ZZAP AMIGA No2 01.02 2022

ee Ud USB UNE ar ee ed £3.99 ibe Co Ta Fi x > AYNEW Tiere FOR AMIGA FANS Sie a SMe aaa ULLFROG Teese eee eee een oe oa) E AMIGA DEMOSCENE, ay Ua! eo Ve i a Sk U ey 4 a ' rat) ae GQ. KN i Ey a 2 * i /FABERLOUS FEECHERS RUFF 'N’ REDDIE REGYERLAS EQ zzap: COVER CRACKERS Graeme Mason goes back to his 1987 game collection and picks out his six favourite inlay covers. jsuttrroc propuctTions Glenn Corpes charts Bullfrog’s success with the AMIGA. Hlpemoscene LeGeNps JudgeDrokk takes a trip down demoscene memory lane Egitre zzap: interview We catch up with Graeme Cowie, the developer behind Turbo Sprint, Bomb Jack Beer Edition and Rygar. GQ zzap: Amica BACK REVIEW A look back on Sensible Soccer — Phil King the ex- editor of ZZAP! 64 gives his opinion. GAMES REVIEWED © SZ OGOLDNEDAL Tins. 8 Tuo Tomato. Wi rol Pad Avenger. 22 Legendary Warrior Rygar.. 28 J THE EDITORIAL It's all fresh and new ... and from this issue onwards a new editor already! EQ art GALLERY Mr Simon Butler picks the best of the best in the art department. E® zzap: RRAP Ludlow’s and ZZAP! AMIGA's Lloyd Mangram does love a good letter — as long as it’s not a tax one. E2 ware wizarp ‘Anew, younger wizard in the Tower originating from the Celtic Norf. EQ zzap: GAMING Now A look at the new version of AMIGA Forever. ES party cuLtuRE (Oh how the AMIGA loved a good party! EX) NEwsFLasH It’s Jazzcat Simmons and the Commodore AMIGA news! Managing Editor: Maik Macrae Editor: Crs Wikins Art & Mustratior ir Fey Adventure Editor: Coin 2 Staff Writer: Loy: Mangan Copy-editor: Garth Perch Guest ZZAP! Writers: lan Osborne, Glen Corpes, David Simmons Graeme Mason, Mark Henel Contributing Writers: Pau! Morison (reviewer), Mark Macrae view), Chis Thacker eviener), Arden Fisher (ey "No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders, We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to the ‘ZZAP! A magazine unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope, Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used inthe magazine i paid for at our ), Simon Butler, Graeme Mason current rates (not aot, bythe way). ‘The opinions and views of correspondents are their own and are nat necessarily in accordance with those ofthe publisher. © 2021 Fusion Retro Books vw fusionretrobooks com Cover by Trevor Storey The ZZAP! 64 and ZZAP! AMIGA name is © Fusion Reo Books; the ZAP? logo tle s © Olver Frey & Reckless Books 1984-2021HELLO FROM MARK s | pen this editorial, 021 is closing out and 2022 will soon be upon us. Back in the mid-eighties these were future years used in Sci-Fi movies such as Bladerunner, Back to the Future Part Il and Terminator where we should be driving floating cars and controlling machines would be dominating our lives! Whilst this is not quite reality, technology is advancing at an alarming rate, but one of the most ing aspects of is how new tech is ‘opening up new ways to enjoy our beloved machines, including of course the AMIGA. As well as a thriving community restoring and caressing original hardware, we have the Raspberry Pi, multiple emulation options and the upcoming THEAS00 Mini from Retro Games Limited meaning literally dozens of ways of playing those classic games are available. This can be rather daunting, but it does mean that whatever your technical level, there will be a setup that suits you. Our new feature ~ Future Gaming, aims to present these options in a simple manner to help those in We are excited to announce three more new features in this issue. Demos were a huge part of the AMIGA scene, and Judge Drokk (of Anarchy fame) reminds us of a classic in Demoscene Legends. ZZAP! Back Review looks to feed our nostalgic yearning for classic games, and Judge Drokk also opens the door into the fascinating AMIGA Party Culture of the late 80s/early 90s. So what about your 4 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 new editor? Being totally honest, I cannot lay claim to any previous writing credits nor boast about anything | have done of note in the AMIGA scene. However what | do bring is an unhealthy obsession- enthusiasm for retro gaming, and Commodore in particular. My computer upbringing was very oe traditional: C64 > AMIGA (with an Atari ST ‘thrown in. ‘there at ‘one point) and my love for these |, machines never wanes. ee ie Some of you may know me on social media groups and | also hope to collaborate with the great BastichB on his YouTube channel 64K in the coming months. My aim is to give you an easy, enjoyable and fascinating read about our beloved machine and boy do we have some talented writers covering all corners of gaming, demos, art, hardware and programming — everything AMIGA. Yes, Ihave a day job, but this means everything to me, as I know it does to you. huesWOOP AMIGA 1e feedback for issue #1 of ZZAP! AMIGA was universal — we have created a magazine that ANN et TER is liked by the AMIGA ¥ community. So much so that before the XMAS festivities, the 1,000th printed copy of the magazine was sent out. This is pretty amazing. ‘What with the PDF version available to our Patrons (www.patreon. com/zzapamigamagazine), and readers on Press Reader, Readly and Magzster, it looks like we already have an impressive readership. Hopefully more copies of issue #1 will be in stock when you read this! BULLFROG Ce eae he RO Peers ics Pee a ane rea (quest writer for Crash's 100th Issue as well as features a a SR ate eC oe Ry Same ae) Par eee ec ‘an gaming expo hunting down obscure and Pecans Peer tnd Pe acre eo PC eee Led CN cae ae Cea ea retro groups and channels, and admin of the Lemoné4 Corre ee ers ane \wrlting for ZZAP! AMIGA after being an avid reader of ee ee my cre eer ny Petey Un ne ca eee eee ae cons Doce ue ean ae RU ere as See ea age ey Peco ee eat eee ers Beer rarer ar emer eres ert et ce CM ea disks) to his collection. A big pinball fan, Se eke ey gaming books including The Story Of The [eae eee pea Pon e e E-2ULe Sr Cree eet ee eS a ae Pee ae Rad flew the Newsfield nest for rather different climates and is now breaking bits of planes fora living, which is ironic as he Cramer oer rc ered By ore eee et ost erat mee ere ke rea oa) Co eee Me reed eee eR favourite C64 game. On a final note (gulty ea SN ee Pere ee eee if they found any tips and pokes didn't quite Ronee eects Hopping across the corridor trom ZZAP! 64, Petree Saar Dee ener Ey Ua ee ar Pere er ea nen om ry first on his A500 then his A1200 (which Paul himself ‘now owns). Their combined skills on Silkworm were legendary, but despite growing up in the arcades ao ce Ithough his love for Rocket Ranger irre eran ats rere ae er ‘away ~ you can never be too preparedBIT cl) ee eau RTI eer oee Te ~STBGg Ht STB” AAAA omnes keen aD. the world; a horizontally- Pee ey SOE h uch nec Et au es) ate Belek eee epee) Pere eee oT Eee ees) Based sr) Galaga and (Space) Ute Nt See RCC LUCY AMIGA. Gradius is unique in the arcades for its power meter system where Srohe eee at ey from destroyed enemies and choose your ship Meee MU ieee missiles, lasers, a shield and the Option, a drone Peer k cht en See lasr-otTe) faeeer suet Ns] enough and you can be a force to be reckoned with. Lose a life and Gradius’ infamous difficulty comes Tee CSF Pete aOR Nec us ro} but with Bacterians all Potato R uel levels featuring volcanoes, Dee cm eo Ree Cea) Pen etuie cesta NEV a CRUE Peer ences ta eres df am i ee ae a = He ceo [RD ea 1Pa Tao i SCO St ud‘There has been some stunning artwork gracing Tee ug Se Ce eee oC) favourites from a particular year. This issue eC tne 8 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2Menuet Sa Ue ule unimaginative Corn aces Thi Pees oe eon ene painting, quite unlike Peet cert) Ca cca RAR Culel ones eh een Ce eR ees mcd eee eee decoration ed.], the man holding aloft a sword in a call to arms. RE Re a SAU le Ce Seen a aR SR ee ee emcee cena ee Metin h yee Cnucriec meek nuts cs antagonist surveys the scene below. Ethereal, atmospheric and inimitable, publisher Rainbow ree eR Sa eet Mer en ee ee een Cone age eee Ree RnR Re a BU Reel a Eo) Magnetic Scrolls’ earlier Ua ang Peete Poe cM ne ca c figure dominating the image. Created by the talented Duncan MacLean, da emcee) eee gay Deeg eek uey Pees Mee cn) Poulenc sinigen ue kn acne great game covers, this picture asks plenty of questions that serve to compel people to buy the game. Who is this ere eae ureter Teh Rig un behind? What is that strange building to the left? And what's with the circular amulet that's swirling around the figure’s neck? Beyond these questions, this is a high quality picture Ute TR ere Ue eel el RL eee me Ul Belle ae (oll Rene ECR Uae cine oo Ree eeu ene een cee en Cece ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 9i th Bi @ Pa fd 10 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2Retro HEAVEN! PDair eel) | ee see Merchandise C64 & VIC20 Parts Kits Amiga accessories SixtyClone assembly service Full systems and peripherals NOS genuine spare parts Joysticks, Games, Books Badges & much more! Scan the QR Code to download our app - Re'tro8BITshop @ +31(0)85 068 3700 Sele ll) es OR aged) eats)WIZ — Quest for the Magic Lantern Gary sames, 2017 a quest to find the Magic crossing our path en route t off, we should really Lantern. Suffice to say (of which there are plenty!) delve into the spirit and we won't be doing this Seems easy so far, yes? story of Wiz. It carries the empty-handed either, as Well, don't let usual tropes of fantasy ‘our trusty book of magic E25 those cute flair as we enter the realms and spell potions will be , and beautiful of magic and lead Wiz, at close proximity to deal jie the last elder wizard, on any damage to any foes ae Cs lee Perle me) ere] Ye ay Bree ey eam eee ed rol ae eco Le Le sure if | could jump on top Bee ene ois Ce ee arena The introductory level is Pe eukea ict i 1 EJ ALU eka) — , - ee eon nek) Qu EST FOR THE rire ¢ [aNTERN ee rR ees ed en ead put me off completely. ean rea and I'm so glad | did! Once Neem rece eR Te ere BME atten eee Eee Laer Pee eeu) after getting past the first = Price Laie Ae uty feeling that it was a good, but not a great, Bere eee et ara Me ake een a frenehitered) Wcanelere Se) eee ee ee inner lcrereeetiotin FIVE levels — now that's tragic. Its short CU De ea eee eT Reet rag Ce Ree ee con CARRE ere RR m Gn Ne ee a Lg Me aM een et Ce ae between the two games’ releases, but with enough tweaks eRe ea ur Leeann CO eee ru ieee Mn a aan ean cd Aa RM A ea PL MC eect macs’ Dee he a Reed ere cm gue eT 12 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2You can get the game here: bit.ly/3a4Ff0t visuals confuse you, as this game is hard! Not unforgiving, but hard. Every death clearly emphasises a cause of death directly at your actions, and while you can tweak the health and continues to lessen the blow, there is a sense of memorisation needed when jumping from platform to platform to know enemy locations and which can be avoided, and which will need a well-timed attack to clear the way forward. Take for instance the worm, the very first enemy you'll meet on starting for the first time. The temptation to use your magic to remove itis prevalent, until you discover that its height falls below your magic’s destructive path, requiring you to jump over it. Easy at first, but devilishly hard when these little blighters are lurking on tiny platforms hovering in mid-air, forcing a sizable backtrack should you fall With gameplay feeling a little like Robocod and taking cues from its 1996 sibling Tin Toy, it's clear that visually a lot of effort was placed into its short but beautiful five levels. However with no countdown timer or urgency to complete each area, Wiz allows for slow tactical gameplay and exploration to uncover every corner at your leisure. Musically too the whimsically magical theme fits the style of the game well. Sure it's not a chart-topper, or one you'll have stuck in your head for weeks, but it more than achieves its requirements PRESENTATION 88% Cee as aes Cit tay eae wnt eieny Stirs SOUND 80% Leta ny eens ailable _/ ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 13vi We ported it without using the C64 source as areference, It had been written by Andrew Bailey, PRODUCTIONS LTD who had coded Bulifrog’s first release Adrum, and In a series of articles, Glenn talks about how he and Bullfrog produced some of the most loved AMIGA games. Peter had already written. The C64 used a system of 4x4 blocks of C64 characters for each map tile. On the AMIGA these became a 32x32 pixel 32 colour block, individually drawn by me. Then we discovered the concept of three source biitting in the AMIGA manual. It ullfrog’s first game Dene Carter, who would ]was a port of Druid become part of Bullfrog IHenlightenment for many years later but we Firebird, a pretty cool and never met at the time. deservedly well reviewed My job was to sit next to C64 and Spectrum game a C64 which that could be dismissed was balanced as a Gauntlet clone, but on apile of also had summonable magazines elementals which made it and copy the a fairly unique asymmetric levels into an multiplayer game. editor that ai) 14 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2background blocks and mix any two blocks through mask. The Blitter seemed specifically designed for this. We also got very excited when we read about halfbrite mode. Four bit planes have 16 colours because four bits have 16 combinations. Druid had used five bit planes giving us 32 colours but the AMIGA also had a couple of six bit plane modes. One was slower than the C64 was HAM, which | won't version. It sold about as bother describing in detail made it possible for each well as it deserved to. My | because it was almost block to have a foreground | credited contribution was__|_ never used for games. It and background, a pretty art and level design but | allowed all 4096 colours on cool start. There was a also contributed to things | screen at once by imposing downside in that it gave like the collision system rules about how much one the biitter a lot of work to simply because | had pixel could change relative do. This, combined with experimented with coding | to the previous and was the 32 colours, meant these things in the past only ever really used for we could only achieve an and nobody else in the digitised images. Halfbrite update every two or three company had ever coded a | mode also used 6 bitplanes frames despite the small realtime game. with 64 colours as you'd window. If you look very I think the development | hope but only allowed you closely at the game you took 8-10 months. That's | to define 32 of them, the can just about notice that full time work for three of | other 32 being the same there are foreground and us. 'm also fairly certain as the first but half as background blocks, but that we were paid ©8,000 | bright, hence the name. you have to really look for plus royalties for it, which seemed like a really them. The gameplay was came to a grand total of cool way of getting good basically the same as the £8,000. This probably looking shadows, so after C64 but with a couple of explains why Peter was Peter made the changes to extra levels. It was also keen to get back to support these features he the first time I'd ever tried working on the business ‘went back to working on to animate sprites. Some software after making a few | his relational database. look kind of coo! | think, changes to the level editor One note about the but they are an incoherent for the game that Kevin and | graphics, they weren't quite mix of side on and top I were about to write next. | all mine. Though I was ‘OK’ down. | have a soft spot We had been reading the | at making tiles and sprites for the collapsing skeleton | AMIGA manual and realised | where the challenges are animation. that it was possible to go | mostly about achieving an Sadly the frame rate beyond foreground and effect with a tiny group of ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 15Bail WEUCOGES Pros pixels, | was completely out of my depth with the load screen which required an ability to actually draw. | forget exactly who made it but | think we lent an AMIGA to a C64 artist. Quite rightly, this image is the most remembered graphic from the game. | saw it about a year ago in a Facebook pixel art fan group, that never happens with my sprite sheets. . : v. FIReetad Kevin and | set about making Fusion, a game not so much designed but cobbled together from what we'd learned making Druid I and AMIGA features we felt like exploring. The design was mostly mine though I still wasn’t coding on the project, The player commanded a small craft (we called it the buggy ship) that might as well have been a man running round a maze with a gun, and the bad guys appeared at random at destroyable spawn points, just like Druid and Gauntlet before it. The twist was that you could drive your small craft into a larger one, able to fly above the maze with more powerful weapons but only able to land on large enough flat areas. Why 16 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 would the player use the buggy ship at all? Because there was also a puzzle element to the game. | say “puzzle element”, there were basically switches. lying around the levels that you had to run over in the buggy which would cause an area of the level to change, usually effectively opening a gate for the main ship to get to anew area. Very basic stuff and the first time | ripped off an element of my favourite 8-bit computer game, Spindizy. It seemed like no-brainer at the time, a mix of shooting and puzzling, everyone will love it right? With hindsight it seems obvious that it was a bad idea, the puzzles were irritating to anyone just wanting to shoot stuff and the shooting was a tedious chore to anyone into the puzzling. It looked sort of pretty though in all those colours with those lovely shadows and subtle fades, and it also featured: * Support for the Sega Master system two button joystick. * The world’s worst parallax scrolling * An area of the first map copied from the map from “The Hall of Champions” at the start of the (at the time ST exclusive) classic Dungeon Master * The weird skull shapednothing else to working in isolation with do sol dragged | whatever info we could my Atari ST find. I don’t think we'd into the office, even met any other AMIGA looking to get devs at this time. Over the some coding 33 years since we made practice before these games I've come the seemingly to realise what we were inevitable doing wrong, Firstly, the redundancy. | three source blits we were say “inevitable” using were very expensive, because we possibly so expensive were about that we were stressing ayear and a the memory bandwidth. hall into game We could have made development both at least a bit faster and the money simply by reorganising coming in wasn't | memory a bit and using the SSS even paying half | _Blitter modulus properly, of the wages. eliminating most of the | wanted to switch to individual biits. At least ship, borrowed from coding so my first goal was | can claim that the shoddy an end of level boss in to attempt a port of Fusion | programming wasn't my Druid I which was in turn to the ST. | arrogantly fault as | was a pixel- borrowed from the logo of | assumed that all those pusher at the time. ‘70s UK skateboard brand | people saying it couldn't As for the impossible Benijyboards. do horizontal scrolling just ST version, that did didn't know what they were | happen eventually. All The game was talking about. After aday of | the maps were made published by Electronic experimentation | found out | into single screen wide Arts who paid (I think) why a blitter and hardware | vertical scrollers, effectively £10,000 plus royalties, scrolling are so important. sidestepping the horizontal which of course added I was so disillusioned by sorolling issue. In fact it up to £10,000 because, this that | gave up and ran faster and in a bigger like Druid 1, it never sold started an experiment window than the AMIGA. enough copies to pay with isometric graphics This was mostly because off the advance. It was instead, a technique that it wasn't trying to use six slightly quicker to make had seemed slightly retro bit planes. Not that any of than Druid and made less in 1988 because it wasn't this would be of interest of a loss but it was pretty really used on any early 16 to anyone reading it in obvious that this level of bit games. Would Bullfrog 2021 if that experiment income was completely even exist for long enough | _ with isometric graphics | unsustainable in the long for this to matter though? mentioned above above run. Peter was still working Looking back on these | hadn't worked out quite on the database software games, they were strange so well. More on that next and | was worryingly given | examples of people time. ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 17The AMIGA demoscene is a melting pot of creative talent, a coming together of imaginations. |, Judge Drokk, formed the successful team ‘Anarchy’ in 1989, and here, with some like-minded friends, | take a retrospective look back on the classic releases that blew our young minds, every one a legend. i en me eee esac) demo team, ‘Red Sector em eek a Ce elt Pec M cme ule UN] where it collected first Pao cmc) Cease fae ESC Ue forte Mu Ou RD Coen ecu) Pees Se ae Sr Rel Tele a Ru Penaeus etre emu Cry PEs ee on) ene eee} Nemechek er a ocd CNet ae eee ore eter fool re oko okey Pree Cra Rerllueh cme saiec| eee ec LCR TER OuCasg eee) PS RRR overused Soundtracker Pee oe Wee a ey ied Beater nee of course: the occasional Oca am cle on ected OMe ee see team-driven epic with eee san it Tell a oht va ated Peon ai) eS au Fae meen oR Si 18 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 Rene nner Cy eA Vie etaneanrg ECR oh eee ale Ey ‘euro demo-music’, while at the same time being a style Petcare Sons sR OC Coeur n ste iy emcee This was a turning point ele UE ee Wek eu eee ee a ENMU) three demos that inspired eo meen Reece Ret sca Arcee Means) eae R UL Rel Riera ES Concod Sas NeFrom the outset, you're presented with great graphics and exceptional sound for the ‘time. Who can forget the loading screen with the iconic pixel image of Eddie [from Iron Maiden], holding an animated lit match, taken from Derek Riggs’ art for Iron Maiden's single, Stranger in a Strange Land, accompanied by a moody heavy metal electric guitar laced tune? ‘The first part features my favourite tune from the demo, ‘Rise Up’ by the now legendary Romeo Knight. Its opening sample states. “It's err, going be a very, very big hit” ..and it was! f), One of the most impressive parts is the ‘Mindblasting Vectorballs’, it's not only humorous but also a technical masterpiece with well designed objects that feature transforming and complex animation. Some trivia for you: TCC stands for ‘The Clumsy Creepers’, which was a ‘sub-group of EXACT of which the coder ‘DELTA’ was a member, The ‘Arnold head in the first demo part was from the title screen to the MS-DOS game ‘Sentinel Worlds |: Future Magic. Is this a classic? Without a doubt! ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 19. a PEL Pred Pe ia | was probably around eight or nine years old when I first watched this demo. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until | was a little older that | really learnt to appreciate the real purpose of demos. Flipping to the second disk is when things really REALLY start getting good. The bouncing ball scrolling text is one of my favourite parts and ‘still blows my mind today, it's just so cool. The Créme de la créme of this ‘two disk mega demo is the final part, and | think this is the routine that almost certainly won hearts and led it to 1st place in the ‘Best Demo’ competition at the Tristar Party way back in 1989. In a sequence lasting almost five minutes you are presented with an abundance of beautiful vector-bobs (binary objects) across the screen, spinning and moving around, morphing into various shapes and sizes including a version of the classic ‘AMIGA-Juggler’ character. if you have never seen this before it’s very impressive, even now I can imagine the crowds going wild when they first saw this in 1989. Simply fantastic. 20 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2eae bettors YOUR PAST, RESHAPE YOUR FUTURE Pie Sere re oa Se eee se Se eae Pee erie and [oe nce eee Snes aaa | eee ee pi pear aeamnrny eee ae eee aed Ce ae ere pre ara err ares www. ht! MAPSOFT.CO.UK,lowing 2017's release CR Ce AC ay eet Merc tMae au 3 Paco) Eel cee aso Coe ee eee a on AMIGA. The game chosen MeO mci the arcades during its time Eee eau ene aan but will it stand up to ZZAP! Pern ec Renney eer eeem ey Ee mec ues erat Cr ene esd Pye oan ter Corere rege ete Son MCE Deere Rune achn Peon aa ae to bring the minions of tone ea Underground Movement) eee teary iain eau stages, your pursuit travels ane eM s Rete Rae polished with an anime flair that only the 80s could Cooma ert EO eee 22 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 AGA version: * 68020 Oren Soke Kona) Peon) Oe RR eds Pete a OR 4X CD-ROM drive ee Renu uae eed and a press of the [Enter] POMC ne) when depicted on screen. EOMe met eect) ee aa Peon eons eee acu) Com mea aa a fiery death in a matter of moments. Add to this the EM tos eerie elena en reer Mee ege i) erence one con Coeur esa R Dat Brenan cue ran Eien OCS-CD32 version: Xs [0) *0cs * 1MB of free chipram (2MB total ram required) Oo Roa eae) aoe lola aoe ol TYSU vad ba ete a Cee red re os GRAPHICS 92% et pee ene ee See say ore ont Rr Bees an HOOKABILITY 88% orn eet Any Peal ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 23IGA “puter De ip10En t If a f's been a long time since | had the time or the testament to them all that they have the power to inclination to sit and craft a piece of pixelated _ inspire, even someone as set in their ways as myself. art for the sheer joy of it:There is almost certainly _Let's see what inspiration we have on display this 10 guarantee that anything | created would match time. the work I have found to date. Nevertheless, it is eT OE cca kaa ey image is perfectly symmetrical from left to ee Ree ee charm contained therein. eee enue ese eR RU RM eee e | COP ne ame Rea eR anee ged mee Pete MUR ae oe Cet Cte Neeru the background colour and only stand out against the radiating circles. Secu et eeUch Scan Ruceiscte sarcoma ces v ks RCT EO Ce te Recs UE mod ce Roe Sus oe I doubt there is any message or underlying theme here. | feel it to be a fine example of what | would call Pop Art and as such deserving of a place in our gallery. Spirit : Animal Bro Not the most prolific of artists but | find the few examples to hand of great interest. This image raises the question of which animal is the spirit, the bear or the fox? Are they both spirits? Whatever the answer, the thing that interests me most about this image is the face of the bear. If you stare at it long enough, you forget that there are only two creatures depicted, the bear facing forward and the fox looking to the left. Prolonged viewing creates a third animal, part bear, part fox. Maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there, but this is how this image works for me. In doing so, it elevates the superbly rendered line work and subtle use of colour to another level. Extremely enjoyable. 24 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2Mee rel) DOCU Re x] SDSL acai RUE Tear’ Cees Nena canara Sense) POA Vacaneunatcy Rm Ren Cee os The folds in the US uc CTR Ue DR away into the air and Peete ust Pei Peete Cea ele aa ele eee ere cae em Cen Co Tee ne iene cn ets ot eee eee cc OUR aM a Rae eek eau unc un ACR Re ances) Pe Re eRe caer eae 4: Landscape : Anex This demanded inclusion from the second I saw it. The stark and glaring sky has a disturbing alien quality. The colours seem to shift in a heat haze, suggested even more by the overlapping transparencies in the hills below. With nothing but desert and the distant mountains, the sense of solitude increases. The distant peak holds the centre of the piece, which begs the question of this being the goal of traversing such a bleak environment. The pale sphere and its diminutive companion hang heavily above this desolate world. A strangely unnerving piece, wonderfully crafted. ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 25fou are the Legendary “4.5 billion years time was their greatest Warrior, tasked with have passed since enemy and it defeated surviving 30 levels (3 more Earth’s creation. Many their reign. And now a than the arcade original) of dominators have ruled new dominator’s reign a hostile landscape, filled in all their glory, but begins...”. to the brim with swathes of enemies, known as the creatures of Argool, from cave bats and dragons to headless drones and the final boss, King Ligar. To help defeat these nasty beings, you are armed with a special weapon known as the “Diskarmor", which can be flexed out to the side to defeat ground enemies, or circled, like a yo-yo, to kill creatures above you. You can also jump on top of enemies to stun or kill them, Mario style. McGeezer has provided a nice one (push up to jump) or two button option depending on your controller preference. Along your journey you can destroy headstones that appear in exchange for hidden artifacts such as points bonuses and extra lives. Special power ups are also hidden across the levels with 5 to collect. At the end of each level, take a breather among some bronze statues and watch your bonuses rack up Points. So grab your red cape and headband, and strap in for a wild ride. Pag are sare tua we ee Peres i ee ee eet Re ened Ce eT eae ag this review! | can see that a lot of work has gone into making this AMIGA conversion as accurate as possible... it’s really very close eee ee eM a Eee ea ea eee aes Ee ee eer en A This version actually seems to have more precise controls, meaning it's less irritating which makes for a more enjoyable experience. I can’t see any real difference in the two difficulty TR AGN menor Ue AMIGA game. 26 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2You can get the game here: https://bitly/3a4Ffot oe) Ice er ere ee Lied ered creatures that make for ee De ae eg are some delays getting RSE) SN Le m much time and the fluidity somewhat, and|_ [=> care has gone into this prefer the ‘buy-in’ system of | s00e00 ee MoS ee ah ead ea ou Le eee ee ene ane eye sd actually plays better due ae eee to slightly smoother action become repetitive, but if you Pau yee ee ee nee ees ae controls. Everything is Cee ee ek on Pt ey a a Nd eae baal a =r 121026 Orr Ereneeet rer rele) Fone Peete te eae teen ay ees =| Tees ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 27“my enuser Testnune ase” erreur un ae Sener ete oa ey Perens SM hed aca aateats HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES. OH LORDY! Hi Lloyd, If you're not a ZZAP! fan you must have been living in a cave for the last 36 years! That said not everyone is a gaming enthusiast like me and many others including those reading this of course. | was one of the lucky ones growing up, getting the best of both worlds with my age, first the Commodore 64 in my early teens then the AMIGA there after. From having a AMIGA 500 and all those lovely big boxed games to now having a AMIGA 1200 super charged like a Peugeot 205 GTI things couldn't be any better. The graphics, gameplay and epic music makes the AMIGA special and I'm continually trying to beat my high scores of yesteryear! | am always looking forward to the thought of the possibility of new releases and relishing in that new game and purchase feeling Keep up the cracking work with the ZZAP! tradition and the new AMIGA magazine just like it's 64 brother. Maybe the Scorelord should make an appearance in this cracking mag?! For now that's a wrap or should | say | ZZAP. Until next time. Yours truly, Gary Cole Thanks Gary — We think that ZZAP! AMIGA compliments the ZZAP! 64 magazine perfectly, and glad you think so as well. | will ask Mr Scorelord nicely if he wants ¥ to come to the part —if|am honest, he does scare me! im 28 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2MEGA EVERCADE Dear Loyd, I've really been enjoying the Evercade handheld system over the last few months and more recently the newly-released VS. If readers aren't aware, itis a bonafide brand-new system with a fantastic curated collection of retro and modern-indie games, all presented in a nifty clamshell case with instruction booklet too! Recently | received the Bitmap Bros Collection which includes some great games ‘such as Speedball 2 and Xenon 2, but as far as I'm aware, these are the Megadrive and not the (in my opinion) superior AMIGA versions. There’s something not quite right about listening to Megablast when it isn’t pumping out of the original A500 sound chip! Maybe there are licensing or technical issues, » Dear ZZAP! AMIGA, ‘The AMIGA demo scene was one of the best around, could a future issue cover some of the best demos and scene art released in the later years that many of us may have missed. Even better it would be great to have a regular dedicated section to classics alongside newer stuff. Have a ZZAPtastic 2022! Angelo Pliatsikas (Oh Angelo, | think you are in for a treat this issue — just flick through the pages and you will see a couple of features looking at the very popular AMIGA demo scene. Enjoy! but it would be great to get some AMIGA-10VC ums sometime in the future on my latest system. Well if all else fails, | suppose there is is always the A500 mini! Yours ZZAP-ingly, Bill Tyler | think you are spot on in your analysis there Bill, We have been playing Chaos Engine i i | 3 from that collection and it does not quite fee! right. The same for Sensible Soccer on the Codemasters collection. The sooner they get pure AMIGA games working on that system the better in my view! ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 29By! ye« appy New Year all ye fellow adventure fans, Colin Bell here, custodian and guide of this humble space outpost code- named: A1200, where amongst other things we dedicate ourselves to bringing you alll the latest and greatest in AMIGA Adventuring. With the festive merriments over for yet another year it's been a rather quiet last week or so here at the outpost and with all the decorations now taken down and packed away by ‘Kickstart’, my faithful droid companion, the annual ‘Spring Clean’ can begin, which is no bad thing for they can be such a messy lot those oy As well as cleaning it has. also been a time to reflect on past quests and adventures as well as a time for making some new that | intend to stick to is to play more AMIGA Adventures, which | have been doing! Scanning the Cosmos this issue | first bring you the exciting news that Briley Witch year resolutions, many of which have already fallen by the wayside, but one if that wasn't enough excitement for you, footage of the next instalment of the dungeon crawling Black Dawn Saga, Black Dawn: Rogue has surfaced, and it looks fantastic! For our main review I'll be taking a look at the new and exceptional dungeon crawler The Shadows of Sergoth by the Raster Wizards team. And now my fellow adventurers, with our proceedings concluded for this issue, it's time to secure the docking bay doors and holster those weapons as we kick back, relax, and move onto this month's AMIGA Adventure news and reviews._AIWVENT, 44 ee Fa LMG RPG style adventure games and I'm sure many of you will have come across or even played the fantastic Briley Witch Chronicles a game by ex-SEGA mes developer Sarah Jane Avory that was released for the Commodore 64 towards the end of last year. Featuring an amazing storyline, the game has been lauded for its engaging gameplay, gorgeous cut scenes, character interaction and combat system which has earned it the title of the Indie Retro News ‘Game of the Year’ 2021 Not content however with i; EOD E hE Torro just leaving things at that, Sarah recently posted the following via her Twitter account: "Been having some fun on the AMIGA! Ported most of the systems code for Briley from C64 to AMIGA, so next step is to get the main loop working. Fired up the blitter today, the first I've done that in a looong time! Sprite blitter, here we come!’ So, some exciting news it owners as it looks like we’ soon be getting the chance to play this fantastic title. Some early ‘work in progress’ video footage has recently emerged and you can already see the graphical improvements and capabilities that the AMIGA, hardware will bring to the title. I'll be sure to bring you mor news and updates on the development of this title as and when | receive it. ‘An early example of the ‘gorgeous AMIGA version graphi hee ——— 4 ast issue | reviewed Black Dawn: Re- birth, the 201 sci-fi dungeon let H. crawler and seventh episode in the Black Dawn Series by author Shaun Watters and his development team. The game blew me away with its intense gameplay, decent puzzles, fantastic digitised looking _ graphics and eerie and atmos-Dawn saga, Bla Rogue has recently been showcased in yet another preview video that shows off some of the new gameplay in alll its AGA glory. What started out initially as an expansion disk for the series has been rewritten entirely in Blitz Basic and continued to grow in size until it became a full game itself. The team involved, which includes Tim ‘Rotator’ Gilbert and Mike ‘Everything’ Richmond, all feel that ae ‘Above: The screen border flashes grey then red wien you are hit by an enemy. Rogue is the best episode yet, and they have been very careful to build upon the positives and address the negatives from the last game. The game also prom- ises to have an improved combat system, ranged attacks, monster hordes, varied and better puzzles and an improved RPG mechanic. “game is set for a digital ADF and boxed collector's release which will no doubt come will a whole host of goodies and hopefully some feeli The developers are looking to finish the game soon and at the moment it is hoped to be available to purchase and play by the end of the first quarter of 2022. | for one am very excited about this title and will keep you all posted on any further developments that | receive. 1e Shadows of Sergoth isa that was originally released in 2018 for the 8-bit power house that is the Amstrad CPC 6128. Fast forward to the tail end dungeon crawler SST OTT SH eZ ui le including Colin Vella on code, with no knowledge of this dark period. However, after a good few drinking sessions in the local tavern you start to hear rumours of children and farm cattle going missing, never to be seen again. Keen to investi- gate these strange happenings you set about trying to put of 2021 and the much-teased AMIGA version of Ten Chu on graphics and Mike Richmond on music, or the ‘Raster Wizards’ as they like to call themselves, the together a team of adventurers to aid you in your quest, but sadly this comes to no avail. Out of desperation you seek the game | game is set in the medieval out the mythical priests of has finally | kingdom of Chrisandia which | Kukulkan who bestow upon been _ is slowly but surely healing your body powerful runes that its wounds caused by many years of fighting a dark enemy. AAs the main protagonist gift you the strength of the warrior, dexterity of the thief, Jurance of the dwarf andAbove: The fantastic level editor — create your own dungeons! dable foe and ready to face the darkness that lurks within the shadows of castle Sergoth. Starting the game, you get to choose your race and class which vary from elves, humans, half-ores, dwarfs and lizardmen, who all of course have their own unique character traits and abilities. As you progress, you'll earn experience points which will allow you to level up your skills. The main gameplay screen features: a decent sized gameplay window with health and magic bars, directional controls with adjacent handy compass, a small view of your map, ten inventory boxes, your current attributes, and an image of your body where you can equip clothing and weapons. ‘At the bottom of the screen is a status bar which keeps you _ an awful lot to display jin one place, the screen has been very well laid out and designed to ensure nothing feels cluttered. Moving around the dungeon is smooth and easily achieved with the simple click of the left mouse button. The game also auto-maps your Progress so no need for the old pencil and paper here, which is good seeing as there are twenty good sized levels to explore. As well as the usual host of fantasy weaponry at your disposal you will also very quickly acquire a Book of Spells that allows you to learn and utilise up to twenty-four different types of spells. Another interesting mechanic of the game is that the rules of the game are based on Microlite20, a very simplified version of the Advanced Dun- geons & Dragons rules. Graphically the game looks stunning and artist Ten Chu has done a fine job in capturing the look and feel of an epic dungeon labyrinth There's even some 3D movement affects which enhance — the overall gameplay ‘experience if you have the relevant chip RAM of course. Musically the soundtrack by Mike Richmond is excellent and despite repeating, it never you're a collector like me, you can order a boxed collector's copy via Double Sided Games’ website. The collector's edition includes three 3.5” disks containing the game, a manual, stickers and feelies which com- prise of a working compass and anice D20 dice. So far, I've found playing The Shadows of Sergoth a very memorable dungeon crawling experience. It's a joy to play and for me captures the look, feel and essence of a quality old school adventure game but with the benefit of enhanced graphics and a simplified, yet engaging dungeon experience. | still have a way to go before completing the game but for those who have there’s the added bonus of a level editor which features scripting support. The collector's edition is a thing of absolute beauty and | highly recommend you go and order your copy now!“ha Scat ZZAPI AMIGA caught up with Graeme Cowie (developer of Turbo Sprint, Bomb Jack Beer Edition and Rygar) and put him under the spotlight. ZZAP! AMIGA: Where did game development begin for you? Graeme: | got the gaming bug through visiting my uncle, who had an Atari 800 XL and lived near the arcades in Sunderland. This led me to getting an Atari ST Ed: we'll forgive you Graeme] but my dad didn’t fancy paying a fortune for the games at the time, so he took me down to the local computer club where | started to pick up 68000 o assembler. It was here that | fell in love with the AMIGA ~ | just loved the sound of it and the likes of Hybris [1988, Cope- Com] was outstanding at the time. When I left school | joined a YTS scheme (Ed: remember those?]. It was £29.50 a week, but there was always enough money for beer and paying your mam (Ed: he’s from the North East you know] housekeeping!. My first placement was for Zeppelin Games but the founder, Brian Joblin, put me on C64 development, saying the market wasn't ready for AMIGA/ST games. | spent 6 months trying to write this 36 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 karate game and Brian would come in and say “well..that code’s a bit sh1t, but we'll review in a couple of months and see if you've improved”. lended up moving to a different placement, for £35 a week, doing business IT for a brewery [Ed: perhaps that's where Bomb Jack Beer Edition came from?] ZZAP! AMIGA: How did it lead to the development we're benefitting from today? Graeme: After that early experience the AMIGA 500 eventually got put up in the loft for 20 years as girls, beer, jobs and real life took over. Then, on Halloween 2017 after coming across the EAB (Engling AMIGA Board) forum, | got my AMIGA outroo of the loft and started getting back into it again. What | did notice was Backbone/ Redpill games all over the place and, not to disrespect the people that were making them, | wondered is this what the AMIGA has really come to? And that really is what inspired me to make a game that the machine was deserving of. | got straight to work on Rygar. ZZAP! AMIGA: What machine do you use for development and testing? Graeme: | develop on a Windows 10 PC with 32GB RAM. | use a lot of tools, but keys ones are FS-WinUAE, Notepad++ to write code and VASM to compile it. It makes development much quicker than when | originally did it on the AMIGA which took forever! I've got to admit game development is ‘so much easier today than back in the 80s/90s, purely for the fact we have the Internet today and access to so many resources, including good people, at the tip of our fingers. ZZAP! AMIGA: Prior to Sprint, you have put out Bomb Jack Beer Edition — what led to the inclusion of beer in the title? Graeme: (Lots of laughter] I think there are a few conspiracy theories about this one but it's simply ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 37point | was going to change bombs to beers! Somebody came up with the idea that it was because the game is homebrew, which is not the true reason, but that’s the story | usually go with. ZZAP! AMIGA: What made you choose Turbo Sprint as a project? Graeme: Although | liked Super Sprint down the arcades, the actual truth is that | was always shit at maths and fascinated by the guys who could build things like spinning cubes in demos. So, | was looking for a challenge where | could solve a maths problem and apply it to a game at the same time. Dan Scott [Chuck Rock Il, Blaster] from the EAB forums gaveme some | ZZAP! AMIGA: Do you can do 640x512 in interlace pointers and before long it plan to release any further mode with 16 colours, but if had snowballed into agame | updates to the game? Minor | you use that mode in OCS that just had to be finished! fixes etc? you just have nothing else to play with and memory would ZZAP! AMIGA: Did you Graeme: “If* | do, then it be used up very quickly. consider trying to make this | will probably be in 2022. As | AGA has the playfields, an official arcade port? well as addressing some hardware sprites and the minor bugs, | could add the | RAM so it was the only Graeme: | did, and started Championship Sprint tracks if | realistic option for making off calling it Super Sprint. | people were interested? [Ed: | the game graphically close to fired off a couple emails to we're very interested right?] | the original. If you put Turbo the copyright holders but Sprint up against other OCS/ got absolutely no response. ZZAP! AMIGA: What was ECS AMIGA games you'll Solended up changing the | the thought process behind | see the graphics are much name and the gameplay a making this an AGA only crisper. fair bit and added some new | game? features. [Ed: It's a shame ‘ZZAP! AMIGA: What would Super Sprint wasn't owned Graeme: The arcade game you say to those who by Nintendo, otherwise they | has resolution of 512x384 criticise the making of arcade would be contacting youl]. and 48 colours. OCS/ECS conversions now that the 38 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 230000 TmeOao:15 mere i M . re ae aaa cae likes of MAME/RetroPie are AMIGA can do. | suppose a readily available? similar ethos to MAME where the preservation of a game is Graeme: For me, it's all more important than whether about the challenge and it was popular or not. At the enjoyment of programming end of the day, for those who and showing what the criticise, it’s not their time that's being spent. When you uncover these games you realise some genius software engineering went into them back in the day, and it's a great challenge to bring that to the AMIGA for people to enjoy. ZZAP! AMIGA: | see you are working on a version of Kung-Fu Master — how is that progressing? Graeme: Really, really well. Kung-Fu Master is really the grandfather of the beat-em up. You'll see some great art from TenShu (graphics artist) who turns stuff round amazingly quickly (see a full update on, Devil's Temple - Son of the Kung-Fu Master, in this issue’s Newsflash). ZZAP! AMIGA: Do you have other games in your mind for future work? Graeme: Yes, I've got a licence to bring Hotline Miami to the AMIGA 1200, which I'm really excited about but it's a big project. Other games | would love to do would be Side-Arms {Capcom 1986] which got an horrendous port to the A500 and, licensing challenges aside, | would love to bring Wonderboy to the OCS! ZZAP! AMIGA: Thanks for your time Graeme! ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 39MIGA gaming for those as originally licensed by small amount of software without an AMIGA ~ it AMIGA International, Inc included along with a only seems fair as classic (as then owned by Gateway Kickstart 1.3/Workbench AMIGA machines get rarer, | 2000 following EsCom's 1.3 environment ~ but that's but AMIGA Forever has collapse). Since then it all you need to emulate been around far longer than | has developed alongside an AMIGA 500. Within the most realise. its backbone, WinUAE, scope of this review are the Is less than a year until | and has assimilated other Plus and Premium editions Cloanto’s AMIGA Forever solutions for emulation as which include a range hits its 25th anniversary, it went. of AMIGA Kickstart and so yes, there has been an 2005 saw the Workbench environment official emulation package introduction of the from 1 up to 3.1, allowing since 14th November 1997, | Premium Edition with 2 you to emulate everything DVDs of video footage | from an A1000 to an A400 alongside the package __with a PowerPC processor CD-ROM (now a daughterboard. The DVD-ROM) which Premium Edition is the only does make a rather physical version, though you nice gift. This includes can burn your own ISO to the footage of the disc from the Plus Edition, AMIGA launch in New Aso included in the York in 1986, the 1988 Plus and Premium editions Inside Commodore, is a full archive of all the interview with Dave AMIGA Kickstart ROMs ever Hanie and Jay Miner, released along with many the Commodore of the different versions of Deathbed Vigil video Workbench. It must be noted and other footage that this is the only legal way The discs are certainly _to obtain Kickstart ROMs worth a watch. to use with emulation, and ane There are 3 distinct. _is a very useful repository | e@oss editions. The Value of those ROMs in and of Edition only has a itself. The key inclusion of 40 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2the Kickstart 3.1 and 3.x ROMs allows you to use one of those images to set up emulation on hardware such as the Raspberry Pi or the wonders of AmiKit. In theory this means that every AMIGA game (and other piece of software) ever produced, that doesn't need a dongle, should run through AMIGA Forever on a Windows PC and some eo other hardware. So to put it simply, for the asking price of €50 (plus postage and import duty where applicable) you are getting access to a virtual version of every AMIGA ever produced, and yes that includes the CDTV and the CD32 - there's even an emulation environment of the ill fated AMIGA, Technologies Walker that started conception as an expandable tower project Flight of the Amazon Queen ABCDEEGH Cac RSTUVWXYZ at Commodore Germany. One of the most surprising things about this emulation running on top ‘of Windows 10 is how much more responsive AMIGAOS is even under emulation than Windows 10! If you want to cut out the middle man though, you can boot from the package DVD-ROM from the Premium Edition or the disc you burned yourself from the Plus download. This launches a barebones Linux system to get the emulation up and running. For most, though, running on top of Windows 8 or Windows 10 will be perfectly fine. Enough of that though, let's get into the nitty gritty... and most important part for you, dear ZAPPler... playing games! There are a little under 100 games included in the distribution including some commercial releases including Exile, Pacmania, Flight of The Amazon Queen (a multi-disk adventure game) and a spot of Kick Off! These are presented as easy to run pre-configured environments with the appropriate machine emulated to play the game as it was meant to be ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 41more processing power and RAM from an emulated ‘1200, or A4000 with a 68030, in it allows much bigger playing environments and both sound effects and music at the same time. Emulation environments range from the original 68000 based Commodore ‘AMIGA (A1000) to a PowerPC upgraded, souped-up AMIGA 4000 (and you can even buy | Playertistview. =| and AF makes a guess AMIGAOSS classic and as to the spec needed for run that!) The A500, A600, played... or you can tweak the ADF to run properly, ‘A1200 and CD32 are the it as you'd like, presenting you with a stars to virtually boot for Download or transfer suggested spec before gaming, though, especially over an ADF (AMIGA Disk loading. It may be worth as most CDTV titles (looks at File) and once it's on your trying a few configurations. | Xenon I: Megablast CDTV) PC, AMIGA Forever will The Settlers, for instance, work fine in CD32 emulation. be the default to load is detected as OCS/ Allin all the package is that file. Double click on ECS game which it is designed to be a simple click that nugget of nostalgia technically, but throwing and go setup for AMIGA I have been using AMIGA Forever on and off since version 4, in the first half ee aa ee eee ae eee The main interface (AMIGA Forever Player) is clean, functional and Were ey Nene ee Me ee eee cee | Ree mene an eR er eee ake ao issues on anything tested (including ProTracker). The underlying WinUAE system does take it a step further by emulating the sound of the floppy disk drive as it loads the digital version of the disk in ADF or RP9 format. This latest version carries over the Arcade mode from the first release of version 9 and it seems alittle redundant as the main front end mode seems more suitable... however that needs a mouse so having a menu that can be controlled with a joystick or CD32 pad kinda makes sense. ee Ree dE ge eee EL Pee eM edge Rada cred eae eek eeg ee nee aee ic rn ee ae Cc Ae Uy I personally prefer the premium physical version, with the DVD Videos included, at the €50 price point, and would suggest avoiding the “value” version at €10 that only offers A500 emulation UY ee ee ee Ne Reg eee er Ne ken Aa Molt Ta gn ge tae eR Le OMT RL Cake OTE am een Te I eR beast and you end up with PiMIGA on a Pi 400 or even getting the real thing to start a new journey! In conclusion AMIGA Forever 9 (R2) is a polished solution to using AMIGA games and software Cee eee Re ean 42 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2ve been playing with the latest version of AMIGA Forever for a fair few ae Mee a ee et ea Oy the software for both enthusiasts and anyone dipping into the AMIGA for Ce ee eA OR ac ee ed ee Te Pere Re ea od a an eae eee al eed CE eremeic hue eae sae Ue aR Cena Ce Ree ee ced panicked reaction to the increasing use of Retroarch, Launchbox and their ilk being used on edge RS reek Ace NR Pee eeu ea CN MeN ee ce es ee ea a further updates will expand upon. Personally I'd love to see this evolve into a CD32 style dash, scraping metadata on any title listed within it, scores, screenshots, etc. But whether Cloanto want to invest further into a function utilised by only a few enthusiasts, is a question we cannot answer. Yet as a paid solution to AMIGA Emulation | just cannot fault its efforts within the rest of the Pee eM eT ae eee ie eee ee Ee eee eed Pa ee uot oe gee Mee oo OTe legac eee phe eae Oe ae both hobbyists and developers alike and for those of us priced out from the upgrade path of accelerators and Vampire technology, as well as those priced out from obtaining original hardware Te ed ee Ye Mean ee enn emulation, with everything ) image. every produced for the you need legally included. The package comes Commodore AMIGA family It's also recommended for | bundled with enough of machines can be run use with packages such | software to really get you as Amikit (a powered going and enjoying AMIGA You can purchase a up classic AMIGA gaming, and even a bit of copy of the software environment) and Amiberry| painting. Meanwhile the here: & PiMIGA (AMIGA does encourage you to go https://bit.ly/32C402L emulation packages for the) out and find more. Almost Raspberry Pi 4 and 400) as| every piece of software it provides the necessary ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 43SOE oer ar Cr Ete) SEC aR Deer ert tS na behind it. Originally is Bch de Eell ciel Mee unk emo tC resect hae cee he cra Ca Clm UR) Cue conten a ee ea eee Seno ue iy accent] SCR meee) re aR Recor Tea a Lee RCOLD tema reg foe Wiley Meee Rune nota) Pernice coue nacelle Se RU aut Se kg fanbase. ESRC Tey a Ree Rigoe LU ol Ue cee] Paha CEU) Bees cenit ee 2/o Selena ay er ec hea eens progressing over 4 worlds - Rr eeu) Lee ae occ tale of garden warfare Nitra, Euro eee het eeeoM tases cd Weenies Ragsarecar) PR one ean oleh cence eee ket ee ae Sekt ie) encom ed Sn eno horticultural horrors. Meg PUR Ske ae Ieee Rhu Pog he Seneca Ree ae Paar eient) eee ui es NEY Peerage eee Pens sae e gun) eee an ene cr} Eon Rolle eC Been Rete ae SU ROA Roe} rye Te Cage Meee fre a] See Eee es Serres aOR renee creole ats SS Rea Meee Reta nl ey rence ae a ea nae eS ho RU Renae cen car ic? Ce Rane Teme Menara eee Rue cer ket a CEN menceenU a Tray sees ae levels, it’s possible to log eee Roc mae uN aU Beene as ae Aaa ao ree Mee ace al Pee me seh Pees ino SRA CRel a eae Piece encstc) De RUE Ok ak ae Ornette) Re cue ntn Bens um eke sie Pee hats Monee 2 Ws ce eee shows why the AMIGA was. ON uM Rg Corea oe for quick, satisfying fun Pecans ana Seer aun Selecrr cra u Oe Ac ae Disc ue ati Eo oMleye Rielle} enc PSRs aN oe) aSats L Clear menu presentation from the cree ae eee) pares ee IL Piece eee Fae ‘ rs pn Ee) REL rapt) a ] pease eee aes) TY ECE) alo 7140 eee Dele eRe eer oe eed ettesm eed Pet eS ELLY Ct aT cetera! Turbo Tomato races to the top erect nr TT eee ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 45f you're an AMIGA owner there's a very good chance that you will be aware of the so called ‘demo scene’, a creative underground movement born in the 1980s. I, Mark (Judge Drokk) Hellewell, was a part of this ‘scene’ through my own team Anarchy. It’s with absolute certainty that we would have marked our calendars with this scene's ‘AMIGA parties’ on the horizon, but what were they and why were they so important? In this series, chapter by chapter, | lift the lid and open the doors on the culture of the AMIGA demo-party, while covering a different aspect each issue. As an organiser of the UK's largest attended event of this type in 1992, I'll bring you the behind the scenes stories, drama and tears. | speak to organis- ers, winners and losers, coding he- roes and industry legends. I'l bring you the full story of the scene as it got together for the party of a lifetime. What is a demo-party and why do we need them? The dictionary definition would probably read, ‘A gathering organised by and for the demo-scene, typically involving socialising, computer programming, and competitions’. | suspect the director of many a software house or publisher would probably be more inclined to quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, describing such an event as ‘a wretched hive of scum and villainy’. Who was right? Let's find out... The stereotypical image of an individual from the demo-scene, known from here as a ‘scener’ (often wrongly callled a hack- et), is a figure of a lonely geek who lacks social skills and the ability to interact with other humans. Usually found in a darkened room, hunched over a computer in some corner of suburbia, they would generally hide their real identity behind a pseudonym borrowed from movie, science fiction, folk- lore, or the depths of their ‘own imagination. Their only friends were other socially troubled outcasts, united through self-taught skills and their home computer being the only connection to the world. The world hidden from sight from the ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 47a of our skills, be it via art, Yo duggen! an group of three such friends feone eee Whet eee doy “a ({ have Some the world. The best place to do this was at a ‘demo party’. ‘ae Amaze, ister Scfor inc., Dual ue Possessey, €.0,¢. 1994, ere. Well, that's all / computer fairs such as the ‘Personal Computer World’ show, the ‘CES’ show in c B pre cs IDE which we would trade via the postal system on a Fairlight. London or ‘CEBIT’ shows in Germany, usually only known to each other by wearing a badge with a group logo pinned on it. Arrangements would have been made, for example, to meet ‘at the bar’ or ‘at the Psygnosis stand’. These were usually handwritten on notepaper included inside jiffy bags of our group's own demos and ‘cracked’ games disks outside of by their tightly Mark Zucker- drawn curtains. In reality, berg had even being a ‘scener’ actually left day-care. required advanced social We made life skills to establish and friends based hold a position in a peer around the love group. We were the ones of a computer, who made hundreds of a machine that HOT wares worldwide friends, made allowed us to FRorms: meaningful connections channel our amongst groups of total imaginations FATRELIGHT strangers. We were a true into complex ‘social network’ before demonstrations 48 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2daily basis. For such shows we would often print stickers and leave them on the stands of software company displays to annoy and confuse them. Something like “Anarchy were here!” or “Fairlight are the best!” — and they'd never see it happen. This was great fun, and quite an adventure to travel to London to meet friends we'd never met in person. However, this was someone else's event. We were just visitors riding on the back of a corporate manifestation. We needed our own place, somewhere just for ‘us’, our party — our rules. Oh, and if your name's not ‘Laser Kid or ‘Captain Stormkiller’ you're not getting in. But what will you find inside? Were wwe really the ‘hive of scum and villainy’ some would portray? Come with me as my special guest, there's some people | want you to meet In part 2 I look at the UK party scene and me. F AT =" GH ee 4B 11015 TEL: 040-MI, FAK : 040 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 49the Kung-Fu Master Kir Remaster has volved into a spin off game, with it now having an official name of Devil’s Temple — Son of the Kung- Fu Master. The game is being targeted for early 2022 and will be made available for OCS. Whilst this game will feature additional levels and enhanced game play, the player will also play the arcade conversion with the original graphics. Excited? We are! So, where is this at? Graeme Cowie (Mcgee- Zer) provides the update... | The Devil's Temple — Son of Back in late July, | decided to do a port of Kung- Fu Master as | was looking for my next project after porting Turbo Sprint to AGA AMIGAs. Someone already attempted it in Blitz a couple of years back but often projects fall by the wayside and | guess that one was no different. It's a bit of a mystery as to why KFM never received a port to the 16-bit platform in PLAYER | STAGE |] 50 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 the first place as | think it would have sold quite well for the publishers, so after catching Covid in mid-July and then a nice week in Majorca with my family | decided to work on porting the game over to the A500. The original game was created in 1984 by Irem and many people agree that it defined a martial arts/beat ‘em-up genre. Having researched the game a fair bit it became clear that KFM was based on the Marvel comic “Master of Kung- Fu”. If you take a look at the cover of issue 64 for example I'd probably say the game was partly based on that artwork alone! I think it was during September that TenShu contacted me over Slack asking if he could redo the graphics for the game,as I'd worked with him previously on a small Christmas 2020 game called Santa Run. | agreed based on his previous work and way of working. I made a fork of the Kung-Fu Master game code | was working on and simply called it Kung- Fu Remaster. At this point had all of the levels in the game and a couple of working enemies. Even for a 1984 game like Kung-Fu Master, which stores all of its graphics as 8x8 tiles, it can be quite a challenge to get everything working into the small amount of chip RAM available on the ‘A500. If you went and took a look at alll of the sprite frames from the arcade game and tried to put them into the AMIGA chip RAM at once you'd soon find out that you'd run out of RAM pretty quick. The solution was to split all the sprite parts into rectangles to reduce the amount of zero space used in RAM but also to be able to quickly blit them as efficiently as possible to get as many onscreen enemies going in 5OFPS, A\little while later ‘TenShu and | were dis- cussing the game's title among other things around gameplay, we wanted to improve on the original game. He'd created some Sr ee ere) a: Li] Z ‘extra graphics for the player sprite such as throwing nunchucks and knives, so | said well let's create a spin- off game from KFM set three years after but based ‘on Thomas and Silvia's son. He liked the idea and therefore started doing the level tiles around a late eighties theme which hopefully you'll see in the game. In the end, we settled on Devil’s Temple - Son of the Kung-Fu Master, with the objective being that Tommy needs to rescue his gir! Lena (based on the famous porn star Lena Paul 12) who's been kidnapped by X's thugs and ninjas. There are ten levels to bash through... the first 5 align to Vigilante and the later 5 align to Kung-Fu Master. So, if the challenge {3 {| a | wasn't hard enough, | now had even more graphics to get into the game, but you know...making AMIGA games it's all part of the fun! As of mid-November, as | write this, the levels of the game are done barring the bosses, as are the graphics for the bosses, but the coding and Al isn't. A lot of work recently has been on the collisions which | think is super important for a game like this. As with the previous games I've opened pre-orders for the game boxes like the last times I've done them. It's quite an undertaking — you can pre-order up until the game is due for release in February/March 2022 (all being well. ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 51pletely. It has been a while since you realised that your mother’s health was poor. Eventually, it became clear that your uncle's bizarre gifts to your mum were all kinds of medicines to help her fight an unknown dis- Aquabyss ease. You have understood that his travelling was not F”. as long as you can just a quest for adventure. remember one thing He tried all he could to was always the same. find a cure for his beloved Each year your mother sister. Ironically, being on took you to a house on the yet another expedition in coast — a house belong- search of a remedy, he ing to her brother, your could not even attend her uncle Jules. The journey funeral. always began on a train. Now you have just Excited to see something received a short telegram more than just the streets from your uncle. In it, he of Paris, your young eyes encourages you to leave were gazing at every piece everything behind and of the landscape passing come to him on the first by, memorising everything train possible. He also ‘on the way to your uncle, writes that he has a secret It was, however, his stories | to reveal to you. It is June that fascinated you the 1821... most. As a sailor, he has seen and experienced incredible situations. From the remotest, uncharted areas, he would always bring you and your mother a gift. The item sometimes looked like it came from a different world. Every single time you asked him when he ‘would take you with him on one of his voyages. If it was not for your mother, who was never fond of the sea, he would have probably done it already... An unfortunate event has changed your life com- 52 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 For some time now, this introductory descrip- tion of the story leading the player into the mysterious world has been posted on the website, aquabyss. com. However, contrary to popular custom, the Aged Code studio behind the project did not show even a single screenshot from the game. Not surpris- ingly, there were those questioning the existence of the game. It was hard to believe that such an ambitious project would appear on the AMIGA. And yet, quietly but steadily, the studio continued working on the game almost unin- terrupted for six years. My name is Piotr Kuch- no and I'm the founder of the Aged Code studio. | came up with the idea of creating the game back in 2002 and immediatelystarted working on it on PC together with a friend. Unfortunately, after disagreements about what the game is supposed to be, we parted ways. Over the next years, other people were joining and leaving. It wasn't encouraging, and the project progressed very slowly until | lost confidence in completing it for the PC in a reasonable form. However, my interest in the game never diminished, and neither did my love for the AMIGA, so one day in 2015 | got the idea that | could try to port the existing code to the AMIGA and complete the game for this unique computer. After all, I didn't need a whole team to make an AMIGA game anymore, did |? At least, that’s what | thought until the game took shape far beyond my original intentions. That's why, over time, various graphic artists have joined in to help with the project. | also wanted the game to have unique atmospheric music and after a long search, | found Roald Strauss who runs the website Indie Game Music (indiegamemusic.com). Roald stood up to the task and created three phe- nomenal soundtracks (Ro, thanks for being patient with my remarks, but | think it was worth it considering the end result! The graphics were improved for some time by the great pixel artist Rich- ard “Dawnbringer” Fhager (thank you Rick for your contribution). In the final period other outstanding artists joined in—Kevin “In- vent” Sounders and John “Tsak” Tsakiris—who is still with the project to this day (thanks, guys!). AQUABYSS is a game that is difficult to put into one category. The sources of inspiration were games like Pirates!, Elite Frontier II, Freelancer, and Aquanox — to name the ones that influenced me the most. Initially, the background of the game was set in the futuristic sci-fi world. Apart from the aforemen- ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 53 tioned games, | was under the strong influence of two well-known writers, considered by many as the fathers of science fiction: Jules Verne and Herbert George Wells. Verne's nov- el, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Wells’ short story In the Abyss impact- ‘ed me the most. Instantly | knew | had the world | was looking for. A strong emphasis is placed on the storyline, which is also presented in the form of a professionally made mini-comic book, combining the introduction story and the teaser wi the first screen appearing in the game. Other, equally important elements are the economic system, dialogues with NPCs, jour- neys, sometimes very long ones, as the game world ispoints). based on a real-world map, The game offers two including bathymetric map- | modes: Story and Free ping (as far as OCS graph-__| Citizen. In “Story” mode, ics allowed). The game Captain Albert interactively also features character instructs the player on how development. Six attributes | to use the interface and are available to the player: gradually introduces him to Trade, Smuggling, Luck, the underwater world. This Perception, Navigation, mode is recommended for and Mechanics. Earned beginners. Besides, only in experience points increase | this mode, the player can the player's level and with continue the adventure each level the player can started in the comic book. assign a point to one of the | In “Free Citizen” mode, listed attributes. These in there is no storyline but it turn influence the outcome | offers complete freedom to of conversations with move around the under- NPCs, prices in the mar- water open world and take ketplace and negotiations, any path the player wishes. the value of contracts, the Once released, acceptance of side quests, | AQUABYSS will not stand etc. Travelling would not still, As a studio, we hope be possible without a sub- that players will want marine, so there are quite a few units at the player's disposal. But buying them depends, of course, on the funds you have and the level at which the player is currently. These vessels can be upgraded, allowing you to load more cargo or go to greater depths. The player can also, after purchasing and installing a drill and claw arms, extract deposits from the seabed, or hunt for whales and obtain valuable trans (for 54 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 this purpose a Whalehunter license is required. If the player is caught poaching, he will pay for it severely with his reputation points, a fine and receive penalty eee to continue to develop it with us by submitting comments. We still have a few ideas in store that we couldn't include in the first version due to time constraints. In this way, we want to create with the community a game that the AMIGA never had. And one more thing. Our goal is to create the first “massive” online multiplayer game for the AMIGA! The game can already be connected to our server which works 24 hours a day. However, network gameplay is stil experimental and will not be included at first. See you in the depths of the AQUABYSS world! Requirements: 68020 28MHz CPU with 2MB Chip and 8MB Fast RAM is the minimum necessary to run the game. An Internet connection for receiving updates is highly recommended.Menace HD re (Olah OP yaa « i i re aa rn Coro Poo Ce = feet ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 55| football games on home consoles are full-blown simulators with lifelike graphics, voice commentary, in-depth tactical analysis and multiple moves to master. Wind back to 1994 and a game of virtual footy with a friend was a much simpler, arcade-style affair when Sensible World of Soccer first hit the streets for the AMIGA. Selecting ‘Friendly’ from the options screen gets you quickly into the action. Choose your pitch type, number of substitutes, and any ‘Sensi-style’ players and professional club or the referee. Combinations national team from world of standard joystick football. The action is movements and a single viewed from above, looking fire button can make your down on pixelated superstars run, small, pass, shoot, head or sliding cute, 2D tackle. A mistimed tackle eee oT developers that an entire community is eRe Rene SRAM TR Yl eS a its simplicity. With a few clicks you can start ena ee ee) EO Leet eye Ly aie a ea A nap e Pee ery an ae laying this with my dad - but he would never have grasped TE ne eng aM Lee cers none of its original appeal, but the novelty of selecting my nM Reger Ne Ure) ee re ogee Nore et aes games to play. Definitely get this 2020 update for your AMIGA ROR uO Ua eer ee ee ed Coe ae ne aaa oe 56 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 pauses the action while the referee considers the suitable punishment for the offending player -a card of the yellow or red variety. Should your player receive an early bath, or be injured on the receiving end, you can opt to make a substitution or change tactics — to a preset 4-3-3 for example, or your own pre-saved formation. For matches with more meaning, you can enter any club or national league or cup competition — from the Algerian Cup to the World Cup. Once you have mastered your playingskills, you must then get to grips with management. This involves taking on the challenge of a 20-season career where you aim to climb the ranks from managing the likes of Gillingham FC to taking your national team to World Cup glory. Win matches, barter successfully in the transfer market, and win the confidence of your board and you may get that dream job offer... or take the England job that no- one else wants! i ie Rs + Ce acme eer oe Re Z al eee Ea em Mano me Re ue ned the art of dribbling. Trying to play it again now, however, I find trying to control the ball Sear Meena rte adueLord it noticeably simpler, with a little stickiness of the player's foot making it a lot easier to dribble and turn with the ball. The higher pace of the game also makes for a more mee Me ra ee eee eM ed Ciereuee e m em Le ae zoomed out so you can see more of it- this enables you to see the positions of other players in order to plan tactical attacking moves, without the need for a Kick Off 2-style radar scanner in the corner. | was soon won over by Sensible Soccer and when eRe er me Seance as ee i are eke a oe ea) attempting to guide my team to cup and league glory. PTT EEL Ores eer] Eo erent Ree ne CTU ey Becerra ec eae “we SOUND 91% ome ene ne Coe ei cone Lele Ca a cre ee er fierce) TAYE Poirier eons Se une ea oy oct Suey coo ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2 57OCR Ce Ce} CER Me Res PS me eee eee gents ET Screen Cel ra oe aS Mess naa eee eed Reena uek ety CO ene sRaa Mee eres ncon Monee ese ues esc Mie te Cie Me a as alent any eS eC) https://bit.ly/32W6bQ2 58 ZZAP! AMIGA Micro Issue 2BI-MONTHLY! Well that's a wrap for issue #2, which | hope you enjoyed. For the launch issue, we wanted to use the solid foundations laid by ZZAP! 64 and introduce a fresh new AMIGA magazine to the community. For issue #2, we have tried to build on this, by adding more of what make the AMIGA unique, such as the Demo Legends and AMIGA Party Culture features, and continuing with the Bullfrog | shortly in AMIGA purple! story. Jalso want to take Of course, ZZAP! the opportunity to thank Tests are a mainstay, and | alll of our contributing we will be supplementing | writers, without whom this reviews of new titles with wouldn't be possible. Now ZZAP! Back reviews of on the inside, | can see some classic ones. the time and effort that Also, watch out goes into our reviews and for some upcoming articles, not to mention the specials as we look re-reading and proofing at the games to be to ensure it is as perfect a released with THE read as it can be for you. ASOOMini. | really So, see you in issue #3, hope you are starting | and the good news is that to see us shape you won't have to wait as FE a magazine with long as we are switching to its own ‘AMIGA’ bi-monthly...Happy New personality, which Year! also includes the iM MM (UVR, binders - which - will be availableCrashing & Zzapping into Your Galaxy NOW! FOR SPECTRUM & COMMODORE US OE a nL else oY Mold BUTTON! *. aed The only magazines rampacked with vital info on Spectrum and Commodore games! SUBSCRIBE NOW AT WWW.CRASHMAGAZINE.CO.UK NEWS REVIEWS ARTICLES COMPETITIONS HISTORY Ce

ZZAP AMIGA No2 01.02 2022

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

ZZAP AMIGA No2 01.02 2022

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like