Buck Rogers II - Matrix Cubed

[Slayer]

I remember I played and finished Buck Rogers twice while
waiting for the sequel to be released. I still have the
two saved games believe it or not :P

Anyway, I see this game was never released, does this
mean, it does not exist OR?

I'd like nothing more to load up one of my saved teams
and carry on

heh...

can't hurt to ask anyway

reply to thread or PM if you like, any help appreciated

[Marcuz]

you can try this: get the pc version of the first game, do a party and save the game, edit it on a hexadecimal program, find the relevant part (characters, items and spells) and substitute it with the stuff from your amiga savegame. then get the pc version of the second of the serie and import the characters.
this should work if the games version are similar enough, as they should be.
at least it worked with eye of the beholder 2, and in some of the gold box games.
maybe you are lucky and the savegames' formats are identical or at least the stuff is.

[TCD]

Necro time! Found a second review for the Amiga version today:
https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/b...ix-cubed#scans (the other one is on AMR)
So two independent German magazine reviewed the Amiga version. Germany was also an important market for SSI (that's why they localised their games). Seems like there was really a (almost) finished version of the game.

[TCD]

"The Amiga version was apparently finished but never actually published. I reached out to programmer Kerry Bonin, who reported there was a serious bug in the Amiga version which caused the whole computer to crash. After weeks of hunting out the bug, management ordered the programmers to just let it go, since by then there was no market to publish a 16 bit version anyway."
https://genesistemple.com/the-buck-r...e-matrix-cubed

[Seiya]

but Kerry Bonin own this version that could release at community or he lost everything?

[derSammler]

Originally Posted by TCD

Necro time! Found a second review for the Amiga version today:
https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/b...ix-cubed#scans (the other one is on AMR)
So two independent German magazine reviewed the Amiga version. Germany was also an important market for SSI (that's why they localised their games). Seems like there was really a (almost) finished version of the game.

While I know this will upset many fans of the Amiga Joker magazine (sorry for that), but Amiga Joker is not a reliable source. They faked many tests by simply reviewing the PC version. The most known example for this is probably "Der Schatz im Silbersee".

I doubt the full game was ever sent out for reviews.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by derSammler

While I know this will upset many fans of the Amiga Joker magazine (sorry for that), but Amiga Joker is not a reliable source. They faked many tests by simply reviewing the PC version. The most known example for this is probably "Der Schatz im Silbersee".

I doubt the full game was ever sent out for reviews.

Maybe read the next post too. Amiga Joker tests are indeed to be taken with a grain of salt, but if PowerPlay tested the Amiga version too it is unlikely that they did it using the PC version as it was tested two issues before.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Seiya

but Kerry Bonin own this version that could release at community or he lost everything?

I've found a LinkedIn account that might be the person: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbonin
I don't have an account myself to ask.

[Kirben]

The Amiga version was never completed, according to the game's producer, their response from long ago, which I will quote again:

Heh... to be honest, I'm having a hard time remembering Amiga details. I was the producer in charge of Matrix Cubed, but the emphasis (and money) were always strongly fixed on the PC versions; Amiga conversions received only a fraction of the budget, because they got an even smaller fraction of the sales. Therefore, producers oversaw Amiga conversions at the same time we began new PC product. (In my case, I believe I was starting Stronghold at the time.)
Anyway, though I remember an Amiga version of Matrix Cubed on the schedule, I'm almost certain it was never completed. SSI was heading into deep financial troubles at the time, trying unsuccessfully) to avoid a huge layoff, and projects were being axed right and left. I don't remember exactly, but it seems likely that Matrix Amiga was zapped for that reason.

So I wonder just how 'finished' the game actually was.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Kirben

The Amiga version was never completed, according to the game's producer, their response from long ago, which I will quote again:

So I wonder just how 'finished' the game actually was.

Check post #4 in this thread. It wasn't released because it had a bug they couldn't fix without going over budget. Two German magazines got review copies, so a nearly complete version is the most likely answer.

Thank you for the additional info

[Kirben]

Originally Posted by TCD

Check post #4 in this thread. It wasn't released because it had a bug they couldn't fix without going over budget. Two German magazines got review copies, so a nearly complete version is the most likely answer.

I saw the comment in that article, but it was second hand, rather than a quote, so I would rather clarify in what way it was 'finished'.

The reviews are clearly from the PC version, or faked, as mentioned above. The Amiga version of game engine used a blue border, while the PC version used the yellow border.