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Thursday 20 March 2014

ST Classic "Oids" Finally Released for the Amiga

Earlier today English Amiga Board forum member meynaf, announced that the much-loved Atari ST game "Oids" had finally come to the Amiga. The latest in a string of ST titles he'd converted over to Commodore's machine, this release came completely out of the blue.

Oids was originally released for the the ST by FTL Games way back in 1987. An Apple Macintosh version followed, but for whatever reason this failed to receive an Amiga conversion.

The game is similar to the Firebird classic "Thrust", where you have to navigate your craft across a number of landscapes, avoiding the scenery, artillery installations, and battling with gravity itself.

Although little has been revealed detailing just how the game was converted over to the Amiga, meynaf does explain that it wasn't easy;
...I've just made another game port from the Atari ST. 
It was hard to find my way; this one had TOS calls scattered everywhere and even GEM calls (trap #2), in addition to a very messy keyboard handling code, file i/o storing 16-bit handles where it should have not, and a fearsome protection scheme which i am not even sure to have fully removed. But here it is. 
As I never played that one on the ST (and have no PC to run an emulator), it would be good if someone with a great knowledge of the game could test this version, to see if everything behaves as it should. I'm not too confident with that one, many bugs are probably lurking in here, ready to explode in your face - so beware. Only thing i can say is that it seems to work for me". 


I've not had time to try this out yet, but initial feedback from other members of the English Amiga Board seems to indicate that you'll need a machine with a 68020 processor or greater.

If you'd like to download and try the game for yourself you can get to it directly by going to http://meynaf.free.fr/pr/oids.lzx

To follow the Oids thread on the English Amiga Board go to: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=72992

So, what ST game does meynaf next plan to bring to the Amiga? Well, it looks like rather than another conversion he's working on something brand new;
"I don't think I'll make any more game ports, at least for some time. I now prefer writing my own game from scratch"
Watch this space!

Sunday 16 March 2014

Sketches for Original Core Design Logo Revealed

Posting on his Twitter feed earlier today, artist and videogame designer Simon Phipps revealed some of the early designs for the Core Design logo.

Core Design were responsible for bringing a stack of games to the Amiga including the Rick Dangerous series, Wolfchild, Heimdall's 1 and 2, the Chuck Rock games, and many, many more.

Here's what Simon had to say about the designs;
"Found this old page from a notepad - the original sketches I did for the Core Design logo from Jan '88. 
The one used was the one with Pacman-shaped 'C'. It stayed until Core became a publisher and was remade in the 'Baby Teeth' font."
Check out the designs below...


You can find more of Simon's art over on his Facebook Group, and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Mega Man Amiga - Video & WIP Download Link

UPDATE: When this was originally posted I mistakingly credited English Amiga Board member s2325 as being the developer behind this work in progress title. I have since been informed that this is not the case, and that the developer behind this is German Amiga user Reentier.

A huge hit on Nintendo's NES console back in the late 80s and early 90s, Capcom's Mega Man series of titles were extremely polished, fast-paced and absolutely rock hard.

While Capcom seem to have all but given up on Mega Man in the past few years, it would seem that at least one Amiga user is keen on keeping the brand alive, and on our favourite retro platform, too!

Revealed in a brief blog post early yesterday morning, English Amiga Board member s2325 announced that he'd been working on converting a Mega Man game to the Amiga, using the Backbone game creation system.

Revealed in a brief blog post early yesterday morning, English Amiga Board member s2325 gave the heads-up on a work in progress effort of converting a Mega Man game to the Amiga, using the Backbone game creation system.

Although there's still much to do in putting the game together, the Woodman and Firename stages are already looking fantastic. Check out the YouTube footage below.



If the above isn't enough, s2325 has made linked to a demo version available to download, so you can try the work in progress out on your own Amiga or emulated Amiga set up. You'll find the archive at: http://www.workupload.com/file/tTsAvHhh

Naturally, if or when further news surfaces regarding the release of Mega Man Amiga I'll be announcing it on this very blog. In the meantime, please send any feedback to s2325 via his account on the English Amiga Board. In the meantime, please send any feedback to Reentier via this link on the German Amiga Community boards. You can also use the link to follow the development progress of the game.

Monday 10 March 2014

Lemon Amiga's Playguide & Review - "Putty Squad"

Originally due for release towards the latter half of 1994, and racking-up rave reviews in numerous magazines of the day, the Amiga version of Putty Squad failed to receive a commercial release, and had long been considered "Missing in Action". That was until late last year when, as a seasonal PR stunt and a spot of goodwill, System 3 finally made the disk images available for download.

Downloading the game shortly after it became publicly available, Dan over at Lemon Amiga has been spending the last couple of months brushing up on his platforming skills and recording a special edition of his Lemon Amiga Playguide and Review, featuring the long lost System 3 title.

This latest Lemon Amiga video weighs in at a hefty 49 minutes in length, and is essential viewing for those of you who, with the absence of an instruction manual, have absolutely no idea what you're meant to be doing. For the rest of you you'll find that this production provides you with a selection of of tips, tricks and tactics to make things that bit easier as you progress through the game.

Here's Dan;
"Ok, so I didn't play this one cold, I had a few weeks to play it. This was recorded after six or seven plays since launched 25.12.13. 
The game was a joy to voice over, and even the chores in the editing came out easy and almost fun. Yes even editing this, and the many hours that it took, were a joy, and reviewing this over and over to iron out the creases was something I looked forward to. 
The editing went in three major rounds of adding things. I had to change quite a few bits of narrations and add inserts to cover bits. Particularly the number of stars it takes to gain specific weapons (which were changed a few times) and lots of small things which amounted up to a lot of concentrated hours over the three week time-frame. But it was a joy, and it was worth it, so I hope it helps someone and introduces the game and how it works. 
Thanks Again System 3."
Check out the video below, and don't forget to leave Dan some feedback over on the YouTube page for this latest playguide.

Sunday 9 March 2014

It Had to Happen - Flappy Bird Lands on the Amiga

With the humble ZX81 receiving its very own version of the worldwide mobile gaming hit "Flappy Bird", I did wonder how long it would take until someone converted it to the Commodore Amiga. The answer? Not long.

I first received a heads-up that this was coming to our favourite gaming platform earlier in the week when Lemon Amiga posted up a YouTube link to a work in progress version via their Facebook group. What I didn't expect was that the finished version would be released so soon after.

Coded by Michael Gibs, this is a conversion of Nguyen Ha Dong's mobile title "Flappy Bird", which, although released in mid 2013 gained massive popularity earlier this year. By the end of January 2014 it was the most downloaded free game in Apple's iOS App Store, and was earning its developer a whopping $50,000 per day from in-app advertising! The completed Amiga version was uploaded to the Aminet on Thursday, and you'll be pleased to learn that it's free of any advertisements.

Below is the game in action, running on Michael's Open Pandora device;


The Flappy Bird Amiga release notes list the following features: 
  • 4/3 320x200 screen in 26 Colours. 
  • GFX as good as the mobile version. 
  • More pipes than the mobile version. 
  • 50/60 fps with a 12Mhz processor and Fast Ram. 
  • Music by SLL (https://soundcloud.com/sll)

There's no mention that this is AGA only, but Michael does state that you'll need a 12mhz system or better for this to work properly.

If you'd like to download Flappy Bird Amiga for yourself you can find the official web site here and the Flappy Bird section on the Aminet here.

My thanks go to Lemon Amiga for the initial heads-up and to the Amiga Impact Team for pointing me in the direction of the official Amiga Flappy Bird web site and Aminet link.



Enemy 2: Missing in Action - Update Released

Due to work commitments I've been unable to update the blog during the course of the last week, so although this originally surfaced back on the 2nd of March I've simply not had time to blog about it until now.

One of the latest Amiga related news articles from the fantastic Commodore is Awesome web site reports that an update to the late 2013 Amiga platform romp "Enemy 2: Missing in Action", has now been released.

Clearly the game has been too difficult for many ageing Amiga players, as the majority of tweaks relate to the increase of time limits on a number of stages, and additional ammunition on others. The game has also received a number of bug fixes.

To read the full changelog and to download the updated version you'll want to head off to this blog post over on the Commodore is Awesome web site.

My thanks go to the Commodore is Awesome staff for the heads-up on this one.

Monday 3 March 2014

Lemon Amiga's Project X Playguide and Review

Another week and yet another lovingly crafted Lemon Amiga Playguide and Review lands on YouTube. This latest in an ever-growing series of audio visual productions takes a look at Team 17's 1992 shoot-em-up, Project X.

Upon release Project X received a real mix of review scores, with Amiga Computing awarding it a whopping 93% in their June 1992 issue, and CU Amiga dishing out a lofty 92% in their April 1992 issue. 

Other magazines were less favourable, with Amiga Power and Amiga Joker both giving it an above average 78% in their May 1992 issues. Amiga Power reviewer Stuart Campbell commented at the time;
"The insane, unfair difficulty level makes for one of the most frustrating games we've seen in ages, and the bugs and control quirks push it to just the wrong side of intolerably annoying"
In fact, the game was so difficult that Team 17 released a modified "Special Edition" of the game in 1993.

Presentation-wise though, Stuart was much more complimentary, stating;
"It looks and sounds undeniably beautiful"
So, has time been kinder to Project X than some of the reviewers were back in the day? Check out the Lemon Amiga video below and make your own mind up.

Sunday 2 March 2014

EAB's Turrican3 Interviews Frank Sauer (Agony, Unreal)

While the presentation in Psygnosis' Agony was undeniably first rate, the game itself landed on the Amiga scene to a somewhat mixed reception, with magazine ratings ranging from a mere 60% (Amiga Format) to a whopping 93% (Generation 4).

The title screen music has to rank as some of the most beautiful the Amiga has ever produced, the level loading screens look absolutely gorgeous even now, and the in-game background graphics are simply stunning.

Unfortunately, the game itself simply doesn't match the presentation. Sprites are poorly animated, the in-game music is absolutely terrible, and the gameplay is extremely repetitive.

Here's Amiga Power's Stuart Campbell, who gave the game a respectable 78%, with the uppers being;
"Absolutely gorgeous graphics, absolutely lovely intro music, calming, addictive, rewarding gameplay, and you can trust it to do what you tell it to control-wise"
Downers;
"Only six levels, and you'll probably finish them all in two days at the outside (that said, we haven't done it yet!). Utterly, utterly hideous in-game music which you can't switch off"
The Bottom Line;
"Not the most demanding shoot-em-up ever, but relaxing and enjoyable enough to play that you'll stick with it even after you've finished it. As long as you turn the volume down"
If the game's not that good, why am I covering it in today's blog post? Well, thanks to the efforts of English Amiga Board member Turrican3, he's gone to the trouble of not only interviewing Agony developer Frank Sauer, but has kindly translated it from French into English for us.

Here's Turrican3;
"This is an interview that Frank Sauer accepted to do. I did the interview in French and I translated the text. I hope I didn't make a mistake.
I hope you will enjoy. If you don't know about Frank Sauer (shame on you ):
http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?N_ref_artist=502
http://francksauer.com/"
To read the interview you'll need to hop over to this thread over on the English Amiga Board.

Turrican3 also tells us that Frank is willing to answer your questions. All you need to do is post in the above thread and they'll get passed on.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Saturday 1 March 2014

A Dual Screen Amiga Set-up

Since purchasing and installing an Indivision AGA MK2 card into my Amiga tower some 18 months ago I've been extremely pleased with it. The image output on my monitor is crisp, I'm able to have a half decent workbench resolution (well, 800 by 600), and the fake scanlines that kick in when running games and demos look pretty realistic.

The only downside to all this is that playing Amiga games on a monitor simply isn't as good as having them up and running on a decent CRT hooked up with an RGB SCART lead. The two issues with running Amiga games on a monitor are that firstly the image doesn't look anywhere near as crisp as it does on a CRT, and secondly, the Indivision and cards like it are trying to take a 50hz signal and convert it into a 60hz one that the PC monitor is happy with. This conversion results in the Amiga's silky smooth scrolling being transformed into a slight chug-fest.

I've been using a Dell monitor with my Amiga for about 18 months. When using dedicated Workbench applications it really is superb, and I guess I'd just been making do with using my monitor for Amiga gaming, too. This changed following my recent viewing of an excellent YouTube video from KookyTech.net. I was nodding along to everything being said.

Here's the video in question;


With the video watched my mind was made up. It was time to give myself a dual screen Amiga setup. A few minutes later and I had the best of both worlds - a Dell monitor for Amiga apps, and a nice 21" Sanyo CRT TV, hooked up with an RGB SCART lead for gaming. The Amiga's connected to the monitor via the Indivision AGA card, and the CRT through the Amiga's monitor port.

Here's how my setup looks;


Don't get me wrong. I think the Indivision is a fantastic piece of kit. The output is easy on the eyes, and if you're using apps for long periods it's a joy to use. For gaming though, the CRT with a decent RGB input is king. It simply cannot be beaten. I think I'll be keeping my Amiga hooked up to two screens from now on.