The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[Jazzy G]

Lotus III was a cracking driving game. Soundtrack was brilliant. I used to play as the Lotus Elan. 

One of the tunes you can pick while playing Space Race Simulator in Arcade Paradise is a cover/homage to the Lotus III theme song. 

Superfrog was fun. They were originally going to be sponsored by Newcastle Brown Ale, but we y with Lucozade as it was more family friendly. 

My mate lent me his Jaguar when I was a young 'un. I mostly played Tempest 2000 and Alien Vs Predator on it. AVP was probably as close to a killer app as it got on the Jag. 

[RedTwoster]

21 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

First Samurai is a bit of a lost platformer these days and I'd definitely recommend giving it a go

I have this on my Amiga mini, I’ll give this a go later and report back. The ad definitely rings a bell, but the game itself doesn’t. I’m looking forward to giving it a try!

[FLips]

31 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

That’s the one - you’re Gomez. I’d definitely recommend Wiz ‘n’ Liz the most out of these. It’s available on other systems too, and it’s a blast multiplayer; whilst also giving a strong single player experience. It’s a great game.

I think I said to you before, but I bought myself a Virtual Boy a while back. I’ve since sold it for a tidy profit. While it actually does have some solid games, they all play far, far better on the 3DS. 

If you’re ever tempted to buy one yourself because you’re curious about the games, I wouldn’t bother. Emulation is the way forward here.

You might be pleased to hear (or maybe not) that I have no interest in the Virtual Boy. I did recently play one on my mate's Oculus and that was enough for me. You're right about some of the games though, they're not actually bad. I think it was Wario Land, Tetris and Tennis I played and they were all decent games stuck on a dud hardware.

18 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Yeah Wiz n Liz is a great classic, maybe too easy but it has bags of charm and controls really nicely. I've heard the Megadrive version has some extra graphical effects but it still looks lovely on the Amiga.

First Samurai is a bit of a lost platformer these days and I'd definitely recommend giving it a go, was given all eights and nines out of ten at the time but I think the far poorer SNES version is remembered more. For some reason that port cut out like half the levels and other things which is weird as it's not like the Nintendo was a weak console or anything. But yeah it's great fun with some of the best art and sound on the system.

What a cool looking ad for it, too.

 

I enjoy First Samurai. I think on my original go around on the Amiga I reviewed Second Samurai but looking at footage I'm sure I played First Samurai. In the very least I've played the Mega Drive version and that wasn't too bad. The Amiga theme used to play all the time back when I worked in the retro shop so I know that's a banger too.

[RedTwoster]

Just now, FLips said:

You might be pleased to hear (or maybe not) that I have no interest in the Virtual Boy. I did recently play one on my mate's Oculus and that was enough for me. You're right about some of the games though, they're not actually bad. I think it was Wario Land, Tetris and Tennis I played and they were all decent games stuck on a dud hardware.

Wario Land is great, and Mario Clash and Jack Bros are also excellent - but you need the 3D effect, which is emulated on the 3DS. Bizarrely, it hadn’t occurred to me to try them on a VR headset, which is pretty insane given that’s what they are designed for, so I might do that at some point.

It’s a real shame that Nintendo didn’t bring some of these games to the 3DS officially; it’s really the only console they’re likely to have that could do these games justice and bring them to a modern audience. 

[BigJag]

I remember this being lauded at the time that the CD32 was released. From the video it doesn't look like it plays all that well. It may be worth tracking it down. I remember a particular review being impressed by the motion blur in the front end video.

Edited February 27, 2025 by BigJag

[RedTwoster]

I think I might go back and play some of the games mentioned in the early days of this thread and post my thoughts. I’ve not heard of a good number of them, and I’m fairly sure many will be on my Amiga Mini, so it’s a good reason to explore the library beyond the familiar few.

[WyattSheepMask]

*wrong gaming thread, sorry*

Edited February 28, 2025 by WyattSheepMask

[Merzbow]

I'm definitely inspired to go back to some Amiga classics thanks to this thread, in fact I think I'm going to track down a bunch of Amiga Power and/or Format demo disks. I'm sure there's a collection of them somewhere.

[Jazzy G]

I know I'd just end up playing Lemmings and Lotus 3. Maybe Pacland.

[RedTwoster]

I had a look back at the early pages of this thread, when it was kind of a video games book club, and did a whistlestop tour some of the games UKFFers at the time recommended. I played the Amiga version of most of these.

A side note - it’s absolutely wild that games released when this thread was created could now be considered retro. Anyway…

Chuck Rock II

This is a game I had fond memories of. It still plays well enough, but I think I overrated it in my own mind. First, the positives. It looks gorgeous, even now. The sound track is great, and Chuck Jr’s club is really satisfying to use as a weapon. The big negative is that it feels rather slow. It’s not something I noticed back in the day, but modern platformers generally give you the opportunity to run. Chuck Jr can’t do that (to be fair, he is a baby) and he sluggishly plods from screen to screen. Speed movement up a bit and you have a much better game. It’s still decent, but I doubt I’ll continue on with this one.

Mega-Lo-Mania

I actually have this on Mega Drive as well as on my Amiga mini, and since that’s the version the UKFFers at the time played, I did too. If you’ve not played it, it’s a RTS game by Sensible Software, which made it feel rather promising.

However, I made a few errors very early on. Firstly, I chose to play the Mega Drive version, just as the UKFFers of the time did. I did so without having the instruction manual to hand, which was a significant error on my part. Many of the selections you make on the in game menu are represented by graphics with no text, so I was having to guess what I was doing.

I can’t really blame the game for this as I chose to play the Mega Drive version, but it’s a game that really needs a mouse. I was a bit disappointed with this game, so I didn’t give it much of a chance.

Benefactor

I don’t know why the fuck someone suggested this game. It gave me no joy whatsoever, and that’s putting it mildly. It’s one of those annoying games where you press up to jump. Chuck Rock is too, to be fair, but jumping in Benefactor feels much less precise.

The game is a puzzle platformer in which you rescue little Lemmings clones, while dodging monsters. And you can’t kill the monsters, or at least, I couldn’t figure out a way to. 

I hate to be negative about three games in a row, but my goodness I hated this game. There’s a good idea in there somewhere I’m sure, but it feels very dated. 

I’ll maybe try some more of these games later, if only to find one that I have positive thoughts about! And sorry to the UKFFers of old, for shitting all over the choices you made.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

If anyone has access to Gods on the Megadrive, could they play it and confirm that it’s rock solid? I can live vicariously through someone else if they manage to finish it. 

[Merzbow]

Amiga Power: July '91

https://amr.abime.net/issue_3_pages

Starting off with a demo made especially for the magazine with a brand new level, a class little game called Exile which I had no idea existed until today. A little scrolling action/puzzler where you control a stranded spaceman, the physics are way ahead of it's time (it originally came out on the BBC Micro in '88) and this is one ambitious title which demands you look up the controls and take your time. I'd recommend giving this one a go, just check out a manual first if you can.

I fucked up a little so didn't finish it but I'm going to try again now I realise the "eggs" are bombs made to open certain doors.

Next up is an awful little platformer named Prehistorik that would soon be bettered by Chuck Rock, it's practically the same game where you control a caveman that whacks the shit outta things with a giant club yet this one doesn't even feature scrolling. It's screen by screen with dreadful jumping and none of the charm of old Chucky. Between all the Amiga mags it has an average of 64% which I think is very generous, but lets be honest and say that console envy often had us bigging up lesser platformers when we didn't have Mario or Sonic.

The rest of the disk were public domain games which I might cover seperately when I dive into those.

Edited February 28, 2025 by Merzbow

[Jazzy G]

Gouldfish On Games does great videos where he'll compare all the Amiga mag coverdiscs for a certain month. His channel is great. He does a kit of stuff about the Amiga. 

 

 

[Merzbow]

Amiga Power: August '91

https://amr.abime.net/issue_4

We start here with a complete lie in Beast Busters, it's not a "GIANT section" it's a 2 minute slither of an OK port of a rather lame Operation Wolf clone from SNK, while it looks pretty cool with some big gruesome sprites the gameplay is dead on arrival with no sort of lightgun support but at least you can use a mouse. It's missing all the cool effects of the arcade too, which isn't all that surprising but it could have been possible to use some if it weren't seemingly using the Atari ST version as it's base. the only two other games I could find by the team were poor coin-op conversions, too.

https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=146

Next is utter fucking frustration with The Executioner, another title I had no idea about before this. Lemon Amiga doesn't even have any proper reviews and the two lone comments both just mention this demo rather than the full game. It's a cool idea I guess, you travel through different worlds and time periods (the demo puts you in the medieval era) in a gravity based ship but the main issue is that it's just so damn difficult to control and you die from the lightest touch of even smoke from a chimney... they have you trying to navigate through the smallest passages, too, shame as it looks pretty nice. (it only scored 55% in the next issue)

https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2378

 

Amiga Power: September '91

https://amr.abime.net/issue_5

Barbarian II has nothing to do with the more famous 1 v 1 battler, this is a different series with the same name is is more of a scrolling beat 'em up. It's surprisingly fun even if not a great looker, holding the attack button and pressing different directions do different moves like an IK+ or Moonstone. Sadly you'll be lost not knowing where to go, it's a complete maze with no map so you're either just going by trial and error or writing down every direction you choose. Decent but better games in the style would come along, Moonstone for example is a masterpiece and the most Soulslike game of the era.

https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=120

[FLips]

Loving these @Merzbow.

Had my mate over for some more Jaguar and CD32 yesterday to mixed results.

On the CD32 we played Bubba n Stix which actually was really good from how far we played into it. Part platform, part puzzler. It sees you using "stix" to do things like create platforms in walls, attack enemies, throw at switches and so on, and the platforming handles nicely too so you have a really tidy combination.
I'm not personally a fan of the cartoonier graphics, I much prefer that classic Amiga style that games like GODS and Magic Pockets have, but in spite of that the graphics are nice.
We got a couple of levels in to a space station where we had to use a teleporter to find keycards but we looked and looked and could not find a single way to go or keycard and died trying.

Next up was Oscar which is one of those games you feel with a couple of tweaks could actually be really good. It's not particularly awful but suffers from a the worst sins a platformer can. Bad platform collision detection, enemies blend in with backgrounds, annoying chatty mascot playable character. It's like Bubsy but not an insulting mess.
I finished the first level but upon spawning back into the hub world clipped through the floor and into a dead zone that I was stuck in and couldn't get out. Shame. It's promising but just has too many flaws to tie them together neatly.

Alfred Chicken didn't exactly ruffle any feathers. It was very James Pond in it's style but the platforming just wasn't there to match it. Slow movement, kinda boring gameplay, and a really bad mascot. The music is obnoxious but sticks in your head, that being said the bonus level music goes hard and I was bopping my head to it so fair play.

Chaos Engine could very well be the best version of the game. Full animated/voiced intro cutscene that I think is exclusive to this version, or at least not present in the A500/Mega Drive/SNES/Steam versions I have. The colours are brighter, the voices clearer, the graphics crisper. It's a perfect package and the best way to play one of the Amiga's finest. Highly recommended.
The only downside I would say is the new intro replaces the old slideshow style one, which had one of the most pumping opening themes in any of these games, you know the one? It goes WEEEEE WOOOOO WEEEEE WOOOO. Completely missing from the CD32 version, though to make up for it, it uses the AGA soundtrack and puts ambient noises over them which sounds wasteful but works really well. The Forest for example now has birds chirping and other bits like that.

Last up was Alien Breed Tower Assault which we could not wrap our heads around. You start next to a crashed ship with a body that has a note that reads "find a map". The ship is crashed in a minefield full of attack turrets and (obviously) mines. We found doors but no keys, no maps, and got wrecked by mines. No idea where to go or what to do.

I imagine if you found your way out of the minefield though you'd be in for a treat because it's Alien Breed and it's a decent shooter. One I'll go back to.

I'll write about what we tried on the Jaguar later because I've talked myself into playing Chaos Engine on the CD32 again.