What Are Some Good Amiga CD32 Games?

[mobiusclimber]

Just recently got an Amiga CD32 and would like to track down some games for it. Seems like everyone on FeePay wants $50+ for these games, so might be awhile before I can get anything. I've been playing some games on it (*wink*wink*) but they've almost all been horrible. Here's what I've tried so far:

1) Darkseed - The best game I've played so far, but I suspect that's only b/c I'm not much of a computer gamer and thus don't have as much exposure to point-and-clicks so this game probably seems better than it is. Also the intro features an HR Giger monstrosity ejeculating into a guy's skull. Can't beat that.
2) Dangerous Streets - I thought this was going to be a Streets of Rage clone. Sadly, it's a Street Fighter clone. That's actually being way more generous than the game deserves. It's horrible, frankly. They threw in some T&A to distract you from how bad the game plays, but it really isn't enough (cf Dead or Alive).
3) Battletoads - Can't go wrong with Battletoads, right? Except when you cock up the controls, that is. Then you go very wrong w/ Battletoads.
4) Akira - Man I was psyched to play this game. Then I played it. I'm pretty sure the racing/obstacle course part isn't the only thing to the game but I just can't get past it. Not even sure what I'm supposed to do to get past it. I keep running out of fuel. It's not fun.
5) Exile - This game is kinda weird. I'm not sure if I'm just not doing it right or what. Doesn't seem like I have a weapon to start with, or if I do, I don't know how to use it. Also I have no idea what the objective is, if there is one. Not a bad game, probably, but I'm kinda lost in it, and it doesn't seem like my kinda game anyway.
6) Dragonstone - Was looking forward to playing this one, but it doesn't load for me. I can get up to the screen that displays the title of the first level and the "hit fire button to start" command, but after that, all I get is a repeating sound effect of a bird chirping and a black screen. :(

So anyway, what are some good titles? I have a feeling Beneath a Steel Sky is a good one, and I'm pretty sure Heimdall 2 is great (liked the first one, so if they didn't screw things up, this one should be good too). What else tho?

[Mobius]

Yes, Beneath a Steel Sky is fantastic. I'm also a big fan of D/Generation. D/Generation is an isometric action/adventure/puzzler with a cyberpunk theme. I like The Misadventures of Flink, too (but you have to boot into PAL mode if you're using an NTSC machine).

Check out Back to the Roots: http://team.back2roots.org/CDs/Games/

They have legitimate free Amiga downloads (ie, they have permission to distribute them, so it's not piracy). They have both Beneath a Steel Sky and Heimdall 2, since you were interested in those. I also suggest checking out Guardian. I wouldn't necessarily call it a great game, but it's an interesting showcase of the CD32's 3D capabilities, rather than being a straight Amiga PC port.

[mobiusclimber]

Wow, thanks, I'll definitely check out that link when I'm at home. How do you boot in PAL mode? (It might be why that one game wasn't loading properly for me).

[Mobius]

You can either get a mouse and plug it into the second port, or do what I do... Plug a controller into the second port, hold down red+blue, and make a bunch of fast counter-clockwise circles on the D-pad as you turn the system on. This will take you into the system menu. It's a pain to navigate with the controller, but it will work. You have to make a bunch of half- and quarter-circle movements to get the cursor to move in any direction.

I started to keep track of NTSC compatibility of the games on my blog (http://www.retroreviewproject.com/amiga-cd32-ntsc-compatibility-list/) but I haven't gotten far since I haven't been playing much CD32. Still, some handy tips there.

[mobiusclimber]

Awesome, thanks for all the good info. I'm checking out your blog right now, it looks to have a wealth of information.

[tom]

i got a small cd32 collection and like
alfred chicken, flink, gunship 2000, pirates, and simon the sorcerer is very good too

[j_factor]

Liberation: Captive II is quite excellent, and one of the few games to actually utilize the CD32. I also recommend Benefactor, Cannon Fodder, and Syndicate.

[phreakindee]

My personal favorite is Fire and Ice. Quite an enjoyable platformer. Of course the Lemmings and Worms games are great if you have a mouse.

[AB Positive]

There's also some folks that make WHDLoad based CD games that are from disk-only games. Check out the English Amiga Board and you'll find some links through there.

You can get the Chaos Engine, Turrican trilogy and more on CD there. :)

[mobiusclimber]

Lots of great suggestions so far. Liberation, Pirates and Simon the Sorcerer are the ones that sound most appealing, tho both Chaos Engine and Cannon Fodder also look pretty good. I'll check out Fire & Ice too, definitely, and D/Generation. (Well, I'll look into all the games, but those sound the most promising.) I was a bit bummed that there weren't any RPGs for the system (unless you call Heimdall 2 an RPG, and I think Liberation is called an RPG on gamefaqs, dunno enough about it to know if it is or isn't). That's really my main genre. But it'll be good for me to branch out a little bit.

[j_factor]

I was a bit bummed that there weren't any RPGs for the system (unless you call Heimdall 2 an RPG, and I think Liberation is called an RPG on gamefaqs, dunno enough about it to know if it is or isn't). That's really my main genre. But it'll be good for me to branch out a little bit.

A lot of people consider Pirates! Gold an RPG, and it's definitely an excellent game. There's also a game called Whale's Voyage, which I haven't played, but it was described to me as "Pirates! in space". The only other RPG for the system I know of is HeroQuest II, which isn't any good.

[mobiusclimber]

Oh definitely interested in Whale's Voyage, tho the artwork makes it look like a shooter. LOL Hm, well and I wanted to try HeroQuest as well, shame it sounds like it's no good then.

I checked out some of the links from the english amiga boards, but only found a handful of games to d/l so far. And they turned out to be pretty crappy. :( Tho I couldn't get Simon the Sorcerer to load, so that was also disappointing.

Was hoping Dangerous Streets would be a Streets of Rage clone. Instead it turned out to be a Street Fighter clone. Actually, that is being way too generous. It's a "broken-useless-fighting-game" clone, ie, worse than broken and useless. XD

Deep Core also turned out to not be what I was hoping for, and not be terribly good. Can't say it was terribly bad but... I wasn't interested in playing it after spending ten minutes with it.

Myth was also seriously disappointing. And the deaths were pretty cheap in that one. Why oh why, with so four buttons AND two shoulder buttons is jumping handled by the up button??? Both Myth and Deep Core do this, for no obvious reason. Stupid.

[j_factor]

European developers didn't believe in a jump button.

[Mobius]

I think it's because they did the laziest possible ports from the Amiga versions, and Amiga joysticks only had what? Two buttons?

[j_factor]

Amiga joysticks technically could have any number of buttons. All the joysticks I've seen that actually specified Amiga were two button. But since it used the same port as Atari (2600/7800/8-bit, plus C64, SMS, and Genesis), you could use those controllers. A lot of games used only one button to ensure that they'd work for everyone regardless of what controller they had. Many games did use two buttons, but I don't know of any that used more than that (if it needed more, it would use the keyboard or something).

[stevejack]

Hi..Alfred Chicken - Amiga CD32 (PAL)
Oh No! The evil Meka-Chickens have egg-napped Billy Egg and his brothers for their terrible experiment, and they've taken Floella too! this is no yolk. As the worlds only chicken with a bionic beak, Alfred is whisked off to a multitude of bizarre lands to pluck his friends from the clutches of their foul captors.

[PapaStu]

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123754

[bombman]

The only one I've played was "The Labyrinth of Time"

I really enjoyed it too, short game but the graphics have that surreal quality I'm a sucker for. If you're the patient type you'll enjoy it, it's nowhere near as hard as, say "Myst"

[kedawa]

Amiga joysticks technically could have any number of buttons. All the joysticks I've seen that actually specified Amiga were two button. But since it used the same port as Atari (2600/7800/8-bit, plus C64, SMS, and Genesis), you could use those controllers. A lot of games used only one button to ensure that they'd work for everyone regardless of what controller they had. Many games did use two buttons, but I don't know of any that used more than that (if it needed more, it would use the keyboard or something).
The joystick port on the amiga has dedicated pins for 3 fire buttons, although I don't think I've ever encoutered a game that used more than 2.

[Ze_ro]

Exile - This game is kinda weird. I'm not sure if I'm just not doing it right or what. Doesn't seem like I have a weapon to start with, or if I do, I don't know how to use it. Also I have no idea what the objective is, if there is one. Not a bad game, probably, but I'm kinda lost in it, and it doesn't seem like my kinda game anyway.
The controls in Exile are seriously weird, often requiring you to hit three buttons at once to do different things. The game is actually quite deep and interesting, but the controls are a serious barrier to enjoying it. Check out this chart (http://hol.abime.net/hol_pic.php?id=YldselkzTm9iM1F2TWpnd01TMHlPVEF3THp JNE9URmZiV2x6WXpJdWFuQm42ZVY0UlhocGJHVWdMU0JOYVhOa klITmpjbVZsYm5Ob2IzUWdickF5NmVWNE9EWXo2ZVY0TVRJek1 BPT02ZVY0YldselkzTm9iM1F2TWpnd01TMHlPVEF3THpJNE9UR mZiV2x6WXpJdWFuQm42ZVY0TXpJdzZlVjRTVzFoWjJWTllXZHB ZMnM9) which came with the game showing how to do things.

And no, you don't start out with a gun. You do find weapons later on, but until then, you're pretty much a sitting duck. The game is more about exploration and figuring things out as you go.


Dragonstone - Was looking forward to playing this one, but it doesn't load for me. I can get up to the screen that displays the title of the first level and the "hit fire button to start" command, but after that, all I get is a repeating sound effect of a bird chirping and a black screen. :(
You have to boot into PAL mode to play Dragonstone, or it will always lock up at that point. Don't expect an amazing RPG though. It's an interesting game, but it's only about as deep as the Zelda games.


Oh definitely interested in Whale's Voyage, tho the artwork makes it look like a shooter.
It's actually a space trading game I believe... more along the lines of Elite.

If you're looking for RPG's, you might want to check out Legacy of Sorasil and Speris Legacy. I don't have either game myself, so I'm not too sure how they play. Both are pretty hard to find though.

Liberation is an amazing game, and relatively easy to find too... plus, it handles NTSC just fine. I highly recommend it. Also worth checking out are all of the Alien Breed games, Chaos Engine, Super Stardust, Frontier: Elite II, Impossible Mission 2025, Worms, Beneath a Steel Sky, Universe, Lost Vikings, Super Methane Bros, Pierre le Chef is Out to Lunch, D/Generation, Theme Park, Syndicate, Super Skidmarks, Roadkill, James Pond 2: Robocod, Disposable Hero, Pirates Gold, Fire & Ice, Flink, Pinball Fantasies, Pinball Illusions, and Superfrog. Note that you can play most CDTV games on a CD32 as well, so check out Lemmings, Labyrinth of Time, Sim City, Defender of the Crown, Loom, Xenon 2, and Turrican 1 and 2 (The Turrican games go for a small fortune on eBay though).

Stay away from Total Carnage. It's absolutely terrible on the CD32. I'd say the same about Battletoads, but I see you already know about that one.

--Zero

[mobiusclimber]

Wow Zero, thanks for all the great suggestions. I'll definitely be on a look out for these games, and good to know I can play CDTV games as well. That opens the catelog up some.

[edit: Just tried to get it to boot in PAL and either I can't do it or I'm doing something wrong, I dunno. There's three options, first one is boot devices, which doesn't list anything. Second is display options. When I select PAL here and then boot the CD, I get a new rainbow Amiga CD32 boot up display that flickers (rolling screen) and then it has some screen w/ two saves from previous games I played and that's it. It won't load the game and just keeps doing the rolling screen thing.]

[Ze_ro]

Wow Zero, thanks for all the great suggestions. I'll definitely be on a look out for these games, and good to know I can play CDTV games as well. That opens the catelog up some.
There are some CDTV games that won't work on the CD32, but really, aside from the handful that I mentioned (which I believe all work fine), the vast majority of CDTV games are garbage anyways... like, think CD-i level of awfulness. Check out Town With No Name (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCW7CcQp8cA) for an example.


Just tried to get it to boot in PAL and either I can't do it or I'm doing something wrong, I dunno. There's three options, first one is boot devices, which doesn't list anything. Second is display options. When I select PAL here and then boot the CD, I get a new rainbow Amiga CD32 boot up display that flickers (rolling screen) and then it has some screen w/ two saves from previous games I played and that's it. It won't load the game and just keeps doing the rolling screen thing.
Uh oh, sounds like your TV can't handle a 50Hz signal. Unfortunately, a lot of North American TV's have trouble with this, and there's not a lot you can do about it. If it's old enough that it has a vertical hold knob, you can usually adjust that to get it to stabilize.

There are a lot of games on the CD32 that will not work unless you run them in PAL, so unless you have some way of managing that, you're going to have a bit of a hard time with the CD32 I'm afraid... :(

I'm not sure what would cause the game not to boot though. You're not holding any controller buttons after you exit the boot menu, are you?

--Zero

[mobiusclimber]

Not until I press a button, after the Amiga logo screen comes up and sits there for awhile.

[Soviet Conscript]

the vast majority of CDTV games are garbage anyways... like, think CD-i level of awfulness. Check out Town With No Name (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCW7CcQp8cA) for an example.


...wow....just wow

i need that game

[mobiusclimber]

Darn, I thought that game was related to the book featured in Chobits, A City With No People.

[Arkhan]

Man mobiusclimber, the CD32 was such a disaster :( Mines boxed up (i gave up on it)

though I have an actual Amiga to do games on.


Im pretty sure there are bootable Agony and Shadow of the Beasts for CD-32. Ill have to bug my one friend with more patience for the Cd32, I think he has a ton of working iso's you can burn.

[mobiusclimber]

LOL Hasn't Shadow of the Beast been on every console ever since the dawn of time? Like the apes from 2001 where playing it on that monolith. :D

Yeah I'm getting pretty disheartened by this Amiga. My tvs can't do the PAL thing apparently, just getting the system to play in PAL mode (or rather, switching between the two modes) is a serious pain, and it's impossible to find actual games for this thing (or even decent games to d/l). Let me know if you get ahold of any good games. :)