Obscure Amiga Games - Part 1

This is the first video covering Obscure and little known games on the Amiga. It features 10 titles that are not very popular but are actually pretty fun for what they are and deserved to be known as can provide quite a lot of fun if given a chance. There will obviously be more parts as Amiga had a lot of hidden gems that for whatever the reason never saw the lime light.
Would you like to see a similar video series for Commodore 64 (C64)?
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Gameplay recordings that you've seen in this video as a background to my commentary in small part came from amazing retro gaming related channels that do a great job preserving the classics for the future. They all deserve your subscription, and they all have mine. These are:
‪@hipoonios‬
‪@AlexMenchi‬
‪@petsasjim1‬
Both sounds used for subs and Patreon come from pixabay website and are by users "Universefield" and "ThompsonMan".
0:00 Intro to Best Obscure Amiga Games You've Never Heard Of (Part 1)
1:06 Emerald Mine II
2:54 Fatal Mission 2
4:18 Football Masters v2.08
6:08 Gravity Force 2
7:48 Lazarus
9:09 Heartlight
11:19 Lepani
12:42 Sensible Massacre
14:26 Task Force
16:06 The Unusual Case of Doctor Strange
17:14 Outro
#commodore #amiga #retrogames #retrogaming #obscure

[@MarquisDeSang]

Gravity Force 1 was and is the most amazing game.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It's a brilliant little game indeed.

[@ArttuTheCat]

I had EMERALD MINE for my Amiga 500 many years ago 😺👍🕹️. In fact, it's actually pretty good BOULDER DASH clone 😺👍🕹️. Now, that i'm weekend off from my work, I might as well play some games on the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 and make some gameplay videos 😺👍🕹️.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Funny enough, I never had it. I wonder if they were just released in a certain part of the World or was I just unlucky. I mean Emerald Mine games, as there were three actually.

[@nicholsliwilson]

Never played Fatal Mission 2, I’ll have to check it out? Same with Lazarus, the language barrier in an action platformer is rarely as big as you might think it is. Gravity Force 2, is awesome (if you have someone to play with) & the level editor made it something special as you try to make things fair but difficult for your opponent. Heartlight I believe is a bit of a cult classic? It doesn’t look like much but it’s worth a look. HAY! I pay good money to slander you! 😄 Fun video, thanks. Oh & thanks for Golf With Friends.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Fatal Mission 2 is surprisingly feature packed, even if a bit rough looking. But, it's a pretty demanding shooter so it's not for those who easily get annoyed if they have to repeat a stage a few times. Gravity Force 2, such an amazing little game. If you have someone, anyone to play it with. Cause otherwise its as pointless as my recorded footage in the video was. But I had no other way of showing it as there's no real videos of anyone playing it in two player mode. And level editor is always fun. And talking about games with editors that are actually difficult too - Heartlight. My friend and I used to spend whole days back in the day trying to figure out some of those more demanding levels. It was a blast. But also, an excellent example of a game not for someone who is discouraged by repeating attempts. Slander again! ;) I shall release my dogs on you! As soon as I get dogs that is. But wait, cause you never know. I may have them soon... or never. I'm toying with an idea of adding another game code to the video but not as obvious. I mean, one would be in the standard Mortal Kombat Toasty pop-up, and one would be added somewhere in the video hidden in the footage's graphics. I think it's fun and it would be fun for someone who likes challenges to hunt them down. But first I'd have to get more codes as I'm running dangerously low. And apart from few real bangers, I only have mediocre titles left.

[@edprice3690]

Really enjoyed this video. I’ve just ordered an Amiga 600 that’s been recapped with a fully loaded hard disk and hdmi output. I’m so excited! Your script writing is really funny too!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thank you! :) And they you'll be happy to know that there's 19 parts more so far. ;)

[@SwedishCandyPirate]

Great video! Me and my friends played a lot of Amiga games back in the day but I've never even heard of a single one of these. The video sure lives up to its title.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Good to hear that... Or read really. :) Hopefully the next few will prove as obscure. ;)

[@TeaAndTankControls]

I've never had an Amiga but there are definitely very good games that started on it and got ported to the PC that I've played. You make a good point about some games being obscure because of the language barrier.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yeah, Amiga had some amazing games. Also, some of the early ones, that had simultaneous ports to other systems, tend to be the best on the Amiga. I see, that you're looking at my earliest videos. I am a bit ashamed of the quality of everything in them, but whatever, they're part of what this channel is, as cringe as they are. :)

[@TeaAndTankControls]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I did hear you say though that the Amiga had lower resources compared to the PC, so it's nice that the games on it were so good. I am very interested in what games you've covered so far. I might find my white whale of a forgotten game. And don't worry, the quality is fine. It's all informative and entertaining too.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@TeaAndTankControls Thing with Amiga was, that purely from the mathematical point of view, it was not as powerful as PCs were 1990-ish. But it had custom chips for sound and graphics, meaning, that it could produce images of much higher quality in terms of sprites, scrolling and colour pallet than EGA, and even rival some early VGA games too. Sound amd music-wise though, until Soundblaster 2.0, PC could not hold the candle to Amiga. Sure, it changed in what seems like 2-3 years dramatically, but for a while it was a powerhouse like no other! Sorry, I got carried away. It's all cause both Amiga and PC DOS are very close to me, and despite seeing advantages on Ami early on, and PC later, I'd be hard pressed to pick my fave between the two. nL0

[@TeaAndTankControls]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I understand. Thanks for the insights into the Amiga! You're right, they each had their strong points.

[@braillynn4903]

Love the humor in this video.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks! :)

[@ZeroCactus]

nice video! i like this subject very much!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks! And... There's 19 more where this one came from and third season in the planning already too. xD

[@jimkrom]

Doctor strange looks very interesting. Nice video as always btw

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks! It is an interesting game indeed.

[@matthiasb9370]

The Epic intro brings back Memories... 😮

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

:)

[@IBelieveInCode]

Emerald Mine II is the only one I knew. This game is pure genius.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

If that's the only one, then it means that the video was not a miss, and these were obscure indeed. ;) And yeah, Emerald Mine is good.

[@BriteRory]

Aw man, now we're talking! As I type this I'm waiting for my emulation library to finish scraping the metadata for a bunch of Amiga games I added last night to the already large list on my Steam Deck. On my PC I still have everything set up with LaunchBox and have "complete" libraries for multiple systems including Amiga (I think it is around 3,500 or so but been awhile), but on Steam Deck given the space limitations to always consider I am doing everything the old fashioned way, one game at a time and only those which I am already aware of or interested in. It is mostly a CRPG library, with some Strategy and Simulation games followed by Point and Click Adventure games (though I don't go heavy on these since I have most of the ones I really like already through Steam or GOG, and I keep a complete copy of eXo's ScummVM complete pack on my PC). I'm going to check out the rest of your videos in the obscure Amiga games list and see if I'm not aware of any great ones!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Cool! Hopefully you'll find something down your alley. That said I am looking for a fun project for my SteamDeck, and this may be it. What do you use for emulation and/or Amiga? EmuDeck?

[@BriteRory]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yea, I use Emudeck! It enables you to install EmulationStation DE, which is mainly how I play my Amiga games. You simply provide the BIOS files by putting them in the BIOS folder, and your roms in the Amiga folder, go into gaming mode and launch EmulationStation DE. From there you can scrape for the metadata, and it is as simple as clicking play. Emudeck makes it so that there comes already configured certain buttons for each emulator to access the settings menus. I forget off hand what it uses for Amiga emulation but think it is just the PUAE core for RetroArch (which works for every Amiga up to the 1200 and includes the Amiga CD games). The whole project I'm about to wrap up (for now anyway) of Emudeck and EmulationStation DE on the Steam Deck is absolutely worth the effort and very simple and fun to use, and I even quite like the themes available and in particular the source for scraping metadata of screenscraper.fr (the alternative, the gamedb, doesn't have even a fraction of the box art, 3d boxes, screenshots, or even recognize most foreign consoles and Japanese computers). Overall it is not quite as excellent as LaunchBox and the scraping from screensaver is almost painfully slow, but as a secondary emulation resource that is handheld it is definitely a great choice.

[@BriteRory]

By the way, you probably already know this but just in case, Emudeck also enables you to import your roms as non-Steam games directly into your Steam library, and automatically configures everything for you in your library you will see new collections titled after the console or computer for all the games you import. This is quite an excellent feature but unfortunately it only uses steamgriddb to scrape for metadata and obviously this resource is barely a fraction of the more comprehensive ones. I only import those games that it has substantial metadata for, which for me are the Super Nintendo, Nintendo, Genesis, Master System, Playstation (up to 3), TurboGrafx-16, PSP and Vita, the various handhelds from GameBoy and Game Gear, 3DO, Sega 32x, Sega CD, Sega Saturn and Amiga. There are a few others, but I don't include them because I haven't figured out how to combine multi-disk roms to only show as one game in the Steam importer (in EmulationStation you can just put multi-disk files into subfolders and scrape accordingly, using the m3u method if you want the emulator to automatically load as necessary). So systems like Commodore 64, Apple ][ and Apple2gs, Atari ST, PC-88 and PC-98, and so forth I add to an exclusion list so that my Steam library doesn't show thousands of games but half of them are the same game shown 2 or 8 times, haha. I forget if the MSX and MSX2 metadata here was significant, but I only include those I mentioned to keep the Steam library from being overloaded and disorganized. Something cool is that many games on steamgriddb have multiple cover arts to choose from, and when you use the Steam rom importer each game has a left and right arrow on it that you can use to scroll through all the available cover art options, some games having upwards of 50! For very popular consoles like the original Playstation, there are even options for most games to show the cover art with "Disc 1", "Disc 2" etc to differentiate them, so I'm able to include games like th Final Fantasy Anthology, Xenogears, Policenauts, Dragon Warrior VII, and so on. All of these games can then be launched directly from your Steam library in gaming mode, just as any normal Steam game would, and allows you to have access to the Steam controller configuration. You can still access the controller configuration while using EmulationStation DE but it is kind of weird and doesn't always function well without some effort; you have to enter the main menu and select an option called something like "switch analog" or "digital" controller, I forget exactly what it is called but from there you can then input things directly, though like I said it doesn't work as-is and you lose access to the preconfigured control layouts Emudeck install for you. Trying to remap the controls for King's Field was for instance not a straightforward ordeal, and I ended up just using the default controls.

[@newkfromrotterdam]

at 11:17 someone allready redeemed Golf With Your Friends :P I still miss playing Gravity Force 2 with friends 😮‍💨 Also enjoyed playing "Knights" with friends on Amiga.. also pretty obscure PD game I think i gonna give the games Lazarus, Heartlight and Unusual Case of Dr Strange a go, thanx for recommending :D

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Heartlight is soooooo good! But you also need either a really good joystick when played on real hardware or to tinker with WinUAE controls settings under emulation. Otherwise the controls will be too sensitive. And yeah, the video's few months old, and usually keys disappear from these within a day or two from publishing. If you wanna have dibs, there's gonna be a new one dropping Sunday/Monday I think. :)

[@jussikuusela7345]

Doctor Strange or one of the BD clones might be most interesting to me. Now, to watch the next episodes.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I'm glad that you found something and enjoy! :)

[@pnvgordinho]

Doctor Strange looks very nice.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It actually is. Bit short (content wise as it was made for some sort of a competition or something) but it's fun.

[@one_b]

Lazarus looks pretty good. Reasonably smooth character and enemy animations. Also think I will check out Dr. Strange... I think my kids may enjoy it.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

That assessment is correct, both are neat games. :)

[@shevat]

You forgot Alien Fish Finger :P. And probably Hilt and Hilt 2 ;)

[@Shabbyorange101]

Alien Fish Finger, for sure.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It's just a first episode. There's more to come in the future. Next one though, will be the next in the DOS Gaming history series, for year 1996.

[@RomanKamyk]

Yeah, both Hilts were great

[@shevat]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I was waiting for it, but Amiga hidden gems is very pleasant surprise :).

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@shevat Yeah, I'm doing those smaller ones between the big ones, as short single-themed videos like this one take 3-4 days to make at most if I can focus on them and give them a lot of time. Gaming history series take 14-21 days usually. Depending on how many games are feature, how difficult is to record/find footage for them, and all the writing and recordings. Cause they are pre-written, 90-95% of what is said there is pre-prepared. And in those smaller ones there's much more me just going off topic, usually with a dad-joke (which I am not actually), cringy stories or whatever else crazy comes to my mind. :)

[@gumdeo]

Bolo Mrówkojad is a nice 1997 Polish platformer.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Will look it up, thanks! :)

[@selvahechicera4292]

I really liked the first one, Emerald Mines. You mention "Breach" in one of the other videos. Were you aware of the Fantasy version of Breach. I >think< it was called Paladin but I'm unsure. When I was playing these games the Amiga was not an abandoned system. Same company if I'm not mistaken. Same set up. Different characters, stats and EQ. But you could tell is was Fantasy Breach.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I actually somehow missed it. Now that I checked it out it looks uncanny similar. Even down to the interface. Definitely one to check out. Thanks!

[@selvahechicera4292]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames You are welcome. Glad I could help.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@selvahechicera4292 We are in most part a retro gaming community and gotta help each other, right? ;)

[@selvahechicera4292]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I'm only "sort of" a "retro gamer." . My Amiga 1000 was my first real computer. And, at the time, we really didn't need to call it a 1000. So you can guess how ancient I am. I played these games when they were on the shelves. I remewmber these from back then. I'm definitely happy to help wherever I can.

[@GameMakerRob]

What was the game shown in the intro?

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Epic

[@EvilStreaks]

That Dr. Strange game is a reskin of an old classic. It was called Monsters on the BBC Micro but half of the games on that are renamed ripoffs so there might be another one higher on the family tree.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Well, these were the times when everyone copied everyone, especially anything that was at least a bit successful or fun.

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

Hello Amiga lovers. I'm getting crazy over a game that I can't remember the name of. It was fps but not sure if it was rail shooter or you could walk as you want. could be played by two players, sharing the same viewport. It was like operation wolf, you aimed and shot aliens. I distinctly remember that you could freeze them using a grenade, and if I recall correctly ammo count was an issue. You could restock if you were lucky or memorized the loots. It was a challenging game. Can't find it.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Alien Breed 3D 2: Killing Grounds? It was a FPS, could be played in multiplayer, had aliens as enemies and a freeze gun... Ammo was always an issue. :)

[@cannonfodder7876]

Maybe Gloom or Fears?

[@hubertmitura2587]

Cyber Force: Zniewolony umysł fits beter as "polish Flashback" :kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5C2paqAZ6-BnNk

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I'll check it out, thanks! Maybe it'll be a good fit for the next part.

[@hubertmitura2587]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames You may also enjoy another polish title "Astral" , hard to belive it uses only 32 color palette kzbin.info/www/bejne/moGWlGiFnst0bLc

[@kad3tuk]

@@hubertmitura2587 I'll check it out, thanks! Oh, and it's "me" just on my private account ;)

[@hubertmitura2587]

Also I recommend polish one-developer-made 1995 fps game titled "Ubek". Some features: HAM 6 graphics, diagonal and different walls, transparency effects, movable and destroyable objects, items manipulation (eg. key, which you hold in hand ,may be used to open door or as weapon to hit guard), puzzle solving, independent body and aim move (similiar to DOS fps "Cyclones") heck even "Zombie mode". Plot : you as best UB agent (UB means "Urząd Bezpieczeństwa"- polish communist secret service) are ordered to destroy capitalist nuclera plant. This is where you cosmic (literaly) adventure begins. Its polish language only but there is YT walkthrough, if you stuck because language barrier

[@hubertmitura2587]

Sme Ubek gameplay sample: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qojRhIV6jqemeLc

[@curtisnewton895]

so you're basically rehashing the same content over and over nice

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I'm not sure I understand. Surely, you don't mean me mentioning Heartlight? After all, it can be a game that's obscure and also present in another video, covering a particular genre or a year, right? Unless you mean something else?

[@mattias969]

Anyone who owned an amiga in the 80's/90's have heard of these

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I had an Amiga back then, and some of these I've learned about working on this video. But perhaps you had access to many more games, especially the PD ones.