International Karate Comes to The Amiga!

Way back at the start of November last year I reported on three Atari ST games that had been lovingly ported to the Amiga. Converted by English Amiga Board member Meynaf, the titles were Gauntlet, Joust and Super Sprint. All three games ran perfectly on expanded Amiga 1200's, and I found them to be extremely playable.
Maynaf's been pretty quiet since then, but earlier this week, and out of the blue, he announced that he'd ported over the beautiful looking International Karate from the Atari ST. Not only that, but he'd made it available for download.
Here's the game in action on an Atari ST;

IK footage captured by 2PeteShakur
Naturally, the online Amiga community were extremely excited by this news, downloaded it and started testing it on real and emulated Amiga systems.
Feedback from users has already started to come in, and with people experiencing the odd freeze, unusual colour schemes or the game running too fast with 28mhz 030 processors, it may be that Meynaf has to make a few tweaks and issue an update before we can get a stable and perfectly running version of IK on the Amiga.
Nevertheless, what Maynaf's achieved so far is already amazing work, and I suggest you get this installed on your Amiga at once.
You can download IK Amiga by clicking on THIS direct link, which points to an LZX archive. I would also suggest you keep visiting the IK link over on The English Amiga Board, as it looks like this may be the place to go to for news of any updates/issues.
Here's hoping that once Maynaf's finished tweaking this he moves on to more previously un-ported and exclusive ST titles.

Interview with Stewart Gilray (ex-21st Century Entertainment)

In today's update to the blog I bring news from the Retro Collect tearm, who earlier this week announced that they'd managed to bag an interview with ex-Amiga programmer Stewart Gilray.

Stuart worked on a number of Amiga titles in his earlier years, including Marvin's Marvellous Adventure and Pinball Fantasies, to name but two.

Here's the blurb from the Retro Collect web site;

"Joining the RetroCollect Squad this month is our very first special guest, Just Add Water's Stewart Gilray. Having spent an odyssey in the gaming industry - since the days of floppy disks & cassette tapes - this gaming veteran has countless enticing stories to tell, all of which lead up to how he became an inhabitant of RuptureFarms.

For those unfamiliar with the name, you'll have experienced many of Stewart's past releases without even realising. Having spent many years working for the likes of Hewson Consultants, 21st Century Entertainment, and of course Just Add Water; games such as Marvin's Marvellous Adventure, Pinball Fantasies, Gravity Crash and the more recent Oddworld titles have all been blessed by this British gaming icon.

But enough talking from us, Stewart has more than enough to say in the latest episode of RetroCollect FM. Discussing his colourful past, Stewart gets carried away by a wave of nostalgia discussing his early days including the ups and downs before arriving on his more recent ventures with Oddworld Inhabitants".

The podcast runs for over two hours, and is broken down as follows:

• Introduction and the early years
• The later days
• Gravity Crash and Just Add Water
• Oddworld Inhabitants
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee New N' Tasty

Download, subscription and information links are as follows;

Podcast Download Link - Click here
Subscribe on iTunes - Click here
Podcast Information - Click here

The Lemon/EAB Super League 2013 - Round 4

The latest round of the Lemon Amiga and English Amiga Board Super League is here, and for round 4 the two games are 2012's "Downfall" and "BabeAnoid" from 2003.

Downfall is a conversion of an Atari Jaguar game, where you have to keep your main character on screen while the screen scrolls upwards, whilst BabeAnoid, as the name suggests, is an Arkanoid/Breakdout clone.

Both games are public domain titles, and as such are free and legal to download.

The competition is open to anyone, and you're welcome to join in at any time.

Rules, screenshots of the games and links to download them can be found on this thread over on the Lemon Amiga Forums.

Get yourselves signed-up and take part!

Recommended Site - JD's K240 Page

Released by Gremlin Graphics way back in 1994, K240 was a complex but extremely playable strategy game, which I must have spent hours playing back in the day.

Clearly I'm not alone in my love of this ancient title, as fellow fan "Jonathan", has created a massive sub-section over on his web site detailing all kinds of tips, tricks, trivia and notes related to the game.

Those simply after tips to help play the game are well catered for, but those who want to know more about the game's copy protection, undocumented features, text strings, in-game history, and how the CU Amiga demo differed from the final product, are in for a real treat.

Don't be put off by the 1995 look of the site. Yes, it looks extremely basic, but it's the content that matters, right?

If you've got a spare 10 minutes, you could do a lot worse than give JD's K240 web site a visit. There's some great stuff there, and I found the content fascinating.

Pop over to: http://www.jonnydigital.com/k240

AMITEN SOFTWARE CD Compilation VOL I

The Spectrum and C64 scenes seem to be awash with not only new game releases, but releases that come as fully packaged products. The Amiga on the other hand seems to suffer from few new games landing on the platform, let alone ones that come in physical packaging.

Thankfully, English Amiga Board member Amiten, has just announced the physical release of "Amiten Software CD Compilation Volume 1", a compilation disc featuring a selection of complete games, game demos, tech demos and music from the Amiten label.

Here's Amiten with the details;

"I want you to know that I have available for sale 1 CD-Rom (limited units) called Amiten Software CD Compilation Vol I.

The CD includes three complete games (SPACER REMAKE / FISH and RUNPUFF)

Also included INSIDE the Intro and Mega Demo called "Just Forever" and and my last job 14 tracks of musical Tech / ambient / House.

As added features playable demos of AMIVANIA and AMIKILL.

The CD-ROM price is 10 € each shipping included worldwide.

It comes in a CD-ROM printed ligthscribe and printed cover.

Each CD comes with a serial number and is printed to register your copy by sending an e-mail to the address clubamiten@gmail.com with serial number thereby ensuring you get free updates for games SPACER REMAKE / FISH and Run Puff only when is avaliable.

The demos of the games AMIVANIA & AMIKILL are just and early demos of what will one day when they are finished and will be shared at the time otherwise are not included in the option of free updates.

I accept paypal as a payment" 

(Amiten Software CD Vol 1 - Cover)

There's far too much on the CD for me to cover it in this blog post, so I suggest you visit this massive post on the English Amiga Board, where Amiten covers each title on the compilation. You'll also find details there detailing how you can order an ISO of the compilation if you're not bothered about a full physical release.

"Snaky 2013" First Preview Footage

Here's something that'll interest all the puzzle fans out there - English Amiga Board member gibs, has just announced that he's working on a new snake-based puzzler.

Going under the name of "Snaky 2013", the objective of the game is to clear each level of fruit, while at the same time ensuring that you don't crash into your tail. Initially this is pretty easy to do, but this task gets increasingly difficult as the levels become more complex, and the number of fruit items grows, meaning your snake's tail becomes longer and longer.

Featuring some nice music, sampled Pac-Man sound effects, and even some basic cut-scenes, it's clear that work on this project is already at an advanced stage. Take a look for yourself, as gibs has uploaded footage of the game in action...

At present the game isn't available for download, and no date for the full release has been given. Naturally, I'll make sure that should any further news regarding Snaky 2013 surface I'll post it on this very blog. However, if you wish to keep up-to-date with the game's development progress, I suggest you follow this thread on the English Amiga Board.

Dangermouse Adventure - Latest Updates

Following a number of quiet months due to work commitments, Christian of AmigaPD.com seems to have really thrown himself back into the development of his Dangermouse themed adventure, as progress updates have been cropping up online on an almost daily basis over the past week or so.

The first of these updates covers the development of the combat routines, which are apparently now complete.

Here's Christian;

"[I've] completed [the] combat routine, [and] now need to add to all room locations where combat takes place - Fingers crossed just a case of removing REM statements. 

Ironically the longest part of the process was making the video as my screencapture software had expired and ended up spending ages converting various media files argh!!!!"

You can see the combat routine in action below;

With that completed, work has moved on to the title screen, and that's also been ticked-off. Here's what it looks like. It's a nice, clean and simple design.

(Note the Mencap logo. Don't forget to donate)

And finally, here's your chance to have some input on the game. Christian is looking to change a number of the room names to more Amiga related ones, and he'd like your suggestions.

For more information and to take part you'll need to head over to this link on the English Amiga Board.