The best Amiga shooter appears again after 20 years, in a real computer mag!

[TorbenLarsen]

Hi everybody,

After almost 20 years the best Amiga shooter appears again, in a real physical computer magazine! The large and well known UK Retro Gamer magazine has an article in this month issue 107 about "The Making of Battle Squadron".

Snip Retro gamer issue 107 - http://retrogamer.net/
"Denmark... the country that brought us The little Mermaid, brooding TV dramas, Carlsberg, and classic Amiga shooters Hybris and Battle Squadron. Mike Bevan talks to Martin Pedersen and Torben Larsen, the duo behind these scandinavian shootfests..."

[Codetapper]

To be honest, I'm not particularly impressed with the article. It's only 2 pages long so it can hardly count as a "making of", some of the questions were ripped directly from my interview over a year ago, there's just no meat, nothing new or interesting that we didn't already know which is such a waste!

[s2325]

Hybris coder was only 16, amazing

Originally Posted by Codetapper

To be honest, I'm not particularly impressed with the article. It's only 2 pages long so it can hardly count as a "making of", some of the questions were ripped directly from my interview over a year ago, there's just no meat, nothing new or interesting that we didn't already know which is such a waste!

Well if you've already interviewed Torben then of course the article isn't really going to be for you is it?

I've never seen your interview, and there's only so many things you can ask about a shoot-'em-up. I was only given 2 pages (I had been hoping for 4). I still think we crammed in a lot of nice info for people unfamiliar with the game's history.

Also, I woudn't mind if it was a month or two later, but the magazine's only been out literally 2 days so I don't really agree with posting pdf's here already.

[rare_j]

Not wanting to be a bore, but a link to a scan of a mag thats only been out a couple of days should probably be hidden for a month or two as the guy respectfully points out.

[Codetapper]

I doubt that 2 page article being posted would stop anyone buying the full magazine but I've removed the link as requested. A shame they didn't give you 4 pages - ridiculous when they do those massive 2 page spreads which are basically one large picture.

[TorbenLarsen]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

I doubt that 2 page article being posted would stop anyone buying the full magazine but I've removed the link as requested. A shame they didn't give you 4 pages - ridiculous when they do those massive 2 page spreads which are basically one large picture.

Mike from Retro Gamer, did interview us thoroughly about the game and ofcourse for that reason an interview will most likely appear similar to other onces made. We tried to throw in some new angles and we think we succeeded with that. Further down the line who knows what can happen when next round of interviews appear. Perhaps a 4 page article. I am pretty happy with the article. Good job

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

there's just no meat, nothing new or interesting that we didn't already know which is such a waste!

We could say the say about the game, after all it's Battle Squadron.
The makers' claim to "best shooter ever" still come off as unnecessarily arrogant and largely untrue.

[TorbenLarsen]

Originally Posted by Akira

We could say the say about the game, after all it's Battle Squadron.
The makers' claim to "best shooter ever" still come off as unnecessarily arrogant and largely untrue.

Best Amiga shooter ever, by judging the past rating I would say it is fairly justified. The only Amiga game ever to break a max. rating by recieving 109%. Now that's Amiga power

http://amr.abime.net/review_24528

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by TorbenLarsen

The only Amiga game ever to break a max. rating by recieving 109%.

Next time I want to see 110%.

"It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am." -- Muhammad Ali

[Djay]

welcome to EAB Mike

Personally i thought Battle Squadron was great... i will go grab the issue and have a read up

If the article inspires anyone to dust off their Amiga and join EAB then hey, job well done!

[JudasEZT]

It was so good I though my Amiga were arcade-machine quality.

Much games were pale in comparison to Battle Squadron. ( Sonic Boom, Scramble Spirits, GeminiWing,.. )

Frankly, at the time I wouldn't havent criticized if you would saturated the market with similar games. Because with that quality it would have been a landmark for Amiga.

Or that you would have tried with an horizontal scroll.

[s2325]

I think you missed Vader: [ Show youtube player ]

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by JudasEZT

Much games were pale in comparison to Battle Squadron. ( Sonic Boom, Scramble Spirits, GeminiWing,.. )

Sonic Boom?
[ Show youtube player ]

[TorbenLarsen]

Originally Posted by JudasEZT

It was so good I though my Amiga were arcade-machine quality.

Much games were pale in comparison to Battle Squadron. ( Sonic Boom, Scramble Spirits, GeminiWing,.. )

Frankly, at the time I wouldn't havent criticized if you would saturated the market with similar games. Because with that quality it would have been a landmark for Amiga.

Or that you would have tried with an horizontal scroll.

Yeah the Commodore Amiga was ahead of its time on many areas and such awesome games that came out. Sure did beat the arcades on many fronts
Battle Squadron is one of the few Amiga games of its type, that even had a 2 player mode

[JudasEZT]

not that Sonic Boom.. [ Show youtube player ].

The only Amiga original shooter that equals Battle Squadron quality ( even BS still being visually superior ) is [ Show youtube player ]

did you seen that game Torben??

I do think that Battle Squadron (and indeed Hybris) was ahead of its time compared to other Amiga shooters, Xenon 2 and Sidewinder for instance - it's a much smoother, arcade-like experience than those two IMO, with a lot more going on on-screen -smooth-scrolling, loads of sprites, massive smart bombs (and of course 2 simultaneous players).

It took quite a few years for other developers to match it, BS came out in 1989 (correct me if I'm wrong Torben, was it 88 or 89?), SWIV arrived 2 years later, but I think that has aged badly compared to BS, especially in the visual/colour palette department. Then off the top off my head I don't think there was anything as impressive until Banshee, which was a much higher-spec A1200 game, 5 years later.

Apidya is great though, although horizontal rather than vertical - I interviewed the guys behind it (Kaiko) back in issue 67 of Retro Gamer, their's was a similar story to Torben/Martin's, just trying to push the machine and see what they could get out of it, striving for an arcade-like shooter experience...

[JudasEZT]

I agree in you opinion respect SWIV. Its very good, amazing indeed. But BS has more arcade feel, and the smoothness is different.


Respect Banshee, well, like many of CoreDesign latest Amiga games, it lacks polishment in gameplay. Moreover, the left scorepanel is reminiscent of 8 bits games more than 16bits arcades where we looked for full screen or for parallax.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Don't forget Katakis! It's no wonder Factor 5 were chosen to do the Amiga conversion of R-Type, they'd practically written it already.

I watched a longplay of Blood Money the other day (well I skipped through it), can't believe how amateurish it looks, even for 1989.

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

I watched a longplay of Blood Money the other day (well I skipped through it), can't believe how amateurish it looks, even for 1989.

Thats a good example when box looks way better than the game inside.