PC games that made the Amiga look like Shit

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

Copyright dates for arcade conversions often referred to the original arcade release, not the later home version.

As a general rule: Copyright date isn't the same as release date. Even for games that aren't ports from the arcade (or other systems). You can (and most likely) will register a copyright before you release something. It can be the same year that you release the thing you got the copyright for, but it doesn't have to be.

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

Copyright dates for arcade conversions often referred to the original arcade release, not the later home version. See e.g. Rainbow Islands, where the home versions says 1987 on the title screen but were released in 1990.The copyright is to Data East rather than Elite (or New World Computing who published it in the US) which would normally imply a 1991 arcade game released later for home systems. Still, even for 1992 those graphics are quite advanced compared to the Epic or Apogee stuff of the day, though I think they moved just as sluggishly as the Amiga version on most PCs of the time.

Interesting. So it is possible that Joe and Mac didn't come out until 1992 on DOS. The other 2D games always mentioned by PC users that had good ports were Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 but both of those were 1993 on DOS according to Moby. Thus you could say it took 7 years for the PC to outmatch the Amiga in 2D with one single action game in 1992 and 8 years to outmatch it with a handful in 1993. As a 2D lover myself that's quite a run.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lionagony

So it is possible that Joe and Mac didn't come out until 1992 on DOS.

Not only possible, but very likely. Somebody would have to check US gaming magazines to confirm when it was first reviewed there (been there, done that, not doing it in this case ).

[gimbal]

Mobygames has a listing:

URL: Offline Review
Score: 71 of 100
Date: 1992-03
Source: Power Play

[CCCP alert]

Couldn't find a single video of Joe and Mac running on even a low end 486, all emulated recordings which are probably not set to the correct CPU speed for a computer you would have in 1991-93.

The VGA graphics are nice, the Amiga graphics have the whiff of the PD too so not exactly up to OCS Shadow of the Beast levels of 32 colour Amiga graphics. If anything it highlights the lower standards on average as companies milked the Amiga for all it was worth. So yes it does make the Amiga look shit, doubt it scrolled at 50/60fps like on all the DOSbox etc YT videos clogging up the net. Nothing had smooth horizontal parallax scrolling on a 25mhz 486 back then lol

[sandruzzo]

If we are talking about PC/Amiga Configuration, I would rather says that Amiga made PC game look like shit

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by sandruzzo

If we are talking about PC/Amiga Configuration, I would rather says that Amiga made PC game look like shit

Yes but that is the topic of the other 99.99% of threads on this site.

[Megalomaniac]

Even if we assume that PC Caveman Ninja ran at a decent speed on a 1992 PC (a 25Mhz 486 would have been more than most PC owners had at the time), we're still comparing a third-rate game (with some of the worst scrolling I've ever seen on a full price game which isn't an ST port) for a 1985 Amiga (albeit 1 Meg only) with what would be a first-rate 1992 PC game. Colours aside, I don't think this is a match for Amiga Turrican 2 (which scrolls, smoothly, in multiple directions), or Lionheart, or even Shadow of the Beast. Certainly no reason for 2D action game fans to envy PC owners at that time.

[gimbal]

Jazz jack rabbit was pretty much it that I can remember at the time, but little to no parallax. The die hard companies like Epic that targeted the PC eventually figured it out but it was a long journey.

[CCCP alert]

Toki, from a game coder's point of view, is similar to Joe and Mac and it does a much better job of making a nice looking game on an OCS chipset. You have to factor in how little effort was put into Amiga games 1993 onward which is really the first full year the PC developers can hope something between 33/40mhz 386DX or 25/33mhz 486SX is going to be a reasonable target platform to aim for to get 25 or 30 fps scrolling games made for home users in the EU.

Like it or lump it most of the big EU publishers by this time, like Ocean, had a foot in the console market too as well as possibly doing a VGA DOS conversion as well so less effort was put on OCS/ECS games and they rarely did a top notch AGA port, if at all, either.