Universe (Amiga CD32) - Part 2

This week on Super Adventures, I'm still playing 90s point-and-click adventure Universe, because I want to be done with it. I played the demo years ago, when I was young enough for it to be imprinted into my brain and stick there. But I never played through the full game so I have no idea how the story ends and I'm just as clueless about the middle.

I mentioned in PART ONE that I wasn't going to spoil the ending, but I've changed my mind. Because we all deserve closure on this. That means I should give you a SPOILER WARNING. Oh, you should also know that despite what it says in the title, most of these screenshots are from the MS-DOS version of the game, as I switched systems. Not that it makes much difference.

Universe (Amiga CD32) - Part 1

Developer:

Core Design

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Release Date:

1994

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Systems:

Amiga, CD32, MS-DOS

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Universe, by the makers of Rick Dangerous, Curse of Enchantia and later Tomb Raider. But Curse of Enchantia is the most relevant, seeing as this is a point-and-click adventure game.

Universe got fantastic scores from magazines back in the day, lots of 90s and high 80s... well, except for Amiga Power and Amiga Format, they both totally trashed it. Amiga Power gave it 21%! I've played the demo before so I have an idea of what my opinion's going to be, but I'll see if it changes as I get further into the story.

I should give you a SPOILER WARNING, as I'm going to be playing through a lot of the game. In fact, I'm going to try to finish it, though I'll try not to give the whole thing away. I'd suggest YouTube if you want to see the ending, I'm just showing off things that catch my interest and whining about the things that annoy me.

The Speris Legacy (Amiga CD32) - Part 4 - Guest Post

Previously on the Amiga CD32 Zelda-'em-up The Speris Legacy, I permanently ruined my only save file, and so I decided this time to investigate The Speris Legacy and write some Cool Stuff instead.

The Speris Legacy (Amiga CD32) - Part 3 - Guest Post

Previously on the Amiga CD32 Zelda-'em-up The Speris Legacy, our hero Cho tried to inspect a sinister looking plant and instantly died. What could happen next?

The Speris Legacy (Amiga CD32) - Part 2 - Guest Post

Previously on the Amiga CD32 Zelda-'em-up The Speris Legacy, our hero Cho left Sharma City in search of revenge. What will he find in the farming town of Gilliards Rhine?

The Speris Legacy (Amiga CD32) - Part 1 - Guest Post

This week on Super Adventures, recurring guest poster mecha-neko is back already with a detailed four-part report on what appears to be 'Zelda, but on the Amiga'. It might be good, you never know.

By 1995, the Amiga was done. The CD32 was a year in its grave. All the magazines save for the very nerdiest were shrivelling up into nothing as the games quickly vanished. Darth Vader, Sam and Max and a certain green-clad space marine made sure that there was no place in the computer world for slow moving, ugly games that couldn't talk back to you. Europe was falling in love with the Japanese consoles, every British kid was getting a Mega Drive II for Christmas to replace their Master System II, and Sonic the Hedgehog was appearing in two cartoons at once.

Only the brave, the mad and the heavily invested remained to try to magic up some glory from the abandoned hardware and win the hearts of the Amiga's vast and loyal European install base.

Developer:

Binary Emotions

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Release Date:

February 1996

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Systems:

Amiga 1200, CD32

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Say hello to light-hearted fantasy epic The Speris Legacy, featuring this rather nifty digitised painting of one hopeful adventurer who could easily be Neal McDonough in a blonde mullet.

Amiga Computing magazine described The Speris Legacy as 'pure genius', with its coverdisk demo asking 'The best game of the year?' in bold red letters. Amiga Power dedicated an entire cover to it with a brand new lovely illustration.

The Amiga could still have its hero!

The Speris Legacy (Amiga CD32) - Guest PostPart 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Brian the Lion Starring In: 'Rumble In The Jungle' (Amiga) - Guest Post

This week on Super Adventures, mecha-neko has returned to tell you a tale about a lion, called Brian.

Developer:

Reflections

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Release Date:

1994

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Systems:

Amiga 500, 1200, CD32

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Ray and I have played more than a few mascots and almost-mascots for the Amiga, but it's time to show you the last, and best. Introducing Brian the Lion.

Disposable Hero (Amiga)

Developer:

Euphoria

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Release Date:

1993

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Systems:

Amiga, CD32

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This week on Super Adventures I'm finally getting around to playing classic Amiga shoot 'em up Disposable Hero! Not Disposable Heroes, that's a Metallica track from the album Master of Puppets (and a cartoony indie game on Steam).

This has been on my list of games to play since before I even had an actual list of games to play, so it's strange that it's taken me so long to get around to it. Oh right I remember now, I was trying to stick to playing games I haven't seen before, and I used to play the demo of this all the damn time back in the day. Well, probably more like three times, but that's still a lot for me.

You could probably call the game a Euroshmup, as it's by a developer from the Netherlands called 'Boys without Brains' (who were going by the name of 'Euphoria' at this point... I think), but I wouldn't because that's a horrible word. I mean it's ugly to look at and it's ridiculous when you say it out loud. Plus Shmups sound like something you'd find living down at Fraggle Rock.

The developers were also responsible for the platformer Hawkeye, which is one of the games that inspired me to make this site in the first place, way back in 2011. Well its title screen did anyway. All I remember about it now is that it wasn't great, but I'm sure this will hold up a lot better. For one thing it didn't start out as a Commodore 64 game.
  

Arabian Nights (Amiga)

Developer:

Krisalis

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Release Date:

1993

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Systems:

Amiga, CD32

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It's been exactly 30 years since the first Amigas hit stores, so today on Super Adventures I'll be celebrating by taking a look a classic Amiga exclusive! To be honest I only just learned about the Amiga's birthday from Twitter, so it's pure coincidence I'm playing this now (the game probably won't even run on an original A1000), but the timing worked out eerily well.

You can probably already tell from the title screen that Arabian Nights is all about managing your own 'One Thousand and One Nights' themed theme park! Actually no it's just another platformer from the golden age of running and jumping. That roller coaster is really a mine cart, the pirate ship ride is probably an actual pirate ship, and the guy floating around on a balloon likely didn't win it with his archery skill in a carnival game.

Despite the title, it's not an adaptation of any 'Arabian Nights' story in particular either, though if Scheherazade had gone on for a 1002nd night she might have gotten around to it. It's got that same kind of 'swords and flying carpet sorcery' fantasy setting. I know all this because I dug the game up from my hazy childhood memories, and I'm very familiar with it. Well, the first 20 minutes anyway (I didn't have much patience back then)... but I promise you I'll show you least three proper levels before I turn it off this time. Maybe more if it has continues!

Wing Commander (Amiga CD32)

The first 'W' game on Super Adventures this year is... Wing Commander, on the Amiga CD32!

Yeah I realise that the original PC DOS version is likely to be a better experience, but I got this version bundled with a CD32 years back (on the very same disc as that piece of crap Dangerous Streets in fact), and I really should give it a try at least once.

Wing Commander is one of the big games from the early 90s like Doom and Myst that made the PC into a serious rival to the 16-bit game machines of the era, with its advanced 256 colour VGA graphics and... music. Sound cards existed a couple of years before Wing Commander, but this inspired people to buy their first Sound Blaster and turn their sensible personal computer into a gaming platform. Amiga owners were already jealous of the Genesis/Mega Drive at this point, they were getting ready to be jealous of the upcoming SNES, and now they had to be jealous of really expensive 386 PCs too! Sure all three systems eventually got a Wing Commander to call their own a few years down the line, but none could pull the game off with the same speed and visuals as the PC. Probably.

Anyway this is going to be the same deal as ever: I'll play it for an hour or two, share my opinions of how it's been so far, and then leave a comment box at the bottom for you to tell me that it's a good game and my 'review' sucks.

Bubble and Squeak (Amiga) - Guest Post

It's Charlie Brown and Hobbes! No, wait, Calvin... or Dennis and... uh...

Whoever these guys are, that's not a comforting image. Bubble is barely concealing a state of panic, sweat pouring down his head and Squeak would like to let you know that nobody will ever see this child alive again, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

The Chaos Engine / Soldiers of Fortune (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 8

A.k.a. Soldiers of Fortune on the US SNES and Genesis (not to be confused with Soldier of Fortune on PC, which is a totally different kind of shooter.)

The title screen music (youtube link!) this time is by Joi, and it's awesome. Unless you're playing the DOS version, then it sounds like clown music (also youtube link).

Putty (Amiga) - Guest Post

To celebrate Super Adventures in Gaming's 600th post, I'm playing one of the bundle games that came with the Amiga 600!

Putty aka Silly Putty aka Super Putty aka Putty Moon.

Gotta love that Putty.

Akira (Amiga CD32)

Damn, that title does not mess around.

Dangerous Streets (Amiga CD32)

It'd be cool if the game really did take place in an Enter the Dragon style hall of mirrors, but I imagine they've just taken the box art (exotica.org.uk), and mirrored it on the sides to make it fit the wider aspect ratio.

I did actually press the yellow button for instructions, but they turned out to be less than helpful. They didn't even tell me the basic controls. I think I'll be keeping my expectations low for this one.

Litil Divil (Amiga CD32)

That is actually a reasonably nice looking title screen. The cartoon guy in the background looks really well drawn, and the text obscuring his face is about as classy as you could hope for. I probably shouldn't expect much from it, but maybe it'd be okay to get my hopes up just a little bit, just this once.

This was also released for PC and the Phillips CD-i, but I'll be playing the Amiga CD32 version.

Banshee (Amiga CD32)

Low polygon 3d rendered text with a lens flare, how classy. And they haven't even bothered to fix those black pixels on the E. But I don't like to judge a game on its title screen... well actually I do, but I'll keep playing anyway.

Beavers (Amiga CD32)

I'm going to guess this one's a cute platformer. With weirdly catchy music.

It's nice to find an Amiga game with an actual jump button, instead of using up on the joystick. For some reason it starts with only 'music' selected, but I can switch it to 'music + sound effects'.

Donk! The Samurai Duck! (Amiga) - Guest Post

! ! !

Gloom Deluxe and Gloom 3: "Ultimate Gloom" Zombie Edition (Amiga) - Guest Post

Poor mecha-neko has apparently lost his long battle with insanity, after finally taking one too many crappy video games to the head. He claims he's receiving messages from the internet telling him to play more first person shooters on the Amiga, and worse he's actually playing them.

The SAIG postbag has been inundated with folks saying that I had Gloom on the wrong settings, played the wrong Gloom or that I didn't play it long enough. You only ever get the opportunity to steal top billing from Deus Ex once, so it's time for an amazing Gloom special!

This is the third game, Gloom 3... except it's really the fourth game. And there's another one after it, but that one isn't really Gloom and neither were the two in between Gloom and this one. And there's no version of this one that isn't a 'Zombie Edition'. And it's also called Ultimate Gloom.

And we're not playing this one first.