Introducing Amiga Gaming to new people
 

Hello there.

If you had the mission to introduce the Amiga to people who are into retro-gaming but never saw one, what games would you choose?

I have a list of my own, but I'd like to know if I people have different opinions :D

Tough question since much of the Amiga's library exists on other platforms (PC/ST/Genesis/Snes) and a good number of Amiga ports are less impressive than they could be. I'm a fan of the Bitmap's stuff - Gods, Chaos Engine, Speedball 2 but even they're not really representative of the Amiga (so many Sega owners think of 'Soldiers of Fortune' as a Genesis game).

If you want something 'quintessentially Amiga' then I'd have to go with Cinemaware - most of their titles were pretty interesting and the Amiga versions were always the best. That or show them DPaint :D

It may exist on other platforms, but they were ported because they were good games, i would show them the ported games and say hey we had this a year before console owners etc
Sensible Soccer, Lemmings, Flashback, Lotus II, Pinball Fantasies, Cannon Fodder, Speedball 2, Turrican II, Chaos Engine, Battle Squadron etc etc

Then show them games that blew people away graphically in the 80's i.e Cinemaware and SOTB. Original Amiga classics like Populous, Settlers, Super Stardust, Hunter, Alien Breed etc

And finally show the Amiga did have some great console style games of its own i.e Ruff N Tumble, Lionheart, Banshee, Fightin Spirit etc

Then you realize you don't have time to show them all that you wanted!

There's no single game that does justice to Amiga as it isn't a gaming machine.

But if you have to make a case for it, I'd say it has the sound/gfx capabilities that allowed to run many console-quality games (Goal, Superfrog, Chaos Engine, Turrican II) the PC couldn't - and many PC quality games (Lucasfilm adventures, Sierra Games, Civilization, Syndicate, Dune) consoles lacked totally, or were lacking input wise.

There are some pretty unique titles on Amiga, but I would probably start with the eye- and ear-candy, so generally games that look, sound, and play well, to let the Amiga show off a bit, f.ex. SotB 3, Stardust, Alien Breed, Risky Woods, Superfrog, Chaos Engine, Rodland, Fire & Ice.

Of course it was, it was designed originally as a console, then Commodore bought the design and put it in a computer, the business Amiga models aren't sure, but the budget Amiga's (A500/+/600/1200/CD32/CDTV) are all designed with gaming in mind.

No matter what it was designed originally for, it was sold as computer that included a multitasking graphical OS from the first launch and was bundled with keyboard, mouse and utilities.

This was the reason why my school purchased them, and titles like Deluxe Music and Deluxe Paint were how I persuaded my parents to buy me one over a gaming console that I would've much preferred at the time.

I'd say primarily focus on the games that just ooze atmosphere, especially those with epic music. Apidya, Wolfchild, Wrath of the Demon, Thunderhawk, Stardust, Cannon Fodder, that kind of thing.

Turrican 2: Final fight. Lotus Turbo Challenge 2. Uridium 2. Paradroid 90. Walker.

As I discovered on the weekend, the game doesn't matter if you don't have a joypad handy.

If they've never used a joystick before, the shock of seeing their mad Call of Duty skillz being replaced with the coordination of a 3 year old renders every game frustrating and unplayable. Introduction to retro gaming over!

Shadow of the Beast
Turrican
Lotus 2

Sound Tracker Pro (The world of mod music)

Also make them use a joystick instead of a Dpad. And no emulation do it REAL. Let them know what we were doing 25yrs ago that's still fun to do now.

Super Cars I and II and Nitro.

Both top down racing games, and tons of fun. The graphics are supersimple by todays standards, but the playability and competative nature of the games will offset that within minutes.

Nitro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzT5LQ0euuo

Super Cars II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq4t5fb9q9A

Another one is Super Off Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-akM-fZuEQE

Another really fun game, for me anyhow;

Rainbow Island https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugMtIW46-qM

I guess the game that kids like the most, espesially quite young ones are the likes of Wonder Boy; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvim7O9RvK0
I remember when I was a kid, me and my buddies usually timed our runs in Wonder Boy.
A sidecomment for people that are into making new games to either AOS 3 or 4; A game like Super Mario, Great Giana Sisters, Wonder Boy with a upcounting timer that doesnt affect the game, but just as a refrence as to how fast you completed it.
I had cousins that generally hated gaming, but actually enjoyed the quick and simple competative aspect. Keep doing speedruns over and over again to perfect the time. Good times!

Yeah good luck with that! :)

I tried one of the games you mentioned, Lotus 2, but all the fun was taken out of it by this awkward input device. And if it's no fun, what's the point? Better to compromise so they can at least appreciate how playable these games are.

Why force them to use an input method which is less efficient?
If there is one thing about the Amiga I do not regret leaving behind it is the joysticks which force you to paralyze one hand just to (try to) hold the damn thing steady. ;)

Also, I would avoid showing the "eye candy" games such as SOTB, yes, they are beautiful but as games they suck and that is what people will note.
Even when the game was released my friends kept telling me to avoid it because it just wasn't fun, and they were very right.

Turrican II, LotusII, Hybris, Battle Squadron, Speedball 2, Chaos Engine and many others both have great gameplay and graphics.

But SOTB, Jim Power are only useful as slide shows. ;)

Turrican 1-2, Fury of the Furries, Pinball Fantasies & Dreams, Chuck Rock 2

I have lots of experience in showing Amiga games to non-Amiga people, since I've been arranging quite a few public Amiga gaming events during the recent years (on mainstream LANs etc). Not necessarily exactly "retro-gaming" audience, but generally from younger modern gaming people to older folks with all kinds of backgrounds.

Here are few examples which seem to work in most cases (but don't know if the audience is too hardcore retro gamers):

Almost everybody praises the graphics in Slam Tilt. It's about the only game people say that they didn't know low resolution games can look that good. It's also a good game to put anyone in front of, because it's easy to play.

Lotus2 has nice retro feeling and nostalgia. And speed. Quite easy to put players in too, and 2-4 player game adds the athmosphere.

Stunt Car Racer (turbo mode) in a linkup gets comments like "How this simple game can work so well?", "It is so old, but still more entertaining than many modern games!", etc.

Worms Director's Cut seems to work too. Many say that it's more brutal than the more modern versions they've played, and they like it!

Can't help, but Bubble Bobble is always one of the favourite games at events :)

Nitro, SWIV, Superfrog, Speedball2, Cannon Fodder, and Skidmarks get their fans always too.

I got this from 14-15 years old kids a couple of years ago playing Stunts/4D Sports Driving in DOSBOX at the school I teach.

Forget about this. Back in 93-94 when the Amiga still was my main gaming machine, none of my friends could cope with a Joystick, I had to get 2 dpads to have Sensi and then SWOS leagues without no one complaining "WHY DO I HAVE TO PLAY WITH THIS SHITTY CONTROLLER?"

Now at 2016, it will just make people move away.

I participate in some retro-gaming and retro-computing groups here in Brazil, people who arrange meetings and stuff. In both cases , the Amiga is either completely unknown or just plain hated for no proper reason. It goes like.

"what the hell, just one button? How do you play Mortal Kombat with just 1 button?"
"hahahahaha, look at this Street Fighter 2 , ridiculous!"
" <insert random Sega or Capcom port> is so awful on this machine! Amiga is crap, only crap games on it "

And then as most people will only play on emulators, they just hate the fact Winuae is not a Mega-Drive emulator and it's a lot harder to configure.

Being the Amiga fanboy I am :D , There are some people I want to help discover why *I* am so fond of this machine. I had made a list myself, but some suggestions here are pretty good too :) Keep then coming :)

I think joystick is better for platform games with up as jump and of course for International Karate+ and Ninja Mission.

Even back in the day we all hated joysticks, most of them were crap (at least, the models we had broke a lot) and hurt your hands. We all had master system's gamepads!
To show off the Amiga with an actual good game, I'd use either turrican 2, speedball 2, or Maupiti Island with an optical mouse haha

Back in the days the NES controller always made my fingers cramp, but nowadays I much prefer controllers.

Looking back now, it seems the biggest drawback of Atari style joysticks on sale at the time wasn't the stick itself, but the lack of support for more than one button. This overlook forced the game designers to map many basic features like pausing, powerups and special moves to keyboard, or to one of those awkward joybutton+direction combos.