Amiga - Underrated?

[MR_OJR]

Hey all!

I figured I'd kick off this area of the forum again by posing the question: Is the Amiga underrated?

There are various opinions that say that the NES/SNES and the Megadrive etc. kicked off the 16bit arena with Mario and Sonic dominating the relatively docile scene of the late 80s early 90s. But I feel that the vast amount of freedom in developing new games lead to the creation of some classics (such as Lemmings, Worms etc.)... what do you all think?

(currently revising for a tax exam on weds so my mind is full of the nooks and crannies of the UK tax system, so sorry for how disjointed this is!)

Oli

[Mr. K]

The Amiga doesn't get a lot of attention, probably because it can be hard to enjoy-- what I mean by this is that in some regions it is hard to get an Amiga and if you can get one it's usually expensive since it was a full computer.  Like here in America.  There's no way to get an Amiga easily, so I don't have one.  I'd love to have one, though.
And while there are emulators, UAE and its variants are the only really decent ones, and I find they still don't work very well.  I can pretty much get Lemmings disk images to boot but nothing else seems to load up-- they just get stuck.  WinUAE doesn't show the screen right, either displaying very tiny in the center of the screen or halfway off-screen.  On my Mac, eUAE locks up.  On my GP2X with its UAE version yet again nothing loads.

I would absolutely love to experience the Amiga fully... I just don't have the ability.  What I've played, though, was great!

That might be one of the reasons it's so underrated-- getting the games to play is difficult, so not a lot of people have experienced them.

[Mr. K]

UAE-based, of course.  I wouldn't be too confident that it would work well.

[MR_OJR]

http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/XD.gif" alt=":XD:" title="XD" class="smiley" />
What were you thinking?

A load of tax based stuff I imagine....

I agree that it can be difficult to get WinUAE to work but when it does it is definitely worth it!

[The Doctor]

Not too tricky to get them working, but getting them working properly is another matter.

For Linux, you can use E-UAE and a front-end to emulate an Amiga.

We used to have an Amiga ages ago. We also had Lemmings, it was brilliant.

It's true to say that the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo helmed the 16-bit graphic gaming revolution, and that the NES held 8-bit graphic gaming. I'd probably say this held to be true because gaming consoles play games. There's no other software but games (bar things like Mario Paint, of course). Games, games, games. Everything was a game. If you wanted to play games, they did the job well. They were also cheaper to produce, thus could be sold cheaper than a computer, and consumers paid less for them. They were perfect.

A whole computer just to play games on the other hand ... well, anyone born in the late 70s/early 80s will remember how much personal computers cost. Compare it to modern prices, and most would have been happier to have bought a car instead, lol.

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By the way, yes, there is definitely more freedom for experimentation in computers. But of course, what do you think console games are programmed on? http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" class="smiley" />

And Lemmings was born out of Amiga and a lot was developed on an Amiga, yes. But don't forget what Mike says in his write up, that the first version was on DOS.

[Mr. K]

So I decided to get to work and achieve a decent emulator configuration, and I seem to have something that's actually booting disks.

I've played a few things right now and I am enjoying myself.  But I would definitely say that the consoles came out ahead, as a lot of these titles don't seem as, so to say, polished as console titles.  They feel more crude.  But they're quite playable and quite fun.  There are, though, many titles that do have that polished feel, and they seem to be pulling me in more.  Cannon Fodder and Worms Director's Cut have caught my attention most so far.

[The Doctor]

I like all of the DOS versions of Lemmings better too, but only in Tandy mode sound (except Lemmings 3, in Gravis UltraSound mode). I can't stand AdLib/SoundBlaster music, which is what everyone assumes DOS Lemmings and DOS Lemmings 2 sound like (when in reality, there's two versions of every song for DOS Lemmings and three versions of every song for DOS Lemmings 2)

The ProTracker Module format used in Lemmings, however, was also great and I listen to those alot. Most games on the Amiga seem to employ some kind of module format. It's great because it means most games have about par music quality. Rather than ... Tandy here, AdLib there, PC Speaker on one hand, GUS on the other.

[The Doctor]

I grew up at a time where beeps and screeches were technologically amazing, call me nostalgic. :-P

Plus, Tandy sound reminds me alot of Sega Master System sound. Another nostalgia trip.

SoundBlaster reminds me of the Mega Drive and somewhat of the SNES. I skipped that generation of gaming, so there's nothing in it for me.

Hehe.

[The Doctor]

I'm going to post them on YouTube soon. :-)

[ccexplore]

Sorry to bump this old topic, but I just want to mention 2 things:

I can't stand AdLib/SoundBlaster music, which is what everyone assumes DOS Lemmings and DOS Lemmings 2 sound like (when in reality, there's two versions of every song for DOS Lemmings and three versions of every song for DOS Lemmings 2)

There's actually also a 3rd version of DOS Lemmings that comes in a CD and has the music stored in the CD audio tracks.  I believe it was included in Mark Tsai's official Lemming solution book (forgot the exact name).  I have no idea what they sound like though, but undoubtedly it would be much better than adlib or tandy.

The ProTracker Module format used in Lemmings, however, was also great and I listen to those alot. Most games on the Amiga seem to employ some kind of module format.

You know that's because Amiga has hardware support for the MOD format.  In fact, the original MOD format is pretty much borned entirely out of the sound hardware of the Amiga.

The original IBM PC was not designed for game use in mind, so it has a cheap "PC speaker" only good for making simple beeps, and it's only later as the PC market develops (and the games-for-PCs market expands) that you get different vendors selling different models of sound cards, with varying prices and capabilities.  At the time, it's actually kind of a pain as it forces game developers to either support all the popular sound cards (so much more work, but ensure it sounds the best it can with the given hardware), or pick the lowest common denominators (less work but usually sounds not as good).

[Dullstar]

I just thought of something:  does anyone here know how much of a pain it can be to get Lemmings 2 working in WinUAE?

[ccexplore]

I just thought of something:  does anyone here know how much of a pain it can be to get Lemmings 2 working in WinUAE?

I never had much trouble getting Lemmings, ONML, and Lemmings 2 to work on WinUAE; the hardest part was finding a copy of the "KickStart ROM" to download from the Internet.  What didn't work for you?

[edit: disclaimer:  since I have Windows running natively on my computer and not through something like WINE, I can't help with anything that might be WINE-related]

[Dullstar]

It's been like this since before I even started to use Linux.  And I still have Windows around for some games.  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" />

The thing is, the disk version of Lemmings 2 is a hassle because while changing the disks is relatively easy, it's rather a nuisance.  Also, for some reason, the hard drive one (I seem to recall there being one) doesn't work.

[ccexplore]

The thing is, the disk version of Lemmings 2 is a hassle because while changing the disks is relatively easy, it's rather a nuisance.  Also, for some reason, the hard drive one (I seem to recall there being one) doesn't work.

I'll admit the floppy disk things can be a bit of a hassle, and even if there's no disk changing it can be just plain slow.  I have never tried any hard drive versions of the game.

My memory is rusty, but I think there are ways to configure the number of floppy disk drives in WinUAE, and maybe that will allow you to insert all the disks instead of having to change them, but I could be wrong.

Another thing to keep in mind is that WinUAE has savestates.  While it doesn't exactly lets you skip changing disks, it does help minimize things like waiting for the game to boot etc.

[Dullstar]

I think the Amiga version would get lots more attention if it was possible to edit it (of Lemmings, anyways.)  However, I don't know what could be done to give the computer a lot more attention.  btw, the putting all the disks in at once does work.