Amiga Games - Definition and Overview

The Amiga was an important platform for computer games in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was the first home computer to gain major success as a games machine due to its graphic and sound subsystems, which were widely considered to be far ahead of their time. A game made for the Amiga platform generally had much better sound and graphics than the same game running on a IBM PC.

At its zenith in the early 1990s, the Amiga became the platform of choice of many games development companies. At that time virtually every game destined for the PC was first released on the Amiga to test the waters due to cheaper development costs.

The Amiga gaming scene was responsible for the rapid growth of small gaming companies including Electronic Arts who were contracted by Commodore International to produce the Amiga's standard graphics format IFF, and Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint was included as standard with many Amigas thus giving them early access allowing them to gain a major foothold.

Important Amiga games

Early games

• Mind Walker -- Commodore -- (1986)
• Arctic Fox -- Electronic Arts -- (1986)
• Marble Madness -- Electronic Arts -- (1986)
• Archon -- Electronic Arts -- (1986)
• Defender of the Crown -- Cinemaware -- (1986)
• Faery Tale -- Microillusions -- (1986)
• The Pawn -- Magnetic Scrolls -- (1987)
• Maniac Mansion -- Lucasfilm -- (1987)
• Silent Service -- Microprose -- (1987)
• Starglider -- Rainbird -- (1987)

Popular games

• Zool -- Electronic Arts
• Prince of Persia -- Broderbund
• Utopia -- Gremlin
• Cannon Fodder -- Sensible Software
• Mega_Lo_Mania -- Sensible Software -- (1991)

Historically significant games

• Starglider 2 -- Argonaut Software -- (1988)
• Dungeon Master -- FTL Games -- (1989)
• Elite -- Firebird -- (1989)
• Populous -- Electronic Arts -- (1989)
• SimCity -- Infogrames -- (1990)
• Lemmings -- Psygnosis -- (1991)
• Monkey Island -- Lucas Arts -- (1991)
• Civilization -- Microprose -- (1992)
• Syndicate -- Electronic Arts -- (1993)
• Hired Guns -- Psygnosis -- (1993)
• Dune 2 -- Virgin -- (1993)
• Mortal Kombat -- Virgin -- (1994)
• UFO -- Microprose -- (1994)
• Theme Park -- Electronic Arts -- (1994)
• Lotus Turbo Challenge

Games that have been distributed with the Amiga

• Shadow of the Beast -- Psygnosis -- (1989)
• New Zealand Story -- Ocean -- (1989)
• Zany Golf -- Electronic Arts -- (1988)
• Ports of Call -- Aegis
• Rainbow Islands -- Ocean
• Batman The Movie -- Ocean

RPGs

• Bloodwych

Amiga game developers

Many famous game developers first established themself on the Amiga, although some such as David Braben has already established reputations from the 8-bit computer games. Famous Amiga game developers include:

• David Braben (Elite series, Virus)
• Sid Meier (Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates)
• Jeff Minter (Llamatron, Grid Runner)
• Peter Molyneux (Populous)
• Will Wright (SimCity)

Screenshots

See also

Amiga list of Amiga games

External links

• Amiga Games Database (http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/AGDB.html)
• EAGER (http://eager.back2roots.org) Amiga game database containing links to all legal downloads, review info, game music, etc.
• ExoticA! (http://exotica.fix.no)
• Lemon Amiga (http://www.lemonamiga.com) An interactive Amiga game database containing reviews, comments and ratings.
• The Hall Of Light (HOL) database of Amiga games (http://hol.abime.net)
• The English Amiga Board (EAB) (http://eab.abime.net)