Games galore #41: Rick Dangerous remake, Hop to the Top, Cube, Connect, CyberPunks 2 release, Space Cavern Blaster

2023 was a great year for Amiga gaming, a lot of games to review, and the stream of new releases doesn't stop. In this issue: Rick Dangerous, a bunny, a long overdue release announcement, puzzles, and multi-platforms.

Rick Dangerous (remake)

In March 2023 "Z-Team" released their "Rick Dangerous" remake for Amiga 1200 and CD32. The game was originally created by Core Design in 1989 for OCS Amigas, and is a classic adventure platformer. The remake aims to recreate the original as close as possible, based on the enhanced Nintendo Wii edition with better graphics.

Screenshot from z-team.itch.io/rick-dangerous-amiga

"Rick Dangerous" remake is available in several flavors, including releases for Windows and MacOS, but it's always the Amiga game - running in an emulator, if necessary.

Screenshot from z-team.itch.io/rick-dangerous-amiga

Go to the game's itch.io website for more information and download:

https://z-team.itch.io/rick-dangerous-amiga

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-03-00085-EN.html
https://www.indieretronews.com/2023/03/rick-dangerous-platforming-classic-as.html

Hop to the Top!

In April 2023, Rob Smith created this little Easter-themed jump'n'collect platformer, and shared the development process in a video. The game is written in AMOS, and in it, you have to save a white rabbit from drowning in the water that's flooding the bottom of your screen.

"Hop to the Top" was created in a short duration of time, and is a simple game - but it looks great, has proper sound, plays quite nicely, includes source code, is free, and we have a full video of how it's done. That's a lot of value for the money - Happy Easter indeed!

Here's Rob Smith creating the game (2023-04-02):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgoWRKUk7-U

Make sure you visit Rob's website for more information:
https://robsmithdev.co.uk

"Hop to the Top" download:
https://robsmithdev.co.uk/youtube/easter.zip

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-04-00012-DE.html

Cube

In April 2023, "Cube" was released, a dungeon-crawler style adventure/puzzle game, heavily inspired by the 1997 science-fiction-horror movie of the same name.

The game has slightly unusual system requirements, it's probably best suited for a Apollo Vampire cards: AmigaOS3 or higher, RTG 1920x1080 24bit, fast CPU (1000MIPS or higher), 250MB RAM

If you're looking for a quick round of "Cube" claustrophobia in full HD resolution, with some nasty traps for you to get caught in, then this game is certainly for you.

Here's a video from YouTube channel "Deathstar" (2023-05-03):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLQWt5nwOG0

Go to the game's itch.io website for more information and download:

https://8080.itch.io/cubeamiga

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-04-00074-DE.html

Connect v1.4

"Connect" is a puzzle game that dates back to 2022, and has received updates, bringing it to version 1.4 in August 2023. Graphics are minimal, but it looks good and functional, and if you have a 1MB Amiga you get some music - but this is all about puzzling, gameplay has priority over eye-candy. "Connect" has several different playing modes, in all of which the players have to properly connect microchips, and you can even print out playfields (remember paper?) to solve them with a pen. That's a really nice feature - no mobile Amiga? Just print the game!

Here's an instructional video from "LogicalByte" YouTube channel (2023-03-25)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RYtbNw1B88

Go to the game's itch.io website for more information and download:

https://logicalbyte.itch.io/connect

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2022-10-00054-DE.html
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=112108
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-04-00116-DE.html

CyberPunks 2 release

This is an important (albeit late) update to our previous report about "CyberPunks 2". For a short period of time, it seemed as if the game had somehow been put on hold, or something, but reality couldn't be further from that: 

In May 2023, Mutation Software released "CyberPunks 2" commercially.

Very good. :-)

Here's a video from Mutation Software's YouTube channel "AmigaDweeb" (2023-03-21)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeC2zzaAkdw

Go to Mutation Software's website for more information and purchase:

https://softwareamusements.com/MutationSoftware/index.html

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-05-00019-DE.html

 

Space Cavern Blaster

Finally for today, and also released in May 2023, we have "Space Cavern Blaster" by dotmos. It's a fun little jump'n'collect platformer, and it is multi-platform, namely it's available for Amiga, Atari ST, C64, DOS and Sega Megadrive.

Being a multi-platform release, "Space Cavern Blaster" doesn't even attempt to do fancy tricks with the Amiga's Copper and Blitter hardware, so don't expect spectacular effects a la "Turrican" or "Reshoot" - but it's nonetheless a nicely looking, slightly quirky, well playable, and certainly enjoyable new game.

Here's a video from YouTube channel The Retro Game Planet (2023-05-27):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThWeT8z1Jb4

Go to the game's itch.io pages for more information:

https://dotmos.itch.io/space-cavern-blaster

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2023/05/space-cavern-blaster-highly-challenging.html
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-05-00036-EN.html

* * *

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #42"!

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

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Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!

Software updates (2024-03-14)

A round of notifications about updates to well-known and widely used software titles, that popped up over the last nine months - just in case you missed something.

AmiSSL 5.14

At the end of Jan. 2024, the latest version of network encryption package AmiSSL was uploaded to aminet.

http://aminet.net/search?query=amissl

https://github.com/jens-maus/amissl/

ANAIIS

USB stack ANAIIS' version 1.24 was uploaded to aminet in Feb. 2024.

http://aminet.net/package/driver/other/anaiis

 

Denise 2.1 and 2.2

In Sep. 2023, C64 and - since version 2.0 - Amiga 500/1000 emulator "Denise" got updated to version 2.1, and in Dec. to version 2.2, adding RTC emulation, improvements in accuracy, speed, file handling, and GUI usability, improved video drivers, screen rotation, and more.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/deniseemu/

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-09-00072-EN.html

E-VO 3.7

In March 2024, Amiga E compiler E-VO version 3.7 was released, fixing many bugs.

https://github.com/dmcoles/EVO/releases

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2024-03-00029-EN.html

FlashFloppy 3.42

In Jan. 2024, floppy-emulator firmware FlashFloppy was updated to version 3.42. As with previous version 3.41, released around July 2023, it contains mostly minor improvements.

https://github.com/keirf/flashfloppy

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2024-01-00047-EN.html

G-Copy

Arne Urbaniak's Amiga-disk-on-PC copy program "G-Copy" was updated to v0.5 in March 2024. "G-Copy" supports Greaseweazle, ADF-Drive, and DrawBridge floppy controllers.

amiga-news' article provides a download link:

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2024-03-00057-EN.html

IBrowse 3.0a

Wow, veteran Amiga webbrowser IBrowse has made a major version leap in Nov. 2023, and received an update in Dec. 2023. AmiSSL 5.12 is now required for secure connections, program stability has been improved, a bug in webpage rendering was fixed, and there are a couple of other enhancements. 

https://www.ibrowse-dev.net

icon.library / IconLib

icon.library replacement "IconLib" got updated in June and Dec. 2023, bringing it to version 46.4.581. The updates contain some bugfixes/workarounds for better compatibility, and an icon-to-PNG conversion script for ImageConverter.

https://aminet.net/package/util/libs/IconLib_46.4

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-06-00085-EN.html

PED81C

Meanwhile, Simone Bevilacqua has made a couple of updates to his pretty cool pseudo-chunky AGA graphics system "PED81C", the latest having been published on New Year's Day 2024. Skimming over the changelogs, there is a number of improvements regarding the system code, and some 68030/68040/68060 CPU specific optimizations.

https://retream.itch.io/ped81c

P96 and P96Prefs

After P96 version 3.4.0 was released in Aug. 2023, version 3.4.1 followed in Feb. 2024.

New features include EHB screen mode emulation, support for Rainbow II / BSC Framemaster cards, support for Commodore A2410 cards, new drivers for GBA-PII++ and VA2000 cards, and updates to Picasso IV and Draco Altais card drivers.

P96Prefs also got updated, the latest version being 47.15.1, which was uploaded to aminet in Jan. 2024.

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/de/newsreader/items/p96-v3-4-1-herausgegeben.html

http://aminet.net/package/driver/video/P96Prefs

WBDock2

WBDock2 (for AmigaOS 3.1 - not to be confused with "WBDock" for AmigaOS 1.3) was updated a couple of times in July 2023, the latest version being 2.907. Changes include a different background configuration behaviour, slight change in autohide behaviour, auto-refresh when changing WBPattern, a typo fix, and an experimental "seperator" app.

https://thomas-rapp.hier-im-netz.de/amiga/wbdock.html

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-07-00063-EN.html

WinFellow

In Sept. 2023, after a long period of silence, Amiga emulator WinFellow got updated to version 0.5.9, and shortly after to 0.5.10. The updates fix numerous bugs, contain some improvements in usability, drop Windows XP and Vista support, meaning a later version of Windows is required, and now a native ARM build is included in the release archive.

http://petschau.github.io/WinFellow/

https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/newsportal/?start=0&ulg=de&news_id=41173

Bars&Pipes goes AROS

Outstanding news for Amiga musicians: Professional music program Bars&Pipes has been ported to AROS!

Bars&Pipes is a professional grade MIDI music composition program that was originally developed by Blue Ribbon Soundworks in the 1990s. It supports Amiga audio via AHI and plugins (called "tools" in Bars&Pipes).

Users might have wondered if there's a future path for music creation with Amiga and Bars&Pipes - now we know. Alfred Faust, who had officially taken over development from Blue Ribbon Soundworks many years ago, has finished his port of Bars&Pipes to AROS, AmigaOS' portable (m68k, x86, ARM, ...) sibling. This was possible after AROS chief developer Franck Charlet updated AROS' camd.library (Commodore Amiga MIDI driver library) to work with camdusbmidi.class of AROS' USB stack (Poseidon). 

Which means that not only does Bars&Pipes now run on AROS, securing future use, and giving access to massive CPU and hardware resources to create sound, but also that Amiga/AROS music software using camd.library can now access USB MIDI devices!

Bars&Pipes Pro 2.5b from 1994 on AmigaOS

That's very good news indeed - big Thank You to Alfred Faust, Franck Charlet, and everyone else. Bars&Pipes has the potential to become AROS' first "killer application".

Alfred Faust homepage with Bars&Pipes, SuperJAM, and more music software:

http://bnp.hansfaust.de

amiga-news.de news article:

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2024-03-00051-EN.html

The hottest tip ever for playing VirtualGP

Every VirtualGP player has been annoyed by AmigaOS's mousepointer, as it gets stuck on the game screen after clicking the game's menus and entering the race. But there is a surprisingly simple solution!

VirtualGP is an OS-friendly game - mouse-pointer stays on screen.

Having the mouse-pointer on screen during gameplay hurts the player's immersion, but VirtualGP is an OS-friendly program, it doesn't shut down Workbench, only grabs mouse input for proper proportional control when driving the car - so the pointer gets stuck in full view, an that's it. Not so nice. Did author Paolo Cattani miss this? Or even ignore it?

Of course he didn't - in fact quite the opposite, the game integrates with the OS near perfectly. The solution is simple, and actually just as much in full view as the pointer is, because it's in the pointer itself: AmigaOS is still running! :-)

And it has pretty good keyboard pointer control: Hold Left-Amiga key, and use cursor keys to move mouse-pointer to the bottom of the screen! (Hold Shift, too, to accelerate.)

Maybe this makes your VirtualGP racing sessions even more fun. ;-)

 

Games galore #40: Rogue Declan: Zero, Creeping Me Out: Hex Night update, Ring around the World, Final Fight Enhanced update, Geo's Quest: In Search of Queen Lorraine, Memory Lane

Amiga game development has sped up considerably over the last couple of years, with the help of new game engines like RedPill and Scorpion Engine, and many developers re-joining the Amiga scene.

Rogue Declan: Zero

In July 2023, "Rogue Declan: Zero" was officially released by Nivrig Games. It's a fast paced top-view, single screen shooter, in which you fight through procedurally generated dungeons, and it's the winning game of AmiGameJam 2022.

"Rogue Declan: Zero" is also one of currently only a few games that support the DualStick Retro, a twin-stick controller that allows for game features such as independent movement and aiming, for example.

The game surely looks like a ton of fun, and is certainly (almost) as enjoyable to play with a standard joystick. It requires an Amiga with Kickstart 1.3 or higher, 512KB ChipRAM, and 512KB of other RAM.

Here's a video of the latest version from YouTube channel Saberman RetroNews (2023-10-15):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhi7v1kf_ao

Go to the game's itch.io pages for more information, and download:

https://nivrig.itch.io/rogue-declan-zero

Additional sources:

http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-03-00014-DE.html 

http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-08-00010-EN.html

Creeping me out: Hex Night updates

Early in 2023, a couple of good news about spooky, beautiful platformer "Creeping me out: Hex night" were published, a game that we've reported about before: bugs have been fixed, and an AGA version has been created.

Here's a video of version 1.5 AGA, from YouTube channel Saberman RetroNews (2023-10-15):

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

Find more information and downloads on the game's itch.io pages:
https://mixelslab.itch.io/creeping-me-out-hex-night

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-02-00102-DE.html

 

Ring around the World

Simone Bevilacqua clearly is on a mission. Not only does he create great games in impressive numbers (BOH, KOG, Huenison, Blastaway, Skillgrid, ...), but throughout his work he drops, well, just nice little messages that might help make our world a better place, the most prominent of these probably being his demo "The Cure".

"Ring around the world" is a scrolling top-view adventure game in an open world, played with the mouse. The game's protagonist is waking up, washed ashore in an unknown world, and has only little memory: he drowned in stormy sea!

The game requires a PAL-Amiga with 1MB ChipRAM and Kickstart 1.3 to run. A harddisc is recommended.

The game is free, and here's another one of the author's aforementioned little messages: He just asks players who enjoy "Ring around the World" to support someone who's become victim to violence.

Here's a trailer video from Simone's YouTube channel (2023-03-06):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6qqhqBITXk

Go to the game's website for more information and downloads:
https://www.retream.com/Ring_around_the_World

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-03-00029-DE.html

Final Fight Enhanced

Another game that we've reported about before got a new demo release early in 2023: "Final Fight Enhanced" now has a working 2-player mode, and some new groovy music.

Here's a video from the author's YouTube channel Prototron (2023-03-04):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbHggvYkxX4

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-03-00037-DE.html

Geo's Quest: In Search of Queen Lorraine

Also in early 2023 "Geo's Quest: In Search of Queen Lorraine" was published, a beautiful looking graphic adventure that consciously chooses low-res, low-color for some extra Sierra-adventure feel.

The story is a pun on Commodore history, it's a side-view point-and-click game, it has dozens of graphics, sounds, and puzzles, and you will not die in the game if you do something wrong. In other words: It's more or less a must for adventure fans.

A sequel to the game has already been announced: "Geo's Quest: Gateway to Nowhere".

Here's a video of "Geo's Quest: In Search of Queen Lorraine" from Polish YouTube channel Retrobajtel (2023-09-30):

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

Visit the game's itch.io pages for more details, and downloads:
https://pngcan.itch.io/geos-quest-in-search-of-queen-lorraine

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-03-00041-DE.html

Memory Lane

And finally for today, here's yet another release from early 2023, a classic no-graphics text adventure - somehow quite fittingly - called "Memory Lane".

The game is available for many hardware platforms, including 8-bit computers, the Mega65, MS-DOS PC, and of course Amiga.

source: https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTk2MzU4Ny8xMTU0NjI3My5wbmc=/347x500/xeReVa.png

Go to the game's itch.io pages for more information and downloads:
https://comsha.itch.io/memorylane

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-03-00045-DE.html

* * *

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #41"!

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

* * *

Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!

Games galore #39: Tapper, Galaxian 500, Freak Out, Settle the World, Boxx games, Megafrog

Happy New Year! Tons of new Amiga games have popped up in 2023, and we're still trying to keep up.

Tapper

Very good, in May 2023 another arcade classic got properly ported to the Amiga: "Tapper" from 1983, which was previously available for many other platforms.

It's a quick and fun game in which your job is to supply your pub's customers with adequate amounts of beer. Some just want a glass full, others need the extra pint, and you never know how many will ask for a drink at the same time. So things might get hectic in this game, and the new port to Amiga is pretty much arcade-perfect.

Here's a video from YouTube channel Saberman RetroNews (2023-05-26):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf7SMiGiTR8

Check video, and sources below, for more information,
or just click here to download "Tapper":
https://mega.nz/file/C5s2iTqL#lWpWrL2huZUm-ZrzyMB-rJ27YKzGAXsZ0RnQ-6aTDEo

Additional sources:
https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/newsportal/?start=0&ulg=de&news_id=40945
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-05-00135-DE.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapper_(video_game)

Galaxian 500

And here's yet another arcade classic: With "Galaxian 500", highly active developer Jean-Francois 'jotd' Fabre adds another member to the awesome series of his "500" ports. "Galaxian" is an advanced variation of "Space Invaders". Just like Jean-Francois' previous works, it looks pretty much identical to the arcade version, and plays as good.

Here's a video from YouTube channel Saberman RetroNews (2023-06-17):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE97fN0RQbs

Go to the game's itch.io website for more information, and download:
https://jotd666.itch.io/galaxian500

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-05-00139-DE.html
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxian

Freak Out (work-in-progress)

'If "Pong" and "Breakout" had a baby...' - that's how author Michael Kafke describes his creation, and this description is quite accurate. (Not to be confused with the 1993 game of the same name.) Maybe "Freak Out" is closer to "Arkanoid" than to classic "Breakout", and certainly it has more colors than the original "Pong", but that's just the details. The game is still work-in-progress, for example there's very little sound yet, but it looks fine with its clean playfield design and detailed, yet unobtrusive, background imagery. Also it's already playable, and has a nice presentation, so... yeah, very good, (don't) freak out!

Here's a video from Michael Kafke's YouTube channel (2022-07-11):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-DrqzpePa4

 

Settle the World

Around Aug. 2022 developer Christian 'TheoTheoderich' Wiegel announced his turn-based strategy game "Settle the World", and has been working on it since, releasing a number of videos. 

Most obviously, the graphics are stunning. Interestingly, according to the description of a four hour development log video that was released by the author in Nov. 2023, they were created using artificial intelligence. Does this mark the first time AI has been used to create content for an Amiga game? The beautiful imagery in the game intro is accompanied by a tasteful and fitting soundtrack, the user interface looks pleasant and functional. "Settle the World" is already a quality production, and is still under further development, ensuring a very enjoyable experience for Amiga strategists.

The game requires an Amiga with 1MB ChipRAM, 4MB FastRAM, and a hard disk. Some CPU upgrade is recommended.

Here's a video from the author's YouTube channel (2023-02-11):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eK596gjAX4

Go to the game's itch.io pages for more information and download:
https://theotheoderich.itch.io/settle-the-world

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-07-00078-DE.html
https://amigaportal.de/index.php?threads/settle-the-world.682/

Boxx remake, Boxx 2 remake, Boxx 3 remake, Boxx 4

Get boxxed! The Boxx games are a series of platform games with a nice selection of game mechanics, simple, but cute and effective graphics, and a couple of strategy elements. The average Amigan might get confused by the extraordinary high number of "Boxx" games, but in the end that doesn't matter. What matters is that all "Boxx" games are equally fun to play, and suitable for players of any age. If you like your platformers smooth, and with a little bit of thinking, you'll love the "Boxxes".

Boxx 3 remake, v0.2 beta, Aug. 2023

Boxx remake

https://lemming880.itch.io/boxxremake

http://aminet.net/package/game/jump/Boxx (2015 game)

Boxx 2 remake

https://lemming880.itch.io/boxx2remake

http://aminet.net/package/game/jump/Boxx2 (2015 game) 

Boxx 3 remake

https://lemming880.itch.io/boxx3remake

http://aminet.net/package/game/jump/Boxx3 (2017 game)

Boxx 4 

https://lemming880.itch.io/boxx4

Here's a video of "Boxx 4" from YouTube channel OSDane (2023-07-19):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OPr8iS9w0o

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-04-00079-EN.html
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-09-00043-EN.html
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-07-00055-EN.html

 

Megafrog (work-in-progress)

Around Nov. 2022, author Friar85 released this nice variation of the classic Frogger arcade game. Have you ever played "Crossy Roads"? Then you have an idea about "Megafrog". In "Megafrog", most things are a little bit bigger than in Frogger, in fact the screen scrolls vertically, meaning you'll need an extra bit of endurance to master the game. Also there are a lot more features than classic Frogger ever had, like crossings, and cars at different speeds.

It's been quite a while since we last heard from the game, but the preview looks smooth and solid. "Megafrog" runs on any Amiga. A little CPU upgrade (14MHz or better) is recommended, and a 2-button joystick is supported.

Here's a video from YouTube channel Saberman RetroNews (2022-11-01):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNVk9HnTx4E

Go to game's itch.io pages for more information and download:
https://friar85.itch.io/megafrog

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2022-11-00018-EN.html
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/11/megafrog-amiga-work-in-progress-frogger.html

 

* * *

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #40"!

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

* * *

Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!