CD32 vs Floppy versions

[Retro1234]

They should of done more compilations rather that just one game per CD for about £20

It should of fitted a market for a budget 16bit machine rather than a 32bit machine!

Plus you could of had some FMV games etc etc blah blah blah.......commodore should of paid for conversions them selves - employed coders etc...

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by Akira

Funny how that's what a game still costs despite the cheaper media being used (in many cases, NO MEDIA at all!)

Well digital games aside, we all know games are ALOT cheaper than they were in the 90s, even full price Amiga games were £26-£30 which with inflation is around £48-£55, thats retail console game prices today! Where as console games on average were £50 (many went to £55-£60 even £70 in a couple of instances!) which in todays money is an eye-watering £95-£130! Imagine people paying those prices today, seems insane though many did, personally i rented Megadrive games.
Theres no way kids themselves could afford them on pocket money back then! Which by the was by the way £2 in 1993 (25 weeks to save for a top console game) in 2018 its £7 (7 weeks to save for top console game)

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by Akira

Not really.
Psygnosis was given early access to the CD32 and the shit they came up with was Microcosm. Which wasn't even exclusive.

Psygnosis bought FM Towns Marty consoles to get a head start on CD games development.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by idrougge

Psygnosis bought FM Towns Marty consoles to get a head start on CD games development.

Well Fujitsu funded Psygnosis to make games for their new console, shame Commodore didnt have the foresight do to the same thing.

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by Akira

The hardware was able. They could have done a lot of good stuff with it if they had any clue.

Like what? The CD32 didn't have the graphical power of the SNES, or even the Megadrive. Not if you're looking to do, well, "console" games. So you get sub-par platformers, sub-par shmups and sub-par fighters with loading times and a sub-par controller.
The only game styles where the CD32 could hold its own were Road Avenger-style games, which were too expensive to develop without actually being good games, or adventure games, which are better played on a computer. Even when it came to 3D, the SNES outclassed the CD32.

Originally Posted by Akira

There was also as you mention that time in games history, a shift in aim at games, everything went 3D with the advent of the Playstation, and there was no competing with that.

People wanted 3D even if it looked absolutely horrid, like most early PSX games do.

There was still space though, IMO, for beautifully crafted 2D games. Rayman or Gex were great examples. But yeah A1200/CD32's biggest drawback was that it kept compatibility with shit old machines that were working in a way that didn't allow for console-like action to happen at its best, whether it be 2D or 3D. So even if you pushed it, I don't know if a game like Rayman would have been possible.

Something which we easily forget now is what the games market looked like at the introduction of the Playstation and Saturn. It wasn't just the novelty that pulled people to the new 3D CD platforms, it was also the fact that beautiful 2D games were being pushed off the market by ugly 2D shovelware. The Americans had learned to just about make something run on the 16-bit consoles by then, and so had the Europeans, flooding the market with lacklustre platformers and licence titles (often in combination, giving us classics such as Home Improvement) so that there was hardly any market left for well-made games outside of Japan. It was a situation not that dissimilar to what always happens to the Gameboy and its successors.

[Retro1234]

I don't want to get into it but a 68020 Amiga can match Snes or MD I say no more but it could compete.

[Seiya]

maybe on paper 68020 could be much better, but there are no titles compared to SNES/MD that show it.

[Retro1234]

You can move alot of graphics around on screen with 68020

I don't want to get into it but name a game you thinks not possible?

[Seiya]

Street Fighter 2 and Super Street Fighter 2 Series

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

I don't want to get into it

= "I don't actually have any factual technical knowledge to back up the claim".

Yeah don't get into it.

[th4t1guy]

I thought Liberation did a good job of showcasing the cd32, but unfortunately, not many games like that were created and nobody was really making exclusives for the platform.

[Zak]

I got my hands on a bundle of Amiga CD´s in the late 90´s and when I realised non of them would run on my A1200 or A4000 I finally decided to get a CD32. It was heavily modified, but still working and cheap. I still have it.

I was kind of disappointed that the interchangeability of software on the Amiga was so poor. CD32 programs did not run on any other Amigas, A1200 programs did not run on my A4000 and vice versa. Even though all of these computers were considered to be the same generation of hardware.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Well Fujitsu funded Psygnosis to make games for their new console, shame Commodore didnt have the foresight do to the same thing.

Microcosm?

[Amiga1992]

Not only Microcosm is shit, I thought it was an FM-Towns original, so not even a CD32 exclusive.

The only game I can think of that is CD32 (timed) exclusive and worth showing the machine with was Liberation, but that was not an easy to pick up game.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by alexh

Microcosm?

Not sure of that myself, they paid a license to use it in the bundle in 94, maybe they did for the CDTV when it was in production for that in whatever form it was in 1991 but maybe just to produce a tech demo cd, in the end Microcosm came out nearly a year after the FM Towns version.

Originally Posted by Akira

The only game I can think of that is CD32 (timed) exclusive and worth showing the machine with was Liberation, but that was not an easy to pick up game.

Had some other timed exclusives, Roadkill and Guardian were released on the CD32 first, and Fire & Ice and Nick Faldos Golf, Wing Commander are the only AGA versions of those games, whilst games like Litil Divil, Flink and Pirates Gold! didnt have disk releases, amongst a few others not really worth mentioning.

But yeah it a case of waiting for some great stuff to show off, i used to show the Microcosm intro at school, then we ended up playing a pd version of frogger!
I said wait until the end of the year, TFX, Inferno, Megarace, Cyberwar....never came, thankfully that was my last year at school so i didnt have to live that down!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Had some other timed exclusives, Roadkill and Guardian were released on the CD32 first, and Fire & Ice and Nick Faldos Golf, Wing Commander are the only AGA versions of those games, whilst games like Litil Divil, Flink and Pirates Gold! didnt have disk releases, amongst a few others not really worth mentioning.

The thing with Liberation is that it was -conceived- as a CD32 title first.
Roadkill nor Guardian feel like they take any advantage of the CD32, just like they made it so it would easily work on A1200 too. AGA versions of whatever, is just the same old game with more stuff (not much). The other three were conversions from other hardware.

Liberation is in my opinion the only true CD32 game ever .

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by Akira

The thing with Liberation is that it was -conceived- as a CD32 title first.
Roadkill nor Guardian feel like they take any advantage of the CD32, just like they made it so it would easily work on A1200 too. AGA versions of whatever, is just the same old game with more stuff (not much). The other three were conversions from other hardware.

Liberation is in my opinion the only true CD32 game ever .

True, it was Liberation that made the first real spurt of sales in early 1994, I agree about the others, though Guardian was getting good reviews in the multiformat mags and titles like this certainly helped more than old A500 ports.

Technically Litil Divil wasn’t a port as the game was developed for the Amiga 500 first way back when, since there was no disk version CD32 owners can claim it (not that its not boring as hell but its a game not ported from disk, which was always nice to get back then)

[malko]

Originally Posted by th4t1guy

I thought Liberation did a good job of showcasing the cd32, but unfortunately, not many games like that were created and nobody was really making exclusives for the platform.

I played Captive but never heard about a sequel... And after looking at the introduction of the game I have only one word : WHAOU !!! scenario, music, position of the camera, it's excellent !!!
[ Show youtube player ]

[Seiya]

yes, this is an esclusive CD32 game

[dirk_the_daring]

Originally Posted by Seiya

yes, this is an esclusive CD32 game

Nope, indeed there is a disk version that only needs an OCS machine, but 1.3Mb free memory is needed (and with only 5 disks and little disk changes, so even HD is not required)