Racketboy "Amiga shmup essentials" article

[Herr Schatten]

I was recently invited to co-author an article about Amiga shmups over at Racketboy. Maybe some of you'll enjoy reading it.

https://www.racketboy.com/retro/the-com ... essentials

We quickly decided that, unlike the other guides on the site, we wouldn't want to go through every single release, because there are far too many and also most of them are not very good. Instead we thought about which games could be of interest to a fan of the genre who isn't necessarily into the platform. We deliberately excluded some of the most fondly-remembered games for this very reason, because while we found them decent enough in the context of the System's library, they offer absolutley nothing that couldn't be experienced elsewhere in a similar vein, but in much better form. Thus, the article is targeted at STG fans rather than Amiga fans. Note that the honorable mentions are a special case, as these haven't been selected because they are good games (they aren't, for the most part), but because they achieve something special in another area, like visuals, sound, etc.

[Marc]

Spoiler: there aren't any.
Sorry, couldn't resist. Will gave a proper read later when I get home.

[Bassa-Bassa]

The Amiga port of Silkworm features superior gameplay compared to the arcade original

Does it? ?

[Herr Schatten]

The Amiga port of Silkworm features superior gameplay compared to the arcade original

Does it? ?

As far as I know, it’s supposed to. I’ve heard this claim so often that I never thought of questioning it, but it might actually just be a myth created by the gaming press of the time. They probably just meant "easier and more accessible". Is there someone with experience of both the original and the conversion who can clear this up?

[Bassa-Bassa]

I have with both but it's from the early 90s so I only recall that the AC was better. The Amiga version, I think, had a bigger view port for having more resolution, but that's not a plus in my eyes. Never found a port which was better on the Amiga, myself. The odd one like Pang was somewhat close, but that's it.

[Herr Schatten]

Thanks for the insight. We should probably change that caption then.

[Starfighter]

I got an Amiga some years ago and I never ended up buying any games for it (I didn't have enough room to even give it a proper setup to live in, I just hooked it up to a monitor on the floor for a while), but I remember Apidya was on my list, thanks for the reminder!

[velo]

Every single euro computer port has one guy claiming it's superior to the original.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Oh, weird that this article was published the same day that this video was uploaded: Two separate instances of interest in Amiga shmups, not just in the same decade but on the same DAY??!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OdzhSWTpSQ

Ziriax is by far the most interesting thing mentioned here. I played it via emulation some years ago but now I'm not sure if I had the "fixed" version or not.

Nice to see opinions on Xenon II softening over the years. Still, the work continues.

Zigguarat Interactive please re-release Z-Out on PS4.

[DazTM]

If Agony played as good as it looked it would be incredible. Always wanted to own it back in the day.

[Turrican]

From the article:

"Battle Squadron is probably the best vertical shmup on the Amiga, which is all the more impressive for an early game from 1989 [...] was ported to the Genesis/Megadrive but it looks, sounds and plays worse than the Amiga original [...] ensure that you play the original Amiga’s European PAL version, as the NTSC version has a smaller playing field. Also, get a patched version that lets you use the second button to fire your smart bomb, something the original lacked."

The megadrive version adds the second button, which as an improvement kinda compensates the difficulty spike. Here It doesn't tell the whole story: It's not that the original game simply "lacks" a second button (that would have been compensated as usual with the space key): It's that the game implements a rotary motion to trigger smart bombs. Which Is ludicrous game design and bogs the title down a few notches.

The inexistence of a scoring mechanic is also quite jarring, when the game screen is constantly littered by totally useless "X" tokens. Compare that with Xenon 2, which has a competent scoring system, only marred by infinite milking in two sequences; and adds shopping to the gameplay, where getting as many Cash bubbles as one can does really make all the difference in play.

I dunno, in retrospective this seems very lenient towards Cope-com and still quite harsh on the Assembly Line. There are just three 1989 titles on the list by the way, and my playability award goes to the third one, Datastorm.

[Herr Schatten]

Ziriax is by far the most interesting thing mentioned here. I played it via emulation some years ago but now I'm not sure if I had the "fixed" version or not.

Ziriax is indeed an interesting case. For the first stage, it’s a competent Gradius-esque game despite its slightly weird visibility issues that have deadly hazards blending into the background and other elements that look like solid obstacles but can be touched safely. It kind of falls apart from stage 2 onward, though, when enemy attacks become so chaotic that they are almost impossible to contain, even when powered up. Still, you’ve got to love that the game's visuals and music have 'demo scene' written all over like few others.

in retrospective this seems very lenient towards Cope-com

I see your point, but the main problem of the Mega Drive version is neither the increase in difficulty nor the smaller playfield, it’s parallax layers in the foreground obscuring the sprites.

I agree that it’s a baffling decision to implement the bomb via that weird stick wiggle, especially if you take into consideration that the bomb in Battle Squadron is as much an attack weapon as a defensive measure. Strangely enough, they actually had implemented the second button, but only if you play with a mouse. If they had simply not deactivated the button for joystick control, no harm would have been done for people with one-button sticks, but others could have simply plugged in a Mega Drive controller and enjoyed better controls.

[Bassa-Bassa]

The Amiga 500 joystick standard was 1-button only, and that's likely the system's biggest flaw regarding gaming. The 2 buttons support was unofficial, accidental, and late.

[the_knives]

I have often wondered what would have happened if Japanese developers had worked on that system

[MJR]

I have often wondered what would have happened if Japanese developers had worked on that system

We would had games on amiga that were actually playable?

Anyway, I noticed this only now. Having spent my youth with amiga shmups, I am mostly fine with the list. Props for mentioning Starray, which is one of the most playable titles on Amiga, and Boo! for not mentioning Sidewinder and Xenon, which were actually released as coin-ops.

Glad you included Battle Squadron and Z-out too, as those are some of the better offerings. Apidya has never interested me that much due to the boring visual theme, no matter how well it's made, and Project-X is just simply trash.

In my opinion, saying that we are leaving this game out of the list because "consoles have better counterpart" is a meaningless statement, because when you discuss amiga shmups your focus should be on whats in for amiga. I could just as well say that the shmup library on all consoles trumps Amiga easily in any case.

But it does not matter - any shmuck can make their own best of- lists on the internet and argue about them, and they all are totally entitled to do so. Therefore, I can make my own too, and my essential Amiga shmup list is following:

1. Battle Squadron
2. Z-Out
3. Hybris
4. Starray
5. Xenon 2
6. Blood Money
7. Super Stardust
8. Sidewinder
9. Xenon
10. X-out

Honorable mentions: Apidya, Datastorm, SWIV
Hall of disappointment: Project-X, Agony, Awesome > all look great but playability is total dog.

I am also ready to die on the hill over this list of mine, or would, if I really cared what other people think! Haha!

[Turrican]

2nd button support wasn't so late. The R-type conversion from Factor 5 already uses It in 1989, and probably earlier examples can be found. Whoever knew their stuff and was doing action games for the platform made sure to include the option since Sega pads became widespread. There are probably more 2 buttons Amiga games than 6 buttons megadrive games out there. As for the "unofficial"... Everything in the Commodore sphere was unofficial.

[Shatterhand]

The Amiga port of Silkworm features superior gameplay compared to the arcade original

Does it? ?

As far as I know, it’s supposed to. I’ve heard this claim so often that I never thought of questioning it, but it might actually just be a myth created by the gaming press of the time. They probably just meant "easier and more accessible". Is there someone with experience of both the original and the conversion who can clear this up?

Amiga version has bigger resolution. That's all. It does help make the game easier and more accessible, because there's more space to dodge stuff.

Its a very, very good port, to the point that it makes one of the finest shmups on the system, but it lacks in-game music (something that was too common with SCI games on Amiga... Ninja Warriors and Swiv also lacked in-game music, even though Ninja Warriors has a great rendition of Daddy Mulk in the title screen and on *that* case, I think it sounds even better than the Arcade one). But I can't say Silkworm on Amiga is better than on Arcade. I also wouldn't say it's worse

Another game ported by the same team, Rodland, does play better on Amiga than on Arcade as they fixed some annoying stuff from the arcade version, shaming its missing all 50 "secret" levels you can play after beating the arcade game. But those guys made some really good ports on Amiga.

[Shatterhand]

The Amiga 500 joystick standard was 1-button only, and that's likely the system's biggest flaw regarding gaming. The 2 buttons support was unofficial, accidental, and late.

The Amiga pinout can actually read 3 buttons. No one ever made a 3 button pad for it. Pin 7 on the joystick connector reads input from a 3rd button, intended for 3-button mouses. The thing is, the mouse buttons and the joystick buttons are exactly the same thing on the hardware side, so people could be using 2 button controllers from the get-go.

Legend says the reason why Commodore stated Amiga should use only 1 button controllers was that they had a huge stock of those joysticks made for the C64, and they were afraid people would migrate to Amiga and not buy those controllers if the Amiga controller had 2 buttons as default.

[sunnshiner]

Apidya's great and plays well with the second button.

[Bassa-Bassa]

intended for 3-button mouses.

That's why I said "accidental"...

Commodore stated Amiga should use only 1 button controllers

...and that's why I said "unofficial".


As for "late", I didn't know the R-Type port had support for 2 buttons, but if that's the case, it gotta be a weird experiment. The few developers that cared about the feature did it indeed because MD controllers were everywhere, but the PAL MD was released more than a year later than Amiga R-Type. And it took at least even a couple of years more to really succeed.


Regarding Silkworm, did some research -





The original version is clearly prettier - bigger, better and more sprites, more color, more background and foreground elements, more impactful everything. It also runs faster, I guess for being around 60hz vs Amiga's 50, and on Amiga it's single button-only. And the no-music thing indeed spoils it a lot. So far better on the arcade if you ask me. Amiga Silkworm just was lauded at its time basically because everything else before it on the computer (or on any computer, for that matter) was abysmal and this was playable enough and reasonably similar, and also kept the 2-player mode.

[Sengoku Strider]

Wow, this is a pretty great resource. Most of those games are from the early 90s, which was when the Amiga owners I knew were jumping ship to IBM/DOS computers (Wolfenstein 3D was spring 1992, that was big). I'd bet a lot of these games are pretty low profile among anyone who's not into Amiga emulation or who stuck it out with Commodore until the end. I'd have to imagine the shmup frame of reference for your average Amiga-knower is like, Blood Money, Xenon II and that killer port of R-Type.

I have often wondered what would have happened if Japanese developers had worked on that system

There were Amiga owners in Japan, but mainly hardcore hobbyists who hung around computer shops and would pay for the foreign curiosity. Tetsuya Mizuguchi said the two main influences for Rez were Xevious (the secret most important shmup ever) and the Amiga version of Xenon 2.

From my own interactions with people, the Amiga is known in Japan amongst the type of person who would know about 1980s computer platforms. But it's primarily known as the source for the yōge (Western games) that lurk indefinitely in 'Top 10 worst Mega Drive kusoge' videos. Sword of Sodan is like a standard-bearer for the clumsy inferiority of Western game development.

Had Commodore landed the right Japanese distribution partner and taken off there, my guess is you'd have a lot of X68000 downports since that was already the standard platform for late 80s Japanese arcade development, and the architecture would have made it easy & cost effective. But the probable broader result on the Amiga community would've been higher design standards across the board; things like having to choose between sound fx and music would have likely become less common among Western devs. This was certainly the result when Microsoft entered the console market, PC dev and Japanese consultant contracts in tow. Almost overnight Western games adopted (vastly superior) control, physics and interface standards which had been common in Japanese arcade & console games since the 1980s.

[Turrican]

Speaking of Amiga shmups, Is the guy who does the Battle of the Ports YouTube series lurking or registered here?

His general bias towards X68000 is always comedy gold, but the Flying Shark video must surpass every standard. It's my video-to-go when I need a good laugh, It's hysterical how he doesn't present ports in chronological order and compares a 1988 Amiga port with X68000 and FMTowns which are 1991 and 1993 (!) respectively, basically pure retrogaming by then.

[To Far Away Times]

Full list of essential Amiga Shmups:

[sunnshiner]

Full list of essential Amiga Shmups:

Genuine but I maintain that Apidya's a great shmup.

[Herr Schatten]

The few developers that cared about the feature did it indeed because MD controllers were everywhere, but the PAL MD was released more than a year later than Amiga R-Type. And it took at least even a couple of years more to really succeed.

True, but Master System pads with the same pinout were around since 1987.

Amiga Silkworm just was lauded at its time basically because everything else before it on the computer (or on any computer, for that matter) was abysmal and this was playable enough and reasonably similar, and also kept the 2-player mode.

This is probably it. What people expected from a platform obviously plays an important role. I looked up a few reviews and, apparently, arcade Silkworm reviewed lukewarm at best, often dismissed as being nothing special in comparison to other contemporary arcade games.* To be fair, I don’t think anybody ever argued that Amiga Silkworm looked or sounded better, but it reviewed very well indeed, which says a lot about the rest of the library it was being compared to.

Having tried the original now, I can see good reasons on either side why someone would prefer one version over the other, but the change in screen estate makes them almost feel like two different games, so it’s hard to compare. To me, this is a classic case of "arcade imperfect", where developers knew there was no way to replicate the original, so they simply tried to make a kind of loose interpretation as fun as possible with the resources they had.

* I remember a similar thing happening with Dragon Spirit. The reviews of the arcade version were mediocre, but the PCE port received a lot of praise.

[Turrican]

I see your point, but the main problem of the Mega Drive version is neither the increase in difficulty nor the smaller playfield, it’s parallax layers in the foreground obscuring the sprites.

I wonder if that is really the case. In the first tunnel, what they did was to bring in foreground obstacles which were already present as solid barriers. A bad decision, indeed, but they aren't really meant to be navigated underneath, so the outcome isn't wildly different. In the later tunnel, they add some new foreground stuff but were sensible enough to make It semi transparent. Anyway, this is just one issue piling up a good half a dozen others, like the criminal "orange bullets on orange worms background"... Once again something that Xenon 2 with its mostly white bullets easily avoids.

[Bassa-Bassa]

The few developers that cared about the feature did it indeed because MD controllers were everywhere, but the PAL MD was released more than a year later than Amiga R-Type. And it took at least even a couple of years more to really succeed.

True, but Master System pads with the same pinout were around since 1987.

I think that might be overrating Master System's success even in Europe, but yeah, if it's not a case of legacy from mouse support, it's either, that or really commendable forward thinking.

To me, this is a classic case of "arcade imperfect", where developers knew there was no way to replicate the original, so they simply tried to make a kind of loose interpretation as fun as possible with the resources they had.

You never really know, but I think this is one of those instances where the Japanese company sent the original code and PCB to the western licencees for the port. Some tiles are too similar to copy just by eye and the in-game font is exactly the same.

[Wonderbanana]

The Amiga port of Silkworm features superior gameplay compared to the arcade original

Does it? ?

As far as I know, it’s supposed to. I’ve heard this claim so often that I never thought of questioning it, but it might actually just be a myth created by the gaming press of the time. They probably just meant "easier and more accessible". Is there someone with experience of both the original and the conversion who can clear this up?

I played the hell out of Amiga Silkworm back in the day and I’ve owned the PCB. Is the Amiga port arcade perfect? Absolutely not. But it is a lot more playable and fun imo. If you ignore accuracy and are concerned with playability, Amiga Silkworm > PCB Silkworm imho. Ports don’t always have to be accurate to be more fun.

[Turrican]

Ports don’t always have to be accurate to be more fun.

I thought It was established long ago here that ports are generally superior to originals. Which makes perfectly sense: more months for developers, working out mechanics, fixing what didn't work, freeing from coin-milking syndrome, and generally improve. Too many advantages versus one single disadvantage, a somewhat less performing hardware.

[parodius]

A friend of mine mentioned this one

Code: Select all

Another honorable mention : Mega Typhoon. 50fps, almost feels like pce