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Contents
6 DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER 34 PERIFRACTIC’S RETRO RECIPES
Billy Withers fondly remembers the game that defines Chris Simpson takes a look back at what made the
his love for the Amiga — Moonstone Amiga special for him.

12 REVIEW — STARQUAKE 38 AMIGA WALKER

This game was never released on the Amiga — by the Rumour has it that only two Walkers exist, well now it’s
magic of a Galahad conversion, let there be Starquake. three (sort of).

14 TOP 5 ­— AMIGA CD32 40 TOP 5 —

­ AMIGA UTILITIES
John McDermott discusses his top 5 games for the John McDermott highlights the Amiga utilities we
Amiga CD32. cannot live without.

21 POINT AND CLICK ADVENTURES 44 VIVA AMIGA

The Amiga was home to many a point and click Zach Weddington gives us an inside look on what
adventure — here Fusion picks our Top 5. inspired him to make this documentary.

25 AMIGA HARDWARE GUIDE 48 GAMES CHART FLASHBACK

The Fusion guide to the many faces of Commodore’s We go back to the Amiga charts of September 1992 —
16-bit powerhouse. have a guess what number 1 is?

30 REVIEW — SKILLGRID
A clever, skillfull, colourful and fast moving game — do
we like it?

2 FUSION
Editor’s Note The continuing popularity of the
Commodore Amiga has always impressed
— over the years it has gained such a
following of enthusiasts as to border on
mainstream. If the number of mentions,
developments, YouTube videos, Tweets
and so on were equated to a UK pop chart
top 20 — the Amiga would have been
number one for months.

The Amiga is very dear to my heart and I

was lucky enough to have owned one (the
A500) during my formative years and even
more lucky in more recent years to have
met the very talented people responsible
for its coming into being in the first place
and getting to know them.

It is also through the love of this amazing

machine that I have met what have
become some of my closest friends in
the world as we attended event after
event, displaying our Amiga collections
and helping others get into the hobby
at the same time, and it’s with this in
mind that I would like to pay tribute to
my friend John Ian Mansfield who sadly
and unexpectedly passed away this year.
John was one of the real stars of our retro
computing world and was always on
hand to help new or experienced Amiga
enthusiasts alike with their particular
issue or simply just to pass on advice.
John always turned up to events and was
a very dear friend to a lot of us in the
community and will be sorely missed. He
would love to have seen this Fusion Amiga
special come to fruition, so it is with that
in mind we dedicate this issue to him and
I wish everyone reading this the best of
health and good fortune.
Sub-Editor : Chris Wilkins
Layout: Chris Wilkins / Alan Hammerton Enjoy the magazine.
Proof Reader : Alan Hammerton/John McDermott
Cover : Trevor Storey Editor
Contributions from : Chris Wilkins, Alan Hammerton,
Billy Withers, John McDermott, Christian Simpson, John McDermott
Colin and James from Let’s Talk Retro, Colin Bell.

FUSION 3
 Fusion
Game : Stunt Car Racer
Year : 1989
Author : Geoff Crammond

Have you ever imagined what it wold be like playing

a racing game without it reacting realistically to
physics? Playing a modern racing game, you know your
day will end badly if you take that tricky Monaco corner
a little too quickly. It never used to be this way though,
it took games like Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga to
introduce a little reality into racing gameplay.
Stunt Car Racer is a game that not only rewarded
good driving but also forced the player (driver) to think
about the consequences of their actions. Launch off a big
jump too slowly meant a graceful crash into a wall — so
with a sharp lesson learnt, on the next lap you would hit
the boost. Now the jump is cleared, along with the very
next corner as you shoot off the track into the abyss.
To beat the physics of Stunt Car Racer, driving at the
right speed is key. Too fast into corners over-stresses the
car resulting in a shower of sparks, the chassis scraping
the ground and an ominous crack slowly spreading
across the top of the screen. Frustration slowly crept in,
especially when competing against opponents in the
higher leagues — one mistake meant you could not win.
This pent-up frustration could be put to good use
in the link-up mode that allowed two players to race
together on two systems via a serial cable. All those
devious things you wanted to do to your computer
opponent could now be inflicted on a friend.

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FUSION 5
Article by Billy Withers

It has been 29 years We’re now on the cusp of in the US and Germany upon
since Moonstone a new generation of photo release.
raised its head on the realistic graphics of such Moonstone was released
Amiga, and it has been 14 fidelity that you know once the by Mindscape back in 1991
years since Billy Withers new Call of Duty and GTA titles and took the talented Rob
originally put pen to paper get churned out, the media Anderson and Todd Prescott
to write a piece about merry-go-round will start all two years to develop.
the game. Like the great over again. This was Todd’s first
Sword in the Stone, this There have been many project with Rob who had
article has lain dormant games that have captured the previously worked with half of
for a long while waiting attention of the press — too the Moonstone team including
for the right moment to many to name here, but one coder Kevin Hoare, who he had
raise its head. That time game in particular arrived in worked with making Fiendish
has now come and those the early 90s on the Amiga and Freddy’s Big Top of Fun in 1989.
who have not heard of the PC, boasting stylish graphics, Joining them were graphic
Mindscape classic will great gameplay, graphical designer Dennis Turner, who
now bear witness to the violence and blood in the had been a part of Gray Matter
impact this game made gallons. It was also banned Software with both of them,
back in 1991. Time to wield
the trusty claymore and
hack away at an esteemed
part of 16-bit history.

They say that the more things

change, the more they stay
the same. When I originally
wrote this piece back in 2006,
Grand Theft Auto was leading
the charge on games that were
too realistic for the youngsters
to play — the older generation
blamed the game for all that
was bad with the world.

6 FUSION
making Technocop the year coded knights, each of them Above: The Chief Druid regrets
before. based in different corners of having beans for lunch.
Steve Leney, who went the map.
on to work with EA on big Blue knight, Sir Godber to Stonehenge for the game to
franchises like Burnout, and resided in the moors to the be completed.
legendary gaming composer North-West; Sir Richard in Now maybe a good time to
Richard Joseph completed the fetching orange in the North- talk about the inhabitants of
round table of staff involved in Eastern wastelands; the the land — remind me to also
the making of the game. wetlands in the South East was mention the dragon.
Dubbed ‘A Hard Days home to the red uniformed Sir Moonstone’s world
Knight’, the Moonstone story Edward and finally finishing includes a myriad of freaks
went roughly as follows: off this roster was Sir Jeffrey and beasts all eager to put you
Every thousand years in green, beginning his quest 10 feet under. Each species is
or so, when the spirit of the in the Great Forest to the visually unique and has their
moon, Danu, changed its gaze South-West. own style of attack.
from outer space to Earth, the With your valiant English Troggs are the easiest to
season of the Moonstones Knight chosen, the task at kill off and can be found all
would commence. During this hand is to collect four keys across the land — they wield
period of time, the Gods would scattered around the land — axes, hammers or spears
bestow a gift of unprecedented with four said keys in hand the depending on where you
power to any warrior that player will then have access encounter them. Only the
could prove himself worthy to the Valley of the Gods at the dark and dank wetlands bring
and become the greatest in center of the map where your solace from them.
the land. Knight will fight the Guardian The lion-like War Beasts
With such a desirable prize to win a ‘moonstone’. The run around in packs attacking
on offer there wasn’t exactly moonstone, once won, will give from side to side. With up to
a shortage of takers to accept the Knight extra powers during two on screen at once, they
the challenge. The player had varying lunar phases as your chomp at your limbs — an
to choose from four colour task then is to return the stone impaling on their horn is your

FUSION 77
 Above: The map — you can see the
prize for getting in their way. smacking anyone who get too coloured helmets in each corner.
The Ratmen are probably close with their log, rather
the most remembered unceremoniously, into the can attribute to strength,
enemies in Moonstone. These ground. constitution and endurance.
cute little critters hunt in Then you have the cameo Remember I asked you
packs and are often found in appearances from the likes to remind me to mention the
the forest. If encountered, you of the Black Knight — a much Dragon — well to add a little
are in danger of being hung stronger and smarter version extra excitement to your
from a tree by their tail or of your adventurer. quest, a dragon will appear
punctured by their sharp fangs Defeating your foe in the
that unleash a poison into your game will earn your Knight Below: There’s that Dragon
bloodstream. Either way, your experience points that you I warned you about.
outcome is the same.
Baloks (pronounced
‘Bay-locks’ before anyone gets
any ideas) are found in the
Northern Wastelands and have
a nasty habit of shaking you if
you got too close.
This leaves the wetlands,
where the Mudmen and the
Trolls reside. The mutant
Mudmen arise from the muddy
depths to an organ fanfare
and try to drag your Knight
back into the ground where
they came from. The trolls on
the other hand walk around

8 FUSION
after some time playing that
sweeps and swoops across
the land. An encounter with
this beast early on in the game
with your experience points
low inevitably means a quick
death.
It isn’t all fighting though
— there is a small RPG element
embedded in the game. Within
the high walls of the cities of
Highwood and Waterdeep you
can upgrade your weapons,
magic and armour as well as
play the odd tavern game, all
Above: Watch out from above!
the while earning XP. — Midway’s Mortal Kombat.
When Moonstone was Before the USA snub, Todd to the needs of the American
released it received mixed and the team were convinced market at the time to get those
reviews. The German magazine the game would do well. much wanted sales. ‘I think,
Amiga Joker and Power ‘Personally I was really excited for financial reasons, we could
Play magazine each gave about the possibilities right have taken out just enough
Moonstone 54%, whilst on from the beginning. Of course, to please the distributors. We
the other end of the scale, we were young and naive back could have turned the gore
Amiga Action awarded the then. However once Mindscape switch off and removed it
game with a big fat 90%. With USA said no, the future, for me, from the game setup menu. Of
the exception of The One’s did not seem quite as bright.’ course we could always leave
re-release review, which was a There had been rumours a cheat code in the game to
lowly 52%, every other reviewer that the 16-bit consoles would enable it..’. Todd goes on to
graded it in the 70s or 80s. get their own version of say how gore and blood was
The reviews came thick Moonstone, but again it was always going to be an integral
and fast. Sales of the game on the violence within the game part of Moonstone and that
the other hand were hampered that ultimatley was the games it was pretty much going to
due to America and Germany downfall. be included from the offset:
withdrawing it from shop I asked Todd, that in
Below: That will be the
shelves due to its graphic hindsight, could the game not
Guardian you have to destroy
content. have been changed to comply to get the ‘moonstone’.
On speaking to co-creator,
Todd Prescott he told us why
America saw a more limited
release, ‘What happened there
was that Toys R Us took a look
at it and decided it was too
violent for them to carry. At the
time Toys R Us sold 25% of all
computer games in the US, so
Mindscape decided they would
not release in the US.’
The irony to the Moonstone
story is that just one year later,
Toys R Us in the USA would go
on to release the one of the
bloodiest gaming franchises

FUSION 99
‘I think it was something we areas on a map with a tower Above: Give this guy some
felt would make the game situated right in the heart of it. money, and all your aches
and pains will disappear.
more fun and just grew as the The fighting stages though had
game was being created. Rob more to do with video games
got the ball rolling with some than a board game, with of the Knights went their
really neat/funny graphic ideas Palace Software’s classic head- separate ways.
(I think it might have been lopping combat title Barbarian Rob Anderson has pretty
the spearmen skewering the being the main inspiration: much stayed in the games
players) and together we ran ‘The combat was heavily industry since Moonstone,
with it.’ influenced by Barbarian. Rob with jobs in various software
Moonstone was unique and I loved the way combat houses including Electronic
— there was no other game worked...’
quite like it at the time. Its Much like those that Below: Kids, listen to your parents!
roots could be traced to the sought the Holy Grail, each There are some nasties out there.
Dungeons and Dragons board
games of the time, as Todd
says, ‘It is essentially a real
time action oriented computer
version of a table top fantasy/
strategy game. The inspiration
for the basic game design was
a combination of D&D and the
board games Talisman (which
I guess was also inspired by
D&D) and The Dark Tower.’
On closer inspection of the
layout of the Dark Tower game
itself, you can see where that
inspiration came from, as the
board consists of four separate

10 FUSION
Arts, Juice Games, and Sega —
he has been an independent
coder since 2013. Kevin Hoare
also stayed in and around the
gaming fraternity with his last
known input being on AAA titles
for Rockstar like GTA V and Red
Dead Redemption II.
Dennis Turner worked on
16-bit games for a further two
years and then disappeared
for a while up until 1999 when
he helped out with The Gungan
Frontier, one of the Episode I
Star Wars learning games. He Above: Looks like the robot from
has also did some CGI work for 2004. Rise of the Robots — and he won!
Hollywood movies. Steve Levey did some
Those of us in the retro other 16-bit games before
gaming scene already know moving to Electronic Arts in Moonstone. To end it, I shall
just how much of an impact 1998, working on strategy leave you with a few words
Richard Joseph had on the games like Populous before from Rob Anderson: ‘I still
industry as a whole, and as moving onto the Harry Potter ponder the thought of making
much as most people think games. His last known gaming the sequel, so who knows,
that his Sensible Software involvement was Hawken from maybe one day...’
work was some of the best, Adrenaline Games Time to start sharpening
his music in Moonstone is Finally, Todd Prescott those swords, don’t you think?
something special. His last stopped making games and With special thanks to Rob
known work, before he sadly became a Java Programmer. Taylor, from Moonstone Tavern,
passed away, was with the PC So that is the story of the for his invaluable help on this
title Evil Genius, released in gore-ridden fantasy classic, article.

FUSION 1111
 DID THE EARTH MOVE FOR JOHN also the first ever Amiga release
MCDERMOTT WHILST PLAYING from modern day ‘retro’ software
STARQUAKE? LET’S FIND OUT. label, Psytronik Software, and
promises to be a great nostalgia
Finally! Starquake!, the trip that transports you back
classic 8-bit action platform to much simpler times.
adventure game that was adored
by Speccy fans who got their This new Amiga offering is based
mitts on it back in 1985, is now on the original Atari ST version that
available for the Commodore was released back in 1988. And as
Amiga. Fully endorsed by the one would expect, Starquake on the
games original creator, Steve Amiga benefits significantly from the
Crow, this version of the game systems superior graphical and sound
has been converted to the system capabilities allowing for a new intro
by the TOS Brothers and Galahad sequence with enhanced graphics and
(of ‘Fairlight’ fame) and features music. The gameplay is smooth and
some cracking cover art by the slick throughout and although I’m not
incredible Trevor Storey. It is usually a fan of action plat-formers

12
12 FUSION
that flip from screen to screen and Initially it’s a bit fidely to control Blob
would much prefer a smoother and you’ll soon realise that your ammo
scrolling transition, it all feels rather and energy are not endless and will
natural and does not affect the need replenishing at regular intervals.
gameplay in any way. Graphically you can clearly tell this
As the player, you control ‘Blob’, is an early 16-bit game, but they
our hero of the game, who has crash look great and ooze vibrant colour.
landed on an unstable planet that Soundwise there’s a quality intro and
is set to explode, which in turn will title screen music track, which sadly
destroy the entire universe in a is not present while playing the game.
Starquake. That is of course unless There are however plenty of in-game
our little red hero manages to repair sound fx to keep you amused.
the planet’s core and prevent this Like many retro re-releases,
awful disaster from ever happening. Starquake is available in a package to
And so begins our game that sees, suit all pockets. The ‘Budget’ edition is
Blob take on the task of rebuilding the available containing just the game on
core which is by no means going to a single disk and a glossy instruction
be an easy task. The parts of the core booklet whereas the ‘Premium Plus’
are scattered throughout the large and ‘Collectors’ edition has more and
subterranean cavern system of the more goodies.
inner planet, which is inhabited by a
whole range of nasties to be avoided,
shot at or interacted with.
Navigating the caverns, Blob can
make use of handy teleporters that
can found dotted around and he also
has at his disposal a little hoverboard
that helps him to get about the deeper,
more confined areas of the planet.

FUSION 13
TOPFIVE>>
The Top 5 games
to play on the
AMIGA CD32
by John
NDA) writing games which Science museum and with
McDermott utilised all the brand new Chris Evans as my co-host – it
32-bit technology the machine did go down very very well.
Technically advanced featured. Those games Sadly exactly as I
for its time, the promised to be sensational predicted, this activity killed
Amiga CD32 arrived to — with no other products the sales of the Amiga 1200,
market in 1993 just prior coming close. by so many Amiga customers
to Commodore going However even though I choosing the ‘latest model’
out of business. Released pointed out to Mehdi Ali that CD32 instead of the AMIGA
too early, it was a last-ditch releasing the CD32 early would 1200.
attempt by Commodore to kill all the sales of the A1200 There were major
try and reverse its fortunes. (we had orders in house for complaints about the fact that
ALL the Amiga 1200s we could the only software available at
make) and there would be launch were ‘ported’ from the
Speaking to David Pleasance no new software for it, Mehdi A1200.
(ex-Managing Director of was convinced that this To make financial matters
Commodore UK), this is move would bring additional even worse — because of a
what he had to say about the revenue (which in fairness dispute with the Philippines
launch. Commodore was in dire need Government (where the CD32
‘It was completely illogical of at that moment in time). was built) over unpaid taxes —
and a very sad decision by Given the short timescale we could not get much stock
Mehdi Ali to launch the CD32 and limited budget we had, released and shipped to us to
approximately 6 months I am extremely proud of the fulfil orders. All in all it was a
ahead of its (very well planned) launch we delivered at the giant farce.’
launch date — late spring,
early summer 1994.
Up to that moment, in
my opinion, the CD32 was the
first product since I joined
Commodore to be given the
time, the budget and the input
by our incredibly talented
marketing team to enable an
outstanding launch.
We had distributed CD32
development kits to most
of the best games software
publishers in the UK who
were all (working under an

14 FUSION
01 // Beneath a Steel Sky
Released 1994 — by Virgin Interactive

Released by Virgin Interactive in 1994 and

developed by Revolution Software this game is
already in Fusion’s top 10 of Amiga Games. In
its CD32 version, rather than simply dumping
the 12 disks worth of data onto a CD, Revolution
enlisted professional voice actors for the
many characters and made good use of the CD
technology to bring this point and click classic,
set in a Steam Punk future, to life. To the eagle-
eyed gamer, the speech does not match entirely
to the text that appears on the sceen with many
English words Amercanised.
Revolution decided not to update the
graphics to make use of the 1200’s AGA chip
set, so visually there is no difference to the
standard Amiga version of the game.
Not having to swap through those 12 disks
is a joy and the game still holds up well after 26
years.

02// The Chaos Engine

Released 1993 — by Renegade

Developed by the Bitmap Brothers and originally

released in 1993 by Renegade for the Amiga,
the AGA and CD32 versions of The Chaos Engine
followed in 1994 to much furore.
With a new intro and high quality CD voice
over and musical score, not to mention the
game making use of the CD32 controller’s extra
buttons, it is a nice return to a game where as
before you have to destroy the Chaos Engine
with your choice of two protagonists from a
selection of Brigand, Mercenary, Gentleman,
Navvie, Thug and Preacher.
This is a great game to play either on your
own or in two player mode (full screen) with a
friend.
The graphics in the CD32 version feel a little
less metallic / steampunk and more vibrant and
almost cartoonish (especially the characters)
compared to its original A500 predecessor.
On a personal note I found moving about
with the CD32 directional pad a bit more difficult
that it should be, so therefore would suggest
using an alternative, more mainstream joystick
or pad.

FUSION 15
15
03 // Super Stardust
Released 1994 – by Team 17

Released in 1995 by the ever-polished Team 17, Super

Stardust is AGA only therefore it looks stunning. Making
full use of the chipset, the graphics are smooth and
vibrant and the action is fast and furious. Yes, it is a new
take on Asteroids but there have been so many bells and
whistles added. The game opens with a ‘Star Wars’ style
scroller with rendered animations to explain the back
story to the game i.e. why you are about to start shooting
everything that moves to save your life. Starting off at level
one, waves of
asteroids are
really the only
thing you need
to worry about clearing as you play against the clock.
As you progress through each world the action heats up
with a variety of deadly enemy ships to contend with.
Aurally the game has it all with thumping sound, musical
overtures and voice over power-up’s complimenting the
action. You can configure all of the buttons on the CD32
controller and another huge benefit of the CD32 version
of the game over it’s 1200 brethren — you do not have to
keep swappping multiple disks to play.

04 // Pinball Illusions
Released 1995 — 21st Century

Developed by Digital Illusions and released by

21st Century Entertainment in 1995, Pinball
Illusions was the culmination in pinball
perfection, previously enjoyed by Amiga users
with the Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies
games.
Pinball Illusions delivers CD audio
soundtracks and voiceover clips in addition to
high quality and vibrant AGA graphics (with the
addition of a high resolution mode in game as
well) to provide as realistic a pinball experience
as you could hope for on a home computer.
I do think the developers missed a trick
though in not using the bumper / trigger
buttons on the CD32 controller as the paddles
(they used them for bumping the machine
instead) but once you get used to the controls it
feels pretty intuitive.
All in all it’s a great finale to this much loved
series of games.

16 FUSION
05 // Classic Lotus Trilogy
Released 1992 – by Gremlin Graphics

Not really one game, as the title alludes to, but

yes, all three of the superb Lotus games (Turbo
Challenge, Turbo Challenge II and the Ultimate
Challenge) on a single disc for your CD32.
The original games were released to critical
acclaim between 1990 and 1992 with this trilogy
coming along in 1994. Widely regarded as the
best racing games for the Amiga, each iteration
of the game bettered the one before with the
inclusion of hills, falling snow and rain as well
as obstacles on the track including water, rocks
and logs.
Lotus II and III both accommodated full
screen single player racing — Lotus I played
in the top half of the screen only. The third
instalment of the game added the ability for
bespoke track creation. All three games feature
multiplayer racing.
Developed by Magnetic Fields and released
by Gremlin Graphics, the CD32 version offers CD
quality audio in addition to the standard version.

FUSION 17
18 FUSION
 FUSION
Game : Sensible World of Soccer 2020
Year : 1996/2020
By : Sensible Software

The original Sensible Soccer (released in 1992 by

Sensible Software) is a well-loved franchise, running
to 1996 with the last official version on the Amiga platform
being Sensible World of Soccer 1996 / 1997.
Back in 1992 I just graduated from University and got my
first job. With my early salary payments, I upgraded my A500
to a 1200 and managed to get a Phillips monitor and a copy
of Sensible Soccer in the deal.
As a single guy at the time, Sensible Soccer became my
staple diet of gaming in the evenings after work and the
weekends. It is such a simple game to play, yet so difficult to
master. I found playing the game with a Megadrive pad was
the way to go — some of the goals I scored (sometimes from
the halfway line with aftertouch swerv) into the top corner of
the net were unbelievable. I convinced myself I was a good
football player after sessions with this game and should play
for Swansea City! To this day, Sensi is still a game I boot up
on the 1200 (yes I still have it!) and have a play — preferably
playing against a friend.
Talented ‘fans’ have kept the Sensible Soccer dream
alive on the Amiga, and in a follow up to their popular 2016 /
2017 edition we now have Sensible World of Soccer 2020 with
current player names, attributes and strips from all over the
world. SWOS 2020 is available for FREE at sensiblesoccer.de.
The Amiga version comes as a WHDLoad package for playing
on your real Amiga or as an HDF package for using on an
emulator.

FUSION 19
20 FUSION
One of the genres which made the Amiga such a popular computer was the ‘Point and Click’
adventure games that were released for it. Between 1987 and 2017, there have been over 100
developed for the machine and after much thought and deliberation, here is Fusion’s Top 5.

FUSION 21
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis — 1993 — US Gold

Set in 1939 (and not being related to any of

the films) you begin the game standing in
what looks like a museum. You are instantly
blessed with a musical score produced by
the proprietary and wonderful iMUSE system
whilst you figure out where to go / what to do
first. The opening credits role as you begin
your adventure to find the lost continent of
Atlantis before the Nazi’s do — oh, and to find
the source of a weapon that would change
their fate in the coming war.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is not the most difficult point and click you will
ever play but the comedy, story and locations
that you visit across the world (all wonderfully
drawn of course) as you puzzle things out are
superb.
Playing the game from a Compact Flash
card on a modern, accelerated A1200 is an
absolute joy and quite a different experience
to the painful disk swapping (11 disks) and
slower game play on an A500 back in the day.

Operation Stealth — 1990 — US Gold

Adopting a slightly unusual pop up menu

control system (which is fine when you get used
to it) you play ‘John’, a CIA agent tasked with
finding and retrieving a stolen stealth plane.
The adventure pans out just like a movie
(think James Bond) as you move from scene
to scene adopting different views as the pace
of the game speeds up or slows down, adding
oodles of atmosphere to the storytelling.

A fun fact on this game is that if you had

1mb or more in your Amiga, the game uses a
primitive speech synthesis to perform all the
dialogue in the game. Unfortunately a bug
crept in where if you attempted to click to skip
over the speech, the game would crash ­— the
trick to overcome this? Remove the extended
memory within the Amiga.

22 FUSION
Simon the Sorcerer – 1993 – Blittersoft

Being the only game in this Top 5 that uses

the enhanced graphics of the CD32, it is
stunningly pretty to look at and proves to be
not just style over function — it is also a very
clever, funny and rewarding game.
The game starts with Simon (with his little
dog watching on) performing some magic
tricks as the game credits roll with a nice
little tune playing in the background. The
aforementioned dog was left wrapped up in

paper at Simon’s front door and had a book that

no-one could read called, ‘Ye Olde Spellbooke’.
Unfortunately, as it tends to happen in
these kind of stories, Simon is transported to
a parallel universe via a portal that is opened
up by the book where his adventure, and yours,
begins in rescuing a wizard called Calypso from
an evil sorceror.
Simon’s first task is to avoid being eaten by
a bunch of goblins. His quest I am afraid to say
does not get any easier from there.

Future Wars — 1989 — Palace Software

Future Wars was Delphine’s first and

best foray into the point and click genre.
Programmed by Paul Cuisset with striking
graphics from the esteemed Eric Chahi
(Another World) the game opens with a UFO
attack on some humanoids in a woodland.
This is followed quickly by a scene with the
protagonist standing on a maintenance
platform in front of a reflective skyscraper

performing his job as a Window cleaner.

From here our unnamed hero travels
through time unpicking a story line that
ultimately sees an alien plot attempting to take
over earth in the 43rd century being stopped.
Future Wars is a difficult point and click
adventure but very rewarding.

FUSION 23
23
The Monkey Island games — 1995 — US Gold

OK so we are cheating a little here as there are of course two individual Monkey Island
games. In our defence both games are
so synonymous with each other that we
honestly cannot separate them — they are
simply THAT good and you just can’t play one
without swiftly playing the other.
The Monkey Island games have it all
with musical scores; graphical beauty;
comedy and swashbuckling adventure. And
all this coming from the imagination of Ron
Gilbert — the game is so professionally and
clinically delivered you almost forget you’re
playing a game at all and not watching some
sort of pixelated movie.
The Secret of Monkey Island sees our
protagonist Guybrush Threepwood as he
begins his quest to become a pirate and
meets and falls for his love interest Elaine.
The very dead LeChuck turns up with his
very dead crew and abducts Elaine. Suffice
to say, Threepwood has to get her back.
By the launch of Monkey Island II –
LeChuck’s revenge, Guybrush has become
a seasoned pirate and has to deal with
LeChuck’s penchant for revenge after he was defeated (spoiler) in the first game.
Both games have been well lauded as the best the Amiga had to offer. And rightly so.

24 FUSION
System: Amiga 1000
Year : July, 1985

In July 1985, Commodore released the first in a

range of Amiga computers, the Amiga 1000, to an
unsuspecting public at a high-profile launch event in
New York City’s Lincoln Centre. Touting exceptional
power and multimedia capabilities for the time due to
its custom OCS chip set and Motorola 68000 processor
(running at 7.16Mhz), the original developers were
certain the machine would be a success.
The launch event was attended by artistic
luminaries such as Andy Warhol, who took to the
spotlight to show off the capabilities of the new
machine and paint Debbie Harry live on stage
using a bespoke art application that what would
end up becoming Deluxe Paint. RJ Mical, one of
the main developers of the system laments that
during the live portrait session they had asked
Andy Warhol not to use the fill bucket tool as it
had a tendency to crash the application — Andy completely ignored the request and used
it anyway, to great effect and without crashing the machine, much to the relief of RJ and
the team back stage.
Interestingly, the Amiga 1000 was only sold in computer stores in an effort to distance
the product from the Commodore 64 et al, which were regarded as mainstream machines
for the computer games market.

FUSION 25
System: Amiga 2000
Year : 1986
The Amiga 2000 was released in 1987 as a follow
up to the Amiga 1000. Early units were based
on the A1000 though most of machines in
circulation were based on the Amiga 500 that
was being developed in Germany in parallel.
The Amiga 2000 was a physically larger
machine than the A1000 to accommodate the
highly expandable nature of the machine with
five Zorro II expansion ports to allow upgradable
wonders, such as the NewTek Video Toaster (which brought true video publishing
capabilities to creative types for a fraction of the budget of traditional video editing
hardware), processor cards, network cards and IDE / SCSI controllers.
Initially the A2000 housed the same OCS chip set and 7.14Mhz Motorola 68000 processor as
the Amiga 1000 but with more base RAM (512KB) and Kickstart 1.1. It then went through various
iterations before finally landing on the ECS chipset model and Kickstart 2.04 with 1MB of RAM.
There was also an A2500 which contained faster processor cards and the rather unique A2500UX
that came with an AT&T version of UNIX, a three button mouse, and bundled with a tape streamer
and Ethernet card.
Mirroring the same approach to retail as the A1000, the Amiga 2000 was sold predominantly
through computer stores.

System: Amiga 500

Year : 1987
The Amiga 500 (code named ‘Rock Lobster’ due to
one of the designers love of the American rock band
‘The B-52’s’) was released after the Amiga 2000 in
1987. Unusually the computer was released in April
of that year in Europe, a full six months before being
released in the USA. This was Commodore’s first
‘computer in a keyboard’ since the Commodore 64
and shared the same base design as the Amiga 2000
but with much reduced expandability options.
Using the same 68000 processor as the Amiga 1000
and 2000 running at 7.14Mh, the A500 could be easily expanded to 1MB via the trap door port.
Although nowhere near as expandable as the A2000, the Amiga 500 could utilise its side expansion
connector to connect Hard Disks, additional RAM and by 1992 even the A570 CDROM drive.
Unlike the A1000 and A2000, Commodore revisited their marketing strategy and released the
machine through more traditional routes to compete directly with the Atari ST. In doing so the
Amiga 500 was by far the most successful of the Amiga range of computers, helped in no small
way by a deal Commodore UK hatched with Ocean Software to bundle Amiga 500’s with the highly
anticipated movie tie-in Batman game, famously referred to as the ‘Batman Pack’.
There was only one variant of the Amiga 500 – the A500 plus. Released in late 1991 it still at
its core had a 7.14Mhz Motorola 68000 processor - the ‘plus’ referred to the newer ECS chipset and
1MB of RAM and the inclusion of the newer Kickstart 2.04. The A500 Plus also had a real-time clock.

26 FUSION
System: Amiga 3000
Year : 1990
Released in June 1990, The Commodore Amiga 3000 was
Commodore’s fourth Amiga computer and the third of the
professional series, or ‘big box’ Amiga’s. Smaller in form factor than
the A2000 but with a lovely slick design reminiscent of the A1000,
the A3000 is widely regarded as the best Amiga ever released by
enthusiasts. The A3000 was Commodores first 32-bit system to come
with either the Motorola 68030 running at 16Mhz or 25Mhz, and the
ECS chipset. Commodore were really going for the ‘workstation’ users
with this machine.
Sure, it could play all the games that we knew and loved at the
time but this machine with its Zorro III expansion capabilities,
in-built VGA output and SCSI controller on board, coupled with up to
2MB Chip RAM and as much as 128MB fast RAM on processor
cards (or even 1GB RAM via Zorro III), the A3000 was an
extremely capable machine for business users —
especially the creative market.
An Amiga 3000UX is the only real variant and
similarly to the 2000UX, came with an AT&T version of UNIX, a three button
mouse, and bundled with a tape streamer and Ethernet card.

System: CDTV
Year : 1991
March 1991 saw Commodore diversify
the Amiga range of computers with the
introduction of the CDTV (actually an acronym for
‘Commodore Dynamic Total Vision’ rather than the common misconception of ‘Compact Disc
Television’). Commodore was aiming for the slowly growing multimedia market whilst other
manufacturers like Philips were pushing their CDi. Commodore designed the CDTV to look and feel
like a high end CD player and fit in with the form factor of stackable Hi-Fi systems meaning it would
not look out of place in a setup next to the TV with the rest of your expensive equipment (or that
was the idea at least).
Although Commodore chose to omit the Amiga name from the branding, at the core of
the CDTV is essentially an Amiga 500 with a bolt on CDROM drive and the same Motorola 68000
processor running at 7.14Mhz and kickstart 1.3 (instead of the newer kickstart 2.0 available at this
time).
The CDTV could be expanded to a shiny black A500 setup with matching keyboard, mouse and
floppy drives (and even a beautiful black monitor).
A number of popular games were released for the CDTV which utilised CD quality sound and
music and video but those were few and far between and couldn’t save what ultimately would be
regarded as a failure due to the very poor take up of the system. The CDTV was discontinued in
1993 and replaced by the CD32.

FUSION 27
System: Amiga 600
Year : 1992
The Amiga 600, (codenamed ‘June Bug’ after
yet another B-52s song) was released with
a whimper to an ambivalent public in
March 1992. Commodore were now
starting to feel some financial woes
and the A600 should have been a very
different proposition to the public than what finally
appeared that Spring.
Again, based on the now ageing A500 design, but significantly cost reduced, the A600 came
with the Motorola 68000 processor running at 7.14Mhz (now in its 7th year of incorporation in
Amiga computers), 1MB chip RAM (expandable to 2MB) and the ECS chipset with Kickstart 2.05. The
small form factor of the A600 (removing the numeric keypad) meant that expandability options
were limited to RAM via the trapdoor expansion or PCMCIA peripherals, however it did come with
an internal IDE controller on board with some models available with a built in hard drive.
The original premise of the Amiga 600 (as verified by Dave Haynie and David Pleasance) was
to be a much cost reduced version of the Amiga 500 / 500 plus and therefore be released as the
Amiga 300 (in fact many motherboards have the A300 branding visible). Poor senior management
decisions from the USA however ensured the Amiga 600 offered nothing in terms of upgrading —
especially if you already had the 500 plus.

System: Amiga 1200

Year : 1992
The Amiga 1200 represents the first system
in seven years to significantly expand
upon the abilities of its counterpart A500
and A600 machines. The Amiga 1200 was
released in October 1992 with a Motorola
68020 processor, running at 14Mhz and the
new AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture)
chipset, delivering up to 256 colours on
screen from a palette of 16 million colours.
The machine also boasted 2MB chip RAM
as standard with the ability to expand that
via the Trapdoor or PCMCIA expansions and
the new 3.0 Kickstart. The A1200 could also
be accelerated with 3rd party expansions such as the Blizzard MKIV which gave the machine the
option of much more RAM and faster processors such as the Motorola 68030 running at 50Mhz.
The A1200 contained the same IDE hard disk controller as the A600 and ‘HD’ variants of the
machine came bundled with an internal 2.5” hard drive.
It was during the early life of the A1200 that Commodore started to experience real financial
difficulties in respect of cash flow, ultimately meaning that only 30,000 machines were available
at launch — missing that years lucrative Christmas season.
Today the Amiga 1200 is one of the most sought-after machine amongst enthusiasts due to its
form factor and inherent capabilities to adapt to modern technologies such as PCMCIA WiFi cards,
Compact Flash hard disks etc.

28 FUSION
System: Amiga 4000
Year : 1992
Following on from the Amiga 3000, Commodore
released the Amiga 4000 in late 1992. Adopting the
same new AGA chipset as the Amiga 1200, the Amiga
4000 was another ‘big box’ Amiga which allowed
for significant expansion possibilities. The last in
the range of Amiga Computers before Commodore’s
ultimate demise in 1994, the A4000 came in two
variants released 6 months apart and boasted a
Motorola 68030 processor running at 25Mhz upon
initial release and a powerhouse Motorola 68040
running at 25Mhz a little later on. Commodore replaced
the SCSI Hard Disk controller of the A3000 with an IDE
controller for the A4000 and removed the VGA ability
which unfortunately meant that without some kind
of expansion — the A4000 could only display on
monitors capable of 15Hz, which were getting thin
on the ground in 1992. Both machines came with
2MB chip RAM as standard and both models had the
processor included as a plug-in card which,
should your pockets be deep enough,
could be replaced with faster 68040 or
even 68060 processors.
Expanding the RAM on the system was more straightforward than on previous systems with the
machine accepting industry standard 72-pin SIMMs.
The A4000 was touted as the flagship professional Amiga, however savvy Amiga enthusiasts
didn’t see this as being anything like the upgrade to the A3000 that it should have been with many
purporting that the A3000 was actually a superior machine in respect of disk speed and the ability
to use modern CRT’s, basically meaning that the A4000, aside from the AGA chip set was often seen
as a down grade to the A3000.

System: Amiga CD32

Year : 1993
The Amiga CD32, (code-named ‘Spellbound’ — a
Siouxsie and the Banshee’s song this time)
was one of the world’s first CD Based 32-bit
games console, boasting similar hardware
to the Amiga 1200, including the AGA chipset,
2MB chip RAM and Motorola 68020 processor
running at 14Mhz and of course a CDROM drive. Released in September 1993 at an event in London
hosted by MD David Pleasance and Chris Evans, the CD32 sold well initially however poor reviews in
respect of launch titles and ambivalence (or outright confusion) over its ‘upside down’ controller
saw a dip in enthusiasm. Coupled with a supply issue, it was doomed to failure.

FUSION 2
29
9
 It is fair to say that in
the 35 years of the Amiga,
there have been a fair amount
of shoot ‘em ups that have lit up
the Commodore 1084 monitor but
there are few that are as clever, colourful
and fast moving as Skillgrid.
Released in 2019 from the talented folks
at Retream, it is amongst several other
commercial releases they have produced
for the Amiga and Commodore 64 over
the years (they also have a healthy
selection of Windows, Apple
and Linux games too).

You could be
forgiven for thinking you
were playing a modern game
on a Windows PC and I think
that is due to the smoothness of
it all. There are clearly three layers of
Parallax scrolling going on which adds
to the depth (and feeling of speed) from
the game as you blast your way through
the levels. The graphics are vibrant and
highly detailed, with a pumping intro
soundtrack complimented by
punchy and clear sound effects.
I must mention the good
voice effects, they remind
me often that ‘time is

30 FUSION
 running out’.
It is not an easy shooter
but made even harder as you
are competing against a clock,
visible as a bar on the left of the
screen, that is always counting down.
Powerups are available to pick up as your
ship flies over them. Strategy is key; you could
grab a super speed up one second but fly
There are also added time over the wrong one and you’ll end up
bonuses to fly over to keep with a ship that handles like an oil
the clock from running down. tanker. Picking up the power-up
On the left of screen there are that reverses your controls will
status bars for your shields and gun almost always end in your
power, which reduces faster if you just sudden explosive death.
hold the fire button and end up with single
shot. I found that being more conservative with
my shooting means that when the bosses
come along I could auto-fire much more.
There are also nice touches like
music pick-ups to fly over to get a
cool soundtrack playing with
a graphic change to up the
intensity.

Seeing developers
still producing great
games and demos for the
Amiga – 35 years after the A1000
graced the world with its presence
is fantastic to see. I love the care and
attention that went into the production
of this game. The game can be purchased
online, downloaded, installed to your local
Amiga hard drive or you can order the
gorgeous looking Deluxe set, complete
with CDs and floppy disks.
This is a very polished
game and one I will return to
repeatedly to see if I can
best that high score.

FUSION 31
32 FUSION
 FUSION
Game : AKIRA
Year : 1994

Before the days of within the opening motorcycle

wonderful Japanese segment where you dodge
Anime being popular in the people, police, rocks, oil
Western world with superb slicks, random moving fires
and thoughtful films from the and navigate jumps and so on
likes of Hayao Miyazaki, Naoko which will take the average
Yamada and Makoto Shinkai player many, many attempts to
(and many others), there was simply get to the end of.
Akira, the film that arguably The game clearly banked
started the trend. a lot on its name to generate
Released in 1994 by sales (as many other games of
publisher ICE, the Amiga the day did) and feels rushed,
game opens to a really rather with an abundantly obvious
promising intro that definitely lack of play testing to ensure
lulls you into a false sense of the difficulty didn’t suck all
security as you are dropped the joy out of the game. Aside
quickly into a side scrolling from the difficulty, the in-game
motorcycle racing game graphics are average for its
with sections of shooter / time and the sound is sparse
platformer flung in for good and basic (a crime on an
measure. Neither the racing Amiga).
or platform sections were This game could, and
executed particulrty well. should, have been so much
The difficulty level of the better than what we got.
game is off the scale especially

FUSION 33
33
 be said about bringing the in my humble opinion).
past into the now. And that’s Buying my Amiga 500
what I’m here to chat with you was one of the most special
about; childhood nostalgia. moments of my teen life (sorry
It’s a concept I touch again for the typo dear, the day
upon a lot on my YouTube I met you was of course the
channel, whether it’s getting most special of all).
the Amiga 500 that I’m typing If you’re familiar with
CHRISTIAN SIMPSON (AKA and submitting this on to be shows like Red Dwarf, and the
PERIFRACTIC) REMEMBERS the first ever A500 to access Season 6 episode featuring the
THE EARLY DAYS AND modern email, via Wi-Fi no time drive, the guys time travel
TELLS US WHAT THE less; or updating Commodore by holding its remote control.
AMIGA MEANS TO HIM. Music Maker into a modern I see vintage computers like
music device complete with the Amiga as a metaphor for
Hello chip dippers. potentiometers that I can
Perifractic here record new original chiptunes Below: The end-result — read the
whole article first, then come back
from Perifractic’s Retro on (and this is the only area
and take a look at this screenshot.
Recipes (or Ladyfractic’s where the C64 beats the Amiga
Retro Recipes if she’s
reading this — sorry
for the typo dear).

It never ceases to amaze

and delight me that so many
people are creating products
and magazines today for
computers from yesteryear.
It really feels like yesteryear,
doesn’t it? For those of us
nostalgic about those old
machines, there is a lot to

34 FUSION
that. When you no longer own
them (like when the time
drive remote gets smashed
in that episode — the horror),
you are stuck in the future,
unable to travel back. Much as
we are now, as ‘adults’. But if
you can acquire a new device,
be it the parts to build a new
time drive remote, or an A500
or parts to repair one from
fleaBay, once that device is
back in your hands it becomes
a conduit to travel back to the
magic of childhood and the
past once again. And I believe
that’s why our little community
is booming. And the Amiga
isn’t just nostalgia any more,
as its software and features
are being seen more as art.
Everything old is new again...
I’ll be making a future
video all about this called
‘What Is Nostalgia?’ and I’d love
to see your comments on the
channel when it airs. I’ll also be
inviting patrons to submit one
minute videos with their take
on the question.
The Amiga itself is
extremely special to me, and
I had an amazing experience
recently, one I think you’ll
appreciate. Unfortunately I
had let my original machine
and most of my software go
— a fact that still tortures me
to this day. But in my parents’
attic (an Atic Atac of sorts) I
found the 50-disk backup I had
(according to the label on the
first disk) made on a program Above: What 50 disks look
called ABackup, 25 years ago. they were in a proprietory like in a disk holder. Check
I set about trying to restore backup program’s format, but I out disk 1 — ‘ABACKUP’.
them to my current A500 and was sure I used ABackup. It had
onto the SD-card hard disk that this cool system where, if you floppy. You didn’t have to run a
it ran, thanks to the Vampire changed a file on the HDD, and full backup each time, just an
500+ v2. Unsurprisingly, none ran a backup, it would only ask update. So clever. Only, it didn’t
of the disks would read. They you to insert the floppy that bloody work did it.
just showed ‘???’ in Workbench. file was backed up onto, then But then, I took more
I began by questioning whether it would just modify that one notice of the holes punched

FUSION 35
35
 Some fleaBay shopping
later, I had a working high
density drive installed as DF0.
I inserted the first disk
marked ‘ABackup’, and drum
roll please, The disk icon
‘ABackup’ appeared, and
the disk worked. I began the
restore process, certain it
would fail on disk 2, or maybe
disk 3 or 4...
But somehow, after 25
years in a sweaty/freezing
London attic, only three
disks out of the 50 ‘fake’ high
density disks had errors. I
was gobsmacked. And, the
more I ran those disks, they
seemed to clean themselves
or something, and two started
working. Only one of 50 had
terminal errors and I was able
to recreate those files from
elsewhere.
So I have a message for
my teenage self. Here in the
future, the A500 now runs the
exact hard disk setup you had
and loved back then. Same
wallpaper, same fonts, same
memories. You had good taste
back then young man.
And so the time travel was
complete. But, nostalgia is
never really complete is it. I
travel back a bit each time I
make a new video, be it the C64
Mini In A C64, extreme refurbs
bringing these treasures back
to life, or the Brixty Four — my
full size working Lego® C64.
Maybe an Amiga will be next.
Above: Do-It-Yourself hole punched
standard again I dare you -- Thank you everyone at
floppy high density disks .
Ed). I had converted the disks Fusion for doing your bit to
out of the corner of each disk. back in the day using the very support keeping these vintage
With my mind in time drive high tech method of using time drives alive in the public
mode, neural connections a paper hole punch to give consciousness. See you all
started to reform. Then it came standard density disks the down nostalgia lane...
to me; these were high density high density hole the Amiga
Your friend in retro, Perifractic
disks, and I was accessing would look for. I guess I had
youtube.com/perifractic
them on the A500’s standard, low standards back then (right
patreon.com/perifractic
standard density drive (say that’s it — Ed).

36 FUSION
FUSION 37
37
THE LAST COMMODORE declared it was very obviously
AMIGA TO BE PRODUCED DID based on ‘The Doctor’s’ faithful
NOT GET MUCH PAST THE mechanical companion
FIRST FEW PROTOTYPES K9; others were adamant
BEFORE THE BUSINESS that inspiration had clearly
WENT BUST. JUSTIN come from the phenomenon
VAUGHAN TELLS US ABOUT that was Star Wars with the
THIS MACHINE AND HIS design bearing an uncanny
resemblance to Darth Vader’s
JOURNEY IN CREATING
helmet, whilst others rather
ONE OF HIS OWN
uncharitably declared it ‘the
vacuum cleaner’.
A long time ago, in I was one of the fans and Above: The cardboard cereal
a workshop far, far, was looking forward to buying prototype with sticky tape.
away, it was the start my own 030 powered Walker
of the ‘beginning of the but, sadly, it was not to be owner of my own Walker as it
end’ for the chicken- as Commodore closed its was a machine I still wanted in
lipped company that doors for the final time before my collection several decades
was Commodore. the Walker made it into the after it was initially unveiled.
marketplace. I did some investigating
Only the prototypes were and discovered that back in
During 1995 and 1996, Amiga made (from a design that to the mid-1990s Commodore
magazines world-wide were me — admittedly with the asked a really nice guy named
full of promises. Those in the benefit of hindsight— would
Below: Starting to get the
know wrote excitedly about the seem to have influenced the
shape a little more K9.
next incarnation of the Amiga, styling of the original imac
excitement which was fuelled and confirms my personal view
by the photographs of a sleek that Commodore were very
sophisticated machine that we often way ahead of their time).
were reliably informed would The history is rather vague
be known as ‘The Walker’. but, as a fan of the original
It was an interesting concept, I wanted to know
design — liked and loathed more and also investigate the
in equal measure. Some possibility of becoming the

38 FUSION
 my quest,
emphasising
that it was
a personal
‘passion
project’ and
not intended
Above: The back of the to be a
Walker with holes aplenty for “for profit”
power and connections. enterprise.
After
Klaus to design the Walker establishing
case. Klaus, in turn, asked my reasons Above: The insides of the
Walker, rear facing.
another nice man named for the request, Klaus very
Daniel to design the case kindly gave me his consent
ready for the Cebit 1996 show. to create a fourth officially personal with the Walker.
Daniel set to work and at the licenced Amiga Walker on the Now that I finally have
end of the collaboration three strict understanding that it the elusive machine in my
cases were built. was not to be sold and that collection I am more than
Now, hot on the trail only one was made. Klaus happy to share it with others
of the elusive Walkers, granted me a licence to use and go to as many shows as
I discovered one of the the design one more time in possible in order to let people
originals remained in Petro order to realise my dream. use and see an Amiga Walker
Tychenko’s possession. The Months of work followed. themselves.
second is, rather more vaguely From the first templates I am delighted to have
‘somewhere in Germany’. All (created from cereal boxes), Klaus’s endorsement for the
that is known about the third to the metal skeleton and project and need to end by
case is that it’s still in Klaus’s finally the finished design. The saying a huge thank you to
personal possession. project was, for me, a labour of Jerry Roe, Brian Ferguson and
Having established that love and I was surprised how of course Klaus without whom
none of the three original much interest it generated the completion of this project
Walkers were available to buy, when I spoke about it. It seems would not have been possible.
it seemed that my dream of I was not the only one who
owning a Walker would never wished they had been given Below: The finished thing,
be realised, until I discovered the chance to get up close and all black and sleek.
a very important piece of
information that gave me
some small hope that my
dream could still be a reality.
The important piece of
information was the discovery
that Commodore had never
actually got around to paying
for the rights to the Walker
case and so, due to that
oversight, the rights had
remained with Klaus.
After some more detective
work (and thanks to the
wonder of the internet) I finally
managed to track down Klaus.
I explained the reason for

FUSION 39
TOPFIVE>>
The Top 5 utilities
for the Amiga that
you cannot live
without.
by John McDermott

The Commodore Amiga applications to be creative applications that are worthy

is renowned for being and productive. Some of us of a mention here but this is
a games machine — we all even used the computer for my own top 5 based on the
know this, but it was also a business purposes — I myself amount of time I used them
very capable machine and used Pagestream for full back in the day (and in some
those who owned one could colour print work in the early cases, still use to this very
choose from a plethora of 90s. There are many more day).

01 // X-Copy

From a popularity perspective XCopy is

high on the top five list of applications
for the Amiga and was probably
responsible for selling more Amiga’s
than any marketing campaign could. In
turn software development companies
struggled because of the software piracy
it introduced and some even folded.
However capable the Amiga was,
consumers of the computer purchased
it mainly for games. that were though
quite expensive for the average family
to afford. At a time when many suffered
the austerity of those years where large
industries deserted once thriving towns,
unemployment was high and the future was grim. Being able to afford the computer at all was a
miracle but being able to buy £14.99 games every now and then was a pipe dream — so software
piracy was rife.
A box of 20 disks could be purchased at the local market for £10 and copy parties all over the
country would buy the games from the market, split the cost between the party goers and then
copy those games all night for the party members. It wasn’t ideal of course, and everyone would
much rather have had the ‘originals’.

40 FUSION
02 // Pagestream

The term ‘Desktop Publishing’ was still a new term

being banded about by professionals when when
Pagestream first appeared on the market in
1985 on competing systems. It was finally made
available on the Amiga in 1989.
On its arrival, If you had a decent printer,
(I had a Star LC24-10) you could simply create
WYSIWYG documents that could be used for any
number of commercial (or personal) projects.
From version
2 (1992), your files
could be output in a
format that could be
used by a commercial printer in colour separated format to print in a
professional environment.
The power and ability to utilise quality Postscript fonts and EPS
graphics and lay out your projects in a way that was purely graphical
was immensely powerful, albeit a bit slow in comparison to Apple Mac’s
which were of course many £100s of pounds more expensive at the time
and so was the software.
Bang for buck, Pagestream and the Amiga were a great pairing for
someone on a budget.

03 // Octamed

One of the main things the Amiga had over all

of its competitors was it’s sound capability and
that can be attributed to the PAULA sound chip.
There were many music creation
applications created for the Amiga, but the
mainstay for this creative outlet were the
‘Trackers’, ultimately culminating in the
awesome OctaMED 2.0.
OctaMED took the ‘tracker’ genre to the
next level with advanced methods for creating
tracks with complex filters and effects, not to
mention the ability to make the Amiga ‘play’ more
channels than it actually had available to it.
A stand-out feature of this tracker in
comparison to its rivals was the native support
for MIDI instruments through the Amiga’s serial
port. This allowed musicians such as Calvin
Harris to create quality studio releases — it is
well known that he used OctaMED to create his
first album.
Octamed was developed on the Amiga until
1996.

FUSION 41
41
04 // AMOS

Created by Francois
Lionet and initially released in
1990, AMOS allowed budding
programmers to develop
small games or demos (and
even applications) using the
AMOS language (an enhanced
version of BASIC for the
Commodore Amiga).
AMOS allowed
programmers to access the
power of the Amiga’s custom
chipset without having
experience of Assembly
language or ‘C’ which meant
software could be created
reasonably quickly and often
with good quality.
The AMOS platform went
through several iterations with its final version being AMOS professional in 1992 which allowed for
much more professional and commercial games / applications to be created.
There are lots of sources for AMOS available and current Amiga users still use the software to
this day, 30 years after its first release.

05 // Deluxe Paint II

If OctaMED was the pinnacle for music

creation on the Amiga then for graphics,
Deluxe Paint, specifically Deluxe Paint
II onwards, would be the application of
choice.
The Amiga was a powerhouse of
graphical ability, provided by the capable
‘Denise’ custom graphics chip, and the
artistic among the early days of home
computing lapped up the ability to
create stunning artwork on the Amiga for
anything from showy demos to full blown
sprite and background graphics for games.
The capabilities of Deluxe Paint II
enabled creativity right out of the box.
Later versions would include the ability to
create animations and take advantage of
the A1200 / A4000 AGA chipset.
Even today there are really talented
pixel artists continuing to create stunning
artwork using real Amiga systems and the
Deluxe Paint software.

42 FUSION
FUSION
44 FUSION
 Because my heart was broken. was an Amiga 500, running
ZACH WEDDINGTON HAS I couldn’t believe Commodore Deluxe Paint IV.
BEEN A LIFELONG FAN OF was gone. I know many people So many memories came
THE AMIGA — SO MUCH SO believed the Amiga would flooding back. I hadn’t seen an
THAT HE DEVOTED A PART continue after that, but I felt Amiga since the 90s. All the fun
OF HIS LIFE TO CREATING A that it wouldn’t be a state- I had as a kid, all the memories
of-the-art choice for creative of experimenting with graphics
DOCUMENTARY ON THOSE
people like myself any longer. and music with my childhood
PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT HIS
I was so upset, that I friends had been buried in my
FAVOURITE COMPUTER TO actually quit using the Amiga mind for almost 20 years. I had
LIFE. THIS IS ZACH’S STORY... from 1995 until around 1999. blocked these memories out,
Only then, did I feel that but they were still there. I was
My generation personal computers had floored.
lived through the caught up to where the Amiga I went home and dug out
‘computer boom’ of the was, so many years previous. all my VHS tapes from the early
80s. We experienced first- Fast forward to 2010. 90s. I had saved many of my
hand the frustrations of I attended the Vintage animations and videos created
making them work; the joy Computer Festival East in with the Amiga, so I digitized
and adulation when we did Wall, NJ with my good friend them and uploaded them to
make them work and we Micheal Lee on a whim. There YouTube. I had always been
bore witness to the giant were tons of old computers on proud of them, and now was
leaps in technology that display there, early PCs, Atari
were being made in those 8-bit machines, and plenty of Below: Photo moment — RJ
years. The Commodore Commodore stuff. And there Mical and Zach. Photo being
taken by Kiki Stockhammer.
Amiga was one such leap
and this documentary
charts its success and
ultimate demise of this
wonderful machine.

Making Viva Amiga was one of

the most challenging things
I’ve ever done. It was also one
of the most rewarding.
As a kid, I was an Amiga
user. For many years, I lived
and breathed the Amiga. If
I wasn’t at the computer, I
almost always had a 3D render
going or I was working on a
Deluxe Paint animation for my
Television Production class in
high school. I even made my
own music with Bars & Pipes, a
MIDI keyboard and a sampler.
It was a playground for my
creative mind.
Back in 1995, if you told
me, I would wind up making
a film about the Amiga, I
wouldn’t have believed you.

FUSION 45
45
 be a major challenge. So much
footage, so many details. I
decided along the way that it
was best to make a film which
could explain to an average
person why the Amiga was so
special, and tell the story of
the Amiga’s life in the clearest
way I could. Upon reflection,
it was the right choice. In
order to recoup the tons of
time and additional money I
had spent on the film, I had to
make the film something that
anyone could enjoy, including
non Amiga fans. Otherwise, I
would never get a distribution
Above: Viva Amiga: The Binder.
Marvin Droogsma who I had deal, and self-distribution was
This is where the secrets of the
film were kept from prying eyes.
met online. It was a whirlwind something I simply couldn’t
trip, but we captured parts of handle myself.
the time to show them off a the story that really helped the I showed a rough cut of
little bit more! And also to show film in a major way. Viva Amiga twice at the Amiga
the world again what the Amiga Shooting at RJ Mical’s 30th event in Mountain View,
was capable of! house in California was California. Even though he had
Then it dawned on me: especially memorable. Don already watched it once, I saw
why not make a film about the Reisinger, Mike Boom, RJ and Dave Needle in the very front
Amiga? I knew it was a good Dave Needle gave me great row at the second screening.
idea. It didn’t matter that I material to work with. We had He was grinning like a little kid
didn’t even own a camera a fantastic dinner with lots of and giving me a wink or two.
at the time, I knew I had to his friends in the computer He couldn’t wait to watch it
try. I mentioned the idea to industry and I felt like we were
Below: The master Zach at
Mike Lee, and he put me in making history! work filming a...ermm, road?
touch with Dave Haynie and Editing the film proved to
Bill Herd. I arranged a shoot
at the Comcast Corporate
Headquarters, where I worked
at the time. I interviewed them
and got just enough footage
to put together a little ‘teaser
trailer’.
Enter Kickstarter. I made a
page, uploaded the trailer and
put the word out to the Amiga
community online. Amiga fans
from around the world helped
me reach my goal! I was so
thankful.
I spent the next few years
traveling to Amiga events
around the USA and also in
Germany and the Netherlands,
with the help of my good friend

46 FUSION
again! I knew at that moment
he approved of what I had
done. He just seemed really
happy. I had no idea that would
be the last time I ever saw him.
I’m sure nobody did.
Viva Amiga was my first
film. I figured at the start, that
I would wind up just making
some DVD copies of the film
for the fans and the Kickstarter
backers, and that would be it.
But it wound up being a bigger
deal that I could have ever
imagined. We wound up hitting
#1 spots on iTunes in several
countries, securing a deal
with Hulu for the streaming
Premiere, showing the film at
festivals around the world and
much more.
The film was enough of a
success, that I am now working
on an extended remix version
of the film for fans that want
to see and hear more of the
content that wound up on the
cutting room floor. It will be
completed early next year, in
time for Amiga 35 shows in the
summer.
I’m also working on a film
about the history of arcades,
called Welcome to Arcadia. I
have a team now, instead of
just doing most of the work
myself. Amiga Bill is part of
the crew. He had so much fun
shooting some of the B-roll for
Viva Amiga, that he jumped on
board right away to help tell
this new story. Check out the
website at arcadiathemovie.
com. page.
I hope fans will enjoy the
remix of Viva Amiga. I tried
Above: Dave Haynie (top), RJ Mical
to please everyone with Viva Viva Amiga Facebook page. (Middle) and Jason Scott (Bottom).
Amiga, but that simply wasn’t Thank you again to all the
possible. So if you didn’t enjoy fans and backers who made
the original, give the remix a Viva Amiga possible. I’ll never
try! The best way to stay up to forget you!
date about its release is on the

FUSION 47
COLIN AND JAMES FROM California Man. But did you my collection features some
LETS TALK RETRO LOOK know that Rad Mobile was extra missions for it. Next up
BACK TO SEPTEMBER 1992 the first game to feature at number four in the chart is
everyone’s favourite blue a game for people that think
AND THE COMMODORE
hedgehog several months they can do a better job than
AMIGA CHARTS
before the release of Sonic Ozzy Ardiles, Championship
>>Colin the Hedgehog? He can actually Manager. You’re a big football
For this Games Chart be seen in the game swinging fan Colin so I bet you’ve spent
Flashback, we’re going back from the rear-view mirror. some time playing this one.
to September 1992. A time
when The Shamen were top >>Colin >>Colin
of the UK music charts with Yes, I think I’ve heard that Well I do support and go to
Ebeneezer Goode and if you somewhere before. Anyway, watch Reading FC, so I guess
went to the cinema you might we’re here to take a look at the that makes me a fan. I do
have watched Steve Martin and Amiga chart from September actually re-member playing
Goldie Hawn in Housesitter, 1992 and at number five is the Championship Manager when
Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, space flight simulator Epic. it first came out. It was the
and bringing things round to A game that was developed first game in the long running
retro gaming Brendon Fraser by Digital Image Design and series and was developed
having a blast on Sega’s arcade published by Ocean. The by Intelek and published
racer Rad Mobile in California easiest way to summarise by Domark. On the box it
Man. the game would be as an boasted that it was the most
intergalactic reworking of the realistic football management
>>James hugely popular F29 Retaliator. simulation ever and at the
I remember that Rad The story of the game was time it probably was. For me
Mobile scene in heavily influenced by popular though it was where games
Sci-Fi television of this genre started to get
programmes and a bit too realistic and over
movies of the time. complicated. That’s probably
Do you have any why my football management
memories of this sim of choice has always been
game James? The Boss on the commodore
64, which is a much more basic
>>James but fun game if you ask me.
To be totally
honest I don’t >>James
think I’ve played Moving on then to number
it, but I think three and still selling boat
one of the many loads that month was another
Amiga magazine footy game that came out
cover disks in on many formats and was

48 FUSION
FUSION
imaginatively titled ‘Striker’. Mansion. I loved playing the Jon Hare’s Microprose Soccer
The game was devel-oped and Monkey Island series. It was which was released in 1988. A
published by Rage Software. I the well written humour and game I was lucky enough to get
remember having this game challenging puzzles that got a pre-release copy of as I knew
on the SNES and it was pretty me hooked and as a result I a Microprose game tester
enjoyable. be-came addicted to point at the time. Sensi though
and click adventure games for was a big improvement over
>>Colin some considerable time. Microprose Soccer and even
I remember the gameplay manged to improve on the
was really fast paced so it >>James addictive fast paced gameplay.
took a while to get used to So finally, at the number one It’s therefore no wonder it
it. The game only featured spot it’s more football but went on to sell so many copies.
International teams and didn’t you won’t hear me say a bad
include any player names. It word about this one because >>James
was a fairly basic affair and it was played like crazy in my So that’s about it for this
wasn’t the best football game house. Like many I’m sure Games Chart Flashback. If you
on the Amiga but like you Sensible Soccer got me hooked want to join us looking back at
say it was pretty enjoyable when it first appeared as a more charts, then don’t forget
to play. Oh, and a Fun fact payable demo on a magazine Games Chart Flashback is a
for you about this one is that coverdisk. I know it’s a game regular feature on our Retro
the French release on the you love as well Colin. Gamer Show videos over on our
SNES was titled ‘Eric Cantona YouTube channel. But for now,
Football Challenge’. >>Colin and as always, we will leave
Yes, I loved Sensi on the Amiga you with a few cheats for the
>>James and I still do today. It’s more or games featured in this chart
Oh really, I wonder how less the spiritual successor to that you might find useful.
much they paid Cantona
for that privilege. Next at
the number 2 spot we find
everyone’s favourite wannabe
pirate adventurer Guybrush
Threepwood staring in Monkey
Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge.
Following on from the success
of his first adventure our
hero was back and this time
in search of the mysterious
treasure of Big Whoop.

>>Colin
Of course, this one was
CHEATS
developed and published
by Lucas Arts and directed Monkey Island 2 LeChuck’s Revenge:
by Ron Gilbert. It used the For the most pointless cheat ever and to automatically complete the
famous SCUMM Engine, SCUMM game press Alt+W.
standing for Script Creation
Utility for Maniac Mansion. Epic:
It was the engine developed For cheat mode press left shift and slowly type nem ydid eht, then
by Lucas Arts for their first press enter to enable cheat mode. A sound will confirm the code has
point and click adventure been entered correctly. You can then press C to complete the current
game which as you may mission and press down/right on the joystick + enter for full weapons
have guessed was Maniac and shields.

FFUSION 49
50 FUSION
 FUSION
Game : Dangerous Streets
Year : 1994

Beat ‘em up games were

all the rage back in the this up!
early 1990s and thanks to the Each character has a
likes of such brawler classics range of special moves,
as Capcom’s Street Fighter 2 some of which are just down
and Midway’s Mortal Kombat it right wacky, such as Pinen’s
seemed like we all just couldn’t spinning hat attack, Lola’s
get enough of that good ol’ hair gel attack and Luisa
button bashing beat ‘em up who can transform into a
goodness. slab of concrete to protect
Sadly though, as we all herself. Graphics are cartoony
know, with the yin, comes and the animation feels
the yang and while I could like it is missing a good few
pick out a number of poorly frames which would explain
executed beat ‘em up titles why the characters twitch
for the Amiga, I’ve opted for a lot. Collision detection is
Flare Software’s Dangerous frustrating and thanks to a lack
Streets, a fairly simplistic one of decent sound FX and recoil
on one affair which despite from your opponent it’s hard to
a standard, AGA and a CD32 tell if you’ve actually hit them
release, still failed to impress or not. Controls make no sense
the critics and punters who and most of the time feel
shelled out their hard earned totally random but find that
pocket money on what was sweet spot on the stick and
essentially a pile of old hold the fire button at the right
rubbish. time and you can defeat your
Dangerous Streets opponent with the same move
followed the same formula as over and over.One small saving
the likes of Street Fighter 2, grace is the backgrounds
choose one of eight fighters which are nicely drawn and do
and go head to head with the feature the odd bit of parallax
CPU or with a mate. But don’t scrolling here and there.
expect to play any champion Overall this is one beat
sumo’s, mystical yogi’s, ‘em up that just doesn’t quite
military soldiers or martial come up to the standard
arts experts, oh no! In these of others available for the
Dangerous Streets it’s Pinen system. I can only imagine
the lorry driver, Sgiosa the disc your disappointment had you
jockey, Tony the playboy, Luisa actually bought this back in
the gym teacher, Macalosh the day or had you had the
the spiritual leader, Lola the misfortune to come across
top model, Keo the castle it as part of your new CD32
custodian and Ombra the bundle.
palmist. No, I’m not making

FUSION 51
51
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