Amount of game releases

[Zak]

Can anyone tell how many games have actually and officially been released for each Amiga system? What I mean is OCS, ECS, AGA, PowerPC, OS4, CDTV and CD³². I don't mean how many games you could possibly get to run with tricks or taken from the other platforms, but how many games were officially released for those platforms stand-alone that were meant for it? Surely, a CD³² game is mostly an AGA disk game fixed to run on the CD³² but what I mean is, that it was an official version to be released as a CD³² game available for purchase, not a selfmade improvised version of an AGA game to be burned to a CD at home. You understand the difference?

This would also be interesting for other Retro systems and their different branches.

I searched EAB for it, it has possibly been discussed before, but I couldn't find it, bare with me.

[sokolovic]

Try the advanced search of LemonAmiga with the "commercial" filter.

257 AGA games
156 CD32
3205 OCS

[dreadnought]

I'd rather go with HoL's search, its database is more complete.

[NPI]

Nobody can really tell, as it depends on definition (i.e. which educational software count as a game and which is an utility). Also, Project-X and Project-X (Revised Edition) - do you consider them as two stand-alone games or one game with an updated version. In the old HoL there were two entries, in the new there is one entry for it.

Also, I presonally draw the line so that (commercial) Amiga games ended in 2005 with Desert Racing of BarDos. Everything after I consider homebrew stuff. Again, that's my personal view.

Overall, I think there are about 4000 stand-alone releases for the Amiga (AGA and ECS). Including around 100-150 that are MIA.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by NPI

.

Also, I presonally draw the line so that (commercial) Amiga games ended in 2005 with Desert Racing of BarDos. Everything after I consider homebrew stuff. Again, that's my personal view.

A personal view that defy logic IMHO.
Why would Reshoot P3 or Cecconoid considered homebrew stuff ? Why choose an arbitrary date line in 2005 ?
By definition a commercial game is... A commercial game, no matter how many people were involved in its production.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

I'd rather go with HoL's search, its database is more complete.

The problem is that HOL includes unreleased games when you choose commercial licence.
So it is a broader definition that doesn't fit the one requested here.

[NPI]

You can filter out the unreleased games.

A more correct year would probably be something else, as there were Amijeweled and OS4 games in 2007 and what not... But in general with BoH in 2009 there was a revival of "commercial" Amiga games. I just happen to consider them as homebrew products.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by NPI

I just happen to consider them as homebrew products.

Just yesterday I changed a game to 'commercial/full price' in HOL even if it most likely didn't and will not sell more than 500 copies

[NPI]

I mean I'm not insisting on anything, nor will I change anything in HoL for that matter. These new games are basically hobbyist endeavors, and the 2000's were sort of a transitional period between them and commercial. That's the way I see it.

[TCD]

That's what I meant as well. You just can't compare a commercial release from 1991 with one from 2024 for the Amiga.

[sokolovic]

Of course there is a difference. But that's a philosophical PoV.
Cecconoid or Reshoot P3 are commercial games, protected by licence. Amiga versions of Metal Gear or Final Fight enhanced aren't. The number of copies sold shouldnt be taken in consideration IMO.
Or you should fix an arbitrary time limit (but when ? On which criterias ?

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

The number of copies sold shouldnt be taken in consideration IMO.

It isn't. Comparing Worms to Reshoot P3 still doesn't make any sense. The real problem is that Amiga fans would never accept any 'deadline' (literally). If you release a game on any console that is 20 years old no fan of that console would have a problem with calling it homebrew if it is sold for money.

[Megalomaniac]

Final Fight was released in 1991. Final Fight: Enhanced was released in 2024. Which is better, or more worthy of our time? A lot of contemporary Amiga releases have more love and care put into them than a lot of games from back in the day, and often more talented developers too. I don't know that they should automatically be ghettoised as something different from the games we spent £25-35 on in our youth.

Obviously there are 'grey areas' in terms of whether a game is different enough from another, but I think anything with different level layouts or competitions is different enough to count separately. Project X 93 feels distinct enough to me (you could certainly justify giving them both different marks out of 10).

As for different OCS/AGA/CD32 releases I'd say OCS versions almost always look different enough to be considered a distinct game to an AGA title, though if a game is simply shovelled onto CD with the same graphics as before, no new music, and no control changes to suit the CD32 controller, I'm not sure that CD32 version is different enough.

[TCD]

Licence: Commercial
Release Type: Full Price
Released: Yes
Hardware: OCS
Compilation: No
=
4,214 games

[NPI]

Originally Posted by TCD

Licence: Commercial
Release Type: Full Price
Released: Yes
Hardware: OCS
Compilation: No
=
4,214 games

By the end of the year I'm thinking about comparing the lists of games from old hol and the new one.




The new list should be revised since there are entries like these that need to be split up: https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/1...1993er-edition


or thing like these where the demo version is marked as unreleased, therefore Zombie Massacre doesn't make it the list: https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/zombie-massacre


Maybe removing unreleased and putting the license as Demo/Proof of concept should be good.

[NPI]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Of course there is a difference. But that's a philosophical PoV.
Cecconoid or Reshoot P3 are commercial games, protected by licence. Amiga versions of Metal Gear or Final Fight enhanced aren't. The number of copies sold shouldnt be taken in consideration IMO.
Or you should fix an arbitrary time limit (but when ? On which criterias ?

Look I get it, and you are right. But simply by historical context there should be a line. I already said where I draw it


Not only for Amiga, but for all of our beloved computers that ended because of unfair PC supremacy.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by NPI

or thing like these where the demo version is marked as unreleased, therefore Zombie Massacre doesn't make it the list: https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/zombie-massacre

'If at least one version is released, don't count the game as unreleased' should fix it.

[Megalomaniac]

If we have to have a 'line' between the commercial era and the homebrew era, I'd put it much earlier than 2005. The last releases from big companies who also published on systems which (by then) were more profitable than the Amiga were much earlier - maybe Championship Manager 2 in 1997 was about the last one? 1996 was the last year with any serious amount of such games, and also the last year of any of the established Amiga Games dedicated magazines (at least in the UK?). Vulcan leaving the Amiga in 1999 was the last of the commercial-era companies still involved, and even Amiga Format folded in 2000, that was the last semblance of the commercial era as we knew it. I'd rather keep it simple and count commercial releases the same whether they're 1986, 1991, 1994, 2000, 2007, 2024 or (we can hope) 2050.

[TCD]

The 'count' part is really the 'problem'. If you count 'mammals', a whale and a mouse each count as one of them.

The question about how many commercial games were released on the Amiga came up a few times over the years and the best answer is: It depends. Around 4000 is a somewhat safe estimate.

[dreadnought]

It's an interesting thing to think about and I can see how both sides have valid points. Personally I'd probably count all games sold for money as "commercial", with the "release year" adding necessary context (my line between "proper commercial' and "homebrew commercial' would be probably drawn somewhere in the late Nineties).