at Backbone, it looks absolutely lovely, and shows what the package can do in the right hands.

Here's some background information on the demo, taken from the readme;
"Halloween Nightmare is our working title for a new Amiga platform game. It's only a one level demo as a special Halloween present to the Amiga community.

The full game will be coming soon and released by Underground Arcade, an Amiga games company.

Your mission is to free the kids that have been turned to stone, and get to the house on the hill to exit the game. Watch out for the bats, wraiths and pumpkins that have come to life. Pick up candy for bonus points too".
According to the readme, the demo has been extensively tested, and works on the following systems:

A1200 020 4MB Fast RAM + PCMCIA Compact Flash Adapter
A1200 030 16MB Fast RAM + PCMCIA Compact Flash Adapter
A1200 040 32MB Fast RAM
A1200 060
A1200 060 + Mediator
CD32
AmigaOne and OS4 (via UAE)
Windows PC (via WinUAE)

For those too lazy or unable to install the game on an Amiga, you can see the game in action below.


If you'd like to try out the demo on your Amiga, point your web browser over to: http://aminet.net/package/game/demo/HalloweenNightmareDemo

Don't forget, if you enjoy the demo contact the developers and let them know what you think. Perhaps some decent feedback will encourage the team to complete the full game and get it released.

My thanks go to Christian of AmigaPD.com for giving me the heads-up on this one, and to s2325 for uploading footage of the game in action to YouTube.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

The Search for "Scavenge"

Today I'd like you all to rummage through those piles of floppy disks you've got kicking around at home, and help in the hunt for a lost Amiga game.

The game in question is "Scavenge", and it's so sought after by one Amiga fan, that he's gone to the trouble of setting up a blog in an effort to aid the search.

Located at http://scavengeamiga.blogspot.co.uk/, the blog contains background information about this lost title and also details how far the (so far fruitless) search has progressed.

Here's Scavenge blog maintainer, Peter Hull, with further details;
"I have been searching for the full, registered version of Scavenge for many years now but alas can still only find the Demo version.

To have received the full version of the game you would have had to have ordered a copy from the game author, James A. Wright. The full game obviously offers many more game play enhancements".
Peter continues;
"James is no longer contactable at his previous ST.Albans address and I have had no luck in tracing him through the usual methods.

Over the years of my search I have posted requests on many Amiga Forums and video gaming sites, I even set up a Facebook page which I have now closed as this proved to just fill my inbox with junk on a daily basis.

I have set up this blog in the hope that someone who maybe knows James or perhaps has the full version of the game can make contact with me. The blog also offers everyone the chance to take a look at the game Scavenge, it is an excellent example of the Shareware and PD games that were available on the Amiga".
(Screenshot from unregistered version)

Do you have the full registered version of this Amiga Shareware classic? If you do, please contact Peter via the Scavenge blog and put the man out of his misery.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

80s Football Manager - Hard Drive Vers & Poss Sequel

Today I bring you some news of an update to AmigaPD's 1980s Football Manager game, plus early details of a follow-up.

The latest update to the 1980s Football Manager sim means that the game will now run directly from your hard drive. Christian of AmigaPD had been encountering problems getting this to work on a real Amiga, despite it working flawlessly on an emulated one. Thankfully, with a bit of help the problems have been resolved. Here's Chris to explain;
"Big thank you to Amy Worthington (Mrs Beanbag and creator of the wonderful Mr Beanbag game) for answering my question on the EAB forum.

We now have a hard drive version of 1980s Football Manager which I've just tested on my Amiga 1200".
To download the hard drive installable version of the game simply pop over to the latest 1980s Football Manager AmigaPD blog post.

Moving on to the sequel to the 1980s Football Manager game, and at present progress is at an early stage.

Christian's currently toying around with different graphic styles, and trying to settle on something he's happy with. Below is a mock up screen, about which he made the following comments;
"[...]quick attempt at trying to create a new cartoon style for the Football Manager sequel. Originally I wasn't as happy with this one, but it is growing on me".

As always, I'll print further news on this project as and when it surfaces.

Monday 26 November 2012

Nuxelia - A Gorgeous Looking (Unreleased) Platformer

Here's a game that until a few weeks back I'd never heard of. Going under the name "Nuxelia", fellow English Amiga Board members and myself were given the heads-up on this by vitux, who only recently had decided to register.

The game is a gorgeous looking AGA only platformer, with lovely parallax scrolling, a real polished look, and it's extremely playable.

The only downside to all this is that it looks like it didn't progress past a demo release.

Here's the original message by vitux, posted to the EAB;
"Hello, I've been looking at this site for several years and I finally registered.

I have Amiga since '91 and I've gone through different models.

My first post is about the game unfinished Nuxelia-Adventures of Paelon, I think this game went unnoticed, no references on the web just does not exist in HOL, no video on YouTube (until I uploaded myself) and here had not spoken.

As seen in the video, looks great. Does anyone know anything? Came to be finalized?"

EAB forumites were quick to get the game installed on their systems (a mix of real and emulated), and the feedback came thick and fast.

A few people experienced "out of memory" issues, and this was identified as the game requiring all chip RAM available. I also had this problem, and managed to get the game up and running by installing it to my hard drive, rebooting the A1200, and booting with no start-up-sequence.


If you'd like to get the demo up and running yourself, you can find it, and an archive of screenshots at the following locations.

Demo: http://aminet.net/package/game/demo/NuxP2
Screenshots: http://aminet.net/package/game/demo/NuxShots

So, is the full version of this game destined to be lost forever? Well, hopefully not. vitux is currently in the process of contacting the author of the demo, and all being well further information relating to this project will surface soon.

In the meantine, those who can read German may want to read a preview of the game featured in issue 20 of Amiga Future Magazine (Issue date 7th April 2008).

Sunday 25 November 2012

Gravity Beam Final Release

It's been available to download and play in an almost complete form since April, but author, Jonathon Carr, was clearly not happy with a few elements of the game, and over the last few months has been making some final additions and enhancements to it.

According to Jonathon he's now completed the final 'full' Gravity Beam release, and below, in his own words, are what's been added;

"New features:

* All original music!
* New title screen!
* Improved levels!
* Two-button joystick support! Use button 2 to engage/disengage beam!
* Works on unexpanded Amiga 500s! The game should detect extra Chip RAM to reduce loading times!
* Secret stuff!
* Full documentation on how to make levels!
* Source code!

Please visit the Gravity Beam website to download the game".
Have fun, and if you enjoy the game please let Jonathon know.

Saturday 24 November 2012

New Game Coming From Remainder Software

It was only a few days back that I finally had chance to play and review Remainder Software's last release, Downfall AGA. (If you missed that, you can find it HERE).

In today's post I bring news that work on their next title is well underway, and all being well, it's due for release some time in 2013.

Here's the recent press release posted on their Facebook Group;

"Hello folks!

After a period of nothing much happening, we're developing a brand new game now. It's in its very early stages so don't expect anything until next year, but more details will be released when it is appropriate.

In the meantime, we have a nice between-level/loading screen for you to stare longingly at :) (And it will all make sense in good time!)"
While you wait for Remainder's next release, you can follow them on Facebook by going HERE, and download OCS or AGA versions of their previous game, Downfall, by visiting their web site at http://downfall.mikendezign.com/

Friday 23 November 2012

Ziriax, Zarathrusta and Deliverance Coder Interviews

No game links or updates today. Instead, I'd like to direct you towards not one but three interviews with former Amiga programmers.

These interviews come courtesy of the Amiga Lore web site, and are the latest in a string of one-to-ones they've held with individuals, who've included Ocean's Gary Bracey, Graftgold's Andrew Braybrook, and Amiga programmer Ashley Hogg, to name but a few.

Here's EAB Global Moderator CodyJarrett with the details;
"Peter Verswyvelen, Erlend Robaye and Kim Goossens didn't make a lot of games on the Amiga but they made a big impression with Ziriax, Zarathrusta and Deliverance.

Amiga Lore talks to the Belgian trio in three interviews:

Peter Verswyvelen (Ziriax, Zarathrusta and Deliverance)
Erlend Robaye (Ziriax and Zarathrusta)
Kim Goossens (Ziriax and Deliverance)"
For the full list of transcribed interviews visit the Amiga Lore web site at http://www.abime.net

Thursday 22 November 2012

Kumquat & Cantaloupe - Full Games and Source

The English Amiga Board has many interesting sub folders dotted around its forum, but the one I find fascinating is the "Other Projects" area, as it's here enthusiastic Amiga users come together to discuss the creation of new games, WHDLoad installs, and much more besides.

My personal favourite section, though, is "Missing Full Shareware Games", where forumites work together in an attempt to track down full versions of long lost shareware games, make them available online for others to play, and to ensure they're finally archived.

I was able to contribute a few years back, when the search was on for the full version of Amiga platformer, Beetle. As luck would have it, I'd registered the game back in the day, and was able to upload both the disk image and a scan of the registration letter.

A few months back I noticed another MIA request, this time for the full registered version of Cantaloupe, an AMOS Pro AGA game, coded by Dave Schofield back in 1996.

I made a few inquiries online, but completely forgot to follow anything up, until a few weeks back when I dug out Dave's postal address from the readme, and sent off a short letter.

The letter obviously did the trick, as within a few days Dave had signed up to the EAB, and posted the following;
"Hi all!

I got Rob's letter today - I'm incredibly flattered anyone even remembers my old games!

The full version of Cantaloupe (+ source code) is here, feel free to use / redistribute / etc however you like.

Cheers Dave"
The demo of Kumquat was originally featured on a floppy disk covermount, in the September 1996 edition of Amiga Format. It's similar to Taito's classic arcade title, Qix, but is far more psychedelic.

Cantaloupe, on the other hand is a rewrite of a Commodore 64 game, "Sensitive". A path-finding puzzle game, with its own level editor.

Screenshots below...

(Kumquat - psychedelic Qix-like action ahoy!)


(The long lost registered version of Cantaloupe)

Both games (and their source code) can be downloaded from http://dscho.com/fruit/.

My thanks go to Dave for making this little lot available to the Amiga community.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

AmigaPD Interviews Gravity Beam Creator

When he's not updating his 1980s football management sim, or making additions to his Dangermouse adventure, Christian Clarke of AmigaPD.com spends much of his free time interviewing programmers of long lost PD games, transcribing the sessions and publishing the finished results on his web site.

A week or so back (Monday 12th, to be exact) I posted a quick heads-up on a forthcoming AmigaPD interview with Gravity Beam creator Matthew Carr.

Well, you'll be pleased to learn that the interview is complete and online, ready for a read-through.

The transcript is a fascinating read. We learn what got Matthew into programming in the first place, why he decided to create a new Amiga game, what kept him motivated, and much more besides.

Point your browser over to http://www.amigapd.com/interview-mathew-carr.html and enjoy the read.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Here's One I Missed - Downfall (AGA)

Starting this blog back in October has meant that I've a bit of catching up to do with regards to those Amiga games released earlier in the year. To not cover cover them in the Amiga Gamer blog seems a shame. Plus, it also gives me a chance to see what I've missed!

A few weeks back I took a look at the ST to Amiga conversions of Gauntlet, Joust and Super Sprint, released back in April, and in today's blog post I turn my gaze to scrolling platformer "Downfall". This was originally released back in April, but it's the AGA version (released in May) that I'll be taking a look at here.

Based on an Atari Jaguar title of the same name, (which in turn was based on an Atari 2600 game) Downfall sees you take the control of a character who can only move left and right, but he can certainly fall with ease!

Check out the original Jaguar game in action below;


Clearly finding it rather addictive, English Amiga Board moderator, Graham Humphrey, decided to convert this over to the Amiga.

Here's Graham;
"As you will have gathered, it's a very simple platform affair but one based on falling, rather than jumping. As the platforms scroll up, your task is to stay on the screen without getting squished at the top, or falling to your doom at the bottom.

Although a basic concept (one livened up slightly with the addition of bonuses) it's a surprisingly tricky and compulsive idea that had me coming back for 'one more go' on an alarming number of occasions.

There is no reason a bog-standard Amiga can't handle something like this..."
Graham then spent the next 3 months coding an Amiga OCS version in BlitzBasic, taking in feedback from those following his progress thread on the English Amiga Board.

The game was eventually completed and released on the 9th of April, but rather than sit around and take a break, Graham soldiered straight on with the creation of a dedicated AGA version, with more colours and some parallax scrolling for good measure.

A mere fortnight later the initial AGA version (dubbed WIP1) was released, with a second and seemingly final version (WIP2) set free five days later.

The AGA version retains the same gameplay as the OSC version, but adds parallax scrolling, an AGA title screen and a high score table, which saves to the hard drive when you quit.

Anyway, enough of the development history. What's the game like to play?

First, the control of the main character is absolutely spot-on. From the inertia of the player when he's running around the platforms to the speed at which he drops down, it's clear that either much time has been spent tweaking, testing and tweaking some more until the controls feel just right. They really are that good, and if you do find yourself plummeting to your doom then you'll only have yourself to blame. There's no excuse for cursing the controls here.

Next, is the difficulty, and this is possibly one point where the game falls down (slight pun intended) a little. The speed at which you drop doesn't increase as you continue your descent, and with no enemies patrolling the walkways extended play does become a little tiresome. I'll admit that after a few minutes I did find playing this a bit of a chore. This shouldn't be taken as a criticism of Graham's conversion, as Downfall on the Atari Jaguar suffers from the same issue.

A little variety comes in the form of pickups dotted around the game, which can double your score, increase your run speed, make you fall slower, etc. but these just aren't enough to provide much excitement, at least in a single player game.

(Down, down, deeper and down)

Yes, Downfall AGA supports two players simultaneously, and it's this player versus player setup that provides the laughs, as you both fight, not only for the bonuses, but also to ensure it's not you who ends the game for the two of you by falling to your doom or getting squashed on the ceiling.

On to the presentation now, and this really is first rate. The English Amiga Board's Predseda has worked wonders with the graphics, while Reynolds has composed a cracking background soundtrack, backed up by wilshy, whose supplied all manner of weird and wonderful sound effects.

Naturally, much credit must go to Graham for coding the game itself. The game feels extremely polished, and the parallax scrolling in the background is super smooth. It's a shame more Amiga games didn't feature this back in the day, as it gives the game a nice console look.

As previously mentioned, the two player option is a fantastic addition. During development Graham could easily have said "sot it" and not bothered putting it in, but in it went, and it really makes the game. Finally, the ability to save your scores to hard drive is an excellent touch, meaning you'll be wanting to return for that one more go, in an effort to try and beat your previous best.

And with that, I'm off to have another go myself.

The OCS and ECS versions of Downfall can be downloaded from http://downfall.mikendezign.com

Monday 19 November 2012

DOSBOX Coming to The Amiga?

(This is a slightly updated version of my original article, as I accidentally attributed Novacoder's work to another member of the English Amiga Board. My thanks go to rockersuke for pointing this out, and my apologies to Novacoder!)

He's worked wonders converting ScummVM over to the Amiga, bringing many previously unavailable point-and-click adventures over to the platform.

Now it looks like Novacoder's decided to set his sights on yet another conversion project, this time it's the almighty DOSBOX.

For those of you not in the know, DOSBOX is basically an x86 emulator, allowing you to run classic DOS games and utilities on modern systems. The emulator has already been ported to numerous platforms including Windows, BeOS, Linux and MacOS X. Now it's the Amiga's turn.

Here's Novacoder;
"Another way to bring loads of games to 68k (after ScummVM) is of course DosBox

Just got it running (under WinUAE) and got it to load DOOM

Needs lots of work to get it running well on AGA but at least it's a start.

Not sure how fast I can make it yet, I'm thinking of getting a talented assembler coder to knock up a 68k core which should help.

Don't expect a playable BETA anytime soon, I'm time poor with lots of interesting AGA projects to work on".

It may be early days, but as you can see from the screenshot below much progress has already been made.

(DOSBox Amiga in all its glory)

If the project reaches fruition this promises to bring hundreds of titles (albeit, in an emulated form) over to the Amiga platform, that for one reason or another failed to be converted back in the day.

As always, I'll bring you more news on this as and when it happens.

Sunday 18 November 2012

Dust Digger V1.0.2 Out Now!

Designed and coded by Roy Schneider, Dust Digger was originally released for mobile devices way back in 2004.

Earlier this however, Roy started to convert the game over to the humble Amiga 1200, and this weekend what looks to be the final version was uploaded to the Aminet.

Dust Digger may be a Boulderdash clone, but it's one of the most polished I've seen on any of the retro systems, and back in the day you wouldn't have felt short-changed had you bought this on, say, the £2.99 budget label "The 16 Bit Pocket Power Collection". Remember that range?

The intro screen looks great, featuring a lovely logo, two spinning filled vector diamonds, a nice jolly tune and an "into the stars" background for that classic Amiga look.

Press fire and the title screen fades out and your're straight in on level one.

(Here's where your adventure begins)

It's at this point that I should probably point out that I can only assume this is the first of many levels, as I found the difficulty level so punishingly hard that after many attempts I'm still unable to get off the initial starting stage

My inability to complete stage one is most likely down to my poor gaming skills, but I found that the green spider enemies simply moved too fast, and on many occasions, almost as soon as they appeared on screen I'd been killed.

Lose a life and you're taken back to the start of the level and everything resets, meaning you need to start your diamond collecting and spider killing all over again.

With this in mind I've found the best way to play is to slowly tiptoe my away around the level. It does make for a slower gaming experience, but you'll find you last a heck of a lot longer! Besides, there's no time limit, so you can afford to be cautious.

(One of those ruddy spider things!)

Grumbles aside, I still found Dust Digger to be a lot of fun. It's clearly had a lot of time and care spent on it, the controls are spot-on, and it does have that "one more go" factor, which is always the sign of a good game. Saying that, unless you have snake like reflexes you may find that you'll be stuck on the first level as I am.

Download the game from the Aminet HERE, and once you've had a few goes please drop Roy, the author, an email and let him know what you thought. He's produced a number of other mobile games over the years, and perhaps with some decent feedback for Dust Digger it'll convince him to port further titles to the humble Amiga.

(Review notes: Game tested on an Amiga 1200 030 @ 50mhz with 32 megs of Fast Ram.

If you've downloaded an earlier version of this game, and you have an accelerated Amiga it'll run too fast. This version fixes that issue, and also features a kill player option [the help key] should you become trapped)

Saturday 17 November 2012

Mooka - A Side-Scrolling Platformer in Development

In Wednesday's blog post I took at look at "Moebius Goatlizard", a revamped version of the SAM Coupe platform game, "Lost Disks of SAM", currently being developed by Black Jet Software.

Well, it would seem that the guys at Black Jet are keeping themselves busy, as they have another game they're also working on. Entitled "Mooka", this looks to be shaping up into a nice colourful side-scrolling platform game.

Here's the brief background story;
"After finding a small shiny device on the floor of your parent's house, you accidentally push something that changes your location almost instantly.

You suddenly find yourself standing in a strange part of the galaxy and need to find your way back home!"
At present there's no demo available to download, but a detailed development log can be found over on the Black Jet web site.

In the meantime, check out the latest clip of the game in action. This looks like a game really worth keeping an eye on.

Friday 16 November 2012

Interview With The Sales Curve's Ned Langman

Just a couple of weeks have passed since his excellent interview with Ocean France's Marc Djan was uploaded, and already Codetapper's got another in-depth question and answer session with an ex-Amiga programmer

This latest addition to an ever growing line-up of coder conversations sees Ned Langman of Random Access/The Sales Curve in the spotlight.

Ned was the graphic artist whose name popped up numerous Amiga titles over the years, including Silkworm, The Ninja Warriors, Judge Dredd, NARC, SWIV, Saint Dragon, Double Dragon 3, Rod-Land, Big Run and Indy Heat.

In this interview Ned reveals how he learned to draw, how he got his job at Random Access, his most and least favourite parts of the job and much more.

Games discussed include SWIV, The Ninja Warriors, Silkworm, to name but a few, and if you really pay attention you may even discover how a few references to SWIV crept into the PC title "Forsaken"

For the full interview, point your web browser HERE.

Thursday 15 November 2012

Final Fight AGA - Early Demo Preview Download

(Note: The image thumbnail to the left is a screenshot of the title screen from the arcade version and not the humble Amiga)

Since starting this blog back in early October, I've been amazed at the number of Amiga games projects that suddenly spring up from nowhere, and which have been months in development.

Final Fight AGA is one such title, which was announced yesterday on the English Amiga Board.

Here's EAB user and game programmer, Lielo, with the details;
"[I] started work on this in about February. Finally getting it to a stage I consider presentable...

Number of enemies are selectable via the joystick at the start to a maximum of 8. There's only one character and he's missing one of his moves. For a complete set of moves do a quick search - it's a two button game, one for attacking one for jumping, both for the "panic" move.

There are a number of issues, but the moves all do something akin to what they should.

Considering this a benchmark - if you can get it working I'd love to hear how you get on.

On my 030 I can get 6 enemies on screen with music playing and occasional slowdown of the mod playback. 5 enemies with no sound disruptance.

Download from http://www.lostinthefens.com/finalfight.lzh"
If you're not able to get the archive installed on a real Amiga or an Amiga emulator you'll be pleased to learn that YouTube user s2325 has kindly uploaded footage of the game in action.


Following his initial post Lielo dished out further details;
"This project was started with the intention of creating a decent side scrolling beat-em-up for the Amiga. There have been some notable attempts but for me there was always something missing! Final Fight was one of my fave arcades of the era and after plugging away in Amos Pro for a couple of weeks I switched to Blitz Basic2. So I'm not an amazing programmer and this is my first attempt using BB2.

I haven't posted before now as I'd hate for this to become another one of those projects that just runs out of steam. I think now that even if Final Fight becomes out of reach there's enough here to begin creating something decent for the Miggy.

I'm definitely interested in making another game either after this or as soon as it becomes too much. Bearing this in mind, If someone wants to help with graphics or improving the code then that would be great. I'm sticking with FF for now... Good learning curve!

Technical stuff that should help explain some of the issues:

Dual playfield display - one for bobs (the baddies) and one for the background.
2 Palettes of 15 colours (minus colour 0 in each case)
Player is a 64px wide sprite sharing its palette with the parallax background.
The parallax layer is made of 3 colour sprites and sits behind both playfields.
The player sprite is displayed either in front or below the bobs playfield to add the illusion of depth. The remaining bob priority is controlled by selective blitting - which I've made as fast as I can whilst sacrificing a bit of accuracy.

It aint perfect!"
As always, I'll bring you more news on this project as and when it becomes available.

Playable Demo of Amiganitzu Now Available

I've given a fair bit of coverage to the development progress of Amiganitzu over the past few weeks, as the author continues to whet our gaming appetites with news of updates and YouTube clips.

Well, you'll probably be interested to learn that development on the title has reached such a stage that a short three level demo, has been made available for download.

To download the archive, point your web browser HERE. Please note that at present the demo requires Kickstart 2.0+, but this requirement may be subject to change as development on the game continues.

For those of you who've only just stumbled upon the blog, the YouTube clip below shows a recent version of the game in action.



As soon as I hear of any further news surrounding the title I'll post it on the blog.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Moebius Goatlizard - Coming Soon

Today I bring news of yet another Amiga game in the works, and it's from a rather unusual computing platform. Moebius Goatlizard is a conversion of recently released SAM Coupe title, "Lost Disks of SAM".

Produced by Black Jet, they describe themselves as;
"...a bunch of bedroom programmers, designers, musicians, and retro game fanatics, trying to get more people enthused about the wonders and awesomeness of Retro Gaming!"

Here's Andrew, the programmer, explaining why he's porting this over to the Amiga;
"I'm in the process of learning the Amiga architecture and 68K ASM, so what better way to learn than to convert Lost Disks of SAM to the platform ;-) Very early stages, I'd like to draw inspiration from the EFMB PC Remake (have a look at RGCD EFMB for information on that piece of awesomeness and hopefully come up with some new ideas".
"Insatiable lust for all things cosmic brings Moebius to the world of Amiga where he must collect inter-galactic stuff to help feed his dirty collecting habit. Or something along those lines".
Below you'll find footage of the game in action, taken in early September (but a according to the development blog a fair bit's been added since then);


If you'd like to find out more, further information and a 4-level demo of the game can be downloaded from the Black Jet web site.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Backbone Platformer and Tutorial in the Works

A few weeks back I decided to install the final version (before it was sadly shelved) of games creation package "Backbone", on my trusty A1200. It seemed to be one of the easiest ways to put a game together, and I was keen to have a go.

Now, I'm no doubt being thick, but for the life of me I was unable to find any documentation within the archive detailing how you go about creating a game from scratch. Sure, there were some examples of basic games bundled with the package, but as soon as I started making changes to those all kinds of weird and wonderful 'features' cropped-up.

Thankfully, Australian based Amiga user Cammy, has decided that the issue of Backbone lacking some decent documentation needs to be resolved. At the same time, this has meant that a new Amiga platformer is being created.

Here's Cammy to explain;
"[I'm] using Backbone, because Rebel and I are writing a tutorial on Backbone and needed to make an example game to go with it.

All the graphics are by him so far, I'm just working on level design on this one at the moment".
And what lovely graphics they are. Below are three screenshots from the work in progress version of the game, and they really do look lovely.


You'll be pleased to learn that Cammy has kindly made a work in progress version of the game available to download from the following location:
http://home.exetel.com.au/~amiga/BackboneGame.lha

Have a go, and let her know what you think by dropping her a message on the English Amiga Board.

Monday 12 November 2012

Dangermouse Adventure - Now With Music

Work continues apace on the Dangermouse graphic adventure, and in his latest "work in progress" update, Christian of AmigaPD.com has uploaded footage of the latest version in action.

It's really nice watching this game progress over the weeks and months since development started.

So, what's new? Here's Christian with the details;
"[I've] now added in game music. The music is from PD game Return to Zantis, as suggested by s2325 from EAB forum.


Apologies for the low music level - whenever I make a video of UAE the sound quality is always extremely quiet".

Christain also comments that he's only recently learned how to add MOD music files to his AMOS productions, and in this post over on AmigaPD.com he explains how he went about it, and what you have to be aware of if you're planning to add music to your own AMOS coded productions.

Gravity Beam Author Interview Coming Soon

News in from Christian over at AmigaPD.com reveals that he should soon have yet another programmer interview up on his site.

Having just received his interview questions back (and filled-in!) by the author of recently released Thrust clone, Gravity Beam, I'm sure we won't have to wait long for this to become available on the site.

If you've not yet seen Gravity Beam in action, check out the footage below or download the game HERE.


Once the Gravity Beam interview appears online I'll let you know.

Sunday 11 November 2012

1980's Football Manager - Latest Updates

He may currently be found beavering away on his forthcoming Dangermouse graphic adventure, but programmer and AmigaPD web site maintainer Christian Clarke, is still managing to find time to respond to user feedback and update his 1980s Football Manager sim.

Here's the man himself with details of a future hard disk install option and some new graphical additions and tweaks. It looks to be shaping up to be a very nice little management game indeed;
"I have [...] started work on a Hard Drive version. I have all the music and pictures in one folder - just need to add the main game file to this folder. All the code references now point to the hard drive location rather than the individual disks".
Chris has also been busy adding a bit of sparkle to the game, as he's recently added a new screen for the end of season summary (previously, the screen palette wasn't working) and a new picture is displayed when you win the league.

For more information visit the AmigaPD Facebook Group or the AmigaPD web site.

Saturday 10 November 2012

The Amiga Works Competition

Allister Brimble's "Amiga Works" Kickstarter campaign has received a few mentions on here as I know many of you (including myself) are a big fan of his Amiga work.

The campaign's been running for a few days now, and Allister's decided to make the content of his forthcoming double-CD album that bit more interesting by issuing a challenge to any musically minded backers out there.

Here's Allister with the details;
"Dear all,

I will be running a competition open to all backers who have pledged to buy the CD, either digitally or the physical copy.

You are invited to produce a remix of ANY team 17 game track written by myself. This should be to modern day production standards and CD quality. The winner will have their track appear on the album and be fully credited. They will also recieve 5 CD's for their efforts to give to friends and family and of course more if I make a second pressing over and above the initial run.

The second and third places will have their tracks on the USB stick and recieve one additional copy of the album each, and again more if I make a second pressing.

The tracks will be judged by myself only and the decision will be final.

Entries should be sent to allisterbrimble [at] gmail.com via a link where I can download the audio file from.

Have fun! Allister"
If you're not currently backing Allister's Kickstarter campaign you're not too late. Ge yourself over to his Kickstarter page and get donating.

The current ETA of the album release is September 2013.

Friday 9 November 2012

Overflow - An Amiga Pipemania Clone

Originally released by The Assembly Line way back in 1989, Pipe Mania proved to be a simple but extremely addictive puzzle game, which eventually went on to be converted to numerous other computer and console platforms including the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Gameboy, C64 and many more.

It's been a while since anything quite like it cropped-up on the Amiga, but thankfully it looks like this may be about to change.

Here's coder and English Amiga Board moderator bippym;
"I started programming a pipemania clone in Amos in 1995. Anyway I recently started looking into getting back into it as this is a project I never finished.

I have started a bit of coding (Currently, nothing much whatsoever) but I am planning to work on this as and when I can.

If anyone is interested in helping out with gfx, sfx, music and suggestions, idea's etc please let me know.

Originally this was planned to be a basic 1:1 clone, but there is opportunity to improve massively on the original".
bippym plans to use this EAB post to track what he's achieved and also what he plans to do.

bippym's initial progress update is as follows;

Done
Title Screen code implemented
Credits implemented
Main menu loads
Pieces currently 24x24 pixels
Game grid of 8x12 (96 squares) or 13x9 (121 squares). Undecided which to go with

To do
The game
Ideas and suggestions
Various game modes, timed, 2 player vs, co-op, hardcore
Levels bigger than the display that scroll
Split screen 2 player
Splitter pipes in later levels with 2/3 exits
Pre-determined levels and maps
Randomly generated levels for that extra "fun" factor
Scoring options
Redo some/all gfx.
Have pieces that take up more than one square (2x2)
Remove criterion logo's and create a new one

Gfx, Sfx and Music suggestions
s2325 : music suggestions
black nigger by Sine: http://amp.dascene.net/downmod.php?index=30562
vision.opt by Dolphin: http://amp.dascene.net/downmod.php?index=20463

I'll be reporting on the progress of this as and when updates appear. In the meantime, if you'd like to post feedback, suggestions or simply want to keep an eye on things yourself, get over to this post on the English Amiga Board.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Amiganitzu Reaches Version 0.5

Amiganitzu's been mentioned a few times here on this blog, and rightly so, as from the various YouTube clips of the game in development it's shaping up to be a very nice game indeed.

In the past day or so footage of version 0.5 has been uploaded to YouTube, and the author tells us that the latest updates are:

- Spiders now move perfectly all the time.
- A few graphical improvements.
- Teleporters added.
- Crumbling/secret tiles added.
- More levels added (15/20 levels now mostly complete).

You can view the latest version in action below.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

BASIC Shoot-em-up Under Development

Currently running with the working title "BASIC Shoot-em-up", this is yet another Amiga game that's currently in development.

Of interest to many will be the detailed blog coder "lole", has put together, charting the progress of his game as it's being worked on, and although this hasn't been updated for a number of months, "lole" assured us in a post on the English Amiga Board, that it's still under development.

The game is being coded in Blitz BASIC 2.1, and the idea behind the creation of the game is as follows;
"The main idea is to introduce on Amiga the progress that has been done in physics and AI. The Amiga CPU will of course limit this to some extent, but to a lesser extent than you think".
Below you'll find the latest development video update, but I urge you to visit the blog where you'll find code snippets, notes, diagrams and further video clips detailing the creation of this game.



If further news surfaces surrounding this title I'll upload the details in a subsequent blog post. In the meantime the developer asks that if you're able to contribute code, graphics, music, sound or ideas to the project, to please contact him.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Agent Lux Mission Europe Released

Created with game development package Backbone, the YouTube trailer released back in August proudly boasted that this was the most advanced game to be created with the (sadly no longer supported) suite.

Now, after months of work, the full game has finally been released, and is available to download from the Amiworx web site.

As I've yet to find time to install and play the game on my Amiga, I'm unable to give you much of a first hand opinion of the title. The YouTube footage (see below) is all I've got to go on at the moment, and from that I'd say it looks like a fun NES style title. Please note that this footage was taken back in August from an in-development version, and may not represent the quality of the final release.


I'm hoping to get this up and running on my machine in the next few days, and will be posting up a short review once I've had time to try it out. In the meantime, if you'd like to try the game out for yourself simply point your web browser at: http://www.amiworx.de/agentlux.html

Edit: If you downloaded the game when I originally posted this you may be interested to learn that a new version is now available. Version 1.1 removes a few filename bugs and corrects the spelling of Island to "Iceland". The download location is the same as before.

Monday 5 November 2012

3 Atari Classics Ported to the Amiga

(These ST to Amiga conversions have been available to download for a number of months now, but this is the first time I've actually got around to installing them on my system)

Gauntlet, Super Sprint and Joust were just three of many titles that appeared on the Atari ST, but for one reason or another, the Amiga was never graced with their presence. Until now...

How? Well, thanks to the wonderful coding and conversion talents of English Amiga board member meynaf, he's taken the Atari ST versions, and after much technical wizardry, has got them up and running on the Amiga.

Not only do they work on the Amiga, but they run perfectly, and are hard drive installable.

So, the question you probably want answering is "What are they like?"...

Let's start with Joust, as out of the three titles this was the game to appear in the arcades first.

Visually, it's really nice, and appearance-wise stands up extremely well against the arcade version, but I found the sounds really annoying, and after less than a minute I was reaching for the speaker volume knob.

Also, I'll admit that I'm pretty useless at Joust, and struggle to get more than a few levels in on the arcade version, but on here I found the main character far too "floaty", and I spent more time trying to keep control of him and his ostrich than I did skewering the enemies with my lance.

The other problem I encountered was that the only way to control your character was with the cursor keys. Being a port of an arcade game this is a title that deserves to be played with the joystick (or at the very least, a joypad!). A joystick control option may exist, but I couldn't find it.

After 10 minutes of battling with the controls and wincing at the awful sound it was time to move on to Gauntlet...

I'll admit that I was quite excited at the prospect of playing this on the Amiga as I'd spent many happy hours playing the sequel, Gauntlet 2 on my machine. With a third and fourth player joystick adapter plugged in, and a full party of adventurers it's given me some very happy gaming memories.

Things get off to a great start with a fantastic re-imagining of the arcade machine's title screen, and a great intro tune. Full marks for presentation here.

Pressing enter starts the game, and brings you face-to-face with the first floor of the dungeon. At this point you can not only choose you character, but also control method (keyboard or joystick).

The graphics here are bright, bold and have been converted very well from the arcade machine. If I had to make any complaints I'd say that the reduced colour palette makes things look a little washed out, and I did find the scrolling was a tad jerky and a little uncomfortable on the eyes.

Anyway, these are tiny grumbles for what really is a fantastic arcade conversion. It looks good and sounds great, and I've no hesitation in recommending you get this one downloaded and installed on your Amiga.

Finally, it's over to Super Sprint, and out of these three titles it's the game I've had the most fun with.

Like Gauntlet, this has a lovely looking title screen, and this high level of presentation doesn't let up.

Just like the arcade it spawned from, this supports up to three players, albeit using a combination of joystick and keyboard to support this many inputs instead of three steering wheels.

Also like the arcade, the graphics look basic, but are nicely drawn. The cars themselves are beautifully animated, handle brilliantly, and within a few minutes you'll be racing down the straights, zooming around corners and passing other cars. Then you'll get cocky and plough into the track below as you mis-judge one of the bridge jumps.

With a good selection of wonderfully designed tracks, powerups available to purchase, and a nice difficulty curve, this is without a doubt my pick of the three ST to Amiga conversions. It's such a good game that I'm amazed it was never ported over to Commodore's 16-bit platform.

Now, before you go off and download these games, you need to know what the system requirements are.

On his web site Meynaf suggests an unexpanded Amiga 1200 should be enough to run Joust and Gauntlet, but thinks that the 7mhz CPU found in 68000 based Amigas will be too slow.

System requirements for Super Sprint are a little higher, and a 25mhz or higher CPU is recommended for full-speed play due to the game opening a 64 colour screen to emulate the ST's palette changes. It also needs a system with higher specs to run because the ST screen conversion is carried out each frame.

Anyway, enough of the technical specifications. Hopefully my brief overview of these three titles has spurred you on to get these up and running on your own system. So, without further ado, I'll let you get on and download them.

All three titles can be downloaded from Meynaf's website.

If these games have whet your appetite for future ST to Amiga conversions you're not alone. Already, members of the English Amiga Board are suggesting future titles to port over to our favourite machine, with International Karate being the current favourite.

Whether Meynaf has the time and inclination to port any other games over, only time will tell.

Have fun!

Sunday 4 November 2012

Another World Intro Remade and in Hi Def!

"Another World", while not an Amiga exclusive, was certainly the most advanced version of the game, when it was originally released back in 1991.

Featuring beautiful stylish graphics, stunning presentation, and a wonderful storyline, the game continues to be enjoyed on more modern systems including the iPhone and Android platforms.

Those who recall playing the original back on the Amiga in the early 90s will no doubt have been blown away by the stunning intro sequence, which sees physicist, Lester Knight Chaykin, return to his office in the early hours of the morning, only for a scientific experiment to go horribly wrong and send him off to another world.

This intro sequence recently inspired YouTube user and animator rickonami, to have a go at producing a high definition remake, which he finally uploaded to the video sharing web site a few days back.

Here's what he had to say;
"I apologize for the low quality of the video captures, specially the underwater scene, i used some primitive equipment.

I try to keep as the original intro as possible, with respect of Eric Chahi's vision and art.

This project was in my mind for a year now, and took me 3 months to complete.

Hope you guys like it :)"
The remake really is a stunning piece of work, and has quite clearly been a labour of love for the animator.

You can check out the video below, and once you've finished watching don't forget to leave some feedback on rickonami's YouTube channel.


My thanks go to English Amiga Board user s2325 for the heads-up on this one.

Saturday 3 November 2012

Allister Brimble's "The Amiga Works" Kickstarter

Regular readers of the blog will know that I've given this a mention a couple of times over the past couple of weeks, but late yesterday evening Allister Brimble's "Amiga Works" Kickstarter finally went live.

For those of you who may not be aware, Allister was one of the most prolific of all Amiga game music creators, having produced tracks for titles such as Alien Breed, Superfrog, CJ's Elephant Antics, Project-X, Fantasy World Dizzy, and many, many more.

Allister now plans to release a double CD pack containing modern studio remixes of some of his best known tracks.

Here's Allister;
"I have received many requests to create new versions of my tracks in the past, but I never felt I could improve on them.. until now. The technology exists to inspire me to create new versions of my tunes for these much loved games from the Commodore Amiga".
At present, a final tracklisting has yet to be decided, and Allister is even asking fans to contact him with suggestions relating to what should go on the album.

The album artwork is also having loads of attention lavished on it, and those making donations which cover boxed versions of the album will be pleased to know that an exclusive piece of CD booklet artwork is being commissioned;
The artwork will be created by Rico Holmes, the artist behind the Team 17 graphics.
You can pledge any amount towards "The Amiga Works" Kickstarter project, with £15 being the lowest amount where you'll actually receive something - 2 CD's equivalent of tracks in MP3 or FLAC.

The most popular price range at the moment seems to be the £50 level, which gets you one signed copy of the album, a download code, a signed copy of Allister's excellent "Sounds Digital" CD album, a poster, and finally, a USB stick containing all the CD tracks and all the original Amiga MOD files.

Be aware that out of all the donation levels, this is the only one that's limited (to 40), and at the time of posting this there were only 26 remaining.

As a massive fan of Brimble's work I can't wait for this album to see the light of day. However, with a September 2013 release date I'll have to hold on just that little bit longer. The wait will be worth it, I'm sure.

For more information and to make a pledge, please visit Allister's Kickstart page.

Friday 2 November 2012

Codetapper Interviews Ocean France's Marc Djan

Codetapper's web site continues to be one of THE places to go for interviews with former Amiga programmers, and his latest coup continues the tradition.

Uploaded only a few days ago, Codetapper has kindly made available his recent interview with Ocean France's Marc Djan.

Marc talks about how and when the company formed, their early titles, the conversions they were most pleased with, unreleased titles, and much more.

It really is essential reading if you were a fan of Ocean France's output back in the day.

You can find the full interview at: http://www.codetapper.com/amiga/interviews/marc-djan/

Once you've read through that, I'd recommend ploughing through the rest of Codetapper's interview archive, which you can find HERE.

Thursday 1 November 2012

Brimble Kickstarter to go Live Friday or Saturday

On Tuesday I reported that legendary Amiga music composer, Allister Brimble, was planning to set up a Kickstarter project, with the goal of releasing a double CD album of some of his best known work.

Allister originally planned to set this live on the 31st of October, but from one of his most recent Facebook posts it now looks like it will be on Friday 2nd or Saturday 3rd of November.

I'll bring you more news on this as I get it.