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

[Codetapper]

Originally Posted by mikebRG

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.

Are you kidding me? SWIV aged badly? WTF? Both games are awesome, but let's compare:

SWIV is 16 colours, Battle Squadron is 32. I actually think the graphics in SWIV are better even with less colours. The Predator effect in BS was (and still is) amazing.

SWIV runs at 25fps and occassionally drops lower when there's mayhem like the stealth fighters. Battle Squadron scrolls and updates the player at 50fps, 25fps for everything else.

Sprite-wise, SWIV is impressive with a huge number of bullets on-screen at the same time. Almost all bullets in SWIV are multiplexed sprites. Battle Squadron couldn't achieve the same because the player graphics are sprites which allows it to run faster.

Variety-wise for me, SWIV beats Battle Squadron. The landscape is more varied and the regular huge guardians are more impressive.

In the sound departments, both games are fantastic. Hard to say one is better than the other.

Playability-wise they're also both great.

For me personally, I think SWIV is the better game but not by much. Both are fantastic. I just find it incredible that someone could say that SWIV has aged badly! If SWIV had been released in 2012, it would still be impressive!

I do like SWIV, it was always one of my favourite Amiga shmups, but playing it recently for a RG feature I thought it was a bit bland in parts compared to say Battle Squadron or Apidya, with some very large, barren stretches of the maps, which even the developer's admitted were a bit too empty in hindsight (though to be fair the graphic detail as well as many other techinal aspects of the game are very good indeed). Also I admit I was playing it in one player mode, and the game's at its best with two players.

You can read the SWIV feature here - Making of Swiv - some very interesting snippets on how the sprite system and in-game loading worked (the game basically loaded the level maps as you played, which allowed for such enormous levels).

[Retro1234]

Battle Squadron 2 EHB Did this realy exist?

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by Predseda

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

Looks perfectly representative to me...

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

Looks perfectly representative to me...

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

Looks perfectly representative to me...

Bahahahahhaha!!!

About the "best shooter on Amiga" moniker... You can use old magazine ratings all you want, but nowadays, with ALL Amiga games released and behind us, a new scoring can be made, actually comparing ALL the Amiga shooters ever released. When BS was released it faced no competition for years to come, but today Battle Squadron is still at the top, but I for one, would put Uridium 2 and Disposable Hero on top of it any time. Of course, those games came later, but today it's 2012.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by mikebRG

You can read the SWIV feature here - Making of Swiv - some very interesting snippets on how the sprite system and in-game loading worked (the game basically loaded the level maps as you played, which allowed for such enormous levels).

Saint Dragon also loaded while you played if I remember.

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Akira

Bahahahahhaha!!!

About the "best shooter on Amiga" moniker... You can use old magazine ratings all you want, but nowadays, with ALL Amiga games released and behind us, a new scoring can be made, actually comparing ALL the Amiga shooters ever released. When BS was released it faced no competition for years to come, but today Battle Squadron is still at the top, but I for one, would put Uridium 2 and Disposable Hero on top of it any time. Of course, those games came later, but today it's 2012.

Agree. And we also have [ Show youtube player ]

Heh... quite enjoying this thread though, it's like those schoolyard arguments about C64 vs Spectrum, only more entertaining...

I loved Uridium 2, but it's hard to compare it (or Apidya) to Battle Squadron as its not a verty shooter

My top ten Amiga shmups (hori or verty, in no particular order) would probably be:

Battle Squadron
S.W.I.V
Banshee
Hybris
Uridium 2
Apidya
Super Stardust
Overkill
Datastorm
Llamatron

With shout-outs also to Agony, Disposable Hero, U.N. Squadron and Katakis. But I never really liked Project X...

[Predseda]

I am for C64

[JudasEZT]

SWIV is amazing, no doubt of it.

I dont like the design and specially weapon design on Disposable Hero. Its a game which doesnt hook.

As much as I like Dan/Anarchy coding skills, Blastar seems like a rush of routines released before anyone care about them.. but unconnected and unexciting. A pity.


Respect Blood Money,.. well I NEVER liked the fucked intro. Crap techno-crap tune and too long to skip.
Having said that, the game is too difficult and too long. ( shorter stages would benefitted ) and too sensitive to collisions, making energy bar desintegrate in a way that simply is no funny at all.

Having said that,.. the game is far from amateur.. Menace is amateurish, but BloodMoney is a good programming job. Just with some lame decisions in the gameplay department.

Have you checked C64 version of BloodMoney? it is very addictive!! is much more fair and playable.. and feels faster. Recommended!!

[JudasEZT]

btw, A mate of mine have been making a patch for Forgotten World in spectrum. To my suggestion he changed the control method by adding two rotating buttons (clock/anticlockwise) and removing the actual method.

The game plays now like a dream =)) maybe someone with hacking habilities can do the same for Amiga version.

Originally Posted by JudasEZT

Have you checked C64 version of BloodMoney? it is very addictive!! is much more fair and playable.. and feels faster. Recommended!!

Yep the C64 version is definitely superior. Same with Armalyte (no idea what happened with the Amiga version, but they went and broke the game...)

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by mikebRG

With shout-outs also to Agony, Disposable Hero, U.N. Squadron and Katakis. But I never really liked Project X...

Project X was pretty much just Menace with better graphics. Wave after wave of identical baddies in repeating sequences, competent but dull after the eye candy wore off.

A lot of Amiga games were like that, unfortunately -- good graphics and sound but somewhat lacking imagination in the design department. The arcade conversions were often the best games even if the graphics suffered a little in translation.

Nobody has mentioned X-out yet. I liked the way you could kit out your ship at the beginning.

[john1979]

Tubular Worlds AGA, is pretty impressive. Quite a nice console like shooter. A LOT going off on screen, pretty smooth scrolling. For such a good shmup it never seems to get a mention.

It's only downfall being that it was quite difficult to distinguish enemy bullets from the background.

[Djay]

Originally Posted by mikebRG

Yep the C64 version is definitely superior. Same with Armalyte (no idea what happened with the Amiga version, but they went and broke the game...)

Same with Wizball

Originally Posted by Djay

Same with Wizball

Oh god yes I forgot about that travesty (probably the best thing...)

Thanks for the suggestion of Tubular Worlds, I never got round to playing it, and will give it a whirl...

[TorbenLarsen]

Originally Posted by 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??

Yes I knew of Apydia interesting concept with an insect shooter and house style music

Also I forgot to mention that Battle Squadron shows no sign of slowing down on the Amiga even when you go at it in 2 player mode and you get that more sprite and objects on screen. In this mode the tweaked blitter copper code really shows, imo.

For those who think we just only ported Battle Squadron to smartphone devices, we also made a rare and unique 2 player split-screen feature which works quite on a iPad or Tablet.

[Marcuz]

I liked Xenon II much more, or even Project X, R-Type II, Cybernoid II, or the horribly unfair Disposable Hero and Starush.

Never got to like Battle Squadron, got quickly bored with it. Nice graphics tough, not completely consistent, but nice: while they fight with those of the vehicles and shots effects, terrain and structures are great.

[Tolls]

I always had a soft spot for Sarcophaser. Looks really basic now I look back, but the gameplay was pretty finely tuned.