Lots of rare game pics

[Master484]

Hi guys, I have some rare games that don't yet have disk or cover scans at the HOL database.

So, I took pictures of those games and posted the images to my website:
Set 1:
http://m484games.ucoz.com/index/amiga_pictures_1/0-56
Set 2:
http://m484games.ucoz.com/index/amiga_pictures_2/0-57
Set 3:
http://m484games.ucoz.com/index/amiga_pictures_3/0-58

You can copy the images from there and put them to HOL. All of them are pics that are either totally missing from HOL, or ones that don't have these particular disk/cover versions listed at HOL.

Unfortunately I don't have a scanner, so I used a digital camera and tried my best, hopefully the quality is good enough. All images are already adjusted to the sizes given in the HOL FAQ.

A few items there are quite rare I think, at least Bubble+, Ratko/Ratco, Hugo 2, and the two Softgang "Amiga Power Pack" disks. And I think ECO might be rare too but I'm not sure.

Some random info:

About Hugo 2, this game doesn't seem to be listed at HOL although 4 other Hugo games are. It seems that there are many different versions of Hugo for different languages. This one that I have is the Finnish language version, with finnish speech, it has 5 disks, and contains the forest and mountain sections.

About the International Soccer box: The front of the box has an Amiga sticker on the top, but the back of the box says "ST Soccer" both in the screenshot and in the text. But it's an Amiga game for sure. I guess back then they used these same green boxes for both the Amiga and Atari ST version.

About LED Storm, I only have that disk and the small manual pamphlet...used to have the game box too back in the day, but at some point that ended up being used as a container for family photographs, and eventually it disappeared somewhere, never to be seen again.

About the Amiga Power Pack disks, I have only disk 1 and disk 3, and have never owned disk 2. And also I have never seen the box or anything else related to this "Amiga Power Pack". Those two disks originally came to my possession with a big lot of random disks around the time when I got my first Amiga, well over 20 years ago.

And about the "Death Trap Demo Disk": this is one of strangest disks that I have. It basically contains a "beta version" of Death Trap, which randomly showcases all of the game levels, with the hero being controlled by some sort of an AI...and you can press various keys on the keyboard to change the hero's weapon, switch the level being showcased, and even skip straight to the level bosses. But you can't actually play it yourself; you just watch the computer play it. As a kid I really hated this demo because it didn't let me play that great looking game lol.

[s2325]

This is some some interesting stuff, thanks for links.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Regarding the program 'Ratko' (english language educational title): I have seen it in PCI-Data's price charts (around 1987-1988), it cost 790 FIM. It was one of about 20 educational titles made by WSOY.

[quahappy]

I don't remember Resolution 101. Looks an interesting game. Will have to check it out.

[Bugala]

Never knew they made "Wanted" to Amiga as well.

I have that on MSX.

[Master484]

Have any HOL mods taken a look at that stuff in the links? I would like to know if the pics are good enough to be put on HOL.

But if they're not, then no worries, I guess it's time for me to buy an actual scanner, especially because I still have some bigger stuff in my collection that is not in HOL, such as a huge map for Resolution 101, and some big poster-backside game manuals too.

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Also, I just uploaded some stuff to the Zone: some C64 conversion DBS screenshots, and screens, DBS and a disk scan for a great PD shooter called "Blaster", which is not yet listed on HOL.

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Regarding the program 'Ratko' (english language educational title): I have seen it in PCI-Data's price charts (around 1987-1988), it cost 790 FIM. It was one of about 20 educational titles made by WSOY.

Do you know if WSOY published any other educational games like Ratko? Or were all the other titles by them some other software than games?

[Amiga_CDTV]

Originally Posted by Master484

Do you know if WSOY published any other educational games like Ratko? Or were all the other titles by them some other software than games?

See attached pic. I have no idea how "gamey" these were, or if they are just text-based.

[s2325]

Is it from mechanical typing machine?

[Master484]

Thanks for the pic, interesting. Most of those indeed sound like games, and seem to cost as much as Ratko, 790 marks...these prices are so expensive that they must be from the eighties, around the time when Amigas first appeared.

In comparison I remember that C64 disk games costed around 150 marks at that time, and cassette games even less. And new big box Amiga games costed probably around 300 marks, at least when the nineties got closer...but I'm not sure how much they costed at 1986 or so.

The game names in that list are in finnish, so here is a quick english translation to some of them; Number Game, Word Rain, Treasure Chest, Horses, Hangman and "Polynome fast sprint".

And the "Vadelma" and "Mustikka" on that list interest me the most, because they are more expensive than the rest, 970 marks lol. The names translate as "Rasberry" and "Blueberry", I wonder what they are, slot machine trainers maybe hehe?

But so these are definitely games, and probably quite hard to find, even here in Finland. I think Ratko might be the most widespread of them, because according to some info that I found on internet it was apparently used as a learning game in finnish schools back then, to teach the children some English.

And it's a pretty good game actually, a scrabble clone, here's a short Youtube video of it:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Amiga_CDTV]

That catalog was somewhere around 1987-1989.

I remember reading from MikroBitti that around that time many schools in Helsinki were equipped with Amiga 500s, and surely some educational titles like Ratko must have been included in the deal.

The last name one on the list really caught my interest: Starsoft Nova (time tables). It's personally interesting for me as at work (a school) I work almost daily with Starsoft's modern software (school administration database (students, grades etc) that is used in a very large percentage of finnish schools). One day I'll ask them if they still have some Amiga archives left

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by Bugala

Never knew they made "Wanted" to Amiga as well.

I have that on MSX.

On MSX?

This game looks like "Desperado", that was released on MSX, Spectrum and a few other systems. It's a spanish game, I dunno if it was released as "Wanted" on english-speaking regions.

Capcom sued the publishers of this game because it's a direct, obvious rip-off from their arcade game Gunsmoke. They settled down paying a license fee to Capcom and re-releasing Desperado as an official port to Gunsmoke.

So I've seen it called Desperado and Gusnmoke, but never "Wanted". I am not sure it's the same game, but I don't know any MSX game called "Wanted" (And I do know a shitload of MSX games )

[Bugala]

It came in a collection of four games. I think other three were

- "Bounder"or "Rebounder". My memory says it is rebounder, but i was only able to find video about bounder from youtube to MSX. Also, my memory would be that it was scrolling from left to right, unlike bounder which goes from down to up. However, i remember it was most difficult game in that collection to get to load, and i succeeded only couple of times, if even that, and i also have this recalling that i was somewhat disappointed to it, which have puzzled me afterwards, since ball bouncing up and down seems like interesting idea to me, and i liked that, was it called, "Platou" on amiga, which had some similarity to it, but that bounder is in black and white, well, that would explain why i was disappointed to it and didnt take that much effort to get it to load again and again. But my recalling would be that it had colors. So.. one or the other.

- B.C. II: Grogs Revenge

- Valkyrie

I am not sure that the name was Wanted, it could have well been desperados. I also have no idea where that game or the cover is anymore, hence i cant check it. I should have it somewhere still however, hope i find it one day.

Just that i recognised the game from that wanted amiga image, and assumed it was same name.

[Bugala]

Ah, found it, no wonder i thought the name was "wanted":
http://www.retrogames.co.uk/023138/O...-by-Star-Games

[Shatterhand]

Haha. That game is Gunfright

I played Wanted yesterday on my A600. It indeed is a big Gunsmoke ripoff, but it's not the Topo Soft "Desperado" game.

It actually plays better than I would expect from a 1988 low-key release, but it has some quirks that makes it really annoying... like running out of bullets and then having nothing to do except dying and trying again shooting less.

It's a shoot'em up game, it makes no sense to have limited ammo.

[Master484]

Ok good news, I just bought a scanner, so now I can make more high quality scans of all that stuff.

This will take some time of course, as I have quite a lot of things to scan, but I think I'll gradually upload more high quality versions of all that stuff to the Zone in the following weeks, and hopefully someone then puts it to the Hall of Light.

And for starters, I just uploaded that Resolution 101 map there that I mentioned earlier, so check it out...unfortunately there is some damage in the upper left corner but otherwise it's in good condition.

[clenched]

The materials and quality on your web site are probably OK but I remember a thread where a HOL contributor asked about sending scans from other sites. To paraphrase what Cody Jarrett said: Strict policy against materials from other sites being used. Later on, RCK re-affirmed that answer.

My guess would be that material made exclusive for HOL with your new scanner would be fine.

I don't upload it myself for two reasons.
- I think you're supposed to receive credit and I don't know how to apply that.
- Unsure if it belongs in miscshot or gamemap since all the gamemaps I see are pixel art from the games.

Side note - I remember making scans of Hoverforce for TCD. This is the same game in US and I don't remember that map at all.

[Belgarath]

I've no idea how to process users scans either which is why I've not done it.

As for the policy against using materials from other sites, that is true..But seeing as it's the guy's own site I really can't see a problem with that.

[Master484]

My guess would be that material made exclusive for HOL with your new scanner would be fine

Yeah, let's hope so. Just uploaded new high quality scans for ECO to the Zone, including the manual scans.

[clenched]

I think I've figured out how this credit scheme works.
Your map:
http://hol.abime.net/1224/miscshot
Your credits:
http://hol.abime.net/hol_team.php
I think after 10,000 credits Prowler's butler picks you up in a Rolls for a spin around his estate.

EDIT: ECO stuff uploaded.
http://hol.abime.net/2824

[Master484]

Ok thanks a lot.

Let's see if I can achieve that 10000 points lol.

So, I'll now go through my entire collection and take good scans of everything, and post them to the Zone. This includes everything in the links, but in addition to that stuff I also have some 50 boxed originals and lots of random disks too, so I'll check what stuff isn't yet in the HOL and will upload everything that I possibly can.

So be awake, I'll make a post in this thread every time I upload something to the Zone.

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Speaking of which, I just uploaded more stuff to the Zone:
Bubble+ box and disk scans
Heavy Metal box and disk scans
Heavy Metal manual

About Heavy Metal, there is already a box scan in HOL, but I think it's of bad quality, especially the front scan is blurry, so maybe you should replace it.

And also check out the Heavy Metal manual, it actually has instructions for two games: Heavy Metal and Beach Head. But Beach Head of course was never released for the Amiga, for whatever reason. But the two games are quite similar, especially the "map mode" in Heavy Metal has a very Beach Heady feeling to it.

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And also some days ago I uploaded a bunch of C64 conversion screenshots to the Zone; all of which are double barrel screenshots for games in the HOL that do not yet have C64 conversion screenshot in the "Conversion" section. So if someone could go through those and put them there that would be great. But no need to hurry and I know there's a lot of them.