Games galore #34: Riamel Black Prophecy, Hyper Runner, Dungeoneer Turbo, Junior's Great Adventure, The Cthulhu Project

As always, lots of stuff happening: fantasy dungeons galore, a literally "classic" platformer, and, yes, a new 3D racing game!

Riamel Black Prophecy

A game-that-wasn't turned into a game-that-is: "Riamel Black Prophecy" is an iso-3D dungeon-crawler and role-playing-game from around 1994, and the sequel to "Lords of Time". Legend has it that a couple of copies of the full game might have been sold, but it was basically considered unreleased. Some time around 2018 efforts were started (see links below if you wanna read the full story) to find and restore "Riamel Black Prophecy" - and in 2022 it was finally made publicly available (again).

Well, "Lords of Time" was a hit and still has some following, so "Riamel Black Propehcy" is a must for fantasy RPG fans!

The game requires 1.5 MB RAM, 512 KB of which must be ChipRAM, and two floppy drives or a hard drive.

Here's a video from Manga 303's YouTube channel (2022-07-11):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSvsVbSA7ac

Check out IndieRetroNews' article for full information and downloads:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/06/riamel-black-prophecy-3-disk-amiga.html

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1550102
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2022/06/riamel-black-prophecy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Time

Hyper Runner (work-in-progress)

Ah, very good: A new 3D-racing game! "Hyper Runner" by Raster Wizards (creators of Barbarian+) is under development, with occasional preview videos being released. It's obviously far from finished, but the graphics look fast and beautiful, with a couple of nice touches showing great attention to detail: the track color gradient gives a nice illusion of depth and merges near perfectly into the background imagery, ship engines gradually turn on and off, z-scaling of graphics looks pretty much perspective-correct, female speech samples, ... - yeah, an all-round very good looking package with some proper house music.

Here's a video from Raster Wizards' YouTube channel (2022-08-21):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ctt027V39Q

For the latest news about "Hyper Runner" you can follow RasterWizards on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/RasterWizards

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/08/hyper-runner-wicked-sci-fi-racer-for.html

Dungeoneer Turbo

This Gauntlet-style arcade game popped up in May 2022. In "Dungeoneer Turbo" you control a weirdly cute looking green PacMan-ish character who encounters all kinds of otherworldly creatures on his quest to make it through the dungeons.

The graphics look quite simple, but effective, and it appears to be quite a fast paced, smoothly playable game - perfect for many quick and addictive sessions of top-view dungeoneering action.

Here's a video from Per-Ola Eriksson's YouTube channel (2022-05-12):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvmRVUcTPLI

Go to the game's website for more information and downloads:
https://mccheesebob.itch.io/dungeoneer-turbo

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/05/dungeoneer-turbo-fast-paced-gauntlet.html

Junior's Great Adventure

This is a platformer created by Amigamers that clearly takes strong inspiration from early 20th century cartoons such as Felix the Cat or early Mickey Mouse.

So Junior must climb and jump and run and collect, dodge rats and other charming characters, and make his way through numerous levels. The graphics are cartoonish, the game doesn't look too easy to play, there's a nice honky-tonk piano tune playing along, and (almost) everything is presented in old-film sepia color tones - very good!

The game requires an Amiga with 1MB RAM and Kickstart 2.1 or higher.

Here's a video from YouTube channel "Il Paul Di Gomma" (2022-12-20):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qP3RHsjRoo

You can download "Junior's Great Adventure" from Amigatronics' website:
https://amigatronics.wordpress.com/2022/04/24/amigamers-juniors-great-adventure

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/05/juniors-great-adventure-rather-unusual.html

The Cthulhu Project (work-in-progress)

Dungeon crawling is popular among Amiga gamers, and "The Cthulu Project" is an upcoming new dungeon crawler game by Captain DarkN3mo. Cool.

No release date has been set yet, as the game is obviously still under development (see video below) - but we can already see all the ingredients required for a nice round of classic underground crawling: 3d graphics, 4-way step movement, compass and map, fantasy sci-fi/horror theme, ... and on top of that it's friggin' Cthulu him(them?)self!

Here's the latest video from Captain DarkN3m0's YouTube channel (2023-02-25):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHrh4L7sI20

Keep an eye on Captain DarkN3mo's YouTube channel for updates and more details!

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/05/the-cthulhu-project-upcoming-dungeon.html

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...and some bonus gaming news (?):

CyberPunks 2 announced - or maybe not?

We've reported about this game before, and for a short period of time a new preview video was available on YouTube channel "AmigaDweeb" (@MutationSoftware). It was published on Dec. 10th 2022, but has been removed.

AmigaDweeb (@MutationSoftware) YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@MutationSoftware

Video link, outdated (removed):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrH6QBq8DPE

We'll just keep this note here for historical reasons, and stay tuned for more news about "CyberPunks 2".

Additional sources:
http://www.mutationsoftware.uk
https://softamuse.itch.io
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/05/cyberpunks-2-as-official-amiga.html

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #35"!

Check out "Games galore" main page with all articles -
click here!

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Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!

 

AmigaOS 3.2.2 update is out!

AmigaOS is undoubtedly alive, as proven by Hyperion Entertainment and AmigaOS developer team, who have just released another update.

In a nutshell, this update brings improvements and fixes to IconEdit, ShowConfig, TextEdit, RAM disk, several gadgets (listbrowser, sketchboard, layout), window.class, boards.library, and a couple of other things.

Check out Hyperion's press release for full information and download:

https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/news/1-latest-news/307-new-update-2-of-amigaos-32-available-for-download-now

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-03-00011-EN.html

S-Video is awesome!

Over the last decades I've tried countless different setups in order to properly capture the Amiga's video output. Pretty much all of them were unsatisfactory, or just way too expensive (think A4000 plus V-Lab Motion or PAR). Old PC analogue capture cards give quite good results, but device drivers and PCI slots for these are getting really rare. So - finally! - I've decided to drop my attempts with the Composite video connection, and build an S-Video adapter for the Amiga.

Composite video merges all video information into one wire, so its signal quality is somehow limited by design. Composite video is easily available on all Amigas (built-in, or via A520 TV Modulator), but the real disappointment happens when you see this signal recorded with some average digitizing equipment. Weak colors, red all over the place, blurred, misaligned - the results are hardly enjoyable.

The Amiga provides separate red/green/blue component signals on its DSUB23 video output, which many people (including me) use with a RGB-to-SCART cable. Such a cable gives great picture quality, but only if the receiving device a) has a SCART input connector, and b) uses the separate color components.

Among my video capturing attempts was a Terratec USB box with a SCART connector, which looked great from the outside. But it turned out it doesn't use color components, only the Composite signal provided on one of the other SCART connector pins. Blurred, washed out, ...again. Sigh.

S-Video, aka Y/C, uses two wires: brightness (Y, gamma, luma, luminance), and color (C, chroma, chrominance). That doesn't sound like much on first sight (hear), but S-VHS tape recorders featuring S-Video were super expensive back in the day, and most modern analog video capture devices, including the cheap ones, have a S-Video input. So at least some improvement of picture quality can be expected just from the different specifications, and maybe from a different signal path inside the capture device.

A guide on how to build a S-Video adapter for the Amiga was quickly found at Everything Amiga: https://www.everythingamiga.com/2017/02/amiga-rgb-to-s-video-adapter.html

S-Video adapter circuit shown at https://www.everythingamiga.com/2017/02/amiga-rgb-to-s-video-adapter.html (NTSC version)

The design of the circuit looks straightforward, it uses a AD724 video chip, and it adds another Composite video output which may come in handy some day. Nice, let's start building!

The DSUB23 video connector was created from a DSUB25 one, and the SMD video encoder chip needs a little "daughterboard" adding "human-readable" soldering pads (holes).

Test-ready build of S-Video adapter

Oops, something went wrong...

First testrun: There's clearly something wrong here. This is what you get when you use a PAL crystal (4.433619MHz), but still have the AD724 set to NTSC output by connecting +5V to STND (pin 1), as shown in the (NTSC) schematics. To switch the chip to PAL video mode, STND must be connected to ground. (As noted in the bottom section / "2017-04-03 UPDATE" of the article at Everything Amiga.)

Slightly better soldering, and added composite video out

It took me a couple of attempts to get a working "daughterboard" with the AD724. Maybe the small green PCBs are of inferior quality. Or maybe just my soldering skills are, and I fried something a little too long.

Here are some pictures of the results, with RGB-to-SCART and Amiga 1200's built-in composite video for comparison.

RGB-to-SCART

A1200 built-in Composite

Composite (via S-Video adapter)

S-Video, Hi-Res 640x256

S-Video, Hi-Res laced 640x512

S-Video, Super Hi-Res laced 1280x512

Wow, it's pretty much as good as RGB-to-SCART! I certainly didn't expect that much of an improvement. (And I never knew "Palette" prefs shows up in different shapes depending on screen size. Nice.)

A very cheap USB video capture device

And here's a frame of S-Video captured with a 15EUR USB dongle capture device:

Screenshot of Amiga S-Video capture on Linux computer

Wow, that's... pretty good! Ohyeah, I can use that! :-D

To give the thing some protection, esp. when plugging/unplugging it, a simple housing was quickly created. It's a bit flimsy, and not particularly beautiful, but it'll do for now.

With this successful proof-of-concept I'll probably build another adapter, with better layout, less wires, and a sturdy, more precise case. Also maybe some shielding will further improve picture quality. 

Current "final" build state, with "modular" video chip board

Awesome! It works, is usable, and I'm totally surprised by the amazing capture quality. I expected either total failure, or a just a slight improvement, due to cheap, inferior capture device. But it turns out S-Video makes all the difference, two wires are obviously far superior to just one.

Big thank you to Everything Amiga for sharing your information!

Sources:
https://www.everythingamiga.com/2017/02/amiga-rgb-to-s-video-adapter.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video

 

57 new links in the AMIGA alive Web Directory

Happy New Year! The AMIGA alive Web Directory got updated with 57 new links and a round of corrections - now 529 websites listed.

As always, if you're looking for something specific, make sure to check the "Misc / Mixed" section, as some websites cover multiple different subjects, e.g. software authors may have created very different applications. And/or try your browser's text-search functions to find keywords like application names, authors, game titles, etc.

Please leave a comment if you spot errors, broken links, or would like to see a (your?) website listed.

Have fun browsing the...

>>> AMIGA alive Web Directory <<<

History in the making: Amiga CD1200 tear down

Beth Richard, lead engineer of the CD1200, provides more in-depth information about the device's story as she's taking it apart.

As a follow up to the article about the rediscovery of the ultra-rare Amiga CD1200 drive, we're happy to be able to share even more information about it.

On July 17th 2022, Beth Richard, lead engineer of the CD1200 in 1993/1994, visited the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester, UK, making more history and providing invaluable information by talking about her experience, and actually taking the device apart.

A video of the event was uploaded to YouTube about a month ago.

Here's the video of Beth Richard taking the (presumably) only Amiga CD1200 in existence apart (on YouTube channel "PixelFix"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYGhOuIysVU

Shortly after the video was uploaded to YouTube, Ms. Richard left a comment which provides even more insight into the background of the CD1200 (transcript of comment follows).

Ms. Richard's comment on the above video
(source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYGhOuIysVU)

"That was quite an experience! I'm so glad we got to do that.  

People look back at my work and assume that as the lead engineer, I was somehow a Commodore "Legend". I'll leave that to those to whom it really applies. I was a junior engineer at the time, near the beginning of my career. I think the best way I can describe how I ended up being the lead engineer on this project is a quote taken from Any Weir's "The Martian": "Ares 3. Well, that was my mission. Okay, not mine per se. Commander Lewi was in charge. I was the lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be 'in command' of the mission if I were the only remaining person. What do you know? I'm in command." It was very clear by the time I started this project that the end was near. I worked on this at a time where we thought it may be possible that someone would buy the company and take it seriously. Having demonstrated that there were ideas and projects with a roadmap into the future would be what someone would want to buy. Several of us were working right to the end to keep a portfolio of projects that could be turned on immediately, should a new owner wish it. (Like the work Dave Haynie was doing at the high end, and some stuff Greg Berlin had been doing too.). It was not to be. 

I'm so embarrassed about misspeaking that the date of Pearl Harbor was 7-Dec-1943... ***1941***!!!! I know that! How could my mind have been so bounced and distracted that I would have gotten that wrong? I might have had an excess of adrenaline at the time.  

Although I designed that in 1993-1994, I was particularly nervous about opening it because it isn't mine... it's the RCM's. And it's got to be the only example left in the world by this point. I offered to coach Andy through opening it as it's his museum's property, but he wouldn't have it. Sadly, in order to make it work, it needs the controller board to go into the A1200 and cable that came through the port on the rear of the A1200 to connect it to the drive. None of those seem to have survived. 

I know it was edited for privacy reasons, but when I was going through the names I saw on the PCB, I started with the first one on the list... mine. The names were actually the userIDs for our email addresses, each of which ended with @ 'cbmvax.commodore.com'. And the word preceding that cut was my userID: brichard. Since that email has been invalid since April 1994, I'm not terribly worried about people knowing it.  

And credit where credit is due: My spouse, Teresa, who has her degree in Engineering Management that included nearly the complete curriculum of Mechanical Engineering took a look at the lid spring and noticed the extra bend that was causing it to pop out of position. When she showed it to me, I recognized that the spring was not actually the original factory spring. It must have been broken at some point and someone replaced it by bending a bit of spring-steel wire to (nearly) match. In fact, that mechanism was not custom to the CD1200 - it was re-used from the CD32. So by comparing with a CD32 lid spring mechanism, we confirmed it was wrong and replaced the spring with one from a CD32. The lid works correctly again!  

Such a great day! Thank to Andy for inviting me to the RCM and being so gracious about the experience."

(transcript of @bethteresarichard3910's comment on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYGhOuIysVU)

Great work by Ms. Richard, Retro Computer Museum, and all others involved! Thanks for sharing, and keeping the CD1200 alive.

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2022-12-00051-EN.html

 

AADevLog #6 - Merry Christmas! And, yes, it will become a game.

Merry Christmas everyone! So it's christmas, and I thought I'd pull out a couple of things from my harddrive.

You might have noticed this, well, attempt at a platformer that goes by the name of "Wheelchair Hero". I'm working on it on-and-off, but there is actual progress. One of the issues I had postponed was some sort of rudimentary color management, meaning some basic strategy regarding palette use. Another one was to add some strategy elements, so the... game?... doesn't get too boring too quickly. Anyway - here's another work-in-progress screenshot of "Wheelchair Hero", and, yes, it looks as if this will become a game. :-)

Wheelchair Hero with new elevators, NPCs, items, better colors

Also a little bit of work has been done on "reed" texteditor: a little update to the GUI layout, and it now shows actual settings' values.

"reed" on AmigaOS3.9

And while we're at it: When creating a game, why not create two? Or even three? So I started drawing assets for more playable stuff. This next one might be called "Attack on the Beach", and maybe you can make a guess what it's all about from this mockup-picture:

"Attack on the Beach" concept picture

Finally, something that I had on my mind for decades. With all the knowledge gained from hundreds of programming experiments and attempts, I thought it's about time to somehow tackle the challenge. I'm pretty sure everyone gets a "rough" idea what this one might be about from this early title picture. ;-)

"Airborne Trooper" work-in-progress title picture

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Thanks for reading, happy holidays & stay healthy!

WinUAE, IBrowse, AmigaAMP updated

Great christmas gifts for Amiga users of all kinds! WinUAE, IBrowse, and AmigaAMP have received (sometimes substantial) updates.

WinUAE 4.10.0

WinUAE is the king of Amiga emulation. You can read about all the details on WinUAE's homepage, but here's the big one in this latest release: 100% cycle accuracy! Oh wow, this is a blessing not just for hardcore classic gamers and sceners, but for all Amiga software developers. Very good!

Go to https://www.winuae.net for more information!

IBrowse 2.5.8

IBrowse developer team, again, proves its dedication to Amiga webbrowsing: this latest version contains all hotfixes since the previous one, and adds a round of new bugfixes and improvements, such as re-enabled Gemini protocol support and better stability.

Check out https://www.ibrowse-dev.net/news.php?id=1671191636 for more information!

AmigaAMP 3.33

Thomas Wenzel wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, and has released AmigaAMP 3.33. Improved sound playback and repeat/shuffle features make listening to some music on the Amiga even more enjoyable!

Go to http://www.amigaamp.de for more information!

Sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2022-12-00100-EN.html
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2022-12-00086-EN.html
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2022-12-00102-EN.html