Merry Christmas everyone!

Stay healthy, and have a peaceful time.

Xmas Lemmings, 1991

  Merry Christmas!

Games galore #14: Jab Jum, Jump Besi Jump, Duckstroma, Super Pumpkin Bros

An issue full of platform games, probably Amiga game developers' favourite genre, and the true Amiga gamer's bread-and-butter, right after his preferred joystick model. Let's go!

 

Jab Jum

Unfinished jump'n'run game "Jab Jum", along with it's sourcecode written in AMOS, was rediscovered by English Amiga Board user "jarre" in October 2020. With a little bit of extra work some downloadable files were created (see links/sources below), so now the public can enjoy this previously lost creation.

"Jab Jum" is reminiscent of "Great Giana Sisters" and the likes, but being an unfinished AMOS game this is of course a bit of a stretch. It looks cute and fun nontheless, and maybe if some enthusiastic coder is interested in investing some time to iron out a couple of remaining issues and maybe add more levels to the game this could be a great new (re-)release.

To run "Jab Jum", an OCS Amiga with Kickstart 1.3 and 1MB RAM is required.

Watch a demo video of unfinished "Jab Jum" here (2020-10-27):

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

Download the playable 1996 demo of "Jab Jum" from...

https://mega.nz/file/voNxxSBa#00WIB33P3ldQfYPjYDNNO8oMqbqRifp5ds5SYnmkT8o

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=104454
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-10-00063-EN.html
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/10/jab-jum-blast-and-run-unreleased-amiga.html

Jump Besi Jump

This is as platform as platformers can be. In fact it's all about the platform. The game is simply over if you don't hit the platform. It doesn't get any more platform than this.

So in the game you are this little white dog, probably called "Besi", that uses an Amiga boingball to bounce from platform to platform, climbing ever higher into the clouds. Are you already addicted? Yeah, it sounds a bit like "Flappy Bird", only vertically, and with bouncing. But it has more to offer: some platforms are moving, you can collect stars, you can actually finish a level, and there's an occasional bird coming along, making your climbing and bouncing life a little harder, or maybe even easier.

Nice and simple graphics, with vertical three layer parallax scrolling and what appears to be a copper-shaded background, plus a nice in-game soundtrack - "Jump Besi Jump" has great potential to keep you glued to the screen for prolonged periods of time.

The game requires an Amiga 500 with 1MB RAM.

Here's a video of "Jump Besi Jump" (2020-10-29):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1k-pkXcXSs

You can download "Jump Besi Jump" from AmiNet:

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/JumpBesiJump

Duckstroma, work-in-progress

How many games do you know that give you the ability to lay an egg? And take you back to the year 1985? Enter the duckmension of "Duckstroma", yet another platform game, previously released for ZX Spectrum and MSX computers, now in development for Amiga and NES systems.

You play Aura (a duck) and your goal is to deliver a couple of - presumably floppy - discs to some client. Along the way you have to get rid of enemies by jumping on top of them, and lay eggs which can be used to reach higher ground. Certainly a game every Amiga jump'n'run fan will appreciate, as maybe will the average passionate KFC customer.

"Duckstroma", developed by UltraNarwhal, works on any Amiga with 1MB of RAM, and is planned to be available in 2021.
 
Duckstroma - Amiga - WIP 2 (2020-11-07)

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

Keep an eye on the game's website for the upcoming Amiga (and NES) version:

https://narwhal.itch.io/duckstroma

Additional sources:
https://narwhal.itch.io/duckstroma/devlog/195886/footage-of-wip-amiga-version
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-11-00023-EN.html

 

Super Pumpkin Bros, alpha version

"Super Pumpkin Brothers" is a single screen platform game with some shooting, that obviously takes some inspiration from "Super Methane Bros", or maybe even more from the unreleased "Snow Bros". According to the history books (namely: the internet) the project initially started in 2007, an early preview was released, but then was put on ice, and has only recently been restarted.

Whatever the case, it's a super funny looking game, created by what appears to be a mostly French team of developers. The visual style is very cartoonish, especially the enemies look so dumb and lovable, it makes you wanna pet them, not shoot them. But that won't get you far in the game - better watch the beautiful tutorial sequence of the game, and find out how to turn them into tomatoes.

"Super Pumpkin Brothers" is humorous, fast paced, great looking, and great sounding. Currently there seems to be no dedicated website, and no public download, but from what we can see so far this has cult classic qualities.

Here you can watch a video of "Super Pumpkin Brothers" alpha version (2020-11-11):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ll4v_W_Yuw

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-11-00025-EN.html
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/11/super-pumpkin-bros-exclusive-video.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Bros.

* * *

...and again some bonus gaming news:

"Mini Metal Slug" mockup for Amiga 500

Also some kind of platformer, but with a lot of shooting: based on the Invyya engine, using assets from the GBA version, this conversion-mockup of "Mini Metal Slug" popped up in October 2020. It's not really a playable game - but it looks awesome!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FAQ8AioSJg

* * *

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #15"!

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

* * *

Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!

Games galore #13: Tristam Island, Vegetables Deluxe, Teserae, Wiz - Quest for the Magic Lantern

More new Amiga games! It's always great fun to write these articles, skimming through YouTube videos, news reports and forum posts, discovering new stuff and updates of old stuff. This time we have a text adventure, a puzzler, an arcade classic, and a jumping and running wizard.

Tristam Island

Commercial title "Tristam Island" was announced around the beginning of October 2020, and meanwhile has been fully released. It's a Infocom Z-Machine interpreter text adventure, available for 36 (!) different platforms, including Amiga. Here's a snippet of it's storyline:

"After crashing your plane at sea, you end up drifting to a small island, with not much to survive. You explore, and find out the island was inhabited, years ago. But why did the people leave? And why is there a fence around the white house at the top of the hill?"

Hm, that sounds mysterious. So make sure you have a glass of wine and a bowl of peanuts at hand, and dive into the world of "Tristam Island". According to the author you'll have to solve puzzles and explore lots of different places, in sometimes dark, sometime humorous settings. The game aims to avoid frustrating limitations and weaknesses of early games of the genre, and have a "standard" level of difficulty.

"Tristam Island" can be purchased for 3.99 USD on itch.io, giving you access to all platforms' versions.

Go to the game's website to find out more, and download a demo version:

https://hlabrande.itch.io/tristam-island

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-10-00003-EN.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-machine
http://aminet.net/package/game/text/tristam-island-demo

 

 

Vegetables Deluxe

Also from early October is Mike Richmond's "Vegetables Deluxe", originally developed for the Commodore 64 in 2019, now available for all Amiga computers.

In this puzzle game you have to match tiles in a kind-of four-in-a-row way using your mousepointer, but there's more to it. More complex game rules, and four different playing modes should keep you occupied for hours and hours. Nice and simple graphics, some visual effects, neat accompanying music and decent sound effects - very good job, this has addictive qualities.

Here's a great review video of "Vegetables Deluxe" (2020-10-07):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNMrR-SQE1E

Go to...

https://mikerichmond.itch.io/vegetables-amiga

...to download - and don't forget to pay for! - "Vegetables Deluxe"

Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/10/vegetables-deluxe-fabulous-c64-match-3.html
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-10-00012-EN.html

"Teserae" Tetris clone

Smash hit game Tetris has another clone with "Teserae" for Amiga 500 (and higher). Created as an Atari ST port in the early 1990s, it seems "Teserae" has now been resurrected by Artstate Digital, and re-released. Whatever the case, you know the rules, and as every Tetris clone it's great fun. An arcade classic plus great music and dizzying background visual effects in a pocket sized archive - a must have for the casual gamer.

Here's an old video from the previous Amiga release (2012):

Download the 42 kB zip archive from the author's website on itch.io:
https://hewco64.itch.io/teserae

Additional sources:
https://hewco64.itch.io/
https://www.facebook.com/Hewco64
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2020-10-00022-DE.html
https://twitter.com/ArtstateDigital

Wiz - Quest for the Magic Lantern

Mutation software boldly returns to the Amiga gaming scene with a bunch of releases, among which is beautiful platformer "Wiz" for AGA Amigas.

"Wiz" is just a joy to watch and listen to, this maybe has to be the cutest platformer of 2020. No big surprises here, little wizard jumps and runs and collects things, and so on - but with it's great looking AGA color palette, loveable characters, lots of little animations, music and sound effects that perfectly fit the atmosphere, and an overall child-friendly approach, it's really a game that does everything right. Great work - buy it!

Created by Adrian Cummings, "Wiz" was released in early November 2020, with a separate CD32 version available.

Promotion video "Wiz - Quest for the Magic Lantern (Amiga AGA)" (2020-10-15):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtbdQ4H3hmI

Go to...

http://mutationsoftware.uk

...to find out more, and purchase the game!


Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=102758
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2020-10-00026-EN.html
http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/10/wiz-quest-for-magic-lantern-promo-video.html

* * *

...and again some bonus gaming news:

Epic Skidmarks - for webbrowsers

"Skidmarks" and "Super Skidmarks" are Amiga game classics no one should miss. 25 years after the original releases the original developers have revisited the concept, and created "Epic Skidmarks - for webbrowsers!

https://epicskidmarks.com title screen

So now if you're equipped with a modern webbrowser you can enjoy Skidmarks mayhem in high-definition quality, with a massively upgraded physics engine, and internet-multiplayer.

Of course nothing beats the original Amiga-1200-8-player-nullmodem-link experience, but apart from that, "Epic Skidmarks" certainly is every Skidmarks fan's dream come true.

in-game screenshot

Go to...

https://epicskidmarks.com

...and play "Epic Skidmarks" (beta) right now!

You can follow latest "Epic Skidmarks" news via twitter:

https://twitter.com/EpicSkidmarks

* * *

  Stay tuned for "Games galore #14"!

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

* * *

Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!