Best Amiga Games, Best Amiga Game Developers


Amiga Overview



Manufactured by Commodore International from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, the original Amigas were powered by Motorola 68000 microprocessors clocked at 7.15909 MHz (NTSC/USA) or 7.09379 MHz (PAL/UK, Europe). Released in 1985, the Amiga 1000 was the first Amiga.

Known as Lorraine, the Amiga chipset was designed by Jay Miner of Hi-Toro in 1984. Jay Miner is The Father of the Amiga. The origin of the Amiga's chipset lies in Jay Miner's Atari 8-bits, not the Commodore 64.

Jay Miner is a legend of LSI and VLSI design; a Hero to computer-gamers.

Famously, the Amiga's M68k is supported by custom chips known as Agnus, Paula and Denise. Put simply for our purposes, Agnus includes the copper coprocessor, the bit blitter (a 3-input bimmer) and the DMA that reduces M68K overhead when playing sound; Glenn Keller's Paula includes the audio channels and control inputs (mouse/joystick); and Denise includes the color DACs and 16px-wide hardware sprites.

A typical Amiga playfield is hardware-scrolled and features hardware sprites and/or bobs (blitter objects) -- over 100 simultaneous on-screen objects can be smoothy shifted about by top-level coders, complete with precise collision detection and on-impact sound effects (cf. History of Shoot 'em ups).

Suffice it to say that it is the custom chips that separated Amiga games from IBM PC and Atari ST slop.

The Amiga 500 of 1987 was the most popular Amiga by far. It had 512 kbytes RAM as standard but most Amigans upgraded to 1 megs of RAM by 1987 and many Amiga games run better or have more features with the upgrade.

Most Amiga games run in 320x200/256 (NTSC/PAL) low-res non-interlaced, but some run in overscan and others run in hi-res.

On-screen colors range from 32 drawn from 4096 up to hundreds drawn from 4096.

The original Amigas were affordable to middle-class families yet they were on the cutting-edge of operating system, software and hardware development upon their release. The Amiga 1000 was so far ahead of the competition that Commodore's marketing department barely knew how to describe its capacities to prospective customers; there was no formal language that described the technology; the Amiga ushered in the age of multimedia computing.

Those who owned an Amiga in 1985 were living in the future by seven years pretty much across the board. Examples:

  • Preemptive multi-tasking GUI OS bolstered by a command-line Shell and ARexx
  • Multimedia & Genlocking
  • Audio-visuals
  • Plug n play & ease-of-use

As for Amiga upgrades, consider that in 1990 you could purchase for your bigbox Amiga 2000 a 68040 clocked at 25 MHz with MMU and coprocessor that came in at up to 25 MIPS and 8 MFLOPS, which was at least twice as fast as an i80486 clocked at 25MHz. And in 1992 you could purchase for your Amiga 500 an 68040 clocked at 28 MHz that was 40 times faster than a stock A500. RAM was 32-bit and ranged from 4 megs on the A500 to 32 megs on the A2000.

In order to cope with not having an Amiga, some PC gamers used to (and still do) characterize the Amiga as a mere computer-game machine; non-serious in application. But as you can see, even an Amiga 500 could be turned into a graphics workstation power-house.

In 1992 you wanted to add Fast RAM to your A1200 immediately. 2 megs of Chip RAM was not enough. And no, I'm not talking about plug-in PCMCIA cards, I'm talking about the trapdoor. As well, people added M68030 accelerators as soon as they hit the market.

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Welcome to my write-up on the best games for the Amiga, and the best game developers for the Amiga. To get up and running with Amiga emulation in 2024, please refer to WinUAE Amiga.


The Amiga is a Western microcomputer manufactured by Commodore. In the tradition of 16 bit gaming the Amiga was most famous for its shoot 'em ups and platformers that pushed its custom chipset to the limit and allowed it to contend with the Genesis and SNES consoles even towards the end of its lifetime. It was its copper and its blitter, its parallax hardware screen-scrolling and its sampled sounds that enabled it to stand the test of time in the highly competitive arena of 16 bit gaming.

Over 150 Amiga games ran at 50 FPS, too.

By custom chipset, we are referring to computer chips that are designed at the transistor-level for a specific purpose that is unique to the microcomputer.

Best Amiga Games


Overall, due to its combination of great gameplay and king-tier audio-visuals, the best game on the Amiga is Turrican 2. More than three decades subsequent to its release, Turrican 2 on the Amiga is still the best Turrican game by far. The Turrican games played to the Amiga's strengths by tapping its custom chipset, and that's what counts.


Lemmings Amiga 1991


DMA Design released Lemmings for the Amiga in 1991. Lemmings was programmed by David Jones.

Lemmings is another contender for best Amiga game. And while the original version of Lemmings on the Amiga is still the best Lemmings game, it did not push Amiga hardware all that much. Still, Lemmings is one of the most famous of Amiga games, and rightly so.


Defining an Amiga Game


But what constitutes an Amiga game, and what constitutes an Amiga developer?


Strictly speaking, I venture to state that an Amiga game is a computer game whose code targets the Amiga's chipset; and developers whose code targets the Amiga's chipset are Amiga developers.

The Amiga must be first and foremost in the mind. Ideally, the advantages of Amiga hardware are tapped into on a custom chipset level, not just the Motorola 68k which the Amiga shared with several other platforms (though at differing clock-rates). 

Sadly, this was not done as often as one would have liked: it always disappointed me that so many Amiga games were ports of Atari ST and IBM PC MS-DOS slop: inferior 2D gaming platforms in the Amiga's heyday, to be sure, since they lacked custom chipsets. For example, where were the hardware sprites, where was the second playfield, where was the multi-directional hardware scrolling?

Bitmap Brothers Amiga Games


The Bitmap Brothers mostly buffed Atari ST ports, so how can their games properly be called Amiga games? Xenon and Speedball are their best games and the rest are somewhat overrated, but still great (Speedball 2, Chaos Engine, Gods, Xenon 2).


If a few colors are added or the music and sound is better (sampled as opposed to chip-tunes), is it an actual Amiga game or a glorified ST version on the Amiga?


Don't get me wrong, I like the Bitmap Brothers' games even though they don't run at full frames. Also, the non-AGA pixel art of Mark Coleman and Dan Malone is masterwork. But I don't consider the Bitmaps focused Amiga developers.


The original Lotus games on the Amiga featured slightly better sprite-scaling than the ST versions; 90% of players would not notice.


Next, the reader is going to have to convince me that LucasFilm's The Secret of Monkey Island -- which some Amigans hold in high or even highest regard -- is an Amiga game.


  • The Amiga version of SoMI came out eight months after the PC version.
  • SoMI is built on the cross-platform SCUMM engine which has its origins on the Commodore 64 and Apple 2.
  • Also, remember the smooth scrolling in SoMI? Yeah, neither do I. What I remember is jerky scrolling. Like ST and MS-DOS slop of that era.

TMFX music aside, where is the Amiga in this game? [1]

SoMI is not an Amiga game, it is an MS-DOS game on the Amiga. The MS-DOS version is also better than the Amiga version.


In addition, if I'm not mistaken, Delphine's Flashback didn't belong properly to any platform at any time (its genesis on the Sega Genesis); even Éric Chahi's Another World didn't (though both were 68k games). For those who don't know, both of these games were cinematic platformers with rotoscoped, vector-based visuals, though Flashback's gameplay is far superior to AW's.


Mike Singleton's Midwinter is an MS-DOS and Atari ST game:




Certainly it is 68k assembly-coded, and is an apex masterpiece that should never be forgotten.

David Braben's Frontier Elite 2 also does not strictly fit my criteria, but I can't ignore its existence anymore than Archer Maclean's game:



Best Amiga Game Developers


Ranked in no particular order.

Reflections



Reflections are most notable for developing:

  • Shadow of the Beast I (1989)
  • Shadow of the Beast II (1990)
  • Shadow of the Beast III (1992)
  • Ballistix (1989)
  • Awesome (1990)
  • Brian the Lion (1994)

ICONIC.


It doesn't get any more Amiga than BEAST.

Paul Howarth's coding, Martin Edmondson's visuals, David Whittaker and Wright Bros. music = win.

Shadow of the Beast was advertised as "A whole new dimension in computer games."

  • 50 frames per second arcade-quality 13-level parallax screen-scrolling
  • 350 screens of graphics
  • 128 on-screen colors
  • 132 unique monsters
  • 850 KB of audio sampled at 20 kHz
  • 2 MB of graphics
  • Max sprite size: 220x150 px

Sensible Software



Sensible Software are famous for developing:

  • Cannon Fodder (1993)
  • Mega-Lo-Mania (1991)
  • Sensible Soccer (1992)
  • Sensible World of Soccer (SWOS, 1994)
  • Sensible Golf (1995)

CUTE GRAFIX BUT SERIOUS BUSINESS.


How can the inclusion of Sensible Soccer be argued against? Sensible Soccer runs at 50 FPS and is the one of the best English football computer-game franchises, along with Kick Off and Goal. A competitive genre market, that alone demands respect.

When you throw in Cannon Fodder and Mega-Lo-Mania on top of that, you've got something special.

Dino Dini's football games were also king-tier:



Graftgold, Andrew Braybrook



On the Amiga, Graftgold are most notable for developing Paradroid 90 (1990), Uridium 2 (1993), Fire & Ice (1992) and Virocop (1995).


AB is an absolute legend in C=64 and Amiga coding circles. Even his ports are masterpieces and all of his games have a high degree of playability; they're not just technically impressive.

Bloodhouse



Bloodhouse most famously coded Stardust (1993) and Super Stardust AGA (1994).

ASTEROIDS & TUNNELS.

King-tier Asteroids clones with light-sourced, rotating asteroids and high-speed tunnel segments reminiscent of Space Harrier. Pure gaming and extremely difficult to play without a quality input device.

DMA Design



DMA Design coded Menace (1988), Blood Money (1989), Lemmings (1991), Walker (1989) and Hired Guns (1993).


Factor 5



Factor 5 developed the Amiga Turrican Games and BC Kid.

  • Turrican (1990)
  • Turrican II (1991)
  • Turrican III (1993)
  • BC Kid (1992)

BIG-ASS ROTATING GUN.

50 FPS, arcade-quality run-n-gun games bolstered by a perfectly-polished platform game means that Factor 5 rank highly. Turrican was designed by Manfred Trenz, and the composer was Chris Huelsbeck. These guys knew how to tap into Amiga Alienware.

Kaiko / A.U.D.I.O.S.



Kaiko / A.U.D.I.O.S. developed Apidya (1992).

ALMOST PERFECT.

One of the best horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em ups on the Amiga. The music is absolutely awesome and the graphics aren't too shabby either. Even current gen gamers would find Apidya playable.

Team 17



QUANTITY & QUALITY.

Team 17 games were polished, targeted the Amiga's chipset and ran at full frames (or at least appeared to). Team 17 had the quantity of output with the quality, but in my opinion the original Alien Breed is their best game.

  • Full Contact (1991)
  • Alien Breed (1991)
  • Project-X (1992)
  • Alien Breed II: The Horror (1993)
  • Superfrog (1993)
  • Body Blows (1993)
  • Arcade Pool (1993)
  • Body Blows Galactic (1993)
  • Alien Breed: Tower Assault (1994)
  • Ultimate Body Blows (1994)
  • Worms (1995)
  • Alien Breed 3D (1995)
  • Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds (1996)
  • Worms: The Director's Cut (1997)

Ordilogic Systems



Ordilogic Systems developed Unreal (1990).

JAW-DROPPER IN 1990.


Aptly-named since its production values were indeed unreal. The game is part-platformer, part-railshooter. It has Amiga written ALL OVER IT.

Art & Magic



Art & Magic developed Agony (1992).

OWL.


Art & Magic are aptly-named as well. Games with haunting visuals and instrumentals on this level are rare. Agony is stamped with an Amiga seal, too. One could never mistake Agony for a lowly ST or artless MS-DOS game. It is impossible.

Martin Pederson



Martin Pederson coded Hybris & Battle Squadron (1988-89).

PREDATOR CLOAKING.

Difficult but highly-playable vertically-scrolling SHMUPs. The best on the Amiga. 


Hybris runs at 50 FPS; Battle Squadron at only 25 FPS but the scrolling is still smooth. I could never choose which of these two is best.

Cinemaware



Cinemaware developed trail-blazing games such as Defender of the Crown, TV Sports: Football and Wings.

  • Defender of the Crown (1986)
  • S.D.I. (1986)
  • The King of Chicago (1987)
  • Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon (1987)
  • Three Stooges (1987)
  • Rocket Ranger (1988)
  • Lords of the Rising Sun (1988)
  • It Came from the Desert (1989)
  • Antheads: It Came from the Desert 2 (1990)
  • The Kristal (1989)
  • TV Sports: Football (1988)
  • TV Sports: Baseball (1989)
  • TV Sports: Basketball (1990)
  • TV Sports: Boxing (1991)
  • Wings (1990)

NINETEEN EIGHTY SIX.

Defender of the Crown was released by Cinemaware in 1986. Defender of the Crown was designed by by Kellyn Beeck.

When Crown came out there was nothing like it. If Crown and Wings were your introduction to Amiga gaming, you were truly blessed. While none of Cinemaware's games are my cup of tea these days, it would be foolish to ignore their historical significance.


Thalion



Thalion are most notable on the Amiga for developing Lionheart (1993), Amberstar (1992) and Ambermoon (1993).

PRIME PIXEL ART.

Lionheart has some of the most gorgeous 2D backdrops on the Amiga. The pixel art is also A1 but the animations were not "Barbarian" enough for my taste. Still, it's an elite game.

Random Access



Random Access / The Sales Curve Ltd. coded Silkworm (1989) and SWIV (1991).


Silkworm scrolls horizontally and SWIV vertically, but both shoot 'em ups are raw and gritty, both run at full frames, and both are underrated by the mainstream.

Digital Image Design



Digital Image Design's RoboCop 3 and F-29 Retaliator are notable for their slick presentation and early-90s, pre-Doom polygon-pushing. RoboCop 3 even featured some FPS gameplay.

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In my humble opinion, those are the games and developers that really mattered on the Amiga; those are the games with Amiga soul. Even if its gameplay isn't great, Shadow of the Beast, especially, brought a degree of production value and artistry to 68k games that didn't exist beforehand, and I think Beast III's gameplay is ok.

I don't see how Amigans would disagree fundamentally with that list, but let me know what you think in the comments section. This list was made from memory; there are bound to be notable omissions.


Amiga Games that Pushed Amiga Hardware



From 1985-86 the Amiga was getting ports of MS-DOS and 8 bit computer games. None of these differentiated the Amiga by much. For example, increasing the palette range, employing digitized speech or taking advantage of increased diskette capacity to fully load game-data into 256 KB memory was simply not enough. Indeed, and this is undeniably true, at this point you were glad to still have access to your Commodore 64 catalogue.

We are talking about 1985-86, which is before the Amiga 500 (1987) and its 512 KB memory (which most people expanded to 1 MB).

On the other hand, in 1986 the Amiga clearly differentiated itself via paint, animation and music programs such as Deluxe Paint, Aegis Animator and Deluxe Music Construction Set as well as NewTek's DigiView and DigiPaint. And of course, the Amiga's multi-tasking GUI-based operating system was lightyears ahead of the home-computer competition.


The Pawn, Chessmaster 2000 and Defender of the Crown of 1986 were the first games on the Amiga that began to differentiate Amiga graphics and presentation from MS-DOS, Atari ST and 8 bit computer games such as the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.

Those three games were the first to employ slick user interfaces that actually wowed people without fail. However, two of those three were still ports; they weren't Amiga games. And DotC barely even featured gameplay.


And by reason of genre those three games did not employ hardware scrolling and other fancy chipset features that could have elevated the Amiga far beyond IBM PC MS-DOS and 8 bit microcomputer games.

Marble Madness of 1986 was the first good arcade conversion on the Amiga. Having its origin in a coinop, it also featured actual gameplay:
 

Amiga Arkanoid of 1988 was coinop quality:


But it was not until 1989, that is, until four years had past (Amigans were already noting with concern the slowness of Amiga releases in 1986-87), that the Amiga's chipset started getting pushed hard consistently. Consider that Shadow of the Beast and Hybris and Battle Squadron came out in 1988-89. These were the first REAL Amiga games.

After 1989, there was a steady-stream of Amiga games that pushed its hardware for several more years. And while that period could have lasted longer, you were glad to have had an Amiga.

MS-DOS Games Versus Amiga Games



In the early 90s the IBM PC caught up with the Amiga in terms of 2D capability via VGA. And it caught up to the Amiga's soundchip via sound cards. And the IBM PC had more raw processing power, more RAM and more HDD pedigree than Amigas. Moreover, it had the market. Thus was the Amiga Doomed as a computer game machine by the mid-90s, but as early as 1991 it was evident that Amigas could not contend in 3D computer games; only in 2D computer games did the Amiga contend. It is, however, quite a feat that 2D computer games on the Amiga rode 1985-tech for one decade. Bow down to the original Alienware.

The MS-DOS arcade-port of Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja furnishes one example of how VGA had caught up to Amiga graphics by 1992. The Amiga version looks like a port whereas the VGA version could be mistaken for the original arcade game.


Both MS-DOS and Amiga versions feature smooth parallax scrolling and smooth sprites, but the VGA version features several layers of parallax whereas the Amiga only features one cloud-cover layer. 

The Amiga version looks like an EGA game:


Clearly, the MS-DOS version also features more colors (256 versus 16 on the Amiga version).

It comes down to which developer ports the arcade as to which version comes out better, but I still think this shows that VGA > ECS / OCS if the coders know VGA as well as ECS / OCS.

And VGA coinop conversions also tended to be better than AGA as well: compare the Street Fighter games for example.

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[1]

TMFX: The Final Musicsystem eXtended by Chris Hülsbeck (1988-99).

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