Amiga Addict magazine - UFO: Enemy Unknown - Issue 05 May 2021 by Simulant

BRITAIN'S BEST-SELLING (ACTIVE!) MAGAZINE FOR AMIGA USERS

ISSUE No. 5 MAY 2021 £4.99 / $6.50 / €5.50

- Demoscene - Readers' Letters - Hardware - Tutorials

UFO: ENEMY UNKNOWN and the X-COM series!

AA Supercars II tournament with

WHAT, NO REAL COVERDISK? (Yet we do have a virtual one! See details of our exclusive AA demo inside...) Uncovered!

PLUS! We talk classic

OctaMED

coverdisks, Icaros Desktop, SWAG, Alien Breed 3D & Terrible Fire accelerators!

THE INSIDE STORY

YOUR MONTHLY SOURCE OF AMIGA NEWS, INTERVIEWS & SOFTWARE FUN FOR 68K | PPC | OS4 | MORPHOS & MORE! May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

MEET THE ADDICTS We give the acronym "AA" a whole new addictive meaning... Welcome to another release of Amiga Addict magazine. This issue, in particular, is a very special one for us. Not only do I have less space than ever for waﬄing in this editorial section (Ian - "Thank god for small mercies!"), but we also have swarms of deadly aliens rampaging on our front cover! The team here at AA Towers are obsessed with UFO: Enemy Unknown (see UFO & X-COM feature, page 22) and we are very fortunate and thankful to Danny Flynn, who has let us use his original retail Amiga box artwork for our cover image. We hope you enjoy reading in detail about this great game series.

I'm sure you have already noticed another first for Amiga Addict over on the right side of this page; our inaugural Amiga Addict coverdisk! On the front cover of Issue 1, we joked about a missing coverdisk, but including one has always been something we wanted to do one day. Well, that day has arrived sooner than we ever imagined, thanks to 17BitRetro. They have created the exclusive Bean versus The Animator Amiga Addict demo edition especially for us. The game is great fun and is a very addictive shooter. As an extra gift for our lovely readers, you should also find a floppy disk sticky label inside this magazine - so now you can write the disk image to a real floppy and actually label it! Finally, just when you thought you'd had enough of AA exclusives - we have even more big news. Drum roll please! Amiga Addict will be the official sponsor of two of our very own Amiga games tournaments on Antstream Arcade. For those who don't know of Antstream, it is a bit like Netflix or Spotify, but for retro gamers. Antstream enables gamers to play thousands of games across multiple platforms (including smartphones and TVs). It is completely free to use and there are hundreds of Amiga games available on the service. So please download Antstream and start practising. AA readers, team, contributors, advertisers - let's all unite to take part in our first tournament, where Amiga addicts spread far and wide across the globe will be competing head-to-head (see details of our first tournament on page 28). Will you rise to the challenge? - Jonah Naylor (Editor)

Jonah

(bingo!) editor@amiga-addict.com

James

(I'm too old for this $#*!) james@amiga-addict.com

Paul

(Anglo-Italian Cup winner) paul@amiga-addict.com

Your favourite Amiga coverdisk? "Issue 50 of AP had two great coverdisks. One had my favourite PD game ever, Gravity Power also Frantic Freddie and It's A Skull. Demos of Fears AGA and Obsession were on the other disk." Scariest alien you've seen (ﬁctional or real!)? "The Predator. That clicking noise..! Terrifying to look at, cunning, and precise yet savage attacks." Did you enter any competitions as a kid? "I managed to win an original Gameboy with Tetris, from a Quavers packet! I was probably aiming for an Amiga (see Issue 4 main feature)...

Ravi

(has a conscience) ravi@amiga-addict.com

REGULARS

To tie in with our UFO coverage, Danny also kindly donated a limited edition giclée print of his artwork as an AA competition prize! How exciting, our ﬁrst readers' competition! There are only 50 of this numbered run of prints in existence, and one lucky reader will be the winner of the very ﬁrst one, signed by Danny. For details on entering the competition, see page 27. Best of luck - our winner will be announced in a future issue.

COVERDISK CAPERS!

ISSUE 5 - MAY 2021

We are proud to bring you our first ever Amiga Addict coverdisk with issue 5! An exclusive playable shooter game demo of Bean versus The Animator, courtesy of 17BitRetro. We have even included a floppy disk label! Download the ADF floppy disk image now (James - "Well, actually there are three disks of gaming goodness!") using the QR code, or via the website link below: www.amiga-addict.com/coverdisk05

Your favourite Amiga coverdisk? "The countless versions of AMOS. I never learnt how to use it, but enjoyed thinking I knew how to make games. I loved playing the examples." Scariest alien you've seen (ﬁctional or real!)? "More mutant then alien, but Kuato from Total Recall - living in your stomach!" Did you enter any competitions as a kid? "I entered a kids colouring competition in the doctor's waiting room aged 17. They called to say I'd won a chocolate bar! I felt so bad for the kids who missed out, but I still collected and ate it."

Your favourite Amiga coverdisk? "AP Disk 20 really sticks in my mind. The Fire & Ice Xmas demo is one of my favourites and had loads of brilliant little touches. Plus the disk had Lethal Weapon (worth it for the fantastic music) and Bill's Tomato Game!" Scariest alien you've seen (fictional or real!)? "The Triffids from the 80s TV show The Day of the Triffids terrified me as a very young child." Did you enter any competitions as a kid? "I can’t remember specifics, but I do remember sending off a few postcards optimistically!"

Your favourite Amiga coverdisk?? "I have quite a visual memory, so disks like AF56 with FractalPro stick with me. But I probably used AMOS Pro on AF71 the most." Scariest alien you've seen (ﬁctional or real!)? "Giger's Alien is hard to beat, but I also found the aliens in Signs super unnerving too, when you eventually saw them!" Did you enter any competitions as a kid? "I asked my mom just now, and apparently I won (a poet who didn't know it!) a poetry competition at school when I was about 14! Maybe about the environment?" ian@amiga-addict.com

Your favourite Amiga coverdisk? "I mention a few in my article this month (see page 13) but I will add this; from The One Amiga, they featured a full version of Championship Manager Italia! Hours of fun." Scariest alien you've seen (ﬁctional or real!)? "I've never seen a real alien but I loved the ones in Mars Attacks. I liked their simple alien design." Did you enter any competitions as a kid? "Sadly not. I've never felt like I would win! I came close to ringing up a premium rate number to try and win The Simpsons Arcade cab though!"

Your favourite Amiga coverdisk? "Cannon Soccer - a brilliant Christmassy mix up of Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer." Scariest alien you've seen (ﬁctional or real!)? "The scariest alien has got to be the one on this front cover, hasn't it?" Did you enter any competitions as a kid? "I won a Rowntree's competition when I was 6 and received a year's supply of Caramac chocolate bars (remember them?!). Unfortunately I had a nut allergy and couldn’t eat them, so my (prefers Fruit Pastilles) sister got to have them all!" hannah@amiga-addict.com

Ian

Hannah

May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

REGULARS Editorial, Coverdisk & Meet The Addicts........3 Amiga News.........................................................6 Keyboard Warriors & Back In The Day.............7 Amiga Addict Merch...........................................9 Across The Pond................................................10 Back Issues & Subscriptions.............................47 Demoscene.........................................................52 What?! Amiga Pie!..............................................53

PAGE 22

ON THE COVER

We all love a freebie and Paul loves a free coverdisk! Let's see how some of his best coverdisk picks fare.

ON SCREEN

StarShip Next Generation.................................9 Terrible Fire........................................................49

t The Amiga's mos popular audio program. We get the lowdown!

PAGE 16

FLIGHT OF ICAROS How did this Amiga-like OS come about? Find out from maintainer, Paolo Besser.

ONSCREEN

TESTBENCH

OCTAMED

UFO: Enemy Unknown......................................23 Amiga Addict Antstream Tournament..........28 Super Cars II........................................................30 Slayers Of High Toro.........................................32 Smarty And The Nasty Gluttons.....................34 Gold Standard: Alien Breed 3D.......................36 Six Of The Best...................................................38 CD32 Corner: The Lost Vikings.......................40

A South West Amiga Group special - with two articles of SWAG coverage this issue!

PAGE 45

Icaros Desktop With Paolo Besser.................16 UFO: Enemy Unknown And X-COM................22 Amiga Addict UFO Competition.....................27 Barry Leitch Interview......................................31 Not MEDiocre... OctaMED!..............................45

PAGE 38 & 41

AMIGA INSIGHT

PAGE 13

This month AA explore s th series, whic h includes th e X-COM game e history, ar and legacy twork of UFO: Enem y Unknown !

AMIGA FOCUS The Legacy of Commodore (Part 3)................8 You Built A Time Machine, Out Of An Amiga?..............................................11 Amiga's Got You Covered!................................13 The Creative Revolution: Vista Pro................19 South West Amiga Group.................................41

CONTENTS

ALIENS AR E HERE!

ISSUE 5 - MAY 2021

PAGE 28

We start our very own Super Cars II tournament, plus the brand new Slayers of High Toro and more!

*Amigas were used, but not harmed, in the creation of this magazine.

WWW.AMIGA-ADDICT.COM • MAGAZINE@AMIGA-ADDICT.COM • TWITTER.COM/AMIGAMAGAZINE • Editor & Art Director Jonah Naylor • Deputy Editor & Researcher Ravi Abbott • Games Editor & Art Assistant James Walker • Community Editor, Staff Writer & Proof Reader Ian Griffiths • Features Editor & Staff Writer Paul Monaghan • Advertising Manager & Staff Writer Hannah Clark Amiga Addict is an independent publication. The publishing company - Simulant Systems Ltd - has no connection with Commodore, or any subsequent trademark/ branding rights holders such as Cloanto/Amiga Corporation. The views expressed in this magazine are those of the individual writers' opinions only, and are not the opinions held by Amiga Addict magazine publication or its publishers.

We take great care to ensure that what we publish is accurate, but cannot be liable for any mistakes or misprints. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without our explicit permission.

May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

PUBLISHED BY

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Email your news & press releases to magazine@amiga-addict.com

Hollywood 9 A new version of Hollywood Multimedia Application Layer is here. For readers who are unfamiliar with the Hollywood programming language, it is one of the Amiga's most popular for easy and quick application creation. The website states that Version 9, "is a massive update, the biggest since 6.0, and comes with new features" including, "almost 100 extra commands"! See: www.hollywood-mal.com

ﬁrmware problems with this variant. AA recommends either paying a bit more, or just waiting out the storm - prices should fall as manufacturing catches back up to meet the extra demand.

Know It All... Have you ever wished you could ask your Amiga questions and it could answer back? Just load up Ask Your Amiga. AYA is a search tool for the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine - the new 0.6 version is out now. Now, we don't want your Amiga's ego to be inﬂated, but it really does seem to know the meaning of life: www.amiga-addict.com/aya06

Sprinting To Buy Turbo Sprint! We've been following Turbo Sprint by Graeme Cowie (mcgeezer) since Issue 2, and we're pleased to report that the full version of this racing game has now been released. It features four simultaneous players, eight tracks, nitros and lots of fun hazards. Available for just £10.99 at: www.amiga-addict.com/turbosprint

Games That Weren't There have been many great Amiga games in development over the years that haven't made it to release. While some lost gems are recovered - such as Putty Squad - others are documented on the excellent www.gamesthatwerent.com website. Blork is one such game, a fast and stylish shooter developed by demo group Scienide - yet it wasn't published. Luckily they have since released a playable preview which can be found here: www.amiga-addict.com/blork

Amiga Browsing At Its Best Finding a good Amiga web browsing experience has been difficult in the past, however we're now starting to see more frequent browser and SSL updates across next generation systems. IBrowse for OS3 and OS4 systems has been updated to version 2.5.4, along with AmiSSL to version 4.9 at: www.ibrowse-dev.net We also see ongoing improvements being made to MorphOS's Wayfarer, which is now on version 1.16, offering bug fixes and better YouTube playback. Download the update here: www.wayfarer.icu When The Chips Are Up For readers who have bought a Gotek or Openflops USB floppy disk drive emulator recently, you may have noticed higher prices. This is due a shortage in manufacturing the STM32F10 ARM processor that the devices use. Gotek do also supply a cheaper AT32F equivalent, however currently there are FlashFloppy

First Amiga Vampires... Now Amiga Dinosaurs APOLLO (the team behind the successful range of Amiga FPGA accelerators) have a new product. The low cost Vampire Raptor 1200 is an expansion card for classic A1200 computers. It features the APOLLO 68080 CPU with FPU and AMMX instruction set. Also included is 128MB of very fast memory. Amigas ﬁtted with this card are reported to run at up to ten times the performance of any 68060 cards, according to SysInfo and Bustest. The Raptor is low voltage, so runs cool without needing a heatsink. Right, we'd better get one ordered then! More information: www.apollo-accelerators.com

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

Warrior Or Warriors In The Shadows? A new port of the DOS ﬁrst person shooter Shadow Warrior has arrived for the Amiga by Szilard Biro. Not to be confused with its 2D namesake, Shadow Warriors (Ocean's beat 'em up from 1990), Shadow Warrior contains plenty of blood for those who enjoy carnage. An 060 processor with 16MB RAM is of course required to play it though! Visit: www.amiga-addict.com/shadowwarrior Another MSX Game Port Masoftware have ported the 1985 MSX classic - King's Valley - to the Amiga. It looks like a great puzzle platformer with better graphics and sound than the original too: www.masoftware.es

A One Way Street? Wrong Way Driver is a new OCS minigame that is great fun and has surprisingly good graphics and sound for a game that ﬁts in just 60kb of disk space! It is A500 with 512k RAM compatible - so a new Amiga game for the masses! Download it here: www.amiga-addict.com/wrongway

Upgrade Path of Least Resistance The 68040-to-68060 adaptor by reinauer, builds on the efforts of other community members to allow Amiga users to easily convert their 040 processor sockets so that an 060 CPU can instead be fitted. Download the PCB gerbers and BOM from: www.amiga-addict.com/040-060 PCIe With OS4 - Sounds About Right PCIe soundcards that comply with Intel's HD Audio (Azalia) specification are now supported by a new HD Audio AHI driver for AmigaOS4.1. More details and the compatible cards are listed at OS4Depot: www.amiga-addict.com/hdaudio

Send your reader comments & letters via email or Discord: magazine@amiga-addict.com www.amiga-addict.com/discord

Keyboard Warriors (Basically just send anything in - we'll probably print it!)

Did somebody mention a coverdisk? Well, we may not have a ﬂoppy disk sticky-taped to the front cover (just yet...), but we have included an Amiga Addict ADF coverdisk image in this very issue! See page 3 for information on how to obtain your copy. AGA Enhanced Magazine Like a lot of people, I download a lot of my reading material and launch it in a PDF viewer on my tablet. However you cannot replace that feeling of having an actual magazine in your hands, turning each crispy page in trepidation of what goodness lies ahead. The quality of the Amiga Addict magazine (with its bright colours and glossy cover) just enhances that feeling, that here "I have something special" . I cannot wait for the next instalment. Thanks to all the people who have made this fantastic magazine possible. - Carl Williams (via Email)

The team here at AA are in shock to hear of such unscrupulous mischief having taken place. Perhaps the customs worker was trying to save Finnish Amiga fans from rotting their teeth?! We'd love to hear more stories from AA readers who remember similar Amiga shenanigans taking place!

Next Gen Amiga User Thanks to you, my son can start with a physical Amiga mag at the same age I did - and watching me play Lemmings can be his ﬁrst Amiga memory, just as it is mine watching my mum (to this day just an awesome game!). Keep up the great work! Looking forward to the next issues! - Tim Felgentreﬀ (via Email) We've had yet another lovely batch of messages from AA readers this issue, and we truly appreciate your kind words! It's wonderful to receive your pictures too here at AA Towers (Ian - "Yes, it beats looking at our Ed. every day!"), so we can see who's reading, and how you use your Amigas. Keep sending in your stories and pics...

We're nearly at the end of the decade, and what a decade the 1980s really was! There was so much to celebrate. It was a time of big business, a time to think big... everyone had limitless imagination, unstoppable ideas - even massive hairstyles! (Ed. - "The latter, perhaps, not something we need to celebrate quite so much?") There was an absolute tidal wave of 1989 cult movies and popular culture!

BACK iN THE DAY '8 9

I'm sure you'll read this and think of 100 newsbites that aren't listed here, especially if you're an overseas reader... yet here in Blighty, 1989 seemed to be the crescendo in ﬁnally summing up what was great about the 80s. In terms of the Amiga, our cherished 16-bit powerhouse was already four years old! This slow and steady start meant the hardware was able to be reduced in price, making A500s aﬀordable to the mass market. Couple this with a very strong and matured software library, and we witnessed an Amiga that easily outsold everything else!

Amiga News

Games Galore!

Movies or Amiga Games?

Classic British Telly

Commodore UK sell record numbers of computers (one in ten homes now own an Amiga!). This is due to the launch of the Batman Pack. A genius sales move led by David Pleasance; the bundle consists of an A500 with Batman, The New Zealand Story, F/A-18 Interceptor and even Deluxe Paint II - all for just £399! Also included is the Amiga A520 video modulator, allowing the A500 to use any home television as its display.

1989 is the most fruitful Amiga gaming year thus far! Some standout releases include Rick Dangerous, Maniac Mansion, Sim City, Kick Oﬀ, Laser Squad, Stunt Car Racer, Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, It Came from the Desert, The Colonel's Bequest, Silk Worm, Populous, North & South, Hybris, Xenon 2, Gravity Force, Rainbow Islands, Battle Squadron, and of course, Batman The Movie - Ocean pay $1million for the ﬁlm rights!

Needless to say, Tim Burton's Batman grosses highest in 89. Filming takes place at Pinewood Studios in England (Knebworth House is used as Wayne Manor). Being shot in the UK only helps encourage Batmania to sweep the nation! Other blockbusters include Back to the Future Part II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Lethal Weapon 2 and Ghostbusters II (Ed. - "Wow, lots of Amiga game licences!").

Kryten joins the Red Dwarf crew full-time in Series III as the ship's mechanoid (one of the funniest seasons!). Birds of a Feather premieres on BBC 1 - a comedy following the lives of cockney sisters Sharon & Tracey. While Desmond's is a hit on Channel 4 - although not the ﬁrst Black British TV sitcom - it provides lighthearted awareness of 80s working class Black family life. Also, the satellite service Sky Television begins broadcasting.

May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

REGULARS

Acquainted With Mystic Meg? I am an Amiga addict (with 14 Amigas!). Here's a suggestion - I would like to see more programs, utilities and demo reviews. Tutorials too, like a step-by-step guide to creating a WHDload card for A1200. Could you also provide a coverdisk or CD? - Maniadis Vasilis (via Email)

I really enjoyed reading the story about food Sta r advertising brands in Issue 4. Over here in Finland Letter one man who worked at the Finland Imports Department ate all the Chupa Chups which came in the Zool games, and no customers over here got any! He later admitted this on a Finnish Commodore Facebook group, saying if you own a Finnish Zool and you zoom in against the light, you will ﬁnd that there is no big round point on the box sticker, where the lollipop advert has been taken oﬀ! - Anonymous (via Facebook)

The Legacy of Commodore (Part 3) - Ravi looks at the towers that gave Amiga new powers - did they have a lasting inﬂuence?

AMIGA FOCUS

Amiga 3000T and 4000T. It came with a built-in PC (PS/2) keyboard adapter, optional generic rebranded PC keyboard, and even allowed you to install your original A1200 keyboard into an external housing, much like Stephen Jones’ modern Checkmate 1500 Plus case. On the front, it sported those “Powered by Amiga” boing ball logos we talked about last time.

The modular design is clearly shown here.

In Part One (AA Issue 2), we talked about Commodore UK's post-bankruptcy plan to get the Amiga bouncing back. Escom eventually won the bidding war against Dell and took control of Commodore. So what was left of Commodore UK's plan to create a modular upgradable tower with the Amiga brand? At the time, many Amiga users had machines with expansions hanging out the side, and often they resembled some kind of Frankenstein's monster. With the introduction of graphics cards for the platform, fitting all those items in could leave your A1200 looking like a melted pile of plastic, and that’s not what any proud Amiga owner wanted. The form factor of desktop computers was clearly on the way out. The tower form factor becoming popular was a reaction to these changing builds, and the A4000T - the last true Commodore machine - definitely helped set Amiga users on this path. Often hacking together PC towers themselves, Amigans’ aim was to accommodate their frequently sprawling builds in a single self-contained unit, with all the latest upgrades and expansions built-on. They also wanted to keep up with the trend of the time for bland, beige PC towers, like those coming from companies like Time Computers and Escom. A few commercial tower designs would be specifically made for the A1200 - out of the ashes of the Commodore UK expansion plan, we saw the MicroniK Infinitiv tower rise. Sticking to the idea of a modular upgradable design, this tower was an impressive beast. A standard midi-size case, it looked modern, slick and much smaller than the towering

AMIGA ADDICT

The “Powered by Amiga” branding was a clever move - being able to define the machine at a glance made it stand out from thousands of beige towers. It also played well to Amiga users' emotions showing off machines to clueless users of other systems often meant Amigans would be forced to remove the casing to show off the actual hardware and prove their Amiga credentials. The sentiment at the time would be “but Amiga's just a games machine”, when we knew it could do impressive stuff, even postbankruptcy, with acceleration and addons. Having a recognisable boing ball (and clearly stating what system it was) set it apart, much like Macs pre-Jony Ive. It definitely had a proprietary feel. This led to thousands of “Powered by Amiga” stickers being printed and slapped on everything from car bumpers to domestic house cats. A loving nod to this campaign can be seen in Hyperion’s “Powered by Amiga OS” campaign. The tower itself looked stunning, especially from the back with the custom slots. The Amiga 1200 motherboard is mounted to a tray and slotted neatly inside, and it had room for a PC PSU that let you run Mediator (an expansion board that allowed the Amiga to use PCI cards), CD-ROM drives and anything that required more than the standard Amiga power supply could provide. It also came with an adapter to power the Amiga from the PSU too, making it a neat solution.

Amigas, and the Infinitiv only served the Amiga 1200. The whole tower was also made from cheap plastic, making it less sturdy and encouraging yellowing. As users’ towers filled up with more components and got increasingly hotter, issues started to appear - there are many reports of the plastic warping and towers bending. After all, airflow and cable management were not really a focus of the Amiga towerising movement. If you look at something like the Power Tower, the metal really helps, with an external clip-on plastic front. MicroniK fixed many of these issues with the Infinitiv 1200 II, which debuted at Computer 98 in Cologne. With a metal frame and clip-on front like the Power Tower, it provided much more stability and eliminated warping, and was more in line with the sexy curved cases of the time. Commodore UK had a semi-decent plan that could have eked out a bit more life for the Amiga market, and helped expand into areas such as busboards and accelerators. Could they have succeeded? After so many years, who really knows... but I am sure people would have gobbled these towers up. At the time, users were desperate for anything that deviated from Escom’s reissued A1200s. Licensing Amiga products to people like MicroniK was a good move, I just wish we could have seen more before Escom also went bust. Commodore UK’s legacy can be seen today with tower conversions and the acceptance of the tower form factor in the Amiga NG world. Items such as the AmigaOne and X1000 have continued to expand the Amiga tower market, and to this day, people are buying monitors and machines from eBay plastered in “Powered by Amiga” stickers. The impact has far outlasted other campaigns.

The modular design really helped with the huge selection of expansions like busboards. The tower size could be increased with an extra 5.25” bay stacked on top - indeed, this was required when ﬁtting an accelerator card. It also oﬀered nice support slots for the accelerators, so they were not left wobbling around in the air. Internal 3.5” drives could also be added, meaning you could turn this tower into a real monster if that was your cup of tea. The tower was by no means perfect. Commodore's original plan was to make this modular tower universal for all

May 2021

Inﬁnitiv towers looked very commanding.

STARSHIP

These are the voyages of the starship Amiga. Its mission to boldly go… oh damn who broke the warp engines! That's how it goes right?

GENERATION

Original Amiga NG hardware is always hard to come by, especially at a decent price. But this seems to be changing. MorphOS beneﬁts from being able to be run on old Apple Power PC hardware and access OS4 Classic on WinUAE. While that

The Sam460, however, has taken a new entry level approach, and ACube Systems have produced a Sam460 cost-reduced version, the Sam460cr, in the hopes of opening up the market to new users. The ﬁrst batch hit the public at a new low price of €489, and sold out within seconds, with the package containing Amiga OS 4.1 Final Edition and the games Gorky17, Descent Freespace, The Secret of Middle City and BOH. The drop in price from the €639 Sam460ex comes with some compromises: the onboard video, audio and nearly all SATA ports have been removed, while maintaining the same CPU speed depending on which version you buy (there is a more expensive version with a 1.1GHz CPU instead of the 1GHz standard edition). Users can

upgrade with items like cheap SATA and Radeon HD cards, instead of having to get them onboard. Having only one video slot and PCI slot limits it, but the 460cr does have a nice form factor. These entry level machines are in huge demand, and the whole stock of Sam460cr's sold out quickly. ACube have already run further production runs and promise larger batches in the future - we hope to see a lot more of these available and a lot more NG users coming aboard. Six years after their announcement, the long awaited A-Eon A1222 is still not on public sale, but is with beta testers. With ACube now helping out, and this entry level ﬂourish, maybe we can see it landing this year (another two more weeks… my eyes are rolling!). We can also dream about an entry level Amiga PPC laptop, and maybe one day we can ﬁt a X5000/40 into Data's head... but he might start to look a bit like Kryten. I have contacted the local space station for a resupply, but they seem to be too busy watching "Keeping Up With The Cardassians". The wait goes on...

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TESTBENCH

Last time you joined me, we crash landed on a planet ruled by children. Wesley Crusher has been appointed as their leader/god and we have been keeping them entertained using Data’s head as an Amiga Next Generation gaming rig, while we try to regain control of the Enterprise. Something has gone drastically wrong and Data’s Power PC chip has fried through overuse... and too much crying (I knew we shouldn’t have installed that emotion chip!). We need to upgrade, so let's take a look at the available Power PC hardware, and get some beamed down from the local space station to keep this rabble under control.

is great, every Amiga NG fan dreams of original hardware dedicated to NG. The X1000 and X5000 computer systems, as well as the Sam460 motherboard, do oﬀer this. They are pricey however, and only appeal to a small user base (we even use an X5000 to help create Amiga Addict!).

Across The Pond www.youtube.com/10minuteamigaretrocast www.10marc.com

REGULARS

by Doug Compton North America was the home of many hardware manufacturers for the Amiga. GVP, Spirit Technologies, NewTek and D.K.B. are a few of the big ones most have heard of, but one manufacturer was quite close to home for me. ICD Inc. was located right in my home town of Rockford, Illinois. When I was but a wee lad of 18 or 19 years old, happily working away on my Amiga 500, I was amazed and astonished to start seeing advertisements in AmigaWorld and Amazing Computing all about this local manufacturer! ICD made some truly amazing products for the Amiga 1000, 500 and 2000. We’ll take a look at a few of the wonderful things they provided shortly, but first let’s take a look at the company. ICD was run by Tom Harker and Mike Gustafson, and their company was fairly unusual in that they did virtually all the manufacturing either in-house or using local manufacturers. Even the PCB boards were made locally – no PCBWay for them! While this did allow them to have more control over their products, it also would have been expensive to quickly retool for new ones. ICD hence had a core line of quality products, but not a huge variety. They always reviewed positively in the magazines of the time, and were well known for their excellent documentation, good technical support and quality. The first product I remember wanting was the AdIDE board for the Amiga 500/2000. This was an autobooting IDE interface that mounted right on your 68000 socket, with your 68000 chip neatly fitting on the top. It allowed you to use a fairly inexpensive IDE hard drive right on your Amiga 500. I remember people mounting the hard drive on the floppy bay, and then using a DF0/DF1 switch, like ICD’s own “Shuffleboard”, to use an external floppy as DF0. There were two versions, one 40-pin for 3.5” hard drives and one 44-pin for newer 2.5” drives. This is a product that would find a market today for sure products like the Buffee accelerator have no onboard IDE. A nice match for the AdIDE was the AdSpeed accelerator, which worked in the A500, A1000 and A2000, again mounting in the CPU socket. Not only did it double the CPU speed to 14.6 MHz, but it had 32KB of SRAM that acted as a cache to speed things up more! Many reviews found a nice speedup in Workbench and games with this gem. It could also be disabled via jumper for fussy games that only like 7.16 MHz. Later, we had the AdSpeed/IDE, which simply combined the two in one, offering faster CPU, cache memory and a 2.5” IDE interface. This was an inexpensive expansion for your Amiga, adding great features without taking up any desk real estate. It went by a few different names, including the AdSpeed Novia and AdSpeed Prima. The IDE interfaces were good for adding inexpensive and fairly slow hard drives to our lovely Amigas, and for many this

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was enough. But some people needed the best, and for these users, ICD came out with the “Trifecta” line of side expansions for the A500. This added one of the fastest SCSI II interfaces ever released for the Amiga line, clocking in at a zippy 10MB/s. Even the Amiga 3000 could only manage about 5 MB/s at best. The Trifecta also added an IDE interface and the ability to add up to 8MB of RAM. A fully loaded Trifecta with a fast SCSI hard drive and a full 8MB would be a beast of a machine, with the multiple interfaces allowing you to add things like external Syquest drives, SCSI CD-ROMs and even SCSI scanners. I suspect if I had purchased a Trifecta in 1990 or so, I may not have ever upgraded to an Amiga 3000. The Amiga 2000 was not left out in the cold - there was a Trifecta LX ZORRO II board for the Amiga 2000. This had the same fast SCSI II, IDE interface, and 8MB Fast RAM as the Amiga 500 Trifecta. You could also mount a SCSI or IDE drive right on the card, which left your drive bay free for a second SCSI hard drive. ICD also shipped the AdSCSI 2080 ZORRO II card which added reasonably fast SCSI – although not as fast as the Trifecta – and the ability to add 8MB of Fast RAM using 30-pin SIMMS. There was also a version without the RAM expansion capabilities, but who wouldn’t want to expand their RAM at the same time? These SCSI cards were faster than Commodore’s own A2091 cards, but not quite as fast as the Trifecta. While we are all designing the perfect Amiga in our heads, why not go all out and get the flicker free video interface? This little beauty was a predecessor to the current Indivision MKII/III from our friend Jens at Individual Computers. It mounts onto the Denise socket and produces a perfect scan-doubled and flicker-fixed display right on a 31.5kHz VGA monitor. This was pretty much what the Amber chip did in the Amiga 3000 a year or two later. This flicker-fixer was the perfect addition on the A1000, A500 or A2000 for those of us doing graphics work, as it provided a rock solid 768 x 480 display (with overscan, of course). As you can see, ICD had a plethora of reasonably priced and incredibly useful expansions for our original Amigas, but nothing for A600 and the more advanced AGA machines. What happened to them? Our good friend Eric AKA AmigaLove wrote a great article about the demise of ICD last year on his wonderful AmigaLove website right here: www.amigalove.com/ viewtopic.php?t=1218 , but in short, the Amiga 600 surprised them by being incompatible with all of their devices, and retooling everything proved too expensive. New Amiga products slowed to a trickle and finally stopped around 1993. If you can find yourself a nice AdIDE on eBay, or the beautiful Trifecta, buy it in a heartbeat, and remember it was built with love and care, right in the heartland of the United States - good old Rockford, Illinois. My hometown.

You built a time machine, out of an Amiga? by Chris Winter

- Let's get to 88mph and see what McFlies...

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It is good to see that Chris has the A500 set up and taking pride of place on his desk (even with the massive box). What a nice clean example too!

Long ago, when people could “fly on planes” and “go to other countries”, I repurchased an Amiga 500 Batman Pack on eBay. Given I live in Australia now, and the pack was in England, I simply had it shipped to my parent’s house there and... waited an entire year to collect it. Long story short, I collected the boxed Batman Pack over Christmas 2019, having been Amiga-less since I sold my original Batman Pack (and too many games to mention) back in, oh, probably 1993-ish. The A500 itself - in all its wedged glory - looks like new, even now. Sure, I had to replace two phototransistors in the mouse, and resolve a couple of keyboard issues, but these seemed to just be down to time (rather than abuse) causing the damage. The drive is squeaky clean and quiet, and there wasn’t a speck of dust or rust inside the machine. I had to pop the warranty sticker cherry myself! The eBay seller’s story of “one mature owner” seemed to have rung true. And so, after a year’s worth of waiting, and a Buy It Now price of £399 (more than my original), was it worth it? That is a very good question. The Batman Pack box now sits in full view, high atop a DVD shelf stack. In the same room, the A500 itself does not hide away in the original box. It sits, pride of place, on my desk. It’s plugged in and ready to go at the flick of a switch. And yet, and I’ll openly admit this in an Amiga magazine, that switch is seldom flicked. Why not? It’s right there, as I sit at the very same desk using my PC, waiting to be used. Don’t get me wrong. I have used it. Really, I have. I’ve played with Deluxe Paint II, gone through the Workbench disks, played all the games COMMU from the Batman NITY Pack including ARTICL flying under the E S

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golden gate bridge in an F18...inverted. I’ve begun re-collecting the games I had boxed as a teenager, and I’ve also begun re-pirating games I had dodgy copies of as well. Heck, I even recreated a song I wrote in Soundtracker 2.5 back in the day. Oh, it’s been used, and I love using it when I do, but, in all honesty, it’s not often. And the reason is, I don’t need to. The fact is this - the primary driving factor for buying the Batman Pack again - and it had to be the Batman Pack - was nostalgia. But perhaps not in the way that you think. Or, that you think you think. Nostalgia is a funny thing, and when I found myself overwhelmed by an emotional longing for the past - thanks to people like Dan Wood, Neil from RMC, Peter from Nostalgia Nerd, and many other YouTubers - I decided to search for the reason why. You see nostalgia, in the way most of us experience it at the moment, forms part of the mid-life crisis (or mid-life enlightenment, as I prefer to call it). Longing for the past is part of our natural survival mechanism. When we are young, we look forward to the future. We dream. We plan. We look forward to a tomorrow that seems to take years to arrive. In mid-life, we naturally realise that there is less to look forward to.... literally. The days we’ve lived quite possibly outnumber the days we have left (sorry!). Now if we were to dwell on that fact (and please don’t), we’d end up in a quivering mess. Instead, and almost without us realising it, we become less obsessed with what will be, and favour thinking about what once was. My Amiga then, doesn’t need to be turned on to do its job for me. Do I enjoy using it? Yes! Of course! I love it! But life is full of commitments and things I’m meant to be doing (apparently), and time is short. The truth is, even two hours of using the Amiga isn’t as powerful as a split second of looking at it. A single

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glance at that beige, all in one, keyboard computer wedge, with those special “A” keys, and the power and drive lights waiting to be illuminated, instantly transports me through time. If I turn it on, I see a Kickstart screen, a game, Workbench, or whatever, and there are strong memories attached to those. But even without turning it on, I see my mates Steve, Sean, Matt, and Daryl. I see the park. I see our BMXs, mountain bikes, and RC cars. I see our Bauer Turbo 33s, and our Cooper Super street hockey sticks. I see our Santa Cruz skateboards, and our Simms wheels, with full precision bearings. I see long summer holidays, and the girls I never did get the courage to ask out. I see Megabytes, my local independent Amiga/computer shop. I see the friendly man behind the counter, who no doubt wished I had more money to spend each time I went there just to look at the boxes on the shelves. I hear breakdance music, followed by acid house, followed by Bryan Adams at number 1 over and over and over again; I hear all of us singing at the top of our lungs while listening to the top 40 on our Walkmans. Everything bad from that time seems to have disappeared, and only the good memories remain. It is a sometimes-overwhelming wave of emotion, and it comes in an instant. If I use my Amiga, I get to enjoy a machine way ahead of its time. But if I just glance at it, it can evoke a tear or two, as I get to be 16 all over again. I built a time machine out of an Amiga, and it generates 1.21 Gigawatts of nostalgia, hitting me like a bolt of lightning, sending me back to 1989. (Ed. - "Thanks to Chris. We also suggest readers subscribe to his YouTube channel, which covers lots of Amiga-related content here: www.youtube.com/005AGIMA")

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AMIGA'S GOT... AMIGA FOCUS

...YOU COVERED! - Paul Monaghan empties the AA disk box, embarking on a voyage of Amiga DISKovery... Back in Issue 2, I wrote about my passion for games magazines over the years. Since getting back into the classic gaming/retrogaming scene in 2013, my love for print has shot back up to the level it was when I was a teenager. The magazines themselves transport you back to a speciﬁc period in time - seeing the covers, certain reviews you remember, and - if you were an Amiga owner - the coverdisk. Hmm, what's that? Coverdisk? Maybe that should be disks? After all, throughout the life of the Amiga, a war broke out between rival magazines. A war that featured 3.5" pieces of plastic. Covertapes were a big part of the 8-bit scene. The likes of Crash, Zzap!64, Your Sinclair and Amstrad Action would feature tapes of demos, as well as full games on occasion. Further into the 1990s, the covertape became a monthly staple for the majority of these titles. Since the late 80s, there have been many fantastic games magazines covering the 16-bit home computers too. Multi-format

titles such as CVG, ACE and The Games Machine featured the Amiga, but some new titles went a lot further. Amiga Format is seen as one of the greatest Amiga magazines of all time, starting in 1989, and running until 2000. But even before Issue 1 hit the shelves, Future Publishing had already begun the coverdisk wars. Dated July 1988, Future launched ST/ Amiga Format, a new dual-format magazine for owners of the 16-bit powerhouses. Even though both machines had been released a few years earlier, their popularity was growing as gamers started to move away from their 8-bit predecessors. ST/Amiga Format only lasted 13 issues before it split into separate magazines, but each issue came with a coverdisk attached, containing the kind of content the magazine was well known for - a mixture of software programs, PD games, and new game demos, although the content did diﬀer depending if you owned an Amiga or ST (as usual I will try and keep mentions of the latter machine as few as possible!).

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Although Amiga Format included a disk each month, its competitors were a lot more reserved. The likes of Zero, The One, and even Amiga Action featured a disk on only a handful of issues in their first 12-18 months. Despite coverdisks being used to entice readers, they also could pose problems. Not only would time have to be spent trying to fill the disk with content, but if any were faulty, time was needed to fix them and send replacements. As they became more popular and a monthly disk was deemed a necessity (sometimes two or even three), there would need to be a nominated person on staff to deal with any issues. A few years ago, I spoke to Nick Clarkson, former editor of ST Action (even though it was a ST mag, his coverdisk insight is still relevant!). Nick told me of the various issues a coverdisk editor could expect to face. In addition to those mentioned above, he also added, "you'd have a list of software houses, and you'd ring round, going after demos. It was in their interest to make demos." As more magazines started to add coverdisks, it

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"Sometimes the publisher would ask ‘Well how many pages will you give us?’, so you would win it like that, by giving them coverage,” Nick continued. “It wasn't a job I'd have wanted to do, because you were on the phone a lot... especially at the 11th hour, because The One or someone had come in and snatched it from under your nose." Nick really brought to light how quick you had to be in the coverdisk market back then. Whenever a coverdisk was included in the early days of Amiga magazines, it always seemed like a big deal. Occasionally, you got a free game such as Deﬂektor (Issue 7 of Zero), but it was mainly game demos for the latest releases. Two examples of some brilliant value pieces of content from those early days come to mind however. The One Issue 14 came with bonus material for the classic Populous. This form of early DLC (as it were) gave players an extra mission and new landscapes to play with. One of my most memorable disks came with Zero Issue 23. The Bitmap Brothers made an exclusive level of Cadaver titled Cadaver: The Last Supper. To get content of this quality from one of the biggest companies at that time was a huge selling point. But it wasn't just the Bitmap Brothers that gave Amiga fans value for money... In the 1990-95 Amiga glory years, Sensible Software and Team 17 released multiple hits for the machine. Both these companies would put out some amazing coverdisk content over the years, and just like people that collect ﬁlms or music, some fans want to own everything their favourite artist has made. I just want to take a brief look at some of the exclusive content supplied on coverdisks that was there to sway you to buy a particular magazine every month.

If you were a Sensible completionist, then tracking down all the coverdisks that included their oﬀerings would be

some task! Cannon Soccer may be their most well known, but there is so much more. Amiga Power Issue 13 came with a disk full of Sensi goodness, including demos of Wizkid and Sensible Soccer, but as well as this, two PD games were included. Sensible Startest was a more comedic look at the team behind the games, sharing facts and quotes about each member. And to top it off was Sim Brick - a game a little bit different to the renowned Sim City. It wasn't just a one-off with some clever bonus content either. Over the next few years, readers got Sensible Train Spotter and demos of Sensible Golf and Cannon Fodder 2, as well as the excellent Cannon Fodder Plus. The latter wasn't your usual demo - it had four different modes, as well as a quiz to try and win props from the music video Sensible made. With Sensible Soccer being one of the biggest games on the Amiga, that too received a lot of bonus material. Team editors and various versions of the game exclusive to Amiga Power gave you new ways to play and new settings for the game, including a Bulldog Blighty version based around World War 2! Other magazines still got to feature Sensible content. Amiga Action featured updates for the main game, but also had a spin-off version of the game set on the moon. And Sensible Massacre, while not created by Sensi themselves, provided a somewhat unique hyper-violent diversion from the usual sports fare. However, the most well known Amiga Action disk for Sensible content featured Unsensible Soccer on Issue 42 back in March 1993. Sensible, known for some daft ideas, swapped out the footballers and replaced them with two teams made up of fruit! Let's hear you now! "Come on you Apples!" Yep, something a bit different on this disk! CU Amiga didn't have too much content from Sensible, but they did give away the full version of Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit in January 1994. This was a fantastic disk if you had the skills to actually make something - however, I seriously lacked the skills required! The One Amiga made sure they had demos of the likes of

Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer, but these were standard demos. As mentioned earlier, Amiga Format had Cannon Soccer, but they also had several fantastic demos. Sensible Golf was featured, and, although it was a simple change, I loved the Sensible Soccer disk which had the Amiga Format team in it. As a fan of games mags, the chance to get Steve Jarratt to score was fantastic!

Team 17 were another fantastic supporter of the Amiga, and, as we all know, they had several must-own games. Just like Sensible Software, they helped bring some fantastic content to various magazines. Amiga Format had demos of Stardust and Worms, plus a bug ﬁx for Alien Breed (it meant you could now complete the game according to Issue 43 - but I do wonder what other players did if they didn't buy that issue?!). One nice touch exclusive to AF was a demo of Arcade Pool, where you played against a computer opponent named Marcus Dyson (AF's editor).

Just to brieﬂy mention a couple of other highlights, CU Amiga gave away a full game of Arcade Snooker, an excellent follow up to Team 17’s pool title that was exclusive to the magazine coverdisk. One of the biggest late releases for the Amiga was Worms, and that certainly featured on many disks - especially the Director's Cut version. This is a game people couldn't get enough of, so some disks had extra maps, exclusive demos etc. Such a simple thing like this gave Amiga owners hours of fun. One magazine I want to mention is a very iconic issue of The One For Amiga, dated January 1993. Christmas issues of games magazines always tried to go the extra mile, and this particular issue was no exception. Firstly, the magazine artwork was an original piece done by Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons. A gun-toting, cigar-smoking Santa Claus asked "Have you been good?" To tie-in with this, a complete PD game called Psycho Santa

Image courtesy of Woz Brown.

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became harder to get the must-play demos or exclusives.

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t Some disks have been much better Hi s! s ' than others. I have come up with my personal k l u ic list of ﬁve favourites from various magazines, Pa er P with a few words on why each has made the cut. v Co Blues Brothers (full game) Amiga Action Issue 69 April 1995

Deluxe Galaga (full game) Amiga Power Issue 59 March 1996 The twilight years of Amiga Power didn't stop the magazine going out with a bang! As Amiga games were starting to dry up, leaving little to review, the magazine had more fun features to fill pages. Most issues now featured a full game on the disk too - Deluxe Galaga was a fantastic PD game, and one I only played recently. Although a fairly basic premise of a classic arcade game, Deluxe Galaga added some great little extras that made you want to keep playing. A perfect example of value for money when you bought the magazine. Fantasy Manager (full game) The One Amiga Issue 87 December 1995 & Amiga Action Issue 83 June 1996 OK, so this may not be everybody's cup of tea. However, at this time, Baddiel and Skinner's Fantasy Football TV show was huge. The build up to Euro '96 was incredible over here in the UK, as it was held in England, and Baddiel and Skinner released the song Three Lions as an unofficial team anthem. Football fever was raging, so the full game based on the Fantasy Football show was well timed content. Whilst not as good as certain other footy management games I could mention, I still spent hours playing this with friends. Cannon Soccer (PD game) Amiga Format Issue 54 Xmas 1993 As discussed earlier, Sensible Software was one of the Amiga's biggest supporters. Just seeing the green plastic disk on the magazine made it stand out! Two of the biggest Amiga games came together, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer, and although only two levels long, this was an amazing coverdisk and gave fans more of a good thing. CD32 Special Amiga Power Issue 49 May 1995 I've chosen this one as it was the only month Amiga Power had two versions of the magazine. The standard one came with two 3.5" floppy disks, but the alternative version (costing £1 more) came with a CD-ROM for your CD32. This had game demos, ten full PD games and an interactive version of the Amiga Power Top 100. All this was easily worth the extra £1. I do wonder how many copies of this edition of the magazine were sold?

was included with the magazine, made by the excellent Bullfrog. When I spoke to Gary Whitta (ex-The One Amiga deputy editor) last year, he remembered how this game happened: "I commissioned that game because I was very friendly with Peter Molyneux, having covered much of his stuﬀ at Bullfrog over the years. I asked ‘Would you be interested in putting together a little Christmas-themed game for our Christmas special magazine?’ Peter had a bunch of people on his team put together a little Santa Claus-themed shoot 'em up for us."

It's fantastic to see that games companies were happy to help out magazines with so much exclusive content, and almost 30 years later, this issue of The One Amiga is still fondly remembered. The following Christmas, Santa made a return to the cover and on another themed coverdisk, but it was Psycho Santa that stood out more, at least in my eyes. Before I discuss the end of several magazines, I wanted to mention Amiga Power 's early coverdisks. When it launched in 1991, this was the last main Amiga magazine released, but it is still one of the most loved. AP started

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By late 1995, certain Amiga magazines’ page count dropped severely. When longtime Amiga magazine The One Amiga moved from EMAP to Maverick that summer, it went from 84 pages to 16 within a few months, and although the price stayed the same, luckily, for the rest of the magazine's lifespan (it ended August 1996), there was usually a full game included on the coverdisk. Amiga Power did similar towards the end of its run, but the page quantity (and magazine quality) stayed a lot healthier than The One Amiga. Still clocking in at around 70 pages on average, Amiga Power had a very loyal readership, and they were rewarded with several full games, including the excellent No Second Prize. Amiga Power rival, Amiga Action, ended only a few months after Power. But this went out with a whimper, a handful of pages and the odd PD game. Although three long-running Amiga magazines all ended quite close to each other, I have to think about how many entertaining hours they gave me over the years. So there we have it, a brief look back at coverdisks that came with various Amiga titles. They were so important to readers of the magazines, as they gave you a chance to play some of the latest releases at a budget price. Perhaps though, it is better to say how important they were to the magazine companies. There really was a battle to get the best content for the disks as well as the magazines, thus keeping readers loyal to a particular title. I'll never forget the thrill of buying a magazine, excited to see what the disks contained and spending hours playing what was on them. What if the disk was awful that issue though? Well, you could just format it as a blank disk for use... elsewhere... Over the years, cover-mounted demo disks did fade away due to downloadable demos, but who knows what the future holds? Maybe the current equivalent to a coverdisk seen with this very magazine will give us a chance of another Cannon Soccer memorable moment in the future. This article was speciﬁcally dealing with coverdisks containing games. The serious side of the Amiga coverdisk was just as rich, but we’ll be covering that next time! (Ed. - "Aw, I've just tidied the disks up!")

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This issue was dubbed a “Comic Relief special”, with four disks taking up nearly all the space on the cover. There was a mixture of PD games and a couple of game demos, but Blues Brothers from Titus was a great gift. Although it was a few years old by this point, it was still a fun platformer and I still recommend it to this day. One of the better ﬁlm tie-ins, and I love the art style.

strongly with full games of Bombuzal and Kid Gloves on the first two issues, and even after that start, the first year of the magazine often featured full PD games, demos of some of the biggest new releases and more. Future Publishing sure knew how to make an impact with its flagship titles!

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Icaros Desktop in the words of Paolo Besser Recently, I was lucky enough to interview Paolo Besser, the maintainer of Icaros Desktop. Paolo is already known by many, as he was the chief editor of Zzap! (the Italian version of Zzap!64) between the 80s and the 90s. He then began to write for The Games Machine, the longest running magazine of its type in Europe (and in the whole Western world), still on newsstands today after 32 years.

Since then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge, and AROS today - as well as being open source and managed by a community of developers that has grown, shrunk and enlarged again over time - is an usable operating system. Of course, if I told you that you can use it as a replacement for Linux, or Windows, or MacOS, then it would be a lie, but then this is not its purpose. AROS is carried by the visceral love that its developers have for it.

Today we'll talk about the Amiga, but not in the traditional sense. Our topic is not centred on Amiga hardware, but instead we’re going to talk about PCs... although not for emulation. The subject of our conversation today will be an operating system for PCs: Icaros Desktop, a distribution of AROS.

I maintain Icaros Desktop, which is AROS’ most famous and widespread distribution. I do it for many reasons: a little for passion, a little because I enjoy doing it, and a little because there is a challenge. I love adding new features, new options, new programs, new things for it to do... just to see how far I can push it.

Paolo, could you explain the project?

Icaros is an AROS distribution for x86 PCs. How is this related to Amiga?

Sure. Let's start from AROS. AROS was born as the "Amiga Replacement Operating System", then "Replacement" became "Research" and "Amiga" was removed from the acronym to avoid copyright problems. The project began in 1995 as an attempt to give the Amiga an open source operating system, able to preserve compatibility with existing software. Commodore had recently gone bankrupt and nobody exactly knew the future of AmigaOS. AROS started more or less like Linux did with UNIX.

It brings that Amiga way of thinking to the present, on contemporary machines, with the power and versatility that is available now and the features that, after more than 35 years, the original Amiga computers can not have due to an evident technological disparity. AROS takes what was the language of AmigaOS, and Icaros Desktop brings it to the PC. There is even a version of AROS that runs on the Amiga itself, and can therefore be used in place of the original

by Riccardo Raneri operating system. There is a real will to carry on this process in a completely free and independent way. AROS is akin to Linux, and Icaros Desktop is a distribution like Ubuntu, targeted to x86 PCs. Other distributions exist: for example, the team that works on the Vampire accelerator boards is also preparing an AROS distro, which doesn't include any hardware abstraction layer, and removes all the components that enable it to run on a variety of systems. This makes it fast like the original AmigaOS, and allows them to distribute an operating system that is fully compatible with their boards and their standalone systems - using AROS 68K just like using AmigaOS 3.x on a classic Amiga. There's a distribution that is maintained by a friend of mine, Pascal Papara, which works on ARM. The name is Aeros and it is what is called a “hosted version”. Basically, it's a Linux distro with AROS pre-installed and pre-configured. It's quite a specific distro. I try to do a more generic and customisable thing with Icaros, to make it adaptable to several distributions. This is the main difference, but he compiled the ARM version and alas! - I have to suggest it for beginners who want to start using AROS on ARM. AROS on ARM has had a troubled life we've seen it working, and then we’ve

Icaros Desktop 2.3 - the latest release includes lots of games, 3rd party apps such as SilkRAW image reader and even its own DTP package entitled RNOPublisher.

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seen it not work; sometimes it completed the boot, sometimes not. Now Michal Schulz, one of ﬁrst developers of AROS, has started a big thing for ARM that is basically a version of AROS with the same endian as the Motorola 68K, and with an integrated emulator (Emu68) that will take the same approach as MorphOS/AmigaOS 4 to 68K applications, so it will be really transparent.

No. There is so much confusion: people see AROS, they see GRUB, and they think it is Linux-based. No guys - GRUB is only the bootloader that allows you to load the kernel, but the kernel is the AROS one, unless I choose to install Icaros Desktop as the "hosted" version. In the hosted version, Icaros runs as if it were a normal program running under Linux, or that would run under Windows. Normally, with Icaros installed in native mode, it's AROS that is running the whole machine, not another operating system. So it's actually just like good old AmigaOS Exec, running quietly on your Intel processor, and using any hardware resources for which there are drivers available. When I read about the "hosted mode" of Icaros, I thought it was some sort of emulation or virtualisation, but I think that I was wrong. Could you explain this concept and how Hostbridge works? The hosted mode basically means that AROS is always AROS, but instead of taking over the machine as it would in a native installation or on a virtual machine, it simply takes care of translating API calls and everything else into something that the host OS can understand. So, for you, the user, it's as if it were a program like any other. For the AROS programs, it is as if they are running on a real machine. So there is a bit of magic in what happens, and this is due to the fact that there is a hosted version of AROS for Windows and one for Linux too, which is very convenient! Also - you may be wondering what the point of using AROS on Linux or Windows is? It’s an inescapable fact that these are the operating systems that host most of the applications in the world. AROS, on the other hand, can only count on the applications brought across from Amiga or Unix to AROS, and on the software that runs for 68k in emulation under Janus-UAE (in a semi-transparent way, but still under emulation). The question isn’t quite right actually, because once you have a system like Linux or Windows, the question shouldn’t be "What's the point of putting AROS on?", but rather: “How can we leverage

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A lot of "new operating systems" that we can ﬁnd online are basically Linux distributions. This is NOT a derivative of Linux in any way though, is it?

Paolo Besser at MUPIN - he stands proud with a computer running his own Amiga-like OS, Icaros Desktop.

Windows and Linux from AROS instead?". That is the question I asked myself, and the answer is Hostbridge. Hostbridge is a technology embedded in Icaros Desktop that allows you to launch Linux or Windows applications directly from AROS (although obviously only if it is installed in hosted mode). Seeing Firefox or Chrome starting in a "Workbench-like" environment is really shocking! On the other hand, we have a paradox old Amiga software cannot run directly on Icaros Desktop. The point is that you cannot use software for Amiga 68K directly on a PC, because it would need an Amiga to do this, or a PC with the Amiga chipset. But then it would just be an Amiga! These are two different machines, so there’s a requirement to emulate the missing parts. This is done using AROS for Amiga 68K, within AmiBridge, without the need to resort to the original operating system, or to copyright protected ROMs. So you can still get some support. When I want to launch a 68K application, I have to launch Janus-UAE and launch AmiBridge. Let's talk about unpleasant things drivers. Drivers are a terrible ball and chain, because you need a lot of developers who know both the hardware at a low level, and the operating system well enough to say "OK, I'll program a driver for AROS". But usually, finding this combination... well, let's just say it’s really hard to find that intersection of knowledge. If we add to that the fact that it is clearly a bit of a niche product for someone with a very specific interest - you’ll understand why finding someone to write the drivers is hard. Moral of the story: yes, we have some drivers for some

May 2021

network cards and also for a set of WiFi cards, but sadly, not all are supported. We are unfortunately still at that stage where, to make a fully supported system, you need to enquire first about what works, and create a tailored ad-hoc system. This is the opposite of what we usually do - choosing the hardware based on what is substantially supported. Precisely for this reason, I always recommend installing Icaros on a virtual machine or using the hosted version - and on Linux, because it has a better hosted mode compared to Windows. If you want to make a dedicated machine, the better way is to look for specific components that do not fight with the operating system, so that when everything works, you'll get a good experience. That includes 3D games, internet connectivity, browser navigation and a whole lot more. Browsers are a key issue when it comes to old computers. Is there a native browser available for Icaros, or are we still relegated to the Hostbridge version of Firefox and Chrome? No. There is one for AROS though - Origyn Web Browser (OWB). Unfortunately, it has lagged a bit behind current technology, and so some sites have stopped working in the meantime; we need help! We need "developers developers developers!". So anyone who can help us is absolutely welcome - go to www.aros.org and read the documentation. There you can find all the contacts and all the places to interact. There is a forum on ae.amigalife.org which is basically the good old AROS Exec forums which have recently changed address - you can find programmers and users of AROS there. And then, for heaven's sake, if anyone wants to send an email to me or contact me on Facebook, I will try to help out where I can!

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If I want to go native and dedicate a computer to Icaros, is there a way to choose a compatible PC, possibly a laptop, that is known to be compatible "out of the box"? Maybe you have an old netbook at home, one of those old little laptops that were trending a decade ago and you don't do anything with it? In particular, the Acer Aspire A150 model - the ZG5, basically the ﬁrst of this family of netbooks - is fully supported by AROS. Everything works - accelerated graphics, network card, audio - everything works perfectly, and I assure you that when you start with one of these netbooks and Linux or Windows XP... they make a certain impression if you install Icaros. You will see them ﬂy! ASUS Eee PCs are fully supported too. Some years ago, the Eee PCs were widespread and while a lot of them should still be available, it's impossible to use these devices nowadays with a mainstream operating system. Icaros is a great alternative for these machines: you can play Amiga games on UAE with good performance, you can browse the Internet, you can do a lot of tasks even if the screen is not that big. You can connect it to an external screen to get better resolutions, so you have several alternatives to take advantage of.

When I think about alternatives to Windows that aren’t based on Linux, I don’t see many candidates. Icaros Desktop is one of the few available. Why is it so hard to invent a new operating system?

Of course! I have been working on this distribution - a bit for fun, a bit to challenge myself - for at least ten years, and in those ten years, I had moments of exaltation. I expect more to come - I sincerely believe this.

You have to work with very fast evolution, which is not at all easy for an operating system that has two, three, four... ten developers. You cannot even think of trying to keep up with the big players in this business, because a huge workforce is required to be able to do it, and major funds are also needed.

Obviously, this is mostly due to the fact that this is a project that is in the hands of a community of people. It doesn’t take a lot sometimes. Someone turns up and says "I made this". “This” could be a very convenient new program, a new browser, a driver... and then, surﬁng on the wave of that news, the development of the whole system hits the ground running. Other things then arrive, I add them to the distribution and I also try to add them to a context to introduce some order, and this leads to a moment of euphoria. Then maybe this runs out for a year, and the operating system remains substantially the same.

Linux - which was lucky to be one of the first to be considered as an alternative to Windows - has evolved so quickly because many companies have found a lot of use for it, and therefore have financed development. They have also made programmers available, have actively and concretely collaborated in the development of the OS and, of course, many companies today release drivers also for Linux, or they pass the necessary specifications for the creation of the drivers on to the Linux coders. Unfortunately, we can only dream of this. We are near the end of our conversation. Is the development of AROS and Icaros Desktop continuing?

I am convinced that it will be possible to go on in this way in the future, but we must not have expectations: this may be it. This interview was originally conducted by Riccardo Raneri for MUPIN (Museo Piemontese dell’Informatica). Find out more information about the museum from www.mupin.it - Icaros Desktop is available at: vmwaros.blogspot.com

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May 2021

- Let's see just how powerful Vista Pro really is Hopefully, last month I gave you a good overview of the creative world that existed on the Amiga. It certainly got me excited to reconnect with my roots! Before we start... some of you may be wondering who I am. I go by the handle fxgogo, and sometimes garethQ, on many forums. Although I have owned an Amiga 500 since around 2006, and picked up an A1200 in 2016, I have only pottered around with them occasionally. It has only been since late 2019 that I seriously got back into using the Amiga. Both machines are being restored as I write this, and I hope to have them permanently set up for use later this year. Needless to say, I have to reacquaint myself with the way the OS and the applications work, and, of course, that low resolution. Right, so where shall we start? I was thinking of diving straight into one of the 3D applications, and got a few of them installed, but very quickly realised I am going to have to read some manuals, trawl some forums, and spend some time learning the interfaces and methods again. Let’s start somewhere more esoteric then... say on top of a mountain? Yes Vista Pro. If any of you were like me, you found this a fantastic program to play around in, to explore and lose yourself in a virtual world of your own making. Developed by John Hinkley and Brick Eksten of HyperCube Engineering, it was released in 1990 by Virtual Reality Laboratories, Inc. We got up to version 3 on the Amiga, before it moved to the Windows and Mac platforms, only reaching version 4 before it was discontinued. If you want some more information on Vista Pro’s origins and the company itself, countingvirtualsheep.com has a great article on it.

I never managed to combine any Vista Pro renders with any of my 3D renders, although a few did end up in some 2D artworks in DPaint and Opal Paint. But this software had a very real utility in the engineering and scientific worlds. Being able to pull in real world landscape data, and render stills or animations of that data would have been immeasurably useful. As humans, we are able to consume complex information so much more easily through images than through numbers. So if you had to show, for example, the layout of communication, power or water lines across a stretch of land, seeing that in 3D, as opposed to a map, would be very powerful. Prior to Vista Pro, this type of program would have only existed in the high-end world of academia, science, A Boxout About Unboxing..? Right, before we dive into the software, let's look at the box and what came inside it. I bought this off eBay, and whoever had it before me kept it in pristine condition. This was a big box with a gatefold, (which I don’t see that often) covered in some great pictures to get you excited, along with an extensive list of features. When you open the gate fold, the selling starts, with them advertising some addon DEMs (Digital Elevation Models - files of real-world altitude data) and utilities. We also have a promotion of “The Nature Conservancy”, which - as the name suggests - is an environmental organisation and still going strong today. Inside the box, there are the obligatory disks, and the previous owner kindly added in the MakePath and Terraform utilities, which allow you to make flyby animations and fine-tune your

by Gareth Qually engineering or government; they would have been proprietary, and more than likely, the operation of them would have required some special skills. We’re going to find this will be a common story with so many of the Amiga’s applications. It was one of those Amiga Format cover disks that really got me going. There was, no doubt, an accompanying tutorial to get you started, but like most of us I expect, I just pressed buttons randomly and rendered things to see what changed. I most likely got my first Vista Pro from a friend and did a few animations to see the landscape in motion. But in all cases, I never read the manual or dived too deep into this software, so this is actually the first time I am really exploring the software with any kind of seriousness. No doubt some landscapes. Thank you! All of them are working and in great condition. Then we have three manuals, the thinnest of the three being the tutorial booklet. Next is the script reference guide, which does interest me with some potential power that we could use to make some complex projects. Lastly is the user manual itself, ring-bound - which is the way it should be - coming in at around 70 pages. Last out are the usual order forms, catalogs and business reply mails to Virtual Reality Labs’ other products. We also have some last minute manual change notes. So, back in the day, I would have had a great experience opening this up for the first time. Lots of little bits of joy. I like that the manuals are split into three sections... once you have done the tutorials, that will go back into the box, probably never to be used again. So not having it part of the main manual makes a lot of sense.

So, who is this software for? Well, I suspect most sales were to people who just enjoyed creating virtual landscapes for fun. I know I used it this way in the 90s.

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The Creative Revolution

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Another unbelievable AF coverdisk giveaway!

of you Vista Pro veterans (Ed. - “Vista Pro pros?”) are going to be shouting at the page, so apologies upfront - we’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on the letters page, or on Discord. The world of 3D at the time was a battle to render outdoor scenes with believable levels of complexity. Polygon/triangle based renders would very quickly run out of RAM given the amount of detail to be produced, so landscape generation programs would use triangles combined with fractals to help create the desired level of complexity. The triangles would be subdivided, and the fractals would then displace them - depending how complex you made the render settings, this could happen multiple times. When listening to the CG Garage podcast (episode 206), Matt Fairclough, founder and lead developer of Terragen, spoke to this. He talked about the ﬁre-and-forget aspect to rendering landscapes, when compared to the precision of traditional ray trace and scanline rendering - as each level of complexity was generated, the previous, more simplistic data was thrown away. This allowed amazing landscapes to be created with very little RAM. If you don’t know what Terragen is - it’s the grandchild of Vista Pro, with Matt having got his love of graphics from the Amiga with a copy of this program. Almost 30 years later, he is still obsessed with landscapes, and Terragen produces astonishingly realistic landscapes. Even today though, producing these types of landscapes in traditional 3D programs is not easy, or even practical. Right, let’s load this sucker up. Installation was straightforward, with you being able to choose between integer and ﬂoating point versions. I also installed the MakePath and Terraform utilities, but did not get to them for this issue. I think I will save those for a future article, once I have more experience with everything.

Fans of science ﬁction movies such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan will enjoy these terraforming tools!

As I load this up, memories of myself as a 22-year-old come flooding back. I set the target and camera locations above the landscape by 100 metres or so, to avoid seeing the inside of the mountain. Let’s hit render to see what we get. Alrighty then, we have a picture (fig.1), but initial renders don’t look promising. We need to increase the detail levels somewhat. With the landscape details pushed up to max settings, we now have something resembling a mountain (fig.2). A lovely set of clouds give the sky some detail (fig.3). Simplistic by today’s standards, but back in the day, this was incredible!

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Let's focus on the lighting and added shadows (fig.6). Although a little contrasty, it helps define the geometry of the mountain rather well. Below we have the final image (fig.7). Lighting was tweaked a touch, and I added in the lake.

We now add in our first set of vegetation (fig.4). That looked a little simplistic, so I spent some time creating trees of different sizes and density levels (fig.5).

When we start the program, we are presented with a ﬂat green world with some controls on the right. Loading up a demo scene is the logical ﬁrst step, so let’s take Mount Adams for a spin.

Much better! I really like the way the trees cover a certain part of the landscape, and naturally gravitate to valleys.

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luxury for most, with only video professionals generally having that hardware. No HAM mode or 256 colour dithered images here.

realistic landscapes that are now possible with their latest software.

When I switch the blending off, you can see the subdivision happening at each level of the poly settings, moving from 8 to 1, and then with texture set to ‘H’ and altitude configured (fig.8-12).

Is this a problem? I don’t think so... no one would expect this package to still be doing cutting edge stuﬀ today. I could create these types of landscapes quite easily in Blender and render them in real time. Even so, Vista Pro is still a great place to create and tweak your landscapes before taking them out to more modern systems - DEMs are even more prevalent today, thanks mainly to the Internet, so rendering locations from all around the world is so much easier.

After playing with the software over a few weeks, I worked out that the trick to achieving good looking landscapes is getting the lighting and the colour palette right. The lighting model in Vista Pro is a bit simplistic, so it’s hard to dial-in subtle lighting effects. Similarly, the shadows are there to show the larger geometries off only. Things like global illumination were decades away from being invented, so we have to make do with what we have. The colour palette (CMAP in the program) is not only to choose the colours of your landscape, but to define where elements can be placed in the scene as well. We only have 4 bits of colour per channel to choose from, but that is more than enough, as the render engine uses them as base colours to build a true 24-bit range from. So I generated the biggest fractal landscape the program allows, and set about to tweak only lighting and the CMAP. On the right is a scene rendered with the default colour palette (fig.13).

Now, I am doing this on my PC with WinUAE, so renders are ﬂying by in 5-30 seconds per frame, but this certainly was not the case back in the day. I would have had to leave renders going overnight on my Amiga 500+, just to see one frame! And of course, I am saving to 24-bit images - which could be done originally, but to view them would have been a

The Vista Pro colour palette (CMAP).

Below this scene with the default palette, you can see I tweaked things to give me a barren, desert-like appearance (fig.14). The sky too has been adjusted to reflect the scattering of dust particles. And we now have a snow-covered night scene (fig.15). I can just see the White Walkers in the distance...

I could also see Vista Pro being used to create stylised renders quite easily. 80s wireframe mountains anyone?

So, what are my impressions after almost three decades away from this software? Well, it is still just as much fun to play with as back in the 90s. I have a list of ideas I want to try out, and animations I want to create. I haven't found a way to get anti-aliasing working though, and to be honest, I am not sure it even had it. Render sizes can go up to 4096 horizontally, which is insane when you consider how old the software is. I have also not exported any of the landscapes out to 3D software yet, so that is deﬁnitely on the to-do list. Combining these renders with something that has come out of a 3D application like Imagine or Lightwave will be fun to explore.

Vista Pro has not held up well over time. A lot of the groundbreaking techniques and technologies have moved on massively - just looking at the gallery on the Terragen website shows the photo-

May 2021

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COMMU NI ARTICL TY E SUBMI SSION

UFO AMIGA INSIGHT

ENEMY UNKNOWN

UFO was a bestselling title at the time of its release, but I was really doubtful that kids nowadays would be interested in its slow and deliberate gameplay, compared to the fast-paced modern gaming scene. How wrong I was. The reboot XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012), developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games, was a massive hit and sparked the revival of the popular franchise, eventually transforming it into a huge commercial machine. Giant Bomb, Kotaku, MTV and GameTrailers all made the reboot release their “Best Game of 2012”, and the series saw an equally successful sequel in 2016, with both games having expansions and DLC lavished upon them. All this from a franchise that has its roots in the fabulous work of legendary designer Julian Gollop, way back in the 90s.

A modern reboot that builds on the Amiga classic.

- by Ravi Abbott UFO: Enemy Unknown was a groundbreaking title that really solidified the turn-based tactics genre on Amiga. The use of heavily armed squads in combat sequences harked back to titles like Syndicate, but the addition of the turnbased aspect made it seem more thoughtful and board game-based than simply running around with a minigun. UFO required patience, strategy, balance and consideration whilst playing, and, being the younger brother of Laser Squad, it had a strong history and lineage. Being able to tie in with the fascination with UFOs and aliens that was sweeping popular media at the time assured it also had significant mainstream appeal. A good indicator of the prominence of a genre on the Amiga can often be its popularity in the public domain world, with home coders making clones and crafting love letters to the popular titles at the time. Amiga turn-based PD titles were well-designed and very addictive, with some great Laser Squad-inspired examples like Task Force, Act of War and Hilt II, all definitely worth a look. Great

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commercial titles on the Amiga also owed a lot to this genre, with titles such as Shadow Lands, Space Crusade and Sabre Team deploying turn-based approaches in fantasy and military settings, as well as the sci-ﬁ standard. They were all eclipsed by the success of UFO.

So, let's explore the roots of this truly ground-breaking series. Proving that sometimes you should judge something by its cover, we interview artist Danny Flynn about the creation of UFO’s iconic boxart. We talk to author David Craddock about his all-round knowledge of UFO from the extensive research for his new book on the subject. But ﬁrst, our very own gamer extraordinaire, Paul Monaghan, takes a look at the original Amiga release...

The splash screen is actually a little goofy compared to the main game!

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UFO: Enemy Unknown "The truth is out there, Mulder. But so are lies."

• Published by Microprose • Amiga platforms: OCS / ECS / AGA / CD32 • Release year: 1995

A whole world to protect - can you do it?

The year was 1994, and the one of the biggest shows on television was The XFiles, written by Chris Carter. Every week, I found myself glued to the screen, and then subsequently discussing the latest episode with my friends. This was a science fiction show that had many standalone episodes with memorable moments, but it also had one core theme running throughout. Just like the main protagonist Special Agent Fox Mulder, we wanted to find out if his sister was really abducted by aliens. Little Green Men, Greys, Extra Terrestrials whatever you call them, they are aliens from another planet. And they often don’t come in peace. Which brings us to the main topic - UFO: Enemy Unknown. In 1994, I had an Amiga A1200. I was bored of the usual fighting and platformer games that were plentiful on my SNES. I wanted an Amiga to play games that were perfect for the system and offered something different to the usual console fare. We all know piracy was a huge issue and games could be picked up easily enough, but some titles demanded to be bought, and I felt UFO fell into that camp.

The aim of the game is to take control of a secret organization (X-COM) protecting Earth from various alien invasions. A great mixture of turn-based combat and real-time resource management awaits you. There are various difficulty settings to tackle (cards on the table - I chose “Beginner”!). You must then choose where on Earth to site your first base, and then name it whatever your imagination can come up with. The main game screen (called the “Geoscape”) presents you with Earth in all its blue and green finery, and provides several options for you to explore and plan your next moves. Here you can see any movement of alien craft that occurs in your radar range. There is a lot to get to grips with from the off, and this can take time, but luckily for the player, time is something you can have plenty of, and plenty of control over. The game begins on 1st January 1999 (the future!) and the clock moves along as it would in real life. Time can move in various increments of between five seconds and one day at a time. The default is five seconds and at the start it is better to keep to this whilst you delve deeper into the various sections of the game.

to research - alien corpses will tell you more about their strengths and weaknesses, you’ll discover how their weapons work, and even build mind control devices and UFOs of your own! All this takes money and space though, so keep an eye on how big your base is more staff means more living quarters. Engineers are needed to make the newly researched weapons and they’ll need workshops too. Money is needed to make weapons, buildings, aircraft and everything else, and you get that in two ways. The easy way is to sell things you no longer need. The basic weapons and equipment soon become obsolete, so just take up valuable storage space. However, more money can be made selling alien parts and carcasses that you don't need. Certain parts may not be needed for some things you wish to use, so you are better off selling them ASAP. Be thrifty! Money raised goes towards manufacturing newly researched alien equipment, or you can even build a new base elsewhere on the map to help you find more UFO activity. The other method of funding makes up the crux of the game. The world wants results in the battle against the aliens. Each country has given you monthly funding that can increase or decrease depending on how you deal with alien threats in their area of the world. If you do well, funding will increase, but if you are failing to defend a country, then not only can they cut funding, but they may even outright form a pact with the enemy themselves.

This was my ﬁrst serious stab at playing a strategy game. Games such as Populous and Powermonger never grabbed me, and just seemed too diﬃcult for 11-yearold me to get into. Mega Lo Mania was slightly more accessible for some reason, but I felt much more at home playing a point-and-click adventure back then if I wanted a game to make me think.

Like most titles, what you start with is a very basic supply of soldiers and weapons in your war against the aliens. However, this is where my favourite part comes in research! Although limited at ﬁrst, as you successfully attack and search UFO landing sites, you have the chance to salvage any alien artefacts. At this point, scientists are needed if you want to improve your attack and defence. Each successful mission gives you more things

Let's delve into the combat side of the game. As mentioned earlier, investigating crash sites is one way of accruing alien artefacts. Whenever a UFO is picked up on your radar, you can send out one of your attacking aircraft to take it down. This part is sadly a bit boring, watching a basic animation of dots trying to shoot down other dots on a tiny radar screen. Information is given on the size of the UFO, from very small to large, and

The interception screen is basic but functional.

X-COM HQ is where the party is at.

The Skyranger - ain't she a beauty?

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ONSCREEN

Being into The X-Files helped make my mind up to buy UFO. The games magazines also helped, of course, with some amazing artwork gracing the covers. It was around this time (and I still stick to this today) I aimed to only buy games that had a replay factor, or had such a great story, you felt you got value for money. Luckily UFO easily ticks this box.

knack of getting in the way or just wandering towards the alien threat often making things even more diﬃcult!

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James is our key alien eliminator.

the weapons needed on your interceptor will depend on the size of the alien craft. If you are successful, you can send out your Skyranger transport plane to finish the job at the crash/landing site - just make sure the soldiers inside are equipped with strong weapons, armour, medikits and anything else they might need. As mentioned, the more you research, the better equipment you can make for missions, including some pretty cool flying suits with decent armour. One very nice touch is if you have made the UFO crash-land to get to this stage, the damage can be seen on the screen when you find it on the landscape. When you have landed and started a mission, the turn-based tactics element begins. With an isometric viewpoint, you see your landed craft and take it in turns to move your team out and spread around the procedurally-generated map, aiming to uncover all the unseen darkness and find the alien invaders. Your movement and actions are all controlled by a currency of Time Units, and the more accurate shot you take, the more TU you will spend. The key to these engagements is taking cover, and trying to maximise your chances of hitting the enemy based on your stance, weaponry and the experience of your troops. One of the big challenges is when you are informed of alien attacks on major cities around the world. The aim for these missions is to protect the civilians of the city (several are involved on each map). However they have a brilliant

There are several types of aliens in the game and they often attack the cities in mixed groups. I wish it had been just basic little grey aliens throughout! One mission featured a type of enemy that looked like a Xenomorph from Alien. Their skill is to turn your soldiers or civilians into aliens themselves - I lost three soldiers in a single turn on one playthrough! Another type of alien will leave you human, but gain control of your mind for their nefarious purposes. This is why you must keep an eye on your character stats. Watch your basic time units - you want to be able to retreat if needed, and they can deplete alarmingly quickly. After a few turns, you won't get as much out of your character's turn as at the start of the engagement. One other key stat is morale. If many of your team are killed or turned at once, then one of your team may go berserk, dropping their gun and running - or just randomly opening fire. Although frustrating, when this happens it feels like a nice touch that deepens the immersion, and made me think of Aliens with the assault team being picked off and unloading their clips screaming! This is only a brief overview of some of the combat. The more missions your soldiers survive the better. Several of your team can be promoted to a higher rank, improving their stats and - most importantly - their shooting skills! To get to this stage though, it takes some cautious decisions on the battlefield - I had grown quite close to some of my team (not least because you can rename every one of them), only to lose them in a single careless moment. So is UFO: Enemy Unknown a good game? In a one word, yes, but it isn't without a few issues that keep it from being one of the "Amiga greats". As mentioned, there

are so many ways you can play this game. Try and just go after every UFO and city attack all guns blazing and I can't imagine you will survive for long. Another option is slow and steady, building-up resources. There is no right or wrong way to play, but the difficulty soon ramps up. One of the biggest issues I have is how long the computer can take to move all the enemy combatants in the ground assaults. On top of this, there are sometimes civilians to move also. On certain missions, this can easily take a good few minutes of just being sat there waiting, and on top of this, a lot of movement can be going on in part of the map still undiscovered, leaving you staring at a black screen. I played this as a hard disk install, so luckily had no disk swapping (the original version I owned featured a lot of swapping, luckily helped a little by an external extra drive). The final issue is that, even on Beginner difficulty, the odds can seem stacked against you from the start - an entire team can be wiped out in just a couple of turns. When it is the computer's turn and you are seeing your squad being picked off so easily, it can become disheartening. However, even when my game came to an end, with my research bankrupt, my soldiers all dead... I still restarted the game with a new plan to protect Earth. The fact UFO can make me feel like that proves it is a quality game. So pick out your base, name your troops and get hunting UFOs, because there is no doubt about it - the truth is in here...

GRAPHICS 86% A mixed bag but does what is needed. On the maps, soldiers are mostly similar but the aliens do diﬀer. Landscapes reﬂect where the UFO has landed. The artwork for alien research looks great!

SOUND 72% Not the game's strongest point, but to be fair, it isn't the type of game you need pumping music. On the Geoscape sections, there is basic music, but it gets repetitive. During battles there are some weapon sound eﬀects.

GRAB FACTOR 90% If you are into the genre and have the time to put into it, there is a lot for you here to discover and replay again.

PLAYABILITY 85% There are some issues around the time certain things can take on a stock Amiga, but the game layout is straightforward enough to guide you on what is needed.

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86%

David Craddock Interview - Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense

Note: since this is a US-published book, we’ll be referring to the game in the interview by its American title, X-COM: UFO Defense. What were the roots of X-COM? How did Julian Gollop’s childhood and earlier titles like Laser Squad help influence it? In game development, especially when you have designers who become almost brands unto themselves (such as Sid Meier, John Romero, and Julian Gollop), I thought it would be interesting to chart how they started. John Romero, as an example, is most well-known for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, but he didn't create them alone, and they weren’t his first attempts at computer games. He made dozens of games beforehand, and he learned something from each game project he made. All of those lessons culminated in Wolfenstein 3D, then Doom - which was even better - and Quake, which was even more influential. I was looking at Julian Gollop's story, with a particular focus on X-COM, and I thought, even though there's no book on X-COM yet (which would obviously be at the centre of mine), it would be interesting to go back and trace Julian's design history and show each of the games he made. What we can learn from them, and how they served as stepping stones on the route to creating X-COM. X-COM started as Laser Squad 2. Laser Squad was arguably his most wellreceived game. He and his brother Nick were part of Mythos Games, a company they co-founded with their father. They started on a demo of what was Laser Squad 2, pitched it to Microprose UK, and Microprose said: “We know who you are and like your games, but we want a bigger theme. Not just Laser Squad, but UFOs.” In that way, Microprose UK could compete with Microprose US, who had just released Civilization. Microprose UK felt like the figurative stepchild, and Microprose US had seen them as nothing more than a support studio. If they could have Julian

Gollop design a strategy game, and come up with an even bigger and better theme, they could create something of their own that would compete with Civilization in terms of scale. Civilization had the “Civilopedia” (a comprehensive in-game help section), so they created an encyclopedia for X-COM to match.

AMIGA INSIGHT

Video game author, journalist and editor at Shacknews, David L. Craddock has been published in VICE Gaming, Wired, IGN, Ars Technica and many other outlets. He’s just ﬁnished publishing his latest book Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense, looking into the background of UFO: Enemy Unknown. Who better to chat to and ﬁll our Amiga Addict readers in on all things UFO?

What were the previous turn-based tactics games that helped lay the foundation, and how did X-COM help define the turn-based tactics genre? This is an interesting case, because XCOM is one of those games that I would say, along with Civilization, popularized turn-based games, but it didn't really create the genre. You can see the same thing, for example, with Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. Everyone thinks of those two games when they think of the forefathers of fighting games, but really there were one-on-one fighters before. The first Street Fighter wasn't really very good, or Karate Champ, but Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II were so good, and so polished, that those games became the template for what fighting games could be after. Before X-COM, there was Civilization, of course, which came out about three years before XCOM shipped, and in fact was in the process of shipping when Julian Gollop pitched Lazer Squad 2 to Microprose UK. There were also other games, such as Master of Orion. Julian is really the forefather of 4X turnbased games - he was doing the expand, exploit, exterminate and so forth in early games such as Laser Squad and Islandia. X-COM was a product of him taking everything he had learnt and working with some of the brilliant producers and designers at Microprose UK, such as Stephen Hand and Mike Brunton. They distilled these elements into the game and it really caught on. Everybody including Julian at Microprose UK was surprised at how successful X-COM became in America. They initially figured it would be a huge hit in the UK, as Julian’s games were already popular there, but Microprose thought that titles like Doom, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 dominated the US market, Arguably X-COM became more popular in the States. When this happened, Microprose really zoomed into it and the franchise was born. How much did sci-fi culture and media at the time help play into X-COM ’s success?

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A fascinating read for fans of the X-COM series.

It was huge - one of those situations where it was a perfect storm. In the US, fortuitously, The X-Files had just started and was really taking off. This really affected the title of the US game, where it was known as X-COM: UFO Defense, for two reasons. The squad in the game in all territories was known as “The X-COM Squad”, but Microprose US and their new owner Spectrum Holobyte figured the “X” would make people think of X-Files. At the time, there was a show running in the UK that was extremely popular called UFO. It wasn’t Julian Gollop who suggested the UFO theme - it was Pete Moreland who was deputy director at Microprose UK. He and most of the studio were big fans of UFO and that got him thinking about an alien theme for the game. Julian agreed as he and Nick were big fans of Microprose and just wanted to publish a game with them. They put their collective heads together and really riffed off the UFO show. What connection do the old games and legacy have to the success of the modern XCOM series all the kids are playing? Jake Solomon, the lead designer of XCOM, was a huge fan of the original game. He had played it obsessively growing up, and at Firaxis Games, he would constantly pester Sid Meier and other managers asking to reboot XCOM. In fact, if you read up on the history of XCOM 2012, you find they tried to get a running start. Firaxis Games tried two or three times, but the prototypes did not work out. Jake was determined to create an XCOM reboot that worked, and kept going back to it. Firaxis finally got one

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The Amiga European release box artwork.

off the ground which was released to critical acclaim. As far as the roots... really, what Jake, the other lead designer Garth DeAngelis and the rest of the team at Firaxis and 2K wanted to do was transplant the spirit of the original X-COM into the reboot. Speaking to Julian Gollop in my book, he admits that the original X-COM could be difficult in the wrong ways. The interface was really difficult to figure out, and there were no tutorials at first.

A lot of things that happened in-game were very nebulous - it was the sort of game you had to play over and over again to figure out what the heck you were doing and get a handle on the game mechanics. It was a classic game, but really hard to figure out. The original X-COM was not designed that way intentionally, but if you look at computer games back then, a lot of them could be esoteric bordering on opaque. One reason for that (among many) was that the industry was so young, so a lot of the designers were making games for people like them. For people who knew computers, knew how to use them, and had the kind of attitude of “I know this and understand this, so everybody else will too”. The original X-COM had a troubled development cycle. It took about three years, and a lot of the elements of the game, such as the AI, did not come together until the last few months of development. During the crunch in those last months, Julian and Mike had to actually relocate to Microprose UK, so they could work alongside the designers and QA team there to get the game ready for shipping. So 2K and Firaxis really wanted to make a game that was faithful to XCOM, but also difficult in the right ways.

Who did you speak with and who have you featured in your book? I spoke to as many as I could. Julian Gollop for a start - he had read one of my earlier books, Stay Awhile and Listen: Book 1. He really liked it and wrote a very kind testimonial, so after I received that, I contacted him and said “Hey, why don’t we write a book about your career.” I then contacted his brother Nick, which was huge for me, as Nick is a pretty quiet guy, introverted much like me. He does not do many interviews, so I was very pleased and honoured he talked to me. I spoke with (via a combination of Skype and emails) Stephen Hand, Pete Moorland, Mike Brunton and managers, designers, and other people Julian has worked with throughout his career. A couple of dozen people in order to give as much perspective on X-COM and Julian’s career as possible. David's book was crowdfunded through Kickstarter. The campaign was extremely successful, raising over twice its target. David has since completed a second campaign, this time with IndieGoGo. Let's hope there are further releases of the book to still to come. Thank you David for chatting to AA, we wish you well.

Danny Flynn Interview - Iconic cover artist of UFO: Enemy Unknown When UFO: Enemy Unknown was rebranded and released as X-COM: UFO Defense in the US, it received quite an uninspiring cover. For the original release here in Europe however, we were treated to epic looking big box packaging in a visual style similar to that of War of the Worlds. The artwork was created courtesy of UK-based sci-fi and fantasy artist Danny Flynn. This nowiconic game cover really grabbed an entire Amiga gaming generation! We chatted to the man himself about what inspired the cover and his history in the genre. Who were your artistic inspirations when you first started your career, and what draws you to sci-fi and fantasy? Encouraged by my parents from early childhood, I had a deep love of natural history and would spend hours drawing birds, mammals, fish... mostly copied from my ever-growing collection of wildlife books. This was combined with endless hours watching Doctor Who, Lost In Space, Stingray and Thunderbirds. As a young teenager, I began avidly reading science fiction and fantasy novels, often enticed by the alluring book jacket art adorning the covers.

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Just as I was leaving school, I stumbled across a book called Views - The Art Of Roger Dean. Dean is known mostly for his iconic album covers for many prog rock bands (Yes, Uriah Heep, Asia). Next, I discovered the book jacket and poster art of Rodney Matthews and Patrick Woodroffe. I was totally mesmerised and inspired by their visions of mythical worlds and their inhabitants, as well as their artistic skills and colour palettes. This all happened around the time of a major world event - the release of a certain movie, one that wasn’t expected to do that well… none other than Star Wars! My mind was made up… I too wanted to be a sci-fi/fantasy artist. First though, I would need to escape from my northern home town, and be accepted at art college. Wasn’t easy, but I got there… but that’s another story. How did you first hear about UFO and get involved? I received a phone call from Microprose. I recall someone who worked there had bought a recently released compendium book of my paintings, Only Visiting This Planet. You previously did covers for Hewson

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and Gremlin. Did this really catch Microprose’s attention? Microprose were aware of both my book jacket art, and many of my game box covers; especially Utopia (Gremlin) and 4th Dimension, Zarathrusta and Paradroid (Hewson). What was the design brief and how did you approach the cover art? To be honest, there wasn’t too much to go on initially, but I remember being shown a few small stills from the game of some strange creatures, one of an organic robot-like thing, that looked like it could ﬂoat. That was enough to get my imagination started. I then set about coming up with a series of bizarre

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tentacled floating robot/creature ideas. With the word “UFO” in the title, I liked the idea of lots of “floater” aliens spewing out of a spaceship on an otherwise warm, peaceful summer evening. To add to the drama, I needed something happening in the foreground, so I “borrowed” my next-door neighbour. “Adam,” I said, “can you pretend there’s a swarm of floating aliens heading straight towards us, with bad intentions? You’ll need to shoot some of them please... in fact, all of them!” We used an old sweeping brush as a makeshift prop, as we didn't have an alien-zapping rifle to hand. At the time, Adam had no idea what was going on… not until he eventually saw the finished box artwork some months later! What methods and techniques did you use to make the cover stand out from everything else on the shelves? As with all commissions, I simply try and answer the brief and work closely with the client - hopefully coming up with a painting that will stand out on the shelves. Whether it’s a book or a game, there’s no real way of knowing what other titles are due for future release. I just have to hope my image somehow jumps out from the others, as I was well aware of all the time and effort it had taken to bring UFO that far. It’s always a privilege to be the chosen artist for any commissioned work, therefore I owe it to the client to knuckle down in my studio and have fun trying to do the best painting I possibly can… an exciting, if daunting, challenge. The UFO: Enemy Unknown painting was painted onto CS10 art board, using acrylic inks with my finest paintbrushes. The atmospheric skies and mist were done with my trusted DeVilbiss airbrush. Back then, I didn’t have any knowledge of, or access to, any digital art techniques, as Photoshop had only just been invented.

You usually do fantasy and sci-ﬁ book covers. When taking on X-COM, did you realise how much of a success it would be, and how iconic it would become? Over the years, I have been fortunate to illustrate the covers of many hundreds of sci-ﬁ, horror and fantasy novels, for some of the masters of those genres; a list that includes Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, R. L. Stine, and even for A Game Of Thrones author, George R. R. Martin. Before GoT, Martin wrote many superb page-turner books, including I believe, the best vampire story ever written - Fevre Dream - for which I illustrated the cover. As for UFO: Enemy Unknown, I genuinely had no idea how successful it would become, yet I was delighted, of course, that it was massively popular. I remember, around the time, working on a project for EA Games. One of the guys in our team was raving about how brilliant UFO was. When I casually mentioned I did the cover, I received the scariest squeeze of a

bear hug ever, almost suffocating me! I let him borrow my original painting for a few weeks, for his office wall. Sadly, and to my alarm, (and my friend’s) the painting mysteriously vanished one weekend. To this day, I still don’t know what happened to it. If anyone out there does, please let me know. Where can our readers see more of your work online? I have a website of my paintings at www.dannyflynn.com, showcasing not only my book jacket work, but also some natural history, and plenty of my recent creations - colourful and exotic landscapes of strange Other Worlds. All my paintings are available as fine art giclée prints. There is also a small selection of art from a vast personal project of mine, MoonAliens... where I have spent many years creating well over 200 oddball creatures that live in a bonkers “world” deep inside the Moon. A MoonAliens website is on its way, hopefully later in the summer.

Win a signed limited edition UFO: Enemy Unknown giclée art print! One lucky AA reader has the chance to win a ﬁrst edition A3 print worth over £115, courtesy of UFO cover artist Danny Flynn. For instructions on how to take part, visit facebook.com/amigamagazine - where you'll also need to answer this question:

"What is the name of Ripley's cat from the movies Alien & Aliens?" (Alternatively, if you don't use Facebook, your entry can be made by sending a postcard with your name, address and answer to AA Towers: Amiga Addict c/o Simulant Systems Ltd, Popeshead Crt Oﬃces, Peter Lane, York, YO1 8SU, UK.) TERMS & CONDITIONS: Winner picked at random and to be announced in Amiga Addict issue 8. Closing date 1st of August 2021. Print is supplied unframed via postal tube.

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Danny Flynn

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Super Cars II

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- James prepares for the ﬁrst AA Antstream tournament! if you are awarded, or docked, championship points or cash. They help to add variety to the gameplay, and are quite entertaining to boot, but I would more often than not emerge having been punished rather than rewarded for my answers! Judging by my performance on the highway code tests in this game, I am very glad that I already passed my car and motorbike tests years ago...

Nothing like blasting past the train only to see your rival not quite make it.

Developed by Magnetic Fields and published by Gremlin, 1991’s Super Cars II will be very familiar to almost all of our readers. As you will have seen across the page on our centre spread, this issue we’re proud to announce that there will be a special Antstream AA tournament featuring this game, running from June 9-15th. With that in mind, I thought I would take another look at this classic driving game. A top down racer and sequel to Super Cars, this game differentiates itself from others in the genre by offering some more offensive options. When I say offensive, I don’t mean "Alien Breed cheat codes offensive"(!), but rather a selection of weapons that can be deployed to give you the edge in a race. Sure, you could drive around an opponent, but why would you do that when you can just drive straight through their burning wreckage? Or if you’re worried that someone is about to try and steal your podium place, then why not drop a mine or shoot some rockets out of the back of your car to show them who’s boss? The weapons, along with defensive options like armour and the more usual engine performance upgrades, are available to buy between races in the trade screen. How much money you have available will depend on how much you first need to spend on repairing your car... which in turn will depend on how many walls you slammed into, rival cars you collided with or missiles you were on the receiving end of in the last event. Sometimes (if you didn’t disable them from the main menu) you will also get a “communication screen” between events. These are encounters with the likes of the police, a lawyer or an environmentalist and are presented as a series of multiple choice questions (some more bizarre than others). How well you do in these conversations will determine

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The races themselves are chaotic (as you would expect), and are made even more difficult because of how tight many of the tracks are. If you’re not careful, you can find your armour being eroded fairly rapidly as you bounce around colliding with walls, even if you are managing to avoid the many rockets, missiles and mines that have your number. The collision detection, while mostly good, is sometimes not quite as exact as I would like, leading to frustration as you bump a wall or enemy car that you were sure you should have skimmed happily past. But once you get into the rhythm of the race, and are tapping that brake regularly, sliding around a corner and skimming past the opposition feels really great. When you get stuck on a slim bit of track though, trying to get past a back marker as you bump them over and over, falling further and further behind... it can be a bit frustrating, I can tell you! I found myself referring to my opposition using a four letter C word quite a bit. And it wasn’t "cars". The game overall is great fun and definitely challenging beyond easy mode. All the enemy cars look identical, so I did find myself wishing there was a way to tell which cars are in the top three positions, so you know if that anonymous grey car up ahead is worth your precious missiles, or if you just need to barge your way past them as soon as possible, saving your ordinance for a guy who is currently in a podium spot. As with many Gremlin games, Super Cars II features a really great soundtrack from Barry Leitch, which plays on the various menu screens. It’s another fantastic track that really sets the mood - I mean, he must have written some bad tunes at some point, but if so, I’ve not heard one yet! During the race, there is sadly no music, but the sound effects are well done. I heard the sound of thumping into the barrier and other cars a bit more than I’d have liked, but that’s due to my bad driving, rather than bad sound design...

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• Published by Gremlin Graphics • Amiga platforms: OCS / ECS • Release year: 1991 So the track walls and other cars are hazard enough, but that’s not the end of the risks to your no claims bonus. Courses also feature dangers such as railway crossings with passing trains, jumps and even opening and closing Super Sprintstyle gates. Let’s hope you repaired your car before the race! Track design is good - I particularly liked the wider tracks, but that might say more about my driving skills than the game. It’s a great feeling when you manage to string together some fast turns, hit a jump perfectly and potentially also race over the railway line just before the train arrives, obliterating the person who was on your tail. All of the above is fun, of course, but that fun is ampliﬁed when you can play against another real human. Fortunately, Super Cars II caters for this. Obviously, I can’t guarantee that you’ll still be friends once you’ve dropped a mine in a tunnel for them to hit, or sent a homing missile after them to steal the victory, but that's the risk you take! The game runs just as well in both single player or two-player modes, and uses a vertical split screen for the latter. Obviously visibility is reduced for each player, but these games are so much fun against a real person that it more than makes up for it. You have probably already played Super Cars II in your formative years, but it’s deﬁnitely worth revisiting and giving yourself some time to get your muscle memory for the tracks back. We’ll hopefully see you on the score table in the tournament soon - head over to our Discord or drop us a mail to let us know how you’re getting on!

GRAPHICS 91% The game looks great, as do all the menus and communications screens.

SOUND 94% The sound eﬀects are good, and the music is by Barry Leitch - so you know you're in for a treat!

GRAB FACTOR 82% Easy to get to grips with, but frustration can set in quite quickly when bouncing between rivals and the wall. Inclusion of two-player is always welcome.

PLAYABILITY 80% Having an option to use ﬁre to brake is great, and the controls are good, but a lot of the tracks are just a bit too narrow.

VERDICT

87%

Barry Leitch

- We celebrate the man behind some of the Amiga's most impressive game music will have heard Barry's work on the likes of Silkworm, Lotus 2, Harlequin, Lethal Weapon and many more. Even more recently, he has proven he still knows how to write a rocking soundtrack with the amazing Horizon Chase Turbo on modern consoles.

AA staﬀ are star struck after hearing from Barry.

Super Cars II is easily one of the best racing games on the Amiga. And one aspect that has stayed with me over the 30 years since the game's release is the soundtrack.

“First oﬀ, one has to appreciate just how lean development houses were run in the early 90s. I had an Amiga, and I had a desk and chair in a little box oﬃce (6x6 foot I think). I didn’t have some lush recording studio with racks of synths. No session musicians to sample. I bought an amp and speakers at a car boot sale with my own money, and I had a huge collection of sample disks that I’d ripped out of demos and other games, and I was paid very very little. But I was young, and didn’t care - I was working on video games, and that was all that mattered. I should add that pay was sometimes optional!”

The much loved and extremely talented Barry Leitch composed an excellent (and rocking) menu theme for the game that gets you in that racing mood from the moment you hear the ﬁrst guitar chords.

“In the ﬁve-years-or-so period where I was working on all those Amiga games, usually all I got was a phone call with some vague description of the game. Rarely would I actually see the game, unless I was down at Gremlin, or I was inhouse at Imagitec or Ocean.”

If you were an Amiga owner and played games there is a very good chance you

“As I was constantly writing, I was constantly needing new samples, so I

“I like writing for racing games - its fast and exciting music, and I liked a lot of punk and heavy rock music, so something that made you want to get up and jump around a bit always seemed like a good starting point. Except in racing games, you constantly crash and have to start again... building up speed - so I liked to put little breaks in the music that simulated that same kind of feeling. Everyone at AA Towers would like to thank Barry for his time (and all his excellent Amiga music!). You can read more about Barry's work and his latest projects over on his website at www.barryleitch.com

What a car! What a banging theme tune!

Barry s HIGHLIGHTS '

Barry has worked on hundreds of games across all the major computer and console platforms during his very successful career. Unfortunately, we can't include them all here, so instead let's take a look at some of the top soundtracks Barry composed during his time with the Amiga. We'd love to hear what your favourites are too.

1991

1988

1989

1991

1992

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We contacted Barry due to our oﬃcial AA sponsored Super Cars II tournament on Antstream Arcade, as well as our look back at the title (see adjacent page). Barry was happy enough to kindly share a few of his Amiga memories and thoughts on working on the this great game.

kept up with the latest in the demo scene, grabbing samples from all over the place and earmarking any I really liked for use later. The guitars I used in Super Cars II I think came from another game. There was a muted note and open power chord sample that worked really well together, so I used those with some nice drums from a 4mat demo I think, and added some chip lead (because there was never enough space to do a lead guitar sample justice).”

Slay ers of High Toro - Reviewed by James Walker

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It’s not going to be easy though, as the computer opponents running on your 80s/90s hardware are powered by a deviously clever artificial intelligence from the future! It can’t be bargained with, it can’t be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop... EVER, until you are dead. The AI in question was trained up on a modern PC workstation with a top of the range GPU, and then all those heuristics were extracted and loaded into the game. With all that heavy lifting done by modern hardware externally and then baked into the game’s code, it all fits on a single Amiga floppy disk, and the computer is able to make its decisions and complete its moves in just a few seconds. A fantastic use of cutting edge technology to enhance a game that runs on any Amiga with at least 1MB of RAM.

Slayers of High Toro - created by Blitmaps and published by Bitmap Soft - is a brand new strategy game inspired by the PC game Slay by Sean O'Connor. The name ﬁts well, conjuring up images of a fantasy medieval kingdom, but many of you may also recognise it as a nod to the Father of the Amiga - Jay Miner, and his old company Hi-Toro (which would go on to become Amiga Corporation).

You can give yourself a bit more of a fighting chance (or increase the challenge even more), as there are three difficulty settings, plus you can also reduce the number of enemies down from the default of three to two, or even just one. When I was first starting out, I reduced the number of enemies down to two while I worked on improving my strategy (and to offset my natural disadvantage of being born stupid).

At ﬁrst glance, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a game that’s going to take hours to get to grips with. That is not the case. Slayers is great at keeping things simple - it really epitomises that old standard "easy to learn, hard to master". You have a straightforward objective... crush your enemies! That goal is achieved by raising an army to capture as much of the map as possible, thus starving others of resources.

The game is tough to win, but as previously mentioned, it’s a breeze to learn and play. Each unit has a rank and extends that same rank on all adjacent hexes that you own. To capture a hex, you need to use a unit with a rank of at least one higher (so a villager can capture an undefended enemy tile, but could not capture a square with another villager on or adjacent to it - you’d need a soldier or above for that). One of the

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great mechanics to keep things interesting is that you can move your units instantly to any hex that is part of that linked kingdom, or is adjacent to it (assuming they have the required rank to capture that tile), including units you just bought. You don’t have to slowly move your army one tile at a time across the territory you already own. Forts cannot, of course, move or capture land, but have the same rank as a soldier and can be placed strategically to prevent incursions into your territory while your armies are busy capturing on another front.

The Cast Villager Soldier Fort Knight Master A key part of this game is keeping your kingdom joined up, whilst dividing the opponent’s. If you have all your land joined, not only can you move your units to any part of your territory instantly, you can spend all your resources from one big pot. If you are outﬂanked and get your land divided, a new palace will spawn in the orphaned land (assuming you own a tile with no units on it in that area) and you will have to manage the

The Amiga - a big fat cheat?! Often during training, AIs will find unexpected ways to play games or exploit bugs and loopholes that the programmers did not expect. It was no different in the case of Slayers - early on in development, Brad from Blipmaps explained to me that there was a bug where the blank tiles (not on the map) were mistakenly giving one gold on each turn to the enemy kingdoms. This had two unintended consequences - it meant the AI had a significant advantage, because it was essentially breaking the rules by collecting gold from blank tiles, but it also meant that it was spending a lot of time prioritising looking for gaps in the map to exploit these tiles. Once that was patched out, it removed the computer’s advantage, but made it even harder to beat, as it was no longer wasting its time on hexes that weren’t supposed to be in the game! Beginner mode - just one kingdom to worry about.

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• Price £25.00 • Release year: 2021 • Available from www.bitmapsoft.co.uk

• Developer: Blitmaps • Publisher: Bitmap Soft • Amiga platforms: OCS / ECS (1MB RAM)

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Harder modes generate much more complex starting layouts with multiple kingdoms for each player. At last, victory against AI - Sarah Connor would be proud!

income and outgoings of each region separately. Consequently, any units you had in that zone may now be more expensive than the income from the hexes there, and the units will die. This is something the computer is very good at doing - it waits for you to overextend, and then cuts off your troops, leaving them to starve. Evil! Even if your troops don’t get cut off from your palace, if you have a lot of very expensive units, just losing a few hexes can push you into the red and cause them all to expire. Many a time I would be merrily forging ahead into enemy territory with my most expensive units, thinking I was unstoppable... only to have missed a gap in my defences and have the enemy swoop in, cutting off my once-mighty army, leaving them to die behind enemy lines, cold and alone. Slayers has multiple play modes, with Beginner being the recommended starting point. That mode, along with Desert, Flooded and Highland, has a single kingdom allocated for each player, but with differences in the way the map and terrain tiles are generated. All the modes use the exact same rules and play method, but the harder modes are much more tricky, because you start with a number of small divided kingdoms and palaces, and must fight on multiple fronts immediately with independent resources for each, until you can carve your way through the enemies to start joining your kingdoms up. All the modes are fun to play, and the changes in terrain and starting conditions really do mix it up, requiring you to vary your strategy. Arena, Forts, Highland and Beginner were the modes I spent the most time playing, but they are all fun to try.

One of the things I loved about Slayers is that it’s really good for those times when you have just finished a really boring work call, or just fancy something to quickly have a play on - due to the nature of the game, it’s really simple to jump into. It doesn’t matter if you get interrupted by a phone call or a family member either, as it will wait patiently for you to complete your turn for as long as you like. I would often shutdown the Amiga after a couple of games, only to find myself heading back over to the machine and firing it up again for another go about 30 minutes later (normally to try and get revenge on the AI that crushed me last time!). Something else that will make you happy is the inclusion of a twoplayer mode. This can be played either without the AI, or with up to two computer-controlled enemies in the mix. You and your friend play on a single Amiga couch co-op style, which is perfect for a turn-based game like this. As with all other modes, you start the game with the option to reroll the procedurally generated map as many times as you wish, although in two-player, it will also randomly feature the other terrain modes such as Highland or Desert while generating. Work is already underway to integrate the game with AmigaLive post-launch to enable you to challenge your friends, even if they live across the other side of the world (or if you just don’t want to allow your disease vector friends into your house!). The graphics in a game like this are obviously primarily about making the state of play clear to the user, so they can see what potential moves they have available to them. The graphics probably

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could have been a bit more flashy, but that may have come at the cost of the clarity and readability - I like the look of the buildings and characters, they are all distinct enough from each other that you can quickly scan the map and see what units and structures are occupying each hex. The star of the show here really is the gameplay, the fiendish AI, plus, as stated earlier, the whole game fits on just one floppy. Slayers of High Toro is due for release May 8th over on blitmapgames.co.uk, so should be available as you read this. They are currently selling the big box physical version which, as with some of their other releases, even includes a copy of the game on a real Amiga floppy disk. I can thoroughly recommend it - in fact I think I’m going to have another game now...

GRAPHICS 84% Obviously this isn't a graphical showcase for the Amiga, but the units all look good and it's all clearly laid out.

SOUND 92% Great soundtrack by demoscene artist Drozerix.

GRAB FACTOR 97% This is a game I regularly ﬁre up for another quick go, the turn-based nature means you can play it at your own pace.

PLAYABILITY 97% The game is so simple to learn, but still has so much challenge with the various modes and the diﬀerent AI diﬃculties. Two-player mode too!

93%

VERDICT

AMIGA ADDICT

Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons

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- Is Ian dreaming? Or is this just a dream game to play!

• Dev: E. Tunkelo, S. Karjalainen & J. Korhonen • Price: Free download, £25 boxed edition • Released: July 2020/February 2021 boxed • Amiga platforms: OCS / ECS / AGA (1MB)

It starts oﬀ easy, but don’t get complacent.

New games on the Amiga can be a real mix - some are closer to the quality we’d expect from a 90s PD game, and some are so solid, they could easily have been a commercial release back in the day. Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons isn’t exactly a new game - it was actually released in July of last year, dead centre in the pandemic (brave!), so it’s been with the community for a while now. The game has, however, recently seen a physical boxed release via Bitmap Soft (more on that later), and we at Amiga Addict have kindly been provided a review copy to share with you, so it seemed like an apt excuse to write a full review on this new entry to the Amiga canon. In fact, Smarty isn’t new at all. It’s time for a bit of history, boys and girls! Back in the halcyon days of 1992, Avesoft were a Finnish software company responsible for a few pretty unknown games (on-rails shooter Bloody Afternoon, Tetris clone Coloris and maze puzzler Smash

Places to go, crocodiles to zap.

the Beast). Lead designer Jyrki Kummola had a concept in mind for a new game, and together with coders Eero Tunkelo, Sami Karjalainen, Jouni Korhonen and a few others, Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons was fashioned into a working game. Unfortunately, in an all-too-familiar story, by the time the game was basically ready for release in 1995, the Amiga scene wasn’t looking so rosy, and publishers just weren’t interested in Avesoft’s little title. Amiga development was halted. Fast forward to 2017 Eero acquired the rights to the game, Jouni found a disk with a playable preview in Eero’s old stash, and with a bit of hacking was able to release this preview online. It wasn’t long before Eero contacted Sami and the trio decided to finish up the game for release. This wasn’t just a few tweaks, mind you - some parts of the game had to be finished off, some optimised, and some completely rewritten from scratch. Now, 29 years after development started, we get a chance to play the finished game...

Thinking inside the box The boxed edition of Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons is beautifully presented. The box itself is a little smaller than your traditional “big box” game, measuring 220x160x40mm, so a little bigger than the A5 manual inside. It’s a sturdy glossy box that will look good on your shelf and won’t look out of place alongside your traditional Amiga games (besides being a little newer!). Inside, you’ll ﬁnd an eight page full colour manual - again, as glossy as you’d expect - a Smarty sticker and badge, a mini poster of the box art, and, of course, the bright orange double density disk containing the game. Overall, it’s a lovely package, and well worth the modest asking price to have a big box game on your shelf once again. I think Bitmap Soft has done a sterling job in putting this package together, and I hope they collaborate with more developers to make these for future games.

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May 2021

Some hate having lots of collectables, but not me!

So what are we looking at here? Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons is an arcade platformer which puts me in mind of something like Bubble Bobble. Jump around platforms, take out enemies and progress to the next level. As the titular character, you are a small boy armed with a “Hypno Zapper” gun, and your aim is grab five keys on each level. To get those keys, however, you need to stun the green “Gluttons” - crocodile creatures who seem unhappy about your very existence - and then push their rolling stunned forms off the edge of a ledge to take out one of their compatriots below. That’s not all though: you still need to grab the key that spawns, as if another Glutton wanders by, he will happily gulp it down, much to the cursing of the player! I guess there’s something in that name after all! If you just glanced at the screenshots, you might be mistaken for thinking that this is a single-screen platform game. But happily, each level is several screens wide, giving a lot of scope for variety in design and diversity in gameplay. There’s usually about six Gluttons at any one time, and let me tell you - that’s more than enough! The enemies will transform into different forms over time if left to their own devices (see Battenbrough’s Green Planet for an assessment by the nation’s foremost naturalist), becoming more dangerous and focussed on Smarty as the level goes on, so it definitely behoves you to get your skates on and deal with your opponents in short order. You can reset them back through the colours with a shot of the Hypno Zapper, but best to deal with them before that is required. There’s another layer of strategy here too - while taking out one Glutton with another will land you a key, land one on two and you’ll get a temporary “Lightning Gun” powerup that will allow you to zap enemies into rolling balls of destruction that will take out any other Glutton they

Battenbrough’s Green Planet In the dream world, just as in the real one, the natural habitat swarms with all manner of creatures. As we approach the territory of one of these creatures, we begin to see how a species evolves to match its environment. Here we see the common Glutton. Its emerald skin belies the timidness of this proud reptile, and while it is happy around other Gluttons, when confronted by even the smallest human, it will turn and ﬂee.

The Red Glutton is a marvellously rare sight indeed. Found only in the eldest of the species, or those that have survived an attack in the past, this furious scarlet character races around its habitat non-stop. Woe betide anyone who finds themselves in its path. touch. Take out three in one go however, and you’ll be gifted a smart bomb that completes the level straight away, and maybe grants you some extra lives too. So you can see - this isn’t just a simple jump-and-shoot game. You find yourself herding enemies into corners to try and get better powerups, and putting yourself in more danger into the bargain. Oh and did I mention the levels wrap from top to bottom? Just like Bubble Bobble, you can be so engrossed in your machinations that you don’t notice the Glutton about to drop directly on your head. It’s probably the number one way I died playing this game! The game has five worlds consisting of five levels each, with each having their own style and quirks to learn. At the end of each world, Smarty is given a choice of two bonus games, a Hyper Sports-style skeet shoot for lives, and a vertical platforming game for additional charges of “superpowers” - three additional abilities Smarty can use at any time. There’s a few things that irk me about the game that I should mention. Dispatched Gluttons will respawn by flying back onto the screen back onto their original spawn point. But since you

don’t know which Glutton is which, it’s very easy to have one basically respawn on top of you, sacrificing one of your precious lives. All the platforms in the game are solid too - you can’t jump through them. While this is clearly a design choice, it does mean it’s quite easy to find yourself cornered. There’s also the superpower system, which, while cute, seemed entirely superfluous to the gameplay. I also had a bit of a problem with the game disk itself while it appears like a normal disk in Workbench, copying the files to hard drive will lead to a ton of disk errors. I thought it was broken initially, but booting the game directly from floppy or from an ADF on a Gotek or emulator isn’t a problem at all. There’s a WHDLoad slave you can use too, but that seems to depend on which version you have. I basically install everything to hard drive these days, so while I can work around this, it bears mentioning. We should probably also address the name. It seems to be a bit polarising for people, with some people hating it and others thinking it perfectly captures the

This all said, I can say right now that Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons definitely feels like the commercial game it was originally designed to be. This is a game that could easily have been released in the Amiga’s heyday - it has a level of polish and quality that lifts it above your average homecoded title. The graphics and animation are top notch, while the controls are super solid - even with up-to-jump - which is essential in a game of this type. The soundtrack is pretty great too, with some jaunty tunes for you to hum along to. There’s not much more to say - this is a really fun game. Some modern Amiga games can suffer from being a bit shallow, but damn, if this doesn’t nail that “one more go” feel to a tee. Initially I thought the difficulty level was ramped up a little too high, and sure, it’s not easy, but once you get your strategies and tactics nailed down for each level, you’re going to have a ton of fun. As with any good game, practice is rewarded. And there’s enough randomness and surprises to keep you on your toes even when you think you have a level sussed. Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons may have an odd name, but it’s certainly got game! If you want a copy of this to play, it’s waiting for your purchase at www.bitmapsoft.co.uk. If you just want to grab the game without the pretty box, head over to www.smartygame.fi.

GRAPHICS 88% Colourful and bright, with extremely solid animation and smooth scrolling. There’s even a decent layer of parallax going on.

SOUND 83% Sound eﬀects are rather perfunctory, but the soundtracks kept me bopping along!

GRAB FACTOR 85% I think the name might put some people oﬀ, but once you’ve played a few games, you’ll be in for the long haul - if you can hack the diﬃculty.

PLAYABILITY 90% Deﬁnitely has the ‘one more go’ factor. Superpowers are a pointless addition.

I didn’t know crocodiles lived in caves.

Shoot that poison arrow to my hearts...

May 2021

87%

VERDICT

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This, however, is a much more formidable creature. After much time roaming its home turf, evolution has handed this Glutton a trump card. With its skin ﬂushed a deep ochre tone, it is giving a clear sign to any would-be predators that it is no longer prepared to be bullied out of its natural habitat. Any approaching attacker will ﬁnd that they themselves become the prey, as it charges immediately toward them.

cutesy essence of the game. Myself? I probably fall closer to the former camp I don’t hate it, but it doesn’t bowl me over. A friend of mine from the console side of the fence sometimes ribs me that 8-bit and 16-bit micros had games with titles like Dave and the Magic Plums, and I couldn’t help thinking of that when I heard about Smarty!

gold

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Matthew Smith, producer of Amiga Power: The Album With Attitude, delves once again into the Amiga’s extensive back catalogue of games to pick out the best example from a particular genre. This month: Drawing a bead on the format’s most fantastic FPS.

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Game Alien Breed 3D

Released 1995

Authors Andrew Clitheroe (programming); Michael Green, Simon Butler and Charles Blessing (graphics); Bjørn Lynne (music); Martin O’Donnell (production)

Despite the Duke Nukem 3D/Jaws 3D implications of its title, Alien Breed 3D is in fact the fifth game in the series of scifi shoot ‘em ups published for the Amiga by Team 17. It’s also the best one. The original Alien Breed, released in 1991, was essentially a cross between Gauntlet and Aliens – a supremely atmospheric top-down shooter, heavily inspired by James Cameron’s action-packed movie classic. Graphically and sonically, the game was highly accomplished, and it was no slouch in the fun department either, with hordes of sinister baddies to blast across six increasingly enormous levels. It wasn’t perfect - there were a handful of bugs and annoying design faults (like the fire doors which, if shot at the wrong moment, could leave players helplessly trapped, forcing them to restart), and it was a bit too tough for its own good. But it sold in droves, leading to a long line of follow-ups. The series hit a high point early on, with Alien Breed Special Edition ’92. Ostensibly a budget re-release of the first game, it was, in fact, a vastly improved version; every level redesigned to eliminate the aforementioned flaws, six brand new levels added, a password system introduced and the whole thing was faster and slicker than before... all for a bargainous price. It was an even bigger hit second time around, rocketing straight to the top of the Amiga charts and remaining in the top 10 for months.

Unfortunately, things went a bit wonky with the next two sequels. Alien Breed II, unleashed in late 93, started out idiotically hard (the first mission is one of the most horribly ill-judged opening levels in video gaming history) and then got peculiarly easier the further you progressed. Once you gained access to the more powerful weapons, you could effortlessly cut a swathe through the extraterrestrial enemies. By contrast, Alien Breed: Tower Assault – released in 1994 and based on a modified version of the ABII engine – started out idiotically hard and became more frustrating at every turn, with an over-reliance on instant-death self-destructing levels and other misguided ideas, like invisible aliens and radioactive areas where you could die just by standing in a room. Erk. Alien Breed 3D marked a major departure for the series in terms of style, switching from a top-down viewpoint to a firstperson one. It also marked a fabulous return to form for the franchise, and ultimately emerged as the very best of the various Amiga-exclusive FPS titles that were published during the mid-to-late 90s. Prepare To Meet Thy Doom Clones It was, of course, the extraordinary success of Doom that prompted numerous Amiga programmers to have a go at creating first-person shooters of their own. This was a tricky prospect, since even the AGA machines (in their unaccelerated base state) weren’t

The default view, complete with border and handy readouts.

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

Publisher Team 17/Ocean

powerful enough to exactly replicate the fullscreen textured-mapped pseudo-3D environments of id Software’s 1993 MSDOS slaughterfest. Nevertheless, ingenious coding resulted in several Doom-alikes making their way onto the format, with varying degrees of success. Some did a frankly amazing job on a technical level, but fell down badly on the design front: the likes of Fears, Breathless, Genetic Species and (oops) Alien Breed 3D II looked jolly pretty, but were a drag to play, thanks to lacklustre level designs and rubbish monster AI. Others sacrificed visual complexity for speedier movement, but ended up being too simple to be properly engaging, as with Death Mask and Behind The Iron Gate. Gloom struck a splendid balance between impressive presentation and absorbing gameplay, offering up some gloriously gruesome graphical effects and an abundance of neat new ideas. But it was really more of a Wolfenstein variant than a Doom clone, with its engine lacking the ability to have floors of differing heights. Eventually the Amiga would get conversions of Doom, Heretic and other PC FPS games of the era, but these all came out after the machine’s heyday as a mainstream format, and required majorly souped-up machines to run properly. Alien Breed 3D has it all. It runs comfortably speedily on a standard

Full-screen mode, accessed with a tap of the Enter key.

AB3D does not skimp...

By Osiris, Not By Apis Here’s a thing: a terriﬁcally talented chap known as ArcturusDeluxe has remade Alien Breed 3D in its entirety for the GZDoom engine, with updated graphics and sound and oodles of other enhancements, including armour pick-ups, map terminals and a stabby knife for when you run out of bullets. The remake goes by the name of Project Osiris, and can be downloaded from TV’s famous The Internet to play on those new-fangled PCs they have now (Ed. - "Oww, not the PC? Now you've put me right oﬀ it!"). Visit forum.zdoom.org for more info.

Eye Of The Beholder/Cacodemon Thing Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve looked at the screenshots, and said to yourself, “Well, it doesn’t look that amazing to me.” And there’s no denying that AB3D’s graphics are more than a touch on the blocky side, and (in normal view mode) confined to a window that only occupies about half of the available screen space. But after a few minutes of playing, you stop noticing the chunky pixels and the (rather stylish) border. Through a combination of smooth movement, moody lighting, architectural plausibility and variety of location, the visuals swiftly draw you into a convincingly scary world, where you’ll feel compelled to hug every wall and peep fearfully round corners... lest you blunder straight into the slavering jaws of a floaty beholder/cacodemon-type thing, or come face to face with a giant slithering gun-armed mutant slug monster. As with its predecessors, the game has atmosphere in spades, aided by terrific sound design that really gets under your skin: the moment you enter a new level, you can hear distant, echoing howls and snarls, letting you know that horrible creatures are lurking in the dark. The zaps, booms, squeals and squelches as you splatter them up the walls with extreme prejudice are deliciously visceral. (The CD32 version adds further to the tension with some marvellously funky-spooky background music from Bjørn Lynne.)

...on the bloody gore!

Immersive touches abound - gooey lumps blap off the aliens with every successful hit, the sound of your footsteps changes depending on what type of surface you’re walking on, you can duck to get through small passages, all the weapons in your arsenal handle uniquely and prove useful in different scenarios, and areas of water have proper rippled surfaces that deaden the sound if you submerge yourself in them. The latter serves to illustrate a somewhat remarkable fact: AB3D doesn’t merely match Doom on a technical level, with lifts and stairs and outdoor bits and so forth – it’s significantly superior in a multitude of ways. Water you can splash about in is just the start... you also get rooms above other rooms, spiral staircases, walkways spanning chasms, a special boss monster rendered in true 3D, and a ludicrously entertaining grenade launcher weapon whose projectiles can be bounced off walls and floors to hit baddies in tricky positions (something id fans would have to wait until Quake for). Such features are beyond the basic Doom engine, and make AB3D all the more varied and fun. A Breed Apart Most importantly, AB3D is painstakingly well-designed. The attention to detail so prevalent in the game’s presentation is also to be found in the layout of its 16 levels, and in the behaviour of the aliens, ensuring that things remain fiercely challenging (yet scrupulously fair) throughout. The traditional doorunlocking switches and keycards are accompanied by surprising environmental

A ﬂoaty cacodemon-type thing, about to have its face shot oﬀ.

May 2021

hazards, such as oil drums that explode apocalyptically when shot, and fractured gas pipes that belch lethal jets of flame across the room. The smugly antagonistic artificial difficulty that plagued Tower Assault (via such unnovations as mazes full of one-way doors, deliberate dead ends, and those wretched radioactive areas) is conspicuous by its absence. Each type of monster acts differently. The scurrying red hounds hunt you down in packs. The floaty beholders, however, try to position themselves above you so they can rain fireballs onto your head - they’re vicious but fallible, so their shots sometimes miss. You’ll never open a door, only to be instantly blasted to pieces by a gang of baddies lurking immediately behind it, strangely guessing when you’re approaching. This happened with wearying regularity in Fears, Breathless et al. Hugely pleasingly, you can carry more health and ammunition than the screen can show, which means you never have to worry about wasting bonuses by collecting them at the wrong moment, and the responsive controls are fully customisable via the options screen. There’s a password for every stage, and a two-player deathmatch mode for a pair of linked Amigas. There’s even a surprisingly good story, delivered by a screen of text between each level. Doom may be the more famous game, but Alien Breed 3D is just as entertaining and equally worthy of your attention. Bit of a shame about AB3DII being nowhere near as good, but hey, Doom 3 was rubbish as well.

Battling The Matriarch. She is exceedingly large and deadly!

AMIGA ADDICT

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A1200. It looks and sounds amazing. It’s a total joy to play. And, in many respects, it actually out-Dooms Doom. It is, in short, a bit of a marvel.

Same great game, but now even prettier.

Six of the Best - Rob Hazelby (South West Amiga Group)

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Each month, we catch up with a notable figure in the world of Amiga and retro gaming, and ask them to whittle down their list of favourite games to a selection of just six. This month we're talking to Rob Hazelby, one of the organisers of the resurrected SWAG (South West Amiga Group). Hi Rob - can you tell us a bit about your Amiga history? My first Amiga was an A500 which I received in the run up to Christmas 1990. Having been a Spectrum user and owning various Speccys since 1982, the Amiga was a mammoth advancement in computing for me and offered almost unlimited possibilities. The following year, I upgraded the A500 with a half meg RAM expansion and an external disk drive, before part exchanging the machine for an A1200 not long after they were released. I've still got my A1200, but it's been heavily upgraded over time. For the last 20 or so years, it's been housed in a Power Computing “Power Tower” and is still used for the odd bit of word processing (this very article, for example), casual tinkering around online, SCALA and listening to mods. Over the years, I've added to the collection and have an A500 and accompanying Screen Gems pack, plus an expanded A1200 and A600, which I keep in their original cases and take along to events. I'm now starting to upgrade my A500.

by Stufm instead, it's James' initial outing I find myself returning to time and time again. Harlequin Controlling the harlequin, your mission is to mend the broken heart of your home world, Chimera, by collecting the four pieces and returning them to the central clock tower. Consisting of eight truly massive levels, this, in my opinion, is the absolute pinnacle of platform games on the Amiga. I'd also say that it's possibly the closest our favourite computer has to a Metroidvania-style game. Scattered throughout the levels are various switches. When flicked, these will open a door or cause something to happen either in the area you're in, or elsewhere in the game. Areas that initially look out of reach or blocked off become accessible as you progress, and while this results in some backtracking, it never becomes boring as new sections are then available to explore. Featuring beautiful graphics and an amazing soundtrack by Barry Leitch, this proves the Amiga can host a decent platform game, if the

OK. Let's get on to the list... International Karate+ This is where my love for the Amiga began. It was the summer of 1989, and a friend of mine had recently upgraded from his trusty 48K Spectrum to an Amiga; a machine I'd heard of, but knew nothing about. I was invited round his house to see this new machine and IK+ was the first title he fired up. I was absolutely blown away. The graphics, the colour, the beautiful sound and music. I knew there and then that I had to get an Amiga for myself. Having three fighters on screen at once was something I'd never seen before, and while the game was great fun to play with a friend, it was just as chaotic and enjoyable playing against two computer-controlled fighters. For me, IK+ represents the pinnacle of fighting games on the Amiga platform, and proves that in the hands of the right developer, you can have a varied set of moves which are easy to pull off using only one fire button. James Pond I wouldn't get my own Amiga until late November 1990, thanks in part to an insurance payout following a burglary, which saw my trusty Spectrum and numerous items swiped from our house. It was in the run up to that Christmas where I saw James Pond running on an Amiga in the Bristol branch of "The Model Shop". It looked absolutely gorgeous and so polished. I saved up for it with money from my paper round, and bought it via mail order. The game was even better when playing it on my own machine, as I could experience the late Richard Joseph's beautiful soundtrack; something I was unable to hear in the shop. For me, the game has a real charm; beautiful cartoon-like graphics, that soundtrack, masses of secrets, and levels that are fun to explore. I really like the variety of missions on offer. One second you're rescuing lobsters who are moments from being hauled up to the surface, the next you're rescuing lost fish or collecting gold from a shipwreck. In all my years, I've never managed to complete the game though. By the time you get to the later levels, there's so much on screen - it's too much for my limited game playing skills. Many people seem to prefer the sequel, RoboCod. For me, that falls into one of the many "Sonic, but on the Amiga" titles released for the platform, and

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

This uniform is fresh out the wash, don't get your blood on it!

The foremost underwater spy - James Pond, licence to gill.

Harlequin might be super odd, but it's also super great!

programmers play to the machine's strength. You may be interested to learn that back in 1992/93, when pop group Madness were riding high in the music charts once again following their comeback, Gremlin were planning on porting Harlequin to the Mega Drive, and giving it a Madness-themed makeover. I've seen early footage, and it deﬁnitely loses the charm of the Amiga original. Although I'm a big fan of the band, I'm glad it failed to see a release!

James was puzzled how this was classed as a 5 star hotel... where's the pool?

It's not all platforming in Turrican 2 you know...

Leander isn't an easy game, despite the complete lack of enemies here!

Should you select a large number of people, grow your population, advance the "Tech Levels" quickly and annihilate the opposition, or perhaps conserve your stock for later in the game, but risk advancing slowly and have the enemy destroy your settlement in mere moments? At its most simplistic level, the game is all about resource management, but it's backed up by some of the best audio ever heard on the Amiga. The background soundtrack of "Mars" by Gustav Holst really lends a continual sense of tension to the game, but it's the many speech samples - all provided by professional actors - that takes the audio above and beyond that found in the majority of Amiga titles. Full speech updates from your workforce come in thick and fast, with your chief scientist informing you that a design was "Ergonomically terrific!"; when you're under attack and things are looking bleak, it's "Tower critical!" and finally, when it's game over, you're told "It's all over!". There's stacks of speech crammed into Mega Lo Mania and it never ceases to make me smile. An absolute gem of a game! Turrican 2 Another platformer now, and it's one that's much-loved by many members of the Amiga community. Having spent hours playing the original Turrican, I had high hopes for the sequel, and my anticipation of its release was further fuelled by CU Amiga issuing a demo of the game on one of their coverdisks. When Turrican 2 was finally released I was not disappointed. This is a fantastic "run and gun" game, set over some truly sprawling levels, packed with secret areas and numerous bosses - some of which are almost the height of the screen! Gameplay is also broken up around the midpoint of the game, when you take to your spaceship and have to navigate through some heavily guarded tunnels. The auto-scrolling section is still so much fun to play all these years later. Graphics and animation have been improved from the original title, with the main character now animated when the flamethrower is in use - something visibly absent from the first game. Chris Huelsbeck is also back on board with the audio, and if you thought the original Turrican soundtrack was good, you're in for a real treat with the sequel, as it easily surpasses the music from the first. If you enjoy mindless blasting and platforming, all backed by a fantastic soundtrack, then you really must play this. Leander I'm going to round off my "Six of the Best" with yet another platform game. It's one that features the high production values we've come to expect from veteran publisher Psygnosis, but unlike many of their titles, it's not just a tech demo; there's a game to go with it. You control the titular Leander, and must work your way through three worlds, each consisting of seven huge levels, before reaching a final confrontation with the wizard Thanatos. As each level loads, you're given vague instructions detailing the location of a specific item you need to collect before you can exit the level via a warp gate - found at a different location. The game feels very console-like, with Japanese-style graphics, two-button control and parallax backgrounds which are more than just the usual run-of-the-mill graduated colours. Your adventuring is also accompanied by a stunning soundtrack which really adds to the experience. The game's not perfect, though. Searching for the item or warp gate needed to complete a level can feel a chore sometimes due to the size of the map. There are also too many leaps of faith, which on some occasions lead to instant death, and on others take you on the route you need to go to complete the stage. These are only small niggles in what is otherwise a fantastic game. Do check it out! To find out more about the South West Amiga Group, turn to our AA SWAG feature on page 43, or visit SWAG online where they're always welcoming at: www.southwestamiga.org.uk

May 2021

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Mega Lo Mania While I do love fast-action arcade-like titles, I also enjoy games that stretch my ill-used brain every now and then. Sensible Soccer is rated by many as Sensible Software's crowning achievement, but for me, that accolade goes to Mega Lo Mania. It's a game that simply shouldn't work, what with the main gameplay mechanic simply being the requirement of clicking on a limited set of icons and watching a clock tick down. But it's the whole act of juggling where to concentrate your limited (but ever-growing) population that makes it so compelling. Do you devote all your manpower to mining elements? Perhaps you pool all your population into designing the next killer weapon, or simply use your vast numbers to attack the enemy in the hope of overwhelming them? Even starting each level (or "epoch" as they're called in the game) is a real juggling act.

COMMU NI ARTICL TY E SUBMI SSION

32 M ad C sK O ris R te N ns en E R

You can switch between the three Vikings at any time, but do make sure that you leave them in a safe place before you switch to another one. Careless Viking parking costs lives! Only by combining the unique skills of all three Vikings can you guide them all to the exit on each level.

Year.....................1994 Publisher..........Interplay Developer..Silicon & Synapse

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The Lost Vikings

The puzzle platformer is one of my all-time favourite genres, combining the skill-based platformer where you need to pull off the perfect jump and hone those reaction times when faced with the enemy - with the more cerebral challenge offered by the puzzle game. The Amiga is home to some corkers, but one stands out above the others as a shining example of the puzzle platformer done “just right”. And it just so happens that this wonderful game got an equally wonderful Amiga CD32 release. The game in question is, of course, The Lost Vikings by Silicon & Synapse (the studio that would later go on to become Blizzard Entertainment). In The Lost Vikings, you control three Vikings: Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout. At the beginning of the game, our three friends are kidnapped in their sleep by the evil Croutonian emperor, Tomator, who wants to put them on display in his intergalactic zoo. They manage to escape the spaceship that kidnapped them, and in doing so, meet a witch who promises to send them on their way home. This all goes wrong though (on numerous occasions), and they find themselves sent through both time and space in search of their home village. Each Viking has a unique skill set, and you’ll quickly need to learn how to master them all, if you want to stand any chance of progressing through the levels. Erik the Swift can run and jump, so he's your guy when you need to do some old school platforming to get at your objective. When he’s built up enough speed, Erik can also ram through some walls with his helmet, but this knocks him out for a few seconds. Make sure he's protected if there’s an enemy on the other side of the wall.

Level design is extremely important for puzzle platformers, and can really make or break a game. Thankfully, it's where this game really shines - being, as it is, full of interesting and innovative levels, that will test both your logical thinking and your reaction speed in equal measure.

Baleog the Fierce is your brawler, and as such, his main skills are using his sword and bow to dispatch enemies. His arrows can be used for more than just shooting the enemies though - they are also an indispensable tool when trying to press those hard-to-reach buttons. Olaf the Stout carries a huge shield, so he’s obviously your defensive character. Always use Olaf when exploring, as he can fend for himself - when he inevitably runs into trouble, you can often just leave him hunkered down behind his shield, and go and get Baleog to help out. Olaf's shield has multiple functions too, and at the press of a button, he switches to carrying it over his head, instead of in front of him. When carried like this, he can protect himself from attacks from above, glide slowly through the air instead of falling to his death when going over an edge, and even act as a moveable

Three people on a ladder at once?! You're just asking for trouble.

AMIGA ADDICT

platform for Erik, making it possible to reach even higher platforms than normal.

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Throughout the levels you will find the usual objects to pick up to aid your team in their quest - keys, bombs, weapons, and food to replenish their health. It's worth remembering though - often the Viking capable of reaching and picking up an item will not be the Viking that actually needs to use the item in order to finish the level. This inventory management adds yet another layer of complexity to the puzzles, as space is limited and your Vikings don’t have infinite strength! All of this - the Vikings with their unique skills, the inventory system, the extremely well crafted levels - combines to make a real gem of a game that I think any CD32 owner should play at some point. Some puzzles even play with the fact that this is a game. Without spoiling too much, I will give just one example of such a puzzle. When Baleog shoots an arrow, the arrow only travels as far as you can see on the screen. So if he cannot see the button that he’s aiming at, he will not hit it. In one level, Baleog needs to hit a button at the opposite end of the level, multiple screens away from where he is standing. How can you possibly do that, then? Well, when you switch between the Vikings, the screen scrolls from one to the other. So the solution to this puzzle is actually

Perfect puzzle design across varied levels - ready for a challenge?

really simple. You make Erik jump and run to reach the opposite side of the level, so that he is standing next to the button. You then switch to Baleog and make him fire an arrow, immediately switching back to Erik, making the screen scroll towards the place where Erik is standing. The scroll keeps the arrow "alive" and flying through the air the entire time, and since it now never leaves the picture, it makes it to its target on the opposite side of the level unhindered. This is just one small example of the many wonderful puzzles that will make you feel really clever once you figure them out... perfect puzzle design, if you ask me!

We are Vikings - so let's pillage some villages and burn things.

When Silicon & Synapse began developing The Lost Vikings, they were heavily inspired by another Amiga classic: Lemmings. They wanted to create a game where you controlled hundreds of eight pixel high Vikings with diﬀerent skills, conquering enemy towns and castles. Eventually, while they were creating the game, hundreds of indirectly controlled Vikings turned into a handful of directly controlled Vikings, which turned into the three Vikings that made it to the ﬁnal game. I, for one, am glad that this is how it turned out, so that we ended up with this beauty of a puzzle platformer, instead of just another Lemmings clone.

I hope reading this has made you want to go and check out what Blizzard was doing before they went all in on Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. Check it out on your trusty old Amiga CD32 - I’m sure you'll enjoy your time with it!

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Look at me... I'm really doing it... I can ﬂy!

Critical Reception

Amiga CD32 Gamer.....9/10 The One........................90% Amiga Games...............87% Amiga Dream...............86% Amiga Joker.................85% Amiga Format..............72%

The South West Amiga Group - AA swaggers in for an interview with Rob Hazelby

by Stufm

This logo is seen on all sorts of swag, from t-shirts to mouse mats!

Hi Rob - can you tell us how you got involved with the South West Amiga Group? I was a member of SWAG during its initial incarnation in the late 90s, and while I posted on the group’s mailing list, I must admit to only attending a couple of meets. When Andy Mills, SWAG's original founder, stepped down around 2004, I took over from him in running the group and the web site, as no one else seemed interested in doing so. Unfortunately, back then, with interest in the Amiga a mere shadow of what it is now, there was never enough enthusiasm from members to get the meetings restarted. This was a real shame, as SWAG used to meet regularly and organise some fantastic events.

I’m pleased to report that the night was a resounding success! Steve explained that he was a member of the Swindon Makerspace, and that they would be more than happy to host our first meet if we donated to their running costs. The venue sounded perfect; free off-street parking out the front, loads of space, Wi-Fi and a kitchen. All we needed to do was promote the event and see if anyone would actually turn up. If it just ended up being the three of us at the Swindon Makerspace - so be it. It was during this initial meeting that we decided to launch the group under the SWAG name; essentially bringing it back from the dead! We wanted to give ourselves a few months to promote the event, and so our first meet was booked in at the Swindon Makerspace for the afternoon of Saturday 7th May 2016. Would anyone turn up?

May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

AMIGA FOCUS

So, what happened? SWAG continued to limp along in mailing list form for several years, with the odd post here and there, but no further meets took place. Then, in early 2016, Brian Hedley posted over on the English Amiga Board, asking if anyone would be interested in starting up an Amiga group based in the south-west of England. The only people to respond showing interest were fellow Amigan Steve Netting and myself. By sheer ﬂuke, the three of us either worked and/or lived in Swindon, and so an evening meeting in a pub was arranged to discuss the possibility of getting things oﬀ the ground.

How did the first meet go? We were amazed with the response. In total, there were 12 of us at that first meeting, with attendees bringing along kit ranging from Amiga tower systems and expanded A600s, to emulated Amigas and even an A5000! That machine was definitely the star of the day. Most of us had never seen one before, and so the owner spent most of the afternoon giving us one-to-one “guided tours” of the system.

AMIGA FOCUS

By 4:00pm, we’d packed up and cleared the venue, but all who attended the first meet commented what a great time they’d had and that they couldn’t wait for the next SWAG meeting. What happened next? Following that initial meet in May 2016, things quickly grew. Other members of the online Amiga community saw what we’d got up to that afternoon and wanted to join us for the next event. We held our second meet in September, where the head count increased to approximately 20 attendees. Following this event, many commented that the noon – 4:00pm time we had booked with the Makerspace was too short. So, for the January 2017 meeting we moved the finish time to 5:00pm. Members also started to meet in the greasy spoon next door from late morning before the Makerspace opened. This essentially made the event run for around 6 hours! And the group continued to grow? It certainly did! By 2018, the Makerspace - which originally seemed so spacious only 18 months prior - was starting to feel rather cramped. The number of people attending each event continued to grow and we were forced to use both floors of the venue to accommodate everyone and their kit. Even then it was a real squeeze, and it was difficult to wander around, see the kit and speak to people. It was during that year we decided to organise a “one-off” mega-event entitled “Workbench”. Booked for the last Saturday in January 2019, we hired out a parish hall in Chipping Sodbury, just outside Bristol, from 10am to 10pm.

their services during events, helping to upgrade and repair members' hardware. Gil Ashby meanwhile, is our gaming tournaments guru. You can usually find him at the meets with a joystick or joypad in hand! Zeb and Gil are also the two members of the team who usually man SWAG stands when we have a presence at other events, such as the wonderful Retro Revival. At the last big Retro Revival event, Zeb and Gil ran a dedicated Amiga section, which proved to be extremely popular with attendees. What goes on at a typical SWAG meet? Each meet has a similar format - the doors to the Parish Hall open at 10am, and for the first half hour or so, everyone mucks in to unpack tables and chairs and get the layout looking just right. Fellow SWAG team member Dave has spent hours designing the room arrangement over the course of the events, and we now have a layout that makes optimal use of the available space, whilst ensuring easy access around the hall. The layout also splits the hall into specific areas for game tournaments, traders, hardware repair and guest speakers, with the largest portion of the floor going to tables for attendees and their equipment. Once the tables and chairs are set up, everyone begins to unpack their kit. To make things fair, we have an online booking system where you not only purchase a ticket to attend (the price covers

Was Workbench a success? It was indeed. We had approximately 70 attendees, and after seeing that turnout, there was no way we could return to the Makerspace - it wasn’t big enough to house everyone who said they wanted to come along to the next SWAG meet. From that point on, our venue has been the Parish Hall. In January 2020, we held our second Workbench event, and this saw us combine forces with Keith from the Digital Orphanage YouTube channel. Keith kindly took up the duties of compère for the day, introducing and interviewing our many guest speakers and coordinating our raffle. His presence made the event feel much more professional. As he gives much of his free time to working at the Museum of Computing in Swindon, we split the money raised from the raffle with the Museum. It’s a relationship we hope to continue once lockdown restrictions subside. Who else is on the SWAG Team? We have a small organising committee with a wide range of skills. Dave Rowland and I work together to organise our regular events which take place in January, May and September. Dave also looks after the web site along with Steve Netting. Next, we have Zeb Elwood and Derek Fellowes who offer

AMIGA ADDICT

"Oh look, another Amiga computer! I wonder what we'll see next..?"

May 2021

room hire, lunch, snacks and drinks), but you book a table too. All tables are labelled with the name of the person who booked it, so everyone knows where they’re sitting. It takes a bit of premeet organisation from Dave and myself, but it works amazingly well on the day. We do also oﬀer non-table tickets if you don’t want to bring kit, or if you’ve left it too late and the tables have all gone.

We’ve had so many great guest speakers that I feel bad for not listing them all. SWAG members have been fortunate that people are so passionate about the Amiga, they’re willing to stand up and give such wonderful presentations. Although we’re in an extended lockdown, we’re working behind the scenes to secure our next set of guest speakers once we’re all able to meet again.

If you’re not interested in listening to our guest speakers, then there’s so much else to see and do. We usually have stalls selling new Amiga hardware and software, and the SWAG repair bench run by Zeb, Derek and Scott is always a hive of activity, fixing ageing kit visitors have brought in. Thanks to the generosity of members and the wider general public, we nearly always have a raffle to help raise SWAG funds. Some of the prizes have been amazing, including fully re-capped A600s and A1200s, and boxed Amiga 500s! The generosity hasn’t stopped there, either. We’ve been very lucky to have several event sponsors, with Scott MacDonald of RetroBench and Stephen Jones of the Checkmate Amiga cases both generously covering our room hire and donating kit for us to raffle on several occasions. All monies go back into the running of SWAG. Talks usually finish around 6:00pm, and from then on until around 9:00pm, when the pack-up begins, it’s a more chilled-out affair. I really enjoy the evening session, as the crowds have thinned out a little and you get a chance to try out kit that may have been in constant use during the earlier part of the day, or speak to people you’d not previously had time to. You also see the unexpected during the evening slot - two examples spring to mind. One was a screening of a SCALA presentation an attendee had made many years prior, which was actually used by the Natural History Museum. Another was an animation demonstration where member Chris Forrester brought in actual animation cells from the Felix cat food TV adverts, and was importing and animating them on his Amiga. By 10:00pm, the hall is put back to how it was when we arrived some 12 hours earlier, and the main topic of conversation in the car park is always what a great time people had and how they’re looking forward to the next meet. Looking to the future... With numbers continuing to increase at each event we hold at Chipping Sodbury Parish Hall, it feels like we were getting close to outgrowing even that venue. As with the majority of clubs and organisations, the COVID pandemic has taken its toll on our expansion progress. What is evident is that an ever-growing number of people want to meet, relive their Amiga memories and to see what they can do with the old machines they’ve had stored away for years on end. Until the COVID situation is resolved, the online Amiga communities are all we have right now, and we’re lucky that they’re so active. Do give them your support.

Spot the Fanta drinker. Does he look familiar? I've heard he also likes Quavers!

May 2021

If any readers want to ﬁnd out more about SWAG, who can they contact? You can ﬁnd us on our website or the social network links below. www.southwestamiga.org.uk www.facebook.com/groups/southwestamiga www.twitter.com/southwestamiga

AMIGA ADDICT

AMIGA FOCUS

Lunch is normally served around 12:30, with drinks and snacks available throughout the day, and from 2pm onwards we have our guest speakers. We’ve been so lucky with our guest speakers, and so far, every event we’ve held at the Parish Hall has played host to multiple speaker slots. Former head of Commodore UK, David Pleasance, attended to sell and sign his “Commodore The Inside Story” book and to give a talk on Friend OS. Pixel Vixen has given demonstrations covering Amiga pixel art and animation. We’ve had Stephen Jones visit and talk about his Amiga Checkmate Kickstarter campaign and then return months later to give us an update. We managed to catch the ever-enthusiastic Trevor Dickinson as he was over in this part of the world. Trevor gave an amazing talk on the history and future of the “next gen” Amiga platform, backed up by AmigaOS team lead Steve Solie, so we could get really technical. Finally, how could I not mention Amiga Addict’s very own Ravi Abbott who attended one of our recent events and staged a fullon DJ set!

COMMU NI ARTICL TY E SUBMI SSION

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

Not MEDiocre... OctaMED! - Creator of OctaMED Teijo Kinnunen talks of its signiﬁcance with AA's Ian Griﬃths

“I'm a 47-year-old software engineer,” said Teijo, ”with a somewhat typical background for the software people of my age. Back in the 80s, we had Commodore computers at home - first a VIC-20, and then a Commodore 64. As a kid, I was really excited to play around with them, and also learned a bit of programming with BASIC.” “The logical next step was the Commodore Amiga. I got an Amiga 2000 in 1987, and that would be the first computer I had with a really usable software development environment (a C compiler with tools such as make). I started off playing with AmigaBASIC, but I soon learnt C, which enabled serious application development for the Amiga. I also learnt 68k assembly, but only used it for small parts of MED. Maintaining a larger project is so much easier with a higher level language, so I only see the point of using assembly for speed critical functions.”

eijo was an Amiga user from quite early on in the platform’s life, and with it cultivated a real passion for development. A veteran of the big box machines, his interest in coding was fuelled

AMIGA INSIGHT

hile there’s a lot of diﬀerent music applications on the Amiga, it’s hard to argue that two of the most iconic are the tracker giants, Protracker and OctaMED. When we looked at the Amiga jungle scene back in Issue 3, we had the likes of DJ Aphrodite of Urban Shakedown, Pete Cannon and Amiga Junglism all extolling the virtues of OctaMED, even over and above the veritable cornucopia of music production software we have available today. So what makes this piece of software so special, and how did it come about? Finnish coder Teijo Kinnunen is the power behind the patterns. In a recent interview with Amiga Addict, I asked him to tell us just that...

A true audio legend - Teijo Kinnunen, his software is iconic to Amiga musicians.

in OctaMED, and in addition, I had some external hardware - most importantly a MIDI interface and a Roland MIDI keyboard, which I used for implementing the MIDI support in OctaMED. I still have the A3000 in storage, but haven't used it in decades. Nowadays, I use WinUAE on a PC for any occasional need for running Amiga software. I still like to keep track of what happens in the Amiga scene, but I'm not an active Amiga user any more.” Teijo’s interest in music is from a technical standpoint, which is probably why the tracker format suited his interests so well, being, as it is, a form of music closer to coding than it is to scribbling notes on a stave. “No, I don't consider myself a musician. Back in the day, I used to play the piano, so perhaps I'm slightly musical, but primarily I have a non-artistic nerd/engineer kind of mindset. I did however create some music using MED/OctaMED, and some of it was released as example music along with the program. Today, I just listen to

fellow trackers live in the darker space of custom UI and white text on a black background. It’s easy to underestimate how old the MED series of products actually is, and how fundamental they are to the evolution of trackers on the Amiga. The original release, MED v1.12 (which simply stands for “Music EDitor”, by the way) was released way back in 1989, right at the heart of the original tracker revolution. To put that in context... The Ultimate Soundtracker, the originator of the tracker format, came out just two years prior in 1987, and MED also predates arguably it’s biggest rival, Protracker, by a whole year.

o what did Teijo think MED could bring to Amiga music that wasn’t oﬀered by other trackers at the time? “I was still just a kid, around 14 years old, so I didn't have any plans really. I basically just got a copy of one of the Soundtrackers, played around with it, thought it was cool and wanted to see if I

"...I suspect OctaMED was the ﬁrst tracker with MIDI support, and I consider that one of the most important features, since it enables professional quality audio with external equipment, not limited by the Amiga's audio hardware." by the Amiga, but it also aﬀorded him some opportunities to get some hardware that would further enhance his output.

music really - most genres except rap are ﬁne for me, but generally electronic music still fascinates me the most.”

“After my ﬁrst A2000, I got an A3000 in the 90s. It was a great improvement and a really marvellous machine! I also received a Toccata 16-bit sound card from its manufacturer for supporting it

It always seems to me that a lot of people think OctaMED is something that came about late in the Amiga’s life, maybe because the later versions had a more modern look to them, whereas many of its

May 2021

could create something similar myself. I sent the ﬁrst versions to Fred Fish for publication on the Fish disks and things got out of hand from there on... I received positive feedback from users, which encouraged me to continue. This cycle went on for years.” “There's one thing, though, which was

AMIGA ADDICT

AMIGA INSIGHT

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE?

1989 MED Music Editor V1.12 The ﬁrst released version distributed on Fred Fish disk 255. It continued to run in OS3.1 unlike other old trackers.

1992 OctaMED Professional V4 A bug ﬁx release after V3 oﬀered so many new features - Pete Cannon started his career using this version.

intentionally diﬀerent from the beginning. I very much liked the Amiga's multitasking OS and, unlike the other trackers, I wanted my software to work nicely in the Amiga's multitasking environment. Due to issues in Amiga's audio.device, there was a need to access the hardware audio registers directly, but at least it was done as gracefully as possible.”

limited by the Amiga's audio hardware.”

“This is apparently rather personal. I prefer the latest Soundstudio for being the most feature complete, but, for example, in the Amiga jungle scene, older versions with the more traditional tracker look are also being used. When using the 68000-based Amigas, the older UI might actually work more smoothly. Also, when just using the traditional 4channel Amiga audio output, the later versions don't necessarily have that much advantage feature-wise.”

nce the first release was out there, the cat was out of the bag. Users started picking up the innovative new tracker in droves, and demanding feature after feature. And those features came thick and fast - MED v2 added the ability to drive external MIDI devices using up to 16 tracker tracks, something unique to the software. Version 3 brought with it a built-in sample editor, and the first version of OctaMED that shortly followed allowed the user to play eight channels at a time not a feature unique to series by any means, but still something that put it ahead of many trackers. It must have been difficult to manage all the requests flooding in with every new release... “Perhaps my inexperience with feature management shows. I got a lot of requests for new features and often implemented them without thinking through whether they were really needed and useful. The worst example is the notation support in some versions of OctaMED. I knew in advance that combining a tracker with notation was a bad idea. But the demand was high, so I implemented some kind of support. In my opinion, it did not work well and should have never been done really.” “In hindsight, I suspect OctaMED was the first tracker with MIDI support, and I consider that one of the most important features, since it enables professional quality audio with external equipment, not

Of course, everyone has their favourite version of MED. I have a lot of nostalgia for OctaMED v5 myself, as that was the one I used, but many others chose v4 as their tracker of choice. Which one is Teijo’s favourite?

It may seem hard for us fans to believe now, but as a teen, Teijo had no real concept of how popular his program was becoming in the realms of music production on the Amiga. With modern music creators still making commercial music with his product, what are Teijo’s thoughts on the mainstream use of MED? “Back in the day, I thought it was mostly used for personal recreation or hobby projects, just as I used it myself. I've learnt about it having been used by some big names much later, in the 2000s. It's always great to see real talented artists using what was originally my little hobby project. For me, the ﬁrst album by Calvin Harris is the most familiar one, and matches my music taste quite well.”

art of OctaMED’s success was the sheer availability of the program. Many versions in the MED line were given away on UK magazine cover disks, with the original MED through to the ﬁnal Amiga release, OctaMED

1994 OctaMED Professional V5 Almost an entire re-write, plus the GUI received an overhaul with menus! Support for up to 64 MIDI tracks too.

1996 OctaMED SoundStudio V1 Released on CD-ROM - 'The Mixing Mode' feature transforms OctaMED into a multi-channel tracker.

AMIGA ADDICT

We can't decide if we're impressed by the Roland that put MIDI in MED, or Teijo's gold Competition Pro...

May 2021

been lost, too.”

Examples from CU, there were many others too!

By 1996, time was being called on the Amiga, and OctaMED’s days were numbered too. The final version for the platform was also Teijo’s final involvement with the program. It was handed to a new development team for the PC port (rebadged as MED Soundstudio), but never achieved the success it had on the platform that birthed it. Could Teijo have made a difference if he’d stuck around? “I doubt it. Back then, I simply didn’t have enough spare time any more, and perhaps most of the excitement had

“What would personally interest me this time is to implement a software synthesizer that could produce output similar to analogue synths. Of course, this has been already done by others, but I believe it would be fun to create one myself...” So it’s 2021, and everyone’s lives have moved on (well most people’s anyway!). What does life look like for Teijo Kinnunen now?

ctaMED’s legacy lives on, especially in the productions of those musicians that still use it to great effect to this day. Teijo is still working with sound even now, although it’s quite different to what he used to do for us in his teens. But he still has good memories of what it was like to work on that iconic piece of software. “I'll just share a little anecdote: One night, I spent hours hunting for a bug in the code with no success. I decided to quit and go to sleep. I had a dream in which the bug and the solution were revealed, and sure enough, the next day I found and fixed the bug - exactly as in the dream.” If you would like to find out more about Teijo’s current work, visit Code-Q Oy's website at www.code-q.fi

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AMIGA INSIGHT

Soundstudio, being stuck to the front cover at one point or another. It really helped the ubiquity of the product. “I have no idea what eﬀect it did have on the sales,” Teijo reﬂected, “but the distribution on cover disks certainly made it more well known and popular.”

It’s been 25 years since the release of the last Amiga version of OctaMED. I’m sure many fans would like to see a new version from the guy who started it all... “If you mean reviving the old code base, I would not ﬁnd it interesting - at least not for myself to do it. But I have to confess that I have been playing with the idea of a new music application, perhaps also a tracker, which would be created from scratch for PC hardware. The lack of time problem still persists, though, so don't hold your breath [laughs]. Based on some prototypes I made for the PC, it seems that UI design is also one major issue - my graphic design skills may have been suﬃcient for the Amiga's limited display hardware, but not necessarily for today's high resolution displays.”

“I still like software development a lot, although this time I'm doing it professionally. I'm the co-owner of a small software company (Code-Q Oy) that develops assistive software and also oﬀers contract work for projects of local companies. I've mostly been involved in embedded software contract work for several customers, usually for diﬀerent kinds of telecommunication equipment.”

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

NITY COMMU LE ARTIC ION SS SUBMI

Terrible Fire

- Let's hope we don't actually have a ﬁre...

It’s fair to say that the Amiga 1000 showed what could be achieved if you had the creative talent, but it would be out of the price range of many. It wouldn’t be until 1987, when the Amiga 500 arrived, that the Amiga range would finally come within touching distance of those desperate to get in on the action and get busy showing what they could do with a machine such as this at their disposal. And yes, of course – play some amazing games at the same time! From the early days of home computing, we’ve always wanted them to do more, be faster and give us more options. Whether that was a simple RAM expansion for the Sinclair ZX81, or a floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 we’ve always expanded our beloved computers to achieve that desire of being able to do more with them. The Amiga was no different. The Amiga 500 had massive potential from the getgo, but was somewhat limited with 512KB RAM and a single floppy disk drive. It wasn’t long before Amiga lovers were buying a RAM expansion to increase their RAM to 1MB, an external floppy disk drive (or two!), or even an external hard disk with extra RAM onboard (if you were lucky enough to afford the £290 it would take to buy an A590 20MB hard disk in 1989). But in many ways, this was just the beginning. To really take advantage of your Amiga 500 (and by the early 90s, the Amiga 2000, 3000, 600 and 1200 also) and get the most out of Workbench and the brilliant creative applications on the scene such as Wordworth, PageStream, Scala, Lightwave and so on, you needed an accelerator! Something that would crank the power up, allow you to do more and do it faster. One of the most popular accelerators in the summer of 1992 was the GVP A530 hard drive combo (based on the HD8+ hard disk) for the Amiga 500, however the base model with a 68020 processor and 52MB hard drive would still cost £749, and that didn’t come with any additional RAM! In the spring of 1993, those wishing to

expand the already-pretty-quick Amiga 1200 could purchase from a range of accelerators, but again, these were not inexpensive, with oﬀerings such as the GVP 1230 - running at 40MHz with a 68882 maths coprocessor and 8Mb RAM coming in at £986 (or £1,720 in today’s money). Surprisingly, this was still often much cheaper than what you could spend on a less powerful or capable Apple or PC machine of the day.

The ﬁrst TF card – not even branded at this point.

Of course, there were other accelerators on the scene to choose from too, with the likes of respected suppliers such as DCE, Phase 5 and ACT, with the popular Viper, Blizzard and Apollo ranges respectively, to name just a few. Fast forward a few decades, and the Amiga fanbase are still using Amigas to do exceptionally wonderful things. We’re creating new games, demos (that wouldn’t look out of place on an Nvidia showreel), music and we’re still creating fantastic output with desktop publishing and graphics applications. We’re on the web with our machines, we’re running internal hard drives from Compact Flash cards that are measured in the multi GB range - not MB - and we are accessing the full library of ﬂoppy disks from USB sticks plugged into Gotek drives. We’re continuing to accelerate the machines to again “do more and do it faster”. We are a lucky bunch because we now have various brand new accelerators for our wonderful machines to take advantage of and are no longer reliant on 30-year-old Blizzard, Apollo and GVP accelerators. We have new cards on the horizon in the shape of the Warp 1260, we have the existing ACA range of accelerators from Individual Computers, the Vampire range and of course the Terrible Fire range - which mainly cover the Amiga 500 and CD32 (for now). It’s the latter I want to focus on here. Stephen Leary, with exceptional technical acumen, created the Terrible Fire range. Stephen, from the Western Isles of Scotland (now residing in Glasgow and also a member of the Scottish Amiga Users Group), started building new Amiga accelerators in 2016, beginning with the Terrible Fire TF520 for the Amiga 500. This was based around the 68020 processor, would run up to 33MHz and was in the wild around September of that year. This would be followed by the TF530 (68030 running up to 50MHz with FPU, IDE and 2MB RAM) in January of 2017.

May 2021

The ﬁrst TF530.

The ﬁrst TF536.

Accelerator inside & TF riser snug on the CD32 rear.

The TF330 with WiFi.

My own CD32 benchmark with TF330.

AMIGA ADDICT

TESTBENCH

When the Amiga 1000 launched to critical acclaim in 1985 at a lavish event in the Lincoln Centre (New York City), creative types looked on in wonder as acclaimed Pop artist Andy Warhol took to the stage and proceeded to paint the beautiful Debbie Harry, live on stage, using nothing more than a mouse and the power of this new, impressive computer.

by John McDermott

Early TF360.

Stephen would go on to create a further two variants of the “5” series of accelerators, with the TF534 coming along in August 2017. This was very similar to the TF530, but had 4MB RAM and ran at a ﬁxed 50MHz. Finally, in May 2019, the TF536 was created, which was again based around the 68030, but with 64MB RAM (some versions had 128MB!), IDE interface, and, on revision 2 cards - a buﬀered IDE interface.

TESTBENCH

Whilst these cards are brilliant for the existing Amiga 500 users, it is the CD32 expansion and accelerators that captured the imagination of the fanbase. Until now, you really only had the option of the expensive and very rare SX expansions for the CD32. The TF4060.

My own TF1260 from inside my A1200.

Stephen’s ﬁrst CD32 expansion card was the TF328, which came into being in April 2017. It had 8MB RAM and an IDE interface, although no acceleration at this point. This would be followed by the TF330 in December 2018, which had a 68030 processor running at 50MHz, 64MB RAM (again, some versions exist with 128MB!), IDE and an ESP network header. Combined with a TF riser card (which also accommodates a PS/2 keyboard/mouse and RGB output!), the TF accelerator basically turns your CD32 into a full-blown accelerated Amiga 1200 with built in CDROM drive! What’s next?

Trapdoor view of my own TF1260.

So, we’re now in 2021 and still enduring the global coronavirus pandemic, but Stephen has been working away at some new Terrible Fire accelerators. And they’re very exciting! Expanding on the CD32 TF330, Stephen has built a TF360 based around the class leading 68060 processor running at 50MHz (overclockable in software). The card has 128MB of RAM, ESP Network header and IDE interface and at time of writing there are only 10 revision 2 PCBs made so far.

My TF1260 running at 50MHz.

My TF1260 running at 75MHz.

AMIGA ADDICT

For the first time, there is an Amiga 4000 Terrible Fire accelerator. It’s in its early stages, but the TF4060 benefits from a 68060 processor running at 50MHz (overclocking yet to be developed, but so far has been demonstrated running stably at 100MHz), 128MB of RAM (256MB planned), UDMA IDE Controller and RISC-V coprocessor. There are five prototype PCBs so far. Last - but certainly not least - is the wonderful TF1260. Again, this is another first for the Terrible Fire range, as this is

May 2021

the first Amiga 1200 accelerator to be adorned with the Terrible Fire logo. The TF1260 incorporates the 68060 processor running at 50MHz (overclockable in software), 128MB of RAM and an unused IDE header for future development. There are 10 PCBs in existence so far, and I’m very lucky that the one pictured on the left is my own, with the full fat Rev6 68060 processor. Looking at the performance (as reported under Sysinfo 4.4) of the Terrible Fire TF1260 at stock 50MHz, it delivers a very respectable 37338 Dhrystones and 38.97 MIPS in my setup, however, overclocking (via shell command) to 75MHz, performance leaps to 56055 Dhrystones and 58.51 MIPS. I can see a visible increase in performance in normal Workbench usage over the nonoverclocked experience. I have had the TF1260 running games and apps for around 8 hours overclocked at 75MHz and it hasn’t missed a beat. Everything I’ve tried so far has worked perfectly, and some of the processor/co processor intensive demos (such as Black Lotus’ Rift) run superbly. The TF1260 is a joy to use. I asked Stephen recently why he decided to go down this road in the first place. He said, “I just needed to make things for me and wanted other people to share the experience, I guess,” which, for me, epitomises the spirit of the people who love this machine and want to see it continue for years to come. If only we all had the ability to just make it happen! Stephen’s cards are based on the premise of keeping the acceleration pure and spiritually akin to the Amiga by accelerating what is there, without using additional FPGA or other “replacement” technologies. They are therefore remaining true to the ethos of those early days and supplementing the original design without taking anything away. Also, in doing so, exceptional compatibility is retained for our precious games and applications. The Terrible Fire range of cards are simply awesome, and it constantly amazes me that people like Stephen Leary, John “Chucky” Hertell (ReAmiga etc), Jens Schoenfeld (Individual Computers), Matt Leaman (AmigaKit), Edu Arana, Mike Battilana, Trevor Dickinson and so many more are continuing to create top quality hardware and software for a computer that first appeared on the scene over 35 years ago. Long may it continue!

May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

Demoscene - Matt Wilsher (of Retro Asylum podcast) concludes his demonstration of demos!

REGULARS

vu eh?), or just chatting with like-minded people - this was what the scene was all about. I even dabbled in the C64 scene for a while when I got bored of the Amiga scene around 97. I keep a watching eye on the modern demoscene and will always check out big demo party releases. I’ll forever be a stock Amiga 500/1200 demo fan, as I mentioned previously.

LEFT: Matt at Digital Symposium demo party in 1995. RIGHT: The new and improved version.

It’s high time this series was brought to an end, so how about I dig into what made it so special to me? I was always a bit of a loner, interestswise, amongst mates at school. I had to be a little bit different. I kinda liked it, but it also alienated me. We had grown up with the usual 8-bit battles, sharing tapes of games and spending hours playing them together. But I went deeper. I wanted to code, to know how these machines ticked. Once the Amiga arrived, music making was my destiny not just on the Amiga, but eventually as a serious hobbyist, and an occasionally released artist. I’ve even gone back to my tracking roots with the recent Polyend Tracker. I was one of the first backers of that beautiful piece of hardware! I was aware of demos prior to truly finding “the scene”, but it was that moment of finding this underworld, elitist, cool place - full of similar personalities - that the spark really hit me. Years before, I’d been getting into early hardcore rave music. Then, around the same time as the demoscene, jungle music would hit me like a whirlwind. These two scenes forever changed and influenced me. Jungle also had a very cool underground scene, and so felt like a good fit with the demoscene in my life. It was only natural that they would interweave from there on. (Ravi - "See Issue 3's main feature, our AA special on Amiga jungle music.") Once I got into a demo group, Nerve Axis, I felt truly part of this culture. I made friends - friends that I only spoke to in letters and on the phone - and got knee-deep in the workings of the scene. This was much to my mum’s annoyance (“How much longer are you going to be on that phone?”), despite the calls being mostly free, thanks to some dodgy methods! It would have been mad for the

AMIGA ADDICT

average gamer to have understood what I was into, so I usually swerved those questions. Actually, I made a thing of swerving questions, to make it all sound like what I was up to was even cooler than it actually was. From phreaking to composing music in the hope of ending up in a demo, to swapping disks - there was such a feeling of community with Nerve Axis, even at the start. As I moved to different groups, new friends and possibilities opened up, but with the same core vibe. Underground. Cool. Different. Most of this gave me some sort of identity as a troubled teen. I had an alias, and with that came recognition. I strived to get the respect of my peers in some way, usually with pride, but sometimes without! The infamous (or is that the “less than famous”) UK “scene wars” in 1996, sound grander than they really were. I somehow started these wars, which as I remember was about UK demo groups that used AMOS to create demos, which was a big no-no. It caused a bit of a stir and a genuine split between “lame” groups and those making demos properly. I fed on that attention, however shortlived and shallow it was. It was that identity and attention I craved in this almost virtual world tucked far away. We had bulletin boards to chat on, or Meridian Mail - a hacked BT voicemail system that a load of us got on and would leave each other messages many times a day to stay in touch. We have now come full circle - in these days of high technology, we’re ditching texting and emails on the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook for one-way communication voice messages again! To finally hear my music in a couple of demos, to see my name in lights, or to write articles for scene disk mags (déjà

May 2021

The internet eventually changed the vibe of the scene - it was no longer tucked away out of sight, where only the cool geeks could find it. There’s no doubt it’s still a massive leap from the mainstream, but the mystique was lost. For me that’s where the magic was in the demoscene. This deep underworld that the average Amigan didn’t know much about. There will never be anything like it again. I am honoured to have played a tiny part in it. I’m off to boot up my A500 and shed a little tear. Before that though, in true demo stylee, I’ll end this with a load of greetz to my fam of old and present. Pretend this is scrolling past the screen, looping in and out with a stunning 3D effect and a light source floating about to cast shadows impressively. Got that? OK, let’s do it: Shout outs to everyone I crossed paths with in the scene - there are too many to list - you truly changed my life. Zone & Crash/Nerve Axis for letting me in the group. Wade for being my best mate on the planet that I only met once and was a huge influence on me. Devistator for being the only scener I met at a rave in real life. Kaneda, Bliss & Maverick/Grasshopper Developments for being top mates with an edge of quirkiness we ended up building into demos and nearly a party. And Dooba for the shared D&B love. Finally to my boys over at Retro Asylum Dean, Steve, Mads and Chris for being my modern day scene and real friends through thick and thin. To my brothers for the hand-me-down influences! And last, but absolutely not least, a massive shout to the Amiga Addict crew for allowing me to indulge in this set of articles. (Ed. - "Matt, we appreciate your shout out... but it is us that should be thanking you. What an outstanding series about the Amiga demoscene it has been! We've enjoyed the journey, and we've learnt a lot. Right, time for a cuppa and to fire up some Relic!")

What?! Amiga Pie? - Simon Butler almost gets "On the Roof " in Jet Set F'ing Willy...

Somewhere around 1990, whilst freelancing from home, I was approached by a gentleman who shall remain nameless, but those in the know may be able to work out his identity. He contacted me (or I contacted him, who can remember?) at my home to discuss me working on a 16-bit version of a classic title. “Classic” is sometimes thrown around with too much abandon, but whilst I do not hold this game in high regard, others, as is their wont, love it dearly and who am I to stay their admiration?

I beavered away, burning the midnight oil, wanting to impress. Animation cycles, while not quite as minimal as their 8-bit brethren, were still tight, but I was more than satisﬁed with what I created and soon had completed all sprites and moved on to the background tiles. Creating a basic template for walls that could be decorated as the tile set allowed, I started mocking up rooms to show how things could look. With these in hand, I called the client - who would call the following day to view progress. In the meantime, I attempted to add as much charm as I could muster. The next day, I showed my client to my workroom and revealed the work I’d completed to date.

The game in question was Jet Set Willy. The target machine the Amiga.

He instantly displayed concern, much to my consternation. Were the sprites the wrong size? I was informed they were not. The tiles, too detailed, not detailed enough? Again, I was told they were more than adequate. The problem, I was informed. was that they were “separate from each other”. A phrase that I had not heard in my seven years in game development. I asked if I had heard correctly. That he wished me to put the sprites and the tiles together somehow?

He brought a nice new Amiga to my house with Deluxe Paint, we chatted about him making his fortune from the 8-bit versions, and how he was eager to throw updated versions into the gaming pool and see who would bite. I kept my antipathy for Miner Willy to myself and made the right noises, attempting to steer the conversation quickly toward the ﬁnancial side. Once we had reached a mutually advantageous juncture, he departed and I faced what I initially thought would be a simple conversion.

He replied in the aﬃrmative and the project instantly began unravelling. He told me that his nephew would be coding the project - his ﬁrst if truth were told - and his plan was to have the tiles animated with the sprites incorporated as a form of moving image. I asked if it would not be easier to have the black backgrounds of the original. He was adamant that greatly upgraded visuals were his goal and no reversal would be possible.

The sprites, my favourite part of any project, were to be slightly larger (how large I cannot remember), but I knew I would be able to put more detail into them, something I was looking forward to greatly. Trying to think what had been said about backgrounds, I realised my visitor had been so intent on his sales spiel; the recitation of past glories and how respected the franchise was/would be again with a new iteration; he had failed to give me any real details regarding what I was to create. Sprite sizes were mentioned, so it wasn’t the hardest task to work out tile sizes from them, but what were the tiles to look like? Of that, I was painfully unaware.

I attempted to explain that to have every possible position for every sprite in every tile would be impossible, but, for someone so “versed” in development, he could not grasp this concept. Frustration set in on both sides, with him feeling I was being awkward to raise my price, while I, insisting this was never my intention, tried to explain the bizarre and unworkable nature of the coding solutions.

Fortunately, I had his phone number, but with no mobiles back then, not even a Gary Bracey-style Gordon Gekko breeze block of a phone, I began to doodle some sprites, waiting for him to reach his country cottage, complete with helicopter at the back.

The project died that day.

Agreeing to disagree, I re-packed his Amiga, thanked him for the opportunity and wished him well with my replacement. He, give him his due, paid me for my time and departed.

Simon Butler

I was loath to play the original due to my complete muttonheadedness with these titles, hence the dislike. Happily, I had been provided with files for the various 8-bit versions. I loaded up the Spectrum versions and began copying them, a pixel at a time across to my Amiga, which took longer than expected, but I remember being satisfied upon completion. Once done, I called my new client and was informed I could do as I pleased with the backgrounds, providing I made it look like the characters were in a real mansion. The floors and “stairs” would be minimal allowing me to put in as much detail as I wished, thrilling me even more. Deciding to do the sprites first, I commenced what would be a fun project. The coder could test the sprites with or without tiles. The topic of the coder had not, to date, raised its head above the parapets. Would that it had.

Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier (1992) ended up being the ﬁrst Amiga release in the Jet Set series.

May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

REGULARS

It’s an irrefutable fact that my tenure within this sterling publication is ﬁnite and almost at an end. Not due to me having nothing to say, but it would be unfair to take up space from others wiser than myself on the topic at hand, the Amiga. I was pushing pixels, when Jonah popped up in my chat and reminded me my latest article was due. In typical Butler style, I had prevaricated until the last minute. Downing my mouse, I turned to the keyboard, anecdote at hand (Ed. - "Simon's never short of a good anecdote, that's why we love this column!").

NEXT MONTH

PRESENTS

'Cut, Copy, Paint!' Changing an entire industry - Amiga DPaint made certain that pixel art would never be the same. With exclusive interviews from those involved!

Issue 6 - On sale 1st June 2021 • Coverdisks part 2 • Hero Quest • Gold Standard: Crazy Cars 3 • The Ultimate Floppy Drive & GOEX • Amiga Film Licences feature • Public Domain • Big Box Amigas • AmiKIT review • A600 Upgrades special • Across The Pond • Creative Revolution part 3 • As well as our regular columns including gaming articles, CD32 Corner, Simon Butler, Back In The Day '90, Amiga News, Keyboard Warriors & Six of the Best!

PLUS ! 54

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021

AMIGA ADDICT

May 2021