Amiga games

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The Commodore Amiga was an important platform for computer games in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Of all the 16-bit home computers, it was the one to gain the greatest success as a games machine due to its graphic and sound subsystems, which were widely considered to be far ahead of their time. A game made for the Amiga platform generally had much better sound and graphics than the same game running on an IBM PC, and it was also a more powerful machine than its nearest rival, the Atari ST.

The Amiga 500 running Leander (1991)
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The Amiga 500 running Leander (1991)

Contents

[edit] History

From the Amiga's introduction in late 1985, through to the early 1990s, Amiga games were developed in parallel with the Atari ST as both machines utilized the Motorola 68000 CPU. The Atari ST was, by default the industry's primary focus for 16-bit games development because it initially had a larger user base than the Amiga. Additionally, developers found it easier to develop for, and it was easier to port from ST to Amiga than the other way. This was due in part to the ST's minimalist hardware design and lack of Amiga's custom chips.

A major proportion of games developed from 1985 to 1988 were written specifically for ST, then converted to the Amiga. As a result, many Amiga games of this period were, in most cases, identical to the ST version. The only differences were apparent in audio effects and in-game music. This was an unfortunate development for the Amiga, because only its audio subsystem was demonstrating the Amiga's custom chipset, while its graphical subsystems remained untapped.

Amiga games popularized tracker-based music, particularly the MOD file format, which has enjoyed continuing popularity in the Demoscene community. Demoscene music was influenced by the Amiga and its plethora of games with upbeat, electronic music soundtracks. Music was considered a big part of the game experience in most Amiga games.

The ST continued to be the dominant machine until the introduction of the Amiga 500 in early 1987. Although the A500's chipset was more or less identical to its predecessor, the Amiga 1000, it was cheaper, making it the first "mass-market" Amiga. With the success of the A500, the games industry gradually shifted its focus to the Amiga. By 1988, an increasing number of games were developed specifically for the Amiga. At its zenith in the early 1990s, the Amiga continued to be the platform of choice of many games development companies. At that time virtually every game destined for the PC was first developed and released on the Amiga.

The Amiga gaming scene was responsible for the rapid growth of small gaming companies including Electronic Arts who were contracted by Commodore International to produce the Amiga's standard file format IFF in 1985. Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint was included as standard with many Amigas thus giving them early access to productivity software. Other game development companies that were spawned by the Amiga platform include Psygnosis (later purchased by Sony as the in-house development team for the Playstation), and a sub-set of Psygnosis called DMA Design (which later became Rockstar Games -- the developer of the Grand Theft Auto series).

[edit] Important Amiga games

[edit] Early games

[edit] Popular games

[edit] Historically significant games

[edit] Games that have been distributed with the Amiga

Commodore released a series of savvy bundles, packing-in serious applications such as Deluxe Paint along with high-profile entertainment titles. Notable releases included :

Batman Pack : A500 : October 1989 - September 1990

Flight of Fantasy : A500 : April 1990 - September 1990

Screen Gems : A500 : September 1990 - July 1992

Cartoon Classics : A500 : July 1992 - September 1992

Other games that have been distributed in official Amiga bundles include :

[edit] High Resolution, High Colour Games

On Classic Amigas High Resolution is defined as 640x400 pixels or higher. High colour is defined as 256 colours or more.

[edit] Amiga game developers

Many famous game developers first established themselves on the Amiga, although some such as David Braben had already established reputations from the 8-bit formats. Famous Amiga game developers include:

[edit] Screenshots

Screenshot of Defender of the Crown Screenshot of Marble Madness Screenshot of Starglider 2 Screenshot of Populous
Defender of the Crown Marble Madness Starglider 2 Populous
Mindscape/Cinemaware (1986) Electronic Arts (1986) Rainbird/Argonaut (1988) EA/Bullfrog (1989)
Screenshot of Shadow of the Beast Screenshot of Lemmings Screenshot of Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge Screenshot of Turrican
Shadow of the Beast 2 Lemmings Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge Turrican
Psygnosis/Reflections (1989) Psygnosis/DMA (1990) Gremlin/Magnetic Fields (1990) Rainbow Arts/Factor 5 (1990)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


AmigaOS (category)
Companies: Commodore International | Hyperion Entertainment
Computers: Amiga
Technology: Workbench | Intuition | AmigaDOS | ARexx | AmigaBASIC | Amigaguide | Software | Games | Demos
Operating systems: AmigaOS (versions) | AROS | MorphOS
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