Games galore #11: Chicken Coop, Monkey Lad, Dodgy Rocks, The Shadows of Sergoth

Chicken, monkeys, rocks, and shadows - pick your favourite, and have a good time playing an Amiga game! Do we see a trend where developers are working towards advanced yet mature tools for game creation, like using Construct 2 for DaemonClaw, Dread being planned as an open engine from the beginning, or RedPill and Scorpion engines evolving and being used as a basis for two of the games in today's article?

Chicken Coop

This looks like one of those games you just can't resist. "Chicken Coop" from Jacek Nockowski was created using the RedPill game engine, it's another platformer, and it's a really cute. 20 levels to play, collect stuff, fight chicken! The graphics are minimalistic, loveable, and effective. The sounds are simple, and hilarious. And then of course there's that cut scene. Don't miss this one.

Note: Looks like it should work on any Amiga, but the extracted archive size is about 1MB, so you'll probably need a little bit of extra RAM and/or harddrive?

Here you can watch a video of "Chicken Coop" (2020-07-14):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9nbLv3KHA

You can download "Chicken Coop" from AmiNet:
http://aminet.net/package/game/jump/ChickenCoop

Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/07/chicken-coop-new-amiga-game-from-jacek.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/redpillgamecreator/ (RedPill engine)

"Monkey Lad" demo, "Scorpion" engine

In case you haven't heard about Erik "earok" Hogan's "Scorpion" engine before, just think of it as a game construction kit he's building (see "additional sources" below for more info).

After Amigo the Fox now comes "Monkey Lad", another "Scorpion" based game, inspired by 1986 SEGA title "Alexx Kidd". This is not a full game, and not planned to become one, but much more another test for the engine. Very cool, this looks more elaborate than "Amigo the Fox", certainly utilizing new features of the engine, and makes you look forward to more stuff like maybe ropes in the next game?

Watch a video of "MonkeyLad" on YouTube (2020-09-12):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vywq3vIwz4A

You can download "Monkey Lad" from earok's website:
http://earok.net/games/monkeylad.adf

 
Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/09/monkey-lad-welcome-to-alex-kidd-demo.html
https://github.com/earok/scorpion-engine-demos (Scorpion engine on GitHub)
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=97450 (Scorpion engine thread)

Dodgy Rocks

Do you like "Flappy Bird"? You're gonna love "Dodgy Rocks". It's a new stress-test for your nerves, requiring an OCS/ECS Amiga with 1MB of RAM.

"Dodgy Rocks" is far more complex than "Flappy Bird", but you'll get the idea pretty quickly nontheless. Dodge rocks to get points, or kick and smash them to get more points. If that doesn't sound like fun to you then you must be a PC guy.

Seriously, it's far better than "Flappy Bird" - it's actual fun to play! "Dodgy Rocks" is a game by John Girvin, ported to the Amiga by Rob Cranley.

Watch a video of "Dodgy Rocks" on YouTube (2020-09-10):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgcNLDT1nGw

 

You can download "Dodgy Rocks" for Amiga from AmiNet:
http://aminet.net/package/game/actio/DodgyRocks

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1428039
https://nivrig.com
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/09/dodgy-rocks-new-amiga-game-from-nivrig.html

The Shadows of Sergoth

Ah, the dungeon crawlers. After the beautiful "Black Dawn Rebirth", here's the first playable demo of "Shadows of Sergoth" from Doublesided Games, and it's just as amazing.

The visual style and graphics quality of "Shadows of Sergoth" are pretty awesome, music is super moody, and it's classic dungeon crawling - if you like the genre you can't go wrong with this one. A little kingdom, spells, humans, dwarfs, monsters, and more is what you get in this almost-3D fantasy game -  and did I mention those eyes? Very nice eyes.

"Shadows of Sergoth" requires 1.5MB ChipRAM, and a little bit of extra processing power is recommended. You can disable some game features for better performance on lower-end Amigas.

A commercial release of the game is planned, which will include digital download and physical editions.

The Shadows Of Sergoth demo, DOUBLESIDED Games (2020-09-16)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVjLWEgJe5I

You can download the demo from Doublesided Games' website:
https://doublesidedgames.com/games/the-shadows-of-sergoth/

Additional sources:
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-09-00033-EN.html

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #12"!

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

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Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!

Games galore #10: BlitzWays, Ftype, AstroBlox Revisited, Hansel and Gretel, Tiny Bobble, Green Thang

Indeed it's games galore, they just keep'em coming.

BlitzWays

Around July 2020 "BlitzWays" was announced by author Sebastian Hartmann, a new puzzler for Amiga 500 with 1MB ChipRAM and Kickstart 2.0, or better. "BlitzWays" is similar to games like Mah-Jongg, written in BlitzBasic, and has an impressive development time of 28 years! Well, according to the game's website it was put on ice several times. In the game, your goal is to find "paths" ("Ways") between tiles, and thus remove them from the board. Some decent in-game music, and a time limit to get the job done should make for a fun time playing this. Check out the game's backstory, it's a nice one. We're happy to see the game coming to life - finally!

Watch "BlitzWays" on YouTube (2020-07-01):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfNsZ2EO1tM

Find out more about "BlitzWays"' history and features, and download the game from Sebastians website: https://www.wertstahl.de/ways/

Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/06/blitzways-brand-new-amiga-500-game-from.html

Ftype, early demo

Also around July "Ftype" popped up - another new shoot-em-up game. Currently there's only an early work-in-progress demo available, the finished product will certainly look more or less different, but so far we get what seems to be a decent top-down view, vertical scrolling shooter, with nice color palette and detailed graphics. Certainly one to keep an eye on.

Watch a demo video of "Ftype" (work-in-progress) on YouTube (2020-07-06):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdf7tb6k8Ck

Go to Indie Retro News' website to download early WIP demo of "FType":
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/07/ftype-upcoming-amiga-shoot-em-up.html

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1410796

AstroBlox Revisited

In early August somewhat abstract puzzler "Astro Blox Revisited" from the Decrunch 2020 scene event was published. You push "blox" into their designated spots, which may require some serious planning due to obstacles and special blocks which behave in special ways. "Astro Blox Revisited" won the top spot in the GAMEDEV competition at Decrunch 2020, and, yeah, it's really fun to play!

Watch a video of "AstroBlox Revisited" (2020-08-01):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMcc27pbD0o

You can download "AstroBlox Revisited" from scene.org:
https://files.scene.org/view/parties/2020/decrunch20/gamedev/abr.zip

Additional sources:
https://demozoo.org/productions/282295/
https://www.pouet.net/party_results.php?which=1719&when=2020

Hansel and Gretel

Also from the Decrunch 2020 event comes "Hansel and Gretel", written in AMOS Pro, by stoopi, jojo073, and Magnetic-Fox. It's a simple but beautiful platformer with a little bit of puzzling that made it to position three in the event's GAMEDEV competition.

Watch a video of "Hansel and Gretel" on YouTube (2020-08-01):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=867yMAAajSQ

You can download "Hansel and Gretel" from the YouTube video page, see description there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=867yMAAajSQ

Additional sources:
https://demozoo.org/productions/282297/

Tiny Bobble

From "Abyss" who brought us "Tiny Invaders" and "Tiny Galaga" also comes "Tiny Bobble", which was released in August 2020.

In contrast to the two previous "tiny" releases, this one is specifically aimed at being a near-perfect arcade port, and there is a reason: there is of course a well-known commercial port of "Bubble Bobble" for the Amiga made by Firebird in 1989, but to fans of the arcade machine it was always a bit of a disappointment. This version lacked a lot of details that even a C64 would have no technical problems pulling off - it seems it's just a lazy port that's not utilizing many of the Amiga's hardware features.

"Tiny Bobble" steps in to fix this. And it does! It has a lot of improvements over the 1989 Firebird version, like original arcade screen size, original set of items (150 as opposed to ~40), double frame rate, animated screens, additional screens from the arcade original, and more.

Now this really looks much better than the previous port! Of course it still plays smooth and fast, sounds great, and supports one or two players.

Here you can watch a video of "Tiny Bobble" (v0.9beta, 2020-08-13):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlsivG4Z_WQ

You can download "Tiny Bobble" from Abyss' website:
http://www.abyss-online.de/static/download/aYs_TinyBobble.adf

Additional sources:
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=86851
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-08-00017-EN.html
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1419137

Green Thang

"The Green Thang" is a funny looking character reminiscent of Kermit the frog in a space suit. It's also the name of the game this character stars in, another unfinished, previously unreleased production that was released in mid September 2020. It contains only two early test levels of the game, but these look amazing, like a blend of Zool and Superfrog. So you get the basic idea, it's a platformer, and a very nice one, with flawless fast scrolling, bubbly sounds, and this loveable character in a suit. Very good to see this thang out in the public - make sure you read it's backstory, quite interesting.

Here you can watch "Green Thang" on YouTube (2020-09-18):

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF6v_43WhsY

You can download "The Green Thang" from "Games That Weren't" website: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2020/09/green-thang/

Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/09/green-thang-unreleased-action.html

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #11"!

 

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

 

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Games galore #9: Dread (update), Super Wormy, Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons, Dragon Slayer

This time we have two classics revisited, and two previously unreleased games. It's always an especially pleasant surprise when Amiga developers get together to rebuild and release some forgotten project. Here we go!

 

"Dread" (update)

"Dread" certainly is one of the most exciting Amiga game projects of the COVID-19 era, and among the most exciting game projects on the Amiga ever. Yes, it's THAT epic. Ok, it's been more than 20 years, but there's still that exhilaratingly satisfying feeling when you know Amigans won the "Doom can't be done" cause, and "Dread" is the final strike. KK/Altair is still working on the engine, and keeping the public up to date with several videos, the latest of which shows him painstakingly optimizing the image conversion process in order to get better color palette distribution. Whatever the case, it's a fascinating look into game development, and how this one will once and for all put an end to all arguments: the Amiga IS superior to the Atari ST! ;-)

Watch 'Dread Ep 04 - "Doom" clone for Amiga 500 - Revisiting the graphics' on YouTube (2020-08-30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c00B3uE5FV8

Super Wormy

"Snake" is one of those classic games that'll never get old, and "Super Wormy" is a new variation of the concept. Written by Rob "Coagulus" Hewitt in BlitzBasic during the (first) Corona virus lockdown period, "Super Wormy" is a neat looking, smooth scrolling snake-type game, with an amazing, weirdly hypnotic soundtrack - straightforward arcade fun for gamers of all ages!

Watch a video of "Super Wormy The Worm-Like Snake. v1.0" (2020-07-21):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrbK74NE5yQ

You can download "Super Wormy" (v1.1) from English Amiga Board:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1416198#post1416198

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-07-00073-EN.html
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=103271
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=103211

Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons

"Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons" is a super good looking, nicely animated, beautiful sounding game for kids and adults alike. It combines elements of a platformer with BombJack and DigDug, and does so with lovely handpainted screens, gorgeous sprites, transition effects, intro animation, and so on. The game mechanics are slightly more elaborate than usual, this looks like great fun to play, and the overall production quality easily meets professional standards.

 

The project dates back to 1992 when the original developers were unable to publish the game. Recently, the source code has been reviewed, and the full game completed. There are also plans to release the sourcecode, and create a physical package gamers can purchase. "Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons" requires an OCS Amiga with 1MB RAM and Kickstart 1.2, or better. And it's free for you to download (see link below) - great stuff!

Watch a video of "Smarty And The Nasty Gluttons - Gameplay" (2020-08-07):

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

You can download "Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons" from the game's homepage: https://smartygame.fi

Additional sources:

http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2020-08-00002-DE.html
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/07/smarty-and-nasty-gluttons-another-amiga.html

Dragon Slayer

With some impressive graphics and realistic sound effects "Dragon Slayer" almost enters horror game territory. There's not much missing and this game should be able to create some serious atmosphere in your darkened livingroom. It combines platformer and adventure elements with boss fighting sequences, and the game is said to have quite a large area to explore, consisting of hundreds of locations.

 

The game was initially developed by Christian Haller, to be released by Linel software in 1990, but is now being rebuilt and planned to be published for the first time. Check out these amazing sprites and GELs. Gods meets Barbarian meets... Space Harrier?

Watch "Dragon Slayer (old Amiga game, preview)" on YouTube (2020-08-11):

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV7dZgzSaC8

Additional sources:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/dragon-slayer/
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-07-00076-EN.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1653730221606670/permalink/2551615681818115/
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/07/dragon-slayer-never-before-seen-amiga.html

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... again we have some bonus gaming news:

Project Horizon

Since we last reported about "Project Horizon", a demo of the game has been released. And oh does it look and sound good. Well, see for yourself: 

Watch "Amiga - Project Horizon (DEMO)" on YouTube (2020-06-16):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDy09P8Trpc

You can download the demo from Indie Retro News' website:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/06/project-horizon-alien-blaster-wip-for.html

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #10"!

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

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Games galore #8: Lala Prologue, Hydra Castle Labyrinth, Aztec Challenge CD32, Tiny Invaders & Tiny Galaga, Amigo the Fox

COVID-19 is still spreading, but that doesn't stop Amiga game development, new games keep popping up. Here's another snapshot of what's going on: 8-bit ports, arcade ports, and platformers all over the place! 

 

Lala Prologue 

 

In April this year arcade platformer "Lala Prologue" was announced. Inspired by "Lala The Magical" (by The Mojon Twins) for NES and other 8-bit platforms, created for the C64 / VIC40 / Plus4, "Lala Prologue" is now making it's way to OCS plus 512KB memory equipped Amigas.

A spooky theme throughout, in this game you'll evade enemies, negotiate moving platforms, avoid traps, and collect power-ups and keys to make sure Lala safely progresses through her adventure at the Great Witch Academy.

"Lala Prologue" looks good in 8 bits, and it surely looks at least as good in 16 bits - it's still work-in-progress, so far we know that it uses a 32 color playfield with two layers, and some bitmap tricks to get more detail on screen. There will certainly be updates, little changes in appearance, and so on, as it's still work in progress, but this is going to be another fun release for the Amiga!

Here's a work-in-progress video (2020-04-04):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOju2pX8iGE

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2020-04-00013-DE.html
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/04/lala-prologue-charming-platformer-is.html
https://readretro.com/lala-prologue-coming-to-amiga-500/
https://majikeyric.itch.io/lala-prologue (c64, plus/4, VIC20 versions)

Hydra Castle Labyrinth

"Hydra Castle Labyrinth" is a Metroidvania style game, ported to Amiga 68k by Artur "Arczi" Jarosik. 

Basically another platformer, but this version supports CD32-gamepads, which itself makes it something special. Of course you can use a joystick, too. A (very) fast Amiga - namely: Vampire board - is recommended to play the game.

"Hydra Castle Labyrinth" has already been available for many platforms - including MS-DOS, SEGA Dreamcast, AmigaOS 4 - and is a welcome addition to the range of 68k titles.

"Hydra Castle Labyrinth" 68k running on AROS m68k (2020-04-05):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRtcwMtM9ZA

Read more about Hydra Castle Labyrinth on ARTIGAMES' blog website:
https://artishq.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/hydra-castle-labirynth/

Click here to download "Hydra Castle Labyrinth":
http://netsurf.baderman.net/hydracastlelabirynth.lha

Support Arczi via his Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/ArtiGamesAmiSoft

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-04-00017-EN.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroidvania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_(video_game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania_(1986_video_game)

Aztec Challenge (Amiga CD32)

It's still a rare, and always exciting sight when a new Amiga CD32 game pops up. This one is new, yet old, and we get only one level, but beware, it's friggin' "Aztec Challenge" from the Commodore 64 and Atari 800!

A massive update to the original, "Aztec Challenge" certainly never looked better - this one plays butter smooth, has nice sprite animations, even cinematic 3D rendered cutscenes, and an impressive soundtrack. Yeah, of course, 16 bits can do more than 8 bits, but the attention to detail and overall love for the source material and the target platform is obvious.

Literally everyone who watches the video below and likes "Aztec Challenge" even in the slightest bit will be craving for the full game on CD32 - very, very nice work!

"Aztec Challenge EP01" for Amiga CD32 (2020-05-17):

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

You can download "Aztec Challenge EP01" for Amiga CD32 from AmiNet:
http://aminet.net/package/game/actio/AztecChallenge_E01_CD32

Additional sources:
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=102240
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/05/aztec-challenge-cd32-1982-challenging.html

Tiny Invaders & Tiny Galaga

Two arcade action super-classics ports by coder "Abyss" have been released for the Amiga, in pocket size: "Tiny Invaders" is a remake of 1978 Taito/Atari classic "Space Invaders", and "Tiny Galaga" is a remake of 1981 Namco classic "Galaga".

Well, they're not pixel precise ports, but lovely little interpretations of the original games. Obviously they're not feature-packed, but both games play smoothly, look great, and they're so tiny you can put both together on a single floppy disk, or easily send them over a (null)modem line.

If you need a quick round of arcade action these are perfect for you!

Tiny Invaders (by Abyss) (2020-04-27):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrNXGgJ7uJA

Tiny Galaga (by Abyss) (2020-05-25):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQQkWxQsj8I

You can download both games from Abyss' website:
aYS_TinyInvaders.zip / aYS_TinyGalaga.zip

(Note: there are two games titled "tinyinvaders" on AmiNet, none of which are related to this "Tiny Invaders" by Abyss)

Additional sources:
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=85458
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=85720
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/04/tiny-invaders-small-space-invaders.html
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=101924

Amigo the Fox

Around June yet another platformer was announced, that goes by the name of "Amiga the Fox". Jump, run, collect coins - just by looking at a screenshot it almost spells out "Mario!", and that's a good thing. This is clearly inspired my some other well known game, and is perfectly tailored to fans of the genre, probably esp. the younger ones.

Erik "earok" Hogan is creating the game using his "Scorpion" game engine, which means it's framerate is 50Hz, and it runs on OCS equipped Amiga 500s and upwards. For "Amigo the Fox" some extra processing power is recommended.

 Amigo the Fox WIP alpha 2 (2020-06-21):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7_0sMdKfUY

Additional sources:
https://twitter.com/earok
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-06-00056-EN.html

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...again, we have some Bonus gaming news:

Boss Machine new preview video

Since we last reported about "Boss Machine" a couple of testing/preview videos have been uploaded to Daniel Stephens YouTube channel. The game looked great from day zero, but it's really starting to take breathtaking shape, see for yourself:

Boss Machine : New Scroll Delta (2020-05-05)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjsPLE06qys

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #9"!

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

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