Games galore #42: SUPERMiniJu, The Last Dungeon, Kalle Kloakk, Virtual Enemies, Skinvaders, Forest of Illusion

Skimming over recent Amiga games: In May 2023 alone, around ten new games popped up. Here are six of them, covering arcade action, fantasy adventure, and hacking in cyberspace.

SUPERMiniJu

In this game by Yoz Montana, your goal is to free a cute white rabbit from captivity, by collecting items that are hidden in the grass. "SUPERMiniJu" is a fast-paced jump-and-run platformer with plenty of extras to collect, boss fights, nice graphics, and some decent sound effects.

The current state of the game is a bit unclear. A demo version seems to be completed, but maybe the author is still waiting for his previous 100-comments-on-the-video challenge to be completed, so maybe you wanna head over there and drop him a line?

Here's the latest "SUPERMiniJu" video from Yoz Montana's YouTube channel (2023-12-17):

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

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

https://yoz-montana.itch.io/superminiju

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-05-00037-DE.html

The Last Dungeon

This top-view fantasy adventure by PixelPlop was initially created for AmiGameJam 2022/2023. In an earlier work-in-progress video, the game's title was "Sworderer & Sorcerer", now it seems to have settled with "The Last Dungeon". 

It looks great, very Nintendo, and appears to be snappy, and fun to play. It's still work-in-progress, the latest version being 0.7.2C.

Here's a video from pixelplop's YouTube channel (2023-08-31):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxbIhG9799s

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

https://pixelplop.itch.io/the-last-dungeon-post-amigamejam

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-05-00038-DE.html

Kalle Kloakk

"Kalle Kloakk" was first developed for the C64, then ported to the Mega65, and then to Amiga in May 2023. 

In it, you have to escape a public service room, by use of toilet paper rolls. That certainly sounds like education, and fun. "Kalle Kloakk" is a simple jump-and-run type game with a nice soundtrack, perfect for the casual smartphone-gamer. The title, by the way, roughly translates to "Carl Crap". 

Here's a video from YouTube channel Saberman RetroNews (2023-05-10):

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

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

https://docster.itch.io/kalle-kloakk-68k

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-05-00043-DE.html

Virtual Enemies

This interesting strategy game appeared in May 2023. In "Virtual Enemies", you're supposed to develop hard- and software, in order to hack a foreign computer system.

Clients for Windows, Linux and Mac are planned to be available shortly after the Amiga release. 

The latest development news were published in Sept. 2023, so the state of this one is more or less unknown, but it sure sounds intriguing.

"Virtual Enemies" screenshot
https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjA3MDYxMS8xMjE3ODI2Mi5wbmc=/347x500/KZqfMe.png

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

https://logicalbyte.itch.io/virtualenemies

Additional sources:
https://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-05-00067-EN.html

Skinvaders

A nice straightforward Space Invaders clone named "Skinvaders" by Electric Black Sheep. It looks and plays pretty much like the original - but you can select additional colors and hi-res graphics, if you like. 

According to the game's itch.io page, it's still "PROTOTYPE" status, with the latest version released in June 2023. Oldskool arcade fun with upgraded graphics - you can't go wrong with this.

Here's a video from Per-Ola Eriksson's YouTube channel (2024-03-13):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0rSn0c82dw

Check out the game's itch.io page for more information and download: 

https://electricblacksheep.itch.io/skinvaders

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2023-05-00070-DE.html

Forest of Illusion

This neat jump-and-run game, featuring a well-known Disney character, also first appeared in May 2023, and is actively being developed to this day. It's a re-imagined blend of 1990 Sega Mega-Drive (Genesis) game "Castle Of Illusion", and its sequels.

The graphics are exceptionally beautiful cartoon artwork, and as you can see in the latest video, it has a couple of extra features beyond the jumping and the running - like swimming in a bubble. 

"Forest Of Illusion" uses the Amiga's AGA chipset, so it runs on A1200, A4000, CD32 and AGA-capable emulators.

Here's the latest work-in-progress video on DomKid's YouTube channel (2025-02-19): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZYLtLywF4s

Keep an eye on DomKid's YouTube channel for latest updates to "Forest of Illusion":

https://www.youtube.com/@domkid3295

Additional sources:
https://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2023-05-00099-EN.html

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #43"!

Check out "Games galore" main page with all articles -
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Update 3 for AmigaOS 3.2 is out!

Yesterday, Hyperion Entertainment once again proved its commitment, releasing another update for AmigaOS 3.2.

It's update no. 3 for this version of AmigaOS, and it includes new Kickstart ROM version 3.2.3. The release contains a multitude of bugfixes and little enhancements, among which are updates to ReAction classes, TextEditor, DiskDoctor, HDToolbox, and some memory optimization that frees 12KB of ChipRAM. 

Head over to Hyperion's website for more details, and download (for registered users):

https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/news

Lara Croft (literally) runs on the Amiga!

A lot of people have been waiting for this - the time has come: play "Tomb Raider" on your Amiga!

This popped up just hours ago. Ok, it's "OpenLara", and so far only a proof of concept / tech demo - some features are missing - but it's the actual Tomb Raider-ess, it runs very smooth on a PiStorm, and from what we're hearing so far, it's even playable on a 68030. That's quite a lot!

Gaming was never the same after the Playstation came out, and 3D graphics in games became near-mandatory in the early 90s. "Tomb Raider" was one of the pivotal games of the era, and had an enormous reach, certainly in part due to its attractive lead character, Lara Croft. In 2016, "OpenLara" was started, an open-source remake of the original Tomb Raider engine, by XProger. It has been ported to many platforms, and you can even play it in your webbrowser.

Thanks to famous Amiga software porter BSzili, we now (almost) have "OpenLara" on the Amiga, too - outstanding!

Here's the current demo, in a video on great retro gaming YouTube channel Saberman RetroNews (2025-04-03):

video source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_rXLZvkaX8

If you'd like to read about the latest bleeding-edge updates to BSzili's port of "OpenLara", you can follow the discussion on English Amiga Board:
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=120230

You can also visit his website at http://bszili.morphos.me/ and see the numerous other great ports of games for different Amiga platforms he has created.

More about "Tomb Raider" (original game):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_Raider_(1996_video_game)

UPDATE 2025-04-05:
The video above shows "OpenLara" running on an Amiga emulator. Here's another video using real hardware, Amiga 1200 with 68060 and 68030 CPU: 

video source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiNTp1jlrR4

ISS has an Amiga compatible display

Astronauts of the International Space Station can plug in an Amiga 600, 1200, or CD32 and play games on a beamer!

A beamer with composite video input aboard the ISS

15.6kHz analog-video compatible displays are a bit of a rarity these days, but of course the ISS, being the pinnacle of human achievement, has one, with a composite video input. It is very unlikely, though, that Amiga hardware is available in space.

;-)

(Picture: Arrival of additional/rotating crew at the ISS, March 2025)

Amiga on MTV: "Shades" by House Of Usher (1992)

Another nice example of how the Amiga was used as a low-cost video production workhorse.

According to an article in a 1993 issue of "Amiga Kickstart" magazine (see links below), the music video for House Of Usher's techno track "Shades" was created on an Amiga 500+, using DeluxePaint IV.

And you don't need glasses to immediately recognize somehow familiar colors and shapes. This looks very much like a production from the Amiga demo scene, only the sound quality is better, and the animation clips are more random. Nowadays, the visuals may seem a little naive. But at the time, this was pretty hip stuff, yeah, you would see something like this at a rave party. The music video in its entirety doesn't run on an Amiga 500 - there's some video editing, and obviously CD-quality audio. "Shades" was a little hit in the German techno scene, and the video was shown on MTV and some other channels.

Here's a capture of "Shades" by House Of Usher (1992) playing on MTV:

"Shades" by House Of Usher (1992) music video clip
video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj7MC1oYzno

Amiga Kickstart 1993-01 article at archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/amiga-kickstart-93-01/page/100/mode/2up 

Grind - new demo! (Dev Arena v0.6)

Yet another preview of "Grind" - the grown up brother of Amiga 500 Doom-clone "Dread" - just popped up on YouTube.

"Dread" was a super impressive project that spawned full-game-release project "Grind", and it's looking better than ever. 

Here's the latest video, that was uploaded just minutes ago to famous retro-gaming channel Saberman RetroNews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-SAnj6E9vY

Check out Saberman RetroNews YouTube channel, and make sure you visit IndieRetroNews website for latest retro-gaming news!