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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:09 pm

In the next few weeks a Games section will be added to AmigaLove.com.

This new section will by no means be comprehensive at first. And this is not an attempt to recreate Wikipedia. it will also take a very long time to do, so what is launched will be a work-in-progress. But, it will start with some of the most popular titles in the U.S. and Europe and branch out from there.

I'm not sure if the "budget" titles will be represented at this time. But the "big boys" definitely will be.

Here's what it will offer that most other Amiga fan sites and repositories lack: it will be responsive. In other words, you won't be forced to use a desktop/laptop to view the game data and images. This should ensure a very long life for amigalove.com, and the rich history I hope it will provide in the coming years to anyone who tries to access it.

Games will include complete credits, screenshots and other visual media when available (e.g. box art, ads, etc.).

Stay tuned.

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Wed Mar 23, 2016 7:10 pm

How exactly would this be implemented into the site? Would this be a separate location to the forums with its own interface? With a list of games? Similar to a Wiki? Or would it just be a separate section of the forums and each game would be a separate topic? I'm guessing based on how you want to be viewable on all sorts of devices it would be separate. I'm guessing this would be more factually based as opposed to reviews? Looking forward to whatever you come up with on that though.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Mar 23, 2016 8:05 pm

Yes exactly - a separate section. There will be Forum and Games. The games section front will be a Search, but you will also be able to sort by Alpha (A, B, C, D, etc.). That will serve up search results in the form of screen thumbnails. The actual game page will include (at least right now):
  • Overview (which I will try to usually grab from the back-box-flap marketing copy)
  • Details (to include lots of database wikipedia info, like year published, Publisher, Designer, Composer, etc.)
  • Artworks (which could be box scans, adverts from old mags)
  • Screenshots (which I hope I get right!) ;)
  • A community voting tool, where you score with Hearts, naturally
  • Comments
The voting tool and comments might be phase 2, but I'm hoping I can launch with them. It depends on how long it may take to do and if I get antsy or not to ship what I have. "Phase 1" is already nearly complete, and currently is built to be responsive.

For what it is worth, I've been trying to make the U.S. releases my initial focus. To do this, I've been using a brilliant free and all-digital PDF archive of Computer Gaming World, which runs across the Amiga's timeframe. It also has lots of content for C64/Atari ST fans, but in every issue there are a few gems in terms of in-depth reviews and honest commentary, which is hugely helpful. I wish I could find other US-based mags that were Amiga focused (and not solely dedicated to video production). But they all seem to cover the whole scene, across all brands. CGW had an "Amiga Preferences" section with little dedicated columns of text

Tiny example from 1986, August (Issue #30) for your enjoyment:
After the initial sea of game clones for the Amiga the tide has shifted to a small puddle of new items. The biggest wave rolling in so far was Arctic Fox and the next sighted "big-one" is Marble Madness from EA. It seems to be out there somewhere in the distance. On the horizon are Jet from subLogic and others from Sierra and EPYX. We all keep waiting to see how each new release tops the other in appearance and performance on the Amiga.
No joke I read this stuff!
<3

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Wed Mar 23, 2016 9:46 pm

My dad bought Computer Gaming World after we went PC, but yeah, they had several Amiga lovers on their staff long after the Amiga was gone. In their 1996 hall of fame issue they put in several games and listed the Amiga as being the one that deserved to be played. He had several Amiga and Commodore magazines but Amiga World was the one we had the most of. I know you can find every issue scanned somewhere. I downloaded a whole bunch of them. Given the hobbyist nature of Amiga users in America they were focused on applications for the most part, but they always dealt at least a small section to games in every magazine and at least one issue per year was all about games. They even did a top Amiga games of all time list that I remember. That's worth downloading if you can find it.

Marble Madness was a good one! You're in 1986 then. Yeah, the 1000 had a brief burst of games to show what it could do but it took awhile to get people on board... Which game with the 500/2000 in 87! That's cool to see CGW looking forward to more Amiga stuff. They knew what it could do!

Well those first games would have all been from America, the 1000 did not even work in PAL countries if I'm thinking right. I don't know if you're focusing on particular years for the start or if it's going all over the place. That's what I"m doing on my channel, starting off the American stuff, throw in a few European stuff here and there. I actually like a lot of their better side scrollers and stuff (Fire and Ice is sweet! Super hard, but sweet!) I've just got a lot of crap to cover while I still remember the details from my past! Though I do know my top Amiga games list would be vastly different than the normal ones you see on the web.

Some of those European ones manage to slip in though. I love Another World/Out of this World. Ain't no way The Great Giana Sisters is ever getting in my list though! It's so funny how much they love that game and it shows just how huge piracy was, because the game was sold for one second before Nintendo killed it. Give me some Railroad Tycoon any day!

If you can figure out and list the games as North American/European you would be doing something nobody else has, and I commend you for it! - I suddenly want to play Marble Madness... hhaha...see, we could do those short/fun games too, it wasn't all super deep stuff. EA before they were evil.... Earl Weaver Baseball is another fantastic EA game. That was before they understood they could release the same unchanged product year after year and get fools to buy it. With EWB you had the main which was out in like 1986, early one... But you had "stat disks" made every year, for a low price, that included all the teams rosters. They did that from 1986-1992. From Computer Gaming Worlds Hall Of Fame 1996 Issue: "Earl Weaver Baseball: Revolutionary physics based baseball engine please both action and statistic fans, still unsurpassed over a decade later."

Looking at the list of those games... To me, those are the big boys... And I'd say half the list at least had an Amiga version that was the best version. I don't even like all of them but it's so obvious how different the tastes were over the pond.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Apr 01, 2016 9:04 pm

The Games Section is 95% complete from a development standpoint (with more enhancements planned).

If anyone has any recommendations of games they'd like to see in the early days, post your ideas here or PM me and it'll get on the docket.

Plans are to unveil the section by the end of April, 2016, and each game will have the ability for community voting on the game (1 through 5 hearts) and comments.

Games will be found via search tools and alphabetical listings at first. Stay tuned...

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Apr 03, 2016 2:08 pm

The new Games section is complete, and I believe all of the bugs have been found and squashed.

I plan to push it live for all users by the end of April, as it could use a little bit of content first! That being said, it will be rather sparse for the first several months as I get a good content-creation flow going. I hope you all like what you see.

<3

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:10 pm

This has taken longer than I planned. I am making progress at 1 game a day. At the current rate the Games Library, as small as it is, will become publicly visible to all by the third week in May.

Some of the games I wanted to launch with may not make it. Try as I might, I have not been able to find Infocom's A Mind Forever Voyaging in Amiga format. This title, for Amiga anyway, seems to be extremely rare.

Also, shockingly, Archon was extremely difficult to get working at all. It is such an early title, downgrading one's machine to find that magic spot adds a lot of time to this type of research project. I won't be surprised if a few more gems cause problems, too. So, some classic titles (esp from 85-86) may be added later to the library rather than slow down the release. But they won't be left behind, for sure.

<3





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