• Tag Archives Amiga

  • The One (December 1994)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: The One – Issue Number 74 – December 1994

    The One was a U.K. published gaming magazine that mostly covered 16-bit computers. In 1994 it was basically just covering the Amiga. The December 1994 issue includes:

    • Boot Sector – On the cover disk are demos of Rise of the Robots and Mortal Kombat II.
    • News – World of Amiga show coming in December, new Amiga CD32 package available, Mindscape buys SSI, and more.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about Sensible Soccer tournaments, Beneath a Steel Sky issues, Charlie J Cool, and more.
    • Competition – Win various Lion King related items.

    • One On One – An interview with John Twiddy, responsible for such games as Putty Squad and Aladdin.
    • WiPS – Previews of games currently still in progress including The Lion King, Mighty Max, Mortal Kombat II, and Sensible Golf.
    • Reviews – Reviews of Cannon Fodder 2, Jungle Strike, Premier Manager 3, PGA Euro Tour, Zeewolf, Fields of Glory, Lords of the Realm, Morton Strikes Back, Embryo, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Crystal Dragon, and Super Stardust.
    • Updates – Updates of Manchester United, Arcade Pool, Them Park (Amiga 500 version), and Soccer Kid.
    • Replays – A look back at some older games including Combat Air Patrol, Formula One Grand Prix, Globdule, and Gunship 2000.

    • Kill Zone – Tips, tricks and strategies for Reunion, Wild Cup, Starlord, Robinson’s Requiem, and more.
    • Classic Tips – Tips for older games including Addam’s Family, Alien Breed, Arkanoid 2, Atomic Robo Kid, and many others.
    • PD Zone – A look at some of the latest public domain games including Roketz, Pengo, Outpost: Solo Assault, Arthur: Quest for Excalibur, and Classic Pucman.
    • Competition – Win a MicroProse jacket, UFO: Enemy Unknown, and more.
    • Recommended – A brief look at some of the highest rated games by The One. Some of these game include Aladdin, Alien Breed 2, Cannon Fodder, James Pond 3, Theme Park, Uridium 2, Microcosm, Simon the Sorcerer, Mortal Kombat, and many more.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Amiga Computer Arcana Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • Waxworks (Amiga)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Waxworks is a horror themed role-playing game released in 1992 by Horror Soft for the Amiga, Macintosh and DOS based machines.

    The plot of the game involves undoing a curse on your family. Apparently, at some point in history, the player’s ancestor cut of Ixona’s hand for stealing a chicken. Ixona happened to be a witch and she placed a curse on your family. This curse basically makes it so that whenever twins are born in your family, one of them turns out evil and does very bad things. You (and your soon to be evil twin brother who is unconscious for some reason) inherit a magical wax museum from your uncle. You must use this magical wax museum to travel back in time to undo the evil things your ancestors have done and prevent the curse from ever being placed…before your brother wakes up evil.

    The game is divided into several sections, each with its own theme/time period. These themes include ancient Egypt, medieval Transylvania, Victorian England, the industrial revolution time period, and the time period of Ixona herself.

    Waxworks is played from a first person point of view and features a point-and-click interface. From this interface you can pick up items, avoid traps, solve puzzles, and engage in combat. During combat, you have the ability to target individual body parts such as an arm or head. Generally, the goal in each time period is to retrieve a special item from the evil twin of that era. Once you have collected all of these special items, you can then attempt to defeat Ixona herself to try to prevent the curse from ever being placed.

    There are some criticisms of the game including small game maps and an overemphasis on combat. However, the graphics, sound and music are pretty solid and do a good job of creating a horror filled atmosphere. The way the game is separated into different time periods also makes for pretty good variety. For fans of horror or RPGs of the era in general, it is worth playing. One unique aspect of the game though is the level of gore. It is highly graphic for a game of this time period with lots of gruesome death scenes. This may or may not be your cup of tea.

    Waxworks was re-released on GOG using DOSBox for compatibility with Windows and Mac OS. As I look now, it is currently available for only $1.49 here: https://www.gog.com/en/game/waxworks. I mean you can’t get a much better deal than that. Images above are from the Amiga version of the game but there’s not really any significant differences between the DOS and Amiga versions of the game. The DOS version even uses a similar 32-color palette to the Amiga version.


    📂This entry was posted in Amiga Computer Arcana Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • Info (October 1991)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Info – Issue Number 43 – October 1991

    At this point, the name of the magazine was .info for Amiga Users though it went through slightly different variations over the years. It used to cover the Commodore 64 but was Amiga only by this time. One of the unique aspects of this magazine was that it was produced using only Commodore equipment. The October 1991 issue includes:

    ProVisions

    • Video – A guide to setting up an Amiga based video studio. Includes coverage of encoders, genlocks, monitors, digitizing and scanning, video tape editing controllers, single-frame controllers, and more.
    • Graphics – A look at a HAM mode paint program called Spectracolor. This was basically a new version of Photon Paint.
    • MultiMedia – A look at some software available for the CDTV including World Vista, Timeline of Science and Innovation, and Illustrated Works of Shakespeare.
    • Audio – A look at sound hardware and software avaialble for the Amiga, including Bars & Pipes Professional and the Phantom MIDI/SMPTE Interface.

    .info technical support

    • UNIX: Is It For You? – The first in a two part series on UNIX for the Amiga.
    • ARexx and the Happy Haikuer – Using ARexx to generate Haikus on the Amiga.
    • Memory Alignment and BPTRS – Machine language math programming on the Amiga and all about the special pointers (BPTR and BSTR) that AmigaDOS uses.
    • AmigaDOS Scripts, Part 3 – The third part in a series of writing AmigaDOS scripts. This part deals with using the List command, LFORMAT argument, and more.

    Columns

    • Public Domain – Several public domain collections are covered here including Cranware #161 (includes StarChart), Chiron Astronomical Pak (a five disk package including various astronomical programs), Barbara’s Choice #9257 (Star Trek sounds and more), MGH #198 (Madelbrot designs and more), and MGHSoft Music Demos (a collection of more than 100 demo disks).
    • Hardware – This month is focused on Amiga 500 expansion. Covered products include Xetec’s FastTrak system (a SCSI adapter with up to 8 MB of expansion RAM), GVP’s A500-HD+ (includes memory expansion and hard drive options), and the DataFlyer 500 (SCSI hard drive adapter). All of these are tested here with a 52MB Quantum hard drive.
    • CyberPlay – A look at some of the latest Amiga games including Moonbase, Fast Eddie’s Pool & Billiards, The Amazing Spiderman, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Team Yankee, MegaTraveller I: The Zhodani Conspiracy, King’s Bounty, Brigade Commander, and King’s Quest.
    • Productivity – A review of Proper Grammar. This is a grammar checker that works with various word processor file formats.

    Departments

    • .info Monitor – An optimistic view of what the CDTV could become.
    • Mail – Mail from readers about emulation on the Amiga 500, choosing the Amiga over the Atari ST, and more.
    • New Products – A look at new Amiga related products including Activa Software’s Real3D modelling/raytracing/animation package, Mail-O-Dex Professional address book software, the A2410 1024×1024 display card for the A3000UX, the KB-Talker PC/AT keyboard to Amiga adapter, Distant Suns 4.0 astronomical program, the SupraModem 9600 (9600bps for only $699.96!), Comeau C++, and more.
    • News & Views – EA start 1-900 hint line; American People/Link shuts down; simulation software passes role-playing games as the most popular type of games in the U.S.; Commodore donates Amiga computers to high school; GEnie announces 9600 baud service; and more.
    • The Rumor Mill – Commodore to offer Amiga 500/A590 hard drive combo deal; Commodore to introduce Amiga 300; and more.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Amiga Computer Arcana 📎and tagged