Amiga Longplay Microcosm (CD32)

www.recordedamigagames.org
Played by: ScHlAuChi
Here it is, THE killer app for the CD32!
Having finished it on a real CD32 back in the day, i was surprised how hard it was!
But the mistake i did was playing the levels in order - it seems you are not meant to do that and instead play the easier missions first and then when you get the better weapons play the harder ones.
The best order is probably 3-1-4-2-5 as level 2 is one of the hardest in the game.
It is surprising to see how much this version differs from the Sega-CD version, which is much worse!
Overall the game is a tad boring and repetitive - not something you would want to play more than once.
After the end of the game i included the following extras:
1:12:38 - Alternative intro sequence you get holding the green button during start-up
1:16:13 - Deaths and Game Over sequence -
Disclaimer: Most videos by World of Longplays use SaveStates!

[@richardweeks8164]

Good memories. First game I ever worked on. Gameplay was as good as we could get with the limitations, we really tried to make it stand apart from the other versions. Music is all ProTracker (and the best bit of the game, apart from the cool for the time renders). Could do all this realtime now.

[@e3ovuziotica]

Thanks for the input. I just checked the protracker modules on my Amiga (on protracker of course :). Good samples there. It was funny as I browsed through the magazine reviews, many praise the music as being done by Rick Wakeman and give the impression they think it's CDDA-audio. Anyways, the modules were done by Kevin Collier and can be found @ exotica .org . uk. Just bought the game online (had it when it was released as well) again with the Audio-CD companion which actually should include some Rick Wakeman's music.

[@darkmatrix80]

Thanks Richard for creating one of the worst games I have ever played. This game was literally play once, throw away. Was a complete sell out to any gameplay. It's only purpose was to show video streaming from the CD. But yeah, good effort.

[@electronscape]

Possible for a re-write for todays machines?? id like to play this again, but it is showing its age now :( i have had alot of enjoyment AND FRUSTRATING hours on this! hehe Oh please make a reboot ;)

[@marioghernandez4960]

Richard Weeks Wait, YOU actually made it? I'm impressed!

[@matieucastel835]

Richard Weeks, any news about Novastorm CD32 ? Game seems to have been nearly finished but was never released ......

[@marcinsielawa5387]

This baby is all about the soundtrack. I mean yeah the intro was massive, graphics were mind blowing at the time, but the music.. the music is just soooo good. This game was released in 1993 and you can hear all those rave, breakbeat, new beat influences. I think this game music is actually better than what the electronic club scene had to offer back in the days. Don't get me wrong I love the classics but this is another level. Breakbeats are spot on, massive synths, 10 different melodies, the music keeps changing and evolving - keeping the player excited. Whoever the author is he/she sure deserves the highest praise.

[@Viczarratt]

Yep, the music is a spectacular mix of '92 jungle and big beat styles. i think the music in this CD32 version is credited to Kevin Collier, while Tim Wright did the Sega/3DO version.

[@machiner6]

Still a dang ripoff that Microcosm didn't actually make an OST album as the box claimed.

[@MAT_T81]

The music was so good for this game, takes me back.

[@sn0w8]

Turns out One of the greatest achievements of my life was finishing this game with no cheats. Had to map out each level through trial and error. Crazy times for a 13 year old! Kids today have no idea how easy they got it :)

[@matieucastel835]

best version of a bad games. The music on the Amiga rocks. And it's not CD music but made by the amiga chip. Impressive.

[@stuarthough8440]

i think the mega cd ending music is better

[@adrianozzz]

The gameplay, the music... it kind of reminds me of Rez.

[@Aquamanomito]

Badass Soundtruck

[@amigakidful]

I remember how bloody hard this game was. My favorite boss was that metalic spider boss, he was pretty cool (all of them were cool). Great presentation for the time but too dang hard!

[@Clandesdyne]

My team loves having your longplays on while we design our games!

[@AlexanderFrost]

This is....different....from the Sega CD version. The graphics are much much better but it feels like it's jumping around so fast...and there are some things missing...or rather things that were added to the Sega CD version, like chasing down those fast moving ships with the Hunter Killer before they could destroy the Heart or carotid artery.

[@huldu]

This was probably one of the "best" games I played on the Amiga CD32. If you look at it now the graphics look terrible but back then they were quite impressive.

[@allanspraggon7207]

Really? I hated Microcosm (Big hype on the amazing graphics, not what I expected gameplay wise). My favorite one was one I can't remember the name of: Side scrolling game where you could pilot loads of different planes to do missions. edit: Jetstrike

[@Abracadaniels]

I wouldn't call it terrible, it's dated for sure but it's still a piece of history.

[@Fedeweb76]

Allan Spraggon jetstrike ❤️

[@trydowave]

The games issues have nothing to do with graphics as they were considered good at the time, even though i always thought of them as a gimmick. The problems now and then lie in the gameplay. If you can call it gameplay. It's hardly any more advanced than say space invaders.

[@huldu]

Ye, the CD32 had a big issue with games, most of which were mere ports from the PC and it shows in performance most of the time. As for the gameplay I think it was fine. It's an old title after all. It's like a shmup(the approach reminds a bit of space harrier, as you're fighting things straight on rather than from top down view) more or less.

[@schoolfilmer]

1000 Amiga games, it's been a hell of a ride!

[@jjjimmer]

Oh my god this game - I found it so so hard back in the day...hahah funny the FMV sequences... My friends and I all thought this was the future...however it was so hard and lacklustre gameplay made us give up...Was sure cool in a Cyberpunk way though. Shame Amiga CD32 didn't have a proper 3D chip and had more games that took it above the A1200 and beyond. Cheers for vid!

[@SlayerOfCunts]

I took a degree in medicine just so i could put on this video to confuse patients when performing a colonoscopy!

[@jjjimmer]

haha ! so funny... :)

[@mrpositronia]

I used this to explain to Trump how to get rid of Covid from the body.

[@KarlHamilton]

Wow, never knew about the alternative intro!

[@underthepale]

Well this is certainly ONE way to celebrate 1000 Amiga videos...

[@tunicaroja86]

Congrats guys!

[@FireRising86]

Hey, everyone makes mistakes and Spoony HAS owned up to it. He's still a funny and awesome reviewer, albeit a bit prone to depression.

[@Wasmachineman]

Wow, the CD32 version looks radically different compared to the Sega CD one. Especially the quality of the cutscenes, and the music itself.

[@richardweeks8164]

A different team did each version. We all got the art from the original FM Towns version but we were then allowed to do what we wanted to make use of the strength of each platform. We wanted our own soundtrack, so we did that. We wanted a map and mazes, so we did that.

[@Wasmachineman]

@@richardweeks8164 Especially the music in the ending cutscene seems less upbeat and more gloomy.

[@Neodekapon]

the sega-cd really got the short end of the stick with this,now that i think about it.

[@SmashTom]

1000 Amiga games o-o; Good lord... Congratulations though =) It's quite an achievement. This game doesn't seem that bad though, the music is kinda catchy and if you're a fan of the genre I think it'll catch on.

[@matieucastel835]

Best version of microcosm ! Far better than Sega CD, 3DO, PC and FM Towns. The music rocks and it's played not from the CD but directly from the Amiga chipset ! Briliant !

[@Jellybeantiger]

Memories!

[@cocosrevenge]

Loved this on the Sega CD, it would have awesome if they had turned Microcosm into a movie.

[@Wasmachineman]

Although it's got no combat, there's Innerspace.

[@davidlaco1650]

I discovered only now this masterpiece after played for 30 years Novastorm for PC !! what a miss!!

[@Innerconversations2024]

this was awesome to play

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Man, that ending takes a reeeeeeeeeally long time to just say "your guy turns back to normal size after helping out this other guy."

[@LorenHelgeson]

Sega CD ending is the same, but runs at half the frame rate. Plus the music is this dark, depressing track that has the mood of "did he make it?" even after he's back to full size.

[@PuffyRainbowCloud]

Hey! I've got this game for my Amiga CD32 and I would love to play it, but it lags a lot and every few seconds it has to stop to load, seemingly the next part of the background (which I assume is a video?) Is there something wrong with my CD32? Is there some sort of expansion I just don't know about?

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

Those "enemies " look like breakfast cereals. Bloody hard game! Gosh!

[@Baron_Fortesque]

Loved this game... Altough... I had a faulty unit which sometimes made the intro lock up into a green screen and the game got stuck.... :( Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't...

[@jedionemanarmy1194]

well done

[@dave4shmups]

Impressive, IMO! I have this game for my 3DO and this version looks and runs better.

[@steverogers6273]

Was like a cross between inner space, THX1138 and a steaming pile of dog shit. love it

[@entity8019]

Can anyone explain the loop at the end with the spaceships please?!?!?

[@TableWolfMusic]

They should have simply called this game "nostril".

[@Viczarratt]

I think "Nostril Blaster" would of been catchier.

[@ste309w]

Or Colon.

[@WanderlustZero]

AssBlaster?

[@TomScholes]

Oh wow, I played the hell out of this game on my CD32 even though it wasn't very good...

[@bigd5090]

There was more fun to had in the Super Stardust bonus 'Tunnel Stage' than this whole game! Awful!

[@FredDude27]

Hip hip! Hooraaaaaaaaay! Hip hip! Hooraaaaaaaaay! Hip hip! Hooraaaaaaaaay!!!! :)

[@Aquamanomito]

1:00:40 microcosm looks very quick They literally resuscitated the game over from when you lost in the previous phase, they didn't even change the character. Remember that the company that made this game was the same one that made flink which is an extremely polished and great game

[@DynoSkrimisher]

What's funny to me is that the Player Pod and the Boss Pod share the same death animation.

[@TYNEPUNK]

yes!

[@jim.....]

condrats, good game to mark the 1g too ^_^

[@FireRising86]

Thought there would be more Spoony quotes on here...

[@VectorOmega]

(insert Spoony's comments during the opening movie)

[@quint3570]

Loved this console , shame it wasn't supported properly

[@gobodrodiont]

I've played this on my android smartphone with uae4arm emulator. Even with savestates it was as hard as fuck. Can't even imagine how human can beat this game without tricks.

[@Clandesdyne]

Because we designed Doodle 2 on miniclip.

[@superturbo2]

I remember that the final stage was very annoying. Quite easy to get lost... or was it the second last stage? Hmmmm....

[@YOLKFOLK]

LEGEND!

[@Lapocabo]

#Oh yes, son much memorie's, i was proue to have a kind of games like microcosm on my CD 32,

[@underthepale]

Bipolar actually. He was taking depression medicine. For what turned out to be bipolar. Depression medicine doesn't really help for bipolar. But he's owned up to it, he's seeking help, he's doing better. ... I just wish Spoony would update more than once every month or so...

[@Desmaad]

What kind of chipset did the CD32 use, anyway? I hope it wasn't the OCS.

[@hoosherdaddy]

lately its like someone was going down the spoony review list. I wonder if his view counts go up every time one o these awesomenesses come up?

[@dittyobrien]

uhm why does your game demo real have miniclip in it

[@GuppytheCat]

YAY 1000 AMIGA GAMES

[@ValleyRC]

WTF, Neo at 3:44?

[@professors84]

So is your goal in this game to give someone a colonic?

[@DynoSkrimisher]

There's two super companies, basically. One blamed the other for the death of their former president, and in response, they infected the current president of the company your character is with their nanomachines to basically assassinate him. Your character was injected into him to combat them.

[@underthepale]

Oh good, you have said it. It would have been rude had I said it. ;p

[@dittyobrien]

basically an Amiga 1200 with cdrom all in a console format almost identical architecture but the cd32 had its own Kickstart rom or firmware if you will.f your diehard enough you can even convert it to use keyboard and mouse floppy etc :)

[@KarlHamilton]

CD32 already has a keyboard and a serial port built in beside the joypad/mouse ports.

[@Shire_Sam]

I realise this post is 8 years old, but all Amiga owners still remember their hardware. It was like a right of passage back in the 90’s I always wanted the SX-1 module to plug in, but at the time the were like rocking horse shit & so crazily expensive even if you could get one!! I do like the look of the Raspberry Pi CPU mods for the A500, makes me think what could have been. Would love to see this recoded with 4K textures/high res models on unreal 4/5 engine.

[@KlaatuNinja]

Have to disagree about this being the best version, the quality of the video and the music is really good, but the Sega-CD version gameplay is much better. Where are the two chase levels? And the order does not make sense. The 3DO version also has much better video than Sega CD but is also missing a load of levels

[@dennissvendsen2543]

Haha I remember this... So horrible horrible acting :D But the music was killer!

[@falariem]

Sad, really. I always considered playing Microcosm as a guilty pleasure. If the Sega CD version was even half as good as this, I'd be of a very different opinion.

[@turu0aki]

FM-TOWNS版とはかなり違うようだ

[@skolman]

1:02:00

[@Ziplock9000]

I had this back in he day, what a god awful game just used for force in FMV. The CD32 was a mega disappointment overall really after the amazing Amigas that preceded it.

[@garethjones2390]

I had this on the mega cd and loved it

[@KingOfApoc]

AVGN brought me here because this game wasnt included in his review

[@e3ovuziotica]

great music on this one... too difficult and lame gameplay

[@Ducksauce33]

this is not being played by a person. how cheap to do a lets play.

[@AmigaWolf]

Looks and sounds SO much better then on the Mega-CD, With this game you could see how powerful the Amiga CD32/1200 really was, wish that all games used the Amiga hardware this good.

[@daniel_007]

Yeah, maybe the only game taking full use of the AKIKO custom chip. The other CD32 games were just conversions of the same games for the AMIGA home computers, some with just AGA graphics and music from audio CD

[@AmigaWolf]

@@daniel_007 No more games, like does Amiga CD32 games: Beneath a Steel Sky (Every character talks, is not on the floppy's). Flink (Came only to the Amiga CD32 not on floppy's and CD Music). Jungle Strike (Came only to the Amiga CD32 not on floppy's and CD Music). Little Divil (Came only to the Amiga CD32 not on floppy's and also had FMV and CD Music and more). Simon the Sorcerer (Every character talks and CD Music). With "Came only to the Amiga CD32" i mean they came not on floppy, so only CD versions came out.

[@cubdukat]

It did have the advantage of being the version from which all the others sprung. If I remember right I think Psygnosis wanted to make it a CD32-exclusive title at first, but then they realized what a bad idea that might have been given the condition of both the Amiga market and Commodore itself.

[@AmigaWolf]

@@cubdukat Yeah, wish Commodore had a different CEO then Mehdi Ali, then we would have a good Amiga 1200 and 4000 and CD32, that would at least have had 16Bit audio and AAA GPU, and not the AGA. But that is history.

[@cubdukat]

@@AmigaWolfSomehow I think we all do. I still don't get why he and Irving Gould never got taken to court for what they did to Commodore.