Maniac Mansion and Zak McKrakin anyone?
(Topic ID: 166392)
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1 month later
Quoted from brannonrad:Cinemaware games were the best. You guys have named a bunch, I'll throw in Rocket Ranger. Loved that one! Oh and also Sinbad. You rescued someone stranded at sea and they would say, "thanks" in a bad computer voice!
One of my very favorites was The Faery Tale Adventure. Man what a game!
I agree - but man I could rarely get out of the hospital on It Came From the Desert.
I'm assuming everyone on this thread that doesn't still have an Amiga has tried Amiga Forever? Best $20 you can spend. Love it!
1 month later
Quoted from toyotaboy:ha, anyone remember technocop? It was sort of a car version of road rash mixed in with elevator action mode
» YouTube video
Yes! I remember the dead bodies looked somewhat weird and graphic all at the same time on that game.
5 months later
Quoted from toyotaboy:Ok I have one for you amiga fans.. usually I can find a reference to a game I remember playing but not this time. It was a game where you were chasing criminals in a fiero, it was 3d first person driving the car.. and when the other cops pulled you over accidentally, they would apologize and called you "Mr ferrari". I can't for the life of me find any reference to this game but I know I remember playing it on the amiga.
First Person driving makes me think of The Duel but you aren't a police officer...
1 year later
Quoted from emkay:In high school, one of my buddies worked at the Electronics Boutique in the mall. His manager would let them bring home a box of new titles every weekend and we'd all sit around and copy them before re-shrinking them and putting them back on the shelves. It was all fun and games until a customer got a virus from a "new" game they bought.
Lol. I didn’t realize viruses really went around in the early days too.
I don’t remember rental places but I do remember the mail order places with photocopied lists of games as their inventory. Pretty sure some of them weren’t selling legit copies.
Quoted from pb456:Now that I have all these confounded pinball machines, I don't know where I would put my A2000... If I still had it! Loved that thing. Started with the A1000 where I learned Tripox (Unix), got an A500 and then an A2000 HD. Many good memories. Still would love to play those old Psygnosis games again.
I’ve mentioned it before in this thread but take a look at Amiga Forever. It’s a paid emulator (cheap) that makes it easy to play the games. You can do it for free as well but the package they put together saves a lot of time and works without further configuration. It also includes legal licensed copies of kickstart and the OS. Only emulator I ever paid money for.
Quoted from Joey_N:Crap, I may have to buy that. I grew up with C64, missed the Amiga era, although I recall going in WaldenSoftware and seeing the amazing graphics screencaps on those Amiga game boxes. I've thought, wouldn't it be fun to get a 500 and play a bunch of the popular old games. Although I try to avoid emulation (collect mostly arcade games), this looks like a good package.. Thanks
There is a C64 version too. Also you can add other games you download so you aren’t limited to the package.
Quoted from toyotaboy:So I went ahead and bought the $10 value edition. Interface is really nice, even makes floppy disc noise as things load (so you know something is running and it's not locked up). Games included are in .rp9 format.. If you add .adf (files downloaded from the net are commonly cracked and compressed in this format), it doesn't seem to show up in the list (but if you double click the file, it IS associated with the program). The value edition locks you out of certain amiga versions (A500 seems to work fine, but A500 plus or A1200 do not). Now, don't think that if you buy the low version you're screwed. They allow you to upgrade without paying extra (IE if you buy value edition, you can upgrade to plus for $20, or in essence the same $30 if you bought the plus version to begin with), so if you're iffy which version, it's ok to start with the lowest one. It windows by default, but if you hold esc for one second you get your windows mouse back, and you can click on full screen.
Biggest thing I noticed is how low the resolution is (even though they did a lot of anti-aliasing), it's so sharp on a modern screen you see every dot. Also some load times suck, and it's not always clear if you can skip intro screens (not the emulator's fault, that's the way it was back then). I'm amazed I was so patient back then.
FYI you can turbo drive some titles while they load which makes them load faster. When in window mode the option is at the bottom. It can cause an error on some games but usually works when the option shows up.
2 months later
Quoted from StylesBitchly:Ya, I had a buddy that got everything off BBS and later use-net. I still think one of the most impressive Amiga games was 'IT Came from the Desert'. I had more fun with the A500 than just about any toy I ever had!
Great game. On Steam you can download and play it for PC if you want to relive the memory. They sell it for next to nothing along with other similar games in a package.
6 months later
1 year later
Quoted from dmilo:If anyone is interested in cycle accurate hardware emulation, checkout MiSTer. It uses the Intel DE-10 Nano FPGA board.
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki.
It has the following Commodore cores: Amiga, C-64, Vic-20, C-16 Plus/4 and PET.
Plus Atari 800, Atari ST/STe, TI 99/4A, Apple II, Mac to name a few
Also does Arcade and Consoles: Atari 2600/5200, ColecoVision, GameBoy, Genesis, NeoGeo, NES, SNES and many more
Lots of fun.
[quoted image]
I've done a bunch of projects with raspberry pi devices (hasn't everyone?) and one day will move onto MiSTer however when I very briefly looked at it it seemed like acquiring the hardware wasn't entirely straightforward and required a bit of sourcing from various vendors. I also think a MiSTer project can cost several hundred dollars easily versus a $35 pi.
I realize that FPGA versus emulation makes it worth the extra money and effort... but just never returned to my research to start the project.
Quoted from dmilo:Yes it does cost more, $150 (FPGA) + $20 (32MB) + $60 (IO Board) = ~$230
I plugged mine into a Commodore 64 keyboard (with a C64 to USB adapter) to give it a more retro feel. I have a basement full of real vintage computers, but I haven't used them in a while since I got my MiSTer setup. It's not for everybody, but it's a fun distraction.
[quoted image]
That is actually better than I thought parts wise. It seemed like you needed more than 3 items to get started.
Maybe this is my winter project...
1 month later
I'm not trying to discourage anyone from doing the FPGA Amiga stuff by any means (I intend to do so myself). However if you want a quick fix that costs next to nothing purchase Amiga Forever (costs very little). It is a fully licensed emulation program which is constantly updated. I run it myself. Then if you find yourself really enjoying the games and the experience you can always go to the FPGA stuff.
2 months later
All - any recommended Amiga collectors forums? I've done a google search and I see a bunch of them with different levels of activity. What is the "pinside" of the Amiga world in your opinion?
Also - any gotek floppy emulator experts out there? Having a small issue with mine on only one game. It asks me to insert disk 2 and I flip to it but it never loads. Every other game works when I need to switch disks.
1 month later
Quoted from mtn-:Sorry for late answer, but have you tried downloading same disks from another place and compared disk checksums? Or you are sure the dumped discs your using on the gotek is 100%?
Thank you for the reply. I've tried a few different sources for the files but haven't reviewed checksums - that's a great next step.
1 week later
Quoted from darrenex:Over the years, I collected a ton of hardware in a quest to get one of every model. Probably should reduce my collection a bit, but it’s tough to let go! Lol!
Isn't that the case with every type of collection? 
Still, if you have half a dozen Amiga 600s kicking around and want to sell one to me let's chat!
1 week later
Quoted from emkay:The aforementioned Pinsider who taught me how to build red boxes also was friends with the manager of the local EB at the mall. He'd bring all the new games over on a Saturday afternoon and a bunch of us would make copies. Then he'd take 'em back, re-shrink 'em and put 'em back on the shelf.
It was all fun and games until a customer got a virus from one of us.
I remember Software Etc. In fact, my local mall that had the one I went to as a kid still has that location (as a Gamestop now). Gosh that was such a cool place with all the Amiga and C64 games on the shelves.
LOL to the virus story. I was far more into C64 than Amiga when I was growing up. Were Amiga viruses as common as early day dos and windows PC ones?
I do remember my grandfather used to get these lists of games that he could order - which looking back now were clearly just some form of mail away pirate software store. I used to look at the lists and circle titles I wanted. Half the time I was just picking based on title name without box art or any knowledge of what I was getting.
2 years later
I just got my new Amiga 500 case in this past month. Installed my A500 in it this past weekend. My old case was so brittle and broke in several places. I’m glad that a company went to the trouble of making new molds for the A500.
Favorite games - I mentioned earlier in the thread but I loved Maniac Mansion and Zak McKrakin for the C64 and there were Amiga versions as well. Empire is a great strategy game I enjoyed. Dune 2 is great but Sega Genesis version was actually better in my opinion.
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