Amiga Games - Sensible Soccer - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Sensible Soccer Amiga
The football game that defined the 1990s (apologies to Kick-Off), 1992's offering from Sensible Software is a cult classic that remains playable to this day.

Sensible Soccer ended up being incredibly popular and spawned a multitude of sequels and enhancement packs.

The game soon became known in the gaming circles as 'Sensi', and even those of us that were not huge fans of football ended up enjoying the playing experience.

So let's take a look back at the original version of Sensible Soccer which ended up founding a miniature dynasty in art of simulating the beautiful game.

Sensible Soccer on the Commodore Amiga

Jon Hare and Chris Yates wanted to create a football game (I refuse to call it 'Soccer') that would appeal to both ardent fans and the more casual gamer alike.

With a vast number of international teams to pick from (all of which featured accurate player names at the time) you could customise your favourite team by swapping substitutes in and out prior to playing a match.

Each team was also designated with star players and it was wise to keep them in your starting line-up. You could also view the first and second kits for your team and alter these to suit yourself too!

Being able to 'pick' your team like this was a lot of fun and added depth to the game before a ball was kicked.

Sensible Soccer  on the Amiga allowed you to select your players and kit

What was good about the game was the control you could exert over the football.

Kick Off 2 had allowed for the gamer to exert swerve and power when kicking the ball, and Sensi managed to make this type of ball control fast and fluid.

The hardest part for me was learning how to run with the ball and keep it under control; but once this was mastered you were able to go on mazy runs, weaving through three of four opposition players before threading the ball through to your forward player to finish it off nicely.

Passing (both short and long), shooting and tackling were all intuitive and easy enough to pick up. The fire-button was used to accomplish everything and it worked superbly.

The real trick to winning was applying the right amount of power and swerve to your shots to out-fox the goal keeper.

It must be said that the computer controlled goalkeepers were sometimes capable of herculean and almost superhuman reflexes in keeping your shots out of the old onion bag. For me this was the only downside to the game as you unleashed a shot directly into the top corner only for the keeper to somehow keep it out.

Sensible Soccer Amiga pre-match screen

The players were tiny and the action was viewed from overhead.

The miniature team members did not distract from the game-play at all; in fact they were all quite highly detailled and you could easily make out different hair styles and skin tone.

Plenty of character and charm oozed from the little men as they dashed around the screen at breakneck speed.

Sensible Soccer on the Commodore Amiga

Playing against the computer was great fun, but playing against a friend was what really brought this game to life.

If both players were proficient it was easy to rack up double scores, especially if you were playing a longer match.

All in all everything about this game was brilliant. The intro-music, the in-game sound effects (the thud of the ball being booted around the pitch, the crowd chants and the cheering as a goal went in), the control you could exert on the ball, the slide tackling....

Sensible Soccer is a classic game and for me is one of the greatest football games ever.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Sensible Soccer. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga Game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys

GENRE: Arcade Game / Sports
RELEASE DATE: 1992
RELEASED BY: Sensible Software / Ocean Software
DEVELOPER(S): Jon Hare, Chris Chapman, Chris Yates, Dave Korn
PRICE: £25.99

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Amiga Games - Defender - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Defender Amiga
Way back in 1980 Williams Electronics gave us the classic arcade game Defender.

This game turned out to be a huge hit and is rightly regarded as a classic game in the shoot em up genre.

It ended up being ported to pretty much every home gaming console and computer of the 1980s, with official  conversions as well as plenty of unofficial ports churned out on a huge number of platforms.

So, when this version was released for the Commodore Amiga in 1994 it was already regarded as a retro game back then!

As shareware games go this is a pretty good effort and any fans of the arcade original will have enjoyed this version a lot...

An all time classic

Defender was a two dimensional side-view scrolling shooter set on the surface of an unnamed alien world. 

The player controlled a space ship as it navigated the terrain, flying either to the left or right. The ship could also be moved up or down as well as moving in either direction.

The object of the game was to destroy alien invaders whilst also protecting astronauts on the surface from abduction.

Humans that were successfully abducted by the invaders (by being taken to the 'top' of the game screen) returned as mutants, which rendered them incredibly hostile. It was fast flying and rapid shooting all the way to outsmart these fast moving mutant attackers.

Astronauts are being abducted

Defeating all of the aliens in the current level allowed the player to progress to the next level (naturally).

Failure to protect the astronauts caused the planet to explode and for the level to become populated with mutants. Taking out all of these mutants was difficult, but if you did the planet was magically restored! 

Players were allotted three lives with extra lives awarded (in classic arcade style) by reaching certain scoring benchmarks. A life was lost if the ship flew into an enemy or was shot.

Fancy flying defeats level 2

After all of your lives were gone the game ended, and your defending days were over.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Defender. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga Game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1994
RELEASED BY: Ratsoft
DEVELOPER(S): Giles F McArdell
PRICE: Shareware


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Amiga Games - Alien 3 - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Alien 3 Amiga
It was always nice to see an arcade game on your favourite machine which was a movie tie in, that wasn't actually crap.

Released in 1992 by Virgin Interactive (is it really twenty years ago already?) this was actually a decent run 'n gun game that appealed to fans of the movies and arcade gamers alike.

In true classic gaming tradition this game was very 'loosly' tied in to the movie, and also took elements from the first two films to help mould the gameplay.

Hence the inclusion of grenades, pulse rifles, flame-throwers and the motion tracker.

The Bitch Is Back - On Your Amiga

Taking on the role of a shaven headed Ellen Ripley the game was set on the Fury prison planet, with your aim being to rescue inmates who had been captured by those goddam xenomorphs and pasted to the walls with some sort of secreted resin. Yeah, but secreted from what?

It was a classic scrolling platform arcade game with plenty of ladders, lifts and tunnels to make the levels interesting.

You could collect different weapons as you explored the scenery, with the good old personal friend of mine, (the pulse rifle) being the most satisfying to use. Dealing out destruction to those pesky aliens was nicely satisfying as you cut them to ribbons or blew them away with your grenade launcher.

That'll be a scale and polish sir

A slight downside to the game was the fact that the aliens seemed to be able to sneak up on you without being seen on the motion tracker - so sometimes poor old Ripley would end up losing energy a little unfairly.

The aliens were in no short supply either - so it was lucky that there were plenty of weapons and ammo lying around for you to use. In a good touch you could also use your grenade launcher to blast through locked doors, which was sometimes a necessity.

It was also possible to fire your weapons as you climbed a ladder meaning you could take out aliens below you before you dropped to that platform. This type of attention to detail ensured a bit of playability.

The game was split into five overall levels (I think) and each one was tougher than the last. Fast reflexes and a fast trigger finger were required to succeed, as well as a good memory of the level layout.

It's A Bug Hunt

Graphically the game was pretty good, but it did lack the overall polish visually to make it a top class title. The music and sound effects were also pretty good and helped to rack up the tension and create a scary atmosphere as you made your way around the levels.

Overall this game was a good effort back in the day, and was a decent tie in to a great movie franchise. I played it quite a bit but never quite managed to finish it - I came close a few times but it was always game over man.

Stay Frosty...

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Alien 3. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys

GENRE: Arcade Game (Scrolling Platform Run 'N Gun)
RELEASE DATE: Late 1992
RELEASED BY: Virgin Interactive copyrighted by Acclaim Entertainment
DEVELOPER(S): Probe Software and Eden Entertainment Software
PRICE: £25.99 - UK

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Amiga Games - Exolon - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Exolon Amiga
This classic game had been yet another quality release for the ZX Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad CPC (published by Hewson Consultants).

Unfortunately the version we got for the good old Amiga was, well, a huge pile of steaming dung dropped by the quick-and-lazy 16-bit port over creature.

On the 8-bit platforms Exolon had been an arcade game with a difference. Here it was just a completely awful, tedious and unrewarding gaming experience.

I will now persevere with playing and reviewing Exolon...

Trying to duck out of the way of quick and lazy ports...

The aim of the game was to fight your way (from left to right in classic arcade fashion) through four levels of 25 screens, making a grand total of 100 screens to conquer.

The alien world you were placed in was infested with rotund attackers released from 'birthing pods', homing missiles, exploding mines, accelerating space lice and crushing hydraulic plungers.

For protection your character carried a blaster to destroy the lesser thin-skinned aliens and weaker obstructions.

Note the washed out colours

You were also armed with homing grenades that were able to destroy stronger creatures, machinery and any obstructing pieces of landscape such as rocky outcroppings.

It should have been classic arcade game weaponry, but the grenade launcher seemed about as powerful as wet fart on a wet Wednesday.

Blaster ammunition and grenades were replenished on the loss of a life, but extra ammunition could be collected from supplies that were lying around the landscape.

For additional safety and kill-a-bility, walking through a dressing unit 'clothed' you in an armoured exoskeleton, giving you have extra blasting power and protection against ground mines and even some aliens. Again this part of the game had been implemented perfectly on 8-bit machines but here it was (for want of a better word), crap.

If you were wearing this suit on the completion of a level your bravery bonus was decreased. But by this point you just didn't care anyway.

Unimaginative graphics are the order of the day in Exolon...

I suppose I should also mention that Teleport pods were also dotted around the screens allowing you to 'move' to higher or lower ledges on the screen and collect various items.

This also made for more than one route through some of the screens - it was up to you to find out which way was the easiest. To be honest the game was so unplayable that there were no easy routes to take.

With 100 screens to fight your way through, this title was a tough nut to crack... I never ever cracked it and never will.

With really poor graphics, unimaginative sound effects and negative playability this game screams 'amateur' at every turn. Not even the musical talents of J Dave Rogers can raise this game above mediocrity. Turgid.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download anything but Exolon! Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys. 

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1989
RELEASED BY: Hewson
DEVELOPER(S): Martin J Bysh, Gary Felix, Guido Henkel, J Dave Rogers
PRICE: £24.99? - UK

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Amiga Games - Panza Kick Boxing - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Panza Kick Boxing
This is a classic game on the Commodore Amiga, that for me never quite got the recognition it deserved.

Released by the French company Loriciel in 1990, this game was met with mainly positive reviews, but for some reason never quite acheived the same level of fame as the likes of Body Blows or (the admittedly excellent arcade game) Mortal Kombat.

Still, for those that played it back in the day it must surely be up there with the best of the beat-em-up gaming genre from the 8-bit and 16-bit era. We're talking the likes of Way of the Exploding Fist, Full Contact and Barbarian.

It was also endorsed by Andre Panza (hence the name of the game) who was champion kick-boxer at the time.

One of the best beat em ups on the Amiga

What set this apart from other beat em up arcade games of the era was the customisability available to the player as well as a variety of fighters and moves to choose from.

Once a fighter was selected you were able to customise him with various moves. Each fighter could be equiped with thirteen moves picked from a total of fifty five - allowing the player to experiment with different fighting styles and techniques.

All of the moves available for selected were geniune moves from the real art making the game a geniune representation of kick-boxing appealing to fans of the real art and gamers alike.

Train your fighter to the max

You also had to train your game character; you could choose the amount of strength, stamina (resistance) and speed training (reflexes) prior to a fight with various exercises in the gym hall. This would determine how much damage you could doll out, how much punishment you could take as well as your speed around the ring.

A round-kick to the face is always a stinger

The actual arcade action in the game was well implemented too. Each fighter was very well animated and moved in a life-like manner. Punches and kicks were textbook perfect and there great in-fight moments as a fighter was doubled up from a blow to the ribs or dollops of spittle would fly from a hook to the head. Great stuff!

The aim of this classic game was to fight your way from the bottom of the rankings to the top to eventually take on and defeat the champion. With a huge variety of moves to pick from, increasing your fighters skill and superb animation this was a game that would keep you coming back for more.

All in all this was a great game that not even the referee's annoying voice could spoil!

That's a slightly camp top for a kick-boxer

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Panza Kick Boxing. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1990
RELEASED BY: Loriciel
DEVELOPER(S): Nicolas Massonnat, Marco de Flores, Michel Winogradoff
PRICE: £24.99 - UK

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Amiga Games - Richard Hewison - Project Mangager and Games Tester

Richard Hewison
Richard Hewison worked as project manager and games tester during the 8-bit and 16-bit era's on machines such as the ZX Spectrum and Commodore Amiga.

With a vast library of titles under his belt including classic games such as Beneath a Steel Sky, Cannon Fodder, Sensible Soccer, Stunt Car Racer and Speedball II he has project managed and play tested some of the most recognisable games to grace best 16-bits in history.

Richard was more thank kind enough to take me through his days working in the gaming sector on the Commodore Amiga...

One of the greatest games ever...

1: Hi Richard. First of all how did you get into the games industry - and when did you make your first foray into this area?
Short version - I happened to know someone who managed to get a job at TelecomSoft and just a month or two later he called me to let me know there was a tester's position that had become available. I went for the interview and got the job!
Long version - I was writing a regular Adventure helpline column and computer game reviews for the computing section on BBC2's teletext service CEEFAX in the mid-1980s.

The section was called NEXT and was edited by a guy called Martin Cooper.

I started by posting the mode 7 teletext pages on 5.25" floppy disks to the editor at BBC Television Centre every couple of weeks, and I then started subscribing to Prestel & Micronet so I could upload the pages via a 1200 baud modem connected to our BBC Micro. Heady stuff!

Anyway, I made friends with a number of other subscribers on Micronet and Prestel who were adventure game fans. I was a full time student by then, doing Business Studies and specialising in Business Computing (as it was back in the mid-80s!).

I saw an advert in Popular Computing Weekly in early 1987 for a job at Rainbird Software in central London. I applied, got as far as an interview, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Fast forward six months or so and I was now an unemployed student but busy trying to get a job in 'the industry'.

I got interviewed for a job at EMAP in London (writing for Computer & Video Games magazine) but didn't get that job either. I did get a few reviews published though as some kind of compensation.

It was shortly afterwards that one of my Micronet & Prestel buddies managed to get a job working at TelecomSoft. I was of course very envious having failed to get a job at the same company the previous year, so I told him to let me know if any jobs came up.

A few months later and I'd only just started a new job when my friend phoned up out-of-the-blue and told me that a game testers job had just been suddenly vacated and I should get in there before they have the chance to advertise the post.

I did this the very next day and was interviewed in London the following week. They called my home to offer me the job before I'd even got back. Oddly, it turned out that I knew the previous post holder (who had been sacked). Sometimes it's a small world!
You could say this was all pre-ordained though, as I had done some early games testing for Kevin Toms' Addictive Games back in 1983/84.

I was constantly pestering him by letter to do a BBC version of Football Manager, so in the end I like to think he caved in and did one, then phoned me up and asked me to play-test it. This I did and was rewarded with a free copy when the game was finished.

2: Did you spend much time working in the 8-bit scene? If so - which games did you playtest or project manage and on which machines?
Ignoring my brief games testing stint in 1983/84, I was joining the industry when 8-bit was on its last legs in early 1988. I had been a BBC user, then bought a Spectrum and then persuaded a friend to sell me his Commodore 64 in 1986.

 I considered myself a naturalised Speccy user (owning both a rubber-keyed 48k model and the souped-up Sinclair 128k+ when that came out in Feb '86) so once that became known at TelecomSoft, I got to critique and test the 8-bit conversions of the 16-bit games like Starglider 2, Virus, Carrier Command and so on because I still cared enough about those platforms to try and make the conversions worth doing.

I even got to contribute some artwork into Carrier Command (one or two of the icons in the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions are mine) and I contributed the stars and the space clouds on the Starglider 2 Spectrum loading screen! Ahem... I'll get my coat!
I was involved in lots of 8-bit stuff in general. The very first game I ever professionally tested at TelecomSoft on my very first day was Graftgold's highly underrated 'Intensity' which was published by Firebird.

I also play-tested classic games such as; Soldier of Fortune, Dynamic Duo, Savage, Virus, Starglider 2, Carrier Command, Corruption, Fish!, 3D Pool, P47, Mr Heli, Action Fighter, Exploding Fist +, G.I. Hero, Rainbow Islands, Betrayal, Stuntcar Racer, Rick Dangerous, Samurai Warrior, and Star Trek: The Rebel Universe (which Commodore User magazine amusingly credited me as being the programmer when I wrote their two-page players guide in an early '89 issue).

At Mirrorsoft, I managed the 8-bit and conversions of Bloodwych, Predator 2 and Robozone for C64, CPC and Spectrum.

3: When did you move into the 16-bit market?
I didn't 'move' into 16-bit; it was already there when I arrived in early 1988! I had bought myself an Atari 520STFM about six months earlier and was busy playing Magnetic Scrolls adventures and Dungeon Master on it before I started working in the industry.
4: What was best - the Amiga or the Atari ST?
Well, at first I would definitely say the Atari because you could actually do useful stuff with TOS and Gem without the need for a hard drive or two floppy drives. Trying to do anything useful on an Amiga A500 via Workbench 1.3 with just one floppy drive was almost impossible!

However, the Amiga was technically superior and although the ST had the early advantage, I think the Amiga took over within a few years.

Certainly the A1200 with an internal hard drive and a second floppy became a very useful machine in the early 90s once the ST/STE/Falcon had pretty much died a death. It wasn't until near the end of my stint that ST conversions of games were not being considered.

5: Can you tell us some of the titles you worked on during the Commodore Amiga years?
Lots!
As a tester - Starglider 2, Virus, Savage, Corruption, Fish!, Verminator, 3D Pool, Action Fighter, Rick Dangerous, Druid II: Enlightenment (Pete Molyneux's first ever game!), Oriental Games, Elite, Whirligig, Flying Shark, Mr Heli, P47, Quartz, Rainbow Islands, The Sentinel, Tower of Babel.

As a Project Manager - Predator 2, Robozone, Blade Warrior, The Final Battle, Sensible Soccer (before and after it went to Renegade), Cannon Fodder (before it went to Virgin), Legend (before and after it went to Mindscape and I also wrote the manual and the Adventurer's Handbook), Lure of the Temptress (before and after it went to Virgin) and some unpublished titles including Duster, Terrarium, Drop Soldier.

I also tested Reach for the Skies (before and after it went to Virgin), did rudimentary testing on a slew of Cinemaware titles including Wings, It Came from the Desert (the pre-prod disks came from the duplicators labelled as 'It Came from the Dessert' which made us laugh!), Ant Heads, TV Sports Boxing and a little bit of Roller Babes I seem to recall too.

Also got to do some testing on Cadaver, Speedball 2, Flipit & Magnose, Back to the Future II and III, The Killing Cloud, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Overlord, Dino Dini's Goal! (I wrote the manual as well), Battletoads, Beneath a Steel Sky, Liberation: Captive 2 (I also wrote the manual), Dune II, Elf Mania, Frontier: Elite II, KGB (I'm listed as a KGB agent in the end credits!), Worlds of Legend: Son of the Empire (I also wrote the manual), Rise of the Robots... which I probably shouldn't be admitting too!... and probably a few more besides that I've blotted from my memory!

6: Which titles give you fond memories and why?
Quite a few - on 8-bit I loved Intensity. Starglider 2 and Virus because they were pretty cutting edge back then on 16-bit. Rainbow Islands was just a terrific conversion and it was so hard to see us do all the work and then Ocean snatch the publishing and the glory afterwards.

Legend was a terrific little RPG with a wonderful magic spell casting system. Sensible Soccer and Dini Dini's Goal! were both terrific footie games (but I actually prefer Goal! out of the two). Dune II was special although the Amiga conversion was really only playable on an A1200.

Frontier was almost great but suffered from trying to do too much on hardware that wasn't quite up to it.

7: Conversely which titles give you less than fond memories and why?
Quite a few of these too! Where do I start?

On 8-bit Dynamic Duo was a mess and should have been a budget release not a full price Firebird title, G.I. Hero was just awful and had no real game in it at all (and I got lumbered with testing it because nobody else could face doing it!). Robozone was a great idea that got watered down so much as development went on that in the end it was a huge disappointment.

I had a much better idea for the Predator 2 game design but it was all decided before the project was given to me and shoot 'em ups were never my thing. There's a reason why Terrarium was cancelled - it was terrible - and the list could go on and on but I'll stop there and try and be a little diplomatic.

8: Can you tell me any coders you watched working and just thought 'wow'?
Well, I didn't do too much 'watching' because I was based in the publisher's office and we didn't have many/any in-house programmers. I'd say that the guys who impressed me with their work were Geoff Crammond, Sensible Software, Ross Goodley, Dino Dini and the guys at FTL.
9: Do you play any the games you tested or project managed these days?
Yes, thanks to the wonders of emulation and my web sites I get to revisit the good/bad old days on a regular basis. I don't get much time to play games at all due to work and family, but when I do I nearly always go back to the 8-bit and 16-bit games rather than boot up modern PC, Wii or PS3 stuff.

At the time you can't wait to see the back of most games once they're finished, but now with years between the pain and the game I actually quite like playing most of them to varying degrees!

10: Can you tell us what you have been up to since the Amiga scene faded in the mid 1990s?
I went freelance for a while (Virgin, Domark, Mindscape, Renegade, Abbey Road etc), then worked for Sony CEE for a while on the new Sony PSX console (this was back in mid-1994 the year before it's launch) then got out of the games industry all together.

I then decided to set up my Bird Sanctuary web site all about TelecomSoft and I'm planning to do one all about Mirrorsoft too. I also get to write on a semi-regular basis for Retro Gamer magazine and have done articles about TelecomSoft, Beyond, Virgin, The Electronic Pencil Company, Hewson, Mirrorsoft and a whole load of other publishers and developers over the last 6 or 7 years.

It's a great excuse to get back in touch with some of the people I used to work with and it gives me an excuse to research the period of computer gaming (the 1980s and early 90s) which I honestly believe were the most innovative and exciting in the UK.

Once again many thanks to Richard for taking the time to talk to me about his Amiga days.

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Amiga Games - Outrun - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Out Run Amiga
Ahhh now this is one the most iconic arcade games of all times. Who else can remember the thrill of sitting in the Out Run cabinet, the 3D graphics racing towards you, hydraulics lurching you in all directions and the sterio-tastic Magical Sound Shower pumping in your ears?

Out Run (by Sega) was a fantastic beat the clock arcade racing game, and a conversion to the Commodore Amiga was always on the cards.

But could such a large and graphically intensive game be converted to the Amiga?

Well, yes is could have been converted quite well in the hands of talented developers- but what we got from US Gold (and Probe software) was only Out Run in name, not in playability.

The loading screen to Out Run - the best part of the game

Out Run was released for the Amiga by US Gold in 1989 and was met with a mostly negative reception.

I'll get this out of the way first; the Spectrum 128 (or +2 and +3) versions were actually superior to the Amiga offering despite it coming out two years earlier and of course only having 8-bits of processing power and 128K of RAM to play with.

Even the AY music was better than the approximation to the arcade music we were given on our favourite 16-bit beaut, I'm getting angry all these years later (again) just thinking about it...


Crashed and burned huh Mav.....

Gameplay
This game (the original arcade game anyway) placed you in the driving seat of a Ferrari Testarossa convertible with a stunning blonde in the passenger seat (female players had to pretend it was a right-hand-drive vehicle ;-)), to race around a series of tracks at breakneck speed.

As you neared the end of a track (assuming you did not run out of time) then you would take the left or right fork to move onto the next track - each one branching into a different area. This continued until you either ran out of time or you reached the end of the whole 'race'.

What really p1ssed me off about this version is that it completely fails to capture the spirit or feel of the original Sega game - the graphics are flat, the 3D effect poor and the sense of speed.... Well there is no sense of speed.

The Amiga is capable of so much more and this version here smacks of a quick and lazy port over. We never expected it to match the arcade game perfectly, but the Amiga was capable of getting pretty close to it.

Even when it's moving you don't feel the wind in your hair

This was a major disappointment for Amiga gamers back in '89 and was yet another quick and crappy conversion of a good arcade original.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator but do not bother to download this game. Alternatively you could try and play it online, but seriously, just fire it up on MAME or even play the Speccy version.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game (3D Racing)
RELEASE DATE: 1989
RELEASED BY: US Gold
DEVELOPER(S): Probe Software
PRICE: £19.99 (UK)

A very poor conversion of a classic arcade game:


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Amiga Games - The Light Corridor - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

The Light Corridor Amiga
This classic game was released for the Commodore Amiga in 1990 by Infogrames. I suppose it could be classed as a sort of clone of the classic arcade game breakout with a massive twist.

It was now a 3D vector graphics breakout style game, and very good it was too.

This game was released at a time when the 8-bit to 16-bit transition was gathering pace and a 16-bit machine such as the Amiga was the ideal machine for a game of this type.

If you liked breakout and puzzle games then you wouldn't go far wrong with this one...

Prepare To Enter The Light Corridor....

The aim of the game was to navigate your way along 'The Light Corridor' (taking the 1st person view).

Equipped with a translucent 'raquet' you had to guide the metallic sphere along the heart of the corridor by using your raquet to continuously keep it 'in play'. As you can tell it really was breakout or Arkanoid in 3D.

Avoiding the walls and the traps, you had to collect the bonuses on offer and battle your way along, until eventually you would see the light, at the end of the tunnel.  :-)

The game was spread over four stages and in classic arcade style there were plenty of powerups to collect and nasties to avoid.

After chillin' to the smooth intro music it was time to enter the game...

At the beginning of the game you had to release the ball and watch if fly down the corridor until it struck a wall or similar obstacle. At this point it would bounce back towards you and you had to 'hit' it thus sending it back 'away' from your viewpoint again.

The player moved along the game-corridor during the time the ball was in flight (you could stop and start as and when you wished). The colour of the walls also changed to show your progression through the levels.

The object of the game was to reach the end of the corridor without allowing the ball to miss the raquet and 'hit' the player. If this happened, as you may guess, it was the loss of one life.

Obstacles such as moving elevator-style doors and sliding blocks ensured that navigating your way was quite difficult and the game was all about quick reflexes and timing.

There were also nice powerups to be had to help you on your way such as 'sticky sphere' (ooerr), multi-balls, speedup etc etc. All of the usual arcade game powerups were in here.

Those Pesky Corridors...

It must also be said that this classic game was extremely customisable.

You could run the 'raquet' at normal or fast speed which was nice, but the real boon was being able to create your own game levels to play through.

The game had an in-built editor that allowed you to create corridors and then save them to disc. Now just how cool is that?

This was a great feature at the time and added a lot of longevity to the game.

All in all this is a bit of cult classic game that offered something a little different to home gamers back in the day and it still plays pretty well all of these years later.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download this game. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game (3D Breakout)
RELEASE DATE: 1990
RELEASED BY: Infogrames
DEVELOPER(S): Vincent Pourieux, Carole Arachtingi, Dominique Girou, Sandrine Nove-Josserand, Didier Chanfray -- Music by Frédéric Mentzen
PRICE: £24.99 (UK)

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Amiga Games - Operation Wolf - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Operation Wolf Amiga
I've been a little quiet on here lately mainly due to conducting programmer interviews over on my ZX Spectrum Games site (with Mark R Jones of Ocean Software) but it's back into those classic 16-bits again with a decent conversion of a once popular arcade game, Operation Wolf.

When this came out for the Commodore Amiga (along with the ZX Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad CPC 464) late in 1988 home computer conversions of arcade games were still popular.

The original arcade game by Taito had been more popular than neon blue lighting effects in a James Camron flick - with gamers loving the pseudo 3D viewpoint and control via the force feedback cabinet mounted uzi machine gun.

Time to kick some butt

The arcade game (at the time) featured state of the art graphics (large animated enemy soldiers, helicopters, tanks, sizeable buildings with breakable windows etc) and superb sterio sound.

Couple this with the actual uzi machine gun you used to play it with and you were onto a sure fire winner. Converting such a game to a 16-bit machine was never going to be that easy - and Ocean software stepped up to the task.

It was possible to replicate the large full colour graphics on the Amiga quite well, so Ocean decided to go for a similar look - and it ended up working pretty well but just not quite as smooth as the arcade original.

The game began with you (as a double-hard crack commando with 'enemy mow down capabilities' in the realm of John Matrix) being parachuted into hostile territory to locate an enemy concentration camp and free the captives.

I eat Green Berets for Breakfast

You began the game with seven clips of ammunition and five grenades - so straight away you had to get used to short controlled bursts.

The mission was split into six sections which matched those of the arcade game.
The sections were as follows:
Communication Setup, Jungle Area, Jungle Village, Powder Magazine, The Concentration Camp and finally the Airport.

On each level the landscapes slowly panned from right to left before you in first-person perspective as looked down your gun-sights (represented by a cross-hair).

That beardy bloke doesn't stand a chance

As the game landscape scrolled before you soldiers parachuted downwards or ran into the action firing away at you, whilst helicopters, boats and tanks also arrived to make things really interesting.
Vehicles required a barrage of shots to be destroyed - but could be taken out in one go with one of your precious rocket propelled grenades. The characters from the arcade game were re-created pretty faithfully - those huge Schwarzenegger type badguys who appeared right in front of you were even included. Waaahhh!

On later levels some enemies wore kevlar jackets and had to be hit with a headshot to dispatch them. Also requiring fast reactions were the daggers and grenades lobbed at you, these could be shot out of the air to prevent them from hitting you and reducing your energy.

To the side of the playing screen was the ammo counter, a damage meter and three icons. The latter told you how many men, tanks, boats and so on had to be destroyed before the current level was cleared.

Extra ammo and grenades were available (by shooting them as they appeared on-screen) and a power up was available which gave you double rapid fire and unlimited bullets for around ten seconds. This was always good for a laugh as you mowed down huge amounts of the enemy with ease.

There were also items which would reduce your damage level by a few points - which could make all the difference in completing a level.

Apart from human targets various animals appeared (like birds and pigs) from time to time and shooting them would occasionally give you an item of food to boost your energy or extra ammunition. Just how shooting a pig yields more ammunition is anyones guess, but for some reason I never even questioned it back then!

Shooting any prisoners, villagers, nurses etc took a fair bit of your energy away - so you needed to be accurate in your shooting.

I'm the demolition maaaaaan!

The Amiga also managed to represent the cut-scenes from the arcade game pretty accurately, and all of the voice samples were replicated too.
 
All in all this was a decent enough version of the arcade game, but without that force-feedback Uzi it just wasn't the same.
 
But that's it, I am finished..... here.
 
We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Operation Wolf. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1988
RELEASED BY: Ocean Software
DEVELOPER(S): Christophe Gomez, Benoist Aron, Phillipe Chastel, Marc Djan, Jean Baudlot
PRICE: £24.95 (UK)

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Amiga Games - Alien Breed - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Alien Breed Amiga
In Amiga Games no-one can hear you scream...

Well that is if I am playing Alien Breed from Team 17.

Team 17 were known for producing quality games for the Amiga, and this one was no exception.

It had it all; superb gameplay, excellent graphics, top notch music, brilliant sound effects and a claustrophobic and terrifying atmosphere.

The game would go on to spawn several excellent sequels, but this is where the alien horror all began for us Amiga gamers...

The game was a classic arcade top down eight way scrolling run 'n gun game which owed a little debt to the arcade classic Gauntlet.

The game was set within 'Intex Space Research Centre - Number 4' where you as a character named Johnson stepped into action to see why no contact could be established with the base.

In two player mode (which was brilliant fun) a character named Stone was also along for the ride.

Basically you had to negotiate your way through each level, killing lots of aliens, collecting money, keys and ammunition.

All of this led to the completion of a particular task allowing you access to the next level, but first let's talk about the games presentation...

The loading screen was simple yet effective.

Anyone familiar with the Alien movies knew what lay ahead - and once the game loaded and you got an earful of one of the greatest ever tunes composed for the Amiga you were into excitement overdrive.

The atmospheric and downright scary theme-tune to Alien Breed:


This quality continued with the game itself.

The background graphics were superb to look at with each level complete with huge spaceships, compact corridors, tiled floors and computer terminals. There were neat little signs around pointing out certain areas, fire doors, moving machinery and air ducts. All of these features made it seem as though you really were on a research station on some distant planet.

On top of this the character and alien sprites moved realistically and the in-game sound effects and speech were a pure joy.

"Player One Requires Ammo" still gives me the chills to this day.

There were lots of neat touches in this game that added to the overall class and polish, moving it from being a good game to great.

Dotted around the levels were Intex computer terminals which you could log onto. The way the developers created the screen menu and the soft female voice samples used which announced "Welcome to Intex systems" was a stroke of genius.

On deeper levels the screen would crackle and break up as you logged on which really added to the already creepy atmosphere.

You could use these terminals to view a map of the current level and also to purchase items such as extra ammunition and weapons.

Being able to upgrade your weapons added a lot to the game - it was fun blowing those aliens away with your new powerful flame-thrower.

Also as you progressed through the game different aliens would appear - and they would also begin to popup through the floor. Sneaky bast*rds!

Throughout the game there was also a steady background 'hum' which was almost heartbeat like, which again added to the overall opressive atmosphere.

I remember the first time I flicked the switch to escape from the second level and the same soft spoken 'Intex systems' voice announced to me that destruction was imminent as the whole screen darkened to a deep red colour and an ominous warning klaxon began to sound.

With only sixty seconds to haul ass to the escape elevator it was nerve jangling stuff. If you didn't make it there in time it was game over man, game over.

I have to say that two player mode was a real blast. You could really plan your way around with one player covering the other and doubling up on firepower in those heavily infested areas.

The only niggles I have with this gaming classic is the fact that you can only shoot in the direction you are facing and the re-spawning aliens can get a bit much some times.

Aside from this, as far as top down arcade games go this is a total classic. The one were it all began.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Alien Breed. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1991
RELEASED BY: Team 17
DEVELOPER(S): Rico Holmes, Stefan Boberg, Peter Tuleby, Andreas Tadic, Allister Brimble
PRICE: £24.99 (UK)

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Are you interested in space games? Then you should have a look at Bigpoint's Battlestar Galactica or try some sim games or a fantasy game!

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Amiga Games - Pinball Dreams - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Pinball Dreams Amiga

I was never a fan of pinball games until this came along for the Commodore Amiga.

With wonderful graphics, nice music and superb physics this classic game came straight out of the amusement arcades was (and still is) a joy to play.

Digital Illusions gave us Amiga gamers this title in 1992 and it was certainly something a little different from the mainstream, and once more the good old Amiga gave us pure arcade atmosphere in the comfort of our own homes...

There were four pinball tables within this game to play through, each with it's own flashing lights, bonuses and power-ups.

The tables were superbly designed and contained authentic clicks, blips, whirring noises and any other bells and whistles you can think of that made you feel as though you were actually on a real pinball table.

The attention to detail was fantastic. The ball moved around in a realistic manner and even the initial launching of the ball onto the table was power adjustable, you could belt it in at fult pelt if you wanted or gently ease it onto the table, it was all down to you.

With the myriads of bonuses on each table there was plenty to get your teeth into here. Letters to light up, targets to hit, sticky points which allowed you to aim the ball.... you could even tilt the table via the space bar! Too much tilting resulted in your 'turn' being revoked though.

This classic Amiga game was a masterpiece of programming and design. Each table was excellently crafted, the sound effects were spot on, the ball physics were astonishingly realistic and the differing in-game music per table kept things fresh.

It was also possible for up to eight players to take part in the game, allowing you to host your very own mini pinball tournaments which was great fun. Food, drink and pinball dreams was a great way to while away a cold evening in Carlisle I can tell ya!
If you like pinball, and even if you don't, this game is still very playable and addictive. Try it, you may even become a pinball wizard like me..... ;-)

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Pinball Dreams. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Pinball)
RELEASE DATE: 1992
RELEASED BY: 21st Century Entertainment
DEVELOPER(S): Digital Illusions
PRICE: £25.99 (UK)

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Amiga Games - Bombjack - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Bombjack Amiga
Tehkan (now Tecmo) had created this popular arcade game in 1984 and it already been converted to most 8-bit machines in 1986.

A 16-bit conversion was always on the cards and Bombjack arrived on the Commodore Amiga in 1989 - and whilst it was a playable game it was also a little disappointing.

ZX Spectrum Bombjack had been an awesome conversion, but on the Amiga we were treated to a lazy Atari ST port, which of course would just not do...



In this (by 1989 a retro arcade game) you controlled Jack - a 'superhero' who could leap incredibly high and gracefully glide to the ground.

He could diffuse bombs too by simply touching them - I suppose that's why he was called Bomb Jack. Anyway - in this arcade game a load of bombs (depicted in a cartoon style - black 'balls' with a fizzing lit fuze) had been placed in famous locations all around the world.

Just why is anyones guess!

The locations were:
The Sphinx and pyramids
The Acropolis
Neuschwanstein Castle
Miami Beach
Hollywood (LA)



The object of the game was to 'diffuse' the bombs and defeat the various enemies on each screen, with screen having one of the famous locations as a backdrop. The screens matched up with the original arcade game quite well.

Each of the screens usually had platforms on it too - you couldn't jump through these platforms but you could land on them and walk across them if you wanted to - giving a nice mix of arcade action and classic platform gaming.

Various nasties populated each screen such as robots, birds and deadly snails (yep, deadly snails!) which would take one of your three lives on contact with you.

You had to manouver around these nasties by leaping and 'floating' around the screen, you could also change direction in mid-air which was pretty cool.





Once you had collected/diffused the first bomb (they never exploded, no matter how long you let them fizzle away) another one's fuse would ignite.

You could collect them all in the order that they 'lit up' - but it didn't really matter if you didn't bother, you could still complete each game screen no matter in what order you collected them.

If you did collect them all in order a bonus was put your way. Collecting all twenty three in the active state resulted in a whopping 60,000 bonus points. Wahey!

Either way - once all the bombs on screen had been collected, you moved on to the next screen. Every so often a disk bearing the letter P arrived onscreen (A powerup which was familiar to all Commodore gamers) - collecting this immobilised the enemies and turned them into stationary smiling faces (for a few seconds - Pac Man style)which could be collected for yet more points. Wahey again!

An E disk added an extra life, while a B disk added points and increased the value of any subsequent bombs collected.

Once you had visited all of the screens and in true arcade game tradition, you were whisked back to the beginning - with the platform layout altered and the nasties even nastier.


I have to say that I enjoyed this arcade game and loved the ZX Spectrum version, but the version we got for the good old Amiga was a little flat.

It was still playable enough and captured some of the spirit of the original arcade game - but it just wasn't as good as it should have been.

With a little more effort this would have been the definitive home version of the arcade game, but it turned out to be just another 'decent conversion'. A real opportunity missed.

Still, give this old Commodore Amiga game a go, it certainly has a level of retro charm.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Bombjack. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1989
RELEASED BY: Elite
DEVELOPER(S): Paradox Software
PRICE: £25.99 (UK)

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Amiga Games - Body Blows - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Body Blows Amiga Those famous Commodore Amiga coders Team 17 (who authored many a great game) gave us a rival to Street Fighter in 1993 with Body Blows.

All of the usual features for an arcade style beat em up were in there; varying fighters, special moves and differing backgrounds as you progressed through the game.

Now Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were very good arcade games (And Mortal Kombat ended up being a very good Amiga Game) - could Body Blows go toe to toe or would it be finished off after three short rounds?



Like any good game of this type it offered two modes of play. Single player mode pitted you against the computer (after you had chosen your fighter) making you fight against six increasingly difficult opponents before finally taking on the hardest of them all 'Max'.

Give Max a kicking and your victory was complete.

Multi-player mode with a bunch of friends was also possible, allowing two, four or even eight players to take part in a knockout tournament. Great fun.

In classic arcade fashion (which Commodore gamers were familiar with) each fighter was blessed with a plethora of moves with lots of punches, kicks and flying attacks available to each.

Of course each character had special moves too which could be real fun - see 'Cossack' and his Superdrill move for example.



Another good feature in this game was that it allowed you to put the same characters against each other (which required a cheat in Street Fighter to accomplish) for a real evenly matched battle.

Great combo-attacks could be executed after a fair amount of practice too and huge bonus points were awared for winning a bout without taking a single blow - a perfect victory.

For me as usual you usually ended up with a couple of fighters that you preferred and stuck to those when playing the game.

I remember Max being a real b*stard to beat - I don't think I ever did as far as I remember.



All in all this game was well recieved when it was released. It was a well polished game with decent characters which were nicely drawn (and pretty big), great looking four way scrolling backdrops, nifty in-game speech and great music both in-game and on the title screen.

Some of the special moves were very well done too - the ninja who sort of 'dissolved' into thin air ('Shadow!') was rather cool at the time!

Team 17 were synonymous with quality and they delivered a fine arcade game in the beat em up genre to us Amiga gamers. It perhaps lacked a little soul - but once you got the hang of it this game was well worth playing.

It kept me occupied until MK came out anyway - and was one of the better beat em ups in Commodore gaming history.

The only real downside to the game was the disk swapping and long load times between levels - but we can forgive it that as the game could be played on a standard Amiga 500.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Body Blows. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys

GENRE: Arcade game (Beat em up)
RELEASE DATE: 1993 RELEASED BY: Team 17
DEVELOPER(S): Allister Brimble, Cedric McMillan Jnr, Alex Garnier, Nik Harbor, Daniel J Burke
PRICE: £25.99 (UK)

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