TOP 15 Apple IIGS games

[Adropac2]

Originally Posted by desiv

No, the IIGS sound chip is a true wavetable chip...

It really was the best sound hardware available on any computer at the time..

And the Zany Golf theme is much more "full" and involved on the IIGS..

That being said, personally, I find the IIGS version a bit too busy... Almost like they were showing off what the hardware could do, rightfully so...

That's just me tho.. Quite a few people prefer the IIGS version...

desiv

From the little iv'e read about Zany golf on GS it was developed first on this machine.I would guess then that the music would sound even better and maybe a more rich sound.I can see where you might be going regarding maybe too many voices being the GS's capabilities allowed it

I'd love to hear these original tracks but there doesn't appear to be any Youtube videos other than the intro- and to be honest the intro piece isn't one of the best anyway i personally thought.Fingers crossed for the GS versions as the ingame pieces themselves are so superbly well crafted, in an almost abstract type way that makes them delightfully quirky- like no other really

[Adropac2]

Ah it did have samples too then iv'e just read.Well that pretty much makes it the best then i would think

[demoniac]

Arkanoid II looks very similar between the 2 platforms. The Amiga version has more of a cast shadow on the balls.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Castelian

Did you not read my reply? The frame skipping is from the screen recording tool, my lord people. READ! Also, if you cared to read my very first post, you'd see I'm comparing games that were available for both Amiga and IIGS. Turrican II was not on the IIGS (I agree, the IIGS could never play something like that). But back to the topic of this thread...I've yet to hear someone give me the name of an Amiga version of a game that has better graphics and/or sound than the IIGS version.

That's because there were so few games (your top 15 makes 9% of the total!) made for Apple IIGS, and all but a handful are ports of simplistic games from the 1985-1987 C64/Apple II era or even more inane products like Blackjack Academy.

Just compare the games list for the Apple IIGS with a typical game seller ad in Zzap 64 or CU Magazine from this period. Those were made for even more limited systems and not significantly improved when porting to 16-bit systems.

What do you want us to say about those games? Yes, it had almost as high resolution and almost as many colors, so it looks the same. Yes, it had a good soundchip, so it didn't sound bad.

(btw, I did not refer to Youtube/Camtasia frameskip in my entire post! May I suggest you take your own suggestion to learn to read? )

Ah, I think I see it now. The Amiga was never really a hit in the US like it was in Europe, and you might have missed all the (at least relative to ST/IIGS) great games that we were blessed with here? Amiga games list (OCS only)

But the problem here is the small subset for the IIGS. There's nothing we can trump you with, because the other thousands of games were made for Amiga but not for IIGS.

I tried to find something decent to challenge Amiga with in the list but only came up with Lemmings and Dungeon Master. If there's a real 3D game for the IIGS I'm pretty sure the Amiga port could best it.

It would be easier if you took a few IIGS games that you think is technically very impressive and we could say how they compare.

[Galahad/FLT]

Bit of a misnomer comparing Arkanoid, as the Amiga version was an Atari ST port, so didn't even utilise the extra colours as far as I am aware, so that would mean the ST version would compare favourably to the IIGS... ouch!

[Castelian]

Finally found a better ported game on the Amiga. Paperboy! And Holy Canoly, Batman was it atrocious on the IIGS.

[kamelito]

the "ahh" sound in Task Force sounds to me a rip off of Sword of Sodan sound when you've been hitten by an enemy

Kamel

[NfernalNfluence]

[quote=Castelian;724104]Sure, ActiveGS is my favorite. Here you go:
https://www.yousendit.com/download/ RlRyMWZJQTZ5UkZFQlE9PQ

how does rastan fair on this emulator?
is there a noticeable improvement over kegs32?

[Castelian]

[quote=NfernalNfluence;730548]

Originally Posted by Castelian

Sure, ActiveGS is my favorite. Here you go:
https://www.yousendit.com/download/ RlRyMWZJQTZ5UkZFQlE9PQ

how does rastan fair on this emulator?
is there a noticeable improvement over kegs32?

I've only used Kegs32, release 4 (ActiveGS), and it rocks! Looks like my download link expired, let me know if you want me to re-upload or if you find it ok.

[Lord Riton]

And i tought the Amiga/atari ST/Apple IIGS wars were over since a decade

[Castelian]

Originally Posted by Lord Riton

And i tought the Amiga/atari ST/Apple IIGS wars were over since a decade

We're not discussing which system is better (or at least I'm not). Atari ST and IIGS can't compete with Amiga! But I was simply making the observation that the IIGS has equal or better ports for every single game available for multiple systems (except Paperboy )

[laffer]

The only game I've played on this system is Last Ninja, recorded a longplay long ago now.
Not a bad version, near identical to the PC port only with better (but very cheesy) sound effects.

Sadly the music is missing so it's not something I'd play normally, the music is a big part of what makes the LN games so good.

[ Show youtube player ]

[adolescent]

Originally Posted by Castelian

We're not discussing which system is better (or at least I'm not). Atari ST and IIGS can't compete with Amiga! But I was simply making the observation that the IIGS has equal or better ports for every single game available for multiple systems (except Paperboy )

Not to dig up an old thread but was just playing Battle Chess on the IIGS and boy is it bad compared to the Amiga version so there goes your theory.

[Castelian]

Originally Posted by adolescent

Not to dig up an old thread but was just playing Battle Chess on the IIGS and boy is it bad compared to the Amiga version so there goes your theory.

Yikes, you weren't kidding! Never cared for that game since its unplayable slow and so I never bothered looking into the iigs version until just now. Now only is it slow, but graphically it looks like a pile of poo. It joins in the ranks of paperboy.

[adolescent]

Originally Posted by Castelian

Yikes, you weren't kidding! Never cared for that game since its unplayable slow and so I never bothered looking into the iigs version until just now. Now only is it slow, but graphically it looks like a pile of poo. It joins in the ranks of paperboy.

Test Drive 2 is pretty horrible also. At least the Amiga versions of these games are playable and look good.

[s2325]

Apple IIGS version of Sword of Sodan have additional screen:

[Hewitson]

Can't possibly imagine where they got the inspiration for this piss poor game..

[ Show youtube player ]

[ImmortalA1000]

Putting aside the difference in the much superior OS Kernal of Amiga 1000 I think whilst the IIGS is a nice machine I doubt very much Shadow of the Beast top level 1/Lotus II/Mega Typhoon and Unreal's 3D sections are possible on the IIGS. These are games a SNES with the same CPU could never do without a serious DSP inside the cart.

The IIGS seems to have had it's fair share of crappy II/e ports too like the shitfest that is Gauntlet for IIGS, it is in no way a rival to Gauntlet 1 or II on ST, not even close. In fact the Amstrad CPC version of Gauntlet is better I reckon

Sword of Sodan is probably the most impressive thing I ever saw on the IIGS but on the Amiga it is not exactly hitting the metal direct, it is clearly using the built in system routines to blit the huge animated objects and parallax scroll forground objects etc, but to be able to write your own system routines for sprits/blits/scrolling etc is not exactly easy which is why so few games had such ambitious graphics or wrote their own direct custom chip access environments.

Rastan doesn't scroll nicely regardless of emulating computer's CPU, but still it's better than the DOS version if not the NEC PC Engine one and because yanks stupidly never bought A1000s there was no conversion in the US and because it took nearly a year for PAL UK A1000s to be launched Imagine/Ocean would never have converted it to the Amiga either. Then again Beast1 is pretty much a reimagining of Rastan in some ways.

Worst thing about the IIGS? The emulators are horrible! Joystick via cursor keys in emulation? Forget it! Which sadly means I rarely want to try out any games on KEGS. And to make it worse keyboard controls of most IIGS arcade games use the numpad...........something not seen for half a decade on keyboards or 99% of laptops.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by ImmortalA1000

Shadow of the Beast top level 1/Lotus II/Mega Typhoon and Unreal's 3D sections are possible on the IIGS. These are games a SNES with the same CPU could never do without a serious DSP inside the cart.

??
The SNES was capable of making those games happen without any DSP. The SOTB beta ROM and Lotus ROM exist for you to test, and most any space shooter on SNES will drive circles around Mega Typhoon. As for Unreal's crappy 3D thing, have you not seen mode 7 games?

Not interested in a lame system fight like that crappy Amstrad CPC, just stating some fallacies in your post.

[ImmortalA1000]

Based on every SNES 2.5D racing game I have seen it clearly can not do it. Top Gear is more like Lotus III on A500 really and has nothing like the roadside objects of Lotus 2 or arcade quality 2.5D update speed and smoothness. I would be interested to see a video of it running of course, happy to be proved wrong but there is no record of Lotus on SNES to be found on the internet let alone a youtube of a prototype rom running.

Amiga SotB has more than the SNES colour palette (which is not VGA style any 256 colours anywhere on screen in any combination either putting aside the inferior palette) and the sample engine works in a much more restrictive way on the SNES motherboard than Paula even though you feed it 16 bit samples. SotB to Amiga 1000 is Rescue on Fractalus to Atari 800. The top level is designed around the Amiga. All other versions look like PD games compared to the subtle elegance of the Amiga version. SNES can do SF2 better yes, SotB 1 no.

My comment about the CPC version of Gauntlet is more to do with the fact the IIGS had some very Apple II+ looking sloppy ports not comparing the CPC to IIGS, Gauntlet is one of them. CPC and C64 Gauntlet 1/2 look better than the old Apple II deriguer orange/blue palette which the IIGS release manages to replicate. I am sure done properly Gauntlet 1 or 2 on a IIGS should be identical to the Atari ST (which is excellent IMO) as Sodan is a lot like an STFM/STE version of the game and that is the most technically impressive IIGS game code I have seen (even though it is not a playable game level demo but an action replay type option of the Amiga version).