ALIEN³ | Mega Drive & Amiga | Dual Longplay - Comparison

[@juandel7819]

I thought the Amiga version was going to be even better than the Genesis one, but definitely there is one winner by far, Sega genesis!!

[@masterdrewt6698]

Genesis I must say is a very interesting one The amiga one reminds me of a Atari Jaguar port of it

[@camulodunon]

The Amiga version, being a port of a game originally developed on the more powerful Genesis/MD, obviously has some cutbacks, but IMO it's almost as good as the original. The Amiga version doesn't have any parallax as well as having less layering in the playfields/sprites (look at the ladders going from floor to floor). It also lacks many of the extra moving objects that were in the original such as the alarm light, but all of the enemy sprites and items seem to still be there, which are what really matter. Color wise it's strange, while the MD version clearly has more on-screen at once, the people who ported the game actually seemed to have improved on many the color choices of the original, as it looks more vibrant and less muddy in many areas. However the lack of colors on screen does really hurt some parts of the presentation, particularly the back playfield in stages 7-9, which is just some dithered gray and red compared to the full pallet of the original. Sound wise it's also interesting. It very strange that instead of using completely different sounding MOD samples for the Amiga music arrangements, they just sampled the FM instruments from the MD version (for the most part). Of course it sounds muffled in comparison, and there aren't as many instruments playing at once due to the 2 less channels, but it still works rather well and the whole soundtrack is still quite enjoyable to listen to regardless of either platform, Matt Furniss at his best :) Overall the MD version definitely wins by a bit but both versions hold up quite well.

[@camulodunon]

Also, I'd say that in the hive stage, the reduced color palette and parallax makes it look and feel darker and more fitting than the gaudy, bright and contrast-heavy MD version.

[@mleolv426]

@@camulodunon In a lot of Amiga games the larger palette available seems to allow artists to select a more appropriate colour. The lack of on screen colours hurts the Amiga a lot though. If only the Megadrive had a 4096 colour palette like the Amiga.

[@handrewmillan4293]

thanks for this appreciate the effort

[@naviamiga]

What a fantastic idea. Great seeing them back to back. You can certainly see the Mega Drive was the lead system and then ported to the Amiga, doesn't make best use of the system. Still fun though.

[@Titan-im7op]

🔥🔥🔥💪🎮🖤

[@GenGamesUniverse]

I love the fact that these two games RETCON the crappy ending of Alien 3 where Ripley throws herself into the furnace to stop the chestburster from escaping.

[@willrobinson7599]

Great port to the amiga.shame no Parallax but at least probe used the 2 button option on the amiga.

[@Galahadfairlight]

I think the Amiga got short changed by typical UK development, where Probe took on too many versions at a time and others suffered. Clearly obvious that the Megadrive/Genesis version was lead, and that was completed first with Amiga being squeezed in afterwards to get it done in time for a tight release schedule, hence why so much music is missing and there are the obvious time compromises in the game itself. No excuse for the game to not be in 50fps, and could at least have been in 32 colours instead of 16. The entire intro sequence could have been included and done on Amiga, but its obvious they ran out of time to copy the Megadrive version 100%. Still, at least the Amiga got a version I suppose, laughably they did a version for the C64 but opted not to bother with the Atari ST!

[@AlexanderMazucco]

Mega Drive version seems a little better.

[@jarekfranczyk880]

You can see that the Amiga version was created as a conversion from SEGA.... with poor results. A lot of simplifications. The background moves along with the foreground. Sound also better on SEGA.

[@hajimenohippo8066]

Megadrive !

[@AndreCarvalhoComix]

Paralax in genesis version

[@antcow1239]

The mega drive is better, the background artifacts are animated

[@bighairydel]

The amiga can do far better than this. looks like a quick port. no parallax scrolling and jerky scrolling. shame. The megadrive version looks great

[@camulodunon]

I don't see how the scrolling is jerky.

[@Elbas_Tardo]

Developers win more money with cartridge, that's why they spend more time and money on MD than on Amiga even though the latter is superior in everything else.

[@pirrracy]

...and you have no weapons of any kind?

[@Theryo2007]

Should've include the SNES version.

[@camulodunon]

That was a totally different game.

[@AmigaWolf]

De Sega version is the best, such a pity they made the Amiga version worse, same for Turrican 3.