Games - Amiga games

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	Games - Amiga games

The Commodore Amiga was an important platform for computer games in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Of all the 16-bit home computers, it was the one to gain the greatest success as a games machine due to its graphic and sound subsystems, which were widely considered to be far ahead of their time. A game made for the Amiga platform generally had much better sound and graphics than the same game running on a IBM PC, and it was also a more powerful machine than its nearest rival, the Atari ST.

History

From the Amiga's introduction in late 1985, through to the early 1990s, Amiga games were developed in parallel with the Atari ST as both machines utilized the Motorola 68000 CPU. The Atari ST was, by default the industry's primary focus for 16-bit games development because it initially had a larger user base than the Amiga. Additionally, developers found it easier to develop for, and it was easier to port from ST to Amiga than the other way. This was due in part to the ST's minimalist hardware design and lack of Amiga's custom chips.

A major proportion of games developed from 1985 to 1988 were written specifically for ST, then converted to the Amiga. As a result, many Amiga games of this period were, in most cases, identical to the ST version. The only differences were apparent in audio effects and in-game music. This was an unfortunate development for the Amiga, because only its audio subsystem was demonstrating the Amiga's custom chipset, while its graphical subsystems remained untapped.

Amiga games popularized tracker-based music, particularly the MOD file format, which has enjoyed continuing popularity in the Demoscene community. Demoscene music was influenced by the Amiga and its plethora of games with upbeat, electronic music soundtracks. Music was considered a big part of the game experience in most Amiga games.

The ST continued to be the dominant machine until the introduction of the Amiga 500 in early 1987. Although the A500's chipset was more or less identical to its predecessor, the Amiga 1000, it was cheaper, making it the first "mass-market" Amiga. With the success of the A500, the games industry gradually shifted its focus to the Amiga. By 1988, an increasing number of games were developed specifically for the Amiga. At its zenith in the early 1990s, the Amiga continued to be the platform of choice of many games development companies. At that time virtually every game destined for the PC was first released on the Amiga to test the waters due to cheaper development costs.

The Amiga gaming scene was responsible for the rapid growth of small gaming companies including Electronic Arts who were contracted by Commodore International to produce the Amiga's standard file format IFF in 1985. Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint
was included as standard with many Amigas thus giving them early access to productivity software.

Important Amiga games

Early games

Mind Walker -- Commodore -- (1986)
Arctic Fox -- Electronic Arts
-- (1986)
Marble Madness -- Electronic Arts
-- (1986, arcade conversion)
Archon -- Electronic Arts
-- (1986)
Defender of the Crown -- Cinemaware
-- (1986)
Faery Tale Adventure -- Microillusions -- (1986)
The Pawn -- Magnetic Scrolls
-- (1987)
Maniac Mansion -- Lucasfilm -- (1987)
Silent Service -- Microprose -- (1987)
Starglider
-- Rainbird -- (1987)
Arkanoid -- Discovery -- (1987, arcade conversion)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Amiga games ]

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Games - Amiga games

History

Important Amiga games

Early games

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