One of the first AMIGA games ever releaswd ???

[plasmatron]

One of the first games that i remember was a MicroDeal game called " TIME BANDIT"

http://hol.abime.net/?id=1403


HOL says that it was released in 1988. But the title screen says 1985 ???

Mhhhh ????

[FromWithin]

The game dates back to 1983. The ST version would have been released in 1985. The Amiga version was converted a few years later, but the copyright from the ST version remained.

Have a look (http://emulazione.multiplayer.it/stgraveyard/game_reviews/Timebandit/Timebandit.htm)

[Severin]

Hmmm, the first Amiga games I bought were The Pawn and Marble Madness on the 1st October 1985...

[vertigo]

Yep, I would say it was one of severins, in the Uk at least, possibly Black Lamp would have also been one of the first as well.

Would be nice to see if anyone does know, Im sure they do..


edit:

I done a quick search and found these for 1985 and none for 84 :)

Mindscape 1985 Amiga OCS
Brataccas *$# Psygnosis 1985 Amiga OCS
Cutthroats * Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Deadline $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Enchanter $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Infidel $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
One On One Electronic Arts 1985 Amiga OCS
Planetfall (Planet Fall) $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Sorcerer Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Spellbreaker $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Starcross $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Suspect $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Suspended $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
The Grail * Microdeal 1985? Amiga OCS
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy *$ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
The Witness Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Ultima III: Exodus * Origin (Banjo) 1985 Amiga OCS
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Zork III: The Dungeon Master $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS

[ant512]

Originally posted by plasmatron
One of the first games that i remember was a MicroDeal game called " TIME BANDIT"

http://hol.abime.net/?id=1403


HOL says that it was released in 1988. But the title screen says 1985 ???

Mhhhh ????

That was one of the first computer games I ever played. Still got my copy - on C90 cassette for the Dragon 32.

[KombatSanta]

erm... wasn't planetfall a conversion to the amiga from some obscure platform like the ST or something? And wasn't realesed 'til 1987 or 1988?

[Severin]

Most of those Infocom games were later than 1985, looks like whoever did it just used the date Infocom started amiga titles in the US, I don't think there were any Infocom releases until 1986 in the UK.

[Marlon]

Re: Time Bandit; it was originally released in '83 for the Dragon 32 (remember that?) and was by far the best game for the computer.

[ant512]

Originally posted by Marlon
Re: Time Bandit; it was originally released in '83 for the Dragon 32 (remember that?) and was by far the best game for the computer.

Nah, Chuckie Egg was the best game for the Dragon. Much oreferred it to the Speccy version.

[Marlon]

Yeah, that WAS a great version. Anyone know of a good Dragon32 emulator? (and game images for that matter)

[DrBong]

Originally posted by vertigo
I done a quick search and found these for 1985 and none for 84 :)

Mindscape 1985 Amiga OCS
Brataccas *$# Psygnosis 1985 Amiga OCS
Cutthroats * Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Deadline $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Enchanter $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Infidel $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
One On One Electronic Arts 1985 Amiga OCS
Planetfall (Planet Fall) $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Sorcerer Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Spellbreaker $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Starcross $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Suspect $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Suspended $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
The Grail * Microdeal 1985? Amiga OCS
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy *$ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
The Witness Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Ultima III: Exodus * Origin (Banjo) 1985 Amiga OCS
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS
Zork III: The Dungeon Master $ Infocom 1985 Amiga OCS

I'd be surprised if any of those games were released in 1985. The first Amiga magazine, Amiga World (http://www.youngmonkey.ca/nose/magazines/AmigaWorld-r.html), didn't get any games to review until their May/June 1986 issue. In that issue they reviewed One on One, The Seven Cities of Gold, Borrowed Time, Mindshadow, and Monkey Business. Monkey Business may very well have been the only game in that lot that was actually released in 1985. Seven Cities may have been another one. If a game contains files, the dates of exec files or the startup-sequence file can sometimes provide important clues to the year of release.

[ant512]

Originally posted by Marlon
Yeah, that WAS a great version. Anyone know of a good Dragon32 emulator? (and game images for that matter)

For Windows, "PC-Dragon" and "T3". For the Amiga, "Dream" (version 1.2 was the last one, I think; runs full-speed on a 50MHz 030). The GP32 has a full-speed Dragon emulator, too, called "GPRoar".

Few links:

http://www.smithr.freeserve.co.uk/page5.htm
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/disk/162/

[Gary Harrison]

Wasn't Mindwalker one of the first Amiga games?

I seem to remember this being bundled with my Amiga 1000 (in Australia)

[andyr]

Nah, Chuckie Egg was the best game for the Dragon. Much oreferred it to the Speccy version.


The dragon version had a green background!!!! How anyone could play that for any length of time is beyond me!

Incedently, the best version of Chuckie Egg is on the Amstrad CPC. The C64 Version is rubbish as was the speccy version.

Dragon.
http://www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/chuckie-dragon.png

Spectrum.
http://www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/chuckie-speccy.png

Amstrad
http://www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/chuckie-amstrad.png

C64
http://www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/chuckie-c64.png

And of course, not forgetting the Amiga version rendered almost unplayable by the background graphics...

Amiga
http://www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/chuckie-amiga.png

/me turns sad chuckie egg geek mode off

[ant512]

Originally posted by andyr
The dragon version had a green background!!!! How anyone could play that for any length of time is beyond me!

There was one advantage in having a black and white telly, then.

[Marlon]

The Dragon version may have been greenscreen but it played superbly.

[andyr]

I'm not saying it didn't have great gameplay but I know the green screen was enough to put me off!

The spectrum had the usual colour clash problems but I still don't know why the C64 version was so bad though.

The Amiga version has great playability when you can see 'Hen House Harry' but sometimes he just blends into the background graphics. I love the way he turns into a fried egg when he dies though!

[andreas]

Originally posted by Severin
Hmmm, the first Amiga games I bought were The Pawn and Marble Madness on the 1st October 1985...
If you're really absolutely sure about this fact, HOL needs to be changed (at least the MM entry).

What does the team say? ;)

[thinlega]

Originally posted by andyr
The dragon version had a green background!!!! How anyone could play that for any length of time is beyond me!

Incedently, the best version of Chuckie Egg is on the Amstrad CPC. The C64 Version is rubbish as was the speccy version.

And of course, not forgetting the Amiga version rendered almost unplayable by the background graphics...
/me turns sad chuckie egg geek mode off

what about the bbc version?? how does that compare??

[Titler]

Originally posted by ant512
That was one of the first computer games I ever played. Still got my copy - on C90 cassette for the Dragon 32.

Please please PLEASE tell me you can name this game for me; Dragon 32 or 64 game, adventure game, text entry with very basic graphics, you start in a burning building, there's dynamite in the toilet, and if the flames reach it, game over. A later level is set in Paris I think... It's the first game I can ever remember playing, and it's the only computer memory I've been unable to return to under emulation, because I can't remember the fugging name. Tell me you remember it, please!!!

I use MESS for Dragon emulation btw. :p

[fiath]

Originally posted by andreas
If you're really absolutely sure about this fact, HOL needs to be changed (at least the MM entry).

What does the team say? ;)

Perhaps the answer lies in the CAPS scans? It is the original release as far as we know...

[Pyromania]

I think one of the first Amiga games to come out was Racter. My son still likes to play this game. Our disk just got a read/write error topday in fact. Could someone put Racter in the zone please?

[fiath]

Please say it wasn't an original... :scream

[Pyromania]

Originally posted by fiath
Please say it wasn't an original... :scream

I have been on the lookout to buy an orginal for years, mine was a copy.

[fiath]

Well... phew! I guess :cheese

Interestingly enough I have:

Time Bandit (I'll have a look at the packaging for the date)
Brataccas (x2) (certainly 1985)
Nord and Bert couldn't make head nor tail of it

Infocom adventures on the Amiga are tricky, because they usually came out on other platforms rather earlier. I suspect HOL is correct in 1986 for most, but it might still be worth checking Nord & Bert...

[andreas]

Originally posted by fiath
Perhaps the answer lies in the CAPS scans? It is the original release as far as we know...
You nasty mind-reader, you :p:D

Good grief, I did this yesterday indeed, hehe! :D
But only found copyright infos (1984, 1985, 1986)
I don't believe there's a copyright date given in the future if it was from 1985 :p
Or there was indeed an earlier version that had nothing about 1986 copyright.
Well Severin, if you only had that 1985 box still ...:p

[DrBong]

Originally posted by andreas
But only found copyright infos (1984, 1985, 1986)
I don't believe there's a copyright date given in the future if it was from 1985 :p

I managed to fetch out 2 original copies of the US release by EA. Disks are identical. Most of the files are dated 28-Nov-85 with a few unimportant ones dated earlier. The titlescreen says the game is (c) 1986, while the disk says (c) 1984, 1986 Atari Games Corp. and EA.

The inside sleeve, however, says the following:

Software design (c) 1984, 1985, 1986 by Atari Games Corporation and Electronic Arts


Seems EA covered all their bases for release dates on different platforms. Nevertheless, given the date on the files and the inside sleeve info., I think that it is quite likely that EA released Amiga Marble Madness in Dec '85 just in time for Christmas.

@Severin
I know you said that you bought your copy of Marble Madness on 1 Oct, 1985. Any chance that it might have been Dec 1 instead? If not, I'm not sure how to resolve the later dates on the disk files, unless the 2 copies I have were part of a later production run or something.

[DrBong]

Originally posted by DrBong
The first Amiga magazine, Amiga World (http://www.youngmonkey.ca/nose/magazines/AmigaWorld-r.html), didn't get any games to review until their May/June 1986 issue. In that issue they reviewed One on One, The Seven Cities of Gold, Borrowed Time, Mindshadow, and Monkey Business. Monkey Business may very well have been the only game in that lot that was actually released in 1985. Seven Cities may have been another one. If a game contains files, the dates of exec files or the startup-sequence file can sometimes provide important clues to the year of release.

Besides Monkey Business, I can confirm from my originals that One on One, The Seven Cities of Gold, Hacker and Mind Shadow were all released in 1985. Not sure about Borrowed Time, though, as I don't own it.

[Photon]

Please please PLEASE tell me you can name this game for me; Dragon 32 or 64 game, adventure game, text entry with very basic graphics, you start in a burning building, there's dynamite in the toilet, and if the flames reach it, game over. A later level is set in Paris I think... It's the first game I can ever remember playing, and it's the only computer memory I've been unable to return to under emulation, because I can't remember the fugging name. Tell me you remember it, please!!!

I use MESS for Dragon emulation btw. :p

Andrew Braybrook used to have a Dragon32. Do you happen to know if he coded any games for it ?