Amiga, Tracks and remixes

For all of you like me, who lived the best part of their teens with an Amiga, here are things that might ring a thousand bells in your head when you hear them:

www.amigaremix.com

www.kickme.to/soundtracks

Amiga fans, please raise your hands.

And happy new year

A year late for me but awesome Solo! Amiga was one of my fave systems growing up, i recently bought one back from ebay hehe. You can't beat a bit of authentic retro gaming to bring back fond memories. I can't stand emulators and pc controllers or keyboard! 16 bit music also rocked! lol.

I don't get why they dont make games that way anymore, They'd be insanely easy to make i'd imagine by todays standards. I know the odd ones pop up on xbox live marketplace and wii virtual console but everyone seems to be about who can make their game look the most realistic now since games went 3d and in the case of probably 9 out of 10 games published these days it seems more thought goes into the graphics and physics than how the game actually feels like to play and how many hours the consumer are going to get out of it before it gets old.

Take the critically acclaimed Crysis for PC. It was a great game for sure, but take away its highly acclaimed graphics and physics and its just another half decent shooter. Granted the gameplay isnt bad but what can it give you that playing battlefield or halo or something can't? You can do the same with most new games out there today.

Not saying these are bad games by any means, ill probably own a few of them before the years out if i dont already but...

RE5 - graphically updated RE4 with the team mechanics of RE0 thrown in for good measure.

Crysis - graphically updated version of far cry with a "super suit" thrown in for novelty.

Red alert 3 - a graphically updated more of the same with DRM mega spyware thrown in for bad measure lol

Old game now but Swat 4? Rainbow Six anyone?

Im not saying this didnt happen a lot in the 16 and 32 bit days but there also seemed to be a lot more originality about too. It just seems everyone is trying to cash in on brand names or make a playable cgi movie or something a little too much these days rather than focusing on what makes the game a game.

I applaud the big N for not going with the cutting edge graphics and trying to make games more fun. Not everyone will raise a glass to that but they have more things than graphics in mind atleast.

Just because something better comes out it shouldnt mean that a whole set of genres and game mechanics have to die out. i really miss looking forward to the next 2d platformer beat em up or even point and click adventures which all seem to be turning into sequals with 3d interfaces now instead (broken sword? monkey island? the longest journey?). Even the stratagy based rpgs seem to be dying out now, they all seem to be going real time.
Who remembers final fantasy pre square-enix?

Gone are the days when a guy can program a masterpiece in his bedroom and have it become a commercial success due to catchy tunes, addictive gameplay and amazing replayability. Dispite the screenshots looking like a digitized jackson pollock.

I'd love to see Sega (the old Sega, not the mediocre developer they are turning into) come back with a new console and revive 2D.

Anyone for a game of Worms? Street fighter II turbo or sonic 2?


PS. Sorry about the rant but you touched on a topic i hold a lot of passion for.

interesting quote off a megadrive (uk genesis) 2 power supply plug.

"disconnect from mains when in use".

Did anyone ever spot that ? loool

NeoTech, have you been reading my mind? really!!?

Yes, you said it. "Originality" period. Just because it's 3D doesn't mean it's always better. In fact, I wasn't that fused about 3D for a long time until I played "Soul Caliber" which started to change my mind.

Although I'm a little away from gaming these days, so I can't judge. But I've been under the impression that old game developers at their times had so humble engines at there hands that they squeezed the the last drop of ingenuity out of their heads just to make a game appeal to the masses. The result is that they came with such brilliant ideas that what ever graphics they were using, their games are simply irresistible. Not saying here, that the graphics were bad either. Some were shocking.

Take "Lemmings" for example. And worms after that. Hours and hours of play and lack of sleep. Simple ideas that took no more than 2 or 3 floppy disks. Does for me what some 2 or 5gigs games nowadays can't do.

Still, to be honist, if one digs enough. Some new idea still exist in the wild. And many of them are freeware. For example, I like Qlat: www.pistegamez.net/games.html

Reflexive has some nice games too: www.reflexive.com/

Manic Miner on the Sinclair Spectrum.
And why oh why didn't they finish off the Shenmue series before they canned the Dreamcast?
But for the ultimate fix I still have a working Sega Megadrive which every now and again gets plugged in to the video inputs normally occupied by the Xbox 360 because you simply can't beat it

Ooh thanks for those links, looks awesome.

Shenmue was, is and always will be one of my fave games of all time. I NEED CLOSURE!!! lol. It seems sega have been toying with the idea of finishing it off for a while but never get around to it. Apparently, the story is finished and obviously the game engine would only need polishing up, New textures and a years worth of programming or something. They must know it would make a fortune. They could have kept the dreamcast alive if theyd released shenmue 3 back then most likely lol. Even if the graphics hadnt changed id be straight out to buy it.
Graphics mean nothing without gameplay and gameplay is something which makes Shenmue so special.

... Daydreams of visiting the You arcade and playing Super hang on and Darts until Ryu looks at his watch and makes me leave lol...

I'm gonna dig my Dreamcast out tomorrow methinks.

Solo, these days game developers seem to have forgotten what makes games classics and everyone just seems to be seeing who can squeeze the best looking game from the hardware. There are a few must haves about but most of them can't live up to the fun we had back when mario and sonic were competing for the throne.

I dont like what sega are becoming either. They turned sonic from a hedgehog with attitude to a role model for preschool. Theyre not making games which the old sega i knew would have threw everything at...

Gaming has changed...

I want 2d and the old Sega back. Come on Yuji Naka!


Oh and soul calubur was an awesome game!

Someday when i find time i might learn a bit of programing so i can have a go at making my own games. That'd be sweet. Ill look into it once im done with CCNA.

Anyone recommend any languages for a beginner?