Good old time : The Amiga
By Zeb on Tuesday, April 8 2008, 09:00 - Blog - Permalink - 25777 views
This post is probably out of the usual scope of the blog, but while surfing I ended up on that video. All of a sudden I jumped back in time when I was 12 and faced a
lot of souvenirs. Without the acquisition of that computer I don't think I would have developed such a strong interest to computer graphics. You might want to turn
off your sounds for the first video.
Let's do a quick briefing for those who have not experienced the amiga.
This was the first computer to offer the general public a range of
high-quality video games from 1985 to 1994, with a "new
generation" graphic ability offering more than 8 colors and playing music on 4 tracks:).
The competition at that time was the Atari ST / STE, and the PC but they were no match regarding the quality of the games. Toward the end of the amiga reign, Pentiums revolutionized the PC world and consoles grew even bigger on the market. This is a personal interpretation and very probably wrong, but this is how I experienced the funeral of my super cool Amiga 500.
I remember even having made my first step towards the graphics on this machine with deluxe paint, and later the 3d graphics with Sculpt 4d and Real 3d. I will be curious to review those first images I did back then.
Here is a list of the games that have marked my childhood, so many great intros, great moments that I hope some of you also remember.
The competition at that time was the Atari ST / STE, and the PC but they were no match regarding the quality of the games. Toward the end of the amiga reign, Pentiums revolutionized the PC world and consoles grew even bigger on the market. This is a personal interpretation and very probably wrong, but this is how I experienced the funeral of my super cool Amiga 500.
I remember even having made my first step towards the graphics on this machine with deluxe paint, and later the 3d graphics with Sculpt 4d and Real 3d. I will be curious to review those first images I did back then.
Here is a list of the games that have marked my childhood, so many great intros, great moments that I hope some of you also remember.
Deuteros
Monkey Island
Cruise for a Corpse
Another World
Dune
Moonstone
Heimdall
An some more :
Battle Isle
BAT (1 et 2)
Civilization
Pang
Project X
Zool
Operation Stealth
Populous
Vroom
Speedball
Rodland
Alien Breed
Lemmings
Captain Blood
Jim Power
Rainbow Island
Shufflepuck Cafe
Superfrog
Worms
Megalomania
Push Over
Wizzkid
I could easily add 50 more titles which kept me stucked in front of my old computer.
If you really want to play again with those great games , then install WINUAE on your PC and I let you find the games using your favorite search engine.
Have fun !
clicks
visits
visitors
Thanks a lot far that blog entry! Oh, how I miss it all.
But why turn of the music? It rocks! Find more at http://remix.kwed.org/
Does anyone remember Gravity Force? I loved it.
Do you remember a game for the Amiga based on Battletech? It was just like the board game. A guy I knew in had an Amiga and we would all go to his place and play it. I was going to get an Amiga just for that game, but I ended up getting a PC.
dude, 90% of those games were available for dos at the time - I was playing monkey island civilization and out of this world (another world) way back
Oh man does this take me back - I haven't thought about my Amiga in years. Looking back it really is amazing how good the graphics were for the time. Have a sudden itch for some Secrets of Monkey Island.
"dude, 90% of those games were available for dos at the time"
Most of those would have been conversions from the amiga originals which generally lose something in the process.
Test Drive II: The Duel should be on the list, for sure. If you really want a blast from the past you can watch a video of the game being played on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNLN...
Check out http://TheGamersGuild.info
Brand spanking new. Be a part of the beginning of a huge site!
Speedball was the best! I lost days to that one.
man i loved my amiga, played the hell out of it for 5 years
best games ever (better than super mario galaxy, better than halo3, better than bioshock, better than half life 2):
star control 2
most anything by the bitmap brothers
most anything by psygnosis
also - the DOS versions were ugly as hell with 4 colors (purple and light blue YAY) and no sound or music except beeps from the motherboard speaker. don't even try to compare them
also Falcon
What killed the Amiga were many things:
1) Greedy executives at Commodore
2) Obsession with making the Amiga a "Business" computer
3) Not many expansion options except for pricey A2000
4) Slow slow hardware updates
5) Botched marketing and wasted money on side projects by CBM.
It ruled the game market, there simply was nothing like the Amiga. The atari was lame, the Apple GS was expensive and equally lame, the PC had nothing in comparison, and the Macs were too expensive to compare.
Only Commodore could have been so incompetent as to destroy the Amiga.
SHADOW OF THE BEAST!!!
Nice...I had an Atari ST rather than an Amiga. 99% of the games shown were on the ST too and they looked the same as they did on the Amiga. Perhpas the sound on the ST wasn't quite as good. I never really got the 'ST/Amiga Rivalry' other than the fact that Jack Tramiel founded Commodore, later resigned and bought the Consumer Division of Atari Inc. from Warner Communications.
The Amiga, great for games, even better for applications like CAD and 3D programs and let's not forget the Video Toaster. I set up and had running perfectly an A-B Roll system using SVHS JVC Recorders using the Video Toaster and an Amiga plus a second one running Mac, IBM and Amiga programs (oh, to get enough expansion slots ran an old IBM PC just for its expansion slots and power connected to the Amiga! with no disc drive in the IBM). Wonderful machine, terrible company.
I remember flying the F16 sim in combat mode looking all around my plane with the graphics being very smooth!!! Still beats the modern PC.
Cheers
What, no love for "Barbarian" here? Persian Gulf Inferno was also another excellent time sucker, Adventure Construction Set allowed me to make my first adventure game, and Empire allowed me to play my first turn based strategy game. it even allowed me to take a turn, save it to disk and hand it off to a friend every day in High School. Granted, it took about a half a year to play a full came, but it was an awesome idea.
Thanks for bringing back the memories of such a great system!
Wow, excellent! Very nicely done.
THANK YOU!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
Dear Amiga, we miss you!!
Where are all the Bullfrog, Psygnosis and other wacky UK games developed exclusively for the wonderful Amiga?
Paraphrasing klink:
SHADOW OF THE BEAST!!?
(Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe was - and still is - awesome too)
I remembered most of the games (i would say about 80%), even some i forgot.... too bad the amiga got lost throught the times... mostly by game developers....
Don't for get the shooter 'Blood Money' by Psygnosis. There are You Tube videos if you want to check it out.
i still have mine. don't think i'll ever be able to throw it away. i loved the demoscene
What is that first music track on the first video? I like it!
I couldn't afford an Amiga when they came available, and stuck with my C-64 until 1991 or so, when I shifted to an IBM clone. But they had many of the same games - and my buddy had an Amiga - so I had the best of both worlds.
Woow I'm really glad this post has been a great time for many to read/watch. I totally share this feeling about my old Amiga.
@ Tor, from one of the first comments about the music :
It rocks! Find more at http://remix.kwed.org/
Can't believe Golden Axe was missed off! What a game!
My uncle had one of these first... used to go round to play on it all the time. Dungeon Master... sooooo many hours playing it, shadow of the beast and heimdall... greta games, but remember them being real hard. populous lemmings cannon fodder. my god the times i had!!
I wish they could put a lot of these up on the Playstation net work. I would also love to see a follow on to Grim Fandango if your listening Lucas Art!!
What was the army game at 9mins 22secs and the game at 6mins 13 secs?
Thanks great video!!!
Wow so much memories, playing for hours in front of my A500. I remembered from the video :
Cannon Fodder, Pinball dreams,Speedball, Lemmings, Another World, Flashback, Lotus, Superfrog, Dune, Rick Dangerous, North vs South (soo fun !), Bomberman, IK+, Bust a Move, Zool, Shadow of the beast, One step beyond, Desert strike (that's the one you're looking for Lurch at 9m22s), Prince of persia (of course !), Xenon II
can't seem to remember the one with the owl, and the one with a bee, if someone has any hints...
xennon 2 rocked it for me aswell as stunt car racer and shadow of the beast was the muts
Eric Chahi recently released an updated version of Another World for modern machines.
http://anotherworld.fr
Hey, I started 3D with Sculpt Animate 4D on Amiga 500 ;-).
And used to play a lot with Flashback and AnotherWorld.
My Amiga 500 finally booted for the last time a few years ago. I must have played FA/18 Interceptor for hundreds of hours. I remember the Cinemaware TV Sports games as well, they were so much fun.
This post is great, it brings back so many memories from when I was a kid with my Amiga A500, which was eventually replaced by a shiny new A1200.
Civilization remains on of my favourites along with Monkey Island and Speedball 2. I'd forgotten all about Moonstone and Deuteros - both classic games I think - don't remember them too well now tho!
Centurion Defender of Rome, Shadow of the Beast, Loom,Kings Quest V, all great games, and so many types of games, what a shame the whole point of the amiga was lost, after being such a great computer with so many exciting novel ideas by the people who created them who made me a very happy kid playing them!
Does anyone know how to get hold of any games like the ones mentioned above?. Would love to have another blast on them after my old 500 machine packed in.
Amiga is not dead in fact.
I'm writing this message from my amigaone (AmigaOS4.1)
I 'm playing every day with all the games you talk about (nostalgia héhé)
There are lots of softwares for AmigaOS4.1 on os4depot.net
Forums at amigans.net... Amiga-ng.org...Amigaimpact etc..
There are new machines out today (samantha 440)---> thanks Acube systems.. and the os4.1 is now capable to run on Pegasos 2 machines with MorphOS.
I made musics using Milky Tracker. You can listen them here : (use VLC if you have a PC or mac) http://aminet.net/search?query=pseu...
Thank U 4 your website !
Amiga is not dead in fact.
I'm writing this message from my amigaone (AmigaOS4.1)
I 'm playing every day with all the games you talk about (nostalgia héhé)
There are lots of softwares for AmigaOS4.1 on os4depot.net
Forums at amigans.net... Amiga-ng.org...Amigaimpact etc..
There are new machines out today (samantha 440)---> thanks Acube systems.. and the os4.1 is now capable to run on Pegasos 2 machines with MorphOS.
I made musics using Milky Tracker. You can listen them here : (use VLC if you have a PC or mac) http://aminet.net/search?query=pseu...
Thank U 4 your website !