Earthworm Jim for the Amiga? Here's what David Perry says

[mc68060]

Earthworm Jim was released on lots of platforms and probably would have been an easy port for John Twiddy because the engine was presumably very similar to Aladdin. Unfortunately, we didn't get this insanely good jump'n'run game on maybe 6 disks (of course with a nice trackdisk loader and Rob Northen's Copylock) for our A1200s back then.

So I asked David Perry, video game legend and programmer of the original Genesis/Mega Drive version of Earthworm Jim, if there were any discussions about porting Earthworm Jim to the Amiga back in the day. Here's what he replied:

I was a big fan of the Amiga, I made Supremacy on it with Nick Bruty and loved the experience. (It was called Overlord in the USA.)

I don't remember having any Earthworm Jim discussions for Amiga, and frankly I don't know why! (I wish you had been there to ask the question!)

As you say, it would have been quite an easy conversion.

Rather sad to hear that we might have gotten an Earthworm Jim Amiga version if there only had been some sort of impulse...

[DamienD]

Definitely not Earthworm Jim, but the character used in Gotcha reminds of EJ.

[gimbal]

Earthworm Jim certainly fits the platform, surreal games just have a natural home on the Amiga.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by mc68060

Earthworm Jim was released on lots of platforms and probably would have been an easy port for John Twiddy because the engine was presumably very similar to Aladdin. Unfortunately, we didn't get this insanely good jump'n'run game on maybe 6 disks (of course with a nice trackdisk loader and Rob Northen's Copylock) for our A1200s back then.

So I asked David Perry, video game legend and programmer of the original Genesis/Mega Drive version of Earthworm Jim, if there were any discussions about porting Earthworm Jim to the Amiga back in the day. Here's what he replied:



Rather sad to hear that we might have gotten an Earthworm Jim Amiga version if there only had been some sort of impulse...

why not asking him the asset of the megadrive version, and then port the game on A1200 ?

[mc68060]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

why not asking him the asset of the megadrive version, and then port the game on A1200 ?

He doesn't own the rights to Earthworm Jim anymore and since this is still a powerful brand today I don't think he's going to do that...

[Dustyarddog]

I played this to death on the Snes. An Amiga port would be nice!

[Misclegend]

if John Twiddy had ported it,the game would have run at 25 fps instead 50

is not a good plarformer btw, was overrated

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Misclegend

is not a good plarformer btw, was overrated

How edgy, hating on actually good platformers.

[dreadnought]

David Perry was behind Supremacy? Didn't know, but it makes sense; one of my favourite devs (but not because of EJ) and one of my favourite Amiga games.

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by gimbal

How edgy, hating on actually good platformers.

To be honest only the Sega CD version was good. But not a good as the hype. Too many nice looking but long animations that hindered the gameplay a lot. Especially in some very annoying jumping passages. Controls could have been better. Perry did a far better job in Aladdin.

[redblade]

Originally Posted by Misclegend

if John Twiddy had ported it,the game would have run at 25 fps instead 50

is not a good plarformer btw, was overrated

25 fps > 0 fps. It looks like that engine could be reused for pitfall as well.

[Gzegzolka]

Aladdin was awesome game, also Earthworm Jim was very good one too. Second one got too many mini games instead of solid platformers levels, but this is only my humble opinion. I am sure it would be possible to port it to Amiga, just cut some special effects, lower colors and it will be just like Aladdin version. As for Pitfall it was previewed in many magazines that there will be Amiga port too, but I do not know did developers start actually working on it.

[Tigerskunk]

I think on the 1200 one could do a nice enough version of it.

Loved David Perrys Work on MDK. One of my favourite games ever.

[mc68060]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

As for Pitfall it was previewed in many magazines that there will be Amiga port too, but I do not know did developers start actually working on it.

Yes, they did. Galahad even saw the first level running on an Amiga! See here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=23514

[redblade]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

Aladdin was awesome game, also Earthworm Jim was very good one too. Second one got too many mini games instead of solid platformers levels, but this is only my humble opinion. I am sure it would be possible to port it to Amiga, just cut some special effects, lower colors and it will be just like Aladdin version. As for Pitfall it was previewed in many magazines that there will be Amiga port too, but I do not know did developers start actually working on it.

Yeah well John Twiddy did Global Gladiators, Cool Spot and it looks like they were similar engines.

Originally Posted by Steril707

I think on the 1200 one could do a nice enough version of it.

Yes it would have been great to see it on the 1200/CD32 with full joypad support.

Originally Posted by mc68060

Yes, they did. Galahad even saw the first level running on an Amiga! See here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=23514

He doesn't mention if it was for the 1200 or A500. That would have been great to have seen, hopes he tells us more of what he remembers.

[Gzegzolka]

It would be even more awesome if someone release that version

[mc68060]

Originally Posted by redblade

Yeah well John Twiddy did Global Gladiators, Cool Spot and it looks like they were similar engines.

Yes, all those games (including Earthworm Jim) used tUME, see here: https://games.greggman.com/game/tume...al_map_editor/

The Lion King, however, was done by a different team (Westwood) and is a completely different engine. That's probably why John Twiddy didn't do The Lion King Amiga port.

Here's a funny thought: Maybe Putty Squad was never released because its engine borrowed too much code from Global Gladiators, Cool Spot and Aladdin? Maybe System 3 was afraid of getting sued? That explanation makes more sense to me than the official "The Amiga market is dead!" explanation because obviously in 1994 there were still some bucks to be made, especially with a hit game like Putty Squad. There's also this Aladdin beta which has Putty Squad backgrounds in it. John Twiddy probably used a lot of code from Global Gladiators/Cool Spot/Aladdin in Putty Squad so that might also explain why it was never released back in the day.

[Retro1234]

using tUME doesn't mean anything it was used on so many games.