Issue 3 of the "completely random month" (their words, not mine!) downloadable Amiga magazine "880 Gamer" is now complete and ready for your reading pleasure.
Previously released in May and November 2013, the May 2014 issue spans 38 full-colour pages, and features 6 game and 4 demo reviews.
The magazine even comes with its own virtual demo disk, which this issue features the one and only Putty Squad.
Feedback on this issue over on the English Amiga Board has been extremely positive, so hopefully we won't have to wait quite so long for issue 4 to surface.
If you're a fan of platform games then you may want to check out the recently released "Marco Gregorio's Adventures to Unusual Places", which was released towards the end of April.
Put together using game creation package "Backbone", the game spans 5 levels and features music from the Sounds Terrific MOD compilation, with author credits detailed in the game.
The tiles and sprites were created by English Amiga Board member amiman99, with the help of his friend. Tiles used were from a modified set originally created by fellow EAB member Cammy.
The game has been tested on an Amiga 1200 with a 68030 processor at 50mhz.
Check out the game in action, below;
You can run the game directly from hard drive. To do this just decompress it to HD and click on the Marco icon.
Amiman99 reveals a few tips and quirks about the game;
"1. Because there is a small problem with Backbone when you die over "Danger Area" like water, you will respawn to the beginning of a level and restart. So, you need to finish the level without dying.
2. I limited [the] fire/throw axe speed, so it's harder to kill enemies. You can't just blast through enemies.
3. You need to collect all items before advancing to the next level.
4. In the Mayan level not all gates open.
5. I used the same fire button to Throw and Open Doors. I found out that assigning [a] keyboard press to open the Door was disrupting the flow of the game. So, you can't shoot next to the door, you need to move away some before shooting."
Featuring over 5 hours of gameplay, 64 colours on screen at once and over 40 pieces of music, this Zelda-like RPG surely pushes the Backbone game creation system to its absolute limits.
The game, which has taken over a year to develop, is now in the closing stages of completion, and with that opportunities to download a demo and pre-order the full release have now arisen.
Visit www.talesofgorluth.de for more information, download links for English and German demo versions, and for pre-order details.
The full version comes boxed in a jewel case with original artwork, and costs a mere 15 Euros including delivery costs.
System requirements: ECS Amiga, 68020 processor (68030 recommended), 2MB Chip RAM, 1MB Fast RAM, Hard Drive.
A number of Amiga users have encountered memory issues (the game requires a full 2MB of Chip Ram) or problems with patched versions of OS3.5/3.9 when trying to run the game. Thankfully, a set of instructions detailing how to solve these problems, should they arise, can be found here: http://www.amiga68k.de/?p=3615 (non German speakers will need Google Translate or similar).
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.
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."
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.
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.
