My first impressions of an Amiga & favourites!

[Brick Nash]

My first Amiga was the Flight Of Fantasy pack way back in 1990 (Really my older brothers). The only game I remember getting from it was F29 Retaliator but I think there were others too.

At the tender age of 12 and coming from an Amstrad 6128 I had never seen graphics like the initial loading screen of F29 and I thought it was totally photo realistic.

The three games I most remember after that were Shadow Of The Beast II, Golden Axe and Batman: The Movie which I played to absolute death.

Shadow Of The Beast II set off my imagination in ways I couldn't imagine and has influenced me as a musician so much. Golden Axe is still the version I prefer over the Megadrive AND the arcade game as it's faster and much more responsive.

There were so many other games that stood out like 'It Came From The Desert', more specifically the extension 'Antheads', Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, Frontier but I actually think my most played game was Final Fight!

Being a fan of the arcade game I couldn't wait to get my hands on a home version as the Super Famicom was well out my reach. On seeing the intro I was totally amazed at how accurate it was and that amazing music and although I was initially disappointed at how many moves had been cut out I came to realise that it was a really smooth and well coded game.

Ever since I've wanted to do my own scrolling beat 'em up on the Amiga and Final Fight influenced me but after asking some not-so-knowledgeable teachers in school about it I was told I couldn't handle it it due to my dyslexia.

Well I've managed to do a couple of games in Game Maker (I know, mickey mouse code) including a working demo of my own Shinobi type game which was a slog but I wanted to go old school and only now after 25 years am I getting the chance to thanks to WinUAE and Amos.

Truly fascinating stuff, the Amiga hardware architecture is amazing considering the time it was released.

It seems like I'm unlocking the secrets of the universe, which may sound silly but that's how it feels!

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Golden Axe is still the version I prefer over the Megadrive AND the arcade game as it's faster and much more responsive.

Really? I agree that the Amiga version is overall quite nice to play but playing the MegaDrive version (on my PS2 I must admit, via the Genesis collection disk), I feel it is more accurate to the arcade than the Amiga. But maybe I am recollecting it wrong.

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

but I actually think my most played game was Final Fight!

Being a fan of the arcade game I couldn't wait to get my hands on a home version as the Super Famicom was well out my reach. On seeing the intro I was totally amazed at how accurate it was and that amazing music and although I was initially disappointed at how many moves had been cut out I came to realise that it was a really smooth and well coded game.

You will most certainly interested in following these EAB threads then: Beats of Fire and Final Fight AGA. It is worth to read them from begin to end as Richard Aplin, the coder of the original Amiga version makes a few very informative comments along the thread.

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Ever since I've wanted to do my own scrolling beat 'em up on the Amiga and Final Fight influenced me but after asking some not-so-knowledgeable teachers in school about it I was told I couldn't handle it it due to my dyslexia.

My, if you allow me the expression this is an absolute load of irresponsible bullshit that these teachers told you!
My parents were teacher trainers and they would have been really pissed to hear such categorical and unsubstantiated absurdity from actual teachers.

There have been countless studies showing that people with dyslexia can achieve the same things as any other kitten around. Sure, this particularity is going to make a few things annoying or difficult but they also show that people with dyslexia are good to work around these issues in creative ways.
I am certain that if you put the proper amount of effort, you can code as well as any other.

I work in the games industry and I have met plenty of dyslexic kittens who have no issue coding or designing at all. You will manage fine as long as you put the effort into it, I am certain of it!

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Well I've managed to do a couple of games in Game Maker (I know, mickey mouse code) including a working demo of my own Shinobi type game which was a slog but I wanted to go old school and only now after 25 years am I getting the chance to thanks to WinUAE and Amos.

Game Maker is a great tool. Especially for prototyping design ideas.

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Truly fascinating stuff, the Amiga hardware architecture is amazing considering the time it was released.

It seems like I'm unlocking the secrets of the universe, which may sound silly but that's how it feels!

We know the feeling. Keep it up, it is just the beginning!

[Brick Nash]

=ReadOnlyCat;1096662]Really? I agree that the Amiga version is overall quite nice to play but playing the MegaDrive version (on my PS2 I must admit, via the Genesis collection disk), I feel it is more accurate to the arcade than the Amiga. But maybe I am recollecting it wrong.

The Megadrive version was a lot more accurate but I just love the speed of the Amiga port and I feel it's way more responsive too.

You will most certainly interested in following these EAB threads then: Beats of Fire and Final Fight AGA. It is worth to read them from begin to end as Richard Aplin, the coder of the original Amiga version makes a few very informative comments along the thread.

I've read this thread and it's super SUPER interesting (Very sad too!). Final Fight is a hefty task for an Amiga and I really admire what Richard did and Leathered too for how far he got on his own. I think I'd like to try a port of the first Streets of Rage game at some point as I think the smaller sprites and ore limited animations would suit the Amiga really well.

My, if you allow me the expression this is an absolute load of irresponsible bullshit that these teachers told you!
My parents were teacher trainers and they would have been really pissed to hear such categorical and unsubstantiated absurdity from actual teachers.

There have been countless studies showing that people with dyslexia can achieve the same things as any other kitten around. Sure, this particularity is going to make a few things annoying or difficult but they also show that people with dyslexia are good to work around these issues in creative ways.
I am certain that if you put the proper amount of effort, you can code as well as any other.

I work in the games industry and I have met plenty of dyslexic kittens who have no issue coding or designing at all. You will manage fine as long as you put the effort into it, I am certain of it!

Yes it was quite a fight in the early 90's at school as there wasn't that much support for Dyslexia bar a few special ed. classes. To be fair I have more of what's known as Dyscalculia which means I have real trouble with numbers and maths as opposed to words and letters. Looking at code can be tough sometimes as it's like turning on a TV and getting a blank screen as there's just zero visualisation in my head of what's going on. Once it clicks it's ok but I drove a few maths teachers round the bend a few times haha! Programming seems to help problem solving and logical thinking quite a bit and it's one of the reasons I want to take it up.

Game Maker is a great tool. Especially for prototyping design ideas.

It really is. I find it very flexible and it gave me my first taste for programming but the Amiga has always been my real target!

We know the feeling. Keep it up, it is just the beginning!

I shall. Glad I have such a good and patient forum like this. Great resource and great people!

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Brick Nash

Yes it was quite a fight in the early 90's at school as there wasn't that much support for Dyslexia bar a few special ed. classes. To be fair I have more of what's known as Dyscalculia which means I have real trouble with numbers and maths as opposed to words and letters. Looking at code can be tough sometimes as it's like turning on a TV and getting a blank screen as there's just zero visualisation in my head of what's going on. Once it clicks it's ok but I drove a few maths teachers round the bend a few times haha! Programming seems to help problem solving and logical thinking quite a bit and it's one of the reasons I want to take it up.

Maybe it was better I didn't get help for my learning disabilities. I was intelligent enough in most areas to be a top student in high school. Some of the males in our family, including me, have a problem with verbal comprehension, slow memory processing and short term memory input in general. I didn't know my teachers names at the end of the year in grade school but I could do everything they asked of me. It was all fine until college where I was expected to perform well taking difficult courses but I didn't get enough from lectures and I was not fast enough. Some teachers would not give me any extra time on tests saying it was a "competition" and some were standardized tests with a set time limit. Getting 90% of the answers correct but only finishing 80% of the work would result in a C grade. I finally got a 2 year AA degree after becoming discouraged, depressed and practically dropping out. My cousin was diagnosed with a similar problem a few years later and received a ridiculous amount of help. Anyway, don't let people tell you what you are capable of. Find out for yourself. I have worked on my weak areas and made tremendous advances. The C language was difficult for me at first while I picked up the more logical 68k assembler language easily. I have worked with C enough now that I can teach a few tricks. Learn your strengths, learn your weaknesses and work on both. It sounds like you have the right attitude to overcome .

[Brick Nash]

Originally Posted by matthey

Maybe it was better I didn't get help for my learning disabilities. I was intelligent enough in most areas to be a top student in high school. Some of the males in our family, including me, have a problem with verbal comprehension, slow memory processing and short term memory in general. I didn't know my teachers names at the end of the year in grade school but I could do everything they asked of me. It was all fine until college where I was expected to perform well taking difficult courses but I didn't get enough from lectures and I was not fast enough. Some teachers would not give me any extra time on tests saying it was a "competition" and some were standardized tests with a set time limit. Getting 90% of the answers correct but only finishing 80% of the work would result in a C grade. I finally got a 2 year AA degree after becoming discouraged, depressed and practically dropping out. My cousin was diagnosed with a similar problem a few years later and received a ridiculous amount of help. Anyway, don't let people tell you what you are capable of. Find out for yourself. I have worked on my weak areas and made tremendous advances. The C language was difficult for me at first while I picked up the more logical 68k assembler language easily. I have worked with C enough now that I can teach a few tricks. Learn your strengths, learn your weaknesses and work on both. It sounds like you have the right attitude to overcome .

Thanks! It's annoying that all those years I didn't try because I thought I couldn't do it but eyes on the prize!

I recall there was a small game programming tutorial in one of the magazines in around 1992 or thereabouts but there was a mistake in the print and so the code wouldn't work past a certain point. I think it was at that point that I gave up any hopes of programming on the Amiga as I could hardly handle my maths homework never mind try to understand code. Funnily enough I did see adverts for Amos and the like and was very tempted to try it but never did.

No excuses now!

[Zetr0]

@Brick_Nash

You have nothing too loose - maybe a little hair when you get a logic problem - but that is perfectly normal

Get stuck in, don't listen to the nay-sayers as they are too busy saying nay than achieving something!

[mintsauce82]

Yay, another 6128 graduate! It was my first computer too. Felt like such a privilege to not have to wait for tapes to load, even at the age of 6 or 7 it felt good to be ahead of the curve, even if it was kinda crappy for gaming

The Amiga hardware is special, something I'm only truly appreciating now thanks to all the recent documentaries that are appearing. You knew at the time that it was the best computer on the market, but I never really understood how big of an advancement it was until now.

[Brick Nash]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@Brick_Nash

You have nothing too loose - maybe a little hair when you get a logic problem - but that is perfectly normal

Get stuck in, don't listen to the nay-sayers as they are too busy saying nay than achieving something!

Thanks! It certainly activates the brain!

Originally Posted by mintsauce82

Yay, another 6128 graduate! It was my first computer too. Felt like such a privilege to not have to wait for tapes to load, even at the age of 6 or 7 it felt good to be ahead of the curve, even if it was kinda crappy for gaming

The Amiga hardware is special, something I'm only truly appreciating now thanks to all the recent documentaries that are appearing. You knew at the time that it was the best computer on the market, but I never really understood how big of an advancement it was until now.

Indeed, the disc loading system was pure witchery to me after so many years with the Speccy. Felt amazingly futuristic. I think The Amstrad was a little like the ST in that it was really just some off the shelf junk but I can honestly say I never had one bit of trouble with it. Loved games like The Sacred Armour Of Antiriad and Head Over Heels.

For a mid/late 80's computer I thought the Amiga was light years ahead of the competition. So clever and such a great platform for experimenting on too. I had all the consoles as well but how games were made on them are still a mystery to me but The Amiga opened up possibilities.