Random retro thoughts

[dreadnought]

Want to talk about something retro gaming/computing related, but you feel it doesn't warrant its own thread? Post here...

**********************************

Is EGA-themed game revival on? Most likely not, but there are two pretty interesting ones being released this year:

Crimson Diamond (in August)

[ Show youtube player ]

SKALD: Against The Black Priory (already out)

[ Show youtube player ]

[Snoopy1234]

Retro gaming lives and because of that it goes, far out to those who are. The wannabe is sucked dry while the fat cats are reassured. I have been collecting for 8 years and it seems to be the Retro lifecycle. There's nothing left to it now. Hopefully the platforms and tech of the era regain some validity. A lot of todays' upgrades are demolishing it.

[Zak]

My thought is that Amiga would have sold tons of newer machines if the newer CPU processors would be more compatible to the classic Amiga stuff. But maybe that was discussed elsewhere and I am too lazybones to make a detailed search for it now.

[arcanist]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

Crimson Diamond (in August)

[ Show youtube player ]

I've had this on my Steam wishlist for years. My sister and I were huge fans of The Colonel's Bequest. I played The Dagger of Amon Ra much later as there wasn't an Amiga port.

I thought this project might have fizzled out, but the developer is active on Twitch and continues to stream work on it. Great to see it finally got a release date!

[roondar]

Skald looks pretty darned awesome if you ask me
I do like those low-colour/pixelated modern games that are being released these days. Some real gems included amongst them for sure!

[copse]

If the Crimson diamond is written in the older sierra type adventure creation systems, then maybe it is possible to play it on the Amiga using local engines. I see someone asked Julia less than a day ago and got told "Sadly no release for Amiga 500 is planned! It was designed with Windows PC in mind." The build there is D3D9, so a DOS emulator wouldn't work.

Took a quick look at the demo files:

game_width=320
game_height=200
gamecolordepth=32

And some of the other options are for AGS (adventure game studio). Here's a thread on the subject of an Amiga port, not sure if it eventuated.

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.u...mmodore-amiga/

But the source is available and games written in it also run in ScummVM if I understand correctly:

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.u...S_Engine_ports

[copse]

A question when I see low-colour games like Skald is, how close could you get to making it on an A500.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Zak

My thought is that Amiga would have sold tons of newer machines if the newer CPU processors would be more compatible to the classic Amiga stuff. But maybe that was discussed elsewhere and I am too lazybones to make a detailed search for it now.

Check this, or any other megathread with "A1200" in the OP

Originally Posted by copse

A question when I see low-colour games like Skald is, how close could you get to making it on an A500.

I think Crimson Diamond looks doable - my totally uninformed hunch says Amiga could handle both gfx and game logic. Not sure about Skald though, looks a bit more advanced.

[dreadnought]

Ever wondered what a slightly psychedelic follow up to the Jungle/Desert/etc Strike could look like? Enter the Megacopter. Not a big fan of the visuals, but the gameplay looks solid.

--------------

There's also a "sequel" to the Book 8088 - the early x86-based modern "laptop" from China sporting original 8088 inside. This time they offer a Pocket 386, with original 386SX chip and 8MB RAM inside.

The question for the ages, "but can it run Doom?" has already been tested, and the predictable answer is "just about" (though the youtube guy doesn't seem to be aware that you can lower the detail and shrink the screen).

Sarcasm aside, there's still plenty of fun things to do with this level machine outside of flogging that dead horse, and I wouldn't mind having one as it's quite cute...though 200 USD is kind of a bit much for a novelty item (though not really crazy either).

The fact that they managed to source original chips and squeeze it all into a laptop format also begs the more interesting question whether it could be possible with Amiga?

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

There's also a "sequel" to the Book 8088 - the early x86-based modern "laptop" from China sporting original 8088 inside. This time they offer a Pocket 386, with original 386SX chip and 8MB RAM inside.

I'll stick with my bare 386SX-16 motherboard thanks. Much better retro experience!

Back in the day I had a 386DX-40 motherboard mounted on a block of wood. Today I just use the cardboard box that the motherboard came in. Cards supported by nothing other than the slots, power supply and drives resting on the table, monitor balanced on top of the power supply, cables dangling in the breeze. Ah, the memories!