Amiga vs PC

[Tom Walker]

Originally Posted by Jgames

So Gods in VGA has 16 colours anytime on screen? so xenon2? (hard to beleive )

Well both are ports from the ST, so yeah.

Thanks, if you could see if chaos engine/mortal kombat/ssf2t/oscar/soccer kid/xenon2 modex also, while you're at it

Chaos Engine and Xenon 2 are both 16-colour.
Soccer Kid is definitely mode-X (as I said above, that's why it's got smooth scrolling).
MK (and MK2) are mode-X. (don't know about MK-3, might not be)
Don't know about SSF2T, but SSF2 is mode-X.
And Oscar is mode-X!

[DamienD]

All the above posts have been moved from the Richard Costello's Coding memories thread

[Adropac2]

It was really only ever the 3d side of pc games that got me quite jealous at times

When it came to glorious arcade stuff moving around in a smooth and impressive fashion, pc wasn't where any of that was at the time 90-91 i guess

And just to join onto that, demos on the Amiga were generally always a beautiful thing

Not to mention how much easier Amiga was of course to boot up to and play a game - about as easy as putting a video in to play

Amiga was a very special time back then and even the less impressive 3d games comparitively speaking(3d on Amiga was still pretty impressive to me) was most of the time fun and convincing

Pc's soon took over of course and then it was essential really that you played them

I think it's probably true though that the greatness of the Amiga era was down to how alive the experience felt, not just from the games but the system itself.As dlfrsilver has already mentioned, it had soul

I certainly can remember though knowing absolutely nobody that wanted to game on the pc at this time

[Galahad/FLT]

I'll second that, its why we're still here doing stuff for the machine.

Amiga really was a special time, sure there was a load of crap, but in amongst the crap were some real gems, whether it be demos or games, and more importantly, the machine had the potential to do pretty much anything asked of it.... and more.

Theres no attachment to a PC, I played PC games at the same time as Amiga, sure there were things it could do the Amiga couldn't, but then the Amiga was a fraction of the price of the PC.

For the most part, my PC experience during the 386/486 days was pretty crap.

Virtually no game would install without problems, if it would install, there was issues with graphics cards, or sound cards.

Just an absolute chore to use, couldn't replace the ease of just sticking a disk in an Amiga 500 and knowing it would work.

Amiga lasted so long because of the thousands and thousands of productions, games, demos, the camaradarie, the copy parties, the demo competitions... most of that is largely gone.

Amiga was the last true home computer that anyone could afford, and program, draw graphics or make music, make games in their bedrooms.

So much of the productions from nearly 20 years ago still stand the test of time today.... sorry but the PC doesn't and never will evoke those kinds of feelings.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Amiga really was a special time, sure there was a load of crap, but in amongst the crap were some real gems, whether it be demos or games, and more importantly, the machine had the potential to do pretty much anything asked of it.... and more.

Spot on Galahad I still wait for a game that I just put in a CD or DVD and it'll start without the OS on a PC Like Adropac2 said if it wasn't for the 3D stuff (yeah I'm cheap ) or the CD RPG/Adventure with voices I think I would have gotten another Amiga rather than a PC. Sadly C= didn't keep up with the pace

[Galahad/FLT]

And another thing, i've had them all BBC Model B, PC, SNES, Megadrive, PS1/PS2/PS3, Saturn, Dreamcast....... they were all fun machines, and no doubt i'll get whatever replaces the PS3 and so on and so on....... but all that flashy modern stuff simply doesn't compare to the spirit of the Amiga.

Might sound a bit melodramatic, and I really don't care if it does, but its been with me since 1987, and i'm no closer to closing the door on it now... can't say that about the other machines i've had.

[Adropac2]

Ah spoken with passion, special times indeed

[john4p]

Games like Ultima Underworld and Wolfenstein 3D didn't age very well - to me it feels like wasted time playing this blocky pixel-mess today.

While the PC-version of Turrican II was good it came very late and there weren't many other great 2D-platformers on the PC. Sonic CD (much later for Windows 95), Prince of Persia 2 - that's about it.
And 16bit-style 2D-platformers aged very well.

While e.g. Commander Keen was enjoyable its gfx looked like complete and utter crap compared to Beast I-III, Mr Nutz, etc. or stunning shooters like Apidya or Battle Squadron (PAL).

And the sound of most Amiga-games were many leagues above that of PC-games.

[s2325]

Here is example of pretty VGA platformer http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/sh...lf/screenshots Playability is not so good.

[gimbal]

Games like Ultima Underworld and Wolfenstein 3D didn't age very well - it feels like wasted time playing this blocky pixel-mess today.

Hey hey hey, that is your opinion there buddy. I for one thoroughly enjoy playing UW

[Jgames]

I just finished uw2 under dosbox, was more immersed in it than most current gen gerforces games;

I am attached to my pc, i still have one, yeah it is a 3ghz pc, but still a pc

I had friends having amigas, some snes, the only thing that i was jealous of was the sound(once i heard t2 and dune music).

I had a 120 mb hardisk, and had a lot of games on it; i just couldn't be used to playing from floppies;

As a street fighter 2 fan, i had a great korean version back in 92, this alone, had me be very happy with my 386.

For platform games, while early games didn't have the smooth scrolls, and the sound amiga games had, they were fun, had good vga graphics and good controls, and that was the most important;

I grant you that, if some games weren't released for the pc, i would have brought an amiga or an snes right away; but most great platform games had a pc version:
Gods;
Flashback;
Prince of percia;

And those pc versions were great, so really didn't miss a lot from amiga games; althought i missed the arcade and snes and pc engine (and the PSX, castelvania symphony of the night) games a whole lot; and now thanks to emulators, i can have my fix on those

[laffer]

Lots of really cool Amiga games only had crap PC ports.

For instance - It Came from the Desert, North & South, Oil Imperium... and a whole lot more.

To enjoy these games the way they were meant to be played, you need an Amiga.

Btw, Wrath of the Demon was mentioned earlier... just have to point out that the scrolling in that one is terrible compared to the Amiga version.

[john4p]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Hey hey hey, that is your opinion there buddy. I for one thoroughly enjoy playing UW

Sorry, m8 - tbh I haven't played it in ages. Well, for RPGs gfx aren't very important. Glad you still enjoy it.

Originally Posted by Jgames

so really didn't miss a lot from amiga games

Yes you did:

Apidya
Banshee
Battle Squadron
Hunter
It Came from the Desert (PC version is a bad joke)
Jim Power
Leander
Lemmings with Amiga sound
Lionheart
Lotus I&II
Moonstone
Mr Nutz
Paradroid 90
Pinball Dreams with accurate physics (PC version is broken)
Shadow of the Beast I-III
Skidmarks
Starglider II
Stunt Car Racer
SWIV
Turrican I & 3
Turrican II with a main-sprite that doesn't look like a tin
Uridium II
Vroom
Wings

To name a few...


P.S. I sold my Amiga 500 and got a 386DX40 myself. What did I play? Monkey Island 2, Civilization, Pinball Fantasies and Grand Prix - all superior to their Amiga versions. But after half a year I was bored to death, played the few good Amiga-ports and some shareware-stuff like Raptor or Commander Keen and missed my old Amiga 500 every day.
Later when I had a 486DX4-100 I additionally bought myself a used Amiga 500 again and was very happy.

[PWLM]

Prince of Persia was 'great' for PC? Come on, I remember my girlfriend at the time used to play the bejesus out of that game and it was annoying to look at, to listen to and to play.

The beauty of the Amiga in those days was that programmers programmed beyond the machine's weight. PC stuff was colourless and dull.

[Merlin]

@ Jgames

The PC struggled with graphics for a long time and didn't start to overtake the Amiga until VGA cards went on the PCI bus. ISA and VESA local bus didn't cut it and games were dire. My first PC was a 386 with EGA graphics and games like F-19 Stealth Fighter were almost unplayable.

Aside from the hardware, you had to pi$$ about with custom autoexec.bat and config.sys files, with stuff like DOS=HIGH , DOS=UMB and DEVICEHIGH commands just to try and get enough base memory for a game to even play; there was none of that on the Amiga - games just worked from the floppies, and the only constraints were memory or chipset.

Can you name a game where you had to change the startup-sequence or user-startup to get it to run on an Amiga...??

[Jgames]

Originally Posted by john4p

Yes you did:

Apidya
Banshee
Battle Squadron
Hunter
It Came from the Desert (PC version is a bad joke)
Jim Power
Leander
Lemmings with Amiga sound
Lionheart
Lotus I&II
Moonstone
Mr Nutz
Paradroid 90
Pinball Dreams with accurate physics (PC version is broken)
Shadow of the Beast I-III
Skidmarks
Starglider II
Stunt Car Racer
SWIV
Turrican I & 3
Turrican II with a main-sprite that doesn't look like a tin
Uridium II
Vroom
Wings

To name a few...

Of all those games, i would say turrican 2 and 3 and Pinball Dreams are what i would of said i've missed;
But then turrican 2 had a pc release, as well as dreams and fantaisies, so no problem here;

Imagine i was on amiga, if i saw a friend with EOB2, UW, or Lands of lore, or Day of the tentacle, man i would have missed the PC really dearly;

@PWLM
Prince of persia PC version was good, fun and VGA; enjoyed it from start to finish; no scrolling helped that game on small configs;

The programmers also pushed the PC to the limit and beyond also, but VGA mode13 didn't allow for smooth animations, but this changed with modex games; (example, Pinball Fantaisies runs perfect smooth on a 286).

@Merlin
386 with VGA was good for 2d action games, T2 is the proof, althought a bit late.

As for memory hassles, having a lot games starting floppy-hassle free from the hard drive, make you forgive this minor shortcoming

[laffer]

The games you mention were released when the Amiga had already been out for years and years. I think it's a bit unfair.

[TCD]

Has anybody ever thought about that both machines had their time and games? That's the case for me. New Zealand Story on PC? Any other platformer? No thanks. Lands of Lore without speech on the Amiga? No thanks. The Amiga was way ahead of its time and even if it 'lost' two years until the A500 was released, there are still a lot of great games that you can't play any better on a different platform. That's why we're here I guess, because this machine was so fascinating and charming at its time

[Jgames]

Originally Posted by john4p

P.S. I sold my Amiga 500 and got a 386DX40 myself. What did I play? Monkey Island 2, Civilization, Pinball Fantasies and Grand Prix - all superior to their Amiga versions. But after half a year I was bored to death, played the few good Amiga-ports and some shareware-stuff like Raptor or Commander Keen and missed my old Amiga 500 every day.

Those are the only games you got your hand on? starting 1992 the stream of good PC games went on increasing; there is a countless of good games you could run on your 386 at the time. (Beneath a steel sky, alone, lands, doom!, prince 2, rott, kyrandia and many many more)

I stayed with the 386 up until 1998!, i even remember trying Callus on it, getting 1 frame/sec on SF2 under win16 (to get a 16mb virtual memory!)

I had the 386 until the demise of DOS, I changed mainly to fire up emulators (especially sega system 16 shinobi, Callus for SF2 CE and pc engine wonderful shooters).

Speaking of emulators, i tried brmsx (msx emulator) on my 386, 4mb ram it worked full frame rate! even a gameboy (no$gameboy i think) emulator worked really well if i remember.

[AmigaFriend]

I think you are in love with your old PC... Stick with it!!

We are in love with our old Amigas! I think it sums it all.