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Amiga CD32 Memories

Krejlooc

Banned
I own one game for my brother's CD32, Bubba'n'Stix. I couldn't beat the second level. :(

My favorite game on the system would be Pinball Fantasies, and then Pirates! Gold I think. Shame P!G ate up nearly all of the built-in save blocks.

I adore pinball fantasies, it and epic pinball are still my two favorite video pinball games.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I really don't understand how the Amiga hasn't found resurgent life in the west from young people who seem to be constantly combing retro gaming libraries for "hidden gems." The PC Engine basically got a second lease on life once the internet allowed it to proliferate because people found a library of games similar to what the SNES offered and fell in love. Well, the Amiga is much of the same, except it share more in common with the Sega Genesis library. If somebody loves 16-bit gaming and especially arcadey action games that Sega machines offered, they should adore the Amiga. stuff like Ruff n Tumble or Shadow of the Beast 3 are good, exclusive fun.

I'm guessing it's partially because of the pal->NTSC issue, which makes importing these games more of a chore, and partially because these games weren't available on the virtual console or similar services except in parts of europe.

But damn, the Amiga deserves having its library combed.
 
I recently picked up the rare Master System version from Brazil:

Wp6962q.jpg


Which is fun because it's almost like a mini-sequel in that it features entirely new level layouts. Nothing from the original is retained besides level themes and (obviously scaled back) graphics.

Oh, I forgot another game I converted to CD32 - Toki. I was a huge fan of the genesis version, but had no idea how much it deviated from the arcade original. The Amiga port of Toki is very faithful to the arcade version, so when I finally got a chance to play it, it was awesome because it was like an entirely different game.

I needed a trainer to beat it, though, haha. Really good port, though.

Did not know this, will check it out! Nice trivia.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Did not know this, will check it out! Nice trivia.

A long time ago I had begun documenting the changes between amiga ports of games and contemporaries. I remember chuck rock 2 has tons of very small changes compared to the sega cd version. Also, European games in general are harder than us or jpn games. I should continue that one day.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
My single biggest gaming waste of money.

I really thought it was the future. That was a Pachter of a prediction on my part.


Yup. My love of the Amiga blinded me to what was so obviously a half baked piece of shit. OP you're cheating because you basically turned it back into an Amiga

It has also had a knock on effect because any time I am thinking whether to get a console at launch, I think 'it can't be as bad as a CD32' and then buy it.
 

Gowans

Member
I begged and begged and begged and me and my brother got one for Christmas (we were an Amiga family).

It was all down to a Innerspace type game where you floated around in blood cells.

I was so chuffed with my Dad for getting it for us, seemed like the future.


Microcosm

 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Lotus turbo screenshot makes me want to search out emulators again. How are they these days?

Gowans- that was microcosm. Remember reading about it in edge for months on end
 

Krejlooc

Banned
because you basically turned it back into an Amiga

It always is an Amiga. And even without the sx-1 or cfkit or gotek floppy emulator, a stock cd32 can play virtually the Everett amiga library out of the box using whdload32 burned to a cdr.
 

Gowans

Member
Lotus turbo screenshot makes me want to search out emulators again. How are they these days?

Gowans- that was microcosm. Remember reading about it in edge for months on end

Yeah I remembered, was there a music maker for it too? I seem to remember.

Man it seemed like such an extravagance to buy it, man I miss my Dad he was the best!
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Lotus turbo screenshot makes me want to search out emulators again. How are they these days?

Gowans- that was microcosm. Remember reading about it in edge for months on end

Emulation is fine with winuae. It's legal too because amiga forever owns the rights to all the roms and workbench. If you buy amiga forever, you get a kit with everything you need, including a usb competition pro joystick.
 

StarEye

The Amiga Brotherhood
Had my 9 year old son last week, and spent a day playing a lot of Amiga games. He loved it, and especially enjoyed the Epyx titles, like Winter Games, Summer Games and California Games.

I was as proud as I could possibly be, and I can feel the nostalgia high still running in my veins :D.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Emulation is fine with winuae. It's legal too because amiga forever owns the rights to all the roms and workbench. If you buy amiga forever, you get a kit with everything you need, including a usb competition pro joystick.


Just checked and a lot of software is legally distributed for free too- gremlin have a site with the lotus games on

WinUAE doesn't come with the Rom though, right? So I'd need some flavour of Amiga forever for that (only 10 euro for the basic one). Is winUAE better as a games emulator than Amiga forever?
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Just checked and a lot of software is legally distributed for free too- gremlin have a site with the lotus games on

WinUAE doesn't come with the Rom though, right? So I'd need some flavour of Amiga forever for that (only 10 euro for the basic one). Is winUAE better as a games emulator than Amiga forever?

Amiga forever uses winuae. Amiga forever is just a kit of all the bios roms and workbench software, things required to emulate the amiga (the roms at least).
 

Handy Fake

Member
Had my 9 year old son last week, and spent a day playing a lot of Amiga games. He loved it, and especially enjoyed the Epyx titles, like Winter Games, Summer Games and California Games.

I was as proud as I could possibly be, and I can feel the nostalgia high still running in my veins :D.

I still remember getting an A500+ for Christmas and booting up The Simpsons for the first time.

Shivers.

Wonderful bit of kit.
 
A long time ago I had begun documenting the changes between amiga ports of games and contemporaries. I remember chuck rock 2 has tons of very small changes compared to the sega cd version. Also, European games in general are harder than us or jpn games. I should continue that one day.

You should! I'd subscribe.

How is the CD32 version of Lotus Trilogy? I could never get into the MegaDrive port of Lotus 2.. but love it on Amiga.

Had my 9 year old son last week, and spent a day playing a lot of Amiga games. He loved it, and especially enjoyed the Epyx titles, like Winter Games, Summer Games and California Games.

I was as proud as I could possibly be, and I can feel the nostalgia high still running in my veins :D.

Did you play Aquatic Games as well? Really fun, great art.
 

Borman

Member
One day, you and I need to sit down and talk Amiga Krejlooc. I've wanted one for years, and never know when to get started.
 
One day, you and I need to sit down and talk Amiga Krejlooc. I've wanted one for years, and never know when to get started.

I am not Krejlooc, but here are some things to get you started. Keep in mind that I am omitting so many games.. there is so much if you want to delve into it.

UNIQUE RECS


Wreckers (no longplay found)
http://hol.abime.net/1785

Return to Genesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JoBAN-Z6bE

Vroom / F1 (so fast!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVKDvLM8pKw

Exile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rbjU8sCP0

Plutos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkcbwueimX4

Fire Force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAwyyy1anM

Fury of the Furries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vD80v5PZ-A

Valhalla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvJR7kSdJuo

Xenon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TBt9CQd6tg


GREAT EXCLUSIVES

Moonstone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLMFybclOJM

Hybris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnqm8bhzlKs

Lionheart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoiHk_3siYg

Project X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjq-ONi3dZE

Fire & Ice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxWznpEcUIM

Amnios (amazing art/atmosphere.. so so gameplay)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJp5I6Y3VE

BEST VERSION OF

Hired Guns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr0tczfK4-A

Lotus 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWPVkpgcdTg

Speedball 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUdhXFyOz6g

Cruise for a Corpse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A43gG_lmGBg

Magic Pockets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-PPJAVOTE

Yo! Joe!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmpsMRXpi5A

Xenon 2 (world class music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZBvtdYdVkM

First Samurai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohFptVJ1LYY

Wolfchild (check out the intro!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lF1rSfZFhI

Rick Dangerous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDmJNcYLbuQ

MYTH - History in the Making
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0-5MzGuRGQ

Dreamweb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hiZiRsS6BE

Barbarian II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2AlXBhkZ5I

Superfrog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GQqdGzaARY

Arabian Nights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV9Q0ZAjIAQ

Elvira II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilO7GQLF9Q

The Chaos Engine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm-X8zmxpns

Lethal Weapon (Very by the numbers, but I still think it is a great title)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wToj4X3o9o

GREAT ARCADE PORTS

Bonanza Brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4oPLMjUkwQ

Rodland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYVdnXuNRM8

Ghouls n Ghosts (arguably the best soundtrack interpretation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3jrCkq69rs

Badlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiuRWkqHYrg

Saint Dragon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeY9kOot9iI

Sly Spy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz04cwgCx0c

Pang!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXQOX3qt9o

Pacmania
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SyqY3BMSZM

Arkanoid 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzplBmJ8Q-4

FLAWED, BUT GREAT GRAPHICS/SOUND

Robocop 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYFdgyuv6fU


NICKY BOOM

Nicky Boom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okpRmAg0ttk
 

Borman

Member
I know quite a few games anyway, its just getting everything setup and having something that is mostly compatible with the least amount of headache, without spending a thousand bucks either.
 
I know quite a few games anyway, its just getting everything setup and having something that is mostly compatible with the least amount of headache, without spending a thousand bucks either.

The great thing about Amiga collecting that it is very inexpensive. At least it was some years back.

Living in Europe helps, since a lot of the sellers live in the UK. But I had a relatively easy time finding complete games (big box releases mostly) in great condition. For not a lot of money.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
The great thing about Amiga collecting that it is very inexpensive. At least it was some years back.

Living in Europe helps, since a lot of the sellers live in the UK. But I had a relatively easy time finding complete games (big box releases mostly) in great condition. For not a lot of money.

well, remember, I'm in the us, so getting pal software is a bit more expensive. Getting hit squad bare disks is easy on places like ebay, but getting original big box releases in good, working condition is tough, especially if it's a sought after game. Factor in shipping and it can get costly.

I mainly use amibay, since prices there are not insane. Still, when it was all said and done, I paid about 60 euros to have a mint copy of lionheart brought from germany, and I once paid like 70 gbp for shadow of the beast 2 in longbox.

I generally won't collect if it doesn't come in a longbox or big box, or, if it's a cd32 release, unless it has the original jewel case.

Edit: funny you didn't mention turican 1 and 2 under "best versions of" :p. Although, tbh, the dos version of turican 2 blows all other versions away.
 
I was excited for a simple way to play Amiga games with less loading, but the build quality really disappointed me. Horrible pad, raspy sound and shaky composite video.

I wouldn't mind collecting more, but... How easy is it to get these expansion things and the controllers? Are we talking scouring Ebay for years? What price will I be expected to pay to make my CD32 actually a viable retro console?
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I was excited for a simple way to play Amiga games with less loading, but the build quality really disappointed me. Horrible pad, raspy sound and shaky composite video.

I wouldn't mind collecting more, but... How easy is it to get these expansion things and the controllers? Are we talking scouring Ebay for years? What price will I be expected to pay to make my CD32 actually a viable retro console?

Controllers are easy to find, they pop up on amibay and ebay all the time. The expansions are not - they are not readily available and you'll be paying quite a bit for an SX-1, and a shitload of money for an SX-32 and especially an SX-32 Pro Module. A CF->IDE kit is easy to buy, you can buy one from amibay readily, and gotek floppy emulators are also abundant. To get a complete setup like I describe, you're going to be paying a few hundred dollars after shipping and if you go for stuff CIB like I did.

Thing is, you don't need any of this stuff to play amiga 1200 and amiga 500 games on your CD32. Like I said, there is a movement to convert the normal non-CD amiga library into self-booting CD32 formatted games, and you can very easily find ISOs for compilations containing 222, 444, or 888 games on one CD.

Also worth noting - not all games use a CD32 pad. Most Amiga games use standard 1-button or 2-button atari joysticks. My favorite "amiga" controller is this:

8CTFB5O.jpg


melts into your hands, so comfortable. It uses microswitches and feels really great. My second favorite?

GhWvyAb.png


The Amiga Gravis Gamepad. These things rule for one specific reason - there is a switch on the bottom. When it's to the left, the red and yellow buttons are buttons 1 and 2, and the green and blue buttons are turbo versions of buttons 1 and 2. When the switch is to the right, the red and blue buttons are buttons 1 and 2, and the yellow and green buttons are up and down. This gives you a dedicated jump button in many Amiga games that feels great. Using up to jump feels good with a nice joystick, but it never feels right with a gamepad IMO. The Amiga Gravis Gamepad fixes that problem.

You can also mod a sega master system pad easily to make the second button map to up, but some games use 2 buttons anyways.

The cheetah bug, and gravis gamepads aren't hard to find. I have 2 stock CD32 joypads, 2 competition pro CD32 pads, 2 competition pro joysticks, 2 zip sticks, 2 cheetah bug sticks, and 2 amiga gravis gamepads.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Since Super Stardust HD Ultra is coming out next week.....

Super_Stardust_Amiga_cover.jpg


Super_Stardust_AGA_c.jpg

I got both Super Stardust and the regular stardust. Actually, the regular Stardust was the first amgia game I ever bought.

Second amiga game?

biB3ObV.jpg


I actually had this game growing up on the game gear and didn't like it. It wasn't until I got the A1200 version that I realized how gimped and how much was removed from the GG version. The Amiga version of James Pond 2 obliterates all other versions. So many awesome special effects and power ups.
 

Venture

Member
I tried to play mine not long ago and was really disappointed to find out it doesn't work anymore. Weird little machine but I'm very fond of it.

Nobody's mentioned Jetstrike yet? I loved that game so much.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I tried to play mine not long ago and was really disappointed to find out it doesn't work anymore. Weird little machine but I'm very fond of it.

Nobody's mentioned Jetstrike yet? I loved that game so much.

Why doesn't it work? I had a CD32 that wouldn't boot and I thought it was the laser, but it wound up being that the PSU was dying.
 

WITHE1982

Member
I sold my Megadrive (Genesis) with around 40 games and master system converter to buy this age 13.

Pity it flopped so damn hard. Mine lasted longer than most after I got the external floppy and basically just converted it into an Amiga 1200.


I still to this day absolutely love Microcosm though. I was blown away by the intro sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpal68Hlr0M

The gameplay wasn't great but the faux-3D graphics just knocked my socks off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IooZX5VQRFc
 
Controllers are easy to find, they pop up on amibay and ebay all the time. The expansions are not - they are not readily available and you'll be paying quite a bit for an SX-1, and a shitload of money for an SX-32 and especially an SX-32 Pro Module. A CF->IDE kit is easy to buy, you can buy one from amibay readily, and gotek floppy emulators are also abundant. To get a complete setup like I describe, you're going to be paying a few hundred dollars after shipping and if you go for stuff CIB like I did.

Thing is, you don't need any of this stuff to play amiga 1200 and amiga 500 games on your CD32. Like I said, there is a movement to convert the normal non-CD amiga library into self-booting CD32 formatted games, and you can very easily find ISOs for compilations containing 222, 444, or 888 games on one CD.

Also worth noting - not all games use a CD32 pad. Most Amiga games use standard 1-button or 2-button atari joysticks. My favorite "amiga" controller is this:

8CTFB5O.jpg


melts into your hands, so comfortable. It uses microswitches and feels really great. My second favorite?

GhWvyAb.png


The Amiga Gravis Gamepad. These things rule for one specific reason - there is a switch on the bottom. When it's to the left, the red and yellow buttons are buttons 1 and 2, and the green and blue buttons are turbo versions of buttons 1 and 2. When the switch is to the right, the red and blue buttons are buttons 1 and 2, and the yellow and green buttons are up and down. This gives you a dedicated jump button in many Amiga games that feels great. Using up to jump feels good with a nice joystick, but it never feels right with a gamepad IMO. The Amiga Gravis Gamepad fixes that problem.

You can also mod a sega master system pad easily to make the second button map to up, but some games use 2 buttons anyways.

The cheetah bug, and gravis gamepads aren't hard to find. I have 2 stock CD32 joypads, 2 competition pro CD32 pads, 2 competition pro joysticks, 2 zip sticks, 2 cheetah bug sticks, and 2 amiga gravis gamepads.

I have a A500 and A1200 so it's not like I need to make the CD32 into an Amiga. I just wanted a nice compact way to play games. I'm guessing the SX-1 adds a bit of bulk?

What does CF->IDE do?
 

Liljagare

Member
Starglider 1 & 2, seriously wonky ahead of their time games.. :p Carrier Command, Dungeon Master, Black Crypt.. omg.. so many memories.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I have a A500 and A1200 so it's not like I need to make the CD32 into an Amiga. I just wanted a nice compact way to play games. I'm guessing the SX-1 adds a bit of bulk?

What does CF->IDE do?

The SX-1 is like a tumor on the back of the CD32 lol:

702gsf9.jpg


It makes the thing sooooo big. It's a worthy upgrade, but it's hiddeous. Luckily I have an old Stereo rack that I set my CD32 on so it's not noticeable.

the SX-32 is much more compact:

y2kQkWw.jpg


You actually have to take your CD32 apart to install it, but it's flush and nice and compact. It'll cost you an arm and a leg if it ever shows up for sale, however.

The CD32 promodule installs under the CD32 like a model 1 Sega CD:

w9BzdGY.jpg


The SX1, SX-32, and ProModule all do the same thing - bring a CD32 up to a normal, full-spec A1200. The SX-32 is by far the best of the 3, being that it looks slick as hell, and it supports an 060 CPU upgrade if you can find them. All 3 will let you hook up harddrives (and CF cards), floppy drives (and floppy emulators), and more ram.

9MbhCXV.jpg


The Gotek floppy drive emulator is the same physical size as a normal amiga floppy drive, so you can easily mount it anywhere an amiga floppy can go. I have one installed internally on my A1200 and one placed into an external floppy box on my CD32.

VKPrUIf.jpg


A CF->IDE kit is a small board that changes the pinout of a compact flash card to a standard IDE interface. This lets you use a compact flash card like a harddrive. It makes transferring files from a windows PC to an amiga a snap. I have ClassicWB installed on my CF Kit in the A1200 and normal Workbench on my CD32, that way, if I don't have a floppy inserted at boot, it'll boot straight to workbench.
 

Flappy

Banned
I used a Master System pad on my A600 for years and never had to mod it for two buttons. It was just plug and play.

I later switched to this beaute:

320px-SGProPad_MD.jpg
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I used a Master System pad on my A600 for years and never had to mod it for two buttons.

I didn't say you had to mod it for two buttons. I said you can easily mod one to make the second button correspond to up.

I have that controller as well.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I'm pretty sure the guy on the right is a straight-up sprite rip from the first Fatal Fury game (Hwa Jai).

I absolutely adore blatant european knock-off games.

They are extremely similar to the point of plagiarism, but it's not the actual fatal fury sprite. The manual that comes with Fightin' Spirit is soooo cheap, it's just a single double-sided sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper... but it does explain that the team behind the game were massive Neo Geo fans and wanted to bring a neo geo game to the amiga.
 

Glowsquid

Member
Question to the connoiseurs here: Was the CD32 actually released in Canada, as is often claimed on various sites? I've never seen any NTSC CD32 or games.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Question to the connoiseurs here: Was the CD32 actually released in Canada, as is often claimed on various sites? I've never seen any NTSC CD32 or games.

I don't think it was actually released in Canada. Commodore had shipped stock to canada with the intent on selling in north america, but I don't think it ever officially sold. I think that rumor is people misinterpreting a couple of things:

A) The "ban" on commodore sales only affected the US, not canada

B) most of the NTSC CD32s that have been found came from a warehouse in canada

I think people just jumped the gun and connected some dots and assumed, since canada wasn't affected by the ban and NTSC units from canada have shown up, that they were sold in canada.

But I'm almost completely certain that no NTSC CD32 games were ever produced. Some games don't mind that they're played on an NTSC unit - but they're not NTSC games.

IMO An NTSC CD32 is basically worthless. If you're getting into anything commodore - and this goes for the C64 as well - go PAL. A good 90% of the games you'd ever want to play will only play correctly on a PAL machine.

EDIT: NTSC CD32s definitely exist, though. They look identical, of course, to the UK CD32.
 

petran79

Banned
They are extremely similar to the point of plagiarism, but it's not the actual fatal fury sprite. The manual that comes with Fightin' Spirit is soooo cheap, it's just a single double-sided sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper... but it does explain that the team behind the game were massive Neo Geo fans and wanted to bring a neo geo game to the amiga.

I got also Pray for Death, another fighting game for MS-DOS by the same developers. Though this time they plagiarised Killer Instinct but game wasnt that bad. Plus you could pick Cthulhu as a fighting game character and Anubis as well!
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I got also Pray for Death, another fighting game for MS-DOS by the same developers. Though this time they plagiarised Killer Instinct but game wasnt that bad. Plus you could pick Cthulhu as a fighting game character and Anubis as well!

I think I've seen a fatality compilation from that game, haha.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
The icons on the buttons, never have I seen such a wild setup.

The cd32 controller doesn't use icons, it uses colors - red, blue, green, and yellow. It also controls the built in cd player, l and r are skip, green is shuffle, etc.

The honey bee/competiton pro cd32 pad combined colors with their cd player functions for some reason. In game, it's always "press red" or "press blue"

EXCEPT zool 1, the cd32 version. It uses the 3->1->2 shuffle icon for some reason.

Edit - to make the icons clearer:

Green - shuffle
Yellow - repeat
Ref - select
Blue - stop

Start - play/pause

L - skip back
R - skip forward

I'd say the gizmondo probably has the stupidest buttons I've ever seen.
 
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