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

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

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

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Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!

Games galore #24: Blood, Cybersphere, MeMo, "Creeping Me Out: Hex Night" demo

Even more games, no time to lose: more first person shooting, yet another puzzle game from Simone Bevilacqua, and two point-and-click adventures in this issue of Games galore.

"Blood"

Shortly after "Exhumed" (or "Powerslave") another MS-DOS first person shooter based on the "Build" engine was ported to the Amiga by BSzili: "Blood", originally from 1997, first shown on the Amiga in June 2021, and uploaded to AmiNet in September, goes deep into horror territory, with graveyards, crazy monks, and rolling heads.

It's an exciting 3d shooting game that requires a powerful AGA Amiga with FPU - 68040 and higher - Kickstart 3.0 or higher, 32MB of RAM, harddisc, and, just as "Exhumed" does, game data files from the PC version (see links below). 

(Note: the AmiNet readme says a 68060 is required, but we have seen video of "Exhumed" running on 68040, so we're assuming "Blood" has the same CPU requirements, thus probably runs on 68040, too.)

Watch a video of "Blood" running on Amiga 1200 / 68060 @ 66 Mhz with Roland SC-88 MIDI expander music (yay!) on anouk33's YouTube channel (2021-08-03):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbC-Tk4QH6o

You can grab "Blood" from AmiNet:
http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/nblood

Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/09/blood-classic-ms-dos-fps-makes-its-way.html
http://www.jonof.id.au/buildgames/blood.html (PC shareware / game data)

"Cybersphere"

We take the occasional look at the next-gen Amiga gaming scene with "Cybersphere", a point and click adventure from GDG entertainment, not to be confused with the Breakout-style 1994 OCS/ECS Amiga game of the same name.

"Cybersphere" was announced in June 2021, and by now we can purchase the finished product - see links below.

Being a Hollywood-MAL based piece of software, it requires quite some harddisc space, and is available for many platforms - the game CD contains versions for AmigaOS4, MorphOS, AROS (x86), plus Windows 32-bit (runs on 64-bit systems, too), Linux 32-bit (runs on 64-bit systems, too), and MacOS.

 

Here's a video of "Cybersphere" from AMIGA FACTORY's YouTube channel (2021-06-19):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8rFhIVwJUY

Check out the game's website for more details...
https://www.gdg-entertainment.it/cybersphere.html

...or just directly go to the online shop for purchase:
https://www.bitmapsoft.co.uk/product/cybersphere-collectors-edition/

Additional sources:
https://blog.amigaguru.com/introducing-a-brand-new-game-cybersphere-by-gdg-entertainment/
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2021-06-00038-DE.html

"MeMO" updated

Simone "saimo" Bevilacqua at it again - over the summer of 2021 he's updated his variation of the good old "Memory" card game concept with bugfixes and new features. "MeMO" is actually a pretty old game that dates back to 1996.

What sets "MeMO" apart from the competition is that it's a saimo game, which means it looks great, plus it has some super laid-back fusion music, allows two players to play simultaneously - a feature rarely seen in computer card games - and it has some AI trickery designed to make "MeMO" a totally non-frustrating experience.

The game requires 68020 CPU, 1MB ChipRAM plus some other RAM, ECS chipset, PAL video, and AmigaOS 2.0 (or higher).

Here's video of "MeMO" from Simone Bevilacqua's YouTube channel (2021-08-01): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YyQbO4NEw0

Go to MeMO's itch.io page for more information, and purchase/download:
https://retream.itch.io/memo

Additional sources:
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2021-06-00068-DE.html

"Creeping Me Out: Hex Night" public demo

We've reported about the game before so we won't go into too much detail here - but a new (v1.0j, July 2021) demo release of Michael "Mixel" Dawes' beautiful point-and-click jump-and-run adventure "Creeping Me Out: Hex Night" is certainly worth mentioning.

Here's the - pretty impressive - "CMO Hex Night Demo Launch Trailer" from Mixel's Lab on YouTube (2021-06-28):

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

Go to the Mixel's website to download the demo:
http://mixelslab.com/cmo-hex-night-amiga/

Additional sources:
https://twitter.com/MFDawes/status/1410241306987798532
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2021-07-00004-DE.html

* * *

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #25"!

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

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Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!

Games galore #17: Wilcza Buda, Tinyus, Creeping Me Out: Hex Night, Crazy Columns, Putter commercially released

Demo group aBYSs strikes again with another arcade classic remake, Putter gets a physical release, we have an interesting point-and-click adventure from Poland, a beautiful action-adventure platformer, and an addictive arcade puzzler.

Wilcza Buda

"Wilcza Buda" looks homegrown, and very ambitious at the same time. It's a point-and-click adventure by mc Studio from Poland. The game can be played in Polish and English, runs on any Amiga with Kickstart 1.2 or better, and 1MB ChipRAM plus 1.5MB. There's also a HAM6 graphics version that requires a harddisc, Workbench 2.0, and 2MB of ChipRAM.

The storyline roughly goes like this: Move around and meet people, to find your beloved grandma - but beware, you will encounter characters from another world, the forces of darkness...!

Sounds scary, and the game opens with an equally scary title screen. Tasteful, moody - scary? - music plays as you point-and-click yourself through the game, listening to grandpa's stories of times long gone, of soldiers, of werewolves...

"Wilcza Buda" is a very interesting project that seems like a bit of a mixture of Mist and Darkseed. Also it's one of the very few games that utilizes HAM mode. If you like dark adventures, or you're a horror geek, this is definitely one you should check out.

Here's a video of the HAM6 demo version from great YouTube channel Saberman:

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

Go to the game's website (you can switch to English language) to download "Wilcza Buda" demo:
http://www.wilczabuda.pl

Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/02/wilcza-buda-interactive-amiga-adventure.html

Tinyus (Gradius remake)

After the awesome "TinyInvaders", "TinyGalaga", and "TinyBobble", this year demo group aBYSs brings us "Tinyus", a remake of 1986 arcade shoot-em-up classic "Gradius"!

To some, "Gradius" has always been the pinnacle of shoot-em-ups, the one that was just too good to be true on homecomputers. The C64 version called "Nemesis" played really good, but had to omit elements of the original arcade machine. There was never a port for the Amiga - until now.

In February 2021 a beta version of "Tinyus" was released to the public - and just like the previous aBYSs releases it's awesome. This is how "Gradius" should look on the Amiga. It doesn't get much more arcade than this - near-perfect graphics, tons of moving objects on screen, and a well done attempt at reproducing the multichannel soundtrack from the original hardware.

The game requires an OCS Amiga with 512KB ChipRAM and 512KB SlowRAM or better, some acceleration / Amiga 1200 is recommended for fluid 50fps performance. At the time of this writing development is still ongoing (beta testing), a final version is likely to be released in the near future.

The latest testing version seems to be 0.2 - if you want to try it, click here to download from aBYSs' website:
http://abyss-online.de/eab/aYs_Tinyus_Beta0.2.adf

(this is a beta version, might be outdated)

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=105695
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradius_(video_game)
http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/02/tinyus-arcade-quality-amiga-ocs-port-of.html

Creeping Me Out: Hex Night

...by Michael "Mixel" Dawes is an action-adventure platformer currently under development, built using Eric "earok" Hogan's Scorpion engine.

The game features characters and locations from Michael's comic series "Creeping Me Out", which you can admire at https://www.creepingmeout.com. (The author explicitly states that no knowledge gained from the comics is required to complete the computer game.)

You control a character called Francis (check out the comic series if you'd like to know more about him) on his search for his friends.

The game is in early development stage, but it already looks gorgeous. Visually, it has lots of elements reminiscent of The Addams Family or The Munsters, as well as 1950s science-fiction in Technicolor, and it's just beautifully drawn and animated. We can already see some interesting little game mechanics, like little bugs that try to attack and stick to Francis. Also there are ladders, scrolls with hidden meanings, things to punch, things that crawl, things that drop, ... lots of things! There will probably be even more things to discover, as the author states he has a strong element of exploration in mind.

The game is planned to require harddisc and/or CD drive. A demo is said to be released soon.

Here's the latest work-in-progress video from Michael's YouTube channel "Mixel's Lab" (2021-03-05):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GxLe6wbrjw

Go to the game's website to find out more:
http://mixelmagic.com/cmo-hex-night-amiga/

And don't forget to buy one of Mixel's comic books:
https://artithmeric.com/author/mfdawes/

Additional sources:
https://twitter.com/MFDawes/
https://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17454
http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/03/creeping-me-out-hex-night-upcoming.html

 

Crazy Columns ("pre-version")

This is an arcade puzzle game similar to Tetris, and even more similar to 1990 SEGA game "Columns". 

You drop pieces in a playfield like in Tetris, and the pieces' tiles must color-match previously dropped pieces in order to remove them from the playfield. One, or two players on separate playfields simultaneously, control their pieces with keyboard or joystick, accompanied by some decent music tracks. There are multiple different playing modes and background graphics, and you can add your own background images. It runs on any Amiga with 512KB RAM.

"Crazy Columns" has a great soundtrack, looks colorful, but clear and polished, is easy to learn and play, yet challenging and addictive - certainly a must-have for friends of Tetris, Klax, Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble, and the likes, as well as for any casual gamer.

You can watch a video of current "pre-version" 0.98 of "Crazy Columns" on Saberman's YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk0aBMqxzMs

Click here to go the game's website and download the latest version:
https://www.crazy-columns.hoffer-industries.com

Additional sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columns_(video_game)
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2021-01-00036-EN.html
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=105559
http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/01/crazy-columns-columns-game-makes-its.html

 

"Putter" goes commercial, boxed release

It hasn't been a long time since we reported about "Putter" demo by Jacek "czorny" Nockowski, and we already have an update: Putter has just been released as a commercial, boxed edition with floppy disk and CD.

The game runs on AGA Amiga, and a little bit of acceleration (e.g. overclocked 020) is recommended for optimal performance.

You can buy "Putter" from allegro.pl:
https://allegro.pl/oferta/gra-putter-box-dyskietka-cd-2021-smart-10579173312

Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/04/putter-charming-little-arcade.html
http://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2021-04-00024-EN.html 

* * *

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #18"!

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

* * *

Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!