Games galore #31: Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny, Yoomp!, Wonderboy, Robocop AGA

OMG, it's been a long time since the previous issue - again we have a lot of catching up ahead: Huge names in this issue! First-person-shooters, arcade, movie tie-in!

New "Duke Nukem 3D" ports

This game certainly needs little introduction - "Duke Nukem 3D" set a new standard for first-person-shooter games for grown ups (and maybe not so grown ups). In the first half of 2022 two new Amiga ports surfaced.

One is "jfduke3d", which seems to be the slightly less resource-hungry of the two ports, and the other is an update of "AmiDuke". Both require a 68060 CPU, additional RAM, AGA chipset or RTG card, and some files from the original PC game. "AmiDuke" also requires AHI, and "jfduke3d" has TCP/IP multiplayer support (AmiTCP, Miami, Genesis, ...). See links below for more information.

jfduke3d (as seen on its homepage)

You can download both new ports of "Duke Nukem 3D" from AmiNet:

https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/jfduke3d

http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/AmiDuke_RTG
http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/AmiDuke_AGA

Additional sources:
http://www.jonof.id.au/jfduke3d/index.html (jfduke3d homepage)
https://github.com/BSzili/jfduke3d/tree/amiga (jfduke3d Amiga code repository)
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1043667 (AmiDuke forum thread)

New "Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny" ports

Very much like "Duke Nukem 3D", notorious first-person-shooter pioneer "Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny" has many incarnations and needs little introduction. Also much like "Duke...", two new ports for the Amiga have been released early this year.

AmiSpear
Previously "AmiSpear" required an RTG card, now it's available for ECS and AGA equipped Amigas, too.

spear4amiga
Just a couple of weeks later another great new port appeared on AmiNet, it's called "spear4amiga". This one seems to have the lowest system requirements: according to the AmiNet-readme, it runs on an unexpanded Amiga 1200. A little more horsepower is recommended, though.

Both ports require some game data files from the original PC version. See links below for more information.

"Spear of Destiny" in-game screenshot

You can download "AmiSpear" and "spear4amiga" from AmiNet:

http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/AmiSpear_AGA
http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/AmiSpear_ECS

http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/spear4amiga

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=109873 (wolf4amiga / spear4amiga forum thread)

Yoomp!

"Yoomp!" might not be as well known as "Duke Nukem 3D" or "Wolfenstein", but it's still a big name: the game was created for the Atari XL, ported to Commodore 64, and there's a spin-off called "Jump!" for AGA Amigas that has certainly raised some eyebrows.

In Jan. 2022 a teaser of the original game of "Yoomp!" for OCS Amigas with 512KB RAM expansion was published. It looks a bit more retro than "Jump!" does on AGA, but it certainly doesn't fail to deliver on groovy music and colorful ball bouncing, eye popping arcade fun. A release date hasn't been set yet.

Here's a "Yoomp!" Amiga OCS preview video from Saberman's YouTube channel (2022-01-08): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeOmbcG8mT0

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/01/yoomp-ocs-amiga-version-of-yoomp-gets.html
https://www.ppa.pl/forum/strefa-gier/40490/a-moze-by-tak-yoomp-ocs

Wonderboy 1200

SEGA's original "Wonder Boy" from 1986 is a great jump-and-run (or skate) arcade game that was a bit of a hype when it was converted for home computers around 1987, and it got a lot of positive reviews. Finally, only about 35 years late, it looks as if we get to play it on our Amigas.

Developer "acidbottle" is working on a remake, and the latest preview video gives the impression that it's close to completion. "Wonderboy 1200" looks and sounds just as enjoyable as the arcade original - if you're into tomahawk-wielding toddlers, snakes, spiders, humongous eggs, and skateboarding, then it's the perfect game for you!

Here's the latest preview video from Acidbottle 0101's YouTube channel (2022-07-13):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy2FRhnU6tE

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

https://acidbottle.itch.io/amiga-wonderboy

Additional sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Boy_(video_game)
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/04/wonderboy-1200-arcade-game-from-1986-as.html

Robocop AGA (work-in-progress)

Daniel Allsopp is working on an AGA remake of 1988 arcade game "RoboCop" since 2021, and has been posting "development diary update" videos on YouTube, the latest of which is just a couple of days old. 

In stark contrast to the 1989 "RoboCop" game by Ocean, his remake looks totally AGA, and almost identical to the arcade original. No release date has been set yet, but if you watch a couple of Daniel's videos you'll see that a lot of work has already been done, and this is going to be a quality product. Awesome!

Here's the latest update video from Daniel Allsopp's YouTube channel (2022-11-02):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xie22tAqbDs

 

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/03/robocop-aga-robocop-remake-in-works-via.html
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=108422
http://hol.abime.net/1260 (RoboCop 1989 Amiga OCS game)

 

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for "Games galore #32"!

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

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Games galore #4: Jump!, Tiny Little Slug, Raid Over Moscow, Metro Siege, Recoil

We're about to catch up with 2019's game developments for the Amiga, with another set of exciting new productions.

Jump!

Announced around June 2019, "Jump!" is a conversion of AtariXE/XL game "Yoomp!". You control a ball bouncing through a tunnel made of panels, some of which can speed up your ball, or have other effects on the gameplay. It's a tactical arcade action game, similar to "Trailblazer" on the C64.

In January 2020 a teaser video of "Jump!" has been released, and it looks awesome! No surprise it looks slightly better than "Yoomp" on the Atari, but who would've expected something even a Playstation wouldn't be too ashamed of? The tunnel animation and overall quality of the graphics are near-perfect, colorful, shaded, smooth, with simple but flashy special effects - and it has a Boing Ball!

The game will require an Amiga with AGA chipset, 68020/14MHz CPU and 4MB of FastRAM, or better. It runs in 320x256 pixels resolution, 256 colors, at 25fps. Planned release is Q3 2020.

Here's the video: "Jump! teaser #1" (2020-01-20)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHHgPQ8mHYI

Check out Jump!'s homepage at:

http://amigajump.com
 
Additional sources:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2019/06/jump-amiga-version-of-yoomp-has-been.html
https://www.ppa.pl/forum/strefa-gier/40284/jump-amiga-yoomp

Tiny Little Slug

Another beautiful platformer is in development and close to completion, "Tiny Little Slug" by Slamy and XplrA, for (pretty much) all Amigas, including CD32, with a planned release around spring 2020.

In the game, you get a neat slug with wall and ceiling climbing abilities, water and fire effects, parallax scrolling, and some even lesser usual features like a tutorial demo mode and online (internet! yay!) highscore tables, or offline saving to CD32's non-volatile RAM, if you prefer.

As we can see in their "Final Update Video", the developers obviously put extra time into tweaking playability & gameplay, and adding extra features to make "Tiny Little Slug" an overall complete Amiga platform game experience.

The "Tiny Little Slug" very much looks like it's gonna be a "Huge Giant Hit"!

Watch the developers' "Tiny Little Slug - Final Update Video" (2019-12-05) for more details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upxu2mszNe8

Additional sources: 
https://readretro.com/tiny-little-slug-brings-sticky-physics-back-to-gaming/
http://www.indieretronews.com/2019/08/tiny-little-slug-charming-platformer.html

Raid over moscow

Good old Cold War brought us the infamous "Raid over Moscow" back in 1984. The game was released for most 8-bit homecomputers, and was a best-seller for the Commodore 64. An Amiga port was in development back in the day, but was cancelled. Only now, just 30 years later, with the Cold War long gone, can we truly experience the excitement of nuclear threat on our Amigas.

Title screen, now on the Amiga!

The Amiga port is developed by Erik Hogan, with graphics by original "Raid over Moscow" artist Adrian Cummings, and soundtrack by Simone Bernacchia. It should run on any Amiga with 512KB ChipRAM plus 512KB other RAM, and supports joysticks with one or two buttons and CD32 joypad.

Guide your spaceship toward the launch site, avoid obstacles

Note that these screens are from the preview release, which is still undergoing optimization and bugfixing, and when done is planned to be a "final release" of the Amiga port of "Raid over Moscow". Also planned is a second, separate game, with reworked graphics and significant updates, which the authors refer to as a "spiritual sequel" with a possible commercial release.

Can you stop the enemy warheads?

You can download a preview release of "Raid over Moscow" from here (2020-01-05):

https://mega.nz/#F!8rZWBQgD!37Pjauc5yhDahBF3NAkGig

Additional sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEEVQ-n0_3k
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=83555
https://nexus23.org/warfare2/?p=115
http://www.abime.net/interviews/view/interview/id/24

Metro Siege

Announced in September 2019, "Metro Siege" by Pixelglass / BitBeamCannon / Enable Software, is an original street brawler game for OCS Amigas (512KB ChipRAM plus 512KB other RAM), similar to "Renegade" and "Shadow Warriors".

It features single player and dual player co-op gameplay, arcade style sound and hi-quality graphics with more than 60 colours and parallax scrolling, multi button joystick and joypad support, and an elaborate combat system with lots of moves including dodging and blocking.

http://pixelglass.org/images/MetroSiege/6.png

The gameplay looks fast and exciting, "Metro Siege" obviously makes proper use of the Amiga hardware, providing accuracy and responsiveness to the player.

No release date has been set, but with the game being in a playable state since 2019 maybe we can assume a final version in 2020.

Watch "Metro Siege: Teaser Trailer" (2019-08-29):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llil6dmnHJg

Go to Pixelglass' "Metro Siege" page for more information and screenshots:

http://pixelglass.org/#metrosiege

Additional sources: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsLPmYss-cU
https://www.facebook.com/pixelglassamiga/
http://www.indieretronews.com/2019/08/metro-siege-hot-news-as-incredible.html 

Recoil

"Recoil" is a 1989 Atari ST game similar to "Defender", originally released as a coverdisk of Zero magazine. Recently it got ported to the Amiga by Galahad, ADRDesign, and Notorious. Probably not the most exciting game ever, but a nice addition to the catalogue, and according to the team of coders it wasn't a terrible amount of work.

"Recoil" has this little twist to it, the spaceship doesn't fly freely but is tied to a "mothership" at the top of the screen. Check it out, it's a simple but fun sidescrolling shooter.

You can download "Recoil" from this page:

https://uploadfiles.io/l85f9uzw

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=100180
https://nexus23.com/warfare2/amigas-recoil/
http://www.amigarevive.eu/new-games/new-amiga-game-port-recoil/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVGPv1L8oNY

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Thanks for reading!

UPDATE 2020-03-08: 
"Games galore" has turned into a whole series of articles:

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