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Thread: Ever much of a difference between Amiga/Atari/or IBM PC ports?

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    Pear (Level 6) Soviet Conscript's Avatar
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    Default Ever much of a difference between Amiga/Atari/or IBM PC ports?

    usually when i go to get a cross platform game i'll go out of my way to grab the most "definitive" version. takeing any enhanced graphics, added content and glitches (and there fixes) and just plain playability into account. generally i find hardcore gaming 101 to be an excellent resource for me on this matter

    but i've been getting back into older computer games lately, especially RPG's and i was just wondering if in general there were major diffrences in games between the Amiga 500, Atari ST and PC IBM's that took advantage of the superiority of any system.

    i'm not counting atari 8-bits or C64 ports because they are almost always inferior versions considering the more limited hardware

    so were multipal ports of games like Bloodwych or Champions of Krynn better overall on any one system or where they all basicly the same on those systems?
    Last edited by Soviet Conscript; 04-02-2008 at 11:09 PM. Reason: spelling corrections

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    Red (Level 21) Jorpho's Avatar
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    I can't imagine the PC coming out on top very often for games of that era.

    You can see for yourself at Mobygames - the Amiga version's color palette is just so much more vivid.
    "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)

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    ServBot (Level 11) kedawa's Avatar
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    Amiga was always the high end for computer games back in its heyday, with the Atari ST coming a close second. The IBM PC versions of games were usually a significant downgrade in sound quality and color pallette.

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    Great Puma (Level 12)
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    The PC ports usually had to be dumbed down a little to account for the fact that there wasn't any clear average PC configuration (sound card, graphics card, memory, hard drive) as opposed to the Amiga and ST which both had standard configurations at least in the 1985-1991 period. Obviously, toward the end of their run, both Atari and Commodore added faster processors and more memory, but few games took advantage of these advances.

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    That's why I hug my Amiga 2000. Old and awesome.

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    ServBot (Level 11) tom's Avatar
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    Back in the days, the PC only won where 'installing it on HDD' was concerned, 520 and 500 usually omitted this.

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    Red (Level 21) Jorpho's Avatar
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    Come to think of it, those PC Roland MT-32 sound cards are often cited as producing some of the most superior music at the time. I'm guessing music wasn't used much in those old RPGs, though.
    "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)

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    Peach (Level 3)
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    Even though the Amiga was more graphically powerful than the ST or PC in its heyday, developers often wrote a game for the lowest common denominator. Nothing seemed to piss off Amiga owners more than getting a straight port of a PC or ST game without any enhancements.

    And since the Amiga 500 is actually slightly slower than the ST (because of additional interrupt, apparently), the Amiga version could actually be inferior than the ST version.

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) 108Stars's Avatar
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    Most games were best on Amiga; the PC was not even close back then. It was more like "hey, for a lowly IBM-compatible it looks pretty good".

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    Defender of the Crown (DOS, CGA)


    Defender of the Crown (DOS, EGA)


    Defender of the Crown (Commodore 64)


    Defender of the Crown (Atari ST)


    Defender of the Crown (Amiga)

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    Strawberry (Level 2)
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    That's a pretty convincing arguement right there, Flack.

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    Wow Flack, great comparison. I had no idea there was that much difference, or that the Atari ST could output such great graphics.

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    Pear (Level 6) Soviet Conscript's Avatar
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    huh...thanks guys

    so i guess my dad wasn't all full of it when he was so happy and bragging about the Amiga 500 he bought back in the day.

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    Given that the aspect ratio is mangled for everything there except the Amiga, it's pretty clear what the original platform was.
    "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)

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    Quote Originally Posted by 108Stars View Post
    Most games were best on Amiga; the PC was not even close back then. It was more like "hey, for a lowly IBM-compatible it looks pretty good".
    One nice thing about the PC side of things was that everyone had a hard drive. I'm not sure how hard things were on the ST, but even if you were lucky enough to own a hard drive for your Amiga, very few of the games had an install option (sometimes you could "fake" an install on the Amiga by clever use of the AmigaDOS "assign" command, but then plenty of games came on copy-protected disks with goofy formats which you couldn't use. Thank god we have WHDLoad now). Not only did you have to play from disk, but you had to play using low-density disks because neither platform really progressed to high-density... so you get both slow-loading AND disk-swapping.

    Another plus is that PC hardware is super easy to find nowadays. Any $5 second-hand computer can easily be turned into a DOS machine to run some Duke Nukem, while high-quality Amiga and ST setups can run you a pretty penny. The games are much easier to find these days too.

    So yeah, the Amiga had better graphics and sound and all, but PC certainly was more convenient at times. Soon enough, VGA cards and Sound Blasters became common, and the the advantages of the Amiga and ST mostly disappeared.

    --Zero

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    Flawless Rawkality Flack's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ze_ro View Post
    One nice thing about the PC side of things was that everyone had a hard drive.
    I had a PC for many years without a hard drive.

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    Peach (Level 3)
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    Same here. I had an original IBM PC until the late 80's, with just two 5.25" floppy drives. Supposedly you couldn't even add a hard drive to that model because the power supply was too wimpy.

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    Pear (Level 6) OldSchoolGamer's Avatar
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    In those days I was an AMIGA fan all the way, it sure impressed anyone I had over! Thought I admit looking at the above shots I may investigate the ATARI ST's, back in the day the Amiga/Atari fans were usually in seperate camps like
    PC/Mac today ! But now as far as collecting goes the I may discover the ATARI fun I missed out on initially.................
    My DP Refs MaximumRD Classic Gaming and Computing Me in a Nutshell (NOT LITERALLY!) http://about.me/maximumrd
    WHERE DID THEIR HAIR GO?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ze_ro View Post
    One nice thing about the PC side of things was that everyone had a hard drive. I'm not sure how hard things were on the ST, but even if you were lucky enough to own a hard drive for your Amiga, very few of the games had an install option (sometimes you could "fake" an install on the Amiga by clever use of the AmigaDOS "assign" command, but then plenty of games came on copy-protected disks with goofy formats which you couldn't use. Thank god we have WHDLoad now). Not only did you have to play from disk, but you had to play using low-density disks because neither platform really progressed to high-density... so you get both slow-loading AND disk-swapping.

    Another plus is that PC hardware is super easy to find nowadays. Any $5 second-hand computer can easily be turned into a DOS machine to run some Duke Nukem, while high-quality Amiga and ST setups can run you a pretty penny. The games are much easier to find these days too.

    So yeah, the Amiga had better graphics and sound and all, but PC certainly was more convenient at times. Soon enough, VGA cards and Sound Blasters became common, and the the advantages of the Amiga and ST mostly disappeared.

    --Zero
    I think you are mixing up the history and era in question here. The heyday of the Amiga and ST was the period from about 1986 through maybe 1991 or 1992. During that time period, very few PCs had hard drives or sound cards. I believe the Sound Blaster didn't even come out until 1987 and my recollection is that it took 2-3 years before prices and software support made it a must buy accessory for gamers. By the early 90s, I would agree that the PC had caught up, but still at a much higher price than a similar ST or Amiga.

    I'm assuming you are talking about Duke Nuke'em 3D which was released in 1996 and not the earlier platform games which the Amiga or ST could've handled very easily. Both the ST and Amiga were basically out of the running before that particular game came out.

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    Peach (Level 3)
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    I think virtually all PCs had hard drives by 1989 or so, albeit they were usually like 20 megabytes. I'd bet most post-PC/AT clones had hard drives. In fact, the PC/XT, which was introduced in 1983, had a 10 megabyte hard drive standard.
    Last edited by blue lander; 04-04-2008 at 07:24 PM.

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