aga and ocs version of a game?

[PiCiJi]

I am interested in games, which were released as an aga and ocs version.
What games are eqal?
what games have a better looking aga version.

e.g. Chaos Engine Aga looks like the ocs version.

e.g. Brian the Lion has a fine scrolling background in the aga version.

[killergorilla]

Well Alien Breed 2 AGA and OCS are extremely similar and it's just a little bit prettier that's all.

The same goes for Tower Assault which contains both AGA and OCS on the same disks. Very little cosmetic upgrade at all.

I don't know if you can include Stardust and Super Stardust because they are different games but they are essentially very similar. Super Stardust does however look a lot nicer, much shinier and crispy. And those tunnel sections.... oooohhh

[Konrad]

Chaos Engine AGA is much more colorful than the ECS version.

[gaterooze]

Exile AGA was a total rehaul graphically. Looks very nice, but the game is not really better. I think I prefer the smaller sprites of the original -- they look great to me!

Second Samurai had some much nicer backgrounds in AGA, and other small differences in the levels. Nothing major.

Things like Simon The Sorceror look nicer, Transatlantic is faster & has more colors, Sabre Team was much faster... I think UFO had quite a big difference too?

Zool 2 and Robocod have some new backgrounds and music, I think, and may even have a couple of extra levels.

[woody57]

..... Aga versions were suposed to smoother graphically at least , some games just ran quicker in the AGA version eg Elite but surely PiCiJi is asking a different question ?
.... Surely it was only lazy programming that led to same gameplay/same graphic releases ? I seem to remember some Amiga Format / CU Amiga game reviews posting similar observations........However my recollections are apt to be several yards out these days ! Must remember to keep taking the medication ......if only I could remember where I left it ?......

[Codetapper]

Zool 2 ECS and AGA are identical except for the colourful scrolling background on the AGA version. They have the same number of levels and main graphics.

The ECS chipset could really only display scrolling games with 32 colours at 50Hz so most games had palettes designed for 32 colours. Other limitations in the ECS chipset are dual playfield mode consisting of 6 bitplanes: 3 bitplanes for the front and 3 for the back giving 8 + 8 = 16 colours. Soccer Kid uses dual playfield mode.

AGA allows 8 bitplanes including 4 bitplanes for each dual playfield so you could have an AGA version of Soccer Kid with 16 + 16 = 32 colours total. The ECS one has a lot of grey in the palette to allow mixing with the limited number of colours.

Basically it would take a lot more work to make a really enhanced AGA version so most games simply cheated a bit.

eg. Seek and Destroy - AGA version gives you a few more graphics on the screen and has a better title picture with a nicer fading effect. To redo all graphics for a bigger palette would take too much work so most people did not bother.

[woody57]

..... than my ramshackle mumblings ! but you correctly point out the need to conserve efforts when distributing " First Eddition Software " the question arises with second versions whether all AGA only version,s were just that ? " AGA Only " past the loading screen ?

[gaterooze]

Re: Zool 2, you're right about the levels, I'm thinking of the CD32 version. But the A1200 version did have some new sound effects in it, as well as the backgrounds. Still pretty lazy, but understandable from the developer's point of view (economics and all that jazz).

[manicx]

Super Stardust AGA just rocked the shit out of me.

Shadow Fighters is also fantastic with excellent scrolling effects and more colourful sprites.

Chaos Engine AGA is more colourful (and CD32 version rocks).

There are actually many games in AGA that are superior to the ECS versions. You just need to know where to look to identify the differences.

There's an AGA version of Simon the Sorcerer, really nicer than the original (less pixels and more colors )

[Overdoc]

Well, I never had an A-1200 until I started collecting Commodores a few years ago, but when I saw AGA games at friend's A-1200 machines back in the days I was not really that impressed.
Sure, some games looked a bit better, but overall it was still the same games. The difference was by far not as big as e.g. the difference between a C64 and A-500 game ! I still remember when I first saw an A-500 game when I still only knew C64 graphics. Now, that was an experience !! But AGA wasn't that far away from OCS....
That is also the reason why I didn't spend money on an A-1200 back then and stuck to my C64 and A-500

[PiCiJi]

thanks for the examples. I checked a few games and you are right Overdoc. There are not too much differences.