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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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
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