The Amiga Games Memorabilia Thread

[chris330 0]

Got an idea for this in the Castaway project thread in the addons discussion forum. Bumped into someone with similar interests so I thought I'd make the perilous journey into the loft and dig up some of my old original amiga games. And here's some photos I took of three of the most well known ones.

Especially for ])rStrangelove    

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photo 8

I have many others if anybody wants me to try and dig out a specific game they used to play  

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

I remember that when I was young Amiga was for the cool people and ATARI for those we did not like. But I dont recal anyone who actually had purchased any original software!

[chris330 0]

I remember that when I was young Amiga was for the cool people and ATARI for those we did not like. But I dont recal anyone who actually had purchased any original software!

I know what you mean. I know some guys who bought almost no original software whatsoever for the entire time they had their Amiga. Personally I never felt a game was quite complete unless I had an original copy

[colt 0]

Man, the Amiga was fantastic. I had the Commodore Vic 20 and 64 and I was interested in sims. One day I was reading a magazine (C64) and saw a feature on a new game FA/18 INTERCEPTOR. Now that game was an eye opener in terms of graphics, going from Gunship's graphics to FA/18 inteceptor's =    ( I can still remember going to the external view and just watching the afterburners go and off for ages    )

Midwinter was good. Going up to a mountain top on a cable car through the mist, then either hang-gliding or skiing down. Although there was that infamous shortcut that meant that you could complete the game in abount 15 minutes.

Flames Of Freedom very interesting game. The sea effects were terrific.

My other favourite Amiga Games:

Falcon series

F16 Combat Pilot (fantastic night time effects)

M1 Tank Platoon

Flight Of The Intruder

Player Manager

Syndicate

Sabre Team

Shadoworlds

SWOS

Kick Off 2

The one game I kind of regretted never playing was Hunter. I remember playing the demo but for some reason never got round to getting the actual game.

Here's a good review site with magazine articles http://www.classicgaming.com//amigareviews/

And of cousre there was the PD scene:

Jesus on E's (slightly topical)  

Budbrain

State Of The Art  

[brataccas 0]

O SWEET! amiga thread Another hunter owner! omg that game rocked! its "the ofp for amiga! so similar, I just loved cycling along with the bycyle lol, and disguising as enemy with the uniform M1 tank platoon was a great game also, spent many years on end playing that, sometimes I think the AI in tank platoon betters ofp in some cases, ie the tanks hide behind wrecks, and u can lase tanks unlike ofp etc, Also played base jumpers by rasputin, indy500, cannon fodder, goddam 100s of games ive forgottom about, I actually got my username "Brataccas" from the very first amiga game released, so its based on that (see pic below) I have 2 amiga 500s (1 with original mint condition manuals, box etc, I dont use them anymore I use emulators on my pc to preserve my games, space games I played was FOFT (Federation Of Free Traders) just like Elite really but better for me, I had Elite II: Frontier but it was so difficult I once did have an Amiga 1200 model that my dad found in a bin lol, but it only ran one demo disc so I binned it ^^, One funny program I had was called "Say!" and u type and it speaks the words u type, god knows why I found that so entertaining. Amiga 500 had some of the scariest games (scarier than DOOMIII) eg the uninvited, that always scared the shit outta me, incredibly atmospheric for its age. Did anyone have any "assassins" collection discs for amiga? I had quite a few, they had some great addictive games, like the original tanx , my all time faves has to be soccer kid, and hired guns too, awesome games.

Ill shut up now

[chris330 0]

FA/18 INTERCEPTOR

Played it extensively. Might still have the original copy lying around.

Falcon series

Got all three, in box with discs, expect photos later today.

Syndicate

Got it, expect photos of original box and discs later.

Kick Off 2

Got it, expect photos of original box and discs later.

Shadoworlds

If by this you actually mean Shadowlands, then it's a case of:

Got it, expect photos of original box and discs later

[chris330 0]

Another hunter owner! omg that game rocked! its "the ofp for amiga! so similar, I just loved cycling along with the bycyle lol, and disguising as enemy with the uniform

Indeed! I remember the bycycle specifically! Plus disguising yourself in a red uniform. Quality stuff for its day.

cannon fodder

Got it! Photos later

Played Indy 500 but it was very hard, so was Frontier. Too slow on the Amiga really. Only really worth playing extensively on the PC.

I remember having hours of fun getting the robotic mechanical voice on 'Say' to speak rude sentences. Which it did with incredible clarity

[kegetys 2]

Midwinter is a great game, some years ago I was thinking that a Midwinter remake with OFP would be nice...

Some other great Amiga games include:

- Civilization

- Defender of the Crown

- Dune (Many people seem to dislike this for some reason, I think its great and I found Dune 2 to be extremely disappointing since it was nothing like the original)

- Elvira 1 & 2

- Escape from Colditz

- Lotus III

- Mega lo Mania

- Nitro

- No Second Prize

- Pacific Islands (Still a great tank sim)

- Pinball Fantasies/Dreams

- Pirates

- Populous

- Speedball 2

- Stunt Car Racer

- Superfrog

- The Secret of Monkey Island (And other lucasarts adventure games)

- Turrican 2

- Wings

I still play many of these every now and then with (Win)UAE. Many Amiga games also have great music that I listen sometimes... I was dumb years ago and sold my Amiga 500 along with all the games for a very cheap price when I got a PC. Luckily no one wanted to buy the C64 which I still have though  

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Reading those titles up brings back whole mountains of memories. Thx for that awesome thread, this one is bound to become one of the best threads ever (well apart from 'DxDll' maybe)  

Like many others, i also started with a C64, then got an Amiga and by 1991 i switched over to PC, mainly because there were Amiga games out that could no longer be ported to C64 - and i couldn't stand it any longer. (games like Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, WingCommander)

I played most of the titles that are already posted, so i'll let the screenies speak for themselves (will post them later).

What i'd really like to know is:

What game situations come to your mind when reading the titles of Amiga games you played ?

I dunno about you guys, but when i read 'Falcon' there's

always one scene coming back from my past:

I'm approaching at low alt, deep within enemy territory. There's an enemy building behind that mountain the HQ wants to be turned back into farmland.    I know the target area will be defended, so i better be careful. Coming round the mountain i see the target and ... 2 Mig21 in front. There turning towards me but i pass them by. Looking right i can see them turning further - 20 secs and they'll be on my six. Inner conflict hits me like a 16ton weight: i have Mk82 bombs with me, i can't dogfight them unless i drop the bombs - but then i can't complete the mission. The target building is in front of me and i know: i've only got 1 try, i'll have to drop them all at once and then make a run for it - 1 click on the joystick button will decide whether your last 10min were in vain or not.

Ok, long story short: i destroyed the building and got away. Another mission solved.

I'm wondering: why does these things keep coming back to us gamers ? Maybe because it was a scene heavily loaded with emotions - i totally forgot i was in a game for a moment and the inner conflicts i felt were quite real. Dunno really - what do you guys think ?  

[chris330 0]

- Dune (Many people seem to dislike this for some reason, I think its great and I found Dune 2 to be extremely disappointing since it was nothing like the original)

Agree completely. The original was steeped in fantastic atmosphere and beautiful moody music along with brilliant characters and it had a strong battlefield commander and resource strategist element to it which it combined brilliantly with the RPG elements of the game.

So,

Got it, expect photos of original box and discs later

Escape from Colditz

Another classic! Some versions came with a free book by Major Pat Reid a veteran of Colditz. Nice feel to it, only problems were lack of ability to interact with environment and the inability to give instructions to any of the four guys you weren't personally controlling which made life difficult on roll calls. A little more effort and this could have been one of the best ever.

Sadly however it's a case of.........

Got it, expect photos of original box and discs later

Populous

Hardly ever played it, but have an original copy. Will post photos later.

The Secret of Monkey Island

Used to have it. Missing in action I'm afraid. I do have Battle of Britian which was by LucasFilm before they became LucasArts. I'll post photos on request.

Wings

Possibly the most visually attractive and atmsopheric game I ever played for the amiga. Again I have an original copy which I'll post photos of later

As for the others, I really enjoyed Pirates, Pinball Fantasies, and Stunt Car racer. Used to have an original copy of Speedball 2 but again its MIA.

[chris330 0]

)rStrangelove @ Feb. 12 2006,08:49)]What game situations come to your mind when reading the titles of Amiga games you played ?

I dunno about you guys, but when i read 'Falcon' there's

always one scene coming back from my past:

I'm approaching at low alt, deep within enemy territory. There's an enemy building behind that mountain the HQ wants to be turned back into farmland.    I know the target area will be defended, so i better be careful. Coming round the mountain i see the target and ... 2 Mig21 in front. There turning towards me but i pass them by. Looking right i can see them turning further - 20 secs and they'll be on my six. Inner conflict hits me like a 16ton weight: i have Mk82 bombs with me, i can't dogfight them unless i drop the bombs - but then i can't complete the mission. The target building is in front of me and i know: i've only got 1 try, i'll have to drop them all at once and then make a run for it - 1 click on the joystick button will decide whether your last 10min were in vain or not.

Memories indeed! I always got clocked by SAM's or enemy aircraft before I managed to get to get my bombs to the target. Trying to dogfight with iron bombs underneath you was impossible. Apparently there was a special stealth plane in the first mission pack which you couldn't track with radar missiles. I never saw it though. I always concentrated on trying to blow up bridges to stop enemy supply lines. If you hit the bridges enough times they stayed permanently destroyed giving the game a real campaign feel to it. Superb stuff for its day.

Often found the CCIP of the iron bombs was quite inaccurate though when in level flight. If you released dead on the mark they would either under or overshoot the target (can't remember which) even if you'd perfectly placed the chosen impact point. Eventually I think I resorted to dropping them a little before the supposed correct time to counter this.

Landing was a shoddy affair in that game too, I think that could have been done alot better.

I have an original copy of Wing Commander if you want some pics of that too ?

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Yeah, that CCIP stuff required quite some training on Falcon1.0 - dunno how often i played that bombing training mission. Landing was tricky indeed, 'wasted' countless hours to get it done. Although it was really worth it, all the dogfighting, evading and bombing stuff was wasted if you couldn't bring the plane home to fight another day.

I still remember the WingCommander package very well, i fell in love with that thing when i encountered it somewhere. I bought it a week ago i was knowing my pc was underway, lol. 1 week is damn long if the only thing you can do is reading the manual of your fav game.

I remember Wings very well, but the 3d flying part was so jerky i couldn't stay up very long without getting shot.

Things got better when i played BattleHawks1942 (Lucasfilm), prequel of 'Their finest hour - the Battle of Britain'.

Bombing carriers and shooting zeros was sheer fun.

I still remember i was connecting Amiga and my guitar amplifier (110W) to act as some kind of subwoofer.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Midwinter is a great game, some years ago I was thinking that a Midwinter remake with OFP would be nice...

Hmmm. Wouldn't it be a good idea for ArmA ?

[[aps]gnat 28]

Wow .... memories ....... yep, have a A500, still got my C64 and my VIC20 ..... sad

Those first 3 games you posted pics of were the Amiga pushed to its limits, but they were great.

Yep, hadnt thought of it before, but Hunter was like an early OFP LOL !

I occasional bring the A500 out at BBQs and plug it into the TV for the kids to play games like Uridium and Turrican .... they love it. Even roll out a PACMan clone and other true arcade classics.

I too have 100+ disks still in the shed, and only about 20% are originals.

I always wished I could buy the External Harddrive, but could never justify the price. Every now and then you find one on eBay.

[brataccas 0]

yep I had falcon too, it was so realistic for its time, its weird cos I had kick off and super kick off world by sensible software, and the thing is I hate football games, yet I played this one, stunt car racer was great fun, the best suspention ive seen in an amiga, i love that engine roar ( I still play this on emulator now) had pirates too, instant classic, I was so pleased sid meier made a pc remake, so I bought that when it came out, speedball 1 and 2 but I played 2 more often, "ICE CREAM, ICE CREAM" im gonna have to take some box pics but im too lazy atm does anyone buy "retro gamer" mag? there was once this great issue with free amiga roms! really good games id never heard of before

[Daddl 10]

- Dune (Many people seem to dislike this for some reason, I think its great and I found Dune 2 to be extremely disappointing since it was nothing like the original)

The original was steeped in fantastic atmosphere and beautiful moody music along with brilliant characters and it had a strong battlefield commander and resource strategist element to it which it combined brilliantly with the RPG elements of the game.

The point is that many people who do not have fond memories of it probably had the pc version (like me) - as far as I remember the game it started out nice but was so bugged that I threw it on the "never to be touched again" pile very, very quickly. Dune 2 on the other hand - I still remember me and all my flat mates (2 Amigas and 2 PCs) wasting weeks on that game. The only other times this happend to us again was when Lemmings and Settlers were released for Amiga and PC.

[colt 0]

@ chris330 No, I do mean Shadoworlds . Shadowlands was set in a sort of medieval setting, Shadoworlds was the was a kind of follow up, keeping the same game mechanics but set in the future on a space station. It was very atmospheric:

http://www.classicgaming.com//amigareviews/shadowor.htm#shadoworldscu   scroll down for english review.

Also with Interceptor, have you still got the blue wheel disc? Now that was copy protection.

Another speacial mention has to go to Thunderhawk by Core. Although it wasn't an out and out sim, it's mission briefings have never been bettered. A lot of new games could learn a thing or two from old games in terms of presentation.

[chris330 0]

Also with Interceptor, have you still got the blue wheel disc? Now that was copy protection.

Yes! I was messing with it only yesterday! It's fallen apart now but you can't have everything. Photo to follow

[chris330 0]

Another speacial mention has to go to Thunderhawk by Core. Although it wasn't an out and out sim, it's mission briefings have never been bettered. A lot of new games could learn a thing or two from old games in terms of presentation.

I have the original. Photo to follow  

Definitely one of my favourite games ever, the atmosphere was superb. Amazing the way they made a single player game feel so much like you were part of a real team. I think this was helped immensely by how good the briefings were and how believable the guy who gave the breifings was. I think his name was Jack Marshall. Also the missions were superb and had a real dynamic and panicky feel to them Excellent stuff.

[brataccas 0]

I am dissapointed about interceptor, I loved that game, I had all 3 or was it 2? blue wheel disc things but I accidentaly lost 1 so now I cant play it now, and yes ive still got "1" blue wheel left in my drawer safe

[chris330 0]

Seeing that picture you posted before brataccas has reminded me about Psygnosis. They did loads of good stuff. I think my favourite game developer was Core (Thunderhawk, Heimdall, Premier(e)) however, and after them I would say Delphine (Operation Stealth, Future Wars, Another World, Cruise for a Corpse).

I have a copy of Combat Air Patrol which was done by Psygnosis. Quite amazing the way they made such a good flight simulator when they weren't even from that background. Plus I think for them it was a real one off too. Another game that had a superb campaign feel to it.

I think so much of the atmosphere with Amiga games, and effort that was put in to create it, is very seriously lacking from many of today's modern titles. I really just don't get that thrill from a game anymore when I first buy it, which I always used to get when I bought a really good Amiga title.

I suppose my other favourite developer was definitely Microprose (Formula One Grand Prix, Covert Action, Airborne Ranger, Knights Of The Sky). Didn't they have at least something to do with Midwinter and Flames of Freedom?

With Flames of Freedom you had to go to great length to define your character and plan your mission before you actually did it. Gave the whole scenario a real James Bond feel, especially given how well the tropical paradise feel of the islands was woven into the game.

I suppose the whole concept of this thread is - for me anyway - that the perfect game would be a mixture of the atmosphere and wonder that was present in games such as Midwinter, Covert Action and Flames of Freedom, coupled with the functionality and freedom that modern processor power provides. For example it was very disappointing not to be able to walk into buildings in Flames of Freedom and it was also very slow at times, plus the destruction animation of things like Zeppelins and Planes was a simple burst of orange and white circles. We don't have these problems anymore.

I have to say that although raw abilities of computers have moved on enormously since those days the atmosphere and enjoyment of computer games has not risen at all in proportion to advancements made in technology.

That's just my opinion anyway

[-)rStrangelove 0]

The problem with modern games is that they are offering fast & intense entertainment, much like a movie. But like a movie it wears off pretty fast and usally ends within some hours. Also, you normally don't want to start all over again because 99% of all games play the same each and every time.

Only mods or good patches make me play games again and again, but that replayability is what the original game should offer for that price.

If the main excuse of professional game designers is true ("Content development is what takes ages, everything has to be of stunning detail as you can't show gameplay in a screeny.") then i think there'll come the time when a game lasts for 2-3 hours before it ends, even if development did cost a fortune.

IMO game engines of the future will need to have the ability to create dynamic content from static object & texture libraries. Can there ever be such a thing as a story library or a random gameplay generator ? That would be awesome tbh. Games could share libraries and thus development would concentrate on the gaming content, not just textures & animations & detailed models.

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Oh man... I loved the Amiga.

Had an Amiga 1200 with 90 megs of harddisk. I also had a 8 bit sound-tuner so I could mix my own music on it

Games that took away alot of my time:

Dune II

The Settlers

Elite: Final frontier (Elite 2).

Cannon Fodder

Gunship 2000

Those were the ones that I just recall as the games I played the most. Might add some more later though. Too bad Amiga stalled and got sold to an imcompetent company. It was way superior to other Personal Computers at that time. (For example, my Amiga had what is now known as MMX, and the graphics chipset was actually plugged in using an AGP port).

[-)rStrangelove 0]

My Amiga originals: <click 'ere>> (211k)

[chris330 0]

No way you have so many of the same ones I have! I'm in the middle of an OFP related project right now but as soon as I can I will post up a whole load of pictures