Amiga's Answer To Arkanoid!

[@JimLeonard]

Love the comparisons! Always cool to see different takes on a popular genre, especially to ports. Some quick corrections: Ball Raider was released in 1987, not 1988. Megaball was released in 1991, not 1992.

[@MaximumRD]

I played so much MEGABALL back in the day!

[@g.p.vershner5126]

Check out the Poing series. They are sideways rather than vertical but essentially the same idea. Lots of interesting features like breaking through the back wall to access the next level, and falling though the previous levels if you let the ball go. Plus - AI generated music! I think Poing 4 was the best.

[@cosa_nostraaa]

Megaball is my childhood! My beloved Grandpa played with me, he even played boards I made for him

[@ArcturusDeluxe]

Great video, I like me some breakouts. I find the absense of Poing quite baffling though! It's such an interesting example of the genre and definitely my fave on Amiga. It's not outwardly anything special at first glance but has tons of bells and whistles and innovative features. Poing 6 or 7 are the ones to check out as they're the most feature complete (6 will give you a decent quick look at it, 7 is the final version with no extra features except all the levels from previous versions but is slightly more fiddly to get running)

[@GouldFishOnGames]

I completely forgot about Poing, I'd played it in a Cover Disk episode but it slipped from my memory. There were quite a large number of games to choose from that I knew I was never going to cover them all. So I'll have to do a follow up, as Poing was very interesting.

[@mcbpete]

The Poing series was my bouncy-ball Amiga game of choice :) Had a weird lonely atmosphere to it, and the panic as the ball went left and left (and left) zooming you down each level rapidly and losing your progress - Magic (and frustrating) !

[@faenethlorhalien]

Damn. I had heard the Crystal Hammer modtrack a long time ago in a mod compilation or a cracktro intro or something, and I even remember the name was Crystal Hammer, yet I never thought it was actually the main theme for an Amiga game. What the hell am I doing with my life. **Bonks head against wall** DUH.

[@faenethlorhalien]

And yes, I might have heard that song either 15 or 30 years ago, yet I could not only remember having heard it, but I knew it by heart. It's a completely useless skill that I have that is both my superpower and my own personal hell.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

Its weird how we can remember the music to a game that no one else could even name. But can't remember any ones birthday!

[@markwrightrf]

10:49 Something wonderful has happened... Your Amiga is ALIVE!

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

I was hoping you would cover Cybersphere, which had a late Commodore Amiga release in 1995, and then ported to PC MS-DOS a year later, which I had fond memories of playing the demo back in the day. Also, Megaball reminds me a lot of DX-Ball, which I also grew up with and has a 20th anniversary edition Steam release.

[@TorinnDerg]

DX-Ball was inspired by Megaball.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

I did have Cyberball on the list, and it looked really cool. but the video was looking to be long so figured it could be in a follow up video.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

@@GouldFishOnGames Cyberball? I think you mean Cybersphere, which is what I originally said.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

@@Cyberbrickmaster1986 I did mean CyberSphere, not sure how I mixed that up

[@dazelandpointcom4170]

Check Impact! (1987), it doesn't look like much, but it plays like a dream, and the sound effects make it very special.

[@Zontar82]

Amegas was my First break out clone and the music was awesome. Crystal Hammer was a bit Better but they were both good. You could have also added Crack, which was a very good alternative with a dinosaur theme

[@GouldFishOnGames]

There were so many of them, that I had real issues in trying to cut it down to a reasonable number for the video. I does feel like there will be more then enough of a follow up at some point.

[@vresi]

How could you have missed the best of them all, Impact. It had, by far the best controls and ball geometry and it was liquid smooth. Also had a highscore saver, code system and a clever collection mechanic in which after each collection of drops, made a selection screen on the right side and activated like you saw fit, much like Wizball. The powerups also stacked.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

I don't think I stumbled across Impact, I'll have to check it out. There are so many of this style of game on the Amiga that it should be easy to do a follow up.

[@tumppigo]

Great video! I love brek out games on home computers 🎉❤

[@GouldFishOnGames]

It was a natural house for them, more so when you could use a mouse!

[@moregamemusic]

If you ever do a followup on this video, there are two game I think you can take a look at. BabeAnoid v2.0 and Deconstruction

[@naviamiga]

Amiganoids, had lots of fun with that. Poing was my Arkanoid game of choice though, so many good version.

[@craigcharlesworth1538]

Given how fast the Amiga scene moved in those early days, re-releasing a 1988 game in 1993 even with some extra levels feels like a bad move, unless on a super budget label like Prism and you're only changring like £3 for it. My guess as to what happened with Ball Raider and Ball Raider II is that the game was delayed but retailers and distributers had already put in their orders so rather than refund them the publishers hastily sought out any PD coder with a working Arkanoid clone that they could shove out as 'Ball Raider'. A few months later when the ACTUAL game was finished, they released it as Ball Raider II. Just a guess, but knowing what I know about how publishers often worked in those days it feels about right.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

That sounds very plausible on why there was so little time between the games. it feels like everything was barely hanging together at the time 😊

[@ArttuTheCat]

AMEGAS was the first Breakout clone, i have ever played on my Amiga 500. Actually, it was also one of my older brother's first Amiga games 😺👍🕹️. The game is absolutely brilliant - even the soundtrack 🎵🎶 is pawsome 🐾 😺👍🕹️. Those other Breakout clones are great, but you forgot two other Amiga games: THE WALL (Rainbow Arts) and IMPACT (ASL). I remember, when me and my dad were gonna go to our nearest grocery store at Martinlaakso, Vantaa (Finland 🇫🇮) back in the late mid 1990's, we saw the Commodore 64 and Amiga games infront of the former bookstore and checked them out, because they were the last games for sale, and the price was 10 finnish 🇫🇮 marks, per game. So i found two Amiga games: TEENAGE MUTANT HERO TURTLES and THE WALL. That was absolutely pawsome 🐾 retrospective memorial day 😹😺👍🕹️.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

The Wall did look interesting and was tempted to include it. You got to buy and play some fun games back in the day!

[@ArttuTheCat]

@@GouldFishOnGames Even the cover art work of THE WALL was absolutely amazing and inspiring 😸😺👍.

[@nicholsliwilson]

I have Arkanoid on a bootable floppy for PC. Tell me that doesn’t feel like it ages the game even though it came out on Amiga around the same time? I also have the floppy image because floppies don’t last forever. Crystal Hammer was a choice for a title? 😄 Seems like it’s an improvement on it’s older brother? Ball Raider… too… many… jokes! Brain locking up! Seriously though it was a disappointment, if I’d actually paid for my games back th… I mean nice weather we’re having?! The sequel was a massive step up from the original but I hadn’t realised it came out in the same year? I missed Breakout Revolution as I’d moved to PC by then. It’s interesting that in ‘96 - ‘98 making an Amiga game was kind of seen as odd but making a new Amiga game now is celebrated. Megaball was always good & as you suggested, kind of ubiquitous. Not my personal favourite but it’s hard to argue with a good level editor & it was a good game. Amiganoid is an interesting attempt to do something different. I wasn’t a fan of the 2 bat thing but I can see some people liking that? Interesting video, thanks. Here’s the thing, the amiga had a great Arkanoid game, Arkanoid. Non of the others did enough to distinguish themselves for me & I appreciate that may be more about me than the games but Arkanoid was always my personal go-to.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

Wow, bootable PC Disks were an age! I guess by 96 / 98 we were ready to move on to other platforms, but these days its fun to return to older ones. and try new games. and yeah Arkanoid was such a well done conversion that it made it much harder for everyone else. There were a few interesting takes, like Kryton Egg (even if it was an ST game), and a few of the titles had some interesting brick types.

[@KrisGraney]

Gosh, there was one I had for the A1200 that played Metallica music…. Can’t remember the name. Aaah, it appears my memory is terrible. It was Motorola Invaders (maybe)

[@GouldFishOnGames]

I don't recognize the name so will have to check it out, gotta love some rock music and Arkanoid!

[@KrisGraney]

@@GouldFishOnGames it’s not an arkanoid game but a space invaders game with a twist

[@bitplanes]

I have the iAM boxed version of MegaBall 4 and played it more than any PD game except perhaps Battlefort or GeluxeGalaga

[@GouldFishOnGames]

Nice on getting a boxed copy! its such a nicely done game.

[@dilbertfish]

Shatter is one of the better alternatives in the genre. Give it a try.

[@davidmylchreest3306]

Hardcore eventually got released as Ultracore on the Mega Sg of all things. Xbox got a port last year.

[@MacCasey4147]

If this doesn’t at least mention Megaball, I’ll be somewhat disappointed.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

I hope you are happy after finishing the video!

[@MacCasey4147]

@@GouldFishOnGames I am, sir. Excellent job. I remember trying a few of these but something about Megaball just grabbed me. Still enjoy it to this day.

[@Sashko_Dee]

All these Arkanoid games have the same problem as Tetris clones for me. Most of them are fine in a vacuum but are almost never as good as the original.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

yeah, its a bit of a common issue, but every so often you do find one that is really creative and interestng. Like MegaBall.