Now I understand the greatness of Turrican!!....

[dave4shmups]

After watching just part of an Amiga Longplay (on Youtube) of the 2nd game in the series-awesome graphics, sound and gameplay! Miles better then any SNES or Genesis Turrican game!!

Speaking of the Amiga, I was eying the A1200 at the online store:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... rrency=USD

But I have no idea what I'd need to buy with it-it looks like there's a disk drive built into the thing, but you can get up to 80gig!.

[neorichieb1971]

Most games on the Amiga do not utilize the hard drive. Some do, but most don't.

You just need the keyboard bit, the transformer to power it and video leads. You can buy a commodore/philips monitor for it which requires a DB9 I think. Otherwise your stuck with RF.

For joysticks, i'm sure quite a few are available on ebay. I used a competition pro 5000 in the old school days. A Genesis pad works as well, but only one fire button is available for use.

Thats all you need for gaming.

Some A500 games won't work on the A1200 because it has 1mb of chip memory and no fast memory. You would be best advised to seek a website that has compatibility assurances before you start buying games.

If you go for really really old games which have kickstart 1.2, again compatibility issues will arrive and the game simply won't boot. In this day and age though, i'd be surprised if these issues were not ironed out. Most games came out during the kickstart 1.3 era, so i'm 95% certain you won't get kickstart issues, only the memory issues. Any game that came out after the A1200 will definitely work though.

[dave4shmups]

Most games on the Amiga do not utilize the hard drive. Some do, but most don't.

You just need the keyboard bit, the transformer to power it and video leads. You can buy a commodore/philips monitor for it which requires a DB9 I think. Otherwise your stuck with RF.

For joysticks, i'm sure quite a few are available on ebay. I used a competition pro 5000 in the old school days. A Genesis pad works as well, but only one fire button is available for use.

Thats all you need for gaming.

Some A500 games won't work on the A1200 because it has 1mb of chip memory and no fast memory. You would be best advised to seek a website that has compatibility assurances before you start buying games.

If you go for really really old games which have kickstart 1.2, again compatibility issues will arrive and the game simply won't boot. In this day and age though, i'd be surprised if these issues were not ironed out. Most games came out during the kickstart 1.3 era, so i'm 95% certain you won't get kickstart issues, only the memory issues. Any game that came out after the A1200 will definitely work though.

Thanks for the info! I'm concerned about games with multiple disks as well, though. Can't you hook up the A1200 to a TV?

[Mortificator]

I like Turrican 2, but the game felt like it needed one more area. You dredge through the alien zone, ride the platforms up, fight a big robot... and it's over. The ending shows a fortress exploding, which you never got to play through, and congratulates you on beating The Machine, who you never got to fight.

Anyway, I don't think Turrican 3 / Mega Turrican was as good as the originals, and the SNES Super Turrican was worse still. Super Turrican II was great, though.

[Ed Oscuro]

I haven't played through it, but Super Turrican 1 seemed to look more like a Turrican than I remember ST2 looking. I need to play through my ST2 US cart sometime.

[Shatterhand]

You just need the keyboard bit, the transformer to power it and video leads. You can buy a commodore/philips monitor for it which requires a DB9 I think. Otherwise your stuck with RF.

For joysticks, i'm sure quite a few are available on ebay. I used a competition pro 5000 in the old school days. A Genesis pad works as well, but only one fire button is available for use.

You can use Video Composite. At least on the A600 you could, so I believe you can on an A1200 too.

And the Genesis Pad works as a 2 button control on Amiga (B and C), like the Master System one also does. Some games have support for 2 button controllers, including both Turrican 2 and Turrican 3

[dave4shmups]

You just need the keyboard bit, the transformer to power it and video leads. You can buy a commodore/philips monitor for it which requires a DB9 I think. Otherwise your stuck with RF.

For joysticks, i'm sure quite a few are available on ebay. I used a competition pro 5000 in the old school days. A Genesis pad works as well, but only one fire button is available for use.

You can use Video Composite. At least on the A600 you could, so I believe you can on an A1200 too.

And the Genesis Pad works as a 2 button control on Amiga (B and C), like the Master System one also does. Some games have support for 2 button controllers, including both Turrican 2 and Turrican 3

I'm wondering if I shouldn't just get an A500 or 600-I dug out an old issue of Retro Gamer that had a feature on the A1200, and there aren't that many exclusives.

The most impressive shmup I've seen on the Amiga so far, apart from T-Zero, is Apano Sin-that's incredible!

Now, finding NTSC software might be difficult-that's what I'm most worried about.

[Shatterhand]

Why you would want NTSC software? I think it's going to be EXTREMELY difficulty to find NTSC software.

The A1200 doesn't have many exclusive, but the ones it has are very worthy. Also, many original A500/600 games were enhanced on the A1200. I dont know the prices, but if an A1200 isn't much expensive, I'd say go for it.

Most games incompatible games nowadays have some solution to run on A1200.

[robthebanks]

Which is the best Turrican to try? I've played the one on the genesis and thats it...

[Shatterhand]

Common sense will tell you to play Turrican 2. Is the one that has more fans for sure.

I personally find Turrican 3 better, with better level design and more balanced gameplay.

But 2 is awesome too, and you won't go wrong with it.

[it290]

I personally like Super Turrican - it kind of has the flavor of both Turrican 2 and 3 in one game, with a little bit more of an oldschool feel than Turrican 3.

A few notes on Amiga gaming:

-The easiest way, by far, to play games on a real Amiga is to get one with a HD and use WHDLoad. If you set it up properly, you can play pretty much anything on an A1200 or A4000, and still get all the benefits of the more recent OS versions, without having to deal with floppies. Other Amiga models will work too, but you'll be missing out on the AGA games.

-Don't worry about finding NTSC software. If you get a 1084 or similar monitor, you can sync to 50hz and run things in PAL no problem. If you hook the Amiga up to a television, odds are you won't be able to do this. You can still force many things to run in NTSC, but part of the screen will be cut off and you'll have timing issues.

-I would not recommend getting an A500 (even though they're the easiest machines to find in the US by far) for the following reasons: a) if you get a stock NTSC A500 without the 1MB Agnus chip, you won't be able to run in PAL mode at all. b) To run RF, you will need the A520 RF modulator which will cost you extra. The A500 has composite out, but it's only in black and white. c) If you want to add a hard drive, you'll have to find a 'sidecar' unit that slots into the A500's expansion port, instead of just sticking a drive in like you can do with most of the other models. d) Chances are the A500 will be equipped with kick 1.2 or 1.3, meaning you won't be able to run newer OS versions without a ROM upgrade.

-The A600 is like the A500, only worse. Don't get an A600.

-For my money, the easiest/best Amiga to get is the A3000, in spite of its lack of AGA. It has a built-in scandoubler/flicker-fixer, which means that you can hook it up to any VGA monitor or an RGB monitor, stock. You can also add/change the hard drive very easily. I think the A3000 also has the best form factor of any Amiga model. They are a bit hard to find, but well worth it in my opinion.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Turrican 3 is competant at best. Even as a 15 year old I was dissapointed, beating it on my first go! It's certainly not a bad game, it has great graphics and tunes and solid level design but sacrifices the previous games greatest assets (namely the vast open stage design and the lightning surround weapon) in favour of trying to be the Amiga's version of Contra 3/Super Probotector.

My personal favourite is the first game but Turrican 2 seems like the obvious choice to try. The game design was tightened, eliminating some of the more pointless aspects of the first game (mines and grenades). The first game also felt more moody and atmospheric whereas the second was all upbeat and cartoony.

Always worth mentioning the fanmade T2002. I had hours and hours of fun with the level editor, ripping graphics from other games to make levels based on Z-Out and Shadow of the Beast. Limitless fun. Shame its all on my own comp and I cant be bothered to muddle through the german installation again.

[Cthulhu]

There seem to be some Turrican-knowledgeable people here, so I figure someone will know this...

1) Is plain old Turrican for the Genesis a port of one of the Amiga Turrican games?
2) Independent of #1, is it a port by the original developer(s) or someone else?
3) Are Super Turrican for the SNES & Genesis (am I mistaken or are they different games with the same title? It's been so long) ports of Turrican games from elsewhere?
4) Independent of #3 (hmm, heard that one before), are they made by the original developers or by someone else?

[Shatterhand]

There seem to be some Turrican-knowledgeable people here, so I figure someone will know this...

1) Is plain old Turrican for the Genesis a port of one of the Amiga Turrican games?

Yes, a port from Turrican 1, but a bad port in many levels.

Universal Soldier on Mega-Drive is, believe it or not , a port of Turrican 2. It's completely botched because of the license... there's one new level (the first one), some sprites are changed, the shmup section is completely removed, and the main sprite resembles Jean Claude Van Damme. Also the boss on the 2nd level (1st in the original Turrican 2) it's not a robot, but a giant Dolph Lundgren. Yeah, pretty stupid.

2) Independent of #1, is it a port by the original developer(s) or someone else?

The Amiga game was made by Factor 5. I don't remember who did the Mega-Drive port, but it was another company (I think it was called Ballistic, if memory serves well). It's always good to remind that Turrican was originally made for the C64 by Manfred Trenz, even though I feel the Amiga version is what made Turrican famous in the first place.

3) Are Super Turrican for the SNES & Genesis (am I mistaken or are they different games with the same title? It's been so long) ports of Turrican games from elsewhere?

There's no Super Turrican on the Mega-Drive. There's a game called Mega Turrican, which is basically Amiga's Turrican 3. It's usually said the Mega-Drive game was developed first, but I've read from Factor 5 staff that the Amiga version begun its development first, but the Mega-Drive one ended being released before. Super Turrican is a completely new game, made exclusively for the SNES. It adds some elements from both Turrican 2 and 3, with some new stuff, and great music. It's a pretty good game, though a little inferior IMO comparing it with the previous games. Super Turrican 2 is also an SNES exclusive and usually regarded as the worst game in the series (Though it's still pretty good on its own, it just doesn't feel much like Turrican anymore)

4) Independent of #3 (hmm, heard that one before), are they made by the original developers or by someone else?

Both Super Turrican and Mega Turrican were made by Factor 5.

[Kaiser]

There was Super Turrican for NES as well, it was a great port of first one, it wasn't bad on many levels as Genesis was

[Shatterhand]

There was Super Turrican for NES as well, it was a great port of first one, it wasn't bad on many levels as Genesis was

That one was made 100% by Manfred Trenz, GFX, Music, Coding, everything was handled by him.

[Herr Schatten]

More invaluable info on the series here.

[Kaiser]

There was Super Turrican for NES as well, it was a great port of first one, it wasn't bad on many levels as Genesis was

That one was made 100% by Manfred Trenz, GFX, Music, Coding, everything was handled by him.

No wonder it's genius since Trenz is a genius himself. I loved this port in a lot of ways, there was nothing to hate about. It was a LOT faster than amiga turricans but i liked that

[dave4shmups]

I personally like Super Turrican - it kind of has the flavor of both Turrican 2 and 3 in one game, with a little bit more of an oldschool feel than Turrican 3.

A few notes on Amiga gaming:

-The easiest way, by far, to play games on a real Amiga is to get one with a HD and use WHDLoad. If you set it up properly, you can play pretty much anything on an A1200 or A4000, and still get all the benefits of the more recent OS versions, without having to deal with floppies. Other Amiga models will work too, but you'll be missing out on the AGA games.

-Don't worry about finding NTSC software. If you get a 1084 or similar monitor, you can sync to 50hz and run things in PAL no problem. If you hook the Amiga up to a television, odds are you won't be able to do this. You can still force many things to run in NTSC, but part of the screen will be cut off and you'll have timing issues.

-I would not recommend getting an A500 (even though they're the easiest machines to find in the US by far) for the following reasons: a) if you get a stock NTSC A500 without the 1MB Agnus chip, you won't be able to run in PAL mode at all. b) To run RF, you will need the A520 RF modulator which will cost you extra. The A500 has composite out, but it's only in black and white. c) If you want to add a hard drive, you'll have to find a 'sidecar' unit that slots into the A500's expansion port, instead of just sticking a drive in like you can do with most of the other models. d) Chances are the A500 will be equipped with kick 1.2 or 1.3, meaning you won't be able to run newer OS versions without a ROM upgrade.

-The A600 is like the A500, only worse. Don't get an A600.

-For my money, the easiest/best Amiga to get is the A3000, in spite of its lack of AGA. It has a built-in scandoubler/flicker-fixer, which means that you can hook it up to any VGA monitor or an RGB monitor, stock. You can also add/change the hard drive very easily. I think the A3000 also has the best form factor of any Amiga model. They are a bit hard to find, but well worth it in my opinion.

Interesting. I would just emulate on WinUAE, because you can buy the kickstart roms, but with the games there's always the legality issue. I mean, it's not like there's a site equivalent to Atariage.com for Amiga games, where it's legal to download the games.

As far as WHDLoad goes, I found this: http://www.whdload.de/ But how would I get the files onto an Amiga??

EDIT: This looks cool!: http://www.amigaforever.com/

If I can play the games legally on our PC without actually owning an Amiga, that would be perfectly fine by me.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Yes, a port from Turrican 1, but a bad port in many levels.

This is certainly worthy of further discussion. Apart from inferior sound and some lazy tiling I cant think of anything significantly bad about this port. Some of the changes (slightly increased difficulty) were actually pretty good.

[Mortificator]

What do you get with Amiga Forever?
* A frontend.
* Outdated versions of two freeware emulators, WinUAE and WinFellow.
* Workbench, though better versions are freely available.
* Kickstart ROMs and games.

You might want to buy it if you feel obligated to legally obtain the Kickstart ROMs and whatever games you get with your version, but after copying those you should ignore the rest of the junk on Amiga Forever... forever.

Super Turrican 2 is also an SNES exclusive and usually regarded as the worst game in the series (Though it's still pretty good on its own, it just doesn't feel much like Turrican anymore)

Yeah, it went for the Contra III / Super Star Wars trilogy style. As that type of game, it's a lot of fun.

Really though, none of the later games felt like Turrican 1 & 2.

[dave4shmups]

What do you get with Amiga Forever?
* A frontend.
* Outdated versions of two freeware emulators, WinUAE and WinFellow.
* Workbench, though better versions are freely available.
* Kickstart ROMs and games.

You might want to buy it if you feel obligated to legally obtain the Kickstart ROMs and whatever games you get with your version, but after copying those you should ignore the rest of the junk on Amiga Forever... forever.

Super Turrican 2 is also an SNES exclusive and usually regarded as the worst game in the series (Though it's still pretty good on its own, it just doesn't feel much like Turrican anymore)

Yeah, it went for the Contra III / Super Star Wars trilogy style. As that type of game, it's a lot of fun.

Really though, none of the later games felt like Turrican 1 & 2.

I thought WinUAE was a pretty good Amiga emulator. What I'm most concerned about here is the legality of Amiga emulation. I need input from someone with knowledge regarding that.

[Cthulhu]

That one was made 100% by Manfred Trenz, GFX, Music, Coding, everything was handled by him.

Wasn't he also behind Burning Ranger (or whatever) for the SNES?

Oh, and thanks for the answers earlier. Much appreciated. I mixed up Super & Mega Turrican... It's been a while.

[Shatterhand]

dave, check here

http://www.back2roots.org/

all the games on this site are legal to download. It's a good place to start.


Winuae is a pretty good emulator, but there's no reason to spend money on it, as it's completely free.

And frankly, the 1.3 and 3.1 Kickstart roms *deserve* to be pirated at that point. It's pathetic that someone still holds the Amiga copyright and do nothing worthy with it.

[Ed Oscuro]

That one was made 100% by Manfred Trenz, GFX, Music, Coding, everything was handled by him.

Wasn't he also behind Burning Ranger (or whatever) for the SNES?

Burning Rangers sounds like the first-party Sega Saturn game. Don't you mean Rendering Ranger (R^2)?

[Gungriffon Geona]

That one was made 100% by Manfred Trenz, GFX, Music, Coding, everything was handled by him.

Wasn't he also behind Burning Ranger (or whatever) for the SNES?

Burning Rangers sounds like the first-party Sega Saturn game. Don't you mean Rendering Ranger (R^2)?

I'm pretty sure that's what he means. That game is pretty damn awesome, albeit half of the game is very Contra in style. most of the awesome points of it come from how much stuff the game could have on screen WITHOUT SLOWDOWN. there's literally only one point where the game slows down, and it's a massive spider boss that has a bit too many sections for each leg.
Only real downside was some of the shootemup sections became incredibly painful to play. Otherwise the difficulty is your standard affair for the time period.

[dave4shmups]

dave, check here

http://www.back2roots.org/

all the games on this site are legal to download. It's a good place to start.


Winuae is a pretty good emulator, but there's no reason to spend money on it, as it's completely free.

And frankly, the 1.3 and 3.1 Kickstart roms *deserve* to be pirated at that point. It's pathetic that someone still holds the Amiga copyright and do nothing worthy with it.

OK, thanks! What about the games on www.lemonamiga.com ?

[it290]

Interesting. I would just emulate on WinUAE, because you can buy the kickstart roms, but with the games there's always the legality issue. I mean, it's not like there's a site equivalent to Atariage.com for Amiga games, where it's legal to download the games.

As far as WHDLoad goes, I found this: http://www.whdload.de/ But how would I get the files onto an Amiga??

EDIT: This looks cool!: http://www.amigaforever.com/

If I can play the games legally on our PC without actually owning an Amiga, that would be perfectly fine by me.

WHDLoad will install games from floppies/images on to the hard drive. Many adf's won't work for this purpose, because WHDLoad (generally) only supports the original version and not cracked versions, although there are exceptions - it depends on the game. You can use CAPS images just fine though.

As far as installing WHDLoad itself onto an Amiga, there are a number of ways. With classic Amiga hardware, you could use a network card, ZIP disk, or PC-formatted DSDD floppy to copy them onto the Amiga. I have a network card in my Amiga, so if you needed me to send you a copy of the WHDLoad installer I could do so.

As long as you own the original Kickstart ROMs (whether through Amiga Forever or because you actually own an Amiga) and Workbench, it is perfectly legal to do whatever you want with the Amiga software you own, including use of WHDLoad.

And finally, there IS a site for legal amiga downloads: Back to the Roots.

edit - whoops, sorry, didn't notice mention of back2roots above.

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, you guys are right, I got my ranger games wrong. Doh.

[Ed Oscuro]

[Rendering Ranger] is pretty damn awesome, albeit half of the game is very Contra in style. most of the awesome points of it come from how much stuff the game could have on screen WITHOUT SLOWDOWN. there's literally only one point where the game slows down, and it's a massive spider boss that has a bit too many sections for each leg.
Only real downside was some of the shootemup sections became incredibly painful to play. Otherwise the difficulty is your standard affair for the time period.

I got a far ways into the game, impressions here.

Needed a lot more work before prime time, and I really didn't like the flatness of the first stage and the pits all over the place - pretty dang hard to fall into them, but a pain to have to deal with.

The factory stage would've been more fun if all the bosses within weren't easily defeated by exploiting safe spots.

Not a bad game though and I've bought it twice.