Games Suggestion for Spring 2012

[Nate Brazil]

Well it's been too quiet here... Decided to post and say hello to my
fellow Amiga friends and see about suggesting a new game review.
Debut was very bizarre - I really tried to get into it but it was hard
to apply context to the strange menu options that were offered.

I propose we restart an Amiga review with a simple game - something
along the lines of a multi-level arcade game (my favorite format).
Perhaps a platform model or something along the lines of Lemmings or
Robocod...

Any suggestions?

Nate

[Angus]

In article <8f5e2e75-1ea6-403c-829c-eb5a53781d83
@fk28g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>, nateb...@comcast.net says...

Sounds good - I'll give my suggestions a break for now. :)

[Seppo]

I've been away from this group for some time now - hopefully somebody
is still reading this :)

I suggest we select two games for May 2012. One that fits
the "simple" category and one a bit more demanding for
brains. You can play the first one when you get frustrated with
the second, and vice versa :)

For the more "serious" game I propose "Mega lo Mania" by
the great Sensible Software. A impressive real-time strategy
game I somehow managed to miss completely when it was
released.

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=1230

For the lighter games I actually have several candidates:

Strider was one of my favourite arcade games back then.
US Gold released a rather good conversion for the Amiga
but the venerable Team 17 decided to create a game inspired
by it - please welcome "Assassin" as the second candidate
for our monthly inspection :)

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=1546

Finally, I'd like to propose Arabian Nights by Krisalis. It is a solid
little platformer game with some rather challenging action and
puzzles. Certainly something you might want to play if your brains
have been overheated in a lenghty session with "Mega lo Mania"... :)

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=79


Any thoughts or comments about these?

Seppo

[Hidehiko Ogata]

On 2012年05月10日 07:35, Seppo-san wrote:
> For the more "serious" game I propose "Mega lo Mania" by
> the great Sensible Software.

Great choice!

> please welcome "Assassin" as the second candidate
> for our monthly inspection :)

IIRC this was by the same guys who made my favorite top-down racing
game, Overdrive - so it would be interesting to look into their
earlier work.

> Finally, I'd like to propose Arabian Nights by Krisalis.

Another stuff I missed back then. I have high respect for the
publisher, so this one too would be quite welcome.

> Any thoughts or comments about these?

Mega lo Mania for the left brain, all the way... for the right brain,
dunno... hard to pick one :).
--
// }{idehiko ()gata "I'm not like other people.
\X/ Amigan since '86 I can't stand pain.
It hurts me." - Daffy Duck

[Hidehiko Ogata]

Another thing - there is a celebration going on among the Apple][
guys for the great discovery of Prince of Persia source code,
which had been thought to be lost for good:

http://jordanmechner.com/blog/2012/04/textfiles/

...so it might be fun to hop onto the bandwagon and play the great
Amigan version ;).

[Seppo]

Okay, count me in for Prince of Persia :)

Lost source code found, after all these years, eh? Wish we
we as lucky on Amiga world. I would not mind if Scott Johnson
would suddenly locate the finished source code of Hired
Guns AGA from his old hard drive :)


Seppo

[Hidehiko Ogata]

On 2012/05/12 19:54, Seppo-san wrote:
> Lost source code found, after all these years, eh? Wish we
> we as lucky on Amiga world.

Stalwart IIGS guys are even planning to up the ante, with the
definitive, ultimate IIGS port, after all these years.

I love retro-computing :).

> I would not mind if Scott Johnson
> would suddenly locate the finished source code of Hired
> Guns AGA from his old hard drive :)

Yeah, really makes you wonder. SPS guys are doing wonderful job
preserving released disk images, but what about source codes?
Or the original cover arts?

It breaks my heart that probably, most of the source material of
Amigan landmarks like Mind Walker, Lemmings, Battle Squadron,
Cinemaware etc. are just rotting away in some basement, if they
are still kept at all.

[Seppo]

On Sun, 13 May 2012 00:42:19 +0900, Hidehiko Ogata wrote:

> On 2012/05/12 19:54, Seppo-san wrote:
> > Lost source code found, after all these years, eh? Wish we
> > we as lucky on Amiga world.
>
> Stalwart IIGS guys are even planning to up the ante, with the
> definitive, ultimate IIGS port, after all these years.
>
> I love retro-computing :).
>
> > I would not mind if Scott Johnson
> > would suddenly locate the finished source code of Hired
> > Guns AGA from his old hard drive :)
>
> Yeah, really makes you wonder. SPS guys are doing wonderful job
> preserving released disk images, but what about source codes?
> Or the original cover arts?

I think at least HOL (Hall of Light) website stores images of
scanned game box covers - I am sure there are others too.
As for the source codes - well, you have to keep a optimistic
view about those being saved. After all, if somebody has kept
some IIGS source codes safe after all these years anything
is possible.

> It breaks my heart that probably, most of the source material of
> Amigan landmarks like Mind Walker, Lemmings, Battle Squadron,
> Cinemaware etc. are just rotting away in some basement, if they
> are still kept at all.

I share your concern - we'll just have to hope for the best.
Right now I am happy that people are doing their best to
save the finished games in playable formats.

Seppo

[Hidehiko Ogata]

On 14 May 2012 23:16:58 +0000, Seppo-san wrote:
> I think at least HOL (Hall of Light) website stores images of
> scanned game box covers - I am sure there are others too.

What I meant was the source paintings(?)... on paper? Or canvas?
Hmm, I wonder how those boxes were made back in the analog days.

> I share your concern - we'll just have to hope for the best.
> Right now I am happy that people are doing their best to
> save the finished games in playable formats.

Yeah, much better do whatever we can do *now*, rather than just
complaining and moaning. For those who are doing preservation,
we salute you ;).

[Nate Brazil]

Assassin and Arabian Nights by Krisalis also do sound interesing...
I vote we put those in the queue for review directly after
Prince of Persia - any seconds to this motion? :-)

Nate B.

[Nate Brazil]

On May 14, 7:22 pm, Hidehiko Ogata <wile_e_hide_no@spam_ybb.ne.jp>
wrote:

Well I thought I had posted here yesterday but I don't see
my post. Been wanting to play some Amiga games
and post here about the experience
- I noted someone posted about playing
Prince of Persia - I played this before but got to a
sticking point; it would be cool to play this one again.

I too salute those who are trying to preserve our
beloved Amiga games. Especially this one:

http://www.softpres.org/

[Nate Brazil]

Hmmm - have tried to post here twice now and not seeing my posts.

Hopefully they aren't in a queue that will post later...

I vote we play some Prince of Persia and queue Arabian Nights and Assassin for review directly following. I think we reviewed Mega-Lo-Mania here before but there's certainly no reason why we can't review it again. My time is limited these days so I'll probalby stick to the platformers and arcade type games for now - I'll close here in case this post doesn't succeed either...

Speaking of Software Preservation, check these guys out. I think they started out trying to preserve just Amiga games but have expanded:

http://www.softpres.org/ - The Software Preservation Society

Nate B.

[Hidehiko Ogata]

On Sun, 3 Jun 2012 19:03:29 -0700 (PDT), Nate-san wrote:

> Speaking of Software Preservation, check these guys out. I think they started out trying to preserve just Amiga games but have expanded:
>
> http://www.softpres.org/ - The Software Preservation Society

Yeah, I've made some contribution myself ;). They are cool guys.

So we are go for Prince of Persia? It's been so long since I played
that thing - to the end, actually, but it was darned tricky (not too
hard, but tricky). It will be interesting to re-visit the palace to
see if I still got what it takes.

[Angus]

In article <125521396142523.N...@News.Individual.NET>,
gro...@spamp.inet.fi says...
>


Hi guys,

Had a bit of trouble getting Mega lo Mania working on this here
unmentionable. I'm using the WHDLoad version and selecting nocache seems
to have done the trick. I did get a bit confused with the gui though,
can you give me some pointers for the first mission?

I just developed bows, which took a while then launched a full assault
on my neighbours and got wiped out in moments. :)

Also, am I right in thinking its either music or sfx, but not both?

Cheers.

[Hidehiko Ogata]

On Mon, 4 Jun 2012 17:00:51 +0100, Angus-san wrote:

> to have done the trick. I did get a bit confused with the gui though,
> can you give me some pointers for the first mission?

> I just developed bows, which took a while then launched a full assault
> on my neighbours and got wiped out in moments. :)

If you got that far, I think you're doing okay with GUI. Just remember
that the objects on the map are clickable also; you can recall your army
to the base, or deploy defensive weapons on the turrets etc., that way.

I found it far more productive to allocate men in a big one chunk.
Develop best weapon with *all* your men, then if your neighbor is
foolish enough to invade your land, quickly deallocate and convert
all of them into an army, and counter-attack. The fort may suffer
some damage until the cavalry arrives, but it shouldn't be too bad.

> Also, am I right in thinking its either music or sfx, but not both?

'fraid so. The mighty Sensible ruled on many fronts, but not on sound
multiplexers. I prefer music - a quite nice, Holst-like composition
which gets your blood pumping. Or, pick sfx and play some AC/DC
tune on your stereo, LOUD ;).

[Hidehiko Ogata]

By the way, I've just had a nice little hiccup with my Amiga 4000
which I'd like to share:

Apparently, the aging graphic board (PicassoII) had finally given up
the ghost. But instead of throwing some garbage display at me, the
driver software detected something was amiss, and automagically
reverted to the Amiga-native display. So I could still run showconfig
etc., to diagnose the situation.

Well, the first course to take in such case is to re-seat everything,
which I did, and voila! The display came right back. All the while,
I didn't need to mess with system configuration, driver software etc.,
*at all*.

Talk about good engineering. I love my Amiga :^).

[Seppo]

On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:06:25 +0900, Hidehiko Ogata wrote:

> On Mon, 4 Jun 2012 17:00:51 +0100, Angus-san wrote:
>
> > to have done the trick. I did get a bit confused with the gui though,
> > can you give me some pointers for the first mission?
>
> > I just developed bows, which took a while then launched a full assault
> > on my neighbours and got wiped out in moments. :)
>
> If you got that far, I think you're doing okay with GUI. Just remember
> that the objects on the map are clickable also; you can recall your army
> to the base, or deploy defensive weapons on the turrets etc., that way.

I have to agree with Angus - the GUI is not the most intuitive one.
I actually had to look from the manual how to start the first
mission which is never a good sign in my books.
The step-by-step tutorial in the manual was a big help -
I think I now have a better understanding how the
game mechanics work :)

> I found it far more productive to allocate men in a big one chunk.
> Develop best weapon with *all* your men, then if your neighbor is
> foolish enough to invade your land, quickly deallocate and convert
> all of them into an army, and counter-attack. The fort may suffer
> some damage until the cavalry arrives, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Developing some kind of defensive weaponry first (to protect
the fort) seems to be a good idea, too.

> > Also, am I right in thinking its either music or sfx, but not both?
>
> 'fraid so. The mighty Sensible ruled on many fronts, but not on sound
> multiplexers. I prefer music - a quite nice, Holst-like composition
> which gets your blood pumping. Or, pick sfx and play some AC/DC
> tune on your stereo, LOUD ;).

There seems to be some sound samples (voices) when playing
with music on - but that's about it.


Seppo

[Seppo]

On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:08:44 +0900, Hidehiko Ogata wrote:

> On Sun, 3 Jun 2012 19:03:29 -0700 (PDT), Nate-san wrote:
>
> > Speaking of Software Preservation, check these guys out. I think they started out
trying to preserve just Amiga games but have expanded:
> >
> > http://www.softpres.org/ - The Software Preservation Society
>
> Yeah, I've made some contribution myself ;). They are cool guys.
>
> So we are go for Prince of Persia? It's been so long since I played
> that thing - to the end, actually, but it was darned tricky (not too
> hard, but tricky). It will be interesting to re-visit the palace to
> see if I still got what it takes.

I had a quick go with the game - I had already forgotten
all the joystick controls but eventually picked up the
essential skills. The game is rather merciless against
the player in the beginning - there are no gentle tutorials
or hints how to solve the problems - just your wits against
the sometimes rather devilish puzzles.

And that's why I still love this game more than its more
modern sequels :)

Seppo

[Angus]

In article <ef1df52b-21ad-4335-be61-b2e890ff5be2
@p13g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>, nateb...@comcast.net says...

>
>
> Assassin and Arabian Nights by Krisalis also do sound interesing...
> I vote we put those in the queue for review directly after
> Prince of Persia - any seconds to this motion? :-)
>

I'm up for Arabian Knights and will give Assassin a try.

[Angus]

In article <jqpgd0$i33$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
wile_e_hide_no@spam_ybb.ne.jp says...

>
> On Mon, 4 Jun 2012 17:00:51 +0100, Angus-san wrote:
>
> > to have done the trick. I did get a bit confused with the gui though,
> > can you give me some pointers for the first mission?
>
> > I just developed bows, which took a while then launched a full assault
> > on my neighbours and got wiped out in moments. :)
>
> If you got that far, I think you're doing okay with GUI. Just remember
> that the objects on the map are clickable also; you can recall your army
> to the base, or deploy defensive weapons on the turrets etc., that way.

It didn't feel like I had grasped the GUI. When your people are
developing a technology do you just wait or is there an advance time
function - assuming I've put all my people into it?

>
> > Also, am I right in thinking its either music or sfx, but not both?
>
> 'fraid so. The mighty Sensible ruled on many fronts, but not on sound
> multiplexers. I prefer music - a quite nice, Holst-like composition
> which gets your blood pumping. Or, pick sfx and play some AC/DC
> tune on your stereo, LOUD ;).

:)

I don't know about this game. Its early days, but I really liked the
control I had with PowerMonger. How does MegaLoMania compare?