Lion Heart (AMIGA) Master Piece **Spoilers!***

[ST Dragon]

Ah, Lion Heart!
The Memories!

I completed Lion Heart back in summer of 1994 (No cheating!) and what a graphic fest that was!
Incredible! Lion Heart is considered as the technical pinnacle of AMIGA gaming. It featured the most advanced graphics seen on the AMIGA 500.Hi-Res detailed graphics like this, were only dreamed of back in 1993 on the PC and 16-bit consoles of the time.
As it used a lot more than the basic 64Half-Bright colours the OCS/ECS chipset was capable of. The rainbow copper effects were amazing, especially the fire stage.

I still have some AMIGA Power / Format Mags with articles quoting that no other console adventure platform game of the time could match Lion Heart, especially in the graphics department.

The game had some of the most stunning looking Heroic Fantasy levels, which I had only read about in novels like Conan, Elrik, Lords of The Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, etc…
The Wastelands, the swamps, the spider infested caves, the forgotten city, the fiery caverns, the gravity defying citadel and especially the last Sorcerer Boss fight, were all some of the coolest and most memorable gaming moments!
The Sorcerer him self, reminded me of Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat, but in a more sinister & evil looking way. The fight it self was quite tough and took a few tries to overcome.

The ending was very epic & dramatic.
Valdyn’s sinister expression is so cool, when the king approaches in the background to greet & congratulate him on defeating his enemy, but Valdyn is like "Yeah right, get lost! I lost my girl in the struggle, so who cares about you old man?!” leaving him surprised cold in the great hall!

Then he discovers the secret powers of the talisman he had found in the lost caves and breaks the spell that had petrified his love.

A true masterpiece!

[Specineff]

The sprite looks like Lion-O from Thundercats allright.

Still, pretty amazing artwork. Too bad I can't get WinUAE to detect my joypad, otherwise I'd be playing Turrican 3 and this.

[ST Dragon]

I would say the sprite looks more He-Man imo.

What joypad are you using?
It's been quite sometime since I used WinUAE, but I've never had any joypad detection problems with the Microsoft 10-buton sidewinder pad on WinUAE, even with the older 1998 versions of WinUAE.

Try swapping the input com ports in WinUAE. (One used by the mouse & the other by the pad).

[Turrican]

I too completed it back then - without cheating. Great game!

btw, the manual and the box of that game are so classy...

[Shatterhand]

I had a beta version of this game, that came in one less disk, and it showed you the end of the game right from the start, if you asked it to do it.

The game has awesome graphics, but the gameplays is kinda "meh" imo.

[it290]

Damn. I completed this game back in the day, but maybe due to the cracked version I had or something, it froze up right as I finished off the last boss. I have it installed on my A3000 with WHDload, but I haven't tried to get that far again for fear the same thing will happen.

The gameplay of Lionheart is kinda funky. The first world is kinda boring, but once you get to the fire level it starts to pick up quite a bit, with awesome bosses and some cool scenes.

BTW, the game has two button support and it plays much better that way, using a Genesis pad, Master System pad, or CD32 pad. You have to select 2-button in the options menu before starting the game. This also works through emulation, although I don't recommend playing this game emulated as it glitches out a fair bit.

[ST Dragon]

I always used to play AMIGA games using my Mega Drive pad. You could use the "C' button in Turrican I & II to shoot the 2 vertical blue beams that swiped the screen, instead of the space button.
It was much better that way and added a faster more destructive pace of the gameplay.
Also in Turrican III you had the option to choose the 2nd button to jump.

I tried to use the 2nd button in Lion Heart via emulation (One of the later WinUAE) but it glitched real bad. I should try the latest version in case they fixed it.

@it290
Yeah I had the same problem with Lion Heart. Basically I had the CD-32 4-Disk rip version. It would freeze right after you defeat the Sorcerer's Demon. Only way to fix this was to use the 3-Disk Beta version mentioned by Shatterhand and see the ending.

I should convert the 4-disk [!] verified adf images to real AMIGA disks and try it out on my real A1200.

By the way, in the level right before the air-ship, there was a platform swinging from a chain & you had to make it swing more in order to reach higher ground (on top of the air-ship). These hanging/swinging platforms you would encounter them again at the Sorcerer's Citadel as you ascended upwards while being chased by the rising acid from below. I can't remember how I made them swing so I got stuck wiggling the pad left-right trying to make it swing more, but no luck!
It's been 12 years since I did this, so please could someone remind me.

Thanks.

[D]

...Is that....
Rastan?

[it290]

@it290
Yeah I had the same problem with Lion Heart. Basically I had the CD-32 4-Disk rip version. It would freeze right after you defeat the Sorcerer's Demon. Only way to fix this was to use the 3-Disk Beta version mentioned by Shatterhand and see the ending.

I should convert the 4-disk [!] verified adf images to real AMIGA disks and try it out on my real A1200.

This happened to me on an A500, so it wasn't an emulation issue. My version was 4 disks, but it wasn't a CD32 rip (was there even a CD32 version of this game released? I don't remember one). I know it wasn't a CD32 rip because it had a HD installer on the first disk. Not sure, but I'm pretty sure the commercial release was 4 disks as well.

Honestly though, I always felt bad about the fact that I had a pirated version because of that notice at the start. True, by the time I got the game Thalion was already gone, but still.

[Shatterhand]

What notice appears on the start? I don't remember.

The full, oficial game had 4 disks, I am absolutely sure about that

[it290]

There's a notice about how it will be Thalion's last Amiga game if it doesn't sell well, basically. I'm not sure how the game did sell, but it's doubtful they could have produced any more Amiga titles.

[Shatterhand]

Yes, Lionheart was the last game they published.

Airbus 320 II was released later, and it was developed by them, but published by other house. I think when this was released, Thalion had already shut its doors.

If I remember correctly, they were also developing a fighting game that would be released after Lionheart, but it never saw the light of day.

[ST Dragon]

Some time after Lion Heart, Thalion also made "Flink, The Misadventure of" for the SEGA MEGA CD & CD-32.

The graphics looked very similar to LH (From a cute perspective). It must have used the same engine.

I've only played the SEGA CD version, but I've read that it was actually better than the CD-32 version which was technically a superior system.

[Shatterhand]

From what I know, it was not Thalion who developed Flink, but ex-workers from Thalion.

Though yes, everyone who was involved in the development of Flink had worked for Thalion before (I think they ALL worked on Lionheart), but there was 2 guys (I really won't remember their names now) who were the main people behind Thalion, and none of them worked in Flink AFAIK.

[ST Dragon]

Germany has shown some really talented programmers in the past.
Some of the greatest games to ever grace the gaming realm were the Turrican Series (Especially Turrican 2 on the AMIGA) which too was developed by German programmers. (Factor 5 before they moved States side)
Not to mention Chris Huelsbeck's godly soundtracks.
They definitely touch your soul.

[Herr Schatten]

From what I know, it was not Thalion who developed Flink, but ex-workers from Thalion.

Yes, that's what I heard too. Pretty much like Mr. Nutz started development as "Timet the flying squirrel" over at Kaiko (of Apidya fame). but then Kaiko went bust and the guys finished the game for Neon. I don't know why they replaced the cute female protagonist, though.

As for Lionheart. I was one of those few who actually bought it and I still think it's technically outstanding. The gameplay is good, but not great. Very enjoyable game overall, though.

[ST Dragon]

I don't know why they replaced the cute female protagonist, though.

I didn't know Mr.Nutz's main character was originaly female.
How do you know this?


Other great Games produced by German developers:

Apidya
Katakis
X-Out
Z-Out

Was Jim Power also a German game?

[Turrican]

Was Jim Power also a German game?

No, it's French. By Loriciel.

[ST Dragon]

So was Another World & Flash Back!
Both awesome games, I still play Another World every now and then.
Not many modern games (Excluding Unreal 1 in 1998) can beat the sci-fi mystery atmosphere of AW.


By the way, was Shadow Fighter produced by Italian Programmers?

http://www.retrogaming.it/amiga/shadowfighter.htm



Awesome beat em up, the best on the AMIGA and the only one that caught the "Japanese" feel imo.
I rememebr spending hours on this battling against my neighbor!
It borrowed elements from Fatal Fury series.

[captain ahar]

By the way, was Shadow Fighter produced by Italian Programmers?

yep, it was made by Naps team.

[Shatterhand]

Fightin' Spirit

http://hol.abime.net/531

was also developed by Italian programmers. Are Italian people big fans of Fighting games or something? They made the 2 greatest games on this genre for Amiga.

Oh, and ST Dragon obviosuly didn't play it. I also thought Shadow Fighter was the best Fighting game on Amiga.... up until I played Fightin' Spirit

[Ed Oscuro]

Huh, that looks cool...I'll have to track it down. Surely it won't be the huge dud that Deliverance (Mac) was!

[it290]

That game does look nice, I'm surprised I've never seen it before.

I have to say that I prefer Ultimate Body Blows to Shadow Fighter for gameplay, though. And Elfmania is better in the graphics department. Shadow Fighter still rules, though. That's between the 'native' fighters. Sadly, I think SFII and MK have better gameplay than any of the original fighting games on the Amiga (haven't tried Capital Punishment though, but I heard it was crap).

[ST Dragon]

Fightin' Spirit

http://hol.abime.net/531

was also developed by Italian programmers. Are Italian people big fans of Fighting games or something? They made the 2 greatest games on this genre for Amiga.

Oh, and ST Dragon obviosuly didn't play it. I also thought Shadow Fighter was the best Fighting game on Amiga.... up until I played Fightin' Spirit

Actually, I have!
Fightin' Spirit was released in 1996 which was the time I moved onto the PC, so I kind of missed that.
But I did try the ADF disks images on WinUAE around 2000 and found it a bit frustrating having to change 5 disks every now & then (yeah I was spoiled by the PC HD & I think this game doesn't support a 2nd floppy drive in WinUAE)
I might give this one a 2nd try on WinUAE. Is there any way to install it on a WinUAE HD?
Surprisingly the graphics were emulated very well on this old 2000 version of WinUAE and were far better than Shadow Fighter, but I’ll have to play it for a day or two to comment on the gameplay.

I might also consider converting the ADFs to real Amiga disk and play on my real A1200 with a 2nd floppy (If it is supported, I don’t have a HD )

At least the 4-disk AGA version of Shadow Fighter was playable on my 2-Floppy A1200.

By the way, how good did the OCS/ECS version of Fightin' Spirit look compared to the AGA version? Was it 32colours or 64Hlaf-Bright colours?
Those pics at HOL are not very informative.

Body Blows Galactic was greatly enhanced (At least the backgrounds) on the AGA chipset and I just noticed that Ultimate Body blows was also released for the CD-32
http://hol.abime.net/1797
I thought it was PC exclusive title.
And what shocked me, is discovering that there was even an AGA version of Body Blows 1!
http://hol.abime.net/172
This is where some of the enhanced levels of Ultimate originated from, like Maria’s Plaza (Looks like a Greek island to me )

[Ed Oscuro]

Was Jim Power also a German game?

No, it's French. By Loriciel.

Hm. If there is some confusion, it might stem from the audio being composed by C. Huelsbeck...

[ST Dragon]

A very faithful remake was recently released for the PC
Lion Heart Remake:
http://www.b3dgs.com/en_lionheart.php

Download (4.3MB):
http://www.b3dgs.com/en_lionheart_down.php

Shots:
http://www.b3dgs.com/en_lionheart_screens.php

I really don't know how this guy was able to pull this off on the PC, unless he had the source code!
There are a few sound-effects missing here and there and the 1st Boss is slightly easier than the AMIGA version, but overall this is an excellent remake!
There is even an extra Stage 1.5!

[Turrican]

this is the Virtual Console / PSN / XBLA kind of material we'd love to pay for.

[Randorama]

So, is the swamp stage with the beholder-like boss an extra feature? Me and Ceph couldn't figure it out, due to senility

[Ceph]

Yeah, I wrote about it a month ago.

http://2dgaming.2d.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?t=130

[D]

The lion heart sprite looks like they first wanted a female. Then later decided a man would be cooler.
Wait a minute, it's GaijinPunch