Help wanted for Amiga 101 article

[Ivo]

I'm calling people that have experience with the Amiga to help me create an Amiga 101 article for Racketboy's series of 101 articles.

Ivo.

[arion]

I might be able to help out a little. What kind of info are you looking for ?

[GagaMan]

Same here, I could help out.

[arion]

Same here, I could help out.

btw did you ever get the sound working right for your cd32 ?

[Ivo]

The Amiga is less uni dimensional than game consoles but Racket's site is still Retrogaming, so we should focus on that.

Going by the template used in the N64, here is a very rough sketch

Historical Impact: I guess we can focus mostly on the A500, then mention the other models and finish on the CD32. I reckon we should definitively mention the non-gaming stuff here (the demo scene, the graphics capabilities and being used for special FX - including Babylon 5). Very popular in Europe, not that much elsewhere.

Strengths: Obviously at launch it was particularly powerful, later on the PCs caught up and surpassed it; had great sound that I reckon still holds up today. You could get games from "both sides" of the fence (console style and PC style (mouse controlled games in particular, strategy games typically)). In many cases had the best versions of multi-platform games / best home versions of arcade ports (for the time).

Weaknesses: one button controllers ; no 1st party titles and associated lack of "exclusives" (despite having the best versions in many cases).

Game Library: I'll take suggestions here, but there are some big classics that we certainly should mention. I think its a good opportunity for me to mention the SNES version of Putty and Putty Squad as I guess some Amiga fans don't know about those. We should mention Psygnosis, Bullfrog, Sensible games, Bitmap Brothers, Team 17 (Worms still going strong), any famous arcade games that had great ports on the Amiga (for some games the best home versions were on the Amiga, I think). Turrican and other games that were big on the Amiga (even if originated from / ported to other places - many came from C64 or Atari ST, many were ported to DOS or to Megadrive / SNES).
There is a lot here to cover, this is the main part of the article and I'm afraid of missing something (unavoidable, we will get comments on "Why didn't you include _this_). Many of these provided rather unique experiences, other were staples of well known genres: Shadow of the Beast is usually remembered (haven't played that one myself), the Lotus arcade racing games (particularly the 2nd), Supercars 2, Xenon 2, Dune 2, Stardust and S. Stardust, Jetstrike, Skidmarks, Ruff n Tumble, Robocop 3, Hostages, Dizzy, Lemmings.

Emulation: We can link to my other article on WinUAE.

I don't think we should bother with "importing" as that wasn't really happening.
I have no experience with the BBS experience that I believe was somewhat strong in the U.K., if any of you were into that it would be interesting.
As for accessories we may want to talk a bit about some joysticks, should we mention the typical expanded RAM used for the A500?

[Funk, E]

I submit that there should be discussion of some Cinemaware titles, too.

[Ivo]

I submit that there should be discussion of some Cinemaware titles, too.

I agree. Good times with "It came from the Desert".

[Ivo]

So I guess I can count on you guys when I start working more on this (not at the moment I still have some other stuff to do)?

I saw Arion's comment about MK on Amiga with one button - that must be interesting indeed. I haven't yet had a chance to play Putty on an Amiga (only gave it a quick spin), but I finished the SNES version and in terms of controls it is great there. I read about it and it seems the Amiga game is (a good bit?) better in all other aspects, but good controls are very important IMO, and although the makers of Putty had a good effort the one button thing takes a bit out of the game.

Ivo.

[arion]

well to be fair mk 1 and 2 for the amiga are fun in 2 player cus you are never sure what you are doing and more importantly how you did. But why there were no keyboard controls for them eludes me since the pc verisons had keyboard controls admittedly not the best controls for a fighting game but at least you know what you are doing

Some examples of the odd controls for the amiga

To perform a roundhouse kick
Push the joystick down and towards the opponent.

To Perform a flying punch
Push the joystick up and towards or away from opponent, then centre the joystick (release it) and then press the fire button.

So most of the moves require doing some directional pad combo before pressing the fire button while it might work if you give it time it is still to much of a hassle to remember in the middle of a fight.

[GagaMan]

Same here, I could help out.

btw did you ever get the sound working right for your cd32 ?

I bought a new one and sold off the other one. =)