Editorial:Ahh the Amiga.
From Wikia Gaming
by user Waziir
Ahh the Amiga. Storied, legendary Amiga.
To be fair my interest in gaming had started somewhat earlier than the Amiga with the Atari 2600, and later my Tandy Color Computer and Commodore 64. However gaming (at least for me) truly came of age on the Amiga. For it's day it was extraordinarily advanced sporting features that could not easily be found on competing platforms of the day. Colorful graphics with specialized co-processors to accelerate sprite and blob (blitter objects) based graphics and four channel stereo sound resulted in the highest fidelity gaming experience available during it's hey-day.
While other platforms were available in the late 80s from consoles to other personal computers - none of them really surpassed the experience the Amiga was able to provide until the early-to-mid 90s when parity began to be achieved. Systems like the Sega Genesis were built using many of the same components as the Amiga and so had similar capabilities. The IBM PC finally began to get VGA graphics and sound cards providing similar capabilities to that platform. However the Amiga managed to produce several stand-out games, and often had the best implemented version of a game if it was available on multiple platforms. Unfortunately when the industry moved forward with 3D graphics accelerators the Amiga was largely left behind.
Still some of my fondest memories of games played come from that platform. Whether it was a title from Psygnosis, or the Bitmap Brothers is sort of irrelevant in this day and age. However, some of the standout titles I do recall even to this day:
Dungeon Master. An early, realtime "3D" (first person perspective) RPG. One of the most significant features on the Amiga version was the usage of the stereo sound; if a creature was off to your left, you heard it on your left.
Populous: The original "god" game. With the world represented in a quasi 3D isometric view you could raise and lower the earth and direct your followers in various ways. Of course there was a "false" god with whom you contended, whose followers must of course be eliminated.
Psygnosis titles - Shadow of the Beast, Leander, Blood Money, The Killing Game Show, Lemmings...
Cinemaware - Defender of the Crown, Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Rocket Ranger, Lords of the Rising Sun, It Came from the Desert, TV Sports Football, etc.
In any case this list is by no means exhaustive. Some of these games in this list spawned genres that live on today, while others have died off as a form of entertainment... However, considering that a lot of game makers in the Amiga market have gone on to bigger and better things - there is no denying the impact the Amiga had on the modern day gaming experience.
