Emulated Commodore Amiga Games Coming from Manomio [UPDATED]
posted by Blake Patterson on February 9th, 2010 8:11 PM EST in $4.99, Emulator, News, Retro, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Retro gaming fans can add another item to their "things in life to be excited for" list, as we just got word that Manomio, who brought us the C64 for iPhone [App Store] emulator, is currently working on bringing an Amiga emulator to the App Store.
Retro Gamer magazine recently talked with the developer and Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie, who indicates that games will likely be distributed as individual, packaged apps to keep the Amiga operating system hidden, allowing the player to focus only on the games themselves. There's not much information right now as to just which Amiga games we'll be seeing on the iPhone, but Retro Gamer indicates that, among the games on the way, is Archer MacLean's classic fighter International Karate +.
"We've ported an Amiga system and have secured some great games," says Stuart. "It runs at full speed on a 3GS and similar hardware and at a respectable frame rate for the 3G devices. IK+ plays very well."
For readers unfamiliar with the Amiga, it is a 16-bit computer released by Commodore in 1985. A far more complex system than the C64, the Amiga featured a powerful central processor, various custom co-processors, and a multitasking operating system that enabled audiovisual feats previously unseen in a consumer system at that point in time. While it did not see enormous popularity in the United States, it was wildly popular in Europe and is considered by many to be one of the very best game platforms ever created. (And it's a platform I happen to hold quite close to my own heart.)
The Amiga was so capable a game machine back in 1985 that even today's gamers without any particular retro inclination should enjoy the vast majority of titles with which Manomio is about to gift us.
Have a look at this nice sampling of 100 Amiga games in 10 minutes.
UPDATE: We sought further details of the upcoming Amiga emulator from Manomio upon hearing the initial report. Carnie kindly got back to us and, while not ready to discuss further IP at the moment, provided us with a few details about the emulation core they're using.
In order to get the speed we needed, I spent about 6 weeks and wrote a 68000 CPU core in about 60+% ARM assembly. Surprisingly, certain games (IK+) run respectively on a 3G device, which means it should do well on a 2nd gen touch device too, given the 25% faster clock speed. The 3GS has a far superior memory architecture to the older devices – it can really push bytes around and fast…
He indicates that they've been testing a number of scrollers, including Xenon II, Turrican, Ghosts 'n Goblins and R-Type (not that these are necessarily among the IP they have secured for release in the App Store), all of which "are just perfectly smooth."
You can be sure we will bring additional information on Manomio's latest as we receive it. I can't wait to see what's in store for iPhone gamers from the world of Amiga gaming.
Excited as hell.
Amiga Forever!!!!
Only Amiga Makes it Possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6uh1Q_D_XU
Are you kidding?!?! Holy smokes!!
I still have my modded Amiga 500 (actually, I have a collection of all my old computers and game consoles!). So, aside from IK+, Sword of Sodan as well as Wings (Cinemaware) immediately come to mind as must haves for this emulator. Ahhh…so many great games and fond memories of gaming on my Amiga.
Wow. Just wow. While you guys are at it, can we get an Atari 400/800 emulator, too? I need my fix of Star Raiders and Miner 2049er (even though Star Rangers is an nice updated version of Star Raiders).
Great stuff guys! Can't wait!
Business-wise, this seems like a sound idea other than the games being sold separately. Assuming this and the C64 emulator are profitable, they'll have more money, which means they can get bigger titles for both emus. Which in turn would give them more money, and more importantly, give us even more great games.
"…it was wildly popular in Europe and is considered by many to be one of the very best game platforms ever created."
Actually, the Amiga OS was way ahead of its time, and the Video Toaster made it huge in video editing for quite a long time. It's still one of my favorite machines.
I cut my teeth editing on Video Toaster. Way, way, way ahead of its time, the Amiga was.
Back in the day, it went like this:
Amiga >> Mac >>> Windows
Those that dare disagree simply don't know.
Excited- but dang considering the really bad stuff they were able to license for C64 so far, really curious if it will be anything you'd actually want to play…
There is a game incorrectly labelled "An other World." It should be "Out of this World." One of the most poignant gaming experiences from that era.
*It erroneously reads "Another World."
It's not an error. "Another World" was the european title of the game…
And given that it was European in origin, it's the correct title.
Holy cow!
Manomio, please include Jim Power among the games you license
please bring swiv to the iphone. many well wasted hours spent on that game
Wait-wait-WAIT!!! X-COM?? Does this mean we I could soon be getting X-Com on my iPod Touch?? [squeals like demented fanboy]
Seriously, that is my holy grail of gamedom: X-Com on a platform where I can just play it whenever I want, without having to mess with DOSbox (which I've never been able to get to work) and stuff like that.
OMG YES XCOM FOR THE ITOUCH ITS LIKE A dream come true. The day that all 3 xcom are ported is the day that I love my itouch forever and i think i might never play my ds or psp again lol. Man it be awesome if they ever made the final installment of xcom, there was talk about it but nothing was ever done sadly. It was going to be xcom alliance, im still waiting….
YES!!! I've been hoping someone would port X-COM since i've bought my iphone. I can't even imagine how fun it'll be on an iPad with the extra space. PLEASE bring X-COM to an iPhone/iPad
International Karate! w00t!
North & South!
Indy!
Dune!
Battle Isle!
*drool*
North & South would translate very well to the iPhone's intermittent play style, since it's composed of largely short rounds. I'd love to see that.
Of course, I'd also love to see the Amiga version of Paradroid, which plays even better than the C64 version (and the now-removed iPhone game Droidz)
Sword of Aragorn plz. PLEASE.
Yeah, this will be awesome. can we have:
Hunter
Zeewolf
Super Skidmarks
Silkworm
Now we're talking. I loved my C64, but I think Amiga games probably have a bit more staying power. Of course, I'm sure it will be even harder to get cool licensed stuff for this bad boy, but all I can say is "Shadow Of The Beast" (with a side of Three Stooges, of course).
I hope one day they get around to fixing the controls on Flashback. And is anyone working on Another World for the Iphone?
I loved my Amiga 500 and later 3000. The A3000 I sold for $300 (I think) but I still have my original A500 in a box in my basement with my C-128.
I'd really like to see some of Psygnosis' games on the iPhone. Barbarian, The Killing Game Show (my favorite), and of course everybody's favorite "The Shadow of the Beast" (I, II and III).
Wow!
I’m excited, but the last thing the world needs is a list of the specific titles *I* personally want. And here it is:
Lemmings (complete with the Amiga exclusive 2-player mode!)
Populous
Shadow of the Beast series
Carrier Command (never had it… but I wanted it)
Some Cinemaware, like It Came From the Desert
Blastaball
StarGlider II
TurbokRaketti II
MindWalker
Lemmings!
A bunch of other Amiga games I want have already come to iPhone
Honestly this sounds cool but the lack of content that is offered for the C64 emulator is a bad sign at what might happen for this, not to mention I would like a hefty amount of content for the emulator that is already released before the release of another.
I would love to see a way they make an external controller for this. the click of the buttons, the games, ahhhh….. nostolgasm.
I doubt they'd release anything good. Yes the 100 sample games in that YouTube clip, but my guess is no more than 5 of those will be released on AppStore.
Because…they wouldn't want too much notoriety and sales?
Well you can't really deny that Manomio has been having a tough time getting rights to games.
That's why I am hesitant to pick up the c64 emulator. I am excited to have openfeint, but there are really none of the big name games out.
Did you miss this one?
http://toucharcade.com/2009/11/14/new-games-coming-in-c64-v1-2-update/
Yeah so what's your point- those games all pretty much suck. There's nothing in the manomio C64 lineup whatsoever that justifies the point of a C64 emulator in the first place. It's just sad…
They definitely don't suck, even if they aren't the titles you want. You can't just wait until the big titles come; it is has a very symbiotic relationship. You give Manomio money and they give you better games. If they don't get enough money, they can't get the customers the better games.
@StanWinston, small steps I'm afraid. I think many would agree we've got some great titles – and we're working on many more, but as we've said many times, it takes time. It seriously is hard work (for whatever reason) convincing these IP holders to "give it a try"…but we keep pushing
Let's just make sure it has the hideous openfeint logo smattered on the icon! Can't forget that!
But yes Lemmings would be phenomenal!
Any of the Bitmap Brother's games would be fanstatic!
Speedball 2
Xenon 2 Megablast
Gods
And two of my all time favourites Populous and Turrican.
He had hinted at this and I am glad to see it actually happening. My biggest request is for War in Middle Earth. Its still the greatest Lord of the Rings game ever made and one of my favorite strategy games ever. I still have the box sitting on my shelf.
Great Idea, i think how to control will be the bane of some games, i have a wishlist which i won't repeat (ok ok Stunt car racer/elite/supremacy) but i would rather see the hidden emulator hidden within a free game to get the ball rolling and add more pay games to the list you can download within the app, much like how we pay and download extra levels for some games now (fieldrunniners), that way i won't have my iphone apps lost due to pages and pages of Amiga games i would like to purchase.
Bubble Bobble!! What? I had no idea because I only played it on my NES. I'd buy this app just for Bubble Bobble. Crap man.
THE SETTLERS PLEASE!!!
Ah, that video brought back fond memories of our Amiga 600. Damn, those were good times, especially as it blew pretty much anything else out of the water at the time as it was more capable than its PC and console counterparts – the higher resolution itself made for some pretty smooth games in comparison to the blocky NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. games. Sure the A500/600 was technically only capable of displaying 32 colors at any given time, but seeing how much developers got out of the system you would never know just by looking at most games.
I purchased the first Amiga sold in the state of Virginia (USA) back in October 1985. I've long loved the system.
Don't forget the Amiga also had HAM mode, which allowed the display of all 4096 color onscreen at once. This was great for still pics, pre-rendered animations, and even a few arcade shooters (remember Pioneer Plague?).
Also, among its custom hardware is the Copper, which allowed for multiple resolutions on a single screen as well as highly colorful horizons in the backdrop (using many more than just 32 colors onscreen), at no penalty to the machine.
Really an evolution of the Atari 400/800, the Amiga was an amazing machine. I'd say it still is.
I Need your help:
What is the name of the first musik in the video.
Maybe you know the name of the game or person wo wrote it.
I am searching for this song for a long time because it is in my mind and I was not able to find it:-)
Any information will help!
Wacholderpolka,
The music is a remix of the tune from Comic Bakery, remixed by Instant Remedy.
Here's a youtube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q0UFZYM-xc&feature=related
Wow, many thanks, you saved my day.
I was searching for this song a long time.
I reactivated my old C64 a few weeks ago to find the song on one of the disks, but i lost the serial floppy cable:-)
WP
new zealand story? hell yeah! I had kiwi kraze for the NES, but I'd settle for a port of a different version. That game was awesome.
wow!!! I hope the emulator will be clone the real speed of Amiga.
I still have the Amiga 500 in the box with the a lot of games and liked more the sounds of those games which were the best tracks ever heard.
I have a long list of my favorites games:
– Shadow of the Beast Series
– Elite II (Frontier was the sequel and still the best space simulator)
– Cinemaware Games (Wings, It came from The Desert, TV Sports Series)
– Unreal (The best 3D flying "Dragon" level i ever seen)
– Stunt Car Racer
– Gods
– Turrican Series ( I've Beated all levels )
– Lemmings (The Best Puzzler before Pushover)
– Battle Squadrom (the Best Shoot'em up as Hybrid sequel)
– Agony ( The Best soundtracks i ever heard following with Apidya)
want more… ? Ya, a lot of games are there…
Above everything: SWOS!
then these:
Robocod II
Zool/Zool 2
Kick Off 2 Extra Time
Walker
Supercars 2
Gods
Chaos Engine
Speedball 2
Project X
and then I want a competition pro II joystick to attach to my iPhone!
Sensible World of Soccer!!!
Great news. I loved my Amiga and was very sad to see the system die out. Top games for me were the Cinemaware titles, particularly Rocket Ranger and It Came From the Desert.
Give me Turrican on that thing and it's bought!
Shame, I would have preferred Cloanto's Amiga Forever which they have supposedly transferred already to the iPhone.
Manomio is alright, but they just don't have the contacts Cloanto do.
I'll change my mind if they manage to get the Sensible games.
I can\'t believe anybody\'s truly excited by this yet.
Manomio promised a lot with the C64 emulator, yet they still haven't offered any decent games, and the controls make everything there utterly worthless.
I love the idea, but until the exectution comes up to a decent standard, I won\'t be touching another Manomio emulator with a barge pole.
Oh, and it's funny that they're promising IK+. International Karate was one of the first games promised for the C64 emulator….
I'm an old Atari ST fan myself but with a decade or more of hindsight I can maybe admit the Amiga was almost as good afterall and playing some games I haven't seen in a while – even on a virtual Amiga would be fun.
I reckon we might see some better games on this platform as the reason a lot of the C64 games haven't appeared is because its hard trying to track down who actually owns the licenses. As you move forward through time you find more consolidation in the publishing labels which should make it easier to see who owns what and therefore who to talk to.
Unfortunately, Psygnosis disappeared into the Sony empire a while back so while I'd love to have a go at some of their games again; I'm not holding my breath.
Oh – and I'd love to play IK+ again – even if there isn't a virtual 'T' key to make the fighters' trousers fall down!
This post has been updated with new information from the developer, FYI.
Please, a full screen mode
And please:
- Speedball 2
- The Sentinel (i can give my blood for that)
- Project X
- Gods
- Sensible World of soccer
And all the Cinemaware games.
And please too, give all these games fully playable with touch controls…
And it will be a winner.
holy f***ing shit!!
news of the decade right here. i REALLY hope manomio get the IPs to some of the legendary games as well as the not so well known.
my list of must haves includes:
SWOS
hunter
north & south
UFO: enemy unknown
woodys world
leander
aqhh list goes on for eternity .. hope its not gonna be a loooooong wait!
Some great games there. I'd like to add Geoff Crammond's (and Microprose's) Formula In Grand Prix aka 'F1GP' or 'GP1'.
I had an Atari ST, back in the late 80's-early 90's.
Edit: In? make that Formula ONE, lol.
Crammond's 'Stunt Car Racer' would be great. I still play that quite a bit, usually on the ST.
Geoff Crammond:
REVS
The Sentinel
F1GP
Stunt Car
What a REAL genius…
Instant buy as soon as its released
omfg!!! those memories! i've played about 80% of those games! unbelievable what amount of time one can spend as a pupil…
still, great memories and don't regret a minute!
Needs SWOS, SWOS and more SWOS. Still the greatest game ever made.
I'd pay ANYTHING for Turrican 1 and 2. A N Y T H I N G
Dunno why I would spend money on this. I love the Amiga and all (used to own both an A500 and an A1200), but I'd rather use a netbook for emulating stuff. The touch screen just can't cut it.
Super Frog
PLEASE!
Starflight, please!
http://www.lemonamiga.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php%3Fid%3D1635
bluetooth 2 player mode, each device dedicated to one joystick, highly recommended, please
Dungeon Master please!!
!!!!! T H E S E T T L E R S !!!!!!
Dungeon Master please
Wow. I could list sooooo many games
archon and archon 2, in two player bluetooth mode
Archon 2 would be great! Archon 1 (along with some pinball games and others) have already made the jump to iPhone. Archon is quite nice on iPhone.
I own archonclassic too, but it has still no multiplayer
I'm happy to see so many Amiga fans chiming in, here. Almost brings a tear to my eye…
This is huge for us too, Blank – interest like this and so many reader comments adds fuel to our fire when trying to convince IP holders it's worth the effort. Thanks to all the interest!
Nitpicking here. The original Amiga used a Motorola 68000 processor. The 68k was a 32-bit processor, but it only had a 16-bit data bus. This means it had to perform two reads to get a single 32-bit word from memory. I can see why people would want to call it a 16 bit system, but the fact remains that internally it could really work with 32bit words.
If the original Amigas had been truly 16 bit, then when later Amigas (like the A3000) with full 32-bit paths came out, the entire OS would have to recompiled for them. Software would have need fat binary distributions. This was never the case, so I argue that the A1000 was a 32-bit machine all along, it just had a suboptimal data path.
Indeed. I always go with the "safer" call, as 16-bit, since that's the size of the data bus. A nice feature of the 680×0 line was indeed the 32-bit internal nature of the lowest end processors. Even the 68008, which had an external 8-bit data bus, was 32-bit internal (and was used in the Sinclair QL).
I wrote a letter about this very issue to the editor at Retro Gamer magazine, our source for this story, long ago, citing the Apple IIgs and Amiga. It was published in the print publication, back in 2005.
http://www.bytecellar.com/archives/000039.php
So yea, I get it, just being "safe."
One thing that never sat well with me, though, is the case of the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive vs. the Super Nintendo. The Sega uses a 68000 (16/32-bit), while the SNES uses a 65C186 (8/16-bit). Both are fourth-generation consoles and both are considered "16-bit" machines. If the SNES is a 16-bit machine, then the Genesis is a 32-bit machine. I'm sure I'm one of the few people on the earth that worries about such things…
Lemmings and Cannon Fodder would make me a very happy person!!
Way too many amazing games to mention. The Amiga was the best thing since sliced bread. Sensible soccer must owe me about 4 years of my life back. I used to play a game called Torvak the Warrior a lot. Anyone remember that? This will be an amazing app and proof that the idevice is the best handheld machine!
TV Sports Basketball – sh*t yeah!!
That's great news. I have his C64 app and will buy the Amiga app asap. I don't even play them, I can't stand the touchscreen controls unfortunately, but they deserve my money for all the time I spent playing them 20 years ago.
Wish the iPod supported Bluetooth gamepads somehow…then they'd be onto something. Oh well, my Pandora will arrive soon enough.
Although Shufflepuck Cafe should play pretty good with touchscreen controls perhaps. "Good shot!"
Though none of these were exclusive to the Amiga I spent a lot of time playing them on it:
Defender of the Crown
Faery Tale
Syndicate
Man I'm gong to have to do some nostalgic digging because I know I spent years playing games on 2 successive Amigas. Potentially an instant buy for me.
Ha! I played the shit out of It Came From the Desert when I was a kid on the A500. My dad still has that machine and it still works (I own a MacBook Pro and the hard drive pooped the bed on me 11 months in… They don't build 'em like they used to!) Definitely make ICFTD available, that and the Alien Breed series…Oh memories!
Please!!
Empire – Wargame of the Century