There are so many great games that came to the Amiga, and thanks to the Amiga 500 Mini, you don’t even need to worry about emulating them on your PC. You can emulate them on your 70 odd inch TV instead. What a world we live in.
Anyway, I thought best to look at some more great games that came to the Commodore Amiga computers. If this thing had worked out better in terms of sales, maybe it would have had a fighting chance against the IBM PC going into the 90s. But alas, only in our dreams.
DUNE II
Yeah, I had to actually get my head around the fact that not only is the game I remember playing for hours a sequel, but it’s also a totally different kind of game to Dune. However, thankfully no one cares about the first game and the amazing success of Dune II is what led the way to Westward Studios developing the Command & Conquer series. And then EA bought them and the whole thing went to utter shit. You know, typically of EA.
Dune II is a top down strategy game where you build up your base, harvest spices, create an army and basically kill the enemy. Exactly how it is in the film, for hours and hours. This game is so good, it even has Richard O’Brien!
The one thing that Westward Studios did reconsider in future games was disposing the need to build foundations across the map before you can build what you actually want. I mean, who uses foundations? Don’t they know that Bible story about building on the sandy lands? That worked out well. I never got to the end, but I can tell it worked out well.
WINGS
Wings is the most authentic, true to life adaptation of what life in World War I was actually like. And I can say that with confidence because all the people that fought in the war are dead so I can’t ask any of them, which means this game is the sole source for all my knowledge. Everyone just flew planes, shot down the enemy and occasionally blew up buildings for mission after mission after mission.
What I really like about this game is that it shows that yes, although rudimentary, the Amiga could do 3D games. If Commodore had just not screwed around and actually invested in R&D, the computers could have been really powerful by the time the Amiga 1200 came along. We could have had Doom!
Anyway, along with great gameplay, great graphics and great music, Wings is definitely one of the best titles for the Amiga. It’s really unfortunate that unlike other developers, Cinemaware went bankrupt blaming the easy to do pirating of games on the platform. How much that is true in their demise I’m not sure. There must be more to it otherwise no publisher or developer would have bothered support the Amiga for long.
THE CHAOS ENGINE
Who the fork doesn’t love The Chaos Engine? It’s so good, Sega heard about it before it was even a concept at Bitmap Brothers, and said “Oh hell yeah! Chaos is a great name for emeralds in this game we are creating. And the main protagonist is clearly Sonic” and that’s how it all started for Sega. I know these things.
The Chaos Engine is an awesome cyberpunk overhead shoot em up which though fun in single player, really needs to be played with a friend. Or a relative. Failing that, someone you hate. It’s a rock solid challenging game so team work is important. I actually forgot how difficult The Chaos Engine was until I tried playing solo and got my ass handed to me.
It’s worth noting that a lot of Amiga games either have music or just sounds during gameplay. They rarely have both. I assume it’s limitations to the hardware, or lazy programming. The Chaos Engine can do both and it adds a whole lot to the enjoyment. That music is forking amazing.
Ideally play the AGA version as the colours pop that much more. It’s included with the Amiga 500 Mini so you won’t even need to add it yourself.
Definitely my favourite Bitmap Brothers game.
MOONSTONE: A HARD DAYS KNIGHT
The game that influenced a Beetles song. That’s true. Paul McCartney actually sat and played this game for hours screaming at Ringo, Lennon and the other one.
This is definitely by far the bloodiest game on the list. It’s a fantastic hack and slash adventure and once again, is definitely best played with others.
There’s not really any music in the game itself but the sounds of you murdering other knights or, more than likely, wild animals, in calming surroundings is just as satisfying. And yes the graphics are pretty great which helps for a game where over the top violence is a big selling point.
The combat definitely takes getting used to. Remember this is a thirty odd year old game so the controls were pretty poor compared to what we understand now. But in twenty years time no doubt they’ll say the same about games of today. It’s important to get used to the controls pretty much straight away as the different enemies require you to learn how to take them out.
This is the Dark Souls of the games before Dark Souls was a thing. Am I doing it right?
LOTUS TURBO CHALLENGE 2
I had the first game on the Amiga and let me tell you, I forking suck balls at these kinds of racers. These three Lotus games are the Amiga equivalent to OutRun. Only in the Lotus Turbo Challenge games, it’s not just a clock you are racing, because that’s not insane enough. Oh no. You are also racing against all the other mental cases on the road. Because that apparently isn’t the work of a mad man who’s one tick away from pressing the red button.
Despite being so frustrating to the point you want to scream and smash the house, I do have a thing about coming back and playing them again and again knowing full well I will never get anywhere. Definitely don’t expect to ever finish them. That’s madness.
The music is so so, just like the first game. The graphics aren’t anything to write home about either however it is silky smooth and that plays a big role in the fact it feels fast. And being a racer, that’s kinda important.
Just like the first game, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 can be played with someone you want to share the rage with. That’s always a bonus.
PINBALL DREAMS
Well before becoming known for Battlefield and that engine that was forced upon everyone which they all hated and is terrible for making anything that’s not Battlefield, Digital Illusion was a name on the Amiga demo scene. But after that, they were best known for the awesome, and I cannot express that enough, awesome pinball games.
There are just three pinball games that Digital Illusion developed for the Amiga. Pinball Dreams is the first, and unlike the latter two wasn’t released for AGA. Pinball Fantasies is the second and Pinball Illusions is the third and final.
I’m not good at pinball games but they are, when done well, highly addictive. These three games by Digital Illusion have pretty much everything. Great sound and music, great graphics for the Amiga and most importantly, great physics for the time. Obviously these games have been superseded by more powerful hardware allowing for more realistic physics.
