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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Next-gen console war: The verdict by mcvuk.com

@ sieanr

IMO even the diehard Amiga fans, like MikeB, pirated Amiga games


In your opinion I pirated games? Let me tell you I and a gaming friend bought Turrican 1 and 2 both for the c64 and Amiga, we shared.

Factor 5 has stated that they only sold a few thousand copies of Turrican on the Amiga


Sure piracy was a huge problem, but are you sure Factor 5 stated that, I know Amiga Joker (German magazine) reported Turrican 2 sold about 30.000 units for the Amiga 500, I don't know if this relates just to Germany or the whole of Europe.



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

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@ sieanr

I said "mostly", adressing some of the games you don't agree on with me for preferring the Amiga versions over the console versions:

1. Desert Strike came out on the other platforms the same year as the Amiga, not to mention the best version was on the MD


I think the best version was for the Amiga 500:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7POlttlLfT4

Another World, the best version of this game, by far, is on MS-DOS.


Even if so, why would I get it for the Snes?

"In August 1989, Chahi was inspired by the flat-color animations used in the Amiga version of Dragon's Lair, and theorized that it would be possible to use vector outlines to create a similar effect using much less computer storage."

"Chahi used an Amiga 500 to create the final game, using Devpac Assembler to program the game engine and polygon outlines and GFA BASIC to create the game's editor. Using a genlock, he imported recordings of his little brother from a video camera to use for rotoscoping animations. He used a tape recorder to record the sound effects for the game. He drew the background art with Deluxe Paint.[2] The game is the first 2D game to use polygons for all of its graphics, as opposed to the more common sprites, which created a distinctive visual style."

Great Amiga 500 game:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=atlAr5kdpQM

5. Gods, also made for and released for the Atari ST at the same time


I owned an Atari ST as well, the Amiga versions were almost always better except for a few very early titles. The Amiga version mostly included stereo sound instead of monosound and often added colors or parallax scrolling.

The point was, there was little to no point for me to get the console version.



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

"Chahi used an Amiga 500 to create the final game, using Devpac Assembler to program the game engine and polygon outlines and GFA BASIC to create the game's editor. Using a genlock, he imported recordings of his little brother from a video camera to use for rotoscoping animations. He used a tape recorder to record the sound effects for the game. He drew the background art with Deluxe Paint.[2] The game is the first 2D game to use polygons for all of its graphics, as opposed to the more common sprites, which created a distinctive visual style."


Needless to say the Amiga was an excellent games development platform, for example the hugely successful worms was developed by bedroom coders using Blitz Basic on the Amiga (a very easy to program language):

Worms Directors' cut, later released exclusively for the Amiga, sadly one of Team17's last game for the platform:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IVY7hJgdUmI



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

MikeB said:
@ RolStoppable

IMO the Amiga had no games that would justify owning one. IMO the SNES library was vastly superior to anything available for the Amiga.[quote]

Strange statement, you mean you prefer the Snes' library of games right? Or do you want to suggest that any Snes game is better than any Amiga game?

[quote]I believe these are the main reasons why the Amiga got killed by the SNES


Nice theory, but the Amiga 500 gaming heydays were between 1987 and 1990 almost exclusively in Europe (Most games were higher res PAL, which was not well supported by NTSC TVs at the time, thus requiring a monitor), as the Snes was released in Europe in 1992 your theory seems a bit off.

The Amiga was mainly successful in the United States as special effects systems for Holywood movies and Sci-Fi series, cable TV operators (TV overview screens with text and graphics), Kiosk systems and some specialized uses by for example companies like for example NASA (rocket telemetry) and military training (flight simulation). It was not popular in the US as a gaming device.

BTW I never owned an Amiga 500 myself, I owned a better expandable Amiga 2000 as my first Amiga and used it mainly for video editing, internet and word processing next to gaming.

I'd like to hear an explanation as to how your post answers and refutes his claim of game variety? 

As far as I can tell, he said the SNES killed what was left of the amiga as developers flocked to a system that was free of piracy. Sure, its gaming prime was over but the system was still in millions of homes and had plenty of games past 1990. I slightly disagree in the sense that I think the MD hurt the Amiga more, especially early on, but basically its correct - the Amiga wasn't a viable platform later in life due to piracy, aging hardware and better options available to developers.

One use doesn't exclude other uses, Amiga hardware found its way into the arcades as well and likewise will the arcade version of Tekken 6 include PS3 hardware. 1 million sold consoles for Japan alone is IMO a honourable achievement considering the pricepoint and a smaller games industry at the time.

Yes it does.

The Neo-Geo was designed as Arcade hardware from the outset, selling it at home was secondary and it was never seriously considered for that role. If you want to use the Neo-Geo as an example then why not bring up the Capcom CPS changer?

Plenty of other consoles and computers have made its way into arcades, but that doesn't mean shit as far as sales go. The Dreamcast may have failed as a console, but the Naomi arcade board derived from its hardware has been very sucessful, just like the successor derived from Naomi, Atomiswave. 

IMO both those boards are more impressive thanks to the variety and quality of games released and generally being more successful than Amiga arcade boards, but that means about as much to this argument as "1 million sold consoles". 

In your opinion I pirated games? Let me tell you I and a gaming friend bought Turrican 1 and 2 both for the c64 and Amiga, we shared.

No, I just said even the biggest Amiga fans pirated games. I used you as an example of an Amiga fan, so I dont see where you problem is - unless you don't like being called an Amiga fan.

Sure piracy was a huge problem, but are you sure Factor 5 stated that, I know Amiga Joker (German magazine) reported Turrican 2 sold about 30.000 units for the Amiga 500, I don't know if this relates just to Germany or the whole of Europe.

Sure that was just sales for the Amiga? Turrican was ported to the Amiga, then to just about every other system.

I said "mostly", adressing some of the games you don't agree on with me for preferring the Amiga versions over the console versions:[/quote[

Except you explicity noted one version that was ported to the Amiga, but ignored other games that didn't favor the Amiga. Odd...

[quote]I think the best version was for the Amiga 500:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7POlttlLfT4

Ok. If you want the "best" version of every game then why did you get the shitty version of Another World for Amiga? The DOS version offers smoother, bug tested gameplay and a whole new level, while the Mac version is the same but in a higher resolution.

"In August 1989, Chahi was inspired by the flat-color animations used in the Amiga version of Dragon's Lair, and theorized that it would be possible to use vector outlines to create a similar effect using much less computer storage."

"Chahi used an Amiga 500 to create the final game, using Devpac Assembler to program the game engine and polygon outlines and GFA BASIC to create the game's editor. Using a genlock, he imported recordings of his little brother from a video camera to use for rotoscoping animations. He used a tape recorder to record the sound effects for the game. He drew the background art with Deluxe Paint.[2] The game is the first 2D game to use polygons for all of its graphics, as opposed to the more common sprites, which created a distinctive visual style."

Great Amiga 500 game:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=atlAr5kdpQM

So he was inspired by how shitty the Amiga version of Dragons Lair was? Great argument for the Amiga....

And why is it a big deal about how the game was made? Does the fact that it was made on the Amiga somehow make up for the MS-DOS version? Do you really think about which platform a game was developed on when it was made - because if so you must not enjoy games that much.

I owned an Atari ST as well, the Amiga versions were almost always better except for a few very early titles. The Amiga version mostly included stereo sound instead of monosound and often added colors or parallax scrolling.

The point was, there was little to no point for me to get the console version.

Yet this makes your original argument about SNES lacking variety valid? 

Your argument really doesn't follow, except you like the "definitive" version of games unless those versions platforms not named Amiga.

Needless to say the Amiga was an excellent games development platform, for example the hugely successful worms was developed by bedroom coders using Blitz Basic on the Amiga (a very easy to program language):

Worms Directors' cut, later released exclusively for the Amiga, sadly one of Team17's last game for the platform:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IVY7hJgdUmI

I'll just repeat what I've already said; This makes your original argument about SNES lacking variety valid? 

It must be fun to have a conversation with you in real life, what, with the changing of topics all the time.

 

 

 



Leo-j said: If a dvd for a pc game holds what? Crysis at 3000p or something, why in the world cant a blu-ray disc do the same?

ssj12 said: Player specific decoders are nothing more than specialized GPUs. Gran Turismo is the trust driving simulator of them all. 

"Why do they call it the xbox 360? Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away" 

Oh, and I'm still waiting for you to argue how the SNES hardware isn't similar to the Amiga in the abstract.

After all, you do love comparing the Amigas architecture to the PS3, so I dont get why this discussion isn't up your alley.

Why MikeB? Why?

I thought you'd jump at the chance to discuss the virtues of the Amiga, especially when you can compare it to a console that was actually successful!

Please MikeB, it just seems like you're avoiding this for some strange reason. Its almost as though you hate this comparison....



Leo-j said: If a dvd for a pc game holds what? Crysis at 3000p or something, why in the world cant a blu-ray disc do the same?

ssj12 said: Player specific decoders are nothing more than specialized GPUs. Gran Turismo is the trust driving simulator of them all. 

"Why do they call it the xbox 360? Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away" 

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Shit, I just realized I missed a few things

So that's probably what affected my opinion, apart from a few Nintendo exlcusives there wasn't much of interest to me, the lack of keyboard and mouse support in games, and large enough storage media limited its gameplay capabilities. Thus there were thousands more games released for the Amiga 500, despite the Snes being such a great success for Nintendo globally.


It had an official mouse and had tons of games that supported it, like Civilization.

And how the hell did carts "limit gameplay capabilities"? Are you a fan of FMV titles?

Nice theory, but the Amiga 500 gaming heydays were between 1987 and 1990 almost exclusively in Europe (Most games were higher res PAL, which was not well supported by NTSC TVs at the time, thus requiring a monitor), as the Snes was released in Europe in 1992 your theory seems a bit off.


And how many games rendered at 512? Oh wait, you mean most were considerably lower res, even under 480.... this reminds me of Halo 3.



Leo-j said: If a dvd for a pc game holds what? Crysis at 3000p or something, why in the world cant a blu-ray disc do the same?

ssj12 said: Player specific decoders are nothing more than specialized GPUs. Gran Turismo is the trust driving simulator of them all. 

"Why do they call it the xbox 360? Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away" 

@ sieanr

I'd like to hear an explanation as to how your post answers and refutes his claim of game variety?


I respect his opinion, it comes down to personal taste, one thing I liked better about the Snes was games being distributed on cartridges. IMO the Amiga 500 games library overall was better, but I won't deny SMW wasn't the most high profile game.

As far as I can tell, he said the SNES killed what was left of the amiga


No, Commodore ran into financial problems unrelated to the Amiga. For example when Amiga production had to be halted, The CD32 still managed to secure over 50% of the CD-ROM market in the UK in 1993 and 1994, outselling the MegaCD, Philips CDi, and even PC CD-ROM sales. Companies afraid of hardware shortage offered over twice the purchase price on any second hand Amiga hardware they could find, the Amiga 500 and higher specced Amiga platforms continued to see new Amiga games releases well into this millenium.

Ok. If you want the "best" version of every game then why did you get the shitty version of Another World for Amiga? The DOS version offers smoother, bug tested gameplay and a whole new level, while the Mac version is the same but in a higher resolution.


I don't think a Mac version was available at the time.

And I owned an Amiga at the time, not a PC! MSDOS emulation on the Amiga was quite slow, the Mac version could probably run under emulation without problems, but wasn't even available at the time when I bought the game.

I also believe the MSDOS version was released in 1992, not in 1991 like the Amiga original.

Yet this makes your original argument about SNES lacking variety valid?


I have already given my response, for me the Snes games library was too limited beyond a few Nintendo published titles. I have provided a few reasons you can reread above. Don't agree? Then don't. So what? Two people with a different opinion. It's not the first time this has happened in this world.



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

@ sieanr

Oh, and I'm still waiting for you to argue how the SNES hardware isn't similar to the Amiga in the abstract.


All computer and gaming systems have become more similar to what the Amiga offered.

Timing and perspective, the Amiga is hardware from 1985 (1987 Amiga 500 model released) and the Snes hardware from 1990 (1992 released here in Europe). That's half a decade in between!

The Snes hardware is very different from the Amiga hardware design, both have very different capabilities. As you can see in the videos technically the lowend Amiga 500 was still a very capable gaming platform around the time of the Snes release. Newer high end Amigas hardware wise were technically far more capable than the Snes.



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

@ sieanr

And how the hell did carts "limit gameplay capabilities"? Are you a fan of FMV titles?


Try to squeeze Crysis or Oblivion on a Snes cart....

Most adventure games took up quite some space.



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

MikeB said:
@ sieanr

And how the hell did carts "limit gameplay capabilities"? Are you a fan of FMV titles?


Try to squeeze Crysis or Oblivion on a Snes cart....

Most adventure games took up quite some space.

 Wait a second. If the SNES ran a DVD drive, it could handle the gameplay of Crysis and Oblivion? I always thought it was the limited 3D power of the system that prevented it from running full 3D games.



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs