10 Years of Amiga Gaming Part 10: 1995

[kad3t]

By 1995 there was no doubt that Amiga was done. Sure, some decent titles came out on it and East European developers still held on to the platform for couple of years more but the overal number and quality of games was defnitely worse than in the earlier years. While Amiga's commercial life was over, it never really died in the hearts of its users that held on to it for years or even decades. I mean, look at this whole series that I've made, if I didn't have a soft spot for Commodore's system, it wouldn't have ever existed. Still, the next couple of years saw less and less games on the Ami, and at certain point they've morphed form original releases to long overdue ports of PC classics like Doom 1 and 2, Command and Conquer, Diablo or Duke Nukem 3D. Which, was fine for those who still kept their Amiga's and still hoped to play those games, but most users were long done with them on PC. Funny enough, in the last few years there were some new games released on the Amiga. Perhaps too little too late but it's good to know that even if in limited capacity, Ami sorta ressurected and is still holding on to its ageing fanbase. Myself included.

There will be a 1996+ supplemental video (or a couple as I've made a list of games already and it seems that in these nearly 3 decades there's been more games released than I thought) added to the series at a later date. In few weeks I think. In the mean time I'll make some smaller 10-15 minute videos/reviews/etc. And I'm also planning a similat series for MS-DOS games but I suppose, most people on Amiga forum don't care much.

Anyway, last official (and not a supplemental) video is here, so have a look and let me know what you think:

[ Show youtube player ]

[gimbal]

Yep. Of all those games I only actually had Shadow Fighter and I only played coverdisk demos of of Citadel, Super Street Fighter 2 and Odyssey. Other than that... all PC or not played at all. 1995 was not a good year.

[BigD]

Originally Posted by kad3t

By 1995 there was no doubt that Amiga was done. Sure, some decent titles came out on it and East European developers still held on to the platform for couple of years more but the overal number and quality of games was defnitely worse than in the earlier years. While Amiga's commercial life was over, it never really died in the hearts of its users that held on to it for years or even decades. I mean, look at this whole series that I've made, if I didn't have a soft spot for Commodore's system, it wouldn't have ever existed. Still, the next couple of years saw less and less games on the Ami, and at certain point they've morphed form original releases to long overdue ports of PC classics like Doom 1 and 2, Command and Conquer, Diablo or Duke Nukem 3D. Which, was fine for those who still kept their Amiga's and still hoped to play those games, but most users were long done with them on PC. Funny enough, in the last few years there were some new games released on the Amiga. Perhaps too little too late but it's good to know that even if in limited capacity, Ami sorta ressurected and is still holding on to its ageing fanbase. Myself included.

There will be a 1996+ supplemental video (or a couple as I've made a list of games already and it seems that in these nearly 3 decades there's been more games released than I thought) added to the series at a later date. In few weeks I think. In the mean time I'll make some smaller 10-15 minute videos/reviews/etc. And I'm also planning a similat series for MS-DOS games but I suppose, most people on Amiga forum don't care much.

Anyway, last official (and not a supplemental) video is here, so have a look and let me know what you think:

[ Show youtube player ]

I got my first Amiga in 1995 and it was also the year the CD32 version of Speedball 2 was released! The best version of my favourite Amiga game IMHO! Therefore, NOT a bad year!

[BigD]

It was also the year Alien Breed 3D came out and Deluxe Paint V! Happy days! It actually forced those Amigans left to upgrade! Heck the only A500 users left at that time were caught pirating Worms! Those guys sucked and thought that only PeeCees had hard drives! Good riddance to the great unwashed at that time!

[BigD]

... heck 1995 was the year Xtreme Racing came out even though I didn't play it until 1996! ATR from Team17 was fun too! 1995 was great!! AGA all the way with the A500 finally being fully replaced with the A1200/CD32. It was just a shame that they were hard to get hold of at that time between C= and Escom!

... well the CD32 was easier to get which is why I got one! A great machine and capable of becoming a full CD-Rom equipped A1200 type machine!

[BigD]

... oh and Blitz Basic 2.1 by Acid Software was released in 1995 sparking new homebrew titles.

[kad3t]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Yep. Of all those games I only actually had Shadow Fighter and I only played coverdisk demos of of Citadel, Super Street Fighter 2 and Odyssey. Other than that... all PC or not played at all. 1995 was not a good year.

Well, it *was* the beginning of an end...

[kad3t]

Originally Posted by BigD

... oh and Blitz Basic 2.1 by Acid Software was released in 1995 sparking new homebrew titles.

As much as I agree with most of what you said, I can't agree with the AGA. Not only it was too little too late but half of the AGA titles (just look at the Arcade Snooker in the video as a prime example of that) were just reworks of OCS/ECS games, some of which added nothing rather than the more colorful title screen... That said, yes, Speedball II on the CD32 was THE BEST!

[Anubis]

Is there any difference between regular Speedball II and Speedball II on CD32?? (apart from CD music?)

[Mr Creosote]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Is there any difference between regular Speedball II and Speedball II on CD32?? (apart from CD music?)

Yes, uglier graphics in AGA.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

Yes, uglier graphics in AGA.

Seems like all the Bitmap Brothers games that got an AGA port look worse. Maybe they wanted it to be a lesson for less is more?

[BigD]

Originally Posted by TCD

Seems like all the Bitmap Brothers games that got an AGA port look worse. Maybe they wanted it to be a lesson for less is more?

Having the two teams in full metallic blue/red kits rather than just their helmets IS better! Using metallic gold coins and the odd metallic bronze etc for power ups etc as well as just grey steel IS better. But most of all the CD crowd noise 'soundtrack' makes it a FAR more immersive experience! Crank the hi-fi and see what I mean!

The only things worse are no title music and no "icecream" shouts! Other than that a perfect version!

[Amigajay]

By mid 1995 it was obvious the Amiga was dead and Escom would not save it, even with a relaunch at the end of the year with more expensive prices and more incompatible disk drives, we all knew it was a hopeless escapade without powerful new hardware.

Whilst i kept on buying Amiga mags and using the cover cds until the end of 1997, the last commercial Amiga games i bought were in the summer of 1995, the draw of the PSX was enough to tempt me away after 18 months of promises and lots of cancelled Amiga/CD32 games

[BigD]

@Amigajay

The period 1995 to 1999 was great with CD-Rom games, support for accelerators and unique games mainly from coders in Eastern Europe that really pushed the Amiga with a user base that actually wanted to upgrade. No floppy disk pirate parties, no A500 users refusing to upgrade to play these awesome games. Genetic Species, Napalm, T-Zero, Wasted Dreams, Slam Tilt, Onescapee. Heck we even got ADoom and TFX! Great great times that for me beat half assed OCS ports of MK2!

[TCD]

Originally Posted by BigD

Having the two teams in full metallic blue/red kits rather than just their helmets IS better! Using metallic gold coins and the odd metallic bronze etc for power ups etc as well as just grey steel IS better. But most of all the CD crowd noise 'soundtrack' makes it a FAR more immersive experience! Crank the hi-fi and see what I mean!

The only things worse are no title music and no "icecream" shouts! Other than that a perfect version!

Nah, it's not better, it's worse. Prove me wrong.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by BigD

@Amigajay

The period 1995 to 1999 was great with CD-Rom games, support for accelerators and unique games mainly from coders in Eastern Europe that really pushed the Amiga with a user base that actually wanted to upgrade. No floppy disk pirate parties, no A500 users refusing to upgrade to play these awesome games. Genetic Species, Napalm, T-Zero, Wasted Dreams, Slam Tilt, Onescapee. Heck we even got ADoom and TFX! Great great times that for me beat half assed OCS ports of MK2!

Don’t get me wrong, i never stated nothing was released, but as a commercial platform by the end of 1995 it was game over, only smaller publishers (mostly indies) that could survive on a 1-5k sales that dwindled year on year.

Plus why spend £300 on an Amiga accelerator (lets face it most were bought for games and not rendering programs) when i could buy a PSX for the same price and be happy with the latest games for years, the quality and amount of Amiga games needing an accelerator was simply not worth the cost outlay.

[BigD]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Plus why spend £300 on an Amiga accelerator (lets face it most were bought for games and not rendering programs) when i could buy a PSX for the same price and be happy with the latest games for years, the quality and amount of Amiga games needing an accelerator was simply not worth the cost outlay.

But there were SOME great games that pushed these systems for the first time! In the early 1990s the base machine targeted by developers barely moved from 1987! Maybe Team17 targeted 1MB machines but still floppy drives and OCS/68000! I got far more joy out of Napalm with null modem play etc than I would have done with Red Alert on the PS1! Plus you could then use you accelerator for productivity. Yes, Music Generator 2 was a similar use for PS2 but generally consoles were games only!

[BigD]

Originally Posted by TCD

Nah, it's not better, it's worse. Prove me wrong.

Play the game! You feel like you're actually at a sports match! Atmosphere! This is key!

[kad3t]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Is there any difference between regular Speedball II and Speedball II on CD32?? (apart from CD music?)

Colours and gamepad controls.
In short, it's a package.

[kad3t]

Originally Posted by TCD

Seems like all the Bitmap Brothers games that got an AGA port look worse. Maybe they wanted it to be a lesson for less is more?

Well, I suppose when you have less to work with, you gotta be more creative in use of available colours hence why often their 32-colour games looked darker, more mature and climatic. And same as with most 32 to 256 conversions (not only from them) devs not used to such choice, just tend to add extra colours everywhere, even where they were not needed.