Retro Gaming – My Amiga Upbringings Part 3........In to the wonderful …..

Some of the fondest memories of gaming came from just one developer The Bitmap Brothers. These games encapsulated the 90s Amiga Genre while demonstrating (to me at least), that gaming soundtracks didn’t just have to be blips n bops.

The Bitmap Brothers were the first developers to try and model themselves with a rock & roll images. Photos of them usually involved a black & white shot with compulsory sunglasses and the famous one posed in front of Robert Maxwell’s helicopter. Founded by Mike Montgomery it included Eric Matthews, Steve Kelly, Mark John Coleman and Dan Malone. It was the latter who credited with the visual style that all the games encapsulated. The hype was planned tho 

"The hype surrounding ourselves was all planned.", Mike Montgomery admits, "We wanted to change the attitude people have towards programmers. When you open magazines and see people dressed up looking really stupid it doesn't help our case as programmers to be taken seriously." Quote from here

My Dad didn’t bring home the Amiga 500 until 1989 so for me there introduction in 1988 was low key at first with Xenon and followed up the year after with Speedball. I suppose for me my fondness for Bitmap started in 89/90 with Cadaver (Xenon 2 was released before this but I’ll get back to that later). It was a game about a gold stealing dwarf and I remember first playing it on a demo disc from Amiga Format 9at the time I preferred Action Replay). The 3D style rooms decorated in rich blue/grey with hints of orange made it stand out from the other games of the time.

This followed in 1990 with Speedball 2. Initially I wasn’t too fussed about the 1 Player game as it seemed a lot of hassle for a quick bit of action. However after a while I gave the ‘Season Mode’ a bash and began to really get in to buying players to bolster parts of my weakened and usual battered field.

1991 was really Bitmaps halcyon year with the release of Gods and Magic pockets. Both of these games are remembered for there elaborate introductions using full soundtracks. Bitmap had upped their game for Gods as the soundtrack was supplied by Nation 12 which still holds up today. Combine this with the Box Art designed by comic book artist Simon Bisley the game for me was truly a landmark in Amiga gaming. Visually stunning with the Malone’s style the Game was praised for its AI adaptability.

The intro for Magic Pockets was less impressive as it didn’t contain any spoken words but did use the music for Betty Boo’s “Doing the Do”. It was also featured on (I think or something on ITV with Gaz Top) Going Live for a phone in competition which to be fair probably made it more popular than the music. The game was a strange concept of a kid who could pull all sorts of bubbles out of his pockets to defeat enemies. The longer you held fire the bigger the bubbles and the largest bubble captured the beastie in it. Thinking back another game afterwards called fire and ice was similar. I can’t imagine a game in these times coming out that used a boy fiddling around in his pockets as a main character. 

It was at this point I found Xenon 2. When I say found it came in a triple disc box set with Silkworm and something else that involved scrolling and shooting. Xenon 2 was famous for its soundtrack been designed by Bomb the Bass. At the time I like Nirvana so I am sad to say that at the time I probably didn’t give a monkey. I’d always like R-Type but found I wasn’t as good as id wanted it to be. However, move the action from side to side to over the top view and apparently my hand to eye coordination improved. 

Bitmaps Opus came in 1993 with The Chaos Engine which at the time I personally didn’t take to very easily. Looking back it’s a good example of where the likes of every 3^rd person shooter of today comes from. The over the top visuals and array of weapons it could easily be ported in to an XBL game (Seen as the far superior Alien Breed already has). It was a success though and in 1996 spawned a sequel.

The Bitmap Brother’s career was short and bright as releases after the Amiga didn’t hold up to the like of Doom and Wolfenstien. Speedball 2100 and Z: Steel Warrior proved poor successors and really by 2004 it was all over.

Retro Gaming – My Amiga Upbringings Part 2

Good and Bad Times at Franchise High – The Amiga 500 and an odd mix of Franchise Tie Ins

I have had mixed experiences with tie-ins as they always ways lure me in .Batman was a game that I had seen my friend playing and loved the mix of platform action interspersed with Batmobile/Batplane action. Based on the Tim Burton movie which was massive at the time (I had read the book, gone to the cinema and had a t-shirt) He didn’t seem to progress much off the first 2 levels so I took it home for a full test. I remember sticky moments trying to clip the balloons with the plane and even dying right on the last level just as you went to knock the Joker off. 

Robocop was a fairly run of the mill game but its saving graces were the “Dead or Alive you coming with me” voice recording, The ED-209 end bosses, the sniper type action with hostage takers and the big gun that fired a ball of flame. I did quiet like it though it seemed to have variety that many of these games lacked.

 

I’m rather fond of the Adams Family game which in ways was a Mario Clone. You played Gomez who had to visits parts of the House to free family members. I finished it out of sheer determination one rainy Sunday afternoon when the Amiga was in the Dining room under the stairs. It was the first time id finished a game and I was shaking through trying to kill the end of level boss and having 1 Heart left. Since then I’ve had it many times but it really proved to me trying hard and practice can pay off on these things.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – The Adventure (Point n Click) was one of 2 games that came out when the film did. This was the better one with a point and click method of going through the various scene much like Monkey Island. I can remember working through this with my mate sat in his bedroom on a Saturday afternoon. Especially the built were our tied to the chair with Henry Jones Snr and had to knock the axe over first so u could line your chair up properly to free yourself.

Like I said the Indiana Jones Point n click was one of 2 versions the other was an Arcade version which I received as a present. It was awful. The first level you were the young Indiana Jones and if you were lucky to get to the next level you made your way along the train. I remember it been unresponsive and exceedingly hard.

As you can tell this is where I’ll share some of the poorer Tie-ins. The Silver medal goes to Ghostbusters 2 for generally been dull and difficult. The First Level you are lowered in to a sewer on a rope while various ghosts attack you. This bits ok but there is an annoying ghostly hand that saws your rope that was a pain to get rid of. I got this as a Christmas present too (There’s a Theme starting here). After some effort with no outcome, It didn’t come out the box much and I only made it on to the walking statue of liberty screen twice.

The Gold Medal for worst Tie In goes to this game The Amazing Spiderman and Captain America in Doctor Doom’s revenge. You’ll probably guess but this too was a present, I think I was lured in to ask for it for my birthday and the box looked like a glossy comic cell and it came with an exclusive comic book. That’s were the similarity ended, the movement of the characters was poor and the cast of Villains was borderline Z List for Marvel. It even had a hideous Doctor Doom laugh all the way through with a sound like “HAW HAW”.  Watch the full game been played in 20 mins below and try and figure how many hours it took to be made.

Strangely this game haunted me right up to the Marvel Ultimate alliance on the 360 and after some poor Spiderman games on the Mega drive and Gamecube I didn’t think Marvel could do a good game.

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