My conclusions after trying every Amiga, Mega Drive and SNES game

[lionagony]

In 2023 I've been bitten huge by the emulation bug and have spent many hours trying the catalogues of the three major platforms of the era, the Amiga, the Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo. I did this from the perspective of an action fan who mainly likes pick up and go action games that are fun and also if possible have great graphics. I love 2D pixel art and took a huge break from gaming after things veered into 3D. Having grown up owning an A500 and an A1200 but not a machine from Sega or Nintendo I was more familiar with the Amiga library but still had a lot of games to discover for the first time from each.

I've now tried at least a few minutes of every commercial game (I'm sure I've missed some) from the 3 main systems. My objective is to put all my favourite games into a list and then revisit them all and play them more extensively which I have already done with quite a few. Since everything was done with emulation it was an even playing field because all loading times are now the same and any button inputs etc. can be configured in any way you like. I made a post on here last month about my Amiga list which was then 303 games and has now been revised to 311. https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...88&postcount=1

I then went through the Mega Drive/Sega CD/Sega 32X catalogue and put up my list of 190 games that has now been revised to 197 https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...1&postcount=46 I've just finished the SNES list which is at the bottom of this post and it is for 200 games.

So the final tally is Amiga 311, Sega 197 and SNES 200. On the Sega list there were 56 that were also on the Amiga list and the SNES had 37 that were also on the Amiga list and quite a few that were also on the Sega list. So I tried to be as unbiased as possible when doing the lists and thought I'd write down my random thoughts if anyone is interested.

-The Amiga wins for me not just in sheer number of games but also in variety and that's keeping in mind I'm not really interested in strategy or RPG or simulation games etc. My Amiga list is just more eclectic even though they are mostly all action oriented. The SNES catalogue had the second most variety and the Mega Drive had the least being heavily skewed to sports games, shmups, beat em ups and platform games. So ranking in terms of variety it's 1)Amiga 2)SNES 3)MD

-I'd say in terms of overall performance the Amiga 500 and MD are roughly equivalent. The copper, blitter and extended palette give the Amiga some advantages and the sprites and tile system give the Mega Drive some. The CD32 I'd say is like a SNES without Mode 7 but with a CD drive. Each system definitely has a distinctive "look" to their games and I definitely prefer the Amiga look. I think the Amiga game Agony is the most beautiful of the entire 16 bit era. I know that is subjective but I saw nothing that topped it, it is like playing a moving art piece. I found the Amiga games would more often go for a more sophisticated, realistic art style. Also I would characterize more Amiga games as depicting a fantasy type world instead of a pastel anime kind of world on the SNES or a more gritty comic book look on the Mega Drive. Obviously there are many exceptions to this rule but the general aesthetic of each system is definitely its own.

-The detail in Amiga graphics is also a differentiator, something like Banshee has such exquisite detail, also games like Slam Tilt or Disposable Hero. I don't know if it's the tile system of the consoles or the resolution but the attention to detail in the graphics was something I noticed

-Although graphically I found Amiga games most beautiful and stunning like Agony, Lionheart, Elfmania, Super Stardust etc. I was impressed with the Disney games that originated on the consoles like Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck etc.

-The more extensive sprite systems of the SNES and Mega Drive did give advantages in some games like Contra III, Contra Hard Corps and Gunstar Heroes. However, there was no shmup on any system that rivalled the sheer intensity of Mega Typhoon on the Amiga 500 and seeing that game in action made me think the Amiga was also capable of those kind of sprite based games if the Mega Typhoon coding techniques had been discovered earlier

-While playing the SNES games that were also on the MD I wondered if SNES owners back in the day were kind of annoyed at developers for playing to the lowest common denominator by catering to the Mega Drive like what happened in the 1980's where the Amiga had to suffer with all the Atari ST ports. I noticed a lot of low color screens on the SNES that is able to do 256 colors that I imagined might have been done in 64 or less for the Mega Drive and then just never improved when ported

-Mode 7 was used a lot more than I imagined. There were many different types of SNES games that implemented the mode in various ways. I thought Contra III might have been my favourite game on the SNES and those overhead levels were very unique and entertaining. I think Mode 7 went beyond a gimmick on the SNES and was a good differentiator and was probably a factor in pushing the gaming industry towards 3D.

-The term "console quality" I think is really a misnomer and probably just a clever marketing trick because there were a lot of bad playing and looking games on both consoles. I think Nintendo's quality control was a notch above Sega's but popping in a random console game does not mean you are going to automatically see something polished like Contra III or Vectorman it could just as easily be Awesome Possum, Home Alone 2 or Hardball III. I also witnessed many instances of flickering and slowdown on both the SNES and the MD.

-I love platfrom games and when going over the lists I was saddened to see how few were made specifially for AGA Amigas. There were a lot of spruced up OCS/ECS games but commercially besides Marvin's Marvelous Adventure and Tin Toy Adventure there was little else in the mid 90's. Donkey Kong Country 3 was probably the most impressive platform game I saw on the SNES and it would have been wonderful to see more attempts on the A1200/CD32

-The Overall winner for me is definitely the Amiga, it was my first love and maybe it's my bias but its games just have that je ne sais quoi. Action games are supposed to be the bread and butter of the consoles but I found over 100 more action games to play on the Amiga. I also discovered a lot of good games on the consoles but I'm pretty sure I'll spend the most time going back to games on my Amiga list over the other two. If I had to choose only one console to have it would definitely be the SNES. Again it had more variety and the graphics were better so any game that was shared by the SNES and the MD I will return to the SNES version with only a few exceptions. Since the Amiga list and Mega Drive list shared a lot more games if you were to have a limited budget or limited time the combination of the Amiga and the SNES would probably be your best bet.

I'm now going to go through the entire catalogue of the Turbo Grafx 16/PC Engine but I'm not sure how many people would be interested in that list. Then I plan to do all the 2D games of the PS1. So here is my list of favourite SNES games again from the perspective of an action fan (games also on the Amiga list marked with a *)

Adv.of Batman & Robin, *Adv. of Kid Kleets, Adv. Yogi Bear

Aero Fighters, Aero the Acrobat 2, Aladdin

American Tail, *Arkanoid, Asterix

Asterix and Obelix, Axelay, Batman Forever

Battle Raiden, Beauty & the Beast, Bio Metal

Blazeon, Bonkers, Bugs Bunny

Cannon Fodder, Capcom's Soccer Shootout, Castlevania Dracula X

*Championship Soccer 94, *Chuck Rock, Clay Fighter 2

Contra III, *Cool Spot, CutThroat Island

Cybernator, D-Force, Darius Twin

Daze Before Christmas, Demon's Crest, *Dennis

*Desert Strike, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2

Donkey Kong Country 3, Do Re Mi Fantasy, Dragon Bruce Lee Story

Earth Defense Force, Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2

F1 Grand Prix, Fifa 97, Final Fight

*First Samurai, *Flashback, Flintstones

Flintstones Treasure of Sierra, Frantic Flea, Front Mission:Gun Hazard

F-Zero, Ganbare! Daiku, Ganbare Goemon 2

*Gods, Go Go Ackman, Great Battle IV

Great Circus Mystery, Gunforce, Gundam Wing

Hagane, Hameln no Violin Hiki, *Humans

Imperium, Incantation, Indiana Jones

Iron Commando, *James Pond 3, Jelly Boy

Jikkyon Parodius, *Jim Power, Joe and Mac

Joe and Mac 2, Judge Dredd, Jungle Book

*Jungle Strike, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 2

Ken Griffey Winning Run, King of Demons, Kirby's Dreamland 3

*Lamborghini American Challenge, Legend, Legend of Zelda

*Lemmings, *Lemmings 2, Lester the Unlikely

*Lethal Weapon, *Lion King, *Lost Vikings

Lost Vikings 2, Lucky Luke, Lupin Sansei

Magical Quest Mickey, Marchen Adventures Cotton, Maui Mallard

Mech Warrior 3050, Mega Man X2, Mega Man X3

Melford Stories, Metal Warriors, Mickey Mania

Mickey No Tokyo, Mickey to Donald, *Micro Machines

Micro Machines 2, Mohawk & Headphone Jack, Mr Nutz, Mr Tuff

*Ms Pacman, NBA Hang Time, NBA Live 98

Newman Haas Indy Car, Nightmare Busters, NHL 98

*Nigel Mansell's Racing, Ninja Warriors, *Oscar

*Out of This World, Pagemaster, Parodius Da

PGA Tour Golf, Phalanx, Phantom 2040

Pilot Wings, Pink Goes to Hollywood, Pinocchio

Pirates of Dark Water, Plok, Pocky and Rocky

Pocky and Rocky 2, Porky Pig, Prehistorik Man

Prince of Persia 2, *Pushover, *Putty Squad

R-Type III, Raiden Trad, Realm

Relief Pitcher, Rendering Ranger R2, Rockman and Forte

Rocky Rodent, Run Saber, Scrambled Valkyrie

Sky Blazer, Smurfs, Smurfs Travel the World

Socks the Cat, *Soldiers of Fortune, Space Megaforce

Sparkster, Speedy Gonzales, Spider-Man

Spider-Man Venom, Spirou, Spriggan Powered

Star Fox, Street Fighter 2, *Street Racer

Strike Gunner, Super Adventure Island, *Super Alfred Chicken

Super Back to the Future 2, Super Bonk, *Super Buster Bros

Super Castlevania, Super Genjin 2, Super Ghouls and Ghosts

*Super James Pond, Super Mario All Stars, Super Mario Kart

Super Mario World, Super Metroid, *Super Morph

Super Nova, Super R-Type, Super Star Wars

Super Star Wars Empire, Super Star Wars Jedi, *Super SWIV

Super Turrican, Super Turrican 2, Sutte Hakkan

TMNT IV, Thunder Spirits, Time Slip

Tinhead, Tiny Toons Adventure, Todd McFarlane's Spawn

Toy Story, Umihara Kawase, UN Squadron

Urban Strike, *Whizz, *Wolfchild

Wolverine, *Worms, X-Kaliber

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel

[nikosidis]

Nice that you did that. At least when you also included AGA games and A1200 the other consoles are no match. It is for sure not only about the gfx, sound quality. I know some of the most famous games on the other consoles but it does not surprise me that Amiga won. Cool that you mention Marvins marvelous adventure. It is a hidden gem. Also Banshee is looking so great with all the animations going on while playing.

[Photon]

That's 10,000+ games, on Amiga alone. I guess you mean you tried the union of console games that got MD, SNES, and Amiga ports? That should be a lot fewer (100?)

If this is a social engineering post or whatever they're called and you want pure opinion, Amiga is best. Because it's a computer.

I'm glad we got so many original games on Amiga, and quite a few of the ports are decent, some even great.

[dreadnought]

I've also tried all the MD games last year, and if was to choose between Amiga and MD for purely action games, MD wins hands down (never even mention SNES).

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lionagony

So the final tally is Amiga 311, Sega 197 and SNES 200. On the Sega list there were 56 that were also on the Amiga list and the SNES had 37 that were also on the Amiga list and quite a few that were also on the Sega list. So I tried to be as unbiased as possible when doing the lists and thought I'd write down my random thoughts if anyone is interested.

I'm a bit surprised why the numbers are that low for all three systems. For Amiga there are at least ten times as many, for MegaDrive/Genesis over 900 and for SNES over 1,700 games that were released.

[Aulapatchuc]

I appreciate the list, which give us some pointers to good games to try. I think this was a huge task to load and play all the games.


In regarding the subject, taking out the games for my CD32 and SimCity 2000 for the A4000 I stopped playing Amiga games as soon as i bought a SNES in 1993. Then the PS1 followed and was game over for the Amiga. Only in 2001 I returned to play Amiga games due to nostalgia and such.

[kremiso]

depends also to the genre you like
snes has a massive jrpg games set, as some great ones on MD too
or the Zelda/Castlevania style games

i would add Actraiser 1 and 2, and Maui Mallard

[CCCP alert]

Essentially, as far as game engine code goes "console quality" means 50/60 hz game engines with no frame drops and the same super responsive 50/60hz controller input routines. I guess it could also be described as 'arcade quality' too. It's not the same as racing the beam like on many VCS games, which they had no choice in the matter but to be coded like this. This does highlight a problem though, many early SNES shmups had slowdown (Super R-Type, Gradius for SNES etc) and slowdown in games is not 'console quality' so you actually get console games that are not 'console quality'. Today it means nothing, a game for PS5/Xbox/Windows 10 is compiled from a single piece of source code, a bit like all the dual ST/Amiga compiled C game development of the 80s.

That's just one aspect. Finely honed game designs after months of play testing is another aspect, something they spend a lot more time on console game development due to the insane upfront costs of cartridge manufacture which could result in massive financial losses if it is a commercial failure of a release, not a massive problem for disk based cheap production costs. People like Tiertex/Probe wrote a lot of rubbish and yet never disappeared during those Amiga years. Try writing turds on a console and see how long it takes before you are bankrupt from those $15 per cartridge up front costs the console manufacturers charge you. 50,000 carts at $15 each = make sure you make a decent game or it is a wildly popular franchise license based game to sell blindly to uninitiated consumer.

The only area where it doesn't really apply is audio. PC Engine, Megadrive, SNES and Amiga have fundamentally different sound characteristics. What does 'console quality' sound mean for Amiga, there are no consoles with such unrestricted open audio hardware creative potential, SNES has a 64kb limit for audio RAM. You could write a simple Space Invaders type game for 1mb Amigas and use 900mb for a Danny Elfman/Elderscrolls 4 Oblivion quality game soundtrack. Is Cabaret Asteroids shareware game 'console quality' etc.

It's not marketing. You can easily see 'console quality' on home computer games, be it on the C64 or Amiga 500. R.I.S.K. by The Edge for Commodore 64 is a perfect example of an 8bit console quality game on the C64 (progressive game design, lots to do, super slick 50/60hz controls, linear difficulty curve, not a multiload etc etc).

Because you don't need specialist hardware to write home computer games the quality is more variable than in the console field, hence the term console quality. Not every 1983 platform game is up to the quality of Matthew Smith's masterpiece. Also, it cost nothing to start writing games on your shiny new C64/Spectrum in 1983 apart from maybe a book and an assembler, like Lord British you could write out your own tapes one by one and sell them from small adverts in games magazines to get you started. It's the double edged sword of the bedroom coding phenomenon that rocketed home computer popularity, massive games libraries on low cost tape/disk media was the key to the success of the home computer market, less than rigid quality control is the downside in general, although there are enough badly made console games as AVGN has shown over the years so it's all relative.

[Tigerskunk]

I just noticed it after my Amiga days, I got an SNES in 1994, because I couldn't afford a full blown PC yet, and I immediately noticed the high quality of at least the most popular titles.

And you could buy Nintento created titles almost blindly and were guaranteed great gameplay, fun, and replayability.
Plus no "disk is fucked, please try disk doctor" bullshit with carts.

Most of the Amiga Games I tried, even the popular ones, were just not worth the money.

[Predseda]

SNES has Kirby. It alone is worth buying the console.

[nikosidis]

Originally Posted by Tigerskunk

I just noticed it after my Amiga days, I got an SNES in 1994, because I couldn't afford a full blown PC yet, and I immediately noticed the high quality of at least the most popular titles.

And you could buy Nintento created titles almost blindly and were guaranteed great gameplay, fun, and replayability.
Plus no "disk is fucked, please try disk doctor" bullshit with carts.

Most of the Amiga Games I tried, even the popular ones, were just not worth the money.

Did you pay for Amiga games :P

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Predseda

SNES has Kirby. It alone is worth buying the console.

I thought you only play Amiga games

[AestheticDebris]

Playing through emulation almost inevitably favours the Amiga, since Amiga emulation is rarely locked down to the exact speed of the slowest machine nor are you having to deal with disk loading times etc which certainly made a big difference to gameplay back in the day. Console emulators are, by and large, more focused on an exact replication of the original hardware.

Mega Typhoon, whilst a nice game for the Amiga, would absolutely not have sold on the MegaDrive or SNES with it's NES era graphics quality and lack of in game music - it just wasn't up to the standard people were expecting even by the early nineties let alone when it actually came out.

As to the whole "you can program on the Amiga", well yes, sure. But that's really a discussion of whether a computer is more useful than a dedicated games console rather than the specifics of them. If you want to program then a Sinclair ZX81 is "better" than a SNES, but I think I know which one most people would describe as a better games machine...

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by TCD

I thought you only play Amiga games

I do, but I have children

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by Photon

That's 10,000+ games, on Amiga alone. I guess you mean you tried the union of console games that got MD, SNES, and Amiga ports? That should be a lot fewer (100?)

No I tried all commercial games for at least a few minutes so about 3000 on the Amiga, 1000 on Sega and 1800 on SNES (though a lot of SNES were Japanese only so I went through Youtube videos and picked out the ones I wanted to try from those)

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by TCD

I'm a bit surprised why the numbers are that low for all three systems. For Amiga there are at least ten times as many, for MegaDrive/Genesis over 900 and for SNES over 1,700 games that were released.

That was the final tally of the games I decided to put on my list to return to in the future, so the keepers. 311 for Amiga, 197 Sega and 200 SNES.

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by kremiso

i would add Actraiser 1 and 2, and Maui Mallard

Maui Mallard was on there, that's a good one.

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

Essentially, as far as game engine code goes "console quality" means 50/60 hz game engines with no frame drops and the same super responsive 50/60hz controller input routines.

That is true that the consoles are better at having consistent 50 fps. I think it depends on someone's biology though whether they really notice that. Personally my eyes don't really pick up frame rates so that is a non issue for me. For example I loved playing through Ruff N Tumble and was oblivious to the low frame rate but I've seen some people complain it gives them a headache being at 25 fps.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lionagony

That was the final tally of the games I decided to put on my list to return to in the future, so the keepers. 311 for Amiga, 197 Sega and 200 SNES.

Ah, okay

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by AestheticDebris

Mega Typhoon, whilst a nice game for the Amiga, would absolutely not have sold on the MegaDrive or SNES with it's NES era graphics quality and lack of in game music - it just wasn't up to the standard people were expecting even by the early nineties let alone when it actually came out

Wasn't up to the standard because it set a new standard for 16 bits There weren't games with that kind of sheer pandemonium on the consoles until DonPachi and DoDonPachi on the PSX. The only thing that came close were Raiden and Strike Gunner but they didn't have the same amount of mayhem on the screen and they also weren't the most beautiful games. I'm sure they could have put some music in there if they wanted to sacrifice a couple of bullets but I guess they prioritized maximum bullet hell with raucous sound effects.

Take a look through the longplays of these games and I don't think you'll find anything as intense as Mega Typhoon, for example at 8:28 here [ Show youtube player ]