25 June 2024, 15:47 | #1 |
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Amount of game releases
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. |
25 June 2024, 15:55 | #2 |
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Try the advanced search of LemonAmiga with the "commercial" filter.
257 AGA games 156 CD32 3205 OCS |
25 June 2024, 15:56 | #3 |
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I'd rather go with HoL's search, its database is more complete.
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25 June 2024, 16:20 | #4 |
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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. |
25 June 2024, 16:24 | #5 | |
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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. |
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25 June 2024, 16:29 | #6 |
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25 June 2024, 16:45 | #7 |
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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. |
25 June 2024, 18:26 | #8 |
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25 June 2024, 18:51 | #9 |
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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.
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25 June 2024, 19:01 | #10 |
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That's what I meant as well. You just can't compare a commercial release from 1991 with one from 2024 for the Amiga.
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25 June 2024, 19:13 | #11 |
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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 ? |
25 June 2024, 19:20 | #12 |
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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.
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25 June 2024, 19:23 | #13 |
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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. Last edited by Megalomaniac; 25 June 2024 at 21:28. |
25 June 2024, 19:28 | #14 |
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Licence: Commercial
Release Type: Full Price Released: Yes Hardware: OCS Compilation: No = 4,214 games |
25 June 2024, 19:40 | #15 | |
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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. |
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25 June 2024, 19:49 | #16 | |
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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. |
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25 June 2024, 19:59 | #17 | |
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25 June 2024, 21:33 | #18 |
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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.
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26 June 2024, 05:20 | #19 |
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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. |
26 June 2024, 05:33 | #20 |
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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).
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