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 #30: Final Fight Enhanced, Akumajou Dracula AGA, Amidar500, Scramble500, CyberPunk Alien City

Three arcade conversions, an AGA conversion of a classic Konami platformer, and a new cyberpunk themed shoot-em-up.

Final Fight Enhanced

1989 Capcom coin-op brawler "Final Fight" in it's 1991 Amiga version is one of the games that couldn't live up to it's full potential because of limited resources put into it's creation - especially from today's perspective, with highly experienced developers around, and new tools for game creation available, it's a bit of a disappointment regarding graphics, speed, and playability.

Final Fight 1989 original arcade graphics

Final Fight 1991 U.S. Gold Amiga version graphics

Developer Brick Nash aka Prototron has decided to change that situation, and is working on an enhanced conversion of "Final Fight". It's work-in-progress, and no definitive hardware requirements have been set, but an early demo runs on 68020-equipped Amigas. 

Final Fight 2021 Prototron Amiga early demo graphics

There's obviously still a lot of work to do, but it already has a couple of new features: parallax scrolling, an updated title screen, 2-button joystick support, and music plays while you're fighting.

Here's a video of the demo from Prototron's YouTube channel (2022-01-12):

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

There's no public playable demo yet - but if you like, you can download the assembler source code and contribute to the development:
https://github.com/Prototron77/Final-Fight-Enhanced

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=109488
http://www.indieretronews.com/2022/01/final-fight-enhanced-enhanced-amiga.html
https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=409 (original 1991 Amiga port)

Akumajou Dracula AGA (Castlevania AGA)

The game known as "Castlevania" in most places ("Akumajou Dracula" in Japan) gets a remake for AGA Amigas.

This fantasy themed platform adventure game is probably best known from it's initial versions running of Nintendo console hardware, and it's one the defining games of the genre.

An official Amiga version has been available since 1990, but now (finally!) it looks as if we could get a new, polished version for AGA Amigas which makes proper use of graphics hardware, and provides smooth gameplay. A "prototype" is available, and although unfinished it's already and quite obviously a huge improvement over the previous version.

Here's a video from Saberman's YouTube channel (2022-02-12):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf08o0VFugo

Go to the game's website for more information and download:
https://danteretrodev.itch.io/akumajou-dracula-aga

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/04/akumajou-dracula-aga-upcoming.html
http://hol.abime.net/2953 (1990 Amiga version)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania_(1986_video_game)

Amidar500

After "Pacman 500" and "Ms PacMan 500", Jean-Francois Fabre continues to create great conversions of great arcade games with "Amidar500".

If you've never played "Amidar" you certainly should do so now. Originally released in 1981, it's one of the classic arcade games, just like Space Invaders, Pac Man, Centipede, and a couple of others. With it's grid-capture gameplay it sits somewhere between Pac Man, and Qix, another huge classic. So basically you get arcade history galore and tons of fun with this addictive game! 

 "Amidar500" runs on any Amiga with 1MB of RAM.

Here's a video from Jean-Francois Fabre's YouTube channel (2021-12-30):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuQbFbTu6yQ

Go to Amidar500's website for more information:
https://jotd666.itch.io/amidar500

Additional sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amidar

Scramble500

"Scramble" is yet another Konami arcade classic that got ported to the Amiga by Jean-Francois Fabre.

"Scramble" is pretty much the mother of all side scrolling space shooters, but there was never a proper port of the original arcade game for the Amiga. Well, now there is! "Scramble500" aims to recreate the original experience as close as possible, with faithful graphics, sound and gameplay, including all levels of the arcade version. Two- and three-button joysticks are supported, as is the CD32 joypad.

Here's the latest video from the author's YouTube channel (2022-02-23): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f5ZNwWzgsU

It's a preview video, but a final version of the game, with added 2-player mode, improved graphics, and a lot of bugfixes, has already been released.

Go to Scramble500's website for more information and download:
https://jotd666.itch.io/scramble-500

Additional sources:
https://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2022-02-00073-EN.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_(video_game)

CyberPunk Alien City

Amiten Games has released a great looking work-in-progress shoot-em-up that goes by the name of "CyberPunk Alien City". 

Neon lights, green aliens, a hero with a big gun, and a groovy soundtrack - the game is still in early development stage, but a playable demo is available, and it totally feels "Blade Runner meets Mars Attacks!" - very promising!

The game requires an Amiga with 1MB ChipRAM, some acceleration / A1200 is recommended.

Here's a video from Amiten TV's YouTube channel (2021-12-08):

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

Go to the game's itch.io pages for more information and download:
https://amiten.itch.io/cyberpunk-alien-city

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/02/cyberpunk-alien-city-cyber-sci-fi.html

 * * *

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #31"!

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

* * *

Support Amiga game development! Buy a game!