Because my 1084 monitor broke down I had to come up with a alternative solution to be able to keep using my A1200. The choice was to use a television set I had left over. To test it I played Commando on it. This is really a game that is unplayable unless you use a trainer version. But it did gave me a C64 feeling and with the trainer I kept trying for some time
Commando
I could not help thinking about the time I played similar games like this on a C64. I really like the top down view of these kind of war games. Here’s a list of some of my favourite top down view war games.
Ikari Warriors – Title Screen
Ikari Warriors – Starting point
Everyone has played Ikari Warriors at some stage. How about the two player mode?
Rambo III
Another favourite of mine, Rambo III. I wish they had created a game from part 1 and 2 as well.
Dogs of War – Title Screen
Dogs Of war
Another classic, Dogs of War. “TIMBO F5”, anyone?
Leatherneck – Title Screen
Leatherneck – Enemy contact
Leatherneck also has a two player mode giving you many hours of fun.
If you know some more of these kind of games let me know. There are more I can list here but that would make it a “never ending” list. We can debate for a long time if most of these games are any good at all. But for sure these are my favourite type of games.
I managed to finish and publish part 2 of “ReAction – Opening a Window”. I will start work on part 3 shortly. The weather has been extremely warm lately so I did not use my Amiga’s a lot.
So far I did not test the sound on my new Amiga OS4.1 Update 4 installation. I wanted to have some music playing while I am programming. After sourcing some quality producing sound speakers and connecting them I had to transfer some mp3 files over to my Amiga. I am using AmiFTP to connect to my FTP server running on my laptop.
AmiFTP 1.934
With my previous Pre-Release version I usually could not transfer much data over my network without any crashes. I managed to transfer “The Very Best of Cock Robin” without any crashes. To test it even further I transferred other files while having AmigaAMP playing in the background. I just notice with everything that this version is just so much better. It makes my A1SE a much more stable machine. I have to admit that at a later stage I did had a few freezes occurring.
AmigaAMP v3.3
Because I had speakers connected I discovered there is actually a start-up sound for OS4.1. How about that!
I already finished and posted part one of “ReAction – Opening a Window” and currently I am working on part 2. I am not sure yet if I will discuss everything in part 2 or still add a part 3 to the series. I actually reserved some time earlier this week to get part one done. I am also doing a lot of research which takes up a lot of time as well. For some reason I am really enjoying working on this and I am planning on getting a lot of work done.
If you read my previous column you know my 1084 monitors has given up on me. Since I really want to continue using my A1200 I connected it to a television set which will work for me for this moment. I already played some games on it to see which would qualify for my next game review. Having a display I can also continue with my Amos tutorials and work on the disk magazine. Just so that I can keep up with all my plans I will free up as much time as I can for it.
I am not 100% sure but I think is was at AmiWest 2011 that Steven Solie talked about setting up some kind of developer information site. Over at Hyperion’s Entertainment Blog Steven Solie announced the AmigaOS Documentation Wiki. Let’s hope this will turn into a great resource of developer info. I am worried it might come to a halt after a while with no new info added. At least the beginning is there. I have started already with my ReAction tutorial on how to open a window. I am trying to get the first part released this week. The example code is done and just needs a bit of cleaning. With the first part of the tutorial I will also post the example code so you can already have a go at it. But I will explain the code over several parts since it would take a long time if I wanted to do everything in one tutorial. And I did not want to withhold the example code till later.
Front of the 1084 monitor
Looking at it’s age you can’t help thinking when. But today, Sunday 13-5-2012, my Amiga 1084 monitor finally gave up and died on me. After so many years of loyal service his time has come. Turning it on I hear a high pitch tone and when I switch it off it sounds like a washing machine ending his chore. I am not sure what I will do next. Buy a new one, use a television set or use a VGA monitor. For the last option I have no clue how to get this connected. I would need some kind of converter plug but which one and how it works is beyond me. If anyone got some ideas/tips please let me know. Sadly I was about to start with a new game review. Let’s hope I got this sorted soon. A piece of history died today and only a true Amigan can understand the loss I have experienced today. A toast to a great monitor that accompanied me through a big part of my life.
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