TOP 15 Apple IIGS games

[Castelian]

For a computer that ran at the snails pace of 2.8 Mhz, its pretty amazing to think that the IIGS had the best versions of pretty much every game that was released in terms of graphics and sound. Just compare the following games to their Atari ST, DOS, and Amiga versions.

[ Show youtube player ]

[T_hairy_bootson]

Is it just the youtube video or was the scrolling and framerate really that horrible on all IIgs games?

Out of this world looks like it is dropping too many frames to be playable. Thexder looks like it is on frameskip 5. Arkanoid looks impossible to play, the ball just seems to teleport across the screen. I always thought the IIgs a capable machine but that video was not impressive at all.

[Castelian]

the frame skipping is thanks to camtasia's screen recording program. My Dell 610 can't take much more fps than I used. Likewise, the cursor that appears in some of the games isn't present on an actual IIGS. I do have some clips of me recording the gameplay on an actual IIGS in my IIGS Review video, but that's about it.

[T_hairy_bootson]

So where are these superior to amiga games you mentioned then? Out of this world didnt look or sound any better than the amiga version and looked kinda letterboxed. The rest of the games looked like 8-bit games. I'm sure there was at least one or two "amiga version beaters" on the IIgs, your video didnt show any of them.

[Castelian]

The IIGS offered many video sizes with Out of this World. With a stock 2.8 Mhz, if you play OOTW in large video, it is much slower than the Amiga. That's why I used letterbox, its faster than full screen. The Amiga was far superior as far as speed, no question. But my post was regarding graphics and sound.

Zany Golf, Thexder, Silpheed, Qix, the Immortal, and Arkanoid all have far superior sound (anyone who disagrees has obviously never heard a IIGS). Graphically Thexder, Silpheed, Zany Golf, and Out of this World are about equal, every other game I've seen such as Arkanoid, the IIGS came out ahead. If you can give me a specific game that you know the Amiga has a better version (either with sound, graphics, or both), please share it with me and I'll check it out.

Now that being said, if we were to take a look at which of these 2 systems had a better supply of awesome games, that would easily go to the Amiga. Fire and Ice, Gods, Turrican II... games just dont get better than that! I honestly love both systems and play them both pretty equally nowadays. I'll always be partial to the IIGS, but I think I can offer a somewhat more objective take on comparing them than certain people who have never even touched a IIGS.

[desiv]

Always been a big fan of the IIGS, although I don't agree the graphics are generally better.
I just don't see it, even with Arkanoid..

Although the IIGS did have the 256 color 320x200 mode that was pretty fast.

Now, I will give the IIGS props on sound. It did have a great sound chip...
Esonique Wavetable.. Nice...
Interesting that the best part of the the IIGS, the sound chip, was designed by Bob Yannes, who designed the SID chip for the C64.

And considering what it did with 2.8Mhz.. I don't think any of it (other than sound) was better than the Amiga, but then again the Amiga had a few more Mhz to throw at it. :-)

I think what I liked most about the IIGS is that it was the II line. Always liked Woz and the II line.. I have a Mac Classic, and used a Mac back in the day. They have their nice parts, but I liked the II line SO much better!!!

Considering the IIGS was released after the Amiga 1000, having a max res of 640x200 and only 2.8Mhz wasn't going to cut it against the ST and the Amiga, even with better sound..
The IIGS, if it had been released at 7-8Mhz with a 640x400 mode would have been serious competition, but I think it would have been too much competition for the Mac line for Apple to do that..

If I can pick one up cheaply tho, I'll add it to my collection.. ;-)

Nice vid, and I really like the sound sample at 5:03... ;-)

desiv

[T_hairy_bootson]

Still havent shown me anything that is superior to the amiga in terms of graphics, Sound is nice on the IIGS but the amiga was no slouch either. If the video you provided is the top 15 IIGS games then I am glad I didnt have one, because its pretty disapointing.

[adonay]

Are those the "BEST" games,the mac must truly have been crap at gaming then. I like the sound though.

[s2325]

This sound chip should have Atari ST.

[Castelian]

Originally Posted by adonay

Are those the "BEST" games,the mac must truly have been crap at gaming then. I like the sound though.

Not best, favorite. There's a difference. Also, please don't refer to a IIGS as a Mac, it makes you sound very ignorant.

[kamelito]

Do you think that Crystal Quest sound came from the programmer wife
Honestly maybe better than Atari ST not more.
I've an Amiga and a IIGS
kml

[Amiga1992]

I love the IIGS. The sound is by far amazing, if used properly. Out Of This World had its best version on the IIGS thanks to the cinematic music, missing in ALL other versions.

Thanks for this video, you brought back some memories, and reminded me I shouldn't have thrown to the bin that IIGS I won on eBay with a busted PSU :P

I also want to thank you because I had totally forgotten about Crystal Quest. I played that one extensively on my uncle's IIGS. Love the sound of the "exit" *ahem*

[Castelian]

Originally Posted by Akira

I also want to thank you because I had totally forgotten about Crystal Quest. I played that one extensively on my uncle's IIGS. Love the sound of the "exit" *ahem*

I remember I was playing it while my girlfriend was in the other room and she heard the "exit" sound and was like "what the hell are you playing?"

[Amiga1992]

I bet my girlfriend was thinking the same xD
I was playing the Amiga version all night yesterday. Hehehe!

[Jack Burton]

The IIGS has indeed a very good audio chip with many voices and an FMish synth sound (when not used to play samples). Some years ago I recorded Ys (the game) first boss music on a tape and converted it on mp3.
Rastan is a good port too.

[mikele]

I really liked the video and got really intrigued by this little machine!
Checked its games library and I must say it's impressive, lots of games known from Amiga and Atari ST platforms plus many titles that never made an appearance on Amiga/ST like Silpheed, Puyo Puyo etc. I like IIGS even more as it turned out to be such an underdog in processing power comparing to aforementioned 16bit systems.

It surely was a blast in its heyday, delivering Amiga-like gaming experience to Apple users, while original Mac mostly had boring, monochrome games. Besides it seems to have had a nice operating system, featuring multitasking.

[Chuckles]

My first computer was an Apple II+, and I switched over to the Amiga shortly after the A500 came out in the US. At the time that the IIGS first came out, its price was prohibitively high relative to the Amiga, which went a long way towards pushing me in that direction. Still, I always wanted a IIGS and I now own both a ROM1 and a ROM3 version thanks to eBay. After having played with both the Amiga and the IIGS a lot over the years, I love both machines but there are some clear differences. Yes, some games on the IIGS may be better than the Amiga versions, but that is more a function of which port was better done than the other than anything else. The Amiga did have some games though that could not be duplicated on the IIGS with acceptable performance though - Shadow of the Beast being the most obvious one that comes to mind. Besides the difference in CPU speeds, the IIGS lacked the advantages that the Amiga's custom chip set provided, as the CPU on the IIGS had to handle all of the tasks that were distibuted among several different chips on the Amiga. As for multi-tasking, the Amiga is the clear winner there. While the IIGS does have some ability to multi-task if you're running under the GNO/ME system, that capability was not provided even by Apple's last official OS version for the IIGS - System 6.0.1. It's still a great little machine with some really nice features, but on balance the Amiga had it beat in terms of overall capabilities.

[demoniac]

I remember the text colors bleed on the IIgs. Don't have that issue on the Amiga.

[Adropac2]

I played an Apple 2gs emu recently and the one thing that struck me was chugging and screen tear.I'm guessing because of of that cpu

Rastan Saga is suprising excellent but then why that was never converted well onto Amiga?

Zany Golf music is very good on Amiga and features choir sounds so i'd be suprised if the gs matched this- GS features generated sound only for music?

Tunnels of A is gem i discovered recently thanks to the GS and was rather glad to see it's also on Amiga too.Great little game

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Adropac2

Zany Golf music is very good on Amiga and features choir sounds so i'd be suprised if the gs matched this- GS features generated sound only for music?

No, the IIGS sound chip is a true wavetable chip...

The Apple IIGS' sound was provided by an included Ensoniq 5503 DOC wavetable sound chip, the same chip used in Ensoniq's Mirage and ESQ-1 professional-grade synthesizers. The chip allowed for 32 separate channels of sound, though most software paired them into 16 stereo voices, as did the standard tools of the operating system.

It really was the best sound hardware available on any computer at the time..

And the Zany Golf theme is much more "full" and involved on the IIGS..

That being said, personally, I find the IIGS version a bit too busy... Almost like they were showing off what the hardware could do, rightfully so...

That's just me tho.. Quite a few people prefer the IIGS version...

desiv