Issue 4 PDF - Downloads at abime.net

dedicated to 

the amiga 

AMIGA 

reviews w news 

tips w charts 

issue 4 - june 2010 - an abime.net publication 

amIga poInt of vIew

apov issue 4 

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editorial 

news 

who are we? 

charts 

letters 

the back page 

reviews 

leander 

dragon's breath 

star trek: 25th anniversary 

operation wolf 

cabal 

cavitas 

pinball fantasies 

akira 

the king of chicago 

wwf wrestlemania 

pd games 

round up 

apov 4 

5

apov 4 

6 

50 

in your face 

The first person shooter may not be the first genre that 

comes to mind when you think of the Amiga, but it's seen 

plenty of them. Read about every last one in gory detail. 

“A superimposed map is very useful to give an 

overview of the levels.” 

78 

sensi and sensibility 

Best football game for the Amiga? We'd say so. Read our 

guide to the myriad versions of Sensi. 

“The Beckhams had long lived in their estate, in the 

opulence which their eminence afforded them.” 

features 

68 

emulation station 

There are literally thousands of games for the Amiga. Not 

enough for you? Then fire up an emulator and choose 

from games for loads of other systems. Wise guy. 

“More control options than you could shake a joypad 

at and a large number of memory mappers.” 

into the eagles nest 

If you're going to storm a castle full of Nazis 

you're going to need a plan. 

colorado 

Up a creek without a paddle? Read these tips 

and it'll be smooth sailing. 

wham 

103 

110

90 

licenced to ill 

Game licences: an industry staple and the publisher's best 

friend. Some licences, though, are more unusual than others. 

Join us on a ride to the bizarre side. 

“A sort of alligator/lizard/green/woman thing and what 

appears to be her broom.” 

design a cover 

See that original-looking symbol on the right? It 

means we'd like your input to the mag. 

80 

your go 

Let's be honest. We all like video games. What could be 

more fun than playing them? Playing them with loads of 

pals, of course. Want to know which are best? Read this. 

“The addition of a simultaneous two-player mode 

gives the whole thing an extra dimension.” 

95 

the other side 

Fans of monochromatic reviews will be happy: we've got 

an exclusive sampler from rival mag Amiga Paradigm. 

“Clicking ‘continue’ on the above-mentioned 

installer interface leads it to continue.” 

Needs 

You 

As the title above suggests, we'd like you lot to 

design an APoV cover. It should be generally themed around 

one of our upcoming features: Amiga 8-bit emulation, games based 

on movies, Amiga DVD, though you can be as literal or lateral as you 

like. (Just draw a spaceship if you want. Worked for Oli Frey). 

The best three runners-up will have their work published in APoV, and 

the winner will have their design made into a cover (and win a nifty 

Amiga prezzie). Neat, huh? Send your scribblings to 

apov.contact@abime.net and show us how it's done. 

apov 4 

7

apov 4 

8 

Welcome to Amiga Point of View issue 4! As promised last time, it hasn't taken years to 

reach you; only one year and half a year added together. This is actually a lot better than 

previous issues and, when one considers that the past and future are mere illusions and that 

there is only an external present, it seems no time at all. 

One of the main articles this issue is about emulators on the Amiga and my distinguished 

co-editor will discuss this subject in more detail a few inches down the page. Another article 

focuses on Amiga 'Doom clones', or in most cases 'Wolfenstein 3D clones'. Wolfenstein and 

Doom are, of course, PC DOS games but they generated a great effort to reproduce them on 

the Amiga. I have always been fascinated by the results. 

Some commercial Amiga Doom clones are well known: Alien Breed 3D, Gloom, Fears and 

Breathless, for example. Others are a bit more obscure. There was also a thriving scene 

which produced a number of 3D engines, many of which were intended to be the basis for 

the Amiga's ultimate Doom game. In this issue we look at all these facets of Amiga Doom. 

We also investigate two burning issues: what were all the versions of Sensible Soccer and 

SWOS on the Amiga and just how strange could Amiga licences get? There are also a number 

of game reviews including Dragon's Breath, Cavitas, Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary (the 

50th anniversary will be in just over five years' time) and Pinball Fantasies. 

Finally, there are all the usual features, including walkthroughs for Colorado and Into The 

Eagle's Nest. If you found the life of a fur trapper too risky or the hordes of Nazis too overwhelming 

then these guides will help (probably). 

Enjoy the issue! 

Hi everyone! Adrian has very kindly asked me to co-write the editorial this time, so that he 

can get some more quality (Opera - Ed) watching time in. So what is there to look forward to 

in this shiny new edition of APoV that A-Simp hasn't already told you about? There's a great 

feature on console emulators for the Amiga, for one, that aims to bring information on a 

fascinating range of emus together into one place. And there's a rundown of twenty of the 

greatest multiplayer PD games ever to grace the Amiga, complete with a report on a historic, 

never been done before, definitely no cheating involved WinUAE-Kaillera gaming session 

between Adrian and me. 

We also have an exclusive extract from rival publication Amiga Paradigm, so anyone who 

has yet to subscribe to that fine organ can see what they're missing out on. No cover CD, 

though, sorry. 

The review section has its customary eclectic variety of games, with something for pretty 

much everyone (even wrestling fans). The platforming beauty of Leander rubs up against the 

generally rather less acclaimed Akira; the golden age of bootlegging, murder and spats is 

brought to the Amiga in The King of Chicago; there's even what could be called a mini-1980s 

shooting gallery special, with both Cabal and Operation Wolf given the once over. 

And the news pages (just over the page) have the lowdown on a pretty nifty range of new 

games for the Amiga plus an equally niftsome bunch of classic Amiga games remade for new 

platforms. Oh, and Oscar. 

Basically, there's loads of cool Amiga stuff to read about in APoV 4, so get reading!

apov 4 

10 

A common misconception of news is that it offers a non-prismatic account of events. In truth, 

news is always filtered and framed according to the biases of its mediators and the narrative(s) 

they wish to propagate. Our news is no exception, and comes from the point of view of a kitten. 

GAME NOT OVER 

They still make games for the Amiga, you know. A 

variety of developers are working on a crop of titles to 

give you and your beige buddy fun new things to do. 

Rub your eyes all you like, it's true: new 

games are on their way. Ten, in fact. And 

they cover a wide range of genres - from 

shoot-'em-ups to puzzlers with plenty in 

between - so there should be something 

for everyone to look forward to. 

Anarchic, devil-may-care development 

group Underground Arcade are first up 

with three games in the works. 

Annihilation is a horizontal shooter 

straight from the Salamander school, 

with power-ups and bosses and squelchy 

aliens to zap. One or two players can join 

� It's you against the world in Annihilation. 

� Take that, you groovy ghoulie: Halloween Nightmare. 

in the very attractive AGA carnage. 

Changing tack entirely, Halloween 

Nightmare is a cartoony platform arcade 

adventure with creepy, kooky overtones. 

Collect sweeties and battle monsters 

(Sounds like my usual Friday night - Ed), 

chatting with friendly characters along 

the way (Perhaps not then - Ed) on a 

Trick or Treat session gone wild. The 

third game from the team is different 

again: a Mario Party-style multiplayer 

game. Details are sketchy at this point as 

the project is apparently "top secret," 

which makes it sound more like an 

experimental military robot programme 

than a game, but there you go. 

Some of the games we have to look 

forward to are ports/remakes: The Very 

Big Deal is an update of 1987's The Big 

Deal. Frenetic gameplay is the order of 

the day (arf) as robot Floyd battles the 

clock to serve a never-ending queue of 

hungry customers. Plucked from even 

further back in time, venerable 

Speccy romp Horace Goes Skiing 

comes to the Amiga courtesy of 

Dominic Cresswell and gains a 

potentially hilarious multiplayer 

dimension. Another port of sorts 

is Insane-Software's Amijeweled, 

a diamond-shuffling puzzler. 

Hitherto only available for RTGequipped 

machines, the forthcoming 

AGA version will allow 

� Change It: GM food gone mad. 

� Where did I put the parsley? The Very Big Deal. 

many more Amiga gamers to sample the 

delights of jewel-based puzzlement. 

Clearly a popular genre, the jewelbased 

puzzler, for another game of precisely 

that ilk comes our way in the form 

of Change It by Robert Krajcarz and 

Marcin Kielesinski. Inspired by PC game 

Bejeweled, Change It requires you to 

swap objects in a grid to match shapes 

� More bling than P Diddy: Amijeweled.

1.21 GIGAWATTS 

The boffins at SPS, the Software 

Preservation Society, have announced a 

PC-based replacement for their existing 

Amiga-based disk imager, CT. 

The C2 Disksystem - also given the 

snappy name KryoFlux - is an advanced 

software-programmable FDC (Floppy Disk 

Controller) system that runs on ARM7based 

devices linked to PCs via USB. 

and colours in horizontal or vertical lines. 

The objects can be whatever you like, as 

the game has entirely skinnable graphics. 

Like Amijeweled, the game has level and 

time-based modes so everyone should be 

happy. 

The Voyage of the Wanderer is an 

ambitious-sounding graphics card-only 

RPG being developed by Thilo Köhler, the 

brains behind MIDI/audio sequencer HD- 

Rec. The outline should sound familiar to 

anyone with a passing acquaintance of 

the genre: roam around a huge virtual 

world, collect treasure and weapons, 

fight monsters and boost your character's 

vital statistics. The mildly tautological 

title would seem to suggest that quite a 

lot of strolling about is involved. 

� Concept art from The Voyage of the Wanderer. 

Amijeweled 

Annihilation 

Change It 

Halloween Nightmare 

Horace Goes Skiing 

Super Pumpkin Bros 

The Very Big Deal 

The Voyage of the Wanderer 

Tracker Hero 

The system can read data from floppies 

regardless of copy protection or disk format. 

Write capability is also planned. 

Softpres explain that "A large amount of 

effort was expended to create a reliable 

system that integrates comprehensive 

error detection mechanisms." 

The name KryoFlux, incidentally, comes 

from magnetic flux transitions, and not, 

Fans of cute platformers 

a la Bubble 

Bobble (or perhaps 

more exactly Snow 

Bros) might like to 

check out Super 

Pumpkin Bros from 

Nori Khiat and 

Ralph Le Gall, for it 

is indeed cute and 

platforms are 

Commercial 

Commercial 

Freeware 

Commercial 

Freeware 

Freeware 

Freeware/Shareware 

TBA 

Freeware 

� Who's that red guy? Horace Goes Skiing. 

indeed involved. No bubbles, 

though: you bury the bad guys 

under tomatoes. 

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, 

the Guitar Hero-inspired Tracker 

Hero from GUS Entertainment 

promises to bring all the fun and 

Insane-Software 

Underground Arcade 

PPA.PL 

Underground Arcade 

Dominic Cresswell 

Nori Khiat/Ralph Le Gall 

DarkAngel/nujack 

Thilo Köhler 

GUS Entertainment 

� I can see the music, man: Tracker Hero. 

news 

� Some floppy disks, possibly with Amiga games on. 

alas, from any commonality with the flux 

capacitor of Back to the Future fame. 

rhythmic frolics of the music game to an 

unsuspecting Amiga near you. A clever 

little adapter means that the game supports 

PS2 guitars. 

Ten new games. Exciting stuff, huh? 

� It's a jungle in here: Super Pumpkin Bros. 

Now for the interactive bit. Several of the 

developers behind these games could 

use a little help in certain areas. So if 

you're a coder, musician or graphic artist 

with a hankering for Amiga game design 

then get in touch with the relevant team 

and lend your mad skills. APoV will, of 

course, cast a critical eye over the games 

as and when they appear. 

apov 4 

11

apov 4 

12 

news 

OLD GAMES ON NEW 

PLATFORMS 

Today's distribution of games via digital 

download and the prevalence of mobile 

devices have led to the commercial reemergence 

of games of yesteryear. Why 

this happy reunion with, to quote the 

sagacious Yoda, "old friends, long gone"? 

Excellent brand recognition coupled with 

gaming nostalgia makes the resurrection 

of these games a no-brainer in a competitive 

market. Porting an existing game 

may also be preferable to starting from 

scratch, even if a graphical makeover is 

required and assuming that the code still 

exists. 

There were few Amiga owners who 

didn't play Pinball Dreams or Pinball 

Fantasies. A company called Cowboy 

Rodeo has ported these pinball Amiga 

originals to the iPod 

Touch and 

iPhone. Dreams 

is now called 

Pinball 

Dreaming: 

Pinball Dreams 

but Fantasies 

has retained its 

original name. 

Revolution 

Software's output 

on the 

Amiga was 

small. However, 

they are wellrespected 

for 

both Lure of the 

Temptress and 

Beneath a Steel Sky and still exist 

today. A release of an iPod 

Touch/iPhone version of Steel Sky is 

scheduled for autumn 2009. 

French developer Magic Team are 

rescuing Rick Dangerous after years in 

the shadow of Tomb Raider. The new 

iPhone version sports new graphics 

which are much improved over the 

Amiga release but still look suitably 

retro. A more direct and 

Open Source port of 

Rick had also previously 

appeared on the Symbian 

S60 phone. 

Manomio is a company 

specialising in the release 

of retro games. Following 

the release of some C64 

games the company 

released an iPhone version 

of Flashback, which is a 

port of an open source 

engine. 

Virtual Playground has craftily combined 

two of Flair's old games, Trolls and 

Oscar, into one game called Oscar in 

Toyland which is available as a download 

on Nintendo's DSiWare service. How and 

why they have been joined has yet to be 

determined by APoV. 

The puzzler Pipe Mania (Pipe Dream in 

the US) has been ported to many platforms 

but is now available for the iPhone. 

Virtual Programming's version features a 

much-needed graphical overhaul. 

Krypton Egg is less well known than 

other games here but has also appeared 

on the iPhone courtesy of a company 

called Chillingo. It's a Breakout clone 

from the early 90s. 

Digital distribution networks such as 

Xbox LIVE, the PlayStation Network (PSN) 

and WiiWare have opened up new ways 

for developers to release games onto 

consoles, omitting the shops as a middle-

man. Team 

17 are 

releasing a 

new version 

of Alien 

Breed, called 

Alien Breed 

Evolution, via this method. 

The Hewson game Onslaught, reviewed 

in the last issue of APoV, is now on Xbox 

LIVE. This is an interesting choice of 

game to release since it's quite obscure 

and seems to have been created by 

Stainless Games, of Carmageddon fame. 

Bomberman (known as Dynablaster on 

the Amiga), has blasted onto Xbox LIVE 

Arcade as Bomberman Live. Hudson Soft 

has also released Bomberman Blast for 

the WiiWare. 

Do these re-releases bode well for the 

retro Amiga scene? If old Amiga titles are 

available as disk images will this affect 

the sales of new versions on modern 

platforms? It’s likely that publishers have 

seen the situation in this way but by and 

large developers are happy to see their 

Amiga games in the wild. APoV reckons 

that in most cases the continued interest 

in old Amiga releases can only perpetuate 

the "brand" and improve the chances 

of success on today's (or tomorrow's) 

platforms.

apov 4 

14 

the team 

Who Are We? 

"Love is a battlefield," croaked Pat Benatar over a tremendously 

unremarkable faux-New Wave track of that title twenty-five long 

years ago. A fact that has nothing in itself to do with this page (certainly as we're 

not about to do that ineffably tedious 'hey, what have the crew been listening to 

this month?' thing), but one that provides a suitably quirky way to introduce this 

issue's Who Are We theme. We're interested in all things bloody, violent and/or 

combatful (FPS feature, y'see). FIGHT! 

Sebastian Rosa 

Where are you most likely to find Sebastian most 

nights? Not (it may surprise some to hear) in a 

bar sipping Slippery Nipples, no sir. Our Seb 

instead spends approximately 60% of his spare 

time practicing his Chuo Jiao at the local kung fu 

gym. "It's more than just kicking people, you 

see," said Seb, adopting a Flying Swallow stance. "It's an outlook, 

a philosophy." As long as it makes him happy, eh. Still, his 

Mandarin Duck has to be seen to be believed. 

"Ugly" Johnny Dickshot 

The life of a professional sportsperson is a 

demanding one. Quite aside from the physical 

rigours, success requires a steely will to win; a 

ruthless psychological approach not unlike that 

of a warrior. As Johnny explains, "Baseball's a 

war, with little battles all over the pitch. The 

pitcher versus the batter, the fielders versus the batter-runners, 

the coaches pitting their wits... and it can get ugly. Intimidation. 

Confrontation. But at least it's not as bad as ice hockey." 

carl stapleton 

"Fighting? Not me, I'm afraid," said Carl. "I'm a 

lover, not a fighter. As the great philosopher and 

illegal racer J.J. McClure once said, 'I believe we 

were put on this earth to help people'. And you 

know, I live my life in that spirit, and try to 

spread the love as often as I can. Just last night, 

in fact, I spread it all over two Latvian swimwear models. Twins, 

no less." Carl smiled beatifically, or perhaps lasciviously, and 

began doodling all manner of outrageous things. 

news extra 

GAME STILL NOT OVER 

News reached us about another new 

game just after we'd finished laying out 

the news pages. Arcymag/Archmage is a 

Final Odyssey-like arcade puzzler for AGA 

machines from our prolific Polish pals at 

PPA.pl. Gather treasure and avoid traps to 

progress through the attractive castle 

levels. 

The authors recommend an accelerator 

board for full speed, and graphics card 

support is planned. A playable demo is 

available from coder Robert Szacki's 

website should you wish to sneak an 

advance peek. 

http://minniatian.republika.pl/main.html 

david muscat 

Our resident Aussie is no stranger to firearms or 

the use thereof upon wild creatures. "I've shot 

possums and numbats, of course: bagged a couple 

before brekkie today, as it happens, but the 

biggest blightah I ever ran into was a saltwater 

croc. Teeth as big as ya billy can. Anyway, it was 

me or him, so I grabbed me shotgun outta the ute an' shot the 

whacka. Reloaded an' shot him again - can't be too careful with 

crocs, mate!" 

james greenhorn 

"Art's my battleground; brushes and pixels my 

weapons," said James with an artistic flourish. 

"Making great art is a struggle: you have to keep 

believing that it'll turn out well even in those 

dark moments when your work in progress more 

closely resembles the random splatterings of an 

oversexed Olive Baboon than the work of a cutting edge digital 

artiste." James showed us his latest piece. We gave him an 

encouraging pat and sloped off. 

adrian simpson 

If it's militaristic, Adrian's into it. War films, video 

games, novelised tales of derring-do, table-top 

wargaming, battle re-enactments: it's a miracle 

he finds the time to write his weekly article for 

Infantry Today, quite frankly. "My all-time 

favourite battle has to be the Khyber Pass," he 

began. Groans around the office. "It was 1878, and the British 

Army advanced on Ali Masjid..." Hastily-crafted white flags were 

waved by the team to no avail. 

� A long knight's puzzling in Arcymag.

"A medley of the decent and the not so decent." 

C 

lichéd though the sentiment may be, there's probably something for everyone this issue: 

platforming, pinballing, puzzle solving, dragoncentric strategising, pro wrestling, deep 

space exploring, Rambo-style guerilla-ing, Prohibition-era gangster capering and whatever it 

is that Akira involves. Such variety, in just ten reviews, hints at one of the great qualities of 

Amiga gaming, and one of the reasons we all still play the things today. We know that we pull 

a chronotopic trick or two to bring these games to you as if they were new. But we hope that, 

if nothing else, our reviews help you look at familiar favourites from a fresh perspective. 

Guide to Game Scores 

100% 

75-99% 

51-74% 

50% 

25-49% 

1-24% 

0% 

Impossibly good 

Top marks 

From average to pretty good 

Average 

This game has serious problems 

A really rather awful game 

Impossibly bad 

reviewed 

p16 leander 

p18 dragon's breath 

p22 star trek: 25th anniversary 

p26 operation wolf 

p28 cabal 

p30 cavitas 

p32 pinball fantasies 

p36 akira 

p38 the king of chicago 

p40 wWF wrestlemania 

p42 pd games 

apov 4 

15

apov 4 

16 

reviews 

Developer: Travellers Tales 

Publisher: Psygnosis 

Reviewer: David Muscat 

A knight's work is never done. Luckily, David Muscat is on hand to fill a rather 

fetching suit of armour and take it to all manner of beastly beasties. 

Even the snottiest of art connoisseurs cannot 

deny that games and art share a fascinating 

relationship. Both mediums can feed into, 

inspire and grow from the sharing of idealism, 

technique and style. Unfortunately with 

games, art can often be prostituted out, so to 

speak; artists are hired to simply "do the 

graphics" rather than to create the unique or 

the beautiful, composers are seen as merely 

cobbling together a few sounds instead of 

creating a symphony, and so on. The result is 

that, most of the time, art in a game simply 

serves to fill virtual space and meet gamers' 

expectations. 

But every now and then a title arrives that 

defies this model. A game that is such an 

impeccable overall exhibition of graphics, 

sound, and of course, playability, that it elevates 

the game into the world of art, convincing 

even the most conservative of critics that 

games are a legitimate artform. 

When a game impresses you merely with 

its loading sequence, you know you could be 

onto such a title. After a few of Leander's skilfully 

illustrated title screens, shown unpretentiously 

briefly, you are enveloped in some of 

the most stirring game music ever heard, and 

suddenly waiting for a game to load becomes 

a pleasure. The high quality, high impact 

introductory animation that follows not only 

left me in awe, but made me realise that even 

before I had actually begun to play the game, 

it had begun to seduce me. 

� Aw. And I always dug the BFG, too. 

AMIGA 500 

Leander is a platform game set in an ageold 

oriental setting. You are Leander, the 

Captain of the Guard, entrusted by the 

Emperor with the task of rescuing princess 

Lucanna, who has been kidnapped by the 

pestilential sorcerer Thanatos. An anime feel 

� I really must get round to fixing that bloody tap. 

is woven into the game, but is thankfully not 

overdone, preventing things from getting 

cutesy. 

Visually, Leander is stunning. Picturesque 

surroundings radiate a humble beauty; a 

sense of unpretentious elegance permeates 

throughout. You wouldn't think that rocks and 

tiles were particularly interesting, but you will 

find yourself mesmerised by the detail that 

has gone into such surfaces. They are drawn 

and shaded in such a way that they engage 

the eye and make two-dimensional representations 

look almost three-dimensional. A nonintrusivebackground 

layer of 

parallax provides 

a lovely depth to 

what plays out in 

the foreground, 

where evocative 

Psygnosis graphics, 

brimming 

with trademark 

moodiness, take 

centre stage. 

Outdoor scenes 

flow effortlessly 

into indoor ones, 

both brought to 

life via the 

superbly 

crafted artwork, 

where 

lavish lighting 

and shading techniques 

help depict everything from idyllic 

country landscapes and gloomy 

caverns to the polished glitter of 

ornate temple interiors. Sprites 

are well detailed and richly 

coloured, powered by some fluid 

animation, with the combined 

effect making this reviewer 

periodically stop to take in the 

splendour of his surroundings. 

Being a platformer, there's 

plenty of hopping from ledge to 

ledge as you explore the twenty 

or so levels. But this is not one of 

those hyper-fast tests of speed 

and crystal collection prowess. Leander is a 

slower-paced, thinking man's adventure, 

where you are rarely pressured into taking 

any action before you are ready. This allows 

you to tackle the game at your own pace, 

“Sprites are well detailed and 

richly coloured.” 

without feeling rushed. 

You have three mystical sirens to help you. 

But don't get too excited, for they are only 

there to provide cryptic advice. Along with 

warnings about certain pitfalls and enemies 

you will encounter, they will direct you to 

retrieve a magical item from each stage, 

before finding the luminous stone arch that 

serves as the exit. Coupling an objective with 

every level provides the player with a goal to 

focus on, as opposed to trudging aimlessly 

through levels with no purpose except to 

reach the next stage, becoming bored in the 

process. 

You'll marvel at Leander's variety of vision. 

Each of its three worlds feels remarkably different, 

so much so that beginning a new 

world feels like beginning a completely different 

game. Your travels will take you through 

various rural environments, across docks and 

waterfalls, and see you scaling your foe's

� Sword trumps beak, yo. 

� Earth, Wind and Fire do put on a good show. 

battlements to confront the collision of magical 

fantasy and cybernetic dystopia within his 

fortress. 

An eclectic ensemble of bizarre enemies 

lurks in each world; literally every level has at 

least one new adversary to throw at you. 

Apart from the routine pike-wielding warriors, 

you'll face giant ant-like mutations, Triffid-like 

monster plants, leviathan marlin sea creatures, 

and airborne goblins in propellered 

blimps. In a samurai game, you'd think dragons 

would feature prominently, and indeed 

they do - there are baby dragons, big daddy 

dragons, dragon-snail hybrids, and even 

robotic dragons. 

The bosses are just as varied, ranging from 

an oversized desiccated otter to a Giger-esque 

alien/praying mantis cross. There's even a 

sub-boss who randomly appears every so 

often, and you'll know when he's around 

when the screen darkens and a storm whips 

up. Add to this the fact that older enemies 

receive regular touchups as you progress - 

from additional armour or clothing, upgraded 

weaponry, plumes added to helmets, and 

changing colour schemes - and the game 

feels remarkably fresh and varied, no matter 

� Down, boy! 

what point the player has 

reached, or indeed how 

many times it has been 

played. 

Take a hit from one of 

the well-drawn hostiles 

and the colour of your 

armour will change, 

indicating how many 

more hits you can 

absorb before you die. You 

can upgrade your armour and purchase new 

weapons at the shops that are scattered 

throughout the realm. Enemies can be 

engaged with a flick of your sword, with some 

of the later blades available being magically 

enhanced. You can also use a suicide bomb, 

where you forfeit a life in order to eradicate 

the screen of all opponents. Of course, this is 

not an option if you are on your last life. 

Poignant, apt, and delivered with unspeckled 

clarity, Leander's musical score is top 

notch. The tune wafting throughout the first 

world is particularly sublime, and the more 

mysterious melody that plays on world three 

suits the magic-meets-technology theme perfectly. 

You can also opt for sound effects, and 

while they are distinct and crisp, it's a shame 

“The game feels remarkably fresh 

and varied.” 

that music and sounds cannot be played 

together. 

No game, however, is without its flaws. 

Sometimes you'll have to vault onto a platform 

dominated by a spike, with only a sliver of 

safe ground available to alight upon, so that 

your landing must be pixel perfect. There are 

a few instances where you will be attempting 

some sort of an ascent while boulders are 

raining down upon you, and trying to dodge 

this heavy precipitation as you climb can 

prove frustrating. You are also regularly 

required to perform leaps into the unknown, 

with no visible ledge to aim for, resulting in 

your sprite freefalling until you land somewhere 

which is hopefully safe. Most of the 

time you should touch down without harm, 

but sometimes you will fall onto an enemy or 

onto some stakes. 

While some games are lessened 

by their deficiencies, 

others manage to transcend 

rating 

� Yes, dear. 

90% Art 

reviews 

them. Leander is in the 

latter category. The difficulty is spot on, providing 

a sufficient challenge without being too 

hard. Levels are just the right length and controls 

are accurate and easy to pick up. It's 

such a relief to see a game that is not just an 

excess of style masking an absence of substance. 

All of this means that the player will 

find him or herself constantly returning to the 

game, succumbing to its ambient allure. Even 

if your last run came to an irritating end via an 

inconveniently placed spike or a leap of faith 

that landed you in trouble, it won't be long 

before you boot it up again. Once bitten, the 

urge will always be there to return for another 

tour of wonder, whether it is to take another 

� What manner of strange creature be this? 

stab at that boss, delve deeper into the 

delightful game world, or just to listen to the 

loading music. 

Gorgeous presentation, appealing gameplay, 

and an experience that is constantly 

fresh, stylish and inspired: Leander is by no 

means perfect, but what is served up is just 

so classy (even the high score table has a 

sense of elegance about it). A game that triggers 

the gamer within as well as caressing 

the senses, it's a joy to navigate through this 

virtual saga. Challenging yet not overly 

demanding, the player can enjoy the ride and 

all its gorgeous little facets. The end result is 

an epic journey, one that is memorable and 

downright magical. 

Summary 

truly meets the computer 

game in an elegant, charming 

and very playable offering. 

Highly recommended. 

apov 4 

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apov 4 

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reviews 

Developer: Outlaw 

Publisher: Palace Software 

Reviewer: Adrian Simpson 

Where would gaming be without dragons? 

How many Amiga games would be left with a 

dragon-sized hole? It's fair to say that if they 

didn't mythologically exist it'd be necessary to 

invent them. 

In Dragon's Breath, or Dragon Lord as it 

was known in the United States, the dragon is 

a weapon of mass destruction that is used 

against the populace of the land of Anrea and 

other players. Anrea is geographically and 

politically a divided land and is comprised of a 

variety of squares which represent woodland, 

water, mountains or grassy plains. Towns rise 

and fall on these squares throughout the 

game. Three towers dominate the landscape 

and each acts as a base to send dragons out 

on missions. Somewhere, hidden from view, 

are three pieces of a talisman which will, 

when brought together in the finest tradition 

of gaming targets, allow one player to gain 

access to the central Dwarf Mountain and discover 

the secret of immortality! 

Two maps of Anrea provide an oversight of 

the gaming area. The first is a live action 

map, viewed at an angle, which shows the 

flight of the dragons. However, here the dragons 

are only seen as coloured dots which 

move across the landscape, which is a bit 

unexciting. The second map is rendered in the 

style of a parchment 

and shows 

more detail. 

AMIGA 500 

Dragon (Where did the apostrophe go? - Ed)s Breath may be 

bereft of possessive punctuation but it does feature dragons. Lots 

of them. Adrian Simpson searches for the elusive beasts. 

“One of the game’s best concepts 

is the breeding of dragons.” 

Instead of showing a single super map 

Dragon's Breath separately presents these 

two maps, each slightly unsatisfying in itself. 

The high level map shows the players' towers 

but the detailed map omits them. What the 

detailed map does give is an indication, in 

kilometres, of how far squares are from your 

tower, so there is at least some information. It 

is somewhat confusing for the player as he 

initially tries to process the relationship of 

each map to the other and to find out where 

his dragons are. 

A second map-related issue is the lack of 

distinction between squares on the detailed 

view. There is a boundary box which shows 

the limits of a square and which appears 

when you land a dragon on it or when a town 

occupies its position. 

� And they called me crazy when I took out dragon attack insurance. 

Once the 

dragon 

departs a 

non-town square 

it becomes part of the parchment 

again and when the 

square is woodland in a large amount of 

woodland it gets lost. There are landmarks, 

such as sea serpents and the central mountain, 

so the player will most likely end up trying 

to locate squares in relation to these 

guides. 

Each square is positioned midway between 

the two squares above and the two squares 

below. It’s difficult to locate a square in a 

mass of similar landscape 

� Disneyland Wales is a 

bit hardcore for some. 

⊳ We call it 'Nature's Goodness'.

ecause of 

this alternating pattern. It 

also makes it hard to keep track of which 

squares have been visited and which haven’t. 

There is also no indication on the map that 

you have discovered one of the pieces of the 

talisman. Once you land a dragon on a square 

you must view another screen (sadly not 

immediately accessible from the map 

screens) which gives information about the 

current whereabouts of dragons. Since finding 

and holding talismans is such an important 

aspect of the game the map would ideally 

pinpoint their location when discovered. 

Gameplay is mainly turn-based so it is 

necessary to set up all the 

dragon moves before ending the 

turn and seeing the result. At the start of the 

game the player possesses only one dragon. 

Using the map screen this dragon can be sent 

out on a mission to attack a town. The dragon 

is selected, then a map square is chosen and 

a task is assigned. This could be to attack and 

return or attack and claim the town. Claiming 

towns is important since it increases held territory 

and can lead to the creation of adjoining 

towns. 

Pieces of the talisman can't be returned to 

the base tower and must remain at their location 

until the end of the game. It's therefore 

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE 

What was the impetus to that led you to start 

programming games? 

A friend's ZX81. He had typed in a 'mole race' 

game from a magazine, and when I came 

round one night I started to 'hack' it. My parents 

(after much nagging) eventually bought 

me a Vic20 (because Dad said it had a 'proper 

keyboard'), which I started writing a number 

of games in basic on and then started on 

assembler just as I got a Commodore 64. I did 

about four commercial games for publisher 

Firebird before getting an Amiga 1000. 

What was your involvement with Bullfrog 

Productions on EEnnlliigghhtteennmmeenntt:: DDrruuiidd 22?? 

I met Peter Molyneux and Kevin Donkin from 

Taurus, as it was originally called, while I was 

at Guildford Uni. via the local computer shop 

(nerd hangout). 

They were writing a database program for the 

Amiga, but you could see their heart was 

elsewhere. I was finishing Enlightenment for 

the C64, so I introduced them to the publisher 

and an Amiga version of the game was 

hatched. The Amiga version was re-written 

from scratch, as the C64 version was in 6502 

assembler, so I assisted as a 'technical advisor' 

to port the look and feel, when I visited 

the offices between lectures. 

Did you develop any other Amiga games apart 

from EEnnlliigghhtteennmmeenntt and DDrraaggoonn''ss BBrreeaatthh?? 

I didn't do any other games, but I did do a 

Drum Machine utility called 'ADrum'. Taurus 

published it, and I believe it ended being used 

by some Swedish synth. musician on some 

commercial CD release. 

How was the Amiga as a dev platform? 

reviews 

� "This doesn't look like Windsor Castle to me," said Mabel to Derek. 

necessary for a dragon to hold the fort and 

all three talisman squares must be 

retained by dragons to win. 

One of the game's best concepts is the 

breeding of dragons. An egg holder is 

located in the centre of the graphically 

delightful breeding room. Massive dragon 

eggs are placed on this platform and subjected 

to an incubation programme. The longer 

the incubation the more powerful the dragon 

will be. A balance must therefore be 

reached between speedy production and 

strong dragons. 

Each dragon has a set of attributes: 

wisdom, eyesight, disease, health, 

APoV speaks to the designer and programmer of Dragon's Breath, Andrew Bailey. 

I used the royalties from ADrum to upgrade to 

an Amiga 2000 with an IBM Janus board 

which was used to host a hard disk. So that 

machine was then much like the PCs of today 

as a development platform, only a lot, lot 

slower. You could multi-task between the text 

editor, paint package (Deluxe Paint!) and 

audio package (ADrum of course). Compile in 

the background while doing some art. A leap 

from working on the Commodore 64. I also 

learnt a lot about proper operating systems, 

file systems and stuff that still influences 

technical designs I make today. 

But it also taught me about backups. 

Dragon's Breath almost didn't make it 

because one morning the hard disk just didn't 

boot up. Just made a clunking sound, and my 

stomach twisted. Went out for a long walk, 

came back ready to start from scratch, tapped 

the hard disk and it whirled back into life. 

continues... 

apov 4 

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apov 4 

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reviews 

INTERVIEW: ANDREW BAILEY 

So I rushed out and bought a copy of 

Quarterback and a load of floppy disks. 

What brought you to Palace Software? 

Firebird knocked back our submission of 

Dragon's Breath, I'm guessing the company's 

death knell was already being heard around 

its offices. So I basically started ringing 

around companies I sourced from the computer 

mags. Palace bit first and off I went to 

London. 

Palace definitely had more creative input 

than Firebird as a publisher, which of course 

was met with resistance at first, but was very 

mild to publisher involvement these days. 

Were you affected by the demise of Palace? 

Hard to say, as I was in Australia by then. 

More than likely there were royalties of mine 

that went to pay bigger fish. 

When and how did you come up with the idea 

for DDrraaggoonn''ss BBrreeaatthh?? 

I think it slowly evolved. After the D&D 

inspired Druid games I really wanted to do a 

Dragon based game. So it started with the 

breeding section, the custom dragon concept. 

Then the map where the game would take 

place and then the spell system. Simon's art 

was inspirational; the baby dragon hatching is 

still one of my favourite clips. 

What sort of budget would it have taken to 

develop a game like DDrraaggoonn''ss BBrreeaatthh?? 

In a word, zero. Most of the game was written 

before it was presented to Palace, which 

meant it was developed for what some call 

'sweat equity'. It was done in spare time, I 

was at Uni, Simon at school and David worked 

nights. 

Did your development team gather at a single 

location or did you work separately? 

A bit of both :) David and I shared a flat just 

outside of Guildford, while Simon still lived 

with his parents. It was in the days before the 

Internet so art updates were done by regular 

car trips. 

Was "Outlaw" the name of your development 

team or a label for Palace? 

I really can't remember but I'm going for a 

Palace label. David and I already had an unincorporated 

partnership by the name of 

'Digital Sonic and Chrome' so I don't see why 

we would have changed it. 

Which programming language did you use? 

Dragon's Breath was written in C, with a 

touch of assembler for the blitter routines. 

And it was quite horrible C as DB was only my 

second program in the language. 

Were you involved in the creation of the 

elaborate spell system with David Hanlon? 

David and I worked equally together on the 

spell system. It was one part of the game that 

could be worked out on paper first, rather 

than tweaking code variables, like the village 

simulation. So non-programmers could really 

get in to this. 

What was the reasoning behind the inclusion 

of the flying dragon shoot-'em-up section? 

The arcade section of the game realised the 

final fantasy of actually flying your dragons 

you had raised from an egg. And it also acted 

as another way to change the stats of your 

dragon. If I were writing/designing the game 

twenty years on, however, I would probably 

drop it, as it was a bit unbalanced in the feel 

of the game. Or at least integrate arcade 

action more seamlessly (see last question). 

Which elements of DDrraaggoonn''ss BBrreeaatthh are you 

most and least happy with? 

The spell system is the part most people mention 

when people talk to me about Dragon's 

Breath, so I am very happy with that. Least 

happy would have to be the end-play of the 

game. Once you were all powered up with 

eight dragons the game-play resorted to a 

form of 'deal or no deal' as you searched for 

the talisman. It really needed some random 

events to hurt your dragons or income to provide 

more challenge. Or some way to reduce 

the gaming area to increase opposing dragon 

clashes. 

Why was the name changed to DDrraaggoonn LLoorrdd in 

the United States? 

Proctor and Gamble or Palmolive (one or the 

other) held the trademark on Dragons Breath 

in the States, for mouth wash. So Palace 

changed the name for the US release. 

A hidden message in DDrraaggoonn''ss BBrreeaatthh finishes 

with "Yours, probably now down under, Bilbo 

Baggins." Coming from the UK, was there a 

significant difference in the gaming industry 

or opportunities in Australia? 

When I first came to Australia, it only going to 

be for a year (that was over 19 years ago) and 

it was really only one company, Beam 

Software, in Melbourne here. They offered me 

a job just as I was looking for one at the end 

of Uni, so I thought a trip overseas would be 

cool. So the industry was much smaller than 

the UK but now it has grown to a fair size with 

many companies in Melbourne and Brisbane. 

What was the origin of your company 

Tantalus? 

Tantalus was set up by four (ex)employees of 

Beam Software in 1993. One was in the states 

but he never came back and another lasted 9 

months before returning to his parents' farm. 

So Trevor and myself (the remaining founders) 

offered a partnership to another Beam 

employee and grew from there. The company's 

original name was 'Pacific Isle 

Entertainment' but soon realised that was dull 

and changed to a Greek demi god. The company 

was sold a couple of years ago and is 

now owned by a media investment company. 

Does the development of handheld games on 

the DS or PSP hark back to the 16 bit era in 

any way? 

Not really, the DS and PSP are far more powerful 

machines, and the production of games 

for them is very different (read commercial). 

The nearest thing to development twenty 

years ago is probably writing for the iPhone. It 

is a platform that does better with small 

teams 'in a bedroom' rather than companies 

with business plans. It is also a 'sweat equity' 

type of development and the sort of thing a 

single person can do. However, the move of 

both DS and PSP into digital distribution may 

change that. 

Would you consider reviving DDrraaggoonn''ss BBrreeaatthh 

for the modern handheld market? 

I actually have on paper design for another 

Druid game with mass Golem action, and a 

re-design of Dragon's Breath to be in real 

time (rather than turn based) and FPS viewpoint. 

However, I'm currently in the process of 

merging these two into a single game, which 

is Dragon's Breath based, but with a RTS 

viewpoint that may go MMO. However, I can't 

work on these while I'm still working for 

Tantalus, the designs are just a hobby at the 

moment.

� I'm definitely coming back as 

a dragon. Grarrgh, take that. 

speed, strength and age. These attributes are 

important since they can affect the outcome 

of a mission or a battle with other dragons. 

Once a target is chosen on the map and the 

move has been ended the action begins. 

If the player has selected "Training" they 

can now jump in with a joystick and control 

the dragon in a vertically scrolling shoot-'emup 

section. The dragon flies in both vertical 

directions and breathes fire which is directed 

at an angle down to the ground. To strike a 

village house or anti-dragon gun successfully 

the fire must be directed at the appropriate 

point. It's a bit tricky. 

Arcade sections in more cerebral games 

often seem out of place but the manually controlled 

action in Dragon's Breath can be 

skipped and completed automatically. In this 

case an animated sideways sequence shows 

the attack. This view is also used if dragons 

duel with one another. If a dragon is too weak 

then a manual attack might be a better option. 

The most complex part of the game is the 

magic system. Spells can be used to change a 

dragon's attributes as well as a number of 

other effects, including offensive actions 

against towns. The raw ingredients of spells 

can be bought from merchants but each shopkeeper 

provides a different set of elements 

and some elements are rarer than others. 

Towns may also provide ingredients as thanks 

for dealing with another town and the expansion 

of held territory is important as taxation 

provides the cash to buy more ingredients. 

Mastering the spell system is the key to 

success. There are no set spells as such but 

potent mixes can be reproduced and used 

again, providing that the ingredients are available. 

Every ingredient can simply be added to 

the potion by pouring 

it through a jar in 

the chemical apparatus. 

However, 

there are three additional jars which each 

affect the ingredient in different ways: cutting, 

grinding and mixing. Only one of these four 

entry points can be used. Further down the 

pipe the ingredient may be heated by a 

Bunsen burner, condensed or both. 

Reading the manual is essential in becom- 

� Left at the mountain; 

now was it straight on 

at the roundabout? 

ing proficient with 

the spell system. It 

reveals that ingredients 

are divided 

into Directors and 

Affectors. Directors 

"direct" power at a 

target (the long suffering villagers) and 

Affectors "affect" attributes (such as wisdom). 

A chart helpfully shows which ingredients act 

as Affectors or Directors to various game elements. 

Further complication is added by a 

large number of circles which are divided into 

four sections each showing the effect of cutting, 

grinding, mixing or none of the above. 

Triangle and circle symbols show the effect of 

heating and condensing respectively. 

It will probably be apparent that there are a 

� These three are hoping to gain the secret of immortality. They clearly haven't seen Highlander. 

reviews 

The Legend of Dragon's Breath 

Part of the appeal of Dragon's Breath comes from its 

relative unavailability. For a number of years it wasn't 

playable on Amiga emulators due to non-working disk 

images. The first Hall of Light database screenshots 

were grabbed using a boxed original and an Action 

Replay cartridge. Eventually, the WHDLoad and ADF 

work of Galahad and the preservation efforts of the 

SPS team brought Dragon's Breath to a wider 

audience. 


72% The 

large number of variables in the spell system. 

Mindscape's Legend used a similar mixing 

method but it wasn't quite as involved as in 

Dragon's Breath. Since successful experiments 

can be repeated it is possible to skip 

some of the complexity if spells are known. 

There are three endings to the game, each 

similar but slightly tailored to 

the three characters. This variation 

can also be seen in the 

graphical design of the three 

towers throughout the game. 

The endings are actually quite 

good and suitably end the story 

for our three dragon keepers. 

Perhaps the biggest problem 

with Dragon's Breath is that it 

requires a lot of effort from the 

player. Mastering the game necessitates 

becoming proficient in a number of widely different 

sections, perhaps by tackling each goal 

and then starting a new game afresh. For 

example, since the location of the talismans 

seems to be a constant across games (or at 

least it appeared to be after a reboot), the first 

task might be to start mapping and locating 

the objects. Then, in a new game, the player 

might create and record some powerful 

spells. After this, there is still the arcade 

game to become adept at and the final challenge 

of combining it all into one superior 

game session. 

Although there are some gameplay frustrations 

with Dragon's Breath, they are mainly 

interface and presentation issues. The core of 

the game is compelling and intriguing. 

Summary 

disparate elements of the 

spell system, shoot-'em-up and 

map don't quite come together 

fully but there is enough here to 

keep most players busy for a long 

time. 

apov 4 

21

apov 4 

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reviews 

Developer: Metadigm 

Publisher: Interplay 

Reviewer: Sebastian Rosa 

Set phasers to fun - Sebastian Rosa has come to, er, boldly go. 

And to show alien chicks what that thing called 'love' is. 

In the 90s most blockbuster movies and TV 

shows sooner or later had at least one 

computer adaptation. Quality varied but the 

purpose was always the same: to create a lot 

of promotional buzz and to make money. 

Everyone in the known universe must have 

heard of Star Trek so it would have been 

unthinkable if one of the most popular TV 

series in history had not made it to the 

computer screen. Enter Interplay Software 

and Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary. 

The game's concept focuses on events that 

occur after the last episode of the original 

series. Conventional video game wisdom 

suggests two ways in which these might be 

handled. The first would be to concentrate on 

� Hi, I'm after a couple of 

growbags for me yams. 

� Six billion channels and this 

is the best thing on. 

AMIGA 1200 

the adventure aspect and have the player 

guide the characters through a variety of 

locations, solving puzzles. The second would 

be as a space flight simulator with space 

� New starters at Microsoft always get a talk from Bill. 

combat. Star Trek, interestingly, combines the 

two. The game consists of several missionbased 

episodes, with each episode divided 

into two stages: pseudo-cosmic simulation 

and classic adventure. 

On board the Enterprise there are six crew 

members, via whom you can command the 

whole ship. The Captain's bridge serves as 

the main screen. The man in red on the left is 

Scotty. He is a mechanic and can fix ship 

� Captain, we appear to 

have materialised in 

deep space. 

damage (you 

can give him orders 

using the D key from 

the keyboard) or enable the 

emergency power supply (E key). Above his 

head, and on the other side of the screen, the 

scheme of the ship shows what has been 

damaged. On the right, in a blue uniform, sits 

Spock who is the technology expert. Using his 

abilities you can log into the computer (C key) 

and get access into the database which has 

important information about characters and 

objects. Spock is also a good advisor (T key). 

In the middle of the bridge are Sulu and 

Chekov. The former takes responsibility for 

getting into orbit (O key) and the raising and 

“What works against one foe 

won't work against another.” 

lowering of shields (S key) while the latter 

activates weapons (W key) and takes care of 

navigation (N key). There are two more characters: 

Uhura is a communications officer (H 

key) and Kirk himself (K key) keeps the 

captain's log and controls the transporter. 

Here you can also save or load the game, turn 

the music and sound effects on or off or quit 

the game entirely. 

Giving orders is not all that you can do. In 

the central part of the screen you can 

see the main window where combat 

occurs. Not the easiest part of the 

game, combat. You need to 

manipulate the speed of the 

ship, aim the target, 

shoot and repair 

any damage.

� Uhoh. Our drinks invite might just have been mistranslated. 

Of course nothing happens automatically so 

you need to give orders. Space combat occurs 

in each episode, in most cases after receiving 

your mission orders from the Federation or 

after a space jump into a selected galaxy 

region. The combat has been realised in a 

very interesting way. It's dynamic and when 

practised enough becomes quite enjoyable. 

Each of the enemies you encounter uses a different 

combat technique and so your response 

should be matched appropriately. What works 

“There is also another character 

who basically serves as a big, red 

guinea pig.” 

against one foe won't work against another. 

Should you come through a space battle, you 

can start the second part of your mission. 

Here you move into the adventure section. 

If the mission takes place on a planet or 

star you need to transport your exploratory 

team down to the surface (a staple of the TV 

series). Here you command three crew members: 

Kirk, Spock and McCoy. There is also 

another character who basically serves as a 

big, red guinea pig. He's the nameless guy 

who will be the victim of all the unfortunate 

events that might occur due to any ill-advised 

actions you take. 

You directly command Kirk. The rest of the 

group follows him but nevertheless at any 

moment in the game you can give orders to 

another crew member. You can look, use, 

take or talk. Commands are available from the 

menu which is at hand by pressing the right 

mouse button or the assigned key from the 

� I'll deal with this one, lieutenant. You see to that other chap. 

� That's one hell of a bus route. 

keyboard. The latter is more convenient, as 

the user interface as a whole is not one of the 

best. 

In this part of the game you mostly explore, 

investigate and examine. You can also collect 

objects, use them in certain locations, combine 

them or give them away. In order to proceed 

it's necessary to talk to all characters 

and other crew members. You should scrutinise 

any collected objects and use the 

� Nobody likes a wiseass, Spock. 

Tricorder on them (you have this item in the 

inventory). Apart from the Tricorder, you carry 

medical equipment that lets you check the 

health of any crew member or any person you 

meet. Bear in mind that the Star Trek world is 

not a peaceful place. Sometimes you will have 

to defend yourself and this requires the use of 

two other objects from your 

inventory: green and blue 

Phasers. Green is used to 

temporarily paralyse the 

enemy whilst blue is used to 

disintegrate him. Use caution 

with these weapons. 

Sometimes a death might 

cause the end of the game 

because, for example, the 

enemy needs to be paralysed 

in order to obtain some item 

he is carrying. 

The adventure part is not so 

reviews 

easy even if the puzzles generally sound simple. 

The authors have tried to make the game 

suitable for everyone, but without some basic 

knowledge of the phrases and items used in 

the Star Trek world you may well have some 

difficulties. The manual might come in handy 

but I can guarantee that any Star Trek novice 

will struggle a long time with the very first 

episode. It is also important to know that 

making a mistake in performing some actions 

might have irreversible effects which 

will bring about a mission failure. 

Everything becomes more difficult 

when you realise that you can easily 

trap yourself in the game and be 

forced to start over. 

If and when you succeed in your 

� Teleporter Guy's been on the sauce again. 

planet-based mission, the crew goes back to 

the Enterprise. You will be congratulated by 

the Federation and proceed on to the next 

mission. The whole game, like the TV series, 

contains a large amount of educational info 

which you'll notice at the end of each episode. 

The game's manual deserves a mention. It 

consists of 12 pages filled with a huge 

amount of description and pictures to help 

you get used to the game controls. You will 

find a comprehensive description of how to 

steer the ship during combat, the responsibilities 

of each character, and a guide to each 

object in the inventory. The most important 

thing, though, is the map of celestial bodies. 

At the beginning of each episode, when you 

apov 4 

23

apov 4 

24 

reviews 

set the Enterprise's course, you need to use a 

map. The planets and stars on the map are 

not labelled. If you choose the wrong destination 

on your journey you will have to fight with 

a fleet of space pirates (or, as they prefer to 

be called, Klingons). Lose and it's game over. 

Win and you can proceed further, albeit with 

difficulty. I must admit that it is a quite original 

form of anti-piracy protection. 

Star Trek requires an A1200 with a hard 

drive, and the graphics are accordingly 

colourful. A little too garish, in fact: it took me 

“You can really feel the speed of 

the ships and the whoosh of 

missiles passing by.” 

a while to get used to the comic book style. 

There are also some graphical glitches (such 

as excess dithering or illogical colours on 

some objects) but you can live with these. 

Characters can be distinguished by the 

colour of their uniform. Don't pay attention to 

their long, comical faces because they all look 

� Red guy takes one for the team, again. 

much the same. This is a shame, as this 

graphical element is important: the player 

should be able to recognise characters and 

identify with them. In contrast, the graphics in 

space combat sections are perfectly realised. 

Ships look really great and are well animated. 

You can really feel the speed of the ships and 

the whoosh of missiles passing by. 

The music, composed by Allister Brimble, 

bears some resemblance to that of the TV 

series but is nothing remarkable. The sound 

effects, alas, are miserable. My advice is to 

� Ha. That'll show those... oh. That was one of ours? I, um, ah. 

turn them off 

at the very 

beginning of 

the game. 

Unless you are 

a particular fan 

of squeaks, 

beeps and other 

peculiar noises, 

that is. 

I should point out that I am 

not a die-hard fan of Star Trek. 

In fact I've only watched a few 

episodes (and I only did that 

because there was nothing 

better to do at the time). That 

said, the game did a good job 

of capturing my interest. What I 

like most is the evocation of 

situations that can be seen on 

the TV show. I couldn't tell you 

if any particular section is inspired by any 

particular TV episode but the narrative is 

nonetheless interesting and conveys the Star 

Trek atmosphere well. The game as a whole 

works quite successfully: the simulation part 

is praiseworthy as are the riddles in the 

adventure section (and it's certainly fortunate 

that Interplay did not spoil the conversion by 

releasing a substandard platformer or shoot- 

'em-up). The user interface and sound effects 

could be improved, and a 

more intelligent hint mode 

during the adventure part 

would come in handy as 

though the puzzles are quite 


74% Enjoyable 

� Behold the power of El-Vis. 

� Okay, wait til he's just 

out of sight then leg it. 

� An extraterrestrial S&M 

party. Now I've seen it all. 

simple and logical you are not always certain 

what is going on and what you need to do to 

achieve your goal. 

My conclusion is simple: Star Trek: The 

25th Anniversary is aimed 

squarely at fans, and if 

you like the original 

TV series and/or 

movies, you'll 

most likely enjoy 

this. People who 

are not especially keen on 

the whole Trekkie thing, 

however, might want to 

look elsewhere. 

Summary 

but a little uneven, 

Star Trek captures the flavour 

of the TV series but can prove 

frustrating.

apov 4 

26 

reviews 

Developer: Ocean France 

Publisher: Ocean 

Reviewer: Carl Stapleton 

Lock 'n' load. (Fire. Repeat as required. - Ed) Sgt Stapleton gets 

righteous on the behinds of some guerrillas, possibly in the mist. 

Now here's a landmark game. Smash hit coinop, 

granddaddy of House of the Dead and 

countless other trashy classics, with clones, 

spin-offs and subtly-influenced ancestors still 

making a racket in arcades to this day. It's not 

surprising that the concept caught on: there 

really is nothing like flashing a crosshair 

around a video game screen and blasting 

seven bells out of unreconstructed bad guys 

to really unwind. 

The shooting gallery genre predates Op 

Wolf, of course, in the form of notables such 

as Hogan's Alley. But this one undoubtedly 

raised the bar when it swaggered onto the 

scene. Aside from the groundbreaking replica 

uzi on the arcade cabinet, it brought a great 

togetherness and a satisfying overtone of 

machismo that genteel efforts like Duck Hunt 

just didn't offer. 

Reviews of Op Wolf in other mags tend to 

suggest that the Amiga conversion is arcadeperfect. 

Sorry to come the raw prawn, but this 

really ain't so. The graphics are near-identical, 

true, but the two versions are manifestly 

� But which one's the real 

Krusty? What a dilemma. 

AMIGA 500 

not identical where it matters: gameplay. 

Why that should be so is a bit of a mystery. 

After all, this is a simple game. Six levels of 

automatically-scrolling scenery with bad guys, 

� Stud-seeking missiles. Now I'm in trouble. 

tanks, bikes, boats and helicopters to blast. 

And hostages, nurses, kids and chicks in bikinis 

to not blast. That's it. So, in terms of making 

a 'home version' as accurate as possible, 

there aren't that many things you need to get 

right. One of the most important, though, 

would be the patterns and 

intensity in which the various sprites appear, 

yes? I'd say so. Reach for the smelling salts, 

then, because they're all wrong. 

The sprite patterns being skewed means 

that the pacing and the difficulty curve are 

also skewed. In the original, it's all graded 

very finely. Things only get seriously crazy 

once you've completed the mission the first 

time. On the Amiga, in contrast, enemies pile 

in mob-handed from the start. No easing your 

way into it: right from the word go, you're in a 

world of pain. Compelling evidence of heavyhanded 

design, that. 

The enemy patterns being more than a tad 

on the heavy side is a drag. Yet it isn't the 

killer problem. The fact that your shots don't 

seem to register half the time. That's the killer 

problem. You should be able to dance round 

the screen, zinging baddies and powerups 

with an easy fluency that borders on the poetic. 

But you can't, because you appear to be 

firing blanks. It isn't a fair fight. You end up 

moving the cursor more 

� Blimey, I got one of em.

� I don't remember this guy. What a snake. 

in hope than expectation, having learnt that 

nothing you do brings any lasting respite from 

the background swarm. And it only gets 

worse the further you get. I practiced and 

practiced, but all the practice in the world still 

doesn't make Enemy Soldier #17 do what he's 

supposed to and DIE WHEN YOU SHOOT HIM. 

This is difficulty from the unfair, and therefore 

un-fun, school. 

It's not just the soldiers that don't care 

when you zap them. The bonus pickups are 

hardly worth bothering with as they too take a 

few persistent shots to bag, while all the 

while you're being cut to pieces. And as for 

trying to shoot a viciously-thrown dagger out 

� Oop. I only wanted to set the clock on the bloody thing. 

of the air - no chance. Without fail, it will arc 

inexorably towards your chest and… land 

there. Insult and injury rolled into one. 

So we've established that Amiga Op Wolf is 

only superficially like the arcade original. 

That's okay, as long as it's still an enjoyable 

game in its own right. So is it? Not really, no. 

The difficulty is simply too high to allow for 

much fun to be had. It's a shame, because 

this looks great and 

it should be fun. 

It's a bit like cooking: 

all the ingredients are 

there, but it just hasn't 

come out right. In 

isolation, the problems 

aren't huge. But 

their cumulative 

effect is to give the 

game a completely 

different feel to the original, and to invoke 

a completely different reaction in the player. 

The arcade version made me feel like the 

world's deadliest commando, dispensing jus- 

“The difficulty is simply too high to 

allow for much fun to be had.” 

tice and hot lead in equally copious amounts. 

Nice. The Amiga version, in contrast, left me 

feeling like a decidedly non-deadly chump 

who was more of an irritant to the villains of 

the piece than their worst nightmare. Not 

nice. And not liable to make me want to come 

back for more. 

The funny thing is, I 

remember enjoying 

this quite a bit on the 

Spectrum, and 

that version is 

probably further 

still from 

the arcade 

game. Maybe I 

unconsciously 

appreciated that it 

� Extra spicy chicken wings will do that to ya. 


55% Not 

reviews 

� Ah, crap. I've gotta get 

on that thing in a minute. 

� I will admit now that I 

couldn't make it through 

all six levels. I used a 

cheat to grab this 

screenshot. 

was more of an achievement to 

convert the game to an 8-bit machine and so 

overlooked faults and differences. Maybe the 

pacing was better, simply because at 3.5 MHz 

there are only so many things you can have 

charging round the screen. Or maybe the 

game had just been so thoroughly 

Spectrumised I was more prepared to take it 

on its own merits. There could be something 

in that, you know, as the closeness in look 

between the arcade and Amiga versions does 

make the gameplay differences between the 

two more glaring (cf. Paperboy, last issue). 

Want to see for yourself? Play the original via 

MAME, and then play this. Identical control via 

mouse, so the lack of a lightgun isn't a factor. 

See the difference? Exactly. 

Amiga Op Wolf, then. Clearly made by folks 

who don't love the game, and who have 

missed the point of the game as a result. It 

looks the part but, sadly, it doesn't play it. 

Take away the fondly-remembered licence 

and you've got an overly frustrating shooter 

that gets tiresome in a hurry. Still more fun 

than doing it for real, though. 

Summary 

nearly as much fun as it 

should be, thanks mainly to 

crappy collision detection and 

a carelessly nasty difficulty 

curve. 

apov 4 

27

apov 4 

28 

reviews 

Developer: Ocean France 


Reviewer: David Muscat 

A shadowy, elite group. A mysterious faction. A clique. But enough about Dave's Rainbow Brite club. Arf. 

Cabal is a tough game to nail a rating to. On 

the one hand, it does a decent job of channelling 

the arcade game that it was based 

upon, supplying high velocity action and, in 

sporadic doses, some edge of the seat 

moments. On the other hand, it is held back 

from achieving anything great by some questionable 

gameplay and presentation issues. 

These concerns compromise Cabal's brave 

attempt to situate the player in the tense 

atmosphere of a blockbuster Saturday night 

action film, and the game ends up falling well 

short of such a pinnacle. 

Once you click past the title screen and 

select the number of players, you're promptly 

launched into the warzone. You'll be dashing 

across the screen, ordering your brightly 

coloured commando to run, roll, crouch and 

shoot at whole cadres of baddies flooding 

your sights with bullets and bombs. Infantry 

scurry across the battlefield, shooting 

and lobbing 

� Dance, pilgrim! 

grenades with the swinging 

windup of baseballers, all amidst 

an unfriendly backdrop of tanks 

spewing fiery blobs and planes 

dropping their payloads onto 

you. You won't have any time to 

smell the napalm, 'cos war has 

never been so hectic. 

Considering that some coin-op versions of 

Cabal used trackball joysticks, the controls 

have been reproduced quite 

faithfully for the Amiga. 

Movement and firing are 

achieved via the joystick 

and fire button, and 

holding back and pressing 

fire allows you to hurl 

a grenade or two if you get 

into strife. 

Now, remember those hypercolour 

t-shirts that were popular two decades 

ago? Cabal's palette can be strangely 

reminiscent of those, and as you 

play you begin to wonder why 

some of the colours used are so 

repugnantly off colour. Any budding 

Rembrandts amongst us 

may frown at the buildings that are a pale 

pastel yellow, or concrete roads that are 

infused with a sort of dirty aqua green. A 

downright effluent brown is also featured. 

Thankfully, not all of Cabal's graphical vistas 

are saturated with such odd hues 

and tones, but needless to say, if 

this game didn't contain an extra 

large epilepsy warning on the box, 

AMIGA 500 

then it should have. 

By no means do the enemy soldiers look 

bad, but they could have used a detail touch- 

� High explosive 

lumberjacking. Love it. 

up; there's certainly no "shoot when you see 

the whites of their eyes" here, as all the 

enemy infantry are completely faceless. 

Thankfully, the vehicles you encounter look 

much better, as they are comprised of big 

chunky polygons and thickish brushstrokes. 

The backgrounds, which consist of enemy 

barracks, troop encampments, hollowed out 

cityscapes and airports-turned-battlefields, 

are a combination of the interesting and the 

truly lacklustre. 

Cabal introduces an interesting control 

dynamic to the traditional shooter, because 

not only do you command your trooper's 

movements, but you must also aim his targeting 

sights, Operation Wolf style. This combination 

of aiming and movement sounds (and is) 

interesting, but can also prove awkward in 

practice. As well as watching where you 

� The retaining wall needs a little attention, but it's a 

delightful property and the locals are so friendly.

� How's that for some fancy shootin'? 

stand, you have to worry about where you're 

shooting, instead of simply letting your 

sprite's position dictate the direction of your 

fire. You'll be juggling the tasks of having to 

avoid enemy fire, direct and redirect your own 

fire, and be constantly repositioning yourself, 

all simultaneously, with your eyeballs flicking 

up and down over the screen every second. 

“The best way of restacking the 

odds in your favour is to enlist the 

help of a friend.” 

What saves this from becoming too demanding 

is that Cabal's gameplay mechanics do 

something that has been difficult to achieve 

over the course of Amiga gaming history, in 

allowing you to properly aim with the joystick. 

True, it requires some practice, and your targeting 

reticle will still act as if it is perched on 

rails, veering sharply from left to right and up 

and down - ah, for a mouse! However, you'll 

still be hitting targets, either dead centre, or 

at other times clipping the edges of enemies. 

This reviewer can settle for that, as it gets the 

job done. 

The game progresses once you have wiped 

out all the opposing forces that rush onto the 

battlefield. A progress bar at the top of the 

screen tells you how long it will be before the 

end of the level. With each stage taking some 

time to complete, the formula of move, aim 

and shoot does begin to lose its charm. The 

game engine doesn't even throw any innocent 

civilians into the mix to keep your spraying in 

check. Taking out enemies quickly turns a 

game that should have been an exciting run 

and gun into a monotonous screenwide 

sweeping of hostile sprites. 

Duelling with enemy bosses is 

another mixed bag. I found the first 

helicopter boss to be quite a challenge, 

while I defeated the second boss without 

losing a life. Some of the melodies 

that accompany the boss battles are 

quite memorable, but apart from that, the 

sound effects in general are limited to a few 

explosions 

and bullet 

noises and the music is always the same, 

more of a continuous riff than an actual tune. 

The difficulty can vary from a reasonable 

challenge to genuine frustration. On the harder 

levels, hordes of enemies, each spouting 

shells and shrapnel, are thrown against you, 

and there is often no place to hide as you are 

ruthlessly dissected by their crossfire. The 

bonus weapons and extra grenades that the 

game hands you help to correct this imbalance, 

but only to a limited extent. 

On these difficult levels, the sight of your 

sprite dying quickly becomes a familiar one. 

Every now and then, you might weave through 

a few bullets with a well timed roll, take out a 

few of your oppressors, 

punch your 

fist in the air and 

foamily cackle in 

victory (yes, I know, back to the therapist for 

me). But shortly after you will just end up 

dead, and the irritation with this game's difficulty 

will mount. The best way of restacking 

the odds in your favour is to enlist the help of 

a friend. The two player mode guarantees a 

very chaotic experience as you both dive 

� Breakdance! 

� Now you mention it, I 

could do with a nap. 

� Easy, Candice, there 

are mines around 

he- oh. Never mind. 


51% A 

reviews 

� This is a boss. Pretty big, nasty cannons 

there. The bad guys either really rate me 

or they thought I'd bring lots of friends. 

about the battlefield, working in tandem to 

defeat a screenful of bad guys. With both of 

you blasting away, this is definitely the area 

where Cabal's gameplay is at its peak. 

Enjoyment can also come from the unlikely 

pursuit of redecorating. Each stage is dotted 

with structures (like buildings, towers, walls, 

and so on) and most of them can be 

destroyed with concentrated fire. As well as 

receiving points for this, you'll find this ricochet 

renovation to be strangely satisfying as 

you watch structure after structure crumble 

into dust at your hands. Another great thing is 

that structures in the foreground can be used 

as cover, a refuge for when the going gets 

tough. Just remember that this protection is 

flimsy at best and will not last for long. 

I don't think I've ever 

reviewed a game that 

contained such a medley 

of the decent and the not 

so decent. The use of 

colour is dubious, but the 

graphics fulfil their purpose; 

the gameplay is 

repetitive, yet mimics the 

coin-op adequately 

enough; the audio is limited 

but can also be memorable; the controls 

are finicky, yet workable. In the end, though, 

it's probably Cabal's high difficulty level that 

erodes most of the game's appeal, making it a 

mostly frustrating ride for most gamers and 

limiting its audience to ultra hardcore shooter 

lovers and diehard followers of the original. 

This is regrettable, because if the Amiga version 

had managed to get the difficulty right, 

Cabal, despite its weaknesses, would have 

been a worthy arcade conversion. 

Summary 

decent coin-op conversion 

hampered by a difficulty level that 

is too punishing. Only for lovers of 

the arcade original and/or those 

seeking a gutsy challenge. Best 

played in two player mode. 

apov 4 

29

apov 4 

30 

reviews 

Developer: Nite Time Games 

Publisher: Nite Time Games 


Adrian Simpson gazes into the Nietzschean abyss, hoping that it doesn't gaze back, 

then plunges into a journey to the centre of the Amiga, courtesy of Cavitas. 

1992's original budget release Cavitas plays 

something like a cut-down version of Exile, 

the landmark arcade adventure. The setting of 

Cavitas has a similar rescue mission to a 

planet and requires the player to venture deep 

underground into a labyrinthine cave system. 

The name Cavitas itself is suggestive of these 

stygian caverns. 

Whereas Exile had real world physics, a 

feature which helped it stand out from other 

games, Cavitas has its own budget-price 

secret weapon. The cave system in which the 

rescue ship voyages is generally bereft of 

light and features a suitably darkened palette. 

In order to navigate the tunnels, the exploratory 

ship has two beams of light which shine 

out in a circular arc. Only one beam can be 

seen from the sideways scrolling view of the 

game but when the ship turns to face the 

virtual camera the two beams can be seen 

head-on, like two closely overlapping circles 

in an overeager manager's PowerPoint Venn 

diagram. 

As the craft explores the underground 

system the light brings to life the cavern walls 

� In real potholing one can't just turn up the brightness on the monitor. 

AMIGA 500 

and reveals features like animated gargoyles 

and blinking eyes. There are some other lights 

in the game, either at the human bases which 

have been set up near tunnel entrances or 

dotted throughout the caves. It's a bit like a 

David Attenborough nature documentary 

where the camera reveals the mysteries of a 

cave that has been lightless for millennia. 

Let's not get carried away, though. The darkness 

is not of the pitch black variety and the 

light effect is a mostly atmospheric rather 

than practical addition. It only partially aids 

navigation. 

If the use of light was able to affect the 

game world it would have added something to 

the puzzle element of Cavitas, as it does in 

Shadoworlds. What if there were plants 

which, when flooded with light, grow and 

touch switches, which would otherwise be out 

of reach? A prism could be used to refract 

light into a rainbow. 

The player's craft might have to avoid small 

furry creatures which multiply like rabbit/ 

Tribble crossovers when awoken by a beam 

shining in their faces, forcing the player to 

carefully navigate certain sections in order to 

avoid a population explosion. The craft's beam 

of light could shine through a key at a certain 

time to open a secret passage way, like in the 

1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth or 

Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

Cavitas was a £9.99 release so these 

omissions are understandable. Generally, the 

uncomplicated gameplay does suit the game 

“Various elements combine to 

make a slightly odd-looking, but 

highly distinctive game.” 

well and brings to mind 8-bit exploration 

games like The Ice Temple or Starquake. 

There are six levels in total, including a base 

� Finding anything in the loft is a nightmare. 

camp, and the idea is to teleport into each 

area in turn, find and collect a vital ship part 

and then head for the exit. In between there 

are a number of doors which, in the time-honoured 

tradition of adding gameplay longevity, 

require keys which are located elsewhere. 

Naturally there are a number of creatures 

(thirty-six according to the box), also intent on 

preventing the player from completing the 

game too quickly. Ten types of weaponry aids 

the player in removing the (presumably) 

indigenous population. 

Computer terminals offer maps of the 

levels. With a viewable window of 320x176 

and each area reaching a size of 3200x2048 

pixels there are some 116 screens per level. 

Although there are only six levels the large 

maps allow for plenty of exploration. At certain 

sections the route leaves the caves for

DEEPER AND DOWN 

The levels are in the style of caverns carved by nature but there is still some variety in their design. 

This level is based on the Lascaux Caves in France. Austria's famous Eisriesenwelt. Dan yr Ogof, Wales. 

Pierre Saint Martin, one of the world's largest caves. 

� Too much time spent in space had caused Bert to see phallic symbols everywhere. 

the surface and then re-enters at another 

point. Against the backdrop of stars, meteorites 

and raging lightning storms become 

extra hazards for the intrepid explorer. 

According to the game box there is some 

The Blue Grotto, Capri, Italy. Level 89 on Lemmings. 

randomness to each game in the placement of 

the missing ship parts. This should help add 

some variety to replays. 

The shady levels do, of course, cause the 


70% A 

reviews 

general look of the game to be quite dim, 

although digitised HAM screens counter this 

to some extent. A game over screen shows a 

bright sun which is presumably the planet's 

own sword of Damocles. Similar space photos 

are used elsewhere and there is a neat 

sequence when the game is completed; a 

feature often forgotten in game development. 

Overall, the various elements combine to 

make a slightly odd-looking, but highly distinctive 

game. The darkened levels and beams 

of light complement each other to good effect. 

The digitised screens and colourful interface 

frame the gloomy levels well. 

Cavitas is a neat combination of discovery 

and shoot-'em-up action and displays technical 

and gameplay competence beyond most 

games at its budget price. The development 

team, Nite Time Games, went on to create 

another cheerful (but not so cheap) game 

called Mean Arenas. 

From a preservation point of view Cavitas is 

noteworthy. Until a few years ago there were 

no playable versions apart from boxed originals. 

Your reviewer supplied an original to the 

WHDLoad team who patched it to run from 

hard disk. An image of the original was also 

sent to the Software Preservation Society. 

Summary 

shooter of exploration in mazes 

and caverns that was somewhat 

retro in the days of the Amiga but 

which delights with its distinctive 

look and fun gameplay. 

apov 4 

31

apov 4 

32 

reviews 

Developer: Digital Illusions 

Publisher: 21st Century 

Reviewer: Sebastian Rosa 

AMIGA 500/1200/CD32 

Pinball hits the Amiga: time for Sebastian Rosa to do his wizardly thing. And he doesn't play by sense of 

smell, either. 

Pinball Dreams was undoubtedly a pioneer of 

the pinball genre, bringing the thrills of real 

pinball to the Amiga far more successfully 

than any game had done previously. Whilst 

offerings such as Pinball Wizard, First Person 

Pinball, Power Pinball and Pinball Magic simulated 

pinball after a fashion, they were far 

from authentic (Power Pinball's ball physics in 

particular are hilariously bad, more evocative 

of a peanut being shaken in a tin can than the 

motion of a steel ball on a pinball table) and 

table design was universally poor. Oh, and 

they were all seriously, seriously ugly. Then 

Digital Illusions came along and blew such 

lacklustre competition away. Pinball Dreams 

ruled: it was pinball as far as the Amiga was 

concerned. Yet before long a pretender to its 

crown arrived. Only, this new game wasn't a 

rival: it was a sequel. It seemed improbable 

PARTY LAND 

� Above: a 

foretaste of 

delights to come. 

Left: well, well. 

If it isn't our very 

own Sebastian. 

“Feed me BALLS!" 

he roars. 

All the fun of the fair on this theme park-themed 

table. You can shoot ducks, win ice cream, cans of 

drink and bags of popcorn, play the Reel Steal, 

enter the Tunnel of Fear, spin on the Wheel 'O' Fun 

and, following these activities, even be sick. The 

loop-the-loop ramp is suitably dizzying. Not a table 

for sufferers of motion sickness, I suspect. Nor of 

coulrophobia.

SPEED DEVILS 

A fuel-injected paradise for speed racing maniacs 

(Adrian's favourite table, in other words. - Sub Ed) 

Shift gears, overtake rivals, tune up the car and 

accelerate to some downright unbelievable speeds. 

There must be something in the conjunction 

between fast cars, Swedish programmers and 

pinball, I think: the petrolhead theme is revisited in 

the later Slamtilt. 

that the developers behind such a state of the 

art game as Pinball Dreams could improve 

upon it. Widespread, then, was the astonishment 

when Digital Illusions duly unveiled their 

“The feel of the game is much 

improved.” 

new baby: Pinball Fantasies. 

Available in three versions (ECS, AGA and a 

special edition for the CD32), Pinball Fantasies 

is nothing short of a revelation, and is a great 

advance over its predecessor: faster, more 

� Neeoww. A textbook overtake, 

pinball scoreboard style. 

colourful, more varied and more challenging. 

The graphics are awesome, particularly in the 

AGA version, and the gameplay is equally 

high-grade. The layout of the tables is very 

close to that of real pinball machines and the 

ball mechanics are spot on. If you lose a ball, 

it's invariably down to sloppy play or plain old 

bad luck rather than sloppy design. Which is 

just as it should be. 

As in Pinball Dreams, there are four tables. 

Each varies in (suitably droll) theme and 

layout, meaning each presents a unique 

� Time for a tyre change. These ones don't go with my lipstick at all. 

� That poor ball's 

getting bumped 

to all get-out. 

challenge. 'Party Land' has 

plenty of high-scoring targets 

and two bonus modes: one of 

these, Happy Hour, is uniquely 

not time-limited if activated a 

certain way. (Score! As they 

reviews 

say). 'Speed Devils' is less generous with its 

scoring targets, though it does have two multiplier 

ramps to Party Land's one. 'Billion 

Dollar Gameshow' adds a knife-edge dimension 

and throws a spoke in the wheel of high 

scoring by wiping out prizes won up to that 

point should a ball be lost before the jackpot 

is won. 'Stones 'n Bones' has steep target 

ramps and one less flipper than the other 

tables but three high-score modes. It also features 

a pseudo-multiball for jackpot multiplying, 

and probably offers the highest scores 

overall. The variation in table design greatly 

apov 4 

33

apov 4 

34 

reviews 

extends game longevity, and means that there 

should be at least one table to suit everybody. 

The authors haven't just taken the easy 

route and produced another four tables without 

touching the code itself. The feel of the 

game is much improved; everything is faster, 

smoother and more dynamic. Tables are 

longer and reach to a height of more than two 

full screens. As mentioned above, most of the 

tables have three flippers instead of two. And 

the extra flipper isn't just there for aesthetic 

effect, nor to give the player an extra stab at 

carelessly-flipped balls (though it does come 

BILLION DOLLAR GAMESHOW 

Wheel of Fortune, pinball style: shoot the ramps to 

win a car, a TV set, a boat, a holiday, a plane, a 

ship or literally a billion in cash. Unlike previous 

pinball games this is the very first table on which 

you can reach that magic number of points without 

undue effort. And of course without having to 

answer round after round of inane questions posed 

by a grinning twit in a suit. 

in handy in this respect from time to time). It 

makes the design of the tables fundamentally 

more complex and interesting and it makes all 

the space on the table accessible to the ball. 

The ball can be everywhere and bump off 

“There are lots of extras to reward 

practice and exploration.” 

everything, even in places that might initially 

seem impossible to reach. There are, accordingly, 

lots of extras to reward practice and 

exploration: loads of traps, slopes, ramps and 

bumpers that not only trigger bonus points but 

also some events and games during the play 

itself. A new idea is the lottery, which you can 

take part in after losing all of your balls (No, 

� Above: mm, 

nice bit of 

leg there. 

Right: I've 

just won a 

car. That 

should keep 

the missus 

happy. 

I'll resist. - Ed) The one and only 

prize to be won is an extra ball, 

which would probably suck in 

most contexts but is akin to manna 

from heaven when you're playing a 

pinball game and you've just bombed 

out. Even the score display has been 

improved. Instead of simple text there are pictures 

and animations, representing various 

situations that occur on the table. A small 

thing, maybe, but it's a nice touch and it reinforces 

the impression that the authors have 

thoughtfully crafted every aspect of the game. 

Just like the gameplay and graphics, 

the music in Pinball 

Fantasies reaches new heights - 

on one table there are twelve 

different tunes - to the extent 

that it can justifiably be called a 

piece of art. Combined with the jingles 

and the sound effects the expression 

"it's like music to my ears" takes on literal 

meaning here. Sound has clearly had as much 

attention paid to it as other aspects of the 

game; something that cannot be said of all 

Amiga games. It cleverly complements the

� If Edgar Allan Poe had played this table, he 

might well have said that "an air of stern, 

deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over 

and pervaded all." That, and that it was 

pretty addictive. 

� I hate spiders at 

the best of times. 

That dude's way 

too much for me. 


95% Four 

reviews 

STONES 'N BONES 

It's night time in the graveyard and things are going 

bump. The table is appropriately littered with 

ghouls, ghosts, skulls, mummies, bats and spiders 

and up to eight spirits can be called up. Exploring 

the tower reveals special bonuses and treasure can 

be found in the well. This is the only table with two 

flippers rather than three, so players seeking a less 

frantic experience might find it suits best. Another 

theme that resurfaces in Slamtilt (and one that is 

prefigured in Pinball Dreams). Pinball is clearly the 

Devil's game. 

themes of the tables and 

the action thereon, and 

contributes greatly to the 

tremendously immersive 

overall effect of the game. 

And there's even a key to toggle 

the music off should it not be to your taste. 

(You misery, you). Does it get any better than 

this? Yes! The CD32 version's music is even 

� That's some creepy, kooky 

clientele. Maybe try the next 

pub, eh? 

better. 

It's difficult not to overuse superlatives 

when summing up Pinball Fantasies. The bottom 

line is that it's excellent: exciting, realistic, 

well-paced and extraordinarily addictive. 

Nothing else on the Amiga (except others in 

the Digital Illusions series of pinball games) 

comes close to its realism or playability. 

Playing solo is addictive enough, but playing 

against someone else (or in a group) guarantees 

a serious number of lost hours as high 

score table spots are duelled over. You know, 

I don't believe that there is a single person on 

Earth who has not played Pinball Fantasies at 

some point. Should such a person actually 

exist, let them not dare say that they know 

what real fun on a computer is. A seminal, 

triumphant, genuine must-play of a game. 

Summary 

varied tables of high quality 

action. Pinball Fantasies picks up 

where Pinball Dreams leaves off 

and raises the bar some more. If 

you like pinball, play this. 

apov 4 

35

apov 4 

36 

reviews 

Developer: ICE 

Publisher: ICE 


A lone wolf in a world gone mad, fighting to put right what once went 

wrong. That's probably enough about Carl, though. Here's Akira. 

If I had a quid for every Japanese comic book 

I've read, I'd have zero quid. Like the toy phenomenon 

that is Micro Machines, the whole 

manga thing is something that I just never got 

into. I know the word 'manga', I am dimly 

aware that Akira is a highly-regarded example 

of the genre, and I know that an Amiga game 

was made based on the licence, but that's 

about it. 

Akira is, like Rise of the Robots (15%, APoV 

1), a game preceded by its reputation. 

Infamous, one might call it. Contemporary 

reviews are near-universally scathing: 'utterly 

wretched', said Amiga Power. 'Tosh', said 

Amiga Format. 'Addictive', said AUI, but then 

they always were an odd bunch. 

Yet here, reader, is where my complete 

lack of knowledge of things manga turns into 

a positive, for it (and the fact that until this 

point I had never laid eyes on the game) 

means that I can judge Akira with no preconceptions. 

Go ignorance! 

So what's it about? The ultra-brief but fairly 

well-produced intro sequence doesn't help 

explain matters all that much, to be honest. 

We're in post-World War III territory, that 

much is clear, and the action centres around 

'Neo Tokyo', but further details come there 

none. I'm still none the wiser as to who this 

Akira bloke is, what he’s supposed to be 

doing or why. Not a 

problem: knowing 

� Bobo? Is that you? 

You've been working 

out, haven't you. 

AMIGA 500/1200/CD32 

� You maniacs! Now monkeys are gonna run the place. 

video games, he's bound to be a lone hero 

battling the forces of evil through the medium 

of platformer, shoot-'em-up or some other 

arcade genre. 

Start the game and – butter my butt and 

call me a biscuit – you're a bloke on a red 

motorbike, riding through a horizontally scrolling 

landscape. Not particularly quickly. I tell 

you what, Neo Tokyo may be a "shining 

metropolis" but the roads are terrible. Holes 

everywhere. (Turns out you have to jump 

these by riding up handily-positioned ramps of 

debris). Hazards abound, in fact: wandering 

flames, wildly oversized traffic cones, blokes 

standing pointlessly in the middle of the road, 

blokes with guns and what 

appears to be Olivia 

Newton-John 

on the back 

of a 

� Everything on this screen will kill you. 

� Behold, sub-Rolling Thunder graphics 

and an awful lot of suck. 

motorbike, tossing sticks of dynamite in your 

direction. Why any of this should be, I have no 

idea. 

The lack of elucidation provided by the intro 

turns out to be a foreshadowing of the game 

experience itself: it's one long journey into the 

unknown, with pitfalls and poorly signposted 

perils every few seconds. I discovered, very 

quickly, that Akira's difficulty lies in just this 

kind of thing. Miss a ramp and you're dead. 

Clip too many obstacles and you're dead. Miss 

a speed-up bonus and you're dead. One that 

surprised me was running out of fuel, as the 

“I’m still none the wiser as to who 

this Akira bloke is.” 

point it occurs must be no more than a minute 

into the game. (The MPG on that bike must be 

terrible). The first warning you get is a FUEL 

LOW message on the score panel (though in 

truth you don't get much opportunity to glance 

down at the panel, what with the constant 

procession of deadly obstacles and all), then, 

� For pity's sake, make it stop. 

whoop, you’re dead. It really irks me, that 

kind of pointlessness. It’s not as if you can 

ride back and pick the fuel up, and it’s not as 

if you can limp on til the next fuel can, 

so why bother with a FUEL LOW

message? This one got me about three times 

before I figured out where the fuel was, mainly 

because the fuel can is an indistinct little 

grey object on a grey road, surrounded by 

mad people. A little further on comes a debris 

roadblock that you need grenades to get 

past: finding those buggers is exactly the 

same experience as the fuel thing. Grr. 

Making progress in Akira is, then, a 

matter of tedious repetition: learning 

the entirely linear course a little more 

each time, going over the same route 

over and over until you encounter the next 

unfamiliar situation that bumps you off. And 

the overwhelming likelihood is that each new 

situation will bump you off, as the game is 

entirely unforgiving. Make one mistake and 

that's it, you’re stuffed – might as well throw 

yourself down the next hole in the road. And 

whither the incentive to try again? I certainly 

didn't feel any. The whole thing, within no 

time at all, felt like an exercise in dreary 

masochism. Thank God for the music/sound 

effects option, as I began to dread the awful 

dirge of an in-game tune that mockingly loops 

back round to the start with each death. 

Should you make it through the first level – 

far more an exercise in attrition than a fun, 

exciting challenge – you get to do it all over 

again, with the difficulty a bit higher. I must 

admit that I gave up trying to beat it at this 

point and used cheats to see the rest of 

the game. The remainder can 

be summarised perfectly 

adequately as 'different 

genres, same quality'. 

You get platform shoot- 

'em-up levels (plagued 

with Kangaroo Court 

errors such as abysmal 

character movement, needlessly 

unavoidable obstacles and 

multiple-shots-to-kill-enemies) and scrolling 

shoot-'em-up levels (again made irritating 

rather than entertaining by over-tough bad 

guys), but you're really not missing anything 

by never reaching them. If you really, really 

must see the end screen, save yourself a lot 

of grief and just look it up on HOL. The only 

glimmer of a saving grace for the later levels 

is that at least the sodding bike doesn't make 

a reappearance. 

For a game based on a comic book/anime, 

presentation is hugely disappointing. 


8% Almost 

reviews 

� Nice one, jerk. I'll never get that out of white cotton. � Toys, but - get this - all twisted and weird. Woooooo. 

“Make one mistake and that’s it, 

you’re stuffed.” 

� Behold, laughable sprites and an awful lot of empty. 

� You'll see this a lot. 

Graphics, cut scenes aside, are poor. Small 

(for no discernible reason), poorly detailed and 

barely animated, they convey nothing as powerfully 

as the impression that you're playing a 

pretty darn lame video game. 

I really can't think of one good thing to say 

about Akira. It's a nasty little game with 

wafer-thin playability, set in a grey cartoon 

dystopia that you just cannot bring yourself to 

care about. Playing it left me less cheery than 

� Now stop all that and come in for your tea, Eustace. 

I was before I started, which is never a good 

sign. 

Ah. Just thought of one good thing to say 

about it. Sort of. The motorbike bits inadvertently 

made me think of BMX Racers on the 

Spectrum, which I quite enjoyed way back 

when. That too is a continually scrolling 

(though in a different direction) bike game 

with all sorts of obstacles to avoid. That 

game, however, has a subtlety in its difficulty 

curve and a charm that Akira entirely lacks. I 

can only conclude by adding my voice to the 

chorus of opprobrium directed at one of the 

poorest games to (dis)grace the Amiga. If you 

ever think about playing Akira, don't. 

Summary 

heroically bad. Literally 

anything else you do will be 

more fun than playing Akira. 

apov 4 

37

apov 4 

38 

reviews 

Gangsters make good cinematic anti-heroes. 

They wear distinctive suits and trilby hats. 

They carry Thompson submachine guns and 

drive armoured cars at high speeds. They 

drink illegal liquor in speakeasies. 

The thirties saw a run of excellent gangster 

films which looked at the criminal lifestyle 

and its choices. In 1938's Angels With Dirty 

Faces James Cagney and Pat O'Brien are two 

childhood friends who find themselves on 

diverging paths when one becomes a gangster 

and the other a priest. One of the film's 

other actors, Humphrey Bogart, would appear 

again with Cagney in 1939's The Roaring 

Twenties, a look back to the previous decade 

of decadence and the bootlegging trade during 

Prohibition. In 1931 Cagney appeared in 

The Public Enemy in one of his signature roles 

as a hoodlum making his way up the underworld 

ladder. Similarly, Edward G. Robinson's 

character in 1931's Little Caesar is making his 

way to the top. 

The King of Chicago is very much influenced 

by these gangster films in the same 

way that Defender of the Crown was based on 

the 1938 swashbuckler The Adventures of 

Robin Hood. The King of Chicago is therefore 

doubly anchored in the world of 20s and early 

30s gangsters and also the cinema of the 

decade which followed. 

� Woof, sorry. Musta 

been that pastrami 

I had for lunch. 

Al Capone has been sent to jail for over a 

decade and "Pinky" Callahan, seeing an 

opportunity in the resulting void, reckons his 

time has come. Like Cagney and Robinson he 

must become a leading crime lord. The action 

is placed after the boom time years so the 

Wall Street Crash of 1929 has occurred and 

the Great Depression has descended. The 

actual gameplay period is between 1931 and 

1934 and the reasoning behind this was most 

likely to fit it into a historical framework. A 

meeting of mobsters in New York will discuss 

a National Crime Syndicate and it's up to 

Pinky to become a big enough figure in 

Chicago to be invited. One of The King of 

� Chip pans: lovely but deadly. 

Chicago's most appealing aspects is this 

background and storyline. In a gaming world 

where the standard plot involves 

aliens or finding the three broken 

parts of a crystal, key or map it's 

refreshing to be presented with 

a suitably down to earth and 

Developer: Master Designer 

Publisher: Cinemaware/Mindscape 


AMIGA 500 

1930s Chicago is no place for a gentle 

soul, with ruthless gangs terrorising 

the streets. Lucky, then, that rats don't 

come much dirtier than Adrian 'Eight 

Ball' Simpson. 

more human, albeit 

criminal, drama. 

The King of 

Chicago begins with 

a classic fiery-red 

skyline. If one wishes to 

read too much into these 

things it could represent the forthcoming 

spillage of blood, the rapidly descending darkness 

of crime or the city burning in an inferno 

of corruption! Further proof that Cinemaware 

knew their art is provided by the game's logo. 

It's gigantic and fills the screen, completely 

overshadowing the city as the king of the 

metropolis would. The size, and the bullets 

that hit the logo, seem like obvious flourishes 

but they demonstrate that Cinemaware knew 

how to best present interactive movies and 

make a significant first impression. 

The phrase 'interactive movie' has an 

inescapably negative connotation, that of a 

graphically pleasing experience devoid of 

gameplay (typified by Dragon's Lair). In some 

ways it's unfair to berate the interactive movie 

sub-genre since the games were pushing the 

“The game isn’t simply a series of 

predetermined animations.” 

boundaries of graphics and animation and not 

playability. One hopes that most players didn't 

buy Space Ace for its longevity and subtle 

gameplay. On the other hand, these titles 

were invariably marketed as games and an 

� The Amiga vs PC discussion got a little out of hand.

� Dan liked being a 

bank clerk, but his 

mind would wander. 

expensive game with little gameplay is never 

a good buy. 

The storyline is related through acted 

scenes. The "actors" in each scene are large 

depictions of the characters. There are a few 

different representations of each individual to 

“Eyes are often frozen in a halfclosed 

state.” 

suit the scene. For example, one shows a 

close-up of the character’s head and a second 

shows the upper torso. Furthermore, each 

actor can move their limbs, their mouth and 

their eyes. To a certain extent this gives the 

characters a particular dynamism. They are 

more fluid than a single sprite with a few 

frames of animation but they do exude a curious 

deadness, like a ventriloquist's dummy. 

Eyes are often frozen in a half-closed state 

which gives the characters a strange squint. 

Scenes are played out in front of various 

backgrounds and the action is punctuated by 

still images and exposition or pithy statements 

in an Art Deco font. Further flourishes 

include a spinning newspaper conveying the 

events of the day, a device familiar to cinemagoers. 

All these elements are used by the 

game engine to present the "movie" but 

unlike the celluloid version there is a good 

degree of randomisation. The game isn't 

simply a series of predetermined animations. 

Throughout the story music is used well, 

especially to denote the feelings of other 

characters. 

The principal interactivity lies in making 

selections about what your character will do 

next. These are presented as bubbles that 

show Pinky's inner thoughts. An irritating 

feature is the time limit during which the 

player must make his choice, although the 

"movie" will reach an "intermission" when 

paused from the menu. If the player is too 

slow the game will unhelpfully choose itself. 

The first decision is whether Pinky should 

move against his old boss immediately, later 

that evening or after a bomb raid. Other decisions 

concern Pinky's cohorts, 

whether or not to blame an 

assassination on a Southside 

gang, demanding girlfriend Lola's 

shoes, betting large sums of 

money and Momma's views on 

the gangster lifestyle. This is all 

� Damn. Landed on Mayfair. 

basically a simplistic form of adventuring 

where the wrong choice results in the game 

over screen. When Pinky dies his girlfriend 

pops up and speaks a few lines of tribute. His 

mother then delivers a similar eulogy, reminiscing 

on her son's "mischief". Part of the 

fun comes from exploring different gameplay 

avenues, even if they result in an untimely 

death and a home at the bottom of the river. 

The lack of a save game option might not 

encourage multiple replays but the modern 

benefits of emulators and save states remove 

this hassle. 

One way to insert some gameplay into an 

interactive movie is via the incorporation of 

� One of those chats. We've all been there, dude. 


68% 

reviews 

� Fine. We'll settle it 

with a balloon race. 

sub-games. This approach has been taken in 

many Amiga games with varying degrees of 

success, from the excellent sub-games in 

Wings to the fiddly and difficult ones in 

Defender of the Crown. In King of Chicago the 

games are based upon common gangster 

activities. In one you control Pinky's arm as 

he brandishes a pistol. In another your car is 

involved in a drive-by bombing. A third sees 

Pinky fire at a pursuing vehicle through the 

back window of his car. These sub-games are 

reasonable but never match those in Wings. 

As well as the adventure element and the 

sub-games, there is a desk-based section 

where the criminal campaign is planned. A 

map shows the four areas of the city which 

must be conquered and a ledger book to keep 

track of the income and expenses. 

How does The King of Chicago 

fare on the gameplay/graphics seesaw? 

Like other Cinemaware 

games it was graphically ahead of 

its time, looking like a game from 

five years in the future. The random 

elements stop the game becoming 

an expensive animation and the 

gameplay elements (the adventure, 

management and sub-games) add 

much needed interaction. It's still 

an interactive movie but one of the 

better examples. 

Summary 

A classy and atmospheric 

take on the gangster era with 

reasonable sub-games and a 

fair degree of interactivity. 

apov 4 

39

apov 4 

40 

reviews 

Whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on YOU? Dive 

behind the sofa, of course. Carl Stapleton is way ahead of ya. 

Ah, sports entertainment. Larger than life and 

twice as dumb, pro rasslin' in its modern form 

first morphed, Hulk-like, into a global TV 

phenomenon in the late 1980s. Loud, 

colourful and downright manic, it 

was perfect fodder for merchandising 

and, sure as eggs 

is eggs, action figures, 

comics, magazines, clothing 

and (naturally) video games 

duly sprang. Two games made 

it to the Amiga: WWF 

Wrestlemania and WWF European 

Rampage. I'm sure you can deduce, 

from the logo at the top of this page, which 

game we're concerned with here. 

The WWF of WWF Wrestlemania is the late 

80s/early 90s big hair, fluorescent spandex 

era of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, "Hacksaw" 

Jim Duggan and that model of cool reserve, 

the Ultimate Warrior. Truly a golden age. For 

alas the WWF ain't what it used to be, not 

even in the name: those humourless panda 

huggers at the other WWF made them change 

it to the somehow-not-as-cool WWE a few 

Developer: Twilight 



AMIGA 500 

years back. Tsk. 

The main game mode is a one-player minicareer 

affair. You get to pick from three 

face wrestlers (hey, I know all the 

terminology) - the Ultimate 

Warrior, the British Bulldog 

(RIP), and the Hulkster - and 

work your way through a 

series of heels (see) in singles 

competition, en route to the 

WWF title. There's also a twoplayer 

practice mode, and… 

well, that's your lot. 

Control is pretty much exactly as 

you'd expect in a wrestling game on a one fire 

button system. You can weave and charge 

around, punch and kick and stomp, hop on 

and off turnbuckles, and grapple. Grappling is 

what separates this from the Double Dragons 

and Renegades of this world, and is the prerequisite 

to such flashy staples as the suplex, 

the powerslam and (love this one) the atomic 

drop. In truth, it's not much of a science (no 

timing or finesse required: just brute force 

joystick waggling) and it doesn't add much to 

the game as the 

range of moves 

each wrestler has 

� This week's ringside dust up is brought to you by the letters W, W, F and the number four. � Here, let me help you up. 

� The Ultimate Warrior. Proof positive that steroid use 

in pro wrestling was nought but scurrilous rumour. 

is limited to, er, one. But hey. Matches are all 

very similar as your opponents don't differ 

one jot in fighting style ('style' here meaning 

'strolling aimlessly around the ring, throwing 

in the occasional dropkick'). Each bloke has a 

different post-grapple move, but as the effect 

of each is the same the difference is purely 

cosmetic. Wrestlers have a power bar that is 

diminished when they take a bump; it's a bit 

like the KO system in 'regular' beat-em-ups, 

except you need to flop on top of your opponent 

and pin him for a three-count to win, 

rather than instantly winning when his energy 

reaches zero. Should you find yourself pinned 

(highly unlikely given the game's ludicrously 

easy level of difficulty), hammering the fire 

button helps you escape. Less energy = less 

likely you'll kick out. 

The action can be taken to the floor, and 

there's a steel chair that you can pick up and 

bop people with (not all that devastating, 

sadly: you drop it after one swing, for a start) 

but there's no throwing your opponent into the 

guard rail or other underhand shenanigans. 

Oh, and you only get twenty seconds at a time 

to faff around at ringside or you're counted 

out. All in all, gameplay is competent enough, 

in the sense that collision detection is okay

� Irresistible force, meet 

immovable object. 

� Hey, I can see my 

house from here. 

and everything basically works, but it's all 

very shallow and the lack of defensive moves 

- there's no duck or reversal or block - makes 

it pretty much a strategy-free toe-to-toe 

punch up. Which is fine in itself, of course, 

but perhaps not ideal in a wrestling game. 

Graphics are okay, but atmosphere in general 

is lacking: the crowd is quiet, the music 

is insipid, and there's a lot of black screen 

between bouts when a few big, colourful stills 

would have been nice. The pre-fight verbals - 

thought important enough to merit their own 

little section - epitomise the game's so-so 

presentation. The heels each come out with a 

predictable kayfabe line or two, to which you 

respond by selecting one of three (count 'em) 

equally predictable kayfabe lines. Mountie: 

"The future of law enforcement is here now, 

because I am the Mountie!!!" Ultimate 

Warrior: "You, Mountie, will feel the power of 

the Ultimate Warrior, and you will become a 

prisoner to that ultimate power!" Ye-es. This 

bit could work, but it's just been pared down 

so much that it feels pointless. Would it really 

hurt to provide a wider selection of bons 

mots? Or - here's an idea - why not just let 

the player type his or her own putdown? 

Amigas do have keyboards, after all. Million 

Dollar Man: "Everybody's got a price, 

� Oof, right in the crackers. That'll take the starch outta ya. 

everybody's gonna pay!" Me: 

"Bring it, Edmonds* ya bitch. Oh, and tell your 

mum she was great last night." Fun quotient 

increased with zero programming overhead. 

And what's with the dinky mugshots? Where 

are the pics of hyped-up wrestlers sweatily 

pontificating against a garish backdrop, like 

“Your opponents don't differ one 

jot in fighting style.” 

on TV? Was the game rushed out so quickly 

that Twilight couldn't stretch to that? Inquiring 

minds want to know. 

Perhaps the presentation picks up at the 

end. Nope: win the title and you get a measly 

mock newspaper headline. Woo, as Ric Flair 

might well say. Though ironically in this case. 

No fireworks? No animated sequence? No 

smiling picture of the neeeew World Wress-aling 

Federation Champeen saluting his fans 

with belt aloft? Nope. It's a shame, because 

more atmosphere would go a long way to 

making this more fun. Better sound alone 

would: more music and more crowd noise 

would be good, little bursts of commentary 

would be great. I'd gorilla press buggers all 

day if it meant Bobby "The Brain" Heenan 

said "Bossman's mother could count that 

fast!" or Gorilla Monsoon (RIP) said "Look 

out!" or "Will you stop?!" Love those guys. 

A distinct lack of flexibility 

characterises much of the 

game. No difficulty options, no 

tag teams, no hidden 

� Them human pyramid acts ain't what they used to be. 


45% WWF 

*Joke for British readers, there. 

reviews 

characters. Not many characters full stop, 

actually. In one player mode, you have to go 

through opponents in a set order. Fair enough, 

but couldn't a SFII-style head-to-head selection 

routine have been stuck in as well? In 

two player mode, one of you has to be Mr 

Perfect (RIP). Has to, no buts. Now, I like the 

guy as much as anyone, but what gives? 

Sloppy programming, that's what. Other 

wrestlers are definitely in the game. I've seen 

them. So why not let Player 2 'be' them? 

� I'm getting tired. You be the horse for a bit. 

In the final analysis, WWF Wrestlemania is not 

particularly big, flashy or exciting. A pity, as 

the thing it's supposed to represent is all of 

those things. It's playable enough within its 

limitations, and some fun can be had with it, 

but the lack of variation, the lack of atmosphere, 

and the lack of scope in the actual 

rasslin' heart of the game means that the 

whole enterprise just feels a little empty. 

Complete it a couple of times and you'll be 

hard pressed to step back into the ring. Now, 

if you could play as the greatest tag team in 

history, Demolition… 

Summary 

Amiga-style means 

passable looks, thin gameplay, 

a lack of atmosphere and a 

complete absence of difficulty. 

apov 4 

41

apov 4 

42 

Entirely by chance, the PD section has a distinctly fruity theme this issue. Kumquats are the name 

and the aim of the game in arcade puzzler Kastle Kumquat, and cherries and watermelons and 

oranges and grapes and strawberries and plums equal (virtual) cash in Fruit Mania, a slot machine 

simulator. Even our third game in for review - Xenon III - has a fruity dimension to it, as the space 

shoot-'em-up genre was first inspired by a falling crateful of pineapples. Um, not really. 

Kastle Kumquat 

Authors: Cybernetix 

Adrian Simpson braves an alliterative fortress in search of a precious treasure. 

Jewels? A fair maiden? Elk porn? Nope, fruit. Only in a video game, eh. 

Computer game plots are usually an 

irrelevance and this is particularly 

true with Kastle Kumquat. "Some 

King or other" is looking for 

kumquats, a fruit that looks similar 

to a small orange, and their scarcity 

is such that they only grow in 

"Kumquat Kastle" [sic]. Your task is 

to gather kumquats for the king, or 

as the instructions put it, "to pick 

the fruit into extinction." (Er, I'm no 

conservation expert, but that doesn't 

sound like a very cunning plan - 

Asst Ed). At least the plot doesn't 

involve an alien invasion! 

The castle (kastle?) is presented 

as a top-down flip-screen maze and 

the precious kumquats are dotted 

around, waiting to be collected. 

However, let's not call them 

kumquats since they aren't the 

colour or shape of a kumquat and 

they aren't growing on a tree. The 

"blue round things" have unique life 

giving properties and twenty of them 

will grant the player an extra life. 

Certain barriers stand between you 

and a bounty of blue round things. 

The castle is populated by rotating 

multi-coloured cubes which are 

deadly to the touch. Since your 

character has forgotten to pack any 

cube-killing weapon and, if indeed 

they are invulnerable to any sort of 

worldly device, avoidance is the only 

strategy available. This style of 

gameplay will be familiar. Avoiding 

one enemy is easy enough but 

expert timing is necessary when 

presented with four of them in a 

row. They follow precise patrol 

routes so much of the skill is in 

learning these and making a single 

successful move. 

Although I can understand the fun 

that can be had 

� Killer cubes, I 

dunno. Next time the 

bloody king can get 

his own kumquats. 

⊳ That Hampton Court 

maze has changed 

a bit. 

from the reaction-based 

gameplay it is also, by its 

nature, frustrating. Modern 

games have all but eliminated 

the concept of lives 

and restarting a game again 

with instant saving, checkpoints, 

crouching behind cover 

to regain health or, in the case 

of a retro platform game like 

Braid, allowing the rewinding of 

game time. 

Locked doors will be another 

familiar gameplay mechanic. 

Blue, green and red keys are 

placed in similarly coloured 

locks to open doors. The route 

is non-linear and since there 

are multiple locks of 

each colour it is possible to 

use keys in the wrong order 

and reach a dead end. Other 

notable obstacles are rivers 

and lakes of lava and disappearing 

floor tiles. The control 

system is suitably responsive 

for this sort of game but the 

jumps are of a fixed distance 

and once begun are 

locked into a direction. This 

can be a little tricky during complicated 

manoeuvres. 

The graphics and animation are 

above the usual standard for PD 

games. The sprite animation is fluid 

and some of the tiles are nicely 

done. The disappearing blocks, for 

instance, are fluid and flow away in 

a manner reminiscent of sand. One 

� Maybe if I stand still 

they won't notice me. 

slightly 

irritating feature is the 

blocks which look like walls but 

which can be passed through as if 

they weren't there. Some, though, 

might enjoy this as part of the 

game's challenge! 

Kastle Kumquat is generally very 

professionally done and provides a 

lot of fun, despite the unforgiving 

nature of this type of "collect and 

avoid" game and despite the 

peculiar fruit appendage. 

RATING 

� Duff Gardens, hurrah! 

� Hmm. Did I leave the 

gas on? Might nip home 

and check. 

wwww

Fruit Mania 

Author: Axiom 

Fruit machine simulators have 

always occupied a less than illustrious 

area of the video gaming world. 

In the 8-bit days they were cheap 

and cheerful budget releases (the 

first game I ever bought was Vegas 

Jackpot by Mastertronic, fact fans), 

yet from the mid-90s onward they 

didn't even merit commercial 

release any more, popping up 

instead as obscure PD games. Aw. 

One of the main shortcomings 

common to the genre is the blandness 

of the simulated machine in 

comparison to the real thing. 

Whereas modern fruit machines 

have oodles of modes and submodes, 

inviting a great variety of 

strategies and a frenzy of odds 

calculation, the typical computer 

� Methinks hi-lo is the value bet here. 

version is very light on features so 

tends to have resolutely one-dimensional 

gameplay. I've always 

thought it a little strange that this 

particular gap has never been 

closed: it's a bit like the problem 

pinball games used to have before 

Pinball Dreams rewrote the rules. 

Sadly, the evolution of video game 

fruities seems to have got stuck 

sometime around 1989 and the 

genre still awaits its landmark title. 

Main shortcoming number two, of 

course, is the fact that you can't win 

or lose any money. This one can't be 

helped, but it means that even the 

greatest, most accurate conversion 

EVAH would still fall short of the real 

thing. The game can still be enjoyed 

in its own right, but the lack of any 

stake beyond virtual money 

means that it loses a large 

part of its appeal. 

Given all of the above, how 

does Fruit Mania fare? Not 

too badly, it has to be said. 

Garish and noisy and hectic, 

just as fruit machines should 

be, it has four reels and a 

goodly number of subgames 

(activated by the time-honoured 

method of lighting the 

Xenon III 

Authors: United Graphic Artists 

Proficiency with these things is apparently 

a sign of a misspent youth. Carl Stapleton, 

it turns out, is very handy with them. 

� Oooh yeah. Come to papa. 

Sometimes you just have to admire the cheek of some people. Adrian 

Simpson checks out a not exactly official tribute to a famous shmup series. 

Evaluating a Shoot 'Em Up 

Construction Kit (SEUCK) game is 

like reviewing a home video. There 

is no expectation that the film will 

feature great cinematography, acting 

or direction and its appeal is 

solely to those who feature in it or 

knew great aunt Fanny before the 

cat fell asleep on her head as she 

slept and smothered her. 

Similarly, the fascination of a 

SEUCK game is to those who constructed 

it (unless you happen to 

take a perverse pleasure in playing 

awful games). The SEUCK was a 

great tool for those that wanted to 

try a bit of game development but 

had no coding experience and for 

whom Easy AMOS was a bit too 

complicated. 

Based on the C64 utility, the 

Amiga SEUCK allows a player/ 

would-be-programmer to create 

basic shoot-'em-ups. The result is 

understandably generic, and either 

vertically scrolling or single screen 

shooters. The games are usually 

obviously built with SEUCK; certain 

features cannot be concealed. 

A disturbing number of SEUCK 

games spawned not one, but a 

whole series. However, these were 

often some of the better examples 

of the art and noticeably improved 

as the series progressed. They were 

� Zap! Zap! 

game title via reel numbers or a skill 

stop, then stopping the insanely fast 

subgame selector) that add amusing 

variety. Gameplay overall is a tad 

shallow (spin, hold, light letters, 

activate and play subgame, repeat), 

but it does what it sets out to do 

pretty well and it definitely has that 

'one more go' thing going on. The 

graphics are pleasant and the sound 

beeps and buzzes and clanks along 

energetically. 

One oddity is the inclusion of a 

'rounds' system: instead of the 

usual open-ended, play-til-you-runout-of-money 

malarky, Fruit Mania 

consists of a (selectable) number of 

10-spin rounds. Once they're used 

up, it's game over, regardless of 

whether you're doing brilliantly, 

terribly, or somewhere in between. 

often based on famous shooters: Air 

Ace was 1942, Serene was Xenon 2 

and Raid was SWIV. 

The admission of the futility of 

reviewing a SEUCK game is somewhat 

negated when the author 

throws his creation out to the world 

and even more so when he not only 

bases his game on a famed shoot- 

'em-up but calls it Xenon III: The 

Making Of... It's unclear as to what 

it's a making of! 

The game is bog standard SEUCK 

with very basic Xenon 2 'influenced' 

graphics, giving the impression of 

how Xenon 2 might look if it were a 

one-night stand the morning after 

the beer goggles had worn off (Ooh, 

tell us more - Asst Ed). The awesome 

Assault On Precinct 13 music 

is absent but bleep-bleep sound 

effects are present. 

reviews 

� Zap! Zap! 

� The reels of steel. 

Er, what gives there then? Is this the 

Amiga equivalent of those nagging 

'please gamble responsibly' 

adverts? Who knows. Still, I suppose 

it adds a certain structure to the 

whole affair, and it could well make 

for an exciting finish in two-player 

mode. 

All in all, there's not much to it, 

but Fruit Mania is a perfectly 

respectable virtual one-arm bandit. 

Nothing remarkably innovative or 

different, but just the thing to while 

away a spare twenty minutes now 

and then. 

RATING 

www 

After playing 

through Xenon III and seeing the 

'Level 2' background image for the 

tenth time I came to the conclusion 

that it is unfinished. It's clear that 

some work has gone into the game 

and it obviously isn't meant to be a 

serious follow-up to Xenon 2 but it 

also fails in every way by being dull, 

having bad graphics and sound, 

being repetitive and lacking any 

variety. Like all SEUCK games it 

reveals the limitations of the tool. 

Stick to the 'prequel'! 

RATING 

w 

� Zap! Za-- ah, bugger it. 

apov 4 

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44 

An apocryphal complaint of writers on old print gaming mags was that readers didn't really bother with the text 

of a review, instead simply jumping to the score at the end. Whether that is true or not will probably never be 

known, but if it does have some basis in fact then this section of APoV should be by far the most popular. For it 

distills all our reviews down to snappy summaries and instantly-scannable star ratings. That's its only purpose; 

its sole reason for being; its entire raison d'être. And darn good it is at it, too. 

Akira 

Balance of Power 

Cabal 

Cavitas 

Almost heroically bad. Literally anything else 

you do will be more fun than playing Akira. 

Although the scenario is anchored in the world 

politics of the 1980s, Balance Of Power's 

gameplay should still satisfy those bedroom 

megalomaniacal types. The functional graphics 

provide a stark, newspaper feel to the 

proceedings and may serve better than a more 

brightly coloured look. 

w Aladdin 

Barbarian 

wwww wwww 

ww 

A decent coin-op conversion hampered by a 

difficulty level that is too punishing. Only for 

lovers of the arcade original and/or those 

seeking a gutsy challenge. Best played in two 

player mode. 

www 

The disparate elements of the spell system, 

shoot-'em-up and map don't quite come 

together fully but there is enough here to keep 

most players busy for a long time. 

Captain Planet 

Disposable Hero 

wwww 

As a slick console game it succeeds admirably, 

combining cartoon animation and gameplay in 

a neat package. Take it for what it is and you’ll 

have a grand time. A soulmate of The Lion 

King. 

So-so graphics mask an energetic hack and 

slash romp with frenetic gameplay and top 

quality sound effects. An exciting and addictive 

tournament fighter that still hasn’t lost its 

edge. 

ww 

Below average platform game with simplistic 

graphics and frustrating gameplay. In all 

respects, not that much better than the 

cartoon series! 

www 

A potentially great shoot-em-up let down by an 

insane level of difficulty. It’s still worth a few 

plays, but there’s a real danger you won’t have 

any hair left afterwards.

Dragon’s Breath 

Faery Tale Adventure 

Foundation’s Waste 

K240 

Leander 

Lion King 

The disparate elements of the spell system, 

shoot-'em-up and map don't quite come 

together fully but there is enough here to keep 

most players busy for a long time. 

Charming and quite playable, but suffers in the 

area of game design and interface. The game 

world is big, but lacks focus. This sort of game 

has been done more successfully elsewhere 

(try Ultima VI if you want a more sophisticated 

game of this type), but there is still some 

gaming mileage to be had in Faery Tale. 

Nothing that you haven’t seen a million times 

before. A bit on the easy side. Fun for a bit? 

Yeah, I suppose. Likely to play it for a 

prolonged period? Nah, probably not. 

An involved game that includes exploration, 

colony building, mining, resource management, 

ship building, defence, attack and a 

whole host of other strategy stalwarts. Some 

more thought on the interface and some of the 

general design would have improved it considerably, 

but a worthy effort nonetheless. 

Art truly meets the computer game in an 

elegant, charming and very playable 

offering. Highly recommended. 

A wildebeest sub-game adds some variety to 

Simba’s quest, but it’s still all a bit samey to 

play. The atmosphere is lovely and controlling 

a lion in two stages of life is a nice touch. 

There’s enjoyment to be had, but don’t expect 

to be going back to it after the first time. A 

soulmate of Aladdin. 

www Eye of the Beholder 

www Forgotten Worlds 

ww Ishar 

wwww King of Chicago 

wwwww Liberation CD32 

www Lord of the Rings 

round up 

wwwww 

There have been many pretenders to the 

Dungeon Master throne but this is the first 

game that has taken the genre to a whole new 

level. The sheer level of detail and atmosphere 

is breathtaking. This is the game your Amiga 

was made for. It’s stunning! 

ww 

Reasonable conversion of the arcade blaster, 

which ultimately doesn’t quite come off due to 

the limitations of the control system. Good: 

simultaneous two player mode is there. Bad: 

crap sound. No continues, so unfairly difficult 

to complete. 

wwwww 

A classic title. Every RPG fan should play this 

game. The game has its own specific atmosphere 

and mood. Although the sequel to Ishar 

is much better in terms of graphics, sound and 

playability, the first part is a “must-see” to be 

able to experience the whole story. 

www 

A classy and atmospheric take on the gangster 

era with reasonable sub-games and a fair 

degree of interactivity. 

wwww 

One of those unique Amiga game experiences 

that, although essentially Dungeon Master, 

manages to stake its claim and be sufficiently 

different to other games of the genre. It’s big, 

bold and worth the exploration and dedication 

required to progress. 

wwww 

An epic and detailed journey through Tolkien's 

Fellowship of the Ring which is often let down 

by a lack of speed and a slightly clunky interface. 

apov 4 

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round up 

Micro Machines 

Onslaught 

Paperboy 

Rise of the Robots 

Rock Star Ate My Hamster 

Star Trek: 25th 

A truly great overhead racer that gets 

everything just right. Little, yellow, seriously 

playable and addictive. 

Shallow and repetitive pop-em-up that can 

nonetheless amuse in short bursts. Okayish as 

long as you are in the mood for a bit of shallow 

repetitive pop-em-upping. 

wwww 

Enjoyable but a little uneven, Star Trek captures 

the flavour of the TV series but can prove 

frustrating. 

Navy Seals 

wwwww www 

www 

A good approximation of a chaotic medieval 

fantasy battlefield on the Amiga but expect it 

to become repetitive quickly. The difficulty 

level is rather high. 

www 

Not awful, certainly not great, kind of loveable 

but not likely to keep you from whitewashing 

the fence all that long. 

If you work in marketing, here is a special verdict 

on Rise Of The Robots, just for you: “130% 

Stunning!! This is the greatest beat-’em-up 

ever!!”. For the rest of us, it is a completely 

flawed game, due to the infamous ‘single move 

wins the game problem’ and also the decision to 

concentrate on graphics rather than gameplay. 

Operation Wolf 

Pinball Fantasies 

Robocop 

Sensible Golf 

ww www 

Tiny Troops 

It’s not that Navy Seals is a bad game. It’s just 

that a few gameplay issues, an inverted level 

of difficulty, and the gnawing feeling that it 

could have been so much better, prevents 

Navy Seals from being a good game. 

Not nearly as much fun as it should be, thanks 

mainly to crappy collision detection and a 

carelessly nasty difficulty curve. 

Four varied tables of high quality action. 

Pinball Fantasies picks up where Pinball 

Dreams leaves off and raises the bar some 

more. If you like pinball, play this. 

ww 

wwwww 

w ww 

You’ll play Robocop for about five minutes - 

hey, you might even finish the first level - but 

beyond that there is nothing special here. 

Ocean should hang their heads in shame! A 

poor conversion. 

Light and fluffy golf game that has plenty of 

gaming sweetness but little real substance. 

Play it as such and you’ll dig it. Dude. Or 

dudette. 

ww 

Puzzle-strategy-lite affair with some original 

ideas. Looks and sounds good but can become 

very repetitive. One for RTS beginners.

Total Carnage 

WWF Wrestlemania 

Alien Fish Finger 

Fighting Warriors 

One of the world’s worst games, ever. Total 

Carnage? Total Rubbish, more like. 

w 

Old-fashioned and highly playable platform shooter. No level codes though, argh! 

Crazy Eights 

Fun little card game with a nice line in aural insanity. 

A competent but shallow and repetitive AMOS beat-'em-up. Worth a look. 

Fruit Mania 

Kastle Kumquat 

Knights 

Great two-player Spy vs Spy-esque medieval trap-setting romp. 

Knockout 

Awesome toy car demolition derby fun for up to eight players. Edge of the seat stuff, and damn funny too. 

Legend of Lothian 

Well put together, but enjoyment is lessened by an over-demanding food counter system and random battles. 

Mega Race 

Potentially interesting SEUCK Spy Hunter clone let down by slow scrolling and a general lack of oomph. 

Ork Attack 

Difficult but satisfying splat-'em-up. Whack-a-Mole, cartoon medieval style. 

Parachute Joust 

WWF Amiga-style means passable looks, 

thin gameplay, a lack of atmosphere and a 

complete absence of difficulty. 

ww 

Tough but well-written and enjoyable puzzly, mazey collect-'em-up with blue fruit. 

Extremely short-term gameplay that still manages to prove fun and addictive. One for after the pub. 

Xenon III 

SEUCK strikes again, and the result is a poor vertically-scrolling space shooter. 

round up 

War in Middle Earth 

Yogi’s Great Escape 

A fruit machine, on the Amiga. Pretty good for its type and fairly addictive. Odd game-duration limiter, though. 

A fascinating recreation of Tolkien’s world as a 

wargame that would benefit from more detailed 

battles and less predetermination. 

Tedious, frustrating, dull. Great this is not. If I 

was Yogi Bear, I’d fire my agent. 

wwww 

www 

ww 

www 

wwww 

wwwww 

wwwww 

ww 

wwww 

www 

w 

www 

w 

apov 4 

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T 

he dust has now settled and several more layers have settled on top of 

that dust. The war of the Amiga Doom clones is long over. What better time 

than now to revisit the myriad of engines that aimed to recreate the famous 

DOS game on the Amiga? And who better than Adrian Simpson to do the revisiting? 

What went right? What went wrong? What did it all mean? It could be argued that 

these clones of Doom are an insignificant footnote in the history of gaming. That’s 

true to an extent. The various engines are a minor sub-branch of Doom’s legacy and 

they are just straight clones after all. They won’t be included in any mainstream timeline 

of first person shooters. 

On the other hand, the Amiga clones are a fascinating range of different approaches 

to the same problem. The clones arose from a sort of patriotic fervour. They were

coded 

in the belief that, 

although the generally fixed and familiar technology of the 

Amiga was being left behind by the rapid advances of the faceless PC, 

the old machine could still hold its own. 

It couldn’t really, though. The raw processing power of the PCs of the day gave Doom 

an immediacy and ‘oomph’ that was hard to replicate on the Amiga. There was also 

the matter of the Amiga’s planar graphics method as opposed to the PC’s chunky 

system (see the techy boxout for more info). 

In this article we will use the term ‘Doom clone’ to generically refer to the distinct 

style of first person shooter that was popularised by id Software’s game.

apov 4 

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feature 

Early Doom-ish Amiga Games 

It’s fairly easy to dig up old games which feature some of the same elements as Wolfenstein and Doom 

since the idea of walking down corridors and shooting things was not entirely new to gaming when those 

titles appeared. Similarly, viewing the action from a first person perspective has been seen before, notably 

in a number of Operation Wolf style games. Here are a few select Amiga games which did something a bit 

like Doom (but in a different way). 

� THE COLONY 

Mindscape, 1990 

Following an encounter with a black hole 

your spaceship has crashed. Once you 

work out how to turn on the lights you are 

presented with a 3D filled vector first-person 

exploration adventure. 

It’s Doom! 

The first-person viewpoint conveys a 

strong sense of being there, up to a point. 

What’s round the corner? Is it a hell spawn 

demon? 

But... 

It’s a slow, adventure game. 

� HIRED GUNS 

Psygnosis, 1993 

Hired Guns is Dungeon Master in space as 

a team of four work together on strange 

planets. 

It’s Doom! 

Hired Guns includes a variety of guns, 

aliens and settings with four individual 

first person windows on the action. 

But... 

Like Alcatraz, the movement in Hired Guns 

is more akin to dungeon crawler RPGs 

than Doom. 

� ALCATRAZ 

Infogrames, 1992 

A nefarious drug baron has taken over 

Alcatraz. Assault the former prison from 

both a side-on perspective and a first-person 

view. 

It’s Doom! 

The corridor section is seen from the 

character’s view and even features a firing 

gun hovering in front, Doom style. 

But... 

The step-by-step movement of the player 

owes more to Dungeon Master than 

Doom. 

� RESOLUTION 101 

Millennium, 1990 

As a criminal turned bounty hunter you 

must shoot the bad guys in an overrun 

city. 

It’s Doom! 

Fast paced first-person action. Although 

the player is controlling a hover vehicle 

you could almost be running around on 

speed. 

But... 

It’s closer to a more action-packed 

version of Battlezone than Doom. 

� CASTLE MASTER 

Domark, 1990 

Your twin sister/brother has been kidnapped 

and is being held in a castle by a 

wicked spirit. Enter the fortress, visit 

rooms, kill spirits and discover treasure, all 

in glorious Freescape. 

It’s Doom! 

Medieval locations are a favourite of many 

First Person Shooters and the engine 

even allows you to look up and down. 

But... 

It’s slow and clunky. 

� CYBERCON III 

US Gold, 1991 

A super intelligent machine in control of 

nuclear weapons has gone haywire. 

Donning a robotic suit of armour your task 

is to infiltrate the oversized calculator’s 

complex and destroy it. 

It’s Doom! 

The player can explore a convincing 3D 

environment and attack enemy robots. 

But... 

There’s plenty of management of the 

suit’s systems and progress is unhurried.

� INFESTATION 

Psygnosis, 1990 

On a planet’s surface and in an underground 

base your spaceman shoots bugs 

and robots and views the action through a 

helmet’s visor. Take the helmet off and 

you are afforded a wider view. 

It’s Doom! 

The Aliens style setting, corridor action 

and ventilation shaft access are elements 

that would all later be seen in many firstperson 

shooters. 

But... 

The pace is quite pedestrian and the game 

is about exploration and adventure rather 

than shooting everything in sight. 

� ROBOCOP 3 

Ocean, 1992 

Terrorists have hijacked the OCP tower 

and crazed punks are terrorising the 

neighbourhood. In a series of 3D subgames 

Robo flies, drives, punches and 

shoots his way through the baddies. 

It’s Doom! 

Robocop does a good impression of being 

in a Doom clone during his corridor-based 

shooting sessions through alleys and in 

office buildings. 

But... 

The bad guys don’t move around so it 

feels like Robocop is moving from one 

Operation Wolf quick draw shoot-out to 

the next. 


� CORPORATION 

Core, 1990 

Penetrate a multi-storey building in a firstperson 

fashion as a secret agent with 

James Bond gadgets, including a jet pack. 

Robots and monster holograms populate 

the corridors and rooms. 

It’s Doom! 

The 3D environment with 2D sprites suggests 

Doom in a big way. The time bomb 

can be used to destroy many of the 

floor’s walls in one go. About ten years 

later a first-person shooter called Red 

Faction would feature supposedly revolutionary 

“destructible scenery.” 

But... 

The action isn’t as immediate as Doom. 

Early First Person Texture 

Mapping in Amiga Games 

Prior to the advent of the commercial Doom clone era certain Amiga games exhibited symptoms of the 

Doom bug and featured texture mapping in a first person view. Two of these early adopters were traditional 

2D games with 3D sections but one used texture mapping as its primary engine and strove to be the 

Amiga’s answer to Ultima Underworld. 

� AMBERMOON 

Thalion, 1993 

The follow up to Dragonflight and 

Amberstar is still a top-down RPG but it 

also includes a dungeon based 3D texture 

mapped section. The switch from 2D to 3D 

occurred when the player entered an area 

such as a cellar. 

� JURASSIC PARK 

Ocean, 1993 

Jurassic Park was one of the ground 

breaking films that ushered in a new era 

of special effects. Some levels involve 

shooting dinosaurs in a 3D texture 

mapped interior although the rest is a 

standard top-down action game. 

� LEGENDS OF 

VALOUR 

US Gold, 1993 

Legends of Valour was an early attempt 

to apply texture mapping techniques to a 

virtual RPG world in which the player can 

explore a town and its tunnels. 

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Doom Engines 

Once Wolfenstein 3D and Doom showed the way Amiga programmers began to take up the mantle, aiming 

to reproduce the same style of gameplay. The different engines were at various stages of completion and 

often missed features such as floors or working doors. The majority of these engines never progressed 

beyond early versions and plans to add numerous advanced features which were never realised. 

Apart from the technical barriers which might have killed off development the engines commonly suffered 

from “university student coder syndrome.” An affluence of free time at university invariably becomes a 

paucity at some point when exam time arrives or one has to work for a living. This and other hurdles of 

bedroom coding meant that many promising non-commercial engines were started but few were finished. 

� 3D NAVIGATOR 

Giuseppe Perniola 

Features: Walls, map, variable screen size 

Verdict: Coded in Blitz Basic, 3D Navigator 

launches from a simple GUI which also 

allows some variables to be set, such as 

screen size. The engine itself includes a 

simple level map but the illusion of 

corridors is produced solely from flat 

rectangles. An angled wall is therefore 

displayed by positioning layers of flat 

rectangles. 

� CHUNKY MAZE 

David Bryson 

Features: Copper based “chunky” emulation, 

variable screen size and pixel size 

Verdict: A fast but basic demo. A settings 

screen allows various sizes to be altered, 

within hardware restrictions. 

� ALIEN BREED 3D 

DEMO 

Team 17 

Features: Sky, walls, floor, water, monsters 

Verdict: This Amiga Format demo was the 

first look at the much-anticipated AB3D. 

The demo theme is closer to the previous 

Alien Breed games, with similar aliens and 

a space theme sky backdrop. It’s worth 

trying even if you’ve played through the 

main game. 

� DAMAGE WOLF 

3D 

Antti Lankila (STL of Damage) 

Features: Floor, ceiling, scenery sprites, 

ECS and AGA versions, two screen sizes 

Verdict: A somewhat psychedelically 

coloured trip through an interior location 

with strange mushroom shaped furnishings. 

This engine is variously called Wolf 

3D, 3D Wolf and Damage Wolf 3D where 

‘Damage’ is the name of the coder’s 

group. There are ECS and AGA versions 

plus screen sizes of 192x160 and 128x96. 

� AMR WOLF 

Alastair M. Robinson 

Features: Floor, sky, walls, animated 

textures, doors, health and weapon 

counter, enemy, exploding barrels, dummy 

collectables 

Verdict: AMR Wolf, which is named after 

the initials of its author, is an almost full 

screen engine which boasts a number of 

features, including exploding barrels. It 

looks great and was to be used for a 

shareware game but it was never finished. 

� DAMAGE WOLF 

3D 2 

Antti Lankila/Bartosz Boruta 

Features: Sky, floor, ceiling, look up and 

down, jump 

Verdict: This sequel makes great improvements 

to the feel of the engine. The garish 

colours and internal location are replaced 

by an atmospheric exterior area on top of 

a remote mountain peak. It’s somewhat 

slow but does feature an advanced 

engine with view tilt. There’s also a jump 

button, a rare feature in early engines.

3D METHODS 

� DENT A WOLF 

Alex Amsel 

Features: Interface (non-functioning), walls 

Verdict: This engine is fast but lacks many 

features such as a floor, ceiling and enemies. 

It already looks good however and 

was off to a promising start. 

� FEARS DEMO 

Bomb Software 

Features: Walls, floor, ceiling, doors, monsters, 

weapons, sound effects, collectables 

Verdict: The commercial game Fears was 

once a shareware demo that differs from 

the final game in a number of ways. The 

screen size is much smaller, the interface 

is different and there are no hovering 

weapons. In fact, Bomb’s “Motion: Origin 

2” demo features a section which seems 

to instead be the direct ancestor to the 

commercial Fears. 

� DENTECTS / 

DENTAKU-26 

Alex Amsel 

Features: Floor, ceiling, doors, enemy 

(non-functioning), monitors with rotating 

images, walls with scrolling textures 

Verdict: A demo for a full game which was 

never released, with a much more 

advanced engine than Dent A Wolf. The 

3D display size is small and low on detail 

but it keeps the speed at a playable level. 

� INVASION 3D 

Giuseppe Perniola 

Features: Floating weapon, walls 

Verdict: Invasion 3D is a demo of how the 

author’s 3D Navigator could be used in a 

game. There is a floating weapon directly 

ahead but the movement is quite blocky. 


There is more than one way to produce a 3D first-person view. Here 

are a few methods: 

Wireframe 3D A good method for slow machines since there is no need to calculate which object lines can be seen and which can’t (a 

wireframe cube is transparent): Mercenary, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back 

Filled 3D Similar to wireframe 3D but the surfaces of objects are coloured in. This produces a more realistic look since in real life you 

can’t see through things. The dominant method for 3D on the Amiga: Hunter, Knights of the Sky, Voyager 

Gouraud Shading Uses a sort of gradient effect to make objects look curved. Its main benefit is calculation speed: Behind the Iron Gate 

Texture Mapping The rendering of a flat texture on an angled surface. If rendered in real-time it can produce the sort of realistic game 

environment that Doom was famous for: Doom, Alien Breed 3D, Gloom, Fears 

Voxels (Volumetric Pixels) A method that is good for producing undulating and uneven landscapes and compared to texture mapping is 

relatively fast: Shadow of the Third Moon 

Faking It If all else fails, your 3D could be a fixed set of pre-drawn walls which are rearranged when the player moves: Dungeon Master, 

Hired Guns 

� DOGENSTEIN 

Jason G. Doig/PyroTeknix 

Features: Walls 

Verdict: This simple demo shows off a 

small maze with texture mapped walls, 

which can be navigated with the mouse or 

joystick. The use of the Doom “hand and 

gun” sprite gives the engine a familiar feel. 

� IQ ENGINE 

Alcatraz/Christopher Dissauer 

Features: Floors, ceiling, enemies (static), 

working weapon, look up, look down, jump, 

moving platform 

Verdict: The influence here is Dark Forces 

and the engine uses graphics from that 

DOS game, including a large blaster 

weapon. Stormtroopers stand around and 

are more useless than usual, fixed as they 

are to one spot. Nevertheless, this is a 

fairly advanced engine with a respectable 

number of features. 

apov 4 

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� MY 3D ENGINE 

Petri Häkkinen 

Features: AMOS with 30 lines of machine 

code, sky, floor, walls, monster 

Verdict: My 3D Engine seems to do 

strange things with the hardware to 

achieve its effect and doesn’t work in the 

WinUAE emulator. On a real Amiga the 

display is jagged but fast. A floating, 

monstrous head tours a preset path. 

MEMORY 

� POOM 

Jussi Salmi 

A computer display is made up of individual pixels, each of 

which can have a specific colour. A two colour display needs 

only two numbers to record each possible colour in memory; 

0 and 1, where 0 might represent black and 1 might represent 

white. In binary terms only 1 bit of memory is required to 

store each pixel's colour. 

The more colours are used the more memory is required for 

each pixel. For example, 16 colours can be stored in 4 bits - 

decimal 0 or binary 0000 to decimal 15 or binary 1111) and 

256 colours could be stored in 8 bits (1 byte) - decimal 0 or 

binary 00000000 to decimal 255 or 11111111. 

The number of colours clearly affects how much memory is 

used and, in the Amiga's bitplane system, how many memory 

addresses must be accessed to update the display. 

In order to work out how many colours can be displayed 

using the Amiga’s bitplanes calculate: 

2y where y is the number of bitplanes 

Bitplanes 

1 = 2 colours 

2 = 4 colours 

3 = 8 colours 

4 = 16 colours 





The number of bitplanes most commonly used on the Amiga 

are 4 (16 colours), 5 (32 colours) and 8 (256 colours e.g. 

AGA). 

Features: Walls, floors, two screen sizes 

(256x200 and 192x160), doors, animated 

walls 

Verdict: Poom is reasonably fast on its 

intended target processor (68020 or better) 

and the 256x200 version is detailed. 

The gameplay area is large, with numerous 

corridors and functioning doors. It is 

something of an empty world but was a 

promising engine at the time. 

� SPEED 

M. Andrzejak 

� ROT DEMO 

Jason Freund/Gabe Dalbec 

Features: Walls, map 

Verdict: “Rot” stands for “rotation” and is 

a demo engine intended to attract collaborators 

for a game project. The engine 

itself is very simple with the maze view in 

the top half of the screen and a basic map 

in the bottom half. The demo includes a 

text file with technical details of the texture 

mapping. 

Features: Jump, 

multi-plane levels, 

speed! 

Verdict: Speed is 

something of an 

oddity since the 

author has utilised 

his texture mapping 

engine to create a 

sort of racing game and not an FPS. There is only one track in 

the preview, but it’s set in a varied indoor maze with stairs and 

variable floor and ceiling sections. The engine is fast and allows 

a jump to be sprung, giving the demo a fluidity and immediacy 

not often seen on the Amiga. There is also a 3D mode for those 

with the requisite glasses. 

� TEXTUREDEMO (V5.7) 

John Hendrikx 

Features: Eight screen sizes (from 96x72 to 320x240) and four 

pixel size modes, high walls, floors, animated textures 

Verdict: On the 1x1 pixel mode and 320x240 screen size this 

engine looks great but the movement seems a little wobbly. It’s a 

gloomy environment but it does have some high walls, lending it 

an outdoors feel. Apart from one harmless, floating skeleton there 

are no inhabitants and there is little functionality in the world. Still, 

it’s a capable engine 

which was due to be 

used in two unreleased 

games: 

Mystic Tank, a splitscreen 

tank game, 

and Shade, a magicbased 

shooter.

� TEXTURE MAP 

DEMO 

Chris Green 

Features: Wall texture mapper and gouraud 

shaded floor and optional ceiling 

Verdict: A simple demo written in a week 

by Commodore engineer Chris Green. 

There are a number of configuration 

options but changes require re-assembly 

of the program. Walls fade into the distance 

which gives the demo a certain 

character. 

� WARP/S 

(TEXMAPP2) 

Stefan Heinsen / Martin Schlott / 

Oliver Groth 

Features: Walls, floors, ceiling, doors, enemies 

Verdict: Quite a complete demo with most 

of the features you’d expect. It’s the follow 

up to a previous version called 

Texmapp1. The screen size is generous 

although this is offset slightly by the large 

pixels. This engine could have become a 

neat game. 

� TRICK OR TREAT 

Duncan Stuart 

Features: Walls, two player action 

Verdict: Trick or Treat values gameplay 

over an advanced engine and is a fun texture 

mapped arena shooter for two players. 

Each player is allocated their own 

mini-view of the maze which allows simultaneous 

play. Although it is shareware, the 

unregistered game has plenty of entertainment 

value. 

� WOLF 23 ISH 

Chris Colman (Findus) 

Features: Simple maze, background gradient, 

wall textures 

Verdict: The peculiarly named Wolf 23 ish 

is a fixed version of an engine which was 

previously known as Wolf 2. The AGA only 

engine is in a very early state and the programmer 

released it in order to determine 

the speed on other machines. The screen 

size is quite large but there isn’t much 

detail and the floor and sky are formed of 

a fixed background gradient. 

� WOLFPAC 

OnLineLoop, 1997 

Features: Walls, floor, background, ghosts, gameplay 


� WALLS V1.7 

Mats Knip 

Features: Ray casting demo with maze 

designer 

Verdict: With a large screen size and 

mountainous backdrop Walls looks pretty 

good. There is no texture mapping but this 

keeps the engine speed high. The maze 

designer is a nice touch. 

� WOLF 3D 

Terence Russell 

Features: Walls 

Verdict: This is similar to Texture Map 

Demo in that it’s a basic demo engine that 

includes its source code. There are few 

features apart from the basic wall textures 

but they congregate to form an art gallery 

hovering on an infinite plane. 

Verdict: Wolfenstein 3D meets Pac-Man and produces WolfPac, a 3D version of the 

famous 2D maze game. The first-person perspective removes the customary 

overview of the whole maze and places the action in a texture-mapped arena, to 

claustrophobic effect. WolfPac supports AGA and graphics cards and comes in 

flavours for 68K and PowerPC processors. 

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Demos 

Scene demos usually included a range of standard effects and techniques, including texture mapping on 

cubes or other shapes. The following demos went a bit further and featured sections of texture mapped 

mazes. Thanks go to Steffen Haeuser’s “Amiga Texture-Mapped Games FAQ” for listing these. 

� DOOMED 

Pearl 

Doomed is a demo scene release with a 

3D maze section. It’s not playable but the 

camera takes a trip around the maze and 

then exits through a door. Attempts to display 

the demo in an emulator failed so a 

real Amiga is required – probably due to 

some clever hardware tricks. 

� MINDFLOW 

Stellar 

This demo may be filled with standard 

demo features, but sandwiched between a 

rotating cube and a fractal effect is a texture 

mapped underground section. The 

preceding and proceeding segments end 

and start as textures on a wall too, which 

is neat. 

� FULL MOON 

Virtual Dreams/Fairlight 

The viewing window is quite small but this 

is a reasonable, if basic, rolling exploration 

of a 3D maze. It’s a sub section of a 

longer demo. 

� MOTION: ORIGIN 

2 

Bomb 

Part of this demo from The Party 1994 is a 

rolling demo of a texture mapped engine 

which looks suspiciously like the commercial 

Fears. After the demo has finished the 

engine is controllable with the mouse and 

it is indeed a scene demo section that 

became a commercial game. 

� THE HOI SAGA 

PART III: THE FINAL 

CHAPTER! 

Team Hoi 

The group behind the game Hoi released 

this demo, which has an on rails maze 

section. The colourful graphics and sky 

gradient give the 3D a different look to 

most other 3D engines, which are often in 

murky locations. The main character from 

Hoi makes an appearance in the maze. 

� PHOBOS 

Cydonia 

Phobos is billed as a "50fps Wolfenstein 

routine on a stock Amiga 500" and is a 

rolling 3D engine which can also be controlled 

by the joystick. The display has the 

same sort of jaggy copper effect look as 

the Doomed demo. 

"In 1993, we fully expect to be the number 

one cause of decreased productivity in 

businesses around the world." id Software

Commercial Doom Clones 


Each of the commercial Doom clones on the Amiga exhibits certain strengths and weaknesses. Trade offs 

typically had to be made between the speed of the game and the complexity of the engine. For example, 

some games restricted their levels to a single plane whereas others allowed variable height designs and 

stairs. 

Publishers often targeted their games for specific Amigas, realising that the older machines such as the 

A500 weren’t up to the processor intensive job of texture mapping. An advanced engine demanded a 

powerful machine. Conversely, some developers created basic engines which would run on all Amigas and 

so benefit from the largest machine base. 

This summary will focus on shooters and omit some first person or texture mapped games which don’t fit 

the precise genre. Some games that aren’t included are the two Trapped titles, which are texture mapped 

RPGs, and Aquakon, an outdoor based first person shooter with a traditional sprite based engine. Death 

Mask is included since it was specifically marketed as a Doom style game. 

� ALIEN BREED 3D 

Team 17/Ocean, 1995 

Long before Grand Theft Auto made the 

jump from 2D to 3D one of Team 17’s flagship 

games threw off its top-down view 

and became a first person shooter. To be 

honest, there isn’t a great deal left from 

the original Alien Breed games but merging 

“Alien Breed” and “3D” in the mid-90s 

was enough to get most Amiga owners 

very excited. 

Alien Breed 3D’s screen is filled by a 

large interface and a small window in the 

centre. This is an understandable trade-off 

for a game which is designed to run on a 

basic A1200. The Enter key removes the 

interface and expands the screen size but 

results in a blocky display. 

The screen size may be small but this 

has allowed Team 17 to include some 

advanced features. Where some engines 

are restricted to one plane, 

Alien Breed 3D allows multiple 

levels and stairs, 

permitting sophisticated 

designs. There is an 

array of weaponry, 

including a massive 

rocket launcher and a 

plasma gun. There 

are also barrels which 

destruct in a fiery 

explosion, realistic 

water and a variety of 

alien sizes. 

� FEARS 

Bomb Software/Manyk/Guildhall/ 

attic, 1995 

This is the game which resulted from the 

programmer’s shareware engine, also 

called Fears. The commercial game is 

almost unrecognisable from the early 

demo and features a near full screen view. 

The pixel size is quite large and produces a 

blocky display but it’s a reasonable trade 

off for extra speed and the colourful locations 

make up for it. Some configuration options allow features such as walls to be 

turned off and the horizontal screen size to be reduced. 

Fears features an excellent selection of weapons: a shotgun, machinegun, rocket 

launcher, plasma gun and saw. Due to some sort of translation mix up the shotgun is 

labelled a rifle and the saw a chain saw. The more powerful guns have a respectable 

presence and impact in the game. There is a slight graphical variety to the level’s inhabitants 

but they don’t exhibit a great deal of intelligence. 

Fears’ secret weapon is a sophisticated level designer which is accessible from the 

main menu of the game. In line with the slickness of the rest of the game its interface 

looks smarter than most level designers. A CD32 port is also available. 

� BREATHLESS 

Fields of Vision/Power Computing, 1995 

Breathless, unlike Alien Breed 3D and the original Gloom, is intended for powerful Amigas. 

The almost full screen 1x1 pixel mode looks very attractive, if your Amiga is capable of running 

it at a reasonable rate. There are a number of different screen sizes ranging from a 

postage stamp 96x60 pixels to the full 320x200. The pixel size can also be changed for a 

chunkier but faster display. 

When Breathless was released it boasted a unique feature that had been omitted in 

the other commercial Doom clones. Using two keys, the player can tilt their view up 

and down in order to attack enemies on balconies 

or those hiding at the bottom of 

steps. This adds an extra dimension to the 

action although it can now seem fiddly to 

modern players who are used to the freedom 

and preciseness of mouse look. 

Perhaps the weakest element of 

Breathless is the selection of weapons, each 

of which is too similar to the others and 

which don’t appear on the screen in front of 

the view. Like Gloom, they are generally of 

the plasma variety and lack the impact of, 

say, a Doom shotgun. 

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� GLOOM / GLOOM DELUXE 

Black Magic/Guildhall, 1995/1996 

Gloom boldly eschews any notion of advanced 3D engine features and instead opts for 

fast-paced shoot-‘em-up action. First person games of this era are notable for their lack 

of enemy intelligence. Their usual plan of attack is to move inexorably towards the player 

until stopped by overpowering weaponry. Gloom sidesteps this problem by filling rooms 

with crowds of cannon fodder which shuffle about and by providing plasma guns with 

varying levels of power to counter the 

horde’s threat. The weaponry does suffer 

from a distinct lack of variety. 

The environment, and the foes you face, 

however, vary significantly. There’s a space 

ship full of marines, medieval catacombs with transparent ghosts and a red hell populated 

by demons. Gloom’s biggest drawback is the small screen size although this does maintain 

the speed of the action and allows for plenty of mayhem. 

Gloom Deluxe drops the AGA requirement but allows for a full screen ECS display on 

machines with enough memory and processor power and includes a floating weapon for 

effect. Although Gloom’s engine isn’t the most advanced it does boast an excellent feature: 

a playable Defender machine. 

� DEATH MASK 

Apache/Alternative, 1995 

Death Mask is a bit of a cheat. The first 

person view is produced using the same 

technique that was employed for Dungeon 

Master and Hired Guns. Movement is 

block-by-block and not the free-ranging 

3D that is expected in these games. Still, 

the game was marketed as a Doom clone 

(“360 degrees of rotating action”) and it 

does a reasonable job of faking the 3D so 

let’s look at it in this round-up. 

Once the disappointment subsides 

Death Mask turns out to be a fun shooter. 

There are over thirty levels to work 

through for one or two players. In either 

mode the player view occupies only half 

the screen. A decent set of Doom type 

weapons are supplied, including a knife, 

double barrel shotgun and mini-gun. The 

weapons are animated. It’s as if the developers 

were remorseful of their deception 

regarding the lack of a 3D engine and so 

included a number of neat little touches 

and features. 

Death Mask’s problems are general to 

this type of game with a step-by-step 

movement. Unlike Doom, the player can’t 

quickly dodge attacks and must instead 

engage in one-on-one battles along corridors 

as each enemy awaits his turn. 

� BEHIND THE 

IRON GATE 

Ego/Black Legend, 1995 

Aimed squarely at the basic A500 market, 

Behind the Iron Gate runs on a lightweight 

and speedy engine. The walls and floors 

are generated using what appears to be 

Gouraud shading. Gargoyle, monster, 

galaxy, pistol and Sigmund Freud textures 

adorn the walls. It’s close to monochrome 

but somehow looks good in a minimalistic 

way. 

A shop between levels provides an 

interesting selection of items, including a 

sniper rifle and other firearms. Money is 

earned by destroying robots in each level 

and levels are completed by activating 

bombs and finding the exit. 

The default control system is a little 

tricky to get used to. The mouse is used 

to turn the view and to move, whilst holding 

down the right button moves the hand 

pointer which interacts with objects. There 

are three other control methods which 

provide variations, including the sensitivity 

or allow control with the joystick. It’s quite 

fiddly and means that gameplay is slower 

and quite like that of an RPG.

� UBEK 

Twin Spark Soft, 1995 

At first UBEK appears to be a standard 

Doom clone but a few features mark it 

apart. The fundamental gameplay style is 

actually a cross between Wolfenstein 3D 

and Operation Wolf. Although the view 

changes as the player moves around, the 

aiming reticle can be controlled with the 

mouse, allowing precise shooting. A 

Robocop-style identifying rectangle highlights 

noteworthy objects. Both the joystick 

and the mouse move the player 

through the game world. 

Precision is required since death is 

never very far away. The first level is dotted 

with spikes and unhelpfully features a 

base turret which reduces health to zero 

extremely quickly. Clearly the frontal 

assault option is out. Most of the game is 

in Polish so unless you understand the 

language there is much trial and error. On 

the first level the goal is to find an alternative 

entrance to the base. This is a small 

drain which provides another way in. 

UBEK is anchored in the real world and 

is closer to a stealth-based action game 

than a straight demon-action-fest. The levels 

are varied with some unique touches, 

including a shark infested sea and a prison 

level where one can poke mutant pigs with 

a fork. It’s necessary to solve a few puzzles 

to proceed, including finding a key for 

a door. It does get better than this; one 

puzzle involves finding a floppy disk for an 

Amiga, inserting the disk and then interacting 

with the computer to flick three 

switches to open a door. The texture 

mapped graphics are functional and the 

main pistol is slightly 

weedy but UBEK 

is sufficiently 

different to be 

an interesting, 

if difficult, 

game. 

CHUNKY VS PLANAR 


How are graphics stored in memory? One possible graphical storage system 

would be to store the value (colour) of each pixel in a long row. For example, in 

order to store an image with up to 256 colours the following values could be 

placed in each consecutive memory address: 

00000000 (colour no. 0) 

10010000 (colour no. 144) 

00010110 (colour no. 22) 

00010110 (colour no. 22) 

In the above examples there are four pixels with colours 0, 144, 22 and 22. This is 

a Chunky graphics system and is the method used by the Doom-era PC. 

The Amiga uses a different system; Planar graphics. The bits for each pixel are 

displayed in different locations (bitplanes) in memory and must be combined in 

order to find the colour of a pixel that is to be displayed. For example, an eight 

colour Planar system would use the following bytes: 

Bitplane 1 0 0 1 1 




Compare this to the Chunky system: 

00000100 00000110 00001010 00001010 

In the Chunky system each colour is displayed one after the other. In the Planar 

system each Bitplane row is stored at a different location in memory. 

In order to find the first colour the Chunky system needs only to make one read 

operation: 0100. The Planar system needs to go to bitplane 1 then read 0, go to 

bitplane 2 then read 1, go to bitplane 3 then read 0 and finally to bitplane 4 and 

read 0. 

A 256 colour display would need eight reads since eight bits are required to store 

up to 256 numbers e.g. this is one pixel: 

Planar 

Bitplane 1 0... 








"With Doom the monitor screen became 

a magic rabbit hole, and you fell down it, 

screaming all the way." John Carmack 

The Chunky system is clearly faster than Planar since only one memory read is 

required per pixel rather than up to 8 reads. This is one reason why Doom clones 

on the Amiga are quite slow compared to the PC. 

Planar, on the other hand, is supposedly better for scrolling, parallax type games. 

Less memory is also used by the Planar system to display low numbers of 

colours. This is because it doesn't require a full memory address for a small number. 

For example, a sixteen colour Planar pixel needs 4 bits whereas Chunky 

would probably use the whole byte (8 bits). 

D O O M I N N U M B E R S 

$250,000 

Amount paid to id Software by 

Atari for the Jaguar port of Doom. 

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� PROJECT 

BATTLEFIELD 

TSA/Mirage Media, 1995 

Project Battlefield is surely one of the 

least known Doom clones on the Amiga. 

The game is in Polish but this is not a 

major problem since most of the game is 

simple enough to understand and is generally 

wordless. The basic gameplay 

involves locating key cards and using 

them on terminals dotted around a maze. 

The texture mapping is on a single level 

and is essentially without a ceiling or moving 

floor. However, a background mountain 

range with a gradient sunset and a static 

two colour floor are reasonable replacements. 

Other features include a variety of 

wall textures, barrels which explode (rather 

weakly), doors and the odd moving wall. 

The 3D, however, isn’t very fast. A choice 

at the start of the game allows the player 

to choose between a cut-down A500 

configuration and the larger screen of the 

A1200 version. 

There are some general gameplay problems 

with Project Battlefield. Although 

there is a wireframe map (displayed with 

the right mouse button) there doesn’t 

seem to be a way to rotate or zoom out. 

It’s therefore of little use when navigating 

around the large maze. Aiming at soldiers 

and robots is difficult and the gun doesn’t 

work when the enemy is too close. It’s an 

interesting game but ultimately too limited. 

� CITADEL / 

CYTADELA 

Arrakis Software/Virtual Design/ 

Black Legend, 1995 

Citadel is the English version of the Polish 

game Cytadela. It’s possible to run it on an 

A500, albeit in an extremely tiny window 

(64x42 pixels!). The detail can be 

increased for faster machines and there’s 

a full screen mode which omits the interface 

altogether. 

Gore and violence abounds in Citadel. 

There are the usual hanging torsos and 

blood splattered walls. Blood pours down 

the screen when health has run out. One 

of the weapons is a flamethrower which 

can be used to set fire to foes instead of 

shooting them. The range of weapons is 

good and also includes a shotgun, minigun 

and rocket launcher. Barrels explode 

in a chain reaction when shot. 

Mouse control works well where the left 

button moves forward and the right button 

shoots. Keyboard control is also available. 

Perhaps the strangest feature of Citadel is 

the energy sapping walls. Walk into a wall 

and your character will eventually head 

butt himself to death. This bizarre decision 

restricts freedom of movement. Although 

a sort of interference is displayed on 

screen when the character touches a wall 

this can be turned off. Interestingly, 

Cytadela has recently been turned into an 

Open Source game for multiple platforms. 

� PROJECT 

INTERCALARIS 

TSA/Mirage Media, 1996 

Project Intercalaris may well be a sequel 

to Project Battlefield, judging by the similar 

name and publisher. Additionally, the 

feel of the game is very akin to 

Battlefield. The maze, distant mountains, 

floating weapon and robot enemies seem 

quite familiar. 

Although similar to Battlefield, the game 

is a big improvement in a number of areas. 

The 3D display is bigger and although it’s 

fairly chunky it covers most of the screen 

and the update is a bit more responsive. 

Explosions are more substantial and the 

hovering gun is heftier. The architecture of 

the levels has developed, with raised platforms, 

a proper floor and ceilings over 

some sections. This projects a more varied 

design even in the first small area. 

� ALIEN BREED 3D II: THE KILLING 

GROUNDS 

Team 17/Ocean, 1996 

At first glance, the fluidity of the first Alien Breed 3D is lost in this sequel, which 

demands a mighty Amiga. There is, however, a concession to slower Amigas. A 

cut-down 2Mb version is included with the standard 4Mb release. The 2Mb version 

is a pale imitation of its elder brother though. The advanced engine allows 

for a number of features that are usually absent in other Doom clones. There are 

keys to look up, look down, to jump 

and to duck. Furthermore, there’s a 

useful wireframe map overlay. 

Perhaps the reason for these 

bonuses is that is that The Killing 

Grounds is the real deal. It doesn’t 

compromise as other Amiga first person games do. For example, the game’s guns are lit by 

the engine because they are rendered in 3D and aren’t simple bitmaps. 

Alien Breed 3D II has lost some of the distinctive colourful retro-Amiga look of the first 

game. Although this is disappointing it is oddly appropriate, given how far it departs from the 

notion of an Amiga game. It was ahead of its time and is therefore best played on WinUAE 

and a fast PC and not on an Amiga. In this environment it becomes a much better game.

� NEMAC IV 

ZenTek, 1996/1997 


Nemac IV has no lofty ambitions to advanced features apart from one. The display can 

be adapted to suit the capabilities of your Amiga. For example, a view size of 64x32 is 

permissible (if unplayable). A higher size of 320x256 brings great improvements. Even 

better is a size of 1024x768 or above. These high resolutions can be achieved using a 

graphics card or WinUAE’s emulated “uaegfx” card. On the PC the game runs extremely 

smoothly. The game also supports the Graffiti hardware add-on which provides the 

chunky graphics mode and even 3D glasses. 

The gameplay is a fast-paced run and gun affair, with the player controlling a large 

robot that sports two large machine guns and grenade launchers. Barrels are helpfully 

placed around the levels and they explode in a pleasing way, if not one that challenges 

Alien Breed 3D’s detonations. Progress is made by finding data keys at computer terminals 

and locating the associated door. There isn’t a great deal to the game but it’s a fun romp through a respectable amount of levels. A 

Director’s Cut is also available. 

� ULTIMATE 

GLOOM & GLOOM 3: 

ZOMBIE EDITION 

Gareth Murfin/Alpha Software, 1997 

Using the Gloom Deluxe engine, Gareth 

Murfin released the third in the Gloom 

series. The use of the same engine as the 

last game is both a strength and a weakness; 

the engine is good but its single 

plane levels restricts the variety that can 

be achieved. 

This time the character of Gloom and 

Gloom Deluxe is up against an outbreak of 

zombies. Everyone loves zombies (well, 

nearly) and sticking them in a first person 

shooter is a good idea. Valve Software 

would later also think so when they created 

the Left 4 Dead games. 

Gloom 3 isn’t quite as polished as the 

original Gloom games but it does an 

admirable job of extending the game with 

lots of new levels. 

� TESTAMENT 

Insanity/APC&TCP/Islona/Signum, 

1997 

Testament is one of the later Doom 

clones on the Amiga but it is unashamedly 

old school. It eschews any notion of pushing 

the boundaries of 3D texture mapping 

and presents a fairly standard corridorbased 

shooter. Unlike Gloom, where there 

are considerable changes of theme, 

Testament is based in a horror setting 

throughout. The textures do vary but 

some more diversity in the locations 

would have made a difference. 

There is a minor arsenal of four ballistic 

and plasma weapons each of which is animated. 

A selection of monstrous enemies, 

including demons, zombies and floating 

eye creatures, patrol the levels. 

The game engine is fast, which keeps 

Testament fairly responsive and helps to 

create a playable and entertaining game. 

It’s quite limited but suitable for a quick 

action fix. 

� MONSTRUM / MONSTER 

Dual System Production, 1995 

� ZOMBIE 

MASSACRE 

Gareth Murfin/Alpha Software, 1998 

The zombies are back in a standalone 

game which could almost be called Gloom 

4. Like Gloom 3, Zombie Massacre uses 

the Gloom Deluxe engine to create a first 

person shooter in a horror setting. 

Gloom’s engine can throw a lot of 

enemy sprites at the player, so hordes of 

zombies are appropriate adversaries. 

However, because the space marines of 

the original game are being reused with 

zombie graphics they do seem a bit too 

similar. 

Like Gloom 3, Zombie Massacre is a 

welcome extension to the Gloom levels, 

but be prepared for a limit to the amount 

of variety that can come from the one 

engine. 

The gameplay to this Polish first person shooter is very plain and sees the player hunting 

down monsters in a series of arenas. The next arena loads when all the monsters are dead. 

The weapon used to effect this extermination is underwhelming and makes its presence 

known only by a crosshair and bullet noise. 

The engine is reasonably fast and seems to use the fuzzy blitter style of rendering that 

results in serrated edges. Although the engine is simple, the background and use of colour 

produce a graphical variety and the general impression of being outside in an open arena. 

Different arenas contain different ogres and each is suitably monstrous in its size. 

However, their deportment is diminished by a low number of frames, which gives the impression 

of an early 80s 8-bit game sprite. The monsters flock to the player in open areas but 

get stuck behind blocks of walls; there is often a frantic search for the last, elusive beastie and the wall behind which he hides. This lack 

of monster intelligence does produce a basic game. 

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� QUAKE 

clickBOOM/id, 1998 

When id’s Quake hit the PC scene in 1996 

it was a first rate successor to Doom 

because - technical considerations aside - 

it was simply an awesomely playable 

game. Improbably, a few years afterwards 

an Amiga conversion was released by 

clickBOOM. This version is a faithful port 

and plays just as the PC version does. 

However, because of this the Amiga 

requirements are high. 

The environment is entirely in 3D which 

allows for intricate and twisting levels. The 

nail gun, rocket launcher and lightning gun 

are excellent companions to the standard 

shotguns but unlike Doom 2 the player 

can’t use a chainsaw; one of the enemy 

character types is wielding it! The enemies 

in general are well-conceived and notable, 

ranging from Rottweiler dogs to lumbering 

Shamblers. 

Quake’s graphics have been criticised 

for looking a little too murky and brown 

but this is a minor complaint about an 

otherwise superb game. It is, however, not 

really worth playing on the Amiga if the PC 

version is to hand. 

� GENETIC 

SPECIES 

Marble Eyes/Vulcan, 1998 

Genetic Species was released in 1998, 

far beyond the commercial heyday of 

the Amiga. It also came some months 

after Quake II on the PC and a few 

months before Half-Life. The Amiga 

itself was seeing a perfect conversion 

of Quake. Genetic Species is therefore 

somewhat out of time but is still an 

accomplished game. 

At its core the engine is old fashioned and on a single plane. To make up for this, the 

developers have added some excellent features. Foes wander around the corridors in a 

realistic manner and lack a perfect aim, meaning that some bullets hit the walls instead. 

They can also run away if about to die. Canisters and barrels explode in an organic way 

and there are a number of environmental 

effects such as drips of water and 

flames. There is a varied selection of 

weapons, including the industrial drill 

and a stun gun. 

A superimposed map is very useful 

to give an overview of the levels and 

areas but there is still a lot of roaming 

in the search for keys or buttons for 

opening doors. Some more in-game 

guidance would have been welcome. 

The Portable Probe Device (PPD) is a 

device with two unique gameplay 

effects: it shows a trippy view of 

what’s immediately down the corridor 

and allows other characters to be controlled 

to utilise their access to rooms. Graphics 

cards are supported and provide a 640x480 

view which expands the lower resolution of 

the AGA mode. Genetic Species is a highly 

recommended game: it is sometimes 

old-fashioned but quite advanced and 

fascinating in other ways. 

Open-Source Conversions 

Releasing the source code of old games is an 

excellent way to breathe some new life into them. 

It’s also good news for machines which normally 

wouldn’t have seen conversions of these games. 

The upside is that gamers get a real version of a 

game and not some cunningly named clone. The 

downside is that optimisation of the code may not 

have been a priority and the ports may run slowly. A 

full version of the game is often required since the 

ports are usually of the main executables. 

� Wolfenstein 3D 


10,000,000 

Estimated number of people to 

have played Doom within the first 

two years of its release. 

id Software has released the source code for a 

number of their games. Thus, after a period of Doom 

clones on the Amiga, Doom itself and its sequel finally appeared. Its predecessor Wolfenstein 3D also 

made an appearance. After clickBOOM’s commercial port of Quake there was an additional Open Source 

conversion to the Amiga. This version is very similar to the excellent clickBOOM release. Heretic and 

Hexen also made their way to the Amiga via source conversions.


Porting a game completely also opens up the possibilities of running add-on packs for the original game. 

Thus, when Amiga software became scarce late in the Amiga’s commercial twilight years, magazines such 

as Amiga Format and CU Amiga reviewed Quake expansions and total conversions such as Malice. 

One notable Open Source conversion was Doom’s rival Duke Nukem 3D. Like the id games it was a game 

familiar to PC gamers in the 90s. These days there is little point in playing these exact reproductions on 

anything other than the original hardware unless you’re a die-hard Amiga owner with no plans to upgrade 

and living a monkish existence. 

� Duke Nukem 3D � Heretic � Hexen 

Beyond the Standard Amiga: 

PowerPC, OS4, MorphOS 

There came a point when the 68K Amiga was no longer able to run the generation of first person shooters 

of the late 90s. A few of these games were released for the PowerPC machines and OS4. These won’t be 

covered in any detail in this article since I don’t have the necessary hardware or the games themselves. 

However, the games were ports from the PC and so will be familiar to many gamers already. 

Quake II’s world is 

larger and more 

open than its predecessor. 

The setting, 

too, is somewhat 

different and takes 

place during an invasion of the Strogg planet. It’s generally more 

colourful too and overall an excellent game. Hyperion released 

the Amiga version in 2002 for the PowerPC. 

� Quake III: Arena 

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division featured two distinct level 

types: an outdoor environment featuring large mechs and little 

people and the more usual sort of corridor based setting. 

Shogo is a fun and commonly over-the-top shooter which 

was released by 

Hyperion in 2001 for � Quake II 

PowerPC machines. 

Quake III: Arena was ported to 

MorphOS in 2005 by Mark Olsen 

following id’s release of the source 

code. Unlike Quake 1, 2 and 4 there 

was no single player campaign and 

the game instead featured multiplayer 

arena combat against 

humans or bots. 


$700,000 

Estimated production costs of 

Doom in 1993. 

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Unreleased 

Most of the Public Domain Doom engines started as experiments or hobby projects but were probably 

anticipated to be full games at some stage. This category is for games that were one step further to 

becoming commercial titles and which generally had a publisher. Some of the games were conversions of 

commercially released games on the PC. 

� FACE ATTACK / 

FRATZENGEBALLER 

Oxyron 

The author of RPG texture-mapped games 

Trapped and Trapped 2 turned his talents 

to creating a first person shooter called 

FratzenGeballer. This would have been 

more action orientated than his RPGs. A 

preview engine exists and demonstrates a 

fairly advanced engine, with lots of 

options and features such as jumping, 

ducking, looking up and looking down. The 

game was left unfinished as the author 

moved on to other projects. 

� ATMOSFEAR / ENFORCER 

Vulcan 

Known as both Atmosfear and Enforcer, this is a very early version of a fake Doom clone 

written in AMOS. The selection of three weapons are standard; a pistol, shotgun and 

machine/plasma gun. Some sound and graphics, including the hand and pistol image, seem 

to have made a jump from Doom directly! A few monsters appear and attack from all directions. 

It’s similar to Death Mask in that no real time 3D or texture mapping is involved. The first 

person view is created using the old Dungeon Master technique but some nifty animation 

makes the transition between blocks smooth. When walking forward the view bobs up and 

down and progresses convincingly. Similarly, turning around on the spot looks right, because 

the background is being scrolled horizontally to simulate the changing panorama. 

The bogus Doom style has its drawbacks in this case and produces a maze which is like the lines in graph paper. It’s excessively uniform 

and perhaps the limitations of the demo prevented further development. Vulcan would later publish Marble Eyes’ Genetic Species, so 

perhaps they realised the limitations of the fake style and went for the real thing instead. 


$100,000 

Estimated amount earned per day 

by id Software from shareware 

registrations following the release 

of Doom on the PC. 

� BRAIN DEAD / 

BRAIN KILLER 

Virtual Madness/Titan 

The first version of this game is called 

Brain Dead and is a tech demo showcasing 

the 3D engine. The display is a reasonable 

256x198 and necessitates faster 

Amigas. There are four options for the 

pixel size so this can be used to speed up 

the engine. A low colour pair of hands 

hovers in front of the view. The right hand 

punches assailants and the left hand is 

used to hold a mobile mapping device. A 

foot can also be employed 

to kick the enemy to 

death. The lifelike style 

of rendering and the 

functioning human 

appendages actually 

add a sense of reality 

to the engine. 

� TESTAMENT II 

Insanity 

Originally intended as a commercial 

release, Testament II was later released 

for free. It is quite similar to the first game. 

� SWITCHWORLD 

Union Interactive 

Little is known of Switchworld but the 

solitary screenshot in a Polish magazine 

preview shows a texture-mapped and 

graphically pleasing shooter.

� SiN 

Hyperion 

On the PC SiN was a fun action shooter 

set in a standard future of powerful corporations 

providing private security. 

Hyperion took on a conversion for 

PowerPC Amigas but in the end the company 

released only a Linux version. 

Summary 

� ALBION 

Blue Byte 

The creators of The Settlers started 

developing this first person RPG action 

game on the Amiga but it was eventually 

abandoned and released on the PC. An 

early Amiga preview demonstrates a 3D 

engine with interior and exterior locations. 


� SUBSTATION 

Unique Development Sweden 

Coming from the Atari ST, Substation is a 

first person shooter much like Behind the 

Iron Gate. The walls are greyscale shaded 

for reasons of speed and the gameplay is 

very similar to Wolfenstein 3D, with a single 

level world, doors and keys. Although 

the Atari ST version was released the 

Amiga version was eventually cancelled. 

Doom was an excellent ambassador for encouraging PC users to 

upgrade their hardware. It’s a classic example of the so-called 

“killer app” which drives hardware sales and shifts large numbers of 

consoles. On the other hand, the Amiga 500 was a fairly self-contained and 

standard computer which often wasn’t upgraded beyond the usual half megabyte of 

memory. When the A500 started to show its age various successors, like the A500+ and 

A600, failed to provide enough extra raw processing power. The base A1200 and its improved 

upgrade capability went a little way towards creating a new and faster Amiga but it wasn’t enough. The 

Amiga remained in a situation where there weren’t enough upgraded machines to justify many graphically 

stunning games and there weren’t enough games to justify upgrading. 

The Amiga’s ageing hardware and ultimately limited upgrade route was therefore bad news for it as a 

viable gaming platform. However, as we’ve seen, it did produce a great range and variety of Doom-inspired 

engines. PD and demo scene coders were able to experiment with 3D and texture mapping techniques in a 

restricted environment. 

In the commercial world developers and publishers made games intended to run on one of three general 

platforms. The cut-down and almost colourless Behind the Iron Gate provided a Doom clone for ancient but 

numerous A500s, which made a lot of commercial sense. Gloom, Fears and Alien Breed 3D were aimed at 

the standard A1200 configuration, offering a trade-off between processing power and a reasonable 

machine base. Breathless was expected to drive accelerator purchases and to be run on upgraded A1200s 

and A4000s. 

Ironically many of these Amiga games really did need PC 

hardware to run properly. A modern laptop or PC running 

WinUAE is perhaps the best way to play Breathless, Gloom 

Deluxe or Alien Breed 3D II. 

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RUN ANY

WHERE 

Mobile gaming may be trendy but it is far from new: 

game consoles (including portables such as the Game 

Gear) have as long and varied a history as the home 

computer, with generations of machines and users 

worldwide bringing the excitement of the arcade home 

to the living room. 

One of the most useful abilities of computers - the ability 

to run software originally written for other machines - 

ensures that, though consoles may grow old, they never 

disappear. Emulation gives Amiga owners the chance to relive fond gaming 

moments from the past or to experience games 

on systems encountered for the first time. 

In the first part of a new 

series, Carl Stapleton 

checks out the range of 

console emulators on 

offer and gives his Amiga 

an identity crisis.

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Back in the days when Atari was young and 

could actually sell things, the VCS (later 2600) 

was for many the introduction to home gaming. 

Despite having 128 bytes of RAM, five 

sprites and a rubbish version of Pac-Man, the 

2600 survived the crash of 1983/4 and waves 

of competitors from Japan to become the 

longest-commercially-lived games console. 

Low-powered it may be, but the 2600 is 

problematic to emulate accurately due to its 

idiosyncratic display scheme and the use of 

various bank switching techniques and 

undocumented hardware features in many 

games. Virtual 2600, ported by Matthew 

Stroup from a Unix original by Alex Hornby, is 

capable but slow, falling short of real 2600 

speed even on an 060. The WarpUP port by 

Steffen Haeuser gets closer, but still no cigar. 

Bank switching for larger ROMs is supported 

though unstable. 

� Tanks. The only way to 

settle an argument. 

� Before Out Run, Sega Rally, MSR, MotorStorm or even Bump 'n' Burn, there was Enduro. 

Sound output can be toggled, though sound 

slows the emulator down considerably and 

white noise (used in sound effects such as 

explosions) is not emulated. A screenmode 

option allows custom screens, a flickery "fast 

and ugly" mode or a window on the desktop. 

A faster alternative is Stella, again ported 

by the industrious Mr Stroup. Stella (the original 

codename of the 2600, fact fans) supports 

more games than V2600 and has a list of features 

guaranteed to please: high quality sound 

emulation, cartridge and Supercharger (cassette) 

image support, bank switching, screenmode 

selection and emulation of just about 

“Low-powered it may be, but the 

2600 is problematic to emulate 

accurately.” 

any 2600 controller (joystick controllers, keyboard 

controllers, paddle controllers, driving 

controllers, CBS Booster-Grip controllers and 

even real Atari 2600 paddles). Basically, 

everything required to give the young 'uns a 

taste of retrogaming 1981-style and/or to 

bring fond memories of Combat flooding back 

for the more mature among us. And for that 

extra-authentic 

hand cramp you 

must plays 

Combat 

Pitfall! 

River Raid 

Vanguard 

Enduro 

can, of course, plug Atari joysticks into the 

Amiga. 

A third option is MESS, the 'Multi Emulator 

Super System'. This MAME-derived console 

and computer emu supports the 2600 (as well 

as hundreds of other systems) but the (PPC 

only) Amiga port was last updated in 2000 

and so lags many revisions behind Windows. 

� Live out your (slightly blocky) Jedi fantasies in The Empire Strikes Back. 

1977 

1982 

1982 

1982 

1983 

� She may wear a bow but she's mean: Ms Pac-Man.

Taking the basic premise of the 2600 (TVcompatible, 

cartridge-based, two-player fun 

box) and refining it, Nintendo's 8-bit 

Entertainment System revitalised the games 

console industry in the mid-80s and made a 

fat plumber a star. The Amiga has five NES 

emulators of varying vintage and capability, 

� Chatting up bathing beauties in The Legend of Zelda. 

all of which include the name of the target 

machine in their title (two in punning fashion). 

Such a variety of emus reflects the enduring 

popularity of the NES and ensures that Amiga 

owners after a Mario fix are catered for whatever 

their hardware setup. 

A/NES by Morgan Johansson and Fredrik 

Schultz is AGA-only (a separate version caters 

� The most dynamic plumber the world has ever seen. 

for CyberGraphX/P96-equipped machines) and 

fast (though this varies depending on screen 

activity). It has a GUI and supports battery 

backups, sound, two players, compressed 

files, Action Replay/Game Genie codes and 

CD32 pads. A speed limiter is useful for 040 

and 060 owners. v1.17beta1 was released in 

March 2010. 

May 2010 saw the release of a sequel, 

A/NES Professional. Designed for high-end 

Amigas (060s are a minimum), A/NES Pro is 

more accurate than A/NES - the graphics 

engine has been completely rewritten - and it 

now supports ECS as well as AGA. 

AmiNES by the highly prolific 

Juan Antonio Gómez is an 

unfinished 'preview version', 

begun in order to facilitate 6510 

emulation for begun in order to 

facilitate 6510 emulation for the 

same author's AmiPC-Engine. Sound 

is supported, albeit imperfectly, and 

graphic handling is incomplete so somewhat 

hit and miss, making some games unplayable. 

Mirroring is also unimplemented. Only two 

mappers are supported, drastically 

limiting the number of games that 

will work. A port to AmigaOS4 was 

made in 2005. 

Fredrik Olsson's CoolNESs is an 

AGA-only emulator that runs on all 

32-bit Amigas, with its chief merit 

its fast performance: full speed for 

most games on an 030 

and acceptable speed on 

an unaccelerated A1200 

with fast memory. It has a 

wide range of features 

including sound, GUI, support 

for four-player adaptors, 

split screen, screen 

grab, battery save, internal 

IPS support, continue, 

more control options than 

you could shake a joypad 

at and a large number of memory mappers. 

Development stopped in 2000, with version 

0.78 the last to date, but the source code is 

available on the author's website. 

must plays 

The Legend of Zelda 

Megaman 2 

Super Mario Bros 3 

Ninja Gaiden II 

Kirby's Adventure 

� Neoww, zap! Crisis Force. 

1986 

1988 

1988 

1990 

1992 


� Bam, right on the button: Punch-Out!! 

DarkNESs is an Amiga original by Mark Van 

Hal that supports AGA and graphics cards 

(though surprisingly the emulator ran faster 

on an AGA screen than on an 8-bit Voodoo3 

screen on my test system). Version 0.30 adds 

sound support, double buffering, improved 

scrolling and mapper support, a turbo mode 

and frame counter. A separate version utilises 

the MMU for extra speed. Screen refresh 

options allow a choice between tile-based and 

line-based modes, toggleable before or during 

“Amiga owners after a Mario fix 

are catered for whatever their 

hardware setup.” 

emulation. Control is by keyboard only. 

DarkNESs, as the author himself states, isn't 

the fastest NES emulator for the Amiga (an 

040 doesn't manage full speed), but it is the 

most compatible. 

DarcNES (no relation), a port from a Linux 

original, emulates more than just the NES: 

with support for the Master System, Game 

Gear, ColecoVision, MSX, Apple ][ and PC 

Engine it qualifies as a small scale multimachine 

emulator. Like many of Mathias 

'AmiDog' Roslund's ports, DarcNES requires a 

Power PC Amiga. Version 9b0313 from 2001 

is the most recent for the Amiga (besides the 

OS4 port from 2005), but the original source is 

available for any pioneering coders to update. 

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Unsophisticated in hardware terms but with a 

huge range of games and a long battery life, 

Nintendo's phenomenally successful handheld 

proved once and for all that flash tech specs 

aren't everything. Several emulators bring the 

Game Boy's 8-bit action and monochrome 

graphics to the Amiga. Virtual GameBoy by 

Lars Malmborg is a port from a Unix original 

by Marat Fayzullin (Lars was motivated by the 

� Tom poised for mischief on a GBUK screen. 

fact that an earlier port of v0.3 by Matthias 

Bethke and Michael Boese didn't work on his 

Amiga). Version 0.7 dates from 1996 and 

lacks a GUI, display and speed options, but 

works cleanly and quickly (though I experienced 

some graphical glitches in Street 

Fighter II). A PPC port comes courtesy of Felix 

Schwarz. 

GBUK by Paul Gaze is another emulator 

based on Fayzullin's Unix work. Sound isn't 

emulated, but there are speed and palette 

options, definable keys, snapshot save and 

image grabbing functions, a file requester and 

options for graphic emulation accuracy. The 

program runs on a custom AGA screen with a 

decorative Game Boy surround for extra 

atmosphere. 

GBE is a PPC-only port by Mathias 'AmiDog' 

Roslund of a 1999 Windows emu by Chuck 

� Ryu and Ken prepare to settle their differences (WzonkaLad). 

Mason and Steven Fuller (itself based on a 

DOS original). GBE supports CD32 pads and 

graphics cards and utilises a PPC C2P routine 

for fast AGA graphics. It is unique amongst 

Amiga Game Boy emulators in that it supports 

Game Boy Color ROM images. 

AmiGameBoy by Juan Gómez is based upon 

a custom Z80 engine and runs well on an 030, 

though it hits the hardware to do so, disabling 

multitasking and only working on AGA 

screens. On the plus side, it has a nice GUI 

(familiar to users of Juan's other emulators) 

and supports two-button joysticks and CD32 

pads. 

Ville Helin's WzonkaLad - again based 

around a handwritten Z80 engine - adds multitasking, 

speed/colour control options and 

scalable window display support, though 

you'll need a graphics card and a fast processor 

(i.e. an 060) for bearable use of windowed 

� Game Boy Color classics: mode. Both AmiGameBoy and WzonkaLad last 

� Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble... 

� Space Invaders... 

� ...and Zelda: Oracle of Ages. 

“The program runs on an AGA 

screen with a Game Boy surround 

for extra atmosphere.” 

saw updates in the previous century (1999, to 

be precise), but the source code for each is 

� Tetris 2 comes to Workbench via WzonkaLad. 

available should anyone wish to rectify that. 

Regardless of emulator, the Game Boy's 160 x 

144 display means that playing on a custom 

screen (except via GBUK and its pseudo-Game 

Boy surround) makes for a lot of black. 

must plays 

Super Mario Land 

Gargoyle's Quest 

Metroid II 

Pokémon Yellow 

Wario Land 3 (GBC) 

1989 

1990 

1992 

1998 

2000

Developed as a rival to the NES, Sega's 

Master System (in what was to become a pattern) 

had to play second fiddle to Nintendo's 

machine in the worldwide popularity stakes, 

though it was very successful in Europe and 

Brazil. Trivia fans might like to note that the 

machine was originally named the Sega Mark 

III, after the earlier SG-1000 (Sega Game 

1000) and SG-1000 II. The Game Gear - 

essentially a hand-held Master System - was 

to the Game Boy what the Master System was 

to the NES: more powerful but less popular. 

The closeness in design of the Master 

System and the Game Gear means that Amiga 

must plays 

Fantasy Zone (MS) 

Phantasy Star (MS) 

R-Type (MS) 

GG Aleste (GG) 

Pengo (GG) 

1986 

1987 

1987 

1991 

1992 

emulators support both. AmiMasterGear, 

brother to AmiGameBoy and AmiNES, is an 

emu for 68K Amigas that runs well on an 030. 

It copes with most game images you throw at 

it, has speed, frameskip, battery save, screen 

and sprite grab and NTSC/PAL options, supports 

a wide variety of control methods and 

generally gives AGA Amiga users a fast and 

fuss-free blast of 8-bit Sega gaming. The program 

has a neat little feature where it autodetects 

the type of cartridge image inserted 

and launches the relevant virtual machine 

when Power On is clicked. Display is via AGA 

custom screen only and, like Juan Gómez's 

other emulators, multitasking is disabled 

while the emulation is running, so desktop 

windowed mode is out. As with 

other handheld emus, the low 

resolution of the Game Gear 

(identical to the Game Boy's) 

ordinarily means that the action 

is framed by a lot of black screen 

“It auto-detects the type of image 

inserted and launches the relevant 

virtual machine.” 

when playing on an Amiga, but 

AmiMasterGear has an option to 

colour the border according to 

the background of the emulated 

game. An updated version with various fixes 

was released by Gaelan Griffin in 2002. 

MasterGear is a port for AGA Amigas by 

Mark Van Hal of a Unix original by the uberprolific 

Marat Fayzullin. It emulates more 

accurately than AmiMasterGear and adds 

� Bust that move. 

� Mid-80s platformer goodness in Wonder Boy. 


graphic card support (as long as a mode promotion 

utility is used). A super-fast PPC port 

by Andre Osterhues supports graphics cards 

and windowed mode. A neat GUI has options 

for control, English/Japanese mode, game 

save and autofire. 

� The launch screen and plentiful options of 

AmiMasterGear. 

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Beating the Game Gear to the 'world's first 

colour hand-held' crown, Atari's 1989 Lynx 

was undone by a lack of sales and software 

support, much like the ill-fated Jaguar would 

be a few years later. Atari management, eh. 

(A quintessentially Atari-style masterstroke 

meant that Lynx game development actually 

took place on Amigas as the Lynx dev kit 

couldn't run on the Atari ST. The fact that the 

Lynx was designed by RJ Mical and Dave 

Needle, two of the Amiga's original progenitors, 

may not be entirely unrelated). Key reasons 

for the Lynx's lukewarm reception were 

its large size, short battery life and cost. The 

legend has it that pre-release focus groups 

“The Amiga has a single Lynx 

emulator, though it comes in a 

wide variety of flavours.” 

expressed a preference for a bigger machine: 

Mical revealed in a 2004 interview with 

1UP.com that "they all told us to make it big, 

so we made it big," with the result that "the 

� Gnarliness abounds in California Games. 

original Lynx was mostly air space inside." 

The machine's subsequent poor sales and 

complaints about its size would bring the 

value of this advice into question. As Mical 

himself put it, "never trust focus groups." 

It may not have sold well, but the Lynx is a 

capable machine with a 65C02 CPU (8-bit but 

with a 16-bit program counter and address 

bus), multiplayer 

networking capability 

and all manner of 

hardware sprite and 

graphical effects. 

The Amiga has a 

single Lynx emulator 

at present, though it 

comes in a wide 

variety of flavours. Handy is a port of a 

Windows original, with version 0.95 released 

in 2009. Ports by James Jacobs, Mathias 

Roslund (v0.70) and Ilkka Lehtoranta support 

68K, WarpUP and OS4/MorphOS machines. 

The hardware requirements are quite steep, 

with a 68040 and 16MB RAM required as a 

bare minimum (insufficient for anywhere near 

playable speed) and OS4/MorphOS recommended. 

Features vary between ports, but the 

emulator typically supports AHI, CD32 pads, 

game images in ZIP files, gameplay recording, 

snapshot load and save, autofire and turbo 

speed toggles, AGA and graphics cards and (in 

the case of Handy++) overlay support (for 

hardware accelerated real-time scaling) and 

an MUI GUI. Generally, if you have the Amiga 

to run it, Handy provides a very authentic 

emulated non-handheld handheld gaming 

experience. The lack of original games to run 

on it is, alas, an authenticity that can't be 

helped. 

must plays 

Chip's Challenge 

Raiden 

Slime World 

Xenophobe 

Rampart 

� Dirty Larry: Renegade Cop asks 

a punk if he's feeling lucky. 

� Ride. In. To. The. Danger. Zone. Deadly dogfighting in Blue Lightning. � Now here's a sport. Bring those beach babes home with Malibu Bikini Volleyball. 

� Big, bigger, biggest: like Atari's 

VCS/2600, the Lynx had a Mk1 and 

Mk2. The original Lynx from 1989 

(above) and the revised model from 

1991 (left). 

1989 

1990 

1990 

1990 

1991

The successor to the Master System was a 

big hit everywhere except its native Japan. A 

smart move by Sega was to provide backwards 

compatibility with the Master System: 

the earlier console's CPU and sound chip were 

incorporated as coprocessors, and a cartridge 

adaptor allowed MS cartridges to be loaded. 

Both Mega Drive emulators for the Amiga 

require PPC machines. Generator is an open 

source multi-platform emu; the Amiga version 

comes courtesy of Mathias Roslund. 

AmiGenerator requires a WarpOS/graphics 

� Blue, spiky and iconic: Sonic the Hedgehog. 

An approximate contemporary of the Amiga, 

Nintendo's 16-bit machine was born in 

response to the PC-Engine and Sega's Mega 

Drive and, despite a 2-3 year handicap, 

inevitably conquered the world. Already 

boasting superior graphics and sound to its 

must plays 

Zelda: A Link to the Past 

Final Fantasy VI 

Super Metroid 

Yoshi's Island 

Chrono Trigger 

1991 

1994 

1994 

1995 

1995 

competitors, further enhancements (such as 

the Super FX chip) were craftily incorporated 

via silicon into game cartridges themselves. 

The Amiga has two 68K-compatible emulators, 

AmiSNESE by Jesper Svennevid and 

card-equipped Amiga and has a 

high level of game compatibility. 

CD32 pads are supported and 

there are lots of options to boost 

speed (frame skip and de-interlace; 

graphics emulation can be switched between 

line-based and frame-based modes; emulation 

of the YM2612 and SN76489 sound chips 

and Z80 coprocessor can be toggled). Two 

versions of the emu are included in the 0.34 

distribution: a fully-featured version and a 

cut-down 'Turbo' version streamlined for 

maximum speed. Mathias has also 

ported the emulator to OS4. 

Genesisplus by Ventzislav Tzvetkov 

is a frequently updated OS4-only port 

from the Nintendo Gamecube / Wii 

version of Charles MacDonald's original. 

The emulator supports Amiga 

joysticks, Zip files, turbo mode, save 

states and fullscreen and handles a 

large number of game files. 

“Both Mega Drive emulators for 

the Amiga require PPC machines.” 

c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c 

MySNES by Martin Johansson, that only made 

it to early beta versions (0.13 and 0.18 

respectively). AmiSNESE is system-friendly 

and supports graphics cards, though it won’t 

run games to a playable degree. MySNES is 

AGA-only and runs more than AmiSNESE, 

albeit a tad slowly on most machines. A neat 

little GUI provides a wealth of options including 

various speed-up tricks (frameskip, 

cacheskip, screen height, update method) 

plus CD32 pad support and battery backup 

emulation. 

Snes9x, a port by Jesper Svennevid from a 

Windows original, is more fully-featured than 


must plays 

Revenge of Shinobi 

ToeJam & Earl 

Streets of Rage 2 

Gunstar Heroes 

Zombies 

1989 

1991 

1992 

1993 

1993 

� Virtua Racing has polygons aplenty 

at breakneck speeds. 

� Captain America and the Avengers is the beat-'em-up 

of choice for closet superheroes everywhere. 

the betas. It doesn't come with a GUI by 

default, but several have been written by third 

parties. WarpOS users can try Steffen 

Häuser's WarpSNES, while MorphOS users get 

a port courtesy of Fabien Coeurjoly. 

� Battling the Bydo Empire yet again: Super R-Type. 

apov 4 

75

apov 4 

76 


Technical considerations aside, the cultural 

impact of Sony's first foray into the video 

game market is hard to overstate. The 

PlayStation was the first bona fide 'crossover' 

machine that conquered the mainstream and 

made legions of non-gamers into gamers. 

Good thing or not? Discuss. 

On the Amiga front, Mathias Roslund (who 

else?) strikes again: SOPE brings the delights 

of the PlayStation to the Amiga, as long as the 

Amiga in question has a PPC processor and 

Warp3D. A PlayStation BIOS is also required. 

No GUI or joypad support, but graphics options 

aplenty and reasonable speed (with the 

MiniGL and dynamic recompilation version). 

must plays 

PaRappa the Rapper 

Metal Gear Solid 

Resident Evil 2 

Tekken 3 

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 

1996 

1998 

1998 

1998 

2000 

Mathias has also ported FPSE, the Free 

PlayStation Emulator. FPSE comes in flavours 

for OS4, MorphOS, AROS and even 68K/OS3 

machines. All versions require 32MB of RAM, 

a graphics card, AHI and MUI. 

c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c 

Nintendo's fifth generation machine was a 

success but not on the scale of their earlier 

hits, nor of Sony's PlayStation. A big factor 

was the decision to stick with cartridges 

rather than move to CDs: this Atari-like move 

impacted game complexity and third party 

support. The N64 nevertheless saw plenty of 

classic games, with GoldenEye 007, Legend of 

Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Super Mario 64 

three commonly cited standout titles. 

One emulator for the Nintendo 64 has been 

converted to the Amiga: TrueReality. Naturally 

“TrueReality requires a heftilyupgraded 

Miggy.” 

� Unleash your inner boy racer with Gran Turismo 2. 

� Racing of a quite different kind in Mario Kart 64. 

enough, the WarpUP port by Mathias Roslund 

requires a heftily-upgraded Miggy: PPC, 3D 

graphics card (Permedia 2 is strongly recommended), 

32MB (more for large ROM files), 

WarpUP v4.0, CGFX v3 or later and Haage & 

Partner’s StormMESA. TrueReality has also 

been ported to MorphOS by Stefan 

Haubenthal. The only feature 

not to survive 

the translation is 

MiniGL's screenshot 

function. 

And that's about 

it for Amiga console 

emulators: as far as we 

know, nobody has yet 

written a Saturn, X-Box or 

� Scantily dressed fisticuffs in Soul Blade. 

must plays 

Super Mario 64 

GoldenEye 007 

Zelda: Ocarina of Time 

Banjo-Tooie 

Perfect Dark 

� Shootout in the gents? All in a day's 

work when you're Bond, James Bond. 

1996 

1997 

1998 

2000 

2000 

Wii emulator. Have fun trying a few emus out 

and perhaps discovering new games. In the 

next issue, we'll take a look at emulators for a 

wide range of classic home computers.

apov 4 

78 


The Beckhams had long lived in their estate, 

in the opulence which their eminence afforded 

them. Their position, however, was unfortunately 

disadvantageous, in part due to a 

surfeit of male heirs and a paucity of those of 

the eligible, female breed. This scarcity was, 

however, but a minor deficiency when viewed 

against the master of the household's team 

position in Sensible Soccer, an antediluvian 

recreation which had remained archaically 

unchanged in form for many years... (Oi! Less 

of the Austen pastiching! This is supposed to 

be a factual article about all the versions of 

Sensible Soccer. - Ed) 

Sensible Soccer 

This, then, is a guide to all the releases of 

Sensible Soccer. Why, you might ask, is such 

a guide needed? Surely such a well-known 

game needs no such investigation? Pshah, we 

say. It does, or to be more accurate, it did, 

when the Hall Of Light database entries were 

created. It's hardly a puzzle which requires a 

Rosetta Stone to decipher but the Sensible 

Soccer games did have many releases and 

updates, which do cause some confusion 

about which was released in which year. The 

guide attempts to cross-reference different 

sources, including version numbers from the 

floppies and magazine review months. 

The original Sensible Soccer releases spanned the years 1992 to 1994. They are quite straightforward and were usually assigned 

version numbers on the titlescreen. Of note are the CD32 versions and a couple of spin-offs: the Amiga Power "England vs 

Germany" demo with a black and white mode and Amiga Action's Unsensible Soccer coverdisk which featured an "apples versus 

oranges" game. 

Title Version Year Developer Publisher Selected Magazine Reviews 

Sensible Soccer V1.0 1992 Sensible Renegade 

Sensible Soccer: European 

Champions / Sensible Soccer 

v1.1 

Sensible Soccer: England vs 

Germany 

V1.1 1992 Sensible Renegade 

V1.1 1992 Sensible 

Unsensible Soccer V1.1 1993 Sensible 

Sensible Soccer: European 

Champions / Sensible Soccer 

v1.1 CD32 

Amiga Power 

(Future 

Publishing) 

Amiga Action 

(Europress 

Interactive) 

The One: Jun 1992 

Amiga Action, Amiga Format, Amiga 

Power, CU Amiga: Jul 1992 

Zero: Aug 1992 

Amiga Computing: Sep 1992 

CU Amiga: Dec 1992 

Amiga Action, Amiga Format, Amiga 

Power: Jan 1993 

Amiga Power Coverdisk demo (issue 21, 

Jan 1993) 

Amiga Action Coverdisk demo (issue 42, 

Mar 1993) 

V1.1 1993 Sensible Renegade Amiga Format: Jan 1994

Sensible Soccer 

Sensible Soccer: International 

Edition v1.2 / International 

Sensible Soccer: World 

Champions 

Sensible Soccer: International 

Edition v1.2 CD32 

V1.2 1994 Sensible Renegade 

V1.2 1994 

Apache / 

Sensible 

Renegade 


Amiga Format: Jul 1994 

Amiga Action: Aug 1994 

Amiga Action, Amiga Power: Mar 1994 

Amiga CD32 Gamer: Sep 1994 

Sensible World of Soccer (SWOS) 

The era of Sensible World of Soccer is a little more confusing. Seasons are used in many of the releases and so the version 

number must be discovered using another method. Although the original Sensible Soccer disks were in a non-DOS format, the 

SWOS disks are in an AmigaDOS format. If the RNC compressed "swos2" file is examined, it reveals version numbers and even 

what appear to be compilation times. 

Of note here is that SWOS 1.1 was available both as a standalone version and an update disk. There was also an Amiga Action 

magazine demo set on the moon with a peculiar version number that mentions The One magazine. After the last official version 

of SWOS a couple of unofficial updates brought the SWOS data up to the time of the 1998 World Cup. 

Title Version Year Developer Publisher Selected Magazine Reviews 

Sensible World Of Soccer 

Sensible World Of Moon 

Soccer 


v1.1 & Update disk 


95-96 


95/96: European 

Championship Edition 


'96/'97 


97/98 


1998 World Cup Update 

VERSION 61 (disk 1) 

60 (disk 2) 

(06/12/94 10.50PM) 

ASM 6/12/1994 

CJ0612235200 

THE ONE SWOS 

COVERDISK PRE- 

RELEASE VERSION 

(13/10/1994) 

1310 

CJ1310181833 

SWOS VERSION 81 

(23/05/95 11.30PM) 

ASM 23/5/1995 

CJ2305112836 

Update disk: 


(22/05/95 06.30PM) 

ASM 22/5/1995 

PCJ2205183953 


(01/12/95 11.35) 

ASM 1/12/1995 

CJ0112114509 


(18/04/96 21.50) 

ASM 18/4/1996 

CJ1804215359 


(06/11/96 13.55) 

ASM 6/11/1996 

CJ0611135245 

1994 Sensible Renegade 

1994 Sensible 

Amiga 

Action (IDG 

Media) 


Amiga Power: Dec 1994 

Amiga Computing, Amiga Format, CU 

Amiga, The One: Jan 1995 

Amiga User International: Mar 1995 

Amiga Action Coverdisk demo (issue 

65, Christmas 1994) 

1995 Sensible Renegade Amiga Power: Jan 1996 


Amiga Format, Amiga Power, CU 

Amiga: Jul 1996 

1996 Sensible Renegade CU Amiga: Jan 1997 

Unofficial release 1997 Gideon 

Cresswell / 

Sensible 

Unofficial release 1998 

Gideon & Dom 

Cresswell / 

Sensible 

CU Amiga 

(Emap) 

apov 4 

79

There's nothing quite like locking 

horns with a pal in a good multiplayer 

game. The Amiga is blessed with 

plenty, and some of the best come 

from the world of PD. Carl Stapleton 

and Adrian Simpson get cosy on the 

sofa and bring you the lowdown on 

twenty tête-à-tête PD classics.

apov 4 

82 


CROAK 2 � SELWYN STEVENS � 1995 

DR. MARIO � TRASH � 1992 

Croak 2 plays a fine game of Frogger – for it 

be a remake of that classic – and is faithful to 

the original in all the places it counts. Any 

differences are generally improvements: the 

graphics are crisp, colourful and slightly-3D; 

contextual sound effects add bounce; bonus 

pickups mix things up a bit; there are seven 

spots to fill at the top rather than the five of 

the original. The only thing missing is a jolly 

tune. 

A direct clone of a NES original, Dr Mario 

gives one or two players the chance to play 

doctor in a Tetris-y pill-rotating fashion. 

Variously-coloured germs are scattered 

around the play area and must be wiped out 

by dropping pills to create lines of four matching 

colours horizontally or vertically. 

Played alone, the game is one of (more or 

less) quiet concentration. Adding a second 

player, however, transforms the dynamic 

GRINGOS � MARIO SPERANDA � 1998 

AIR TAXI � DAVID C MAY � 1994 

Players of a certain age will recognise the 

inspiration behind Gringos: an ancient arcade 

game called Boot Hill (or the even older Gun 

Fight). Cowboy on the left, cowboy on the 

right, cacti or other objects between them and 

a stagecoach whizzing periodically up the 

middle. Thus assembled, what do the two 

cow-gentlemen in our little scene do? Shoot 

at each other, of course! 

A shot to the belly kills instantly, but a shot 

Up to five (!) players battle to ferry customers 

about with the winner the one with the most 

cash at the end. Drive a taxi? Easy. Ah, but 

you don't drive about - you fly, so there's 

Thrust-esque gravity and inertia to contend 

with as well as the other players. And the 

game has a steady supply of new hazards to 

keep things frenetic. 

Speedy and smooth is the way to make 

bucks. Practice pays: play for a while and 

EXTREME VIOLENCE � SI GREEN � 1992 

It's one-on-one killing here; nothing more, 

nothing less. Run your little chap around your 

half of the split screen and get your opponent 

before he gets you. There are bonus pickups 

to randomise things up a bit but things invariably 

boil down to a short-range zig-zagging 

shoot out. Unless one player grabs the homing 

missile bonus, that is. 

First to ten kills wins, and it's funny how 

many times the scores are neck and neck, 

The game is fun played solo, but the addition 

of a simultaneous two-player mode gives the 

whole thing an extra dimension. Having a 

competitor to race against as well as the 

clock gets the old adrenaline going, and 

scrapping for landing spots (and points) when 

things are frenetic is great fun. A slight oddity 

is the way the game ends for both players 

when one player is out of lives. Best to go for 

high scores in one-player mode, methinks. 

entirely: it becomes a ruthless battle where 

anything goes. The small but key factor 

responsible is that completing lines on your 

side means random gunk gets dropped on 

your opponent's side, messing everything up. 

The graphics are better than the somewhat 

weedy ones of the original, and the music is a 

distinct improvement over the NES's beepy 

tunelets. A fine two-player game, Dr Mario 

can nonetheless cause tempers to flare. 

to the leg merely wounds: the wounded player 

can then only move half as fast (a tragic spectacle) 

but can still win. It's a very satisfying 

thing, actually, hobbling around on one leg 

and still managing to nail that flea-bitten 

varmint on the other side. Graphics are bright 

and colourful but animation is minimal, as 

befits a clone of a 70s game. Gringos is an 

example of a game distilled down to the 

gameplay essentials. 

you'll find yourself performing all manner of 

nifty little manoeuvres to pinch a customer 

before someone else. 

You can lose money as well as make it: fuel 

has to be replenished, and you get fined if you 

come to grief with a customer on board. This 

of course means that unscrupulous players 

can go kamikaze and deliberately take out a 

rival. Collisions can be turned off, though 

anyone using that option is probably a girl. 

necessitating a sudden death decider. But 

then perhaps it isn't so strange, as the game 

is so completely equitable it's basically like 

tossing a coin each time. No-one is ever going 

to lose ten-nil at Extreme Violence. Fact. 

The simple gameplay perhaps makes 

Extreme Violence more of a quick blast than a 

game played at any great length, but within 

its limitations it provides laughs and more 

than a little tension.

KNOCKOUT � BEN WYATT � 1996 

Like many of the games here, the gameplay in 

Knockout (5 stars out of 5 in APoV 1) could 

fairly be described as 'pick up and play'. Take 

control of a little car and try to knock your 

opponents off the edge of a continually 

shrinking circle. Then drive off it to safety. 

Sounds easy? You've obviously never played 

this exercise in barely-organised chaos, then. 

Car handling takes a little getting used to, 

but only a little, and a handy option means 

BIPLANE DUEL � PETER MASON � 1989 

KNIGHTS � REAPER � 1994 

Take on a friend in mortal, barely-airborne 

combat with a remake of an ancient 

Intellivision game. Biplane Duel is very similar 

to the air combat games in VCS Combat – 

single-screen, one shot kills, clouds to sneak 

behind – but there is one significant addition 

that makes this far more demanding: gravity. 

If you take your foot off that pedal, you're 

heading for terra firma in a hurry. 

Controls are highly tricky to pick up at first, 

Many of the games looked at in this feature 

borrow from hits of the past. For Knights, the 

inspiration is the Spy vs Spy series. For, while 

you are perfectly free to tackle your opponent 

in traditional swordplay style, you can also set 

traps for him (such as bear traps, poison needles 

and spring blades). Ouch. 

Like Gravity Power, Knights is two-player 

only. It, too, uses a split screen but lacks GP's 

serial cable option so the players must share 

GRAVITY POWER � BITS PRODUCTIONS � 1995 

GUNFIGHTER � OVERDOSE � 1994 

A famous PD game, and justifiably so, for it 

has to be one of the most addictive multiplayer 

games ever devised. GP is a special edition 

of Gravity Force 2, made for the admiring 

folks at Amiga Power. 

The idea is to pilot little Thrust-y spaceships 

around intricate levels and ruthlessly 

blow the crap out of your opponent. So why is 

it so good? Put simply, everything about the 

game is done well. Controls are intuitive and 

Whatever else it may be, Gunfighter is certainly 

a unique-looking Amiga game. The graphics 

are digitised clay models, in model desert 

scenery, and the effect is highly surreal. The 

game itself is simple to the very limit of existence: 

the two players each control a gunslinger 

and must shoot the other guy twice to 

win. (The first shot blows your opponent's hat 

off, Gringos-style). Only one key is thus 

required to play, so the illustrative images of 


you can adjust the friction to taste anyway. 

Knockout is a highly configurable game all 

round: there are options aplenty, editors for 

vehicle graphics, music and sound samples, 

five alternative game modes (normal, team, 

ball, elastic and magnetic) and anything up to 

eight players can join in. 

Simple, fun, and addictive, Knockout offers 

a safe outlet for those demolition derby urges 

we all get from time to time. 

as acceleration has to be mastered along with 

that old favourite 'down for up, up for down'. 

With a little perseverance, though, you'll soon 

be diving and loop-da-looping with the best of 

'em. (Plus there's an auto-speed option). 

The game may be simple, but the intense 

one-on-one action it offers is very compulsive. 

Graphics are minimalist, but that doesn't 

matter zip. Like all the best games, Biplane 

Duel's all about the gameplay. 

a single monitor. Honesty is thus required as 

stealth and surprise are major factors. 

The controls and interface are very nicely 

realised and there are options galore. With 

customisable quests, randomly generated 

levels and configurable computer-controlled 

enemy activity (zombies and bats roam the 

dungeons) there's plenty to keep it fresh, 

quite beside the extemporaneous, get-himbefore-he-gets-you 

nature of the gameplay. 

precise; animation and scrolling are silky 

smooth; there's a ton of options (the game is 

configurable to a ridiculous degree); there are 

masses of different landscape designs and 

types (and you can even design your own), 

plus great variety in the weapons available. 

The concept might be simple but there's 

scope for lots of strategies, so what works 

once may well not work a second time. 

In short, just play it. A true classic. 

the space bar and enter keys being pressed in 

the intro are a thoughtful if superfluous touch. 

Don't draw too soon, though: you have to wait 

until a sampled voice says "draw" before 

reachin' for it. Otherwise, for some unknown 

cosmic reason, your gun won't work and you 

just have to wait for the grisly end. 

Gunfighter is shallow but fun (so, naturally, 

Adrian loves it), and is one of those games 

that you literally can't be too drunk to play. 

apov 4 

83

apov 4 

84 


PARACHUTE JOUST � 17-BIT SOFTWARE � 1990 

The pre-credit sequence of Moonraker (not to 

be found in the original novel) sees Bond 

wrestle with Jaws for possession of a single 

parachute. Parachute Joust is that pre-credit 

sequence, on the Amiga, for two players. 

We're offered no explanation as to why two 

men are jumping out of an aeroplane and 

fighting a duel for a single, precious lifeline 

but we can presume that it is an extreme 

sport where the second prize is death. 

TANKKK � HIPPOPOTAMUS DESIGN � 1994 

Tankkk does nothing more than turn your 

(once) powerful Amiga into an Atari 2600. 

Moving tanks around a monochrome screen 

will be a familiar first gaming memory to 

many so perhaps Tankkk taps into a node of 

gaming nostalgia. 

Up to five players can enter the maze and 

shoot at each other, making the game a must 

for gatherings. Although not recommended as 

a Christmas Day family pursuit it's perfect for 

TRICK OR TREAT � DUNCAN STUART � YEAR 

Once a rotund wizard has mastered the 

arcane art of spellcasting there is little else to 

do but combat other rotund wizards in a 3D 

arena. In Trick or Treat these old men rush 

around a maze, firing their machine guns in 

an attempt to be the last wizard standing. The 

maze is uncomplicated so there is no chance 

of getting lost and it is rendered using a simple 

but fast and effective texture mapping 

engine. 

TENNIS CHAMPS � MENTAL SOFTWARE � 1995 

The Amiga saw a number of unexceptional 

commercial tennis games. Tennis Champs, an 

Amiga Power coverdisk game coded in AMOS 

by the excellently named Elton and Elliot Bird, 

manages to be better than all of them by taking 

its inspiration from the world of consoles 

and simply being a lot of fun. A clever and 

intuitive control system allows all manner of 

shots to be played with a one-button joystick. 

There are four different playing surfaces and a 

AERIAL RACERS � INSANE SOFTWARE � 1996 

Racing games with dinky little cars tap into 

deep memories of childhood and Scalextric 

sets. The cars usually aren't fixed to the track 

either (except in Microdeal's Turbo Trax), so 

the player is free to fling his car about in what 

the colonials might call a 'gnarly' fashion. On 

the Amiga, one of the best racing games is 

Skidmarks and Aerial Racers turns out to be a 

PD version of it. 

Like Skidmarks the perspective is at an 

Parachute Joust works because, although it's 

silly and simple, there is a modicum of tactics. 

For example, it's possible to dive quickly 

to avoid your approaching opponent or to surrepticiously 

grab the parachute when both 

players are behind a cloud. Unlike Moonraker 

there is no conveniently placed circus to 

break the loser's fall. Fate has instead placed 

a sheep farm underneath the plummeting 

sportsmen. 

beer drinking sessions with friends. There are 

a couple of different mazes and a number of 

settings to tweak the game. 

The main reason why Tankkk is so good is 

that bullets bounce off walls. This seemingly 

simple feature expands the game's potential 

greatly since bullets can affect parts of the 

area away from the tank's immediate vicinity. 

Thus an arena with five players soon becomes 

extremely hectic. 

The screen is split into two views so each 

player must abide by a gentlemanly agreement 

not to cheat. The wizards can cast 

spells, each incantation doing something 

amusing to the other player. For example, the 

Magnet disrupts your opponent's compass, 

the Projector creates a false image of your 

wizard, the Freeze stops them in their tracks 

and the Attractor teleports them to your location. 

variety of players to choose from, and even a 

tournament mode. 

Graphics are clean and lively, but the game 

is most enlivened by a number of gloriously 

silly voices. Everything comes together to 

form a superb two player game that is miles 

better than the (still enjoyable) one player 

mode. Tennis Champs was later commercially 

released by Audiogenic as the slightly more 

serious Super Tennis Champs. 

angle which produces a pleasant fixed-3D 

view of the winding, bump-laden tracks. Other 

touches - most noticeably the tyre skidmarks 

- remind one of Acid's classic, too. Up to three 

human players are supported and there is 

even a three-way split-screen view. Playable 

and attractive, a number of car configuration 

options and a track editor make this a very 

worthwhile multiplayer PD game with a fair bit 

of lastability.

MASTER BLASTER � ALPHA BROTHERS � 1994 

ROKETZ � THE FARM � 1995 

Master Blaster is, of course, Bomberman. 

Players drop bombs which, after a time, 

explode in four directions. Players must catch 

their opponents in an explosion and avoid 

being caught themselves. Destroyed walls 

reveal bonuses which make longer explosions 

and allow more bombs to be dropped at once. 

These concepts fit together perfectly to form 

an awesome game. 

Master Blaster supports up to five players, 

Roketz is a shareware Thrust clone. Some 

Amiga PD games look as bad as good modern 

art but Roketz is thoroughly fine-looking and 

polished. The game makes use of the AGA 

chipset and has a rendered look which was 

still fresh on the Amiga in the 90s. The graphics 

and the classy white line intro give the 

game a professional feel. 

Roketz features only six arenas, a small 

number compared to Gravity Power. This 

SCORCHED TANKS � DARK UNICORN � 1993 

In 1829 the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of 

Winchilsea fought a duel. The Duke fired wide 

and the Earl didn't raise his pistol. Honour 

was thus satisfied without bloodshed. Today, 

the Duke and the Earl might have played 

Scorched Tanks where, in the classic 

"Artillery" game fashion, players take turns to 

fire at each other across a landscape. This is 

done by estimating power and elevation and 

then firing to see the result. 

SUPER FOUL EGG � IMPACT PRODUCTIONS � 1995 

SNEECH � PAUL BURKEY � 1994 

Super Foul Egg is an attempt to convert Dr. 

Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine to the Amiga. 

Inspired by an Amiga Power request, the 

name itself references one of the magazine's 

in-jokes. There is something satisfying about 

the core Tetris gameplay of combining 

matching shapes. It's even more satisfying to 

perform a massive chain reaction and clear 

the screen of eggs. 

Eggs disappear when combined in horizon- 

"Snake" or "Light Cycle" games are based on 

the simplest of concepts; a snake or trail 

unceasingly travels around an arena collecting 

food. Each piece of food extends the snake 

which in turn makes it increasingly difficult 

for the snake to avoid crashing headfirst into 

itself. This basic gameplay idea, seen in Tron 

and early mobile phone games, incorporates 

an ever-increasing level of complexity. 

In Sneech the challenge is multiplied by the 


an amount that pushes the limit of the number 

of gamers who can comfortably fit around 

one Amiga. There are some brilliant power 

ups, including a bomb that can be 

detonated on demand to trap an unwary 

opponent and remote controlled bombs that 

can be used to chase a concerned foe. 

Collecting lots of coins is a good strategy for 

players who wish to buy power ups and gain 

an early advantage in the next round. 

might affect the longevity of the game but lots 

of fun can be had in the short term as each 

arena is well constructed and solid. Weapons 

and shields can be equipped and bonuses 

collected; two players can shoot at each other 

using the game's split screen mode, a single 

player can play the CPU in full screen or the 

Amiga can play against itself. Altogether, 

Roketz is not very original but it's a slick, 

playable and well put together game. 

The basic Artillery gameplay is already highly 

addictive but Scorched Tanks builds on this 

base by including a stupendous array of 

weaponry. At the start of the round each 

player uses his funds to buy a selection of 

weapons, most of which have the power to 

significantly alter the landscape. Some 

destroy the ground and some add to it. The 

weapon variety and the ever-transforming 

world keep Scorched Tanks fresh. 

tal or vertical rows of four. The chain reactions 

are set up by eggs falling into the 

desired combination after disappearing eggs 

free up space. Your success negatively affects 

your opponent and vice versa so the two player 

mode is a battle of one-upmanship that can 

be intense and highly addictive. Remember to 

demonstrate your AP knowledge and shout 

"Taste my foul eggs you cur!" as you fill your 

opponent's area with eggs. 

ten player mode. All of these players can be 

controlled by the CPU but there is a limit of six 

human players. Still, that's a lot of people 

around a single screen. Sneech's arena 

(visually similar to the one in Speedball II) 

soon becomes very busy with ten snakes 

slithering around and that's before the obstacles 

appear. Throw in various images of 

Salvador Dalí and bingo, you have an Amiga 

multiplayer PD classic! 

apov 4 

85

apov 4 

86 


All this talk about Amiga multiplayer gaming was too much for Carl and 

Adrian to resist. Joypads at the ready for the bitchingest clash since 

two old ladies had words over the last iced bun at the bakery counter. 

Modern multiplayer gaming is a world away 

from Amiga gaming of yesteryear. Amiga 

gamers crowded around a screen in the same 

room and played Dyna Blaster competitions. 

Today gamers can be on different continents. 

Yes, in those days there were online combat 

games like Air Warrior and MUD RPGs. And 

yes, today some gamers gather in the real 

world for LAN parties. 

But, where's the fun? The last time your 

writer played Lord of the Rings Online he had 

to go "cold turkey" after excessive gathering 

of boar pelts caused repetitive strain injury. 

Back in the day the only real life danger was 

getting caught having Amiga tournaments in 

SETTING UP 

The plan was to play some Amiga multiplayer 

PD games across the Internet. Initially the 

idea was for Carl and Adrian to leave the APoV 

office and to relocate to Land's End and John 

o'Groats. This was revised to be "somewhere 

near Manchester" and "outer London." 

Kaillera is a piece of software which allows 

Internet multiplayer gaming on emulation. 

Emulators must specifically support Kaillera 

and some years ago a version of WinUAE was 

extended thus by Sane and Thrill. 

Unfortunately, the development of that 

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON 

So our two titans had identical emulator 

setups. Was there anything else (besides plain 

old skill at gaming) that could make the 

the secluded boarders' area at school. 

Enjoyable online games of Counterstrike were 

abandoned after cheating appeared to be 

endemic. The only cheating on the Amiga was 

the jovial kind; coughing at crucial moments 

or spiking drinks with sleeping drugs. 

This air of nostalgia for a lost era of multiplayer 

PD gaming encouraged Carl and Adrian 

to set out on an experiment more exciting 

than HMS Endeavour's observation of the 

transit of Venus. What if, like during Cook’s 

voyage, modern technology could meet old 

technology? What if we could achieve this 

without being eaten by cannibals? Exciting 

thoughts, we're sure you'll agree. 

particular branch of the emulator was 

abandoned and the main WinUAE code, as 

developed by Toni Wilen, has steamed far 

ahead in terms of updates and features. 

In order for the magic to work, both PCs 

had to be running a special Kaillera version of 

WinUAE. Each installation was in the same 

location on the hard disk and with the same 

ROM files and game ADFs. An old version of 

WinUAE was used to create the configuration 

file and this had to be recreated each time a 

new game was played. The similar setups 

difference between winning and losing? What 

about the joypads they used, you might ask. 

Good question, we might reply. 

Adrian used a Saitek P380 (right), a PS2esque 

dual analogue effort that according to 

the makers offers "fatigue-free gaming." 

Carl, on the other hand, used a Logitech 

Precision (left), a pad with slightly 'My First 

Computer' styling bought because "it was the 

only thing they had in the shopping centre." 

There you have it. A contrast indeed. A 

significant one? Probably not. 

The technology that would make it happen 

was Kaillera, WinUAE and a load of Amiga PD 

games. 

avoid problems of synchronisation between 

the two clients. Both players started WinUAE- 

Kaillera and used the special tab to find a 

Kaillera server. When connected, one player 

created a game on the server and waited for 

the other player to join. Then the game was 

started and both emulators sprang into action. 

� Adrian's a big fan of gun 

metal colouring. His 

kitchen appliances are 

all co-ordinated, you 

know.

DAY 1 

Master Blaster 

Carl had played Dyna Blaster before but was 

unfamiliar with this particular clone. This 

wasn't a serious problem since Master 

Blaster doesn't vary much 

from the basic Bomberman template, 

except in the case of certain powerups, 

such as the timed bomb which 

explodes immediately when the fire 

button is released. This probably 

caused too much bias in Adrian's 

favour and allowed him to win the 

game. 

DAY 2 

Gravity Power 

By this stage the connection was 

good and much multiplayer fun was 

being had. Carl had bizarrely never 

played the game that was Gravity 

Force 2 meets Amiga Power but still 

repeatedly triumphed and secured a 

heroic victory. The large selection of 

levels, options and frantic combat 

made this an ideal multiplayer game. 

Dr. Mario 

The first game of the second 

day was the puzzler Dr. Mario. 

Another de-synchronisation 

catastrophe caused this round 

to be abandoned. Still, the 

speed problem was mostly 

solved when Carl hosted a 

Kaillera server on his own PC. 


Biplanes 

There were some initial setup problems but these were soon resolved. 

However, the game speed was sluggish and slightly unresponsive. It was 

unclear whether this was due to a reason other than high pings. Both Carl 

and Adrian were familiar with Biplanes and its tricky controls but the speed 

caused some inconvenience. Still, battle was joined and Adrian comfortably 

won, having fired holes through Carl's biplane and several balloons. 

Extreme Violence 

Much confusion reigned as both players claimed to 

have won against a feeble and confused opponent 

who seemed to be having trouble with the controls. It 

was concluded that there was some setback which 

had resulted in a synchronisation problem. The game 

was nullified. 

Tennis Champs 

There were still some speed 

issues but a full game of tennis 

was conducted. Both players 

were able to communicate 

across the court using the very 

handy in-session chat (F11). 

Tennis Champs demonstrated 

how fun remote multiplayer 

gaming on the Amiga could be. 

Carl won an overwhelming 

victory against Adrian and walked away with the game and a virtual cup. 

Super Foul 

Egg 

Another round 

saw another 

puzzle game. 

This time it was 

the hugely 

entertaining 

Super Foul Egg, which was 

somewhat new to Carl. Still, he soldiered on under 

waves of rocks produced by Adrian's shape matching 

combos. In the end Adrian's prior Super Foul 

Egg experience paid off and he won. 

Knock Out 

The last round had both players on the 

edge, literally. The ever-diminishing 

circle of Knock Out reminded Adrian and 

Carl of the transitoriness of life but they 

continued with the game anyway. All the 

computer cars were initially involved but later this 

was scaled back to a more manageable number. Sadly, 

the last round was cut short by an emulator crash. 

At the end of the two multiplayer sessions Adrian had narrowly won (What?! - Asst Ed) although that was mainly due to Carl's unfamiliarity with some of 

the games. Technical problems had also played havoc with a number of the rounds. 

Beyond the practicalities of connections and old emulator versions, multiplayer gaming over the Internet can be a lot of fun. These games are still 

hugely enjoyable today and the (fairly) modern software opens up new possibilities in remote gaming. If only the updated WinUAE supported netplay... 

apov 4 

87

� 

Abime Software brings 

War and Peace: 

Did you read Volume I of War and Peace and realise that you still had 1,000 pages to go? 

� Did you rent out the 1967 Sergei Bondarchuk film and find out that it was over 6 hours long? 

� Did you try to watch the BBC adaptation only to discover that it was nearly 12 hours in length? 

� 

Then this Amiga game is for you! Abime has skilfully adapted the whole* of War and Peace for the 

Amiga in five thrilling, bite-size levels: 

Level 1: Play the comical Captain 

Tushin as he controls his artillery 

battery at the battle of 

Schöngrabern! Can you stand 

against the odds and remain at 

your post? This level uses the ingenious method of joystick waggling 

to simulate cannon reloading. 

Level 3: Pierre has decided to 

become a battle tourist at 

Borodino. Control him as he 

watches the battle and avoids 

being killed! The battle is realistically 

portrayed using Abime Software's amazing Realview 3D engine. 

Level 5: Napoleon's Grande 

Armée is rapidly vanishing during 

the retreat from Moscow. You 

play Napoleon in a race against 

time as the Krasnoi skirmishes 

reduce your army's numbers. Can you avoid losing 400,000 men? 

Level 2: Play Andrei as he 

attempts to stop the Russian 

retreat at Austerlitz! Napoleon 

has masterfully and decisively 

beaten the Russians and 

Austrians. Can Andrei stop the rout? Try to control each unit as it 

fails to respond to the controls. 

wounded to complete the level? 

N.B. Not available on Atari ST version 

Level 4: Natasha wants to help 

the wounded during the burning 

of Moscow but the conflagration 

is spreading. Can you avoid the 

inferno and collect enough 

Epilogue bonus level: Play as 

Hitler as he forgets the lessons of 

1812 and invades Russia. 

* Excepting... Anna Scherer’s soirée, Pierre Bezukhov’s arrival and indecision, Dolokhov’s bet, the name day celebrations, Nikolay and Sonya’s relationship, Natasha and Boris’ talk, dinner at the Rostovs’, Prince Vasily’s inheritance machinatio 

tion, Kutuzov’s nap in the war council, quite a bit of Austerlitz, the retreat, Boris’ wounds, Andrei near to death, Bagration’s dinner, Pierre and Dolokhov’s duel, a birth and Lise’s death, Iogel’s ball, Nikolay’s debt, Bazdeyev and Pierre’s discus 

and Alexander’s meeting, an oak tree, springtime, the oak tree again, Andrei and the Legal Code reform committee, Pierre’s agreement for a reconciliation with Hélène, Berg and Vera’s dowry, Natasha and Boris’ love, Natasha’s first ball, Andr 

and Marya’s discussion, the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, the opera, Natasha and Anatole, Madame George’s recital, Anatole’s attempt to leave with Natasha, Pierre and Natasha’s talk, Anatole’s departure, Natasha’s attempt at suicide, the co 

and Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk, Napoleon’s march on Moscow, old Prince Bolkonsky’s death, Marya and the peasants, Pierre and Andrei, lots of Borodino, slaughter, death, Andrei and Anatole’s injuries, the Russian’s lose, Kutuzov 

in Voronezh with Marya, Sonya’s letter, Pierre’s interrogation, execution and Pierre’s reprieve, Andrei’s death, Napoleon and Kutuzov’s letters, pre-battle preparations, the Cossacks attack, the Grande Armée leaves Moscow, Denisov and Dolo 

and Nikolay and the illusion of free will.

you Tolstoy’s 

The War Bits 

Amiga £25.99 

Atari ST £19.99 

ns, the count’s death, the inspection at Braunau, the stolen purse, the burning of the bridge, Andrei’s journey with the dispatches, most of the Schöngrabern battle, Pierre’s marriage, Vasily and Anatole at Bald Hills, the Emperor’s inspecsion, 

Pierre’s freemasonry, Anna’s soirée, Andrei’s estate at Bogucharovo, Pierre’s reforms, old Prince Bolkonsky and Pierre, Denisov’s crimes and time in a hospital, Nikolay and Boris at Tilsit, the rejection of Denisov’s petition, Napoleon 

ei and Natasha’s ball, Andrei’s visit to the Rostovs, Andrei and Natasha’s secret engagement, Nikolay on the hunt, the capture of a wolf, Natasha’s dance, Christmas, Sonya and Nikolay’s love, Nikolay’s regiment, Pierre in Moscow, Pierre 

met, Napoleon, Alexander, Balashev and Murat, Balashev’s dinner with Napoleon, Andrei and Pfuel, the war council, a storm, Natasha’s illness, communion and mass, Pierre’s vision about Napoleon, Petya at the Kremlin, the Emperor, 1812 

, the possible defence of Moscow, retreat, the Rostovs’ departure, the wounded, Napoleon’s arrival at Moscow, the great fire, Pierre’s saving of Ramballe life and dinner together, Natasha with Andrei, Pierre’s arrest, Hélène’s death, Nikolay 

khov’s plans for an attack, Petya’s death and Pierre’s rescue, the French retreat continues and losses mount, news of Petya’s death, Kutuzov’s death, the rebuilding of Moscow, Pierre and Natasha’s meeting, Count Rostov’s death, Marya

apov 4 

90 


Curiouser and Curiouser 

E I G H T P E C U L I A R A M I G A G A M E L I C E N C E S 

Motorhead (1992, Virgin) 

Motörhead is a heavy metal/rock band 

formed in the 1970s. The band's songs 

include Ace of Spades, Overkill, Love Me 

Like a Reptile and Jailbait. Someone with 

more knowledge of the band's class of 

music might be able to write a more 

accurate description but they appear to be 

the sort of band satirised by Spinal Tap. 

At some point in the early 90s somebody 

decided that the world needed an Amiga 

game based on the band with the horned, 

armoured face emblem. The plot of the 

game sees the band travel to some 

In the days of licenced Amiga games the licence itself was usually an obvious 

choice. Robocop, Batman the Movie and the Lord of the Rings are examples of 

mainstream properties that guaranteed big-selling games. Some licences, though, 

were a bit more leftfield than these. Adrian Simpson, a chap with a nose for the 

bizarre, is just the man to bring these oddities to light. Note that the peculiarity of 

the licence is not a reflection of the quality of the game. 

unnamed small town to play a gig. However, 

the band's imminent arrival has made someone 

very nervous. The band members, save 

for 'Lemmy', have gone missing and a note 

has been left, noting the kidnapper's worries 

about the effect of Motörhead's 'overkill' on 

the town. Lemmy must make his way 

through a number of horizontally scrolling 

Golden Axe-like levels in his quest to save 

his fellow musicians. 

As a beat-'em-up, Virgin's game is less 

about Motörhead's music and more about 

intolerance. Each level features a different 

'villain', such as rappers, country & 

western music fans, Japanese karaoke 

singers, skinheads, goths and ravers. 

The idea is to bash each alternative 

music lover with Lemmy's guitar. Why 

can't these fans be left in peace to 

enjoy their favourite music? Okay, it's 

understandable for rap music. And rave 

music. And karaoke. 

APoV Peculiarity Index: 

3/10

In the 1970s working men smoked 

cigarettes, drank beer and played darts in 

pubs and clubs across the UK. It was never 

an energetic pursuit. In the 1980s it became 

even less of an active recreation as millions 

turned on the television to watch contestants 

play darts on the game show Bullseye. 

The programme was hosted by Jim Bowen 

whose catchphrase is widely remembered 

as "Super, smashing, great!" 

Things took an even more bizarre turn 

when the TV programme of the sport was 

turned into an Amiga game of the TV 

programme of the 

Like Bullseye, 'Allo 'Allo! was another 

popular TV programme in the UK in the 80s 

and 90s and your writer must admit to 

watching both shows before he realised that 

television was the opium of the people and 

that getting rid of the television set was both 

desirable and necessary. 

Anyway, 'Allo 'Allo was strange because 

the show was set in Nazi-occupied France 

with characters in the Resistance and the 

Gestapo. Of course, comedy doesn't have to 

be about pleasant ideas to be funny and 

relevant. Dr. Strangelove, for example, 

satirises the nuclear holocaust 

sport. Jim Bowen seems to be absent from 

Bully's Sporting Darts but Bully, the show's 

overweight mascot, makes his presence 

known throughout the game. 

Darts are a peculiar pastime to be turned 

into a computer game. Whereas most programmers 

aim to offer the player a slick 

control system, games based around darts 

deliberately sabotage the controls so that 

the skill lies in overcoming this handicap. In 

Bully's Sporting Darts the dart-holding hand 

floats in front of the dartboard, moves with a 

noticeable inertia and is constantly being 

pulled downwards by a mysterious force. 


Bully’s Sporting Darts (1993, Alternative) 


4/10 

'Allo 'Allo Cartoon Fun (1993, Alternative) 

("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is 

the War Room!") and Blackadder Goes Forth 

highlights the absurdities of World War I. 

However, there was always something not 

quite right about the subject matter as 

primetime TV entertainment, especially in 

the light of WW2 documentaries such as The 

Sorrow and the Pity. The Amiga game of the 

TV show isn't concerned with such matters 

and nor should it be. Alternative's game features 

great representations of René Artois 

and the other characters and translates the 

programme's comedy into an appropriately cartoonish style. Still, 

one can't completely escape the show's 

peculiar setting when playing the game. 


5/10 91 

apov 4

apov 4 

92 


Monty Python's Flying Circus (1990, Virgin) 

We all love Monty Python and its dead 

parrots, Spanish Inquisition, lumberjack 

song and the fish slapping dance. The TV 

show was famous for its non-conformity and 

irreverent style. At a time when licenced 

games were often fairly formulaic, how 

could Monty Python be turned into a platformer 

or multi-staged licence game? 

The answer is... pretty well, actually. 

Monty Python's Flying Circus, the game, has 

a level-based structure but disguises it with 

inter-level cartoons and non-linear levels. 

There are plenty of Monty Python references 

littered throughout. The graphics are 

rendered in a Terry Gilliam style, giving the 

impression of playing through one of his 

surreal cartoons. 

It's interesting to speculate about an 

Amiga game based on one of the plot-based 

Monty Python films. In the Holy Grail, King 

Arthur would have to perform a number of 

tasks in each level such as speaking to God, 

avoiding a falling cow, answering the questions 

of Tim the Enchanter and using the 

Plan 9 From Outer 

Space (1992, Gremlin) 

B-movies don't have to be bad films. 1954's 

Them! features giant, mutated ants but still 

manages to be a great film. However, Ed 

Wood's 1959 film Plan 9 From Outer Space 

is most definitely dreadful with its terrible 

special effects, bad acting, awful script and 

expiring actors. 

One of the advantages of acquiring a 

licence for the film must surely have been 

the low cost. The latest Arnold 

Schwarzenegger blockbuster would have 

been expensive because of its contempo- 

Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch against a 

deadly rabbit. In the Life of Brian, the titular 

character would have to join the Peoples' 

Front of Judea, correct a Latin sentence, fly 

through space in an alien craft, avoid 

becoming a prophet and sing along to 

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life on 

the cross. 


6/10 

raneity. Most games 

bought licences to 

ride the wave of 

popularity and 

recognisability but a 

few games were 

based on decadesold 

films, like Fantastic Voyage or Plan 9 

From Outer Space. 

Of course, Gremlin's plan was to market 

their game on the film's cult appeal. The 

game box is suitably B-movie in style and 

proudly proclaims that Plan 9 From Outer 

Space was "Voted the worst movie of all 

time..." This raises the question whether a 

game based on a bad film should also be a 

bad game. There were certainly bad games 

based on good films and bad games based 

on bad films. Still, it's a peculiar licence that 

even comes with a VHS cassette of the film. 

Carlos (1994, Microids) 

Carlos AKA Carlos Dolto AKA Jean- 

Christophe Doltovitch AKA Yvan- 

Chrysostome Dolto was a French singer who 

died in 2008. The rotund Carlos sang a number 

of songs which can best be described as 

"peculiarly French." The lyrics of 'Papayou', 

for example, go something like "Papayou, 

papayou, papayou, papayou lélé, j'ai le plus 

beau des papayou lélé." 

The lyrics for the song 'Le Tirelipimpon' are: 

Tirelipimpon sur le Chihuahua 

Tirelipimpon avec la tête avec les bras 

Tirelipimpon un coup en l'air un coup en bas 

Touche mes castagnettes moi je touche à 

tes ananas! 

On a superficial level, the songs seem to be 

aimed at children but they actually contain a 

number of sexual references. 

French publisher Microids released a 

game based on Carlos, called Carlos. 


8/10

Mr Blobby (1994, Millennium) 

The character Mr Blobby arose from Noel 

Edmonds' TV show Noel's House Party, in a 

sketch where celebrities were fooled into 

thinking that they were taking part in a children's 

TV series. The idea was that the 

imbecilic Mr Blobby (Noel Edmonds in a 

large pink suit) would embarrass the 

celebrity and provide some entertainment. It 

wasn't exactly the wit of The Importance of 

Although 

the game had 

the potential to 

be an early Guitar 

Hero-style musical extravaganza 

(without the guitar), Carlos does 

not sing in any of the five levels. 

Instead, Carlos is a platform game 

where Carlos must rescue some trendy 

kids, a sort of alligator/lizard/green/woman thing 

and what appears to be her 

broom. A missed opportunity! 


10/10 

Being Earnest or Kind Hearts and Coronets 

but admittedly, it was slightly amusing. 

Mr Blobby then took on a horrifying life of 

its own and became popular in its own right. 

It wasn't the sort of development that saw 

The Simpsons outgrow the Tracey Ullman 

Show. It was a perplexing popularity that 

highlighted the continual dumbing down of 

television (and this on a show that was 

never highbrow in 

the first place). The 

nadir came when a 

Mr Blobby song 

went to number one 

in the UK charts, 

A disturbing number 

of people spend 

their free time 

catching up on the 

lives of fictional 

people in so-called 

'soap operas'. These 

dramas are reputedly based on real life, or 

at least on situations where the participants 

shout at each other endlessly. 

Some soap operas, such as Coronation 

Street and EastEnders, have been running 

for a long time. In the 80s someone had the 

idea to create an Australian soap opera set 

in a cul-de-sac called Ramsay Street. 

Instead of the dreary streets and tedious 

kitchen dramatics of Coronation Street, the 


although that may also be indicative of the 

state of popular music in the 1990s. 

Mr Blobby on the Amiga was published by 

Millennium. However, the game was originally 

Super Troll Islands, a conversion of a 

SNES game featuring the troll toys that also 

featured in the Amiga game Trolls. Someone 

in Millennium decided that the Mr Blobby 

licence would be more suitable and would 

presumably make more money. Think of the 

poor developers! 

Neighbours (1991, 

Impulze/Zeppelin) 


7/10 

new show, Neighbours, would feature sunlit 

streets and tedious kitchen dramatics. 

Faced with the insurmountable odds of 

accurately representing the TV programme 

as an Amiga game, Zeppelin decided to 

create a Paperboy style racing game 

instead. The game box mentions curiously 

capitalised creatures: "rogue Kangaroos, 

Wallabies, Emus, Koala Bears and of course, 

the dreaded Mrs. Mangel." The box also 

announces that "Zeppelin presents the game 

no-one else dared bring you..." The TV show 

was also the subject of a Public Domain 

adventure, also called Neighbours. 


9/10 

apov 4 

93

Amiga Paradigm November 2009 $ 8.00 � www.amiga-paradigm.com 

THE magazine for serious Amigans! 

PRINTER 

DRIVERS 

We reveal what’s HOT and what’s 

not in the most exciting roundup 

this year! 

PLUS: Interview with Dirk Gruenewald, mousemat collector 

Mod your Amiga part 19: make it a real girlfriend 

Amiga Inc - on to a winner in Kyrgyzstan? 

PostScript, HP, even - yes! CalComp! RTS PBM? You can with a printer... 

No.68 

SIXTH SENSE 

INVESTIGATIONS 

SHOGO: MAD 

MYST 

FROGGER V1.28

12 

NEWS 

T 

AmiLCARS 

Digital living for Amigans 

� Developer: Uberholt Computertechnik 

� Release date: Winter 2009 

� Price: 495 Euros 

here are many Amigans who enjoy the 

science fiction show Star Trek. This is 

quite understandable, as the show features a 

future where mankind lives in harmony, 

space travel is commonplace and women 

wear skimpy outfits as a matter of course. 

Another attractive aspect is the computer on 

board the Enterprise, which can be activated 

by voice and can control the lights, doors, 

coffee machines and all other systems on the 

ship. And which talks in a female voice. 

Many are the Amigans who wonder when, if 

The AmiLCARS hardware fitted inside an A500 

ever, such a thing will materialise (as in the 

materialisation of a person who has used a 

teleporter in the show Star Trek) in their 

own lives. The incredible news is that that 

time is now. 

Beam me up 

Demonstrated for the first time at the recent 

Amiga show 'Amiga Extreme Baden-Baden 

2009', AmiLCARS is an ingenious expansion 

that connects to the Lisa chip and clock port 

and uses wireless signals to control every 

device in your house. Once installed, the system 

is entirely voice activated and even 

responds in a customisable voice (defaulted 

to "19-year-old female cosplay fan"). A tiny 

but sensitive microphone listens for voice 

commands through the PCMCIA port and 

transmits these to the processor. AmiLCARS 

currently recognises eight thousand phrases, 

including "Lights," "Tea, Earl Grey, hot" and 

"Vibrate the chair a little more, ohhh, yeah... 

that's it, now tell me again about the nasty 

things you'd like to do with my joystick." 

The software used to control the gadget that 

will control your house comes on three floppy 

disks and supports Amiga OS 1.2 and up. 

Disk 1 has an installation script which should 

be executed to begin installation. Users 

without hard drives can run the software 

from floppy, though disk swapping is 

required if you want your refrigerator door 

to open or your toaster to give muffins a 

light toasting. 

Playing house 

AmiLCARS is the work of little-known 

German Amiga hardware startup Uberholt 

Computertechnik. Their previous credits 

include the Agricola scanquadrupler and a 

trapdoor expansion card that gives A1200s 

the processing power of a Cray XT5, though 

this latter product only ever made it to the 

prototype stage. 

At the Baden-Baden show, lead developer 

Alexander Koch took the AmiLCARS system 

through its paces and answered questions 

from show attendees. 

The installer interface 

Using his voice alone, Alexander dimmed the 

lights in the exhibition hall, boiled a kettle 

and loaded Cannon Fodder on every Amiga 

in the room. Two attendees fainted when 

AmiLCARS responded to his commands in a 

sultry affirmative. 

Co-developer Ernst Fuchs was unable to 

make the show, a guru meditation on his 

A1200T leaving him locked in his apartment 

with hyperactive furniture and Let's Hear It 

For the Boy looping continuously from his 

MP3 system. 

Wowed Amigans immediately hailed the 

product as a great advance. Mark Eargle of 

the South Brampton Amiga User Group 

placed a pre-order at the show and told 

Amiga Paradigm that AmiLCARS "will allow 

Amigans to spend even less time away from 

their machines doing real world stuff and 

more time arguing about the relative merits 

of Wings and Captive on Amiga boards." 

A man pointing at a Mac and saying something 

Coder Knud Olesen excitedly squealed that 

"it will be just like having an actual female 

housekeeper, except this one won't ask for a 

raise or threaten to sue for harassment!" 

Registered AmiLCARS users will be able to 

download software updates from the 

Uberholt website, including GUI skins and 

additional female voices in IFF format. The 

developers hope to have an OS4 version 

ready for 2011.

Frogger V1.28 

A new froggame for AmigaOS 4? 

F 

rogger is a new game for AmigaOS 4, 

though the game concept isn't new - the 

original of what we can call a "frog crossing 

the road before crossing a river simulation" 

was released many years ago, by those 

Japanese pioneers Konami. 

The talented Amiga development team Ultra 

Future Amiga Boing have now brought 

Frogger up to date by creating a new version 

for AmigaOS 4, MorphOS and the Casio SL- 

460L. 

The title has been a WIP (Work In Progress) 

for approximately 7 (seven) years, with 

demos shown at Amiga shows such as 

Planeta Amiga 2003 and North Humberside 

Amiga User Group Expo 06. A YouTube video 

of lead programmer, Aki-Petter Aravirta, 

playing Frogger has been the subject of message 

board discussions for some time. Each 

to their own. 

Getting it 

� Developer: Ultra Future Amiga Boing 

� Release date: August 2009 

� Price: 35 Euros 

Frogger, like all the best Best of Country & 

Western CD compilations, is not available in 

any stores (in the "physical premises that 

you can walk into and exchange money for 

products" sense), but that anachronistic 

method of purchasing software is no great 

loss in the shiny new world of Internet connectivity 

and Amigas. The game can be 

ordered from the developers' homepage and 

probably Amazon. 

The requirements for running the game are 

fairly typical for modern Amiga games: An 

AmigaOne, AmigaOS 4, and 85 MB hard disk 

space is required. Alternatively MorphOS 

can be used if configured correctly, and the 

authors hope that the twelve people who 

use it will buy their game! Classic Amigas, 

expanded with PowerPPC cards and 

Cybervision PPC graphics cards, will not run 

Frogger. 

Installing via the installer 

This exciting review is about to get even 

more exciting as the following words 

describe the installation procedure! 

Installation is a matter of following the steps 

of booting up your Amiga system, inserting 

the game CD, opening the main directory 

and double-clicking the icon marked 

"Install". This action brings up an installer, 

which prompts the user to select various 

options and enter a code from the game 

inlay. Clicking "continue" on the above-mentioned 

installer interface leads it to continue. 

The program then installs to the hard drive, 

in a location specified by the person using 

the installer. 

The installation process is simple and professional, 

and is available in six languages so 

most Amiga users should be able to follow it. 

Game fundamentals 

"Frogger is a game where arcade skills are 

tested along with thinking skills and keyboard 

skills". This is how Frogger is described 

on the homepage of the team that wrote the 

game! Does this description match the way I 

am to describe it? That depends on how the 

game plays, and my opinion of it will be 

revealed in the rest of the review where I 

will write about how I found the game to 

play. 

The scenario of the game should be familiar 

to everyone who has ever enjoyed video 

games, as this is one of the most popular 

video games in history and so should need 

no explanation. The game revolves around a 

frog (the frog from which the game takes its 

title) that has to get from a grassy bank to a 

frog pond (or from the bottom of the screen 

to the top). This simple-sounding task is 

made difficult by the fact that hazards occupy 

the space between starting and finishing 

point! First, the frog (via player control) 

must negotiate a busy road, on which cars 

Language options 

Frogger supports French, English, 

German, Spanish, Italian and Esperanto. 

Developer homepage 

http://www.ufab/gamestore 

Minimum requirements 

A1 G3 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM, Radeon 

7000 32 MB, CD, HD, 32" TFT 

and trucks race. The road is not very realistic, 

I must say, for the traffic never eases up and 

drivers never change lane. And, worst of all, 

the lanes go in alternately opposite directions! 

You'd never see that in Germany. 

Once the player has successfully negotiated 

the road, he or she must hop from turtle to 

log to log to turtle to log to safety. The danger 

here is not in getting squashed, but in 

missing a log (or turtle) and ending up in the 

water. Why this should be a problem, when 

frogs are widely known to be adept in freshwater 

environments, is not clear. Also, riding 

along too far and colliding with the edge of 

the playing area means that a life is lost and 

the player must start from the roadside knoll 

again. Occasionally, snakes and alligators 

appear which are certainly worth avoiding. 

The level is complete when the player lands 

five frogs (one at a time) in the ponds at the 

top. A little piece of music plays, then a new 

level begins. If the player runs out of lives, in 

the traditional way of things, the game is 

over. 

A consolation is that, if the player has 

amassed a high-score, he or she will be 

prompted to enter his or her initials on the 

high-score table, which are then displayed 

alongside the high score he or she has just 

scored. 

Worth the Hasselhoff? 

Frogger is a very good conversion of the classic 

Frogger game from the early Eighties. The 

graphics, sound and other such enhancements 

have been greatly improved to take 

advantage of the Amiga's powerful hardware 

and operating system. This game is very 

addictive, and well worth spending 35 Euros 

on as it will keep anyone who plays it playing 

it for a long time. The installer is also very 

good. 

17 

REVIEW

28 

INSIGHT 

S 

Play It Again 

Make way, Rockstar: an Amiga gameteam with big plans 

� Interviewer: Bernhard Hartgesotten 

� Interviewees: BoingTechnik Studios GmbH 

� Nagging sense of futility: Our readers 

ome might say that the Amiga is dead 

as a games platform. But then some 

might say that Germans have poor fashion 

sense. Such people are, as that second sentence 

should imply, silly fools who should 

not be permitted to express opinions. The 

point is that the Amiga is still very much a 

viable platform for games, a fact endorsed 

by the incredibly active development team 

who are the subject of this interview: 

BoingTechnik Studios GmbH. 

Lead programmer and BoingTechnik CEO, 

Markus Schnaufbilt, showed me round their 

plush offices and gave me a sneak preview of 

some upcoming releases in between bouts 

of disco freestyle. 

“Our strategy is to gather the best Amiga talent 

and produce games that take advantage 

What the Amiga version of Army Men: RTS may well eventually look like. 

of the huge advances in Amiga hardware. 

We want to bring Amigans the cutting-edge 

games that console and PC owners enjoyed 

at least five years ago.” 

First up is Army Men: RTS, a landmark Red 

Alert knock-off that will appeal to armchair 

Napoleons and Toy Story fans alike. The 

Find out what it's like to dress a woman, with Barbie BB. 

demo that Markus showed me lacked sound 

and graphics, but in all other respects was a 

faithful reproduction. 

“We've been working on it for three years 

now and though the game engine has yet to 

be compiled the title screen is 80% complete 

and we have some really good Protracker 

stuff. With luck, the game will be finished in 

time for the all-important post-Christmas 

sales window.” 

I invited Markus to take me through some of 

the technical intricacies involved in making 

games. 

Bits and pieces 

“Before we create the graphics, sound or 

gameplay for a game we need to design a 

base table of string 

classes that the SDK will 

reference during the 

transliteration stage. 

This way the pointer 

bits stay tagged within 

their memory segments 

and we can slurp the 

buffer handler into the 

algorithm without having 

to deviate the 

intrasegments. In the 

case of conversions, the 

graphics are captured 

from a YouTube video 

of the game running on 

a PS2 and converted to 

IFF format by sending 

them up and down a 

SCART-RGB cable a few 

times. This is how all the big development 

houses do it.” 

Video stars 

One of BoingTechnik’s most exciting-looking 

games, Silverbloke, features FMV sequences 

of a silver bloke. Was the central character 

based on movement capture then rendered 

in a package such as Cinema 4D? 

“No - we thought we needed to do something 

different in 2009, so we filmed the 

sequences for real. That silver guy you see 

striding through an exploding warehouse is 

actually Anders, our production manager. 

We had to do it in one take as his silver paint 

began to melt.” 

As well as stunning FMV graphics, the finished 

game will feature a wholly interactive 

environment and gameplay inspired by 

Revolutionary graphics in Silverbloke. 

Dragon's Lair and Golem. 

Other titles in BoingTechnik's ambitious 

development schedule include 3D 

Lemmings, Earthworm Jim 2 and Barbie 

Beauty Boutique. Games will be available for 

download from an area on the BoingTechnik 

website modelled on the Xbox Live Arcade 

system, but with Boing Points. 

Markus gets down. That shellsuit is actually pink. 

“The digital distribution model has been 

shown to work on other platforms, so we're 

confident that the Amiga will provide a 

viable income stream.” 

I asked if it was all about content. 

“It's all about content. Our games will buck 

the trend that says the average Amiga owner 

would rather have a water buffalo tapdance 

on his family jewels than have to actually 

fork money out for a game.” 

There you have it. Proof that this is not just 

another false dawn for Amiga gamers, but 

the beginning of an exciting new era.

M 

oggen, of the town of Vombetes, who 

endlessly worked as a soldier, died on 

Thursday at the young age of 30, whilst faithfully 

in the service of Jos XVIII. 

To the peasantry of Vombetes, Moggen 

was a hardworking farmer who grazed sheep 

on the steep hills surrounding the village. 

However, Fate would soon bring Moggen far 

from the incessant bleating of the lambs. 

Moggen strongly believed in the existence 

of a god and one that looked down on the 

land and guided events from afar. It was 

imbued with this spirituality that Moggen 

stood in the Vombetes square and married 

Tofofboy. They would later move into a barn 

and live happily together. But not ever after. 

The arrival of Powermonger Jos XVIII 

brought war to the village. Moggen was soon 

recruited and given a pike. At first the regi- 

Rick Dangerous 

Derring-do adventurer 

ick Dangerous has died for the sixty 

R sixth time since lunchtime. He expired 

MOGGEN OF VOMBETES 

Sheep farmer who enlisted in the army and died in battle 

mented life and work was hard with endless 

wood-chopping, boat-building and engineof-war-constructing. 

Marched off to war, Moggen took part in 

and died at the battle of Bferem. Although his 

after being impaled on spikes which had suddenly 

appeared from nowhere. 

Coming from a family of adventurers, 

Rick was acutely aware of the dangers of 

exploring ancient ruins. His grandfather was 

Allan Quatermain, a famed explorer of 

Africa, who was present at the Last Stand of 

the Greys and rediscovered King Solomon’s 

Mines. His father was Dr. Henry “Indiana” 

Jones, who survived a nuclear explosion in a 

fridge. 

Having died at the hands of an arrow 

which had been fired following the pressing 

of a switch, Rick was then crushed by a 

rolling rock, splattered after falling from a 

Sir Loin of the Northern Wastelands 

Knight Errant 

S 

ir Loin of the Northern Wastelands lost 

his head yesterday when he engaged a 

fellow knight in single combat. Having faced 

and defeated Ratmen, Troggs, Baloks and 

even the strange swamp monster thing, Sir 

Loin was supremely confident. 

However, unbeknownst to Sir Loin, the 

other knight was in possession of a fearsome 

weapon of mass decapitation; the fabled 

Sword of Sharpness! 

Sir Loin had gone off in pursuit of the 

Questing Beast which, according to Sir 

Thomas Malory, “had in shape a head like a 

serpent's head, and a body like a leopard, buttocks 

like a lion, and footed like an hart; and 

in his body there was such a noise as it had 

been the noise of thirty couple of hounds 

questing, and such a noise that beast made 

wheresomever he went.” 

This detour led Sir Loin straight into the 

path of the yellow knight and to his ultimate 

doom. 

Experts in the cities of Highwood and 

Waterdeep were unable to fix Sir Loin’s head 

on again; not the healer and not even Mythral 

the Mystic. 

body fell and froze to the hard midwinter 

ground, witnesses report that his soul miraculously 

floated up to Heaven. 

Moggen is survived by ten children and 

sixteen sheep. 

precipice and killed in an explosion. 

As he ceased to be, expired, went to meet 

his maker, became bereft of life, rested in 

peace, kicked the bucket, shuffled off his 

mortal coil, ran down the curtain and joined 

the bleedin’ choir invisible, a disembodied 

voice was heard to cry, “For fuck’s sake, not 

again!” 

Then the aliens arrived. 

Rick leaves one daughter, Lara, who also 

became an adventurer and married a Mr. 

Croft. 

Yet perhaps, despite his death, the most 

remarkable episode in Sir Loin's long and 

storied life is still to come. Tomorrow, he will 

miraculously rise from the grave when the 

mysterious, omnipotent “Player One” visits 

Stonehenge. 

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102 

"It's easy to become lost in the mines." 

O 

nly two guides for you this issue, but they're comprehensive A-Z walkthroughs for a pair 

of tricky old games that may well have left one or two of you beat. And hey, if WHAM can 

help just one gamer nail a problematic game and regain some semblance of sanity in the 

process, we figure it's served its purpose. After all, "There's nothing worse than an enjoyable 

arcade adventure that you can't get past level 3 on," as Mark Twain might well have said. 

110 

Colorado 

Get the gold and the girl with our guide to this westernstyle 

arcade adventure. 

Needs 

You 

We want to know which games 

you, the great APoV-reading 

public, would like help with. Got 

an adventure gathering dust on 

your hard drive because you got 

stuck on it in 1993? Then tell us. 

Want to know how to play Sensi 

like a master? Just say the word. 

Curious about unlocking the 

rumoured elk porn Easter Egg in 

103 

Into the Eagle's Nest 

This WWII-themed Gauntlet-ish classic is notoriously 

hard to beat. Read our guide and complete your mission. 

Knights of the Sky? Better keep 

that one to yourself. 

So, yeah. If there's a game you'd 

like to see featured in a future 

edition of WHAM, simply fire off an 

e-missive to apov.contact@ 

abime.net describing what you'd 

like help with and we'll see what 

we can do.

Our guest tipper this issue is Major Cornelius "Taffy" McFaversham, 

who was present at the Siege of the Peking Legations, Kohima, Arnhem 

Bridge and the Imjin. Adrian Simpson speaks to the veteran who will 

be guiding us through the various ultra-difficult missions of Into The 

Eagle's Nest. 

Only the most ill-prepared and foolhardy hiker 

would venture into unfamiliar mountainous 

territory without a map. In the United Kingdom 

and Ireland walkers regularly use maps from 

their respective country’s Ordnance Survey, 

an organisation that originated in the military 

realm. And a bally good job too! 

On the other hand, in the gaming field during 

the Amiga era, programmers often send 

gamers into the most confusing networks of 

�� 

There are four distinct missions to complete. 

In the first three missions the objective is to 

locate a fellow soldier. In the fourth mission 

the objective is to blow up the castle. After 

one mission is complete the next mission 

loads. 

When a game is begun a selection allows 

the player to choose one of four levels. These 

levels determine at which mission the player 

begins. 

Rescue the 

Prisoner 

Rescue the 

Prisoner 

corridors on a voyage of 

reconnaissance. This can be 

part of the game’s challenge and a 

chance for a spot of self-mapping on graph 

paper. However, the fun of mapping the castles 

of Into the Eagle’s Nest is negated by the 

endless waves of Nazis which allow little 

breathing space for exploration. Our intelligence 

suggests that the boxed game originally 

came with one map without pinpointing 

In order to play all four missions you have to 

select level 4. 

Each mission is played on the same four 

floor layouts. The only difference is that detonators 

are present on each of the four floors 

on the demolition mission but not on the rescue 

missions. In the rescue missions the 

placement of the prisoner varies but there is a 

pattern to the floor on which the captive can 

be found: 

Rescue the 

Prisoner 

Blow Up Castle 

Location Basement First Floor Second Floor All Floors 

Level 1 Mission 1 

Level 2 Mission 1 Mission 2 

Level 3 Mission 1 Mission 2 Mission 3 

Level 4 Mission 1 Mission 2 Mission 3 Mission 4 

�� 

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crucial locations. 

We therefore present surveyed maps of the 

castle’s floors. These maps are a snapshot of 

the situation on the ground at the commencement 

of play. 

Keys: collect these. Keys are 

retained between floors 

Metal doors: use the keys to 

open these 

Wooden doors: shoot these 

Dynamite: don’t shoot this! 

Elevator pass: collect this to access 

the elevator. Disappears once used; 

must be collected each time a floor 

is visited 

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�� 

The rescue missions are completed by locating 

the captive soldier, escorting him to the 

nearest lift and to bringing him to the point at 

which you entered on the ground floor. The 

�� 

�� 

�� 

captive looks like a weaponless version of 

your character and will follow you when 

you’re close by. He appears to be invulnerable 

and can be shot at to make him move out of 

the way. He also seems to disappear quite 

easily if you lose him. 

The prisoner locations are as follows. 

�� 

�� 

��

�� 

The castle demolition mission requires the 

player to visit every floor and press (shoot) a 

detonator on each one. Once all four have 

been pressed, exiting via your entrance point 

will complete the level. 

�� 

In the starting room (S) collect Key 1. 

Use Key 1 to exit this room by unlocking either 

Door 1 or Door 2. 

Shoot Wooden 1 and Wooden 2. 

Collect Key 2 and Key 3. 

Collect Key 4. 

Open Door 3. 

Collect the Elevator Pass (EP). 

Don’t go through the closest door or you’ll run 

out of keys. Instead, retrace your steps back 

past the starting room and go through Door 4. 

Shoot Wooden Door 4. Collect Key 5 and Key 6. 

Go through Door 5 and Door 6. 

Shoot Wooden Door 5 and shoot a path through 

Barrels 1. 

Shoot Wooden Door 6, collect Key 7 and shoot 

Remember that elevator passes must be 

collected each time you visit a floor if you 

want to leave it again. The alternative is to 

face an infinite number of Nazis with a finite 

number of bullets. The whole floor, including 

Wooden Door 7. 

Shoot Wooden Door 8, Wooden Door 9 and collect 

Key 8. 

Go through Door 7, collect Key 9, shoot Wooden 

Door 10 and collect Key 10. Avoid shooting the 

dynamite! 

Head back out of this area and go through Door 

8, then shoot Wooden Door 11. 

Go up, left and shoot Wooden Door 12. 

Collect Key 11 and shoot Wooden Door 13. 

Go through Door 9 and shoot Wooden Door 14. 

Shoot Wooden Door 15. Collect Keys 12 and 13. 

Go through Door 10, shoot your way through 

Barrels 2 and go through Door 11. 

Without shooting the dynamite, fire a shot at the 

Detonator (DET) to arm it. 

wham 

doors, also resets when you leave and return. 

The following walkthrough does not explicitly 

mention every item (e.g. valuables, food, 

ammo or first aid) so it’s up to you to pick up 

sufficient to make it through the level. 

There are a few areas which might be worth 

exploring but we need the keys for the next 

level, so skip them for now. Here’s a rundown of 

these major areas: 

1) Go through D12, shoot Barrels 3 (in the middle 

to avoid the dynamite) and go through Door 13. 

2) Go through Door 14 or Door 15, then Door 16. 

Collect K14 and supplies and valuables. 

3) Shoot Wooden Door 16, kill the officers and do 

the usual collecting. 

4) Go through Door 17 and Door 18, collect the 

gold and kill the officer. 

5) Go through Door 19 and get the gold. 

Go all the way back to the beginning and to the 

Elevator (ELEV). 

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�� 

If all went well in the last floor you’ll start this 

level with three keys. 

Upon exiting the Elevator (ELEV) shoot 

Wooden Door 1 and grab Key 1. 

Go back past the elevator and head all the 

way up to Door 1. 

Shoot Wooden Door 2 then shoot through 

Barrels 1 to get Key 2. 

Go to Wooden Door 3, shoot it and collect Key 

3. 

Visit the eastern side of the map and shoot 

through Wooden Doors 4 and 5. Shoot Barrels 

2 to collect Key 4 but watch out for the sneakily 

placed dynamite. 

Travel back around the map in an anti-clockwise 

direction and shoot Wooden Door 6. 

Collect the Elevator Pass (EP). 

Use four keys to pass through Doors 2, 3, 4 

and 5. 

Fight through to Wooden Door 7, shoot it and 

then pass through Door 6. 

Activate the Detonator (DET). 

Other areas of interest on this 

floor are listed below. Again, 

keep your remaining key for the 

next level. 

1. Through Door 7 and Barrels 3 

is an area with Key 5 and some 

other items. 

2. Wooden Door 8 opens into a 

room with five officers. 

3. Wooden Door 9 leads to health 

and an officer. 

4. Behind Door 8 are twenty 

three chests.

�� 

You should have one key left from the previous 

level. 

Go up to the top left hand corner of the map 

and collect Key 1. 

Shoot Wooden Door 1. 

Go to Barrels 1 and carefully shoot them away 

to access the Elevator Pass (EP). 

Retrace your steps past the place 

that Wooden Door 1 was 

located and activate the 

Detonator (DET). 

Although we have the 

Detonator 

and Elevator Pass we should stock up on keys 

for the next floor. 

Shoot Wooden Door 2, then Wooden Door 3. In 

this room collect Key 2. 

Exit the room and go round to Wooden Door 4. 

Shoot this and collect Key 3 in this room. 

Go back to the Elevator and through Wooden 

Door 5. In this general area collect Keys 4 and 

5. 

Shoot Wooden Door 6 and pick up Key 

6. 

Go to the room at the bottom of the 

map, collect Key 7, shoot Barrels 2 

and collect Key 8. Be aware that 

there is dynamite next to Barrels 2 

and also beyond that. Fire only as 

much as is required to destroy 

the barrels. 

Go through Wooden Door 7 and 

get Key 9. 

Shoot both Wooden Doors 8 and 

9. Get Key 10. 

wham 

Go back and through Wooden Doors 10 and 

11. Collect Key 11. 

You can now head to the Elevator (ELEV) or 

check out these other areas of interest: 

1. Food behind Wooden Door 12. 

2. Treasure and an officer behind Wooden 

Door 13. 

3. Gold and health behind Wooden Doors 14 

and 15. 

4. Key 12 and treasure behind Door 1. 

5. Gold and a chest behind Wooden Door 16. 

6. Treasure behind Wooden Doors 17 and 18. 

7. Food and treasure behind Door 2. 

8. Gold bars and food around Barrels 3 and 4. 

9. Avoid Door 3 and go through Wooden Door 

19 for food and treasure. 

10. Treasure and an officer through Wooden 

Door 20. 

11. Doors 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 can be avoided if 

you go through Wooden Doors or other routes. 

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�� 

On this last floor of mission 1 you should have 

12 keys. 

Take Key 1 in this first room and exit through 

Door 1 or 2. 

Get the nearby Key 2. 

Ignore all the doors along this corridor and 

head to Door 3. Go through it. 

Watch out for the dynamite in this area and go 

through Wooden Door 1. Collect Key 3. 

Go up to Door 4, collecting Key 4 along the 

way. 

Beyond Wooden Door 2 is Key 5. 

Go through Wooden Door 3, Door 5 and 

Wooden Door 4. 

Go around the edge of the storage room and 

go through Door 6. Shoot through Barrels 1. 

Door 7 leads to Wooden Doors 5 and 6. In 

these rooms there is food plus Key 6, a 

replacement for the key used to go through 

the last door. 

Wooden Door 7 opens into a room containing 

Key 7. Beyond Wooden Door 8 lies treasure. 

Go through Wooden Doors 9, 10 and Barrels 2 

to find Key 8. 

Go through Wooden Door 11 or Wooden Doors 

12 and 13, via an officer. 

Doors 7, 8 and Wooden Door 14 lead to the 

bathroom, where the Elevator Pass is hidden 

in a cubicle. 

Go all the way back and through Doors 9 and 

10. Work your way through the maze of dynamite. 

Activate the Detonator (DET). 

Head for the elevator and take it to the ground 

floor. 

Other points of note on this floor are: 

1. Barrels 3 and Door 11 are part of an alternate 

route through the storage room. 

2. Wooden Door 15 leads to an officer. 

3. Doors 12 and 13 lead to not much at all. 

4. Wooden Door 16 and Doors 14 and 15 lead 

to Key 9 and gold. 

5. Door 16 and Wooden Door 17 conceal an 

officer and a painting. 

6. Door 17 opens to Key 10 and gold. 

7. Door 18 reveals chests and necklaces. 

8. Wooden Door 18 has a chest and some 

gold. 

�� 

Go back to the start position (S). There should 

be enough keys left over to go through the 

doors. 

Well done 

Your mission was a success 

The castle has been destroyed 

You must now return to base

apov 4 

110 

wham 

It is 1801 and David O'Brian is a trapper who comes across an elderly, 

dying Cheyenne. The old geezer wants to be buried as a warrior and so swaps a map to 

the "legendary Lost Gold Mine of Pocahontas" (no, it's not the Lost Dutchman Mine) 

for a decent burial. This guide will help you reach the gold mine. 

In retaliation against political correctness this article will refer to Indians and not to Native Americans. This 

will firmly place it in the primitive 1990s. Colorado features both mindless, wild, pugilistic Indian warriors 

and those wise chiefs who embody the idea of the noble savage. 

Controls 

Canoe 

Exit canoe: up 

Board canoe: walk towards canoe 

Head downriver: right 

Movement 

Left, right: move horizontally 

Up left, up right, down left, down 

right: move diagonally 

Actions (When facing 

to the right) 

Fire + left: turn around 

Fire + right: high attack 

Fire + right & down: low attack 

Fire + up: jump 

Fire + down: crouch 

Fire + up left: reload rifle 

Fire + up right: throw small barrel of gunpowder 

Fire + right (when no weapon is brandished): make sign of 

peace 

Items 

Some items are necessary for the completion of the game. 

These are: 

w Silver bullet 

w Two gunpowder barrels (small) 

w Gunpowder barrel (large) 

w Medallion 

w Papoose 

Item Usage 

F1 to F6: equip weapon or use item 

F7: toggle pick up / drop mode 

In drop mode + F1 to F6: drop item 

In pick up mode + down left (if facing right): pick up item 

Other items can be used to replenish ammo and health: 

w Gunpowder horn: used to reload your gun 

w Small gunpowder barrels: can be used to kill enemies but 

keep one (see above) 

w Health potion: used to increase health 

Some items are only used in trading for other items: 

w Necklaces: can be exchanged for small gunpowder barrels 

w Gold nuggets (small): can be exchanged for health potions 

w Pelts: can be exchanged for gunpowder horns 

Certain items such as gold nuggets, necklaces and pelts can be 

stacked in the inventory.

walkthrough 

Area 1 

wham 

Screen numbers refer to the annotation on the APoV map. The game is split into six areas. Most of the areas are connected 

via the one-way Colorado River. Hidden or initially blocked access points lead back to areas previously visited. 

The intrepid explorer begins his journey at screen 1 after stepping from his canoe. 

� Go right once to screen 2 and kill the attacking Indian. Avoid falling into the river. 

� Go right twice to screen 3. Take the upper path to the left and go left once to reach 

screen 4. 

� Fight the Indian here and go left to screen 5. 

� Fight the Chief and collect the necklace that he drops. Collect the pelt. 

� Next, go up the mountain path on screen 6 and go past the camp (save menu) to 

screen 7. Collect the gold nuggets. 

� Head back down the mountain path to screen 3 and then go right to screen 8. Kill the 

Indian firing the arrows. 

� Go right to screen 9 and jump over the river. 

� Go right twice to screen 10 and Mac Biggle's trading caravan. In order to trade face 

the open window and walk straight towards the caravan. A trading screen will pop up 

automatically. Trading works by exchange and when an item is exchanged the only 

indication is that your inventory updates. Exchange the necklace for the small barrel 

of gunpowder, the pelt for the gunpowder horn and the gold nuggets for the health 

potion. Items gained later can be exchanged here but keep one small barrel of gunpowder 

for the entrance to the mine. 

� Go right to screen 11 and start climbing up the cliff face by walking to it and pushing up. 

� An Indian is waiting at the top of top of the cliff on screen 12. 

� Go two screens to the left to screen 13. Retrieve the gold nuggets at the edge of a precipice. 

� After camping on screen 15 go right (not up the steps) to 16 and defeat the Indian blocking the way. Watch out for the Indian using the slingshot 

and stones at the window. 

� Go right to screen 17 and fight the Indian. He will drop a necklace. 

� Go right again and fight another Indian on screen 18. 

� Go right once to screen 19 and leap over the two gaps. 

� Go right once again to screen 20 and fight the Indian. Collect the dropped necklace and the pipe. 

� Go back to screen 15 and go up the steps. 

� After another screen of steps fight the Indian on screen 21. Avoid the slingshot thrower. 

� On screen 22 there's another slingshot thrower and an 

Indian who will drop a necklace. Collect this. 

� On screen 23 drop the pipe in front of the chief and 

collect the silver bullet that he places on the ground. 

� Go back to screen 1 via 

Mac Biggle. Trade the items 

that you have to ensure that 

you now have at least the 

pipe and two small barrels of 

gunpowder. 

River Section 1 

Paddle down river, avoiding the attacking Indians, and stop off at the first shore on the right bank. 

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Area 2 

� Leave the canoe at screen 24 and go right. 

� Go right again and defeat the bear at screen 25. 

� Go right and at screen 26 take the upper right path to camp at 27 or continue to the next screen on the lower right path. 

� On screen 28 kill the wolf. A single low swipe with the axe works well, if timed right. 

� Collect the gold nuggets at screen 29 and enter the mines to the right. 

� On screen 30, throw one of the small barrels of gunpowder at the pile of rocks to the right of the screen. This will clear an entrance. Head right. 

� It's easy to become lost in the mines. See the APoV map for door letters on some of the more confusing passages. 

Fight the miner on screen 31 and he'll probably run away after a while. Go right. 

� Go right four times to screen 32 and defeat the miner holding the boy captive. 

� Follow the boy to screen 33 and wait as he slips through a narrow gap and opens a secret entrance for you (door 

H). Leave this entrance for a minute and go to screen 34 to collect the gold nuggets. 

� Return to screen 33 and go through the secret entrance. 

� On screen 35 go through the lower right door. 

� Defeat the miner on screen 36 then go right. 

� Collect the gold nuggets on screen 37 but avoid the mine cart which will appear from the right side of the screen. Go right. 

� Fight the miner on screen 38 and go right. 

� On screen 39 fight the miner and get the large gold nugget. If you have no space in your inventory do the following section first, free the space 

used by the small barrels of gunpowder and then return for the large nugget. 

� Go back to screen 35 and take the upper right door this time. 

� On screen 40 jump over the chasm and go right. 

� On screen 41 take the lower right door. 

� On screen 42 kill the miner. 

� Go back to screen 41 and take the upper right door. 

� On screen 43 kill the old man in the wheelchair. Shoot 

him and avoid his shots. He will drop a document: 

"A landslide has blocked the 

northern entrance near the 

big cross. I'm going back to 

St. Louis to get a big barrel 

of gunpowder. Joe" 

The document is for information only and is not a required item. 

� If you left the large nugget behind on screen 39, go back for it. Then go right to screen 44 and throw a small barrel of gunpowder at the blocked 

exit. 

� The unblocked exit leads to screen 7 of Area 1. This is how we return to Area 1 

even though the canoe is down river. If you need to you can exit here and visit Mac 

Biggle. 

� Go back through the 

mines to screen 24 and 

the canoe. Go down river. 


Paddle down river and stop off at the shore on the left bank.

Area 3 

� You start on screen 45. Leave the canoe and go right twice. 

� On screen 46 watch out for the fire. A single leap should clear it. Go right. 

wham 

� On screen 47 take the upper right path. 

� Mac Biggle is on this screen (48). If you haven't already done so, trade your small gold nuggets for health potions and the large nugget for a large 

barrel of gunpowder. If you need more ammunition, return to screen 47, collect the pelt and trade it for the gunpowder horn. 

� Go right and at screen 49 take the upper right path. 

� On screen 50 make the sign of peace and collect the parchment that the chief puts 

on the ground. It says: 

"Beyond the dead, on the last bridge, only the silver bullet can destroy 'Lone Wolf', the 

guardian of the spirit" 

� Drop the parchment. Go back to screen 47. Take the lower right path. 

� On screen 51 fight the Indian. Go right. 

� On screen 52 make the sign of peace to the chief and collect the parchment. It says: 

"The eagle of the mountains is taking my papoose away to its eyrie, on the great peak. 

Bring it back. Your Cheyenne brother will reward you." 

� The papoose (a small baby in an animal skin cradle) is on the peak back in Area 1 but that's up river and there is 

no access back yet. Drop the parchment and go back to the canoe on screen 45. You should have the silver bullet and 

a large barrel of gunpowder. 

Area 4 


Paddle down river to the next shore on the right bank. 

� Exit the canoe on screen 53. Go right four times. 

� On screen 56 fight the Indian. 

� Go right to Mac Biggle on screen 57. 

� Go right again to screen 58 where you can fight an 

Indian for a necklace and 

collect a pelt on the 

ground. � Trade with Mac 

Biggle if you need supplies but ensure that you are carrying the large gunpowder barrel and the silver bullet. 

� Go back to screen 55 and take the upper right path then go right again. 

� Fight the Indian on screen 

59 and go right. 

� Screen 60 features an 

Indian on the other side of a 

chasm so either shoot him 

or throw a small gunpowder 

barrel. Jump across the gap 

and go right. 

� Camp on screen 61 and 

go right. 

� Climb the cave wall on screen 62. 

� Go left on screen 63. 

� Place the large barrel of dynamite near the pile of rocks 

by using it and then move away quickly. It will blow a hole. Go left. 

� On screen 65 take the lift down. 

apov 4 113

apov 4 

114 

wham 

Area 2 (Part II) 

The lift has arrived at screen 42 of Area 2, in the mines. 

� Go left once, take the upper right exit then right to get to screen 44. 

� Go right to exit the mines. 


� Having exited the mines and returned to Area 1 on screen 7, go right to screen 66. 

� Climb the cliff wall until you reach screen 67. 

� Fight off the eagle with the axe and grab the papoose. 

� Go back into the mines on screen 7. 

Area 2 (Part III) 

� You enter the mines again on screen 44. Go back to screen 42 and take the lift up again. 


You're back on screen 65 in Area 4. 

� Go all the way back down the way you came previously and return to screen 54. 

� There's a path unhelpfully hidden behind the big bush. Take the upper left exit. 

� On screen 68 fight the Indian and collect and trade the necklace if you want another small gunpowder barrel. Go left. 

� On screen 69 leap across the water and go left. 


You've come back to the Cheyenne village on screen 70. 

� Go back to the chief on screen 52. Drop the papoose in front of the chief and collect the medallion. 

� Return to the canoes on screen 45. 

River Section 3 (Part II) 

Go back down river in the canoe to Area 4. 

Area 4 (Part III) 

� Exit the canoe on screen 53 and make your way back up the mountain to screen 63. 

� Go right and fight a bear on screen 71. 

� Go right again to screen 72. Exit the caves by going right.

Area 5 

� Having left the caves you arrive in the snow covered mountains and screen 73. Go right. 

� A wolf will charge on screen 74. Whack it with the axe. Go right. 

� Kill an eagle on screen 75. Go right twice. 

� Fight the wolf on screen 76. Go right. 

� Attack the wolf on screen 77. It will run away. Go right. 

� Camp on screen 78 and go right twice. 

wham 

� Two wolves will attack in succession on screen 79. Kill them. Fire off any bullets in your rifle and use the silver bullet. This will load the gun with 

the ammunition necessary to kill the 'Lone Wolf'. Your normal weapons won't work. Go right. 

� On screen 80 move forward a bit to entice the 'Lone 

Wolf' to charge and then fire a low shot. If timed correctly, 

the wolf will be shot as he leaps in the air to attack. Go 

right. 

� Screen 81 has a strange barrier that prevents those not 

bearing the medallion from passing. You have it, so go 

through the barrier and right. 

� Take the canoe on screen 82 and head down river one last time. 

Area 6 


Paddle all the way down and stop at the beach on the left bank. 

� Leave the canoe on 

screen 83 and go right. 

� On screen 84 drop the 

medallion in front of the 

chief. A doorway in the 

mountain wall is revealed. 

Enter this doorway. 

"Pocahontas' Mine was really fabulous. Nuggets as big as your fist grew there like mushrooms. It took me a 

month to gather everything up. 

I married 'Two Moons' the chief's daughter and then set up 'Old Betty' the most famous trading post in the 

region. I was the happiest and richest man in Colorado. Life was really worth living." 

The End 

apov 4 115

apov 4 

116 

The APoV 

Charts 

1 (1) � THE SETTLERS 

2 (2) � SENSIBLE WORLD OF SOCCER 

3 (4) � WINGS 

4 (3) � TURRICAN 2 

5 (5) � FLASHBACK 

6 (9) � SPEEDBALL 2 

7 (6) � DUNE II: BATTLE FOR ARRAKIS 

8 (7) � CANNON FODDER 

9 (8) � CHAOS ENGINE 

10 (13) � PIRATES! 

11 (20) � KNIGHTS OF THE SKY 

12 (10) � LEMMINGS 

13 (11) � THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND 

14 (12) � CIVILIZATION 

15 (14) � EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 

16 (15) � FRONTIER: ELITE II 

17 NEW GODS 

18 NEW SLAMTILT 

19 NEW SENSIBLE GOLF 

20 (16) � MONKEY ISLAND 2: LECHUCK’S REVENGE 

Chart comment: APoV readers love stability, if this chart is anything to go by: only three new 

games in the chart and one new face in the top ten. It’s as you were at the top, though Wings 

and Turrican 2 continue their tussle over third spot. Of the new entries last time, only Knights 

of the Sky survives: Hired Guns, Elite and IK+ have returned from whence they came. 

To vote, list your five favourite games and email apov.contact@abime.net 

Image: Blue C4D Abstract 

by ~ayerun 

http://ayerun.deviantart.com

Internet forums are notorious for their rambunctious nature, with the most innocuous threads veering wildly off-course and posters 

getting extraordinarily wound up about the most trivial of matters. 

In these hallowed pages, however, we hope to cultivate a more civilised and - dare we say - urbane atmosphere; one where 

Amiga fans can write about their pastime without having their sanity and/or parentage called into question by some guy* who WILL 

NOT ACCEPT that there are, in fact, some worthwhile platformers for the machine. 

That said, we reserve the right to publish any idiotic missives we do get sent, and to reply to them with cathartic mockery. 

*You know the sort. Endlessly pedantic and never been kissed. 

"Had to endure" 

Hello to the little elves who make APoV 

possible, 

Firstly I would just like to give you a 

metaphorical hug and say a big thank 

you for all the hard work you have put 

into the magazine, keep up the good 

work! Unfortunately I have slowly been 

pulling my hair out while waiting for 

issue 4, could you please send me £10 

so that I can buy myself a nice wig and 

a letter of apology for the wait I have 

had to endure. 

The article on how to make an HD 

installer for Strider was nice to see, 

since it is pretty difficult to find any 

decent tutorials/guides on the subject 

and I am sure the WHDload chaps will 

be happy to get any help they can. It 

started making me think about the different 

programming languages that were 

used on the Amiga and how great it 

would be if you did a little article on 

them. I know AMOS is probably your 

favourite language, but it would be nice 

to read about your thoughts on assembly 

(*cringe*) or how Blitz Basic is anything 

but basic. 

I would appreciate it if you did not 

write any mocking responses to this letter 

or I will be forced to spend your £10 

on booze to get over the humiliation, 

thank you. 

Your bald reader, 

Donovan AKA Skateblind 

Apologies for the wait, and sorry about 

the hair, but we're sure you’ll agree that 

compared to the Godot-like wait for 

issue 3, this one's been a breeze. 

Glad you liked the WHDLoad piece. 

An article on programming languages, 

eh? We’ll stick it on the 'possible' list. 

Oh, and thanks for the hug - we'll pass 

it onto the elves. 

"Pain in the ass" 

Dear APOV, 

Apart from the fact that you're the greatest 

amiga magazine on earth, i would 

also like to point out that you're the 

greatest magazine ever. 

To be frank it was a pain in the ass to 

choose between you and playboy but 

since i'm married, i guess that i could 

live without playboy BUT NOT WITH- 

OUT APOV. 

� Ooh, a college football roundup. 

I may become polygamous because of 

my choice of ranking you EXCLUSIVE- 

LY FIRST but hey be honest...you 

couldn't care less. 

Let's write a poem to celebrate this 

surprising, inspiring and fulfilling event : 

There was APOV number one 

you surely remember the one! 

There was APOV number two 

the one you committed to.. 

there was APOV number three 

which simply put you on your knees. 

and there may be APOV number four 

the one you'll give up your sex life for - 

long live APOV ! 

yours. 

P Bareges 

Now I don’t know much about poetry, 

but I know what I like. And thanks for 

the hero worship, but we'll understand if 

you want to enjoy Hefner's organ too. 

Adrian certainly does. 

"I could finally read" 

Dear Sirs, 

I was very pleased when i finally could 

download the latest APOV issue with 

my A4000 and Ibrowse. As i'm using a 

SLIP connection i've left my computa 

connected all night to be able to finish 

the job. 

When i came up the following morning 

i rushed to the front of the screen in 

excitement, so i could finally read the 

magazine. To much of my disappointment 

the only thing i got was a download 

error as my SLIP connection fall 

down, because of a weird computa that 

the SLIP was attached was turned off, 

because of something called 'hibernate'(?) 

as i latter was told. I never trusted 

much of leaving my trusty A4000 

near a 'window' because something bad 

could happen. 

Latter when i could resume the connection, 

(when my brother put is password 

to revive the 'hibernated window') 

i've waited another 9 hours to finish the 

download. 

Then began my problems to read the 

magazine. I've fired up APDF and 

something strange happened as i had a 

requester saying the 'file is not compatible'. 

As i assumed something could be 

not updated on the program, i went to 

Aminet and installed version 2.2 and 

apov 4 117

apov 4 

118 

letters 

ART CORNER 

This jolly representation of issue 2's 

cover was sent in by Alfredo Kiraldi, a 

talented young artist from Argentina. 

Good work, Alfredo! 

that was it. But again, to my disappointment 

i had another requester saying 'not 

enough memory'. And from now on i 

don't know what to do. I have 20MB of 

ram on my computer and it is not 

enough. 

So the purpose of this letter is to 

know if you could help me by sending a 

printed copy of #3 or more SIMMs for 

my Amiga. This way i could read all 

issues of this awesome publication without 

having to bother you again. 

Hope to hear from you soon. 

Thanking you in advance i send you my 

best regards. 

Yours, 

Esoj Txecp 

Nice to know Amiga users are reading 

the mag. We’ve sent an email to help 

you out of your fix. 

"Under my bed" 

I am writing this letter out of my own 

free will and not at all because a certain 

editor kept complaining about the lack 

of letters, nor because said editor promised 

certain services (which shall remain 

unnamed here) in return. *cough* 

So I did some mining in the rich layers 

of magazines under my bed -- a 

most perilous task -- and retrieved some 

more or less well preserved Amiga magazines. 

I then began reading through 

some of the old letters (not at all in 

order to plagiarize them, but simply 

because, umm… well, I had legitimate 

reasons, I did), and funnily enough I 

came across several letters and editorial 

comments concerning the lack of reader 

mail. 

The wonderful irony aside, I am telling 

you this in the hope that it will give you 

some comfort in the knowledge that the 

editors of the past share your pain. 

Keep up the good work, and don't 

despair too much. Apparently lack of 

feedback is another fine Amiga tradition. 

Best regards, 

Markus T. from O. in G. 

Aha, so computer mag readers have 

always been lazy sods. That explains a 

lot. Oh, and Adrian says he'll give your 

"wink wink" a "nudge nudge" you'll 

never forget. The mind boggles. 

"Gross injustice" 

Dear APoV 

Firstly, congratulations on an excellent 

magazine. All the hard work really 

shows. My only complaint is your 

(increasingly obvious) hatred towards 

the Bitmap Brothers. Every issue I go 

straight to the list of reviewed games 

hoping to see Gods, Chaos Engine, 

Cadaver or even Xenon 2 there, but 

they never are. Do you have any plans 

to EVER review one of these Amiga 

classics, or will your blatant, anti Bitmap 

bias continue? 

Please rectify this gross injustice 

a.s.a.p, or I may be forced to take my 

money elsewhere. 

Karadoc the Dwarf 

Stuck on Level 4, 

Castle Wulf, 

Warwickshire 

The Bitwhat whonow? Are they the folks 

who wrote Surf Ninjas? 

"How the diggity" 

I've been living in Japan for the last 4 

years with my PAL A1200. All the TVs 

do NOT support PAL... WHDLoad can 

run games in NTSC, but doing this it 

speeds the game up, sometimes 

doesn't even load up! 

Now how the diggity do I get my (now 

dusty) A1200 working on these TVs??? 

Is it possible!?? 

APOV, please help meeeeeeeee! 

Ta 

Tim 

P.S. I've kinda answered my own question 

by getting stuff from 

amigamaniac.com though. 

That does sound like a diggity of a prob. 

Basically you have three options, all of 

which involve buying stuff. You could 

buy a PAL-NTSC converter (though 

some folks reckon the picture quality 

isn't the best) or go the whole hog and 

buy a multisystem TV. Alternatively, you 

could ditch the TV idea altogether and 

buy a scandoubler so you can use your 

Amiga with any common-or-garden VGA 

monitor. Choices! 

"All time high" 

APoV, 

Amiga fanboyism is at an all time high. It 

must be stopped. Are you with me, or 

against me? 

En Garde! 

Alan Smithee 

What an affable young man, and what a 

refreshingly direct style. To address the 

substantive point of your letter - to wit, 

the necessity of stopping the all-time 

highness of Amiga fanboyism - we first 

need to establish the actuality of this purported 

highality, then (and only then) 

consider whether stopping it would be a 

desirable course of action. 

We asked a resting prof for his take on 

it all, and he obligingly whipped up a 

quick presentation demonstrating that 

Fanboyism (F) is directly proportional to 

the number of years since a system's 

heyday (H), with something or other then 

being divided by the square of games 

released in the past twelve months (G). 

The Amiga in 2009 came out at 28.4 on 

the Fanboyism Index (FI), against a 

1993 low of 6.8 and an average of 18.1. 

Pretty convincing stuff. 

So should it be stopped? Naysayers 

would argue that fanboys are essentially 

benign; that eagerly snaffling up any 

trace of a new Amiga game keeps them 

harmlessly occupied, when they might 

otherwise be rampaging through the 

streets. But on the other hand, they are 

pretty irritating. Hmm. 

We're with you. Unleash the hounds of 

internet forum disparagement. 

Write, damn you, write. If you can't write, 

draw. If you can't write or draw, send a 

handprint or a photocopy of your ass. 

apov.contact@abime.net 

Actually, make that your girlfriend's ass.

Editor 

Adrian Simpson 

Assistant Editor 

Carl Stapleton 

Design 

James Greenhorn 

Image Contributor 

Erkan Orhun 

Contributors 

Johnny Dickshot 

Cliff Faragoza 

Staff Writers 

Graham Humphrey 

David Muscat 

Sebastian Rosa 

Publisher 

Pierre Astruc 

© 2010 abime.net 

We welcome feedback 

and submissions, and 

are always interested in 

expanding our team. If 

you’ve got some work 

you would like to see in 

APoV, or you would 

like to know more about 

joining us, email 

apov.contact@ 

abime.net 

apov.abime.net 

n one mor page thys issue is 

over, Yet drede not for thaere 

shall be another. Yon publication 

shall thee knew As the fifth Amyga Poynt 

of View. In pages thither fynde perchance 

Featyres impressyve and abundante: 

Emulaytores of computeres paste, For 

those in neede of an 8-bit blaste. A tutorial 

on DVD authorshippe, From the pen of 

oure young faelow Bip. Mor conseil on 

gaymes ful vexing, wyth Mappes and 

Guydes for gaymes perplexing. Sondry 

surprizes, all of them cute, Woaven with 

japes and funnies sooth soote. Plus 

reviewes and newes and 

chartes and mor; Tis 

safe to saye thou knowest 

the score. APoV 5, 

mayst thou wel loke out 

for it: T’wil be the 

sayme as this one, But 

with newe stuf in it. 

An APoV Scribe busting hys bunnes.

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