Commodore Amiga

[VenomMacbeth]

I've known of the Amiga for some time, and I've noticed recently that a lot of classic games that I like have pretty good Amiga ports. 

How difficult/worth the time is it to collect for the Amiga?  I really have no idea where to begin.

[ccovell]

A lot of the Amiga's biggest hits got ported eventually to the SNES, Gen, PC, Playstation, so it has lost some of its must-have status.  But still, with all the exclusive games and impressive demos & intros, it's a fantastic system to play or try via emulation.

Where to start for games: http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/votes_list.php

[esteban]

To build on what Chris said: the Amiga is literally a huge cosmos of awesomeness, but, as you already know, it will take time to explore all the main areas, let alone all the nooks and crannies.

The obvious answer is to follow the "best of" and "most underappreciated" and "most forgotten" lists that you'll find littered about the net-inter-netz-webz. Some of these lists are lame, but, HEY!, they are really for folks who are just beginning to learn about a new platform.

The Amiga may not have been huge here in the States, but it's hard to ignore the passionate, awesome developer/indie support the platform had (has). The great thing about the Amiga is that you do not feel like it is a dead, sterile topic for archeologists/historians only...tons of people are actively playing and enjoying the software (yes, 99% is via emulation, but that's true for all the older platforms, I reckon).

Personally, I am more invested in Commodore 64 (because I grew up with it), but I intend to spend more time with Amiga in the future.

The great thing is that even if a game for Amiga doesn't hold a lot of replay value (AKA it sucks), it still has a lot of interesting stuff to appreciate (art, music, history, etc.). This cannot be said of sucky games in general (for most platforms). In general, developers *seemed* to put lots of love and care into their Amiga offerings. This may or may not be quantitatively and/or qualitatively true, but it certainly *seems* that way. Net result? Even mediocre games *seem* like they were half-loved (again, art/music). This has led some silly observers to declare that Amiga library was "style over substance" but this is total garbage. If this claim is true for Amiga, it can be leveled at many platforms with much, much worse crap:quality ratios.

At times, I have seen an anti-Amiga sentiment amongst some folks, but haters are gonna hate. Let them.   

BOTTOM LINE: Hell yes, the Amiga is worth it. BUT I AM A C64 LOVER, so...

[Arkhan]

The Amiga is a giant pain in the ass to collect for.

It's also expensive.

Finding the games is no thang.  It's the hardware that is irritating.

You can get an A500, but some of the addons become expensive.

and then it can't really do the whole "download / make disk images" thing because of the lack of resources.  The harddrive add on is pricey (150ish bucks), setting up WB and Kickstart is annoying...  and then you typically want to upgrade the chip ram, and stuff... so it becomes tedious.    It also doesn't do composite, so you have to have the right monitor and cable if you want it to be in color...

That being said, I like A500s.  They're nice, if you want to dump the cash into getting a reliable one going.

so, you could get an A1200, but then you have to f*ck around with Workbench/Kickstart roms, and WHDLoad to put games on a harddrive to play...

and it all quickly becomes a giant annoyance.   A decent Amiga 1200 setup that is ready to go will run you 3-400 bucks typically, and if it's not already setup, you'll have to do it.   That's tedious if you're new to it.

If you are really hellbent on having the real deal, shoot me a PM.   I know a duder who might have some stuff that'd get you going easy.

In the meantime,

get WinUAE (Emulator) and dick around with that and stuff you find online.   

Also, check out AmiKit

http://amikit.amiga.sk/

It wraps around WinUAE to give you a really badass Amiga experience, including WHDLoad so you can download games and play them with ease.

[Tatsujin]

If you gonna use WinUAE, you also need the appropriate Kickrom (e.g. V1.3) to get the "normal" games run.


I loved my Amiga bitd, but same as it goes for Esty, I loved my c=64 even much more. Not because of its outrageous games it had (which it almost had none ), but for its art and style reason, and so much love peeps gave into it, mostly on the music and demo department. Since back then up until today, I never stopped to lissen to SIDs and MODs etc. not even for one week. It sure was a great and interessting era of gaming.