Gaming: Amiga vs PC - Sierra Titles etc

[djos]

Hi All, this topic isnt supposed to be a beat-up on any particular platform, more of a general discussion on differences between virtually identical games on Amiga and PC.

The main reason I thought i'd start this is I was having issues with Space Quest III (an all time fav of mine) on my Miggy under WHDLoad and couldnt solve the problem.

I ended up getting cheesed off and reverting to DosBox on my Winblows 7 PC and was surprised at some of the differences between the same game on the two platforms:

• Sound is much better on Amiga, more musical and "less" fake sounding (including sound FX) despite PC ver supporting Adlib/SoundBlaster
• Colour palette is less gaudy on Amiga (still EGA PC GFX tho) - really noticeable on Robot head inside Junk freighter
• After blowing up shield beam on Ortega the Miggy shakes the screen to simulate the earth tremours (PC doesnt)

Considering this game was developed for the PC these little differences surprised me so Im curious to hear what others have found when playing their fav classic games on the two platforms? :)

[XDelusion]

Back in the day I would always read gaming magazines and they always said,"if you got a PC, get that version of the game. If you got a Mac, then you'll be happier, but if you are lucky enough to own an Amiga, GET THAT VERSION!!!"

PC games didn't really begin to pick up until the early 90's with VGA and 16-Bit sound cards. Until then Amiga was always the way to go. So ya, with Space Quest 3 on back, you'll want to play on your Amiga, then with 4 and 5 you'll want to run ScummVM or DosBOX, though I highly suggest going with ScummVM which has also been ported to every Amiga based OS out there.

 As for Space Quest 4, you'll notice that the PC version has dialog all through out the game which the Amiga lacked because it had not jumped onto the CD-ROM bandwagon yet. The same goes for many of the early 90's PC ports. They had CD-ROM so they got the definitive versions of the game.

If you are a space quest fan you have to check out some of the fan made titles out there, especially Space Quest 4.5.

[kd7ota]

Leisure Suit Larry 3's music was great on the Amiga. Though there were two versions on the Amiga, one had some more generic sounding instruments, then it switched later for some actual instruments.

Though if you compare, the Roland MT-32 just blew anything the Amiga had for Sierra Games's musics.  Good one I like to listen to is King's Quest 4.

[djos]

Back in the day I would always read gaming magazines and they always said,"if you got a PC, get that version of the game. If you got a Mac, then you'll be happier, but if you are lucky enough to own an Amiga, GET THAT VERSION!!!"

PC games didn't really begin to pick up until the early 90's with VGA and 16-Bit sound cards. Until then Amiga was always the way to go. So ya, with Space Quest 3 on back, you'll want to play on your Amiga, then with 4 and 5 you'll want to run ScummVM or DosBOX, though I highly suggest going with ScummVM which has also been ported to every Amiga based OS out there.

 As for Space Quest 4, you'll notice that the PC version has dialog all through out the game which the Amiga lacked because it had not jumped onto the CD-ROM bandwagon yet. The same goes for many of the early 90's PC ports. They had CD-ROM so they got the definitive versions of the game.

yeah that makes sense.

If you are a space quest fan you have to check out some of the fan made titles out there, especially Space Quest 4.5.

lol, never heard of it and i'm a massive SQ fan! *wanders off to have a look for it*

[djos]

Leisure Suit Larry 3's music was great on the Amiga. Though there were two versions on the Amiga, one had some more generic sounding instruments, then it switched later for some actual instruments.

Though if you compare, the Roland MT-32 just blew anything the Amiga had for Sierra Games's musics.  Good one I like to listen to is King's Quest 4.

Yeah if you could afford a LAPC-I (MT32 on an ISA card) then you where a god, the music was incredible even now!

[djos]

 As for Space Quest 4, you'll notice that the PC version has dialog all through out the game which the Amiga lacked because it had not jumped onto the CD-ROM bandwagon yet. The same goes for many of the early 90's PC ports. They had CD-ROM so they got the definitive versions of the game.

Btw, I remember buying one of the early 2x speed CD-Rom + Soundblaster kits from Creative Labs for my .... Commodore 386sx25 Slimline PC (ironically was my first Commodore and first PC I bought myself)

[commodorejohn]

Though if you compare, the Roland MT-32 just blew anything the Amiga had for Sierra Games's musics.  Good one I like to listen to is King's Quest 4.

Yeah, I've gotta try some games with my MT-32, now that I've got a MIDI interface for my Amiga...

[djos]

Yeah, I've gotta try some games with my MT-32, now that I've got a MIDI interface for my Amiga...

Im amazed at how well MT-32 values have help up, they can go for over $300 on fleabay!

[bbond007]

Sound is much better on Amiga, more musical and "less" fake sounding (including sound FX) despite PC ver supporting Adlib/SoundBlaster

For the most part Amiga had the better sound, but not if you had deep pockets.

A lot of those adventure games support the Roland MT32 which when combined but the SandBlaster really had great sound. I could not afford one back in the day, but my friend hard one and I had envy

LSL3
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/lsl3cd/track13.ogg

Silpheed.
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/Silpheed/SILPH_Track01.ogg

Police quest3 (JanHammer) title:
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/pq3digital/Track01.ogg

Police quest 2 title.
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/pq2digital/Track01.ogg

Secret Monkey Island.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3dB0qEcG20

I picked up a MT32 off ebay a few years ago... Its neat with Dosbox. Many even support MT32 on Amiga. A lot of ther whdload versions of the games were missing the MT32 driver and I was able to get a few of them working by taking the driver of the ADF versions.

I'm hoping one day ScummVM AGA will support MT32

[bbond007]

Im amazed at how well MT-32 values have help up, they can go for over $300 on fleabay!

I must of bought mine at the right time... I paid $35 for it....  there were ones going for $100 for the "Buy Now" price.

I think some revisions might be worth more.... I don't know much about mine, other than I had to track down some large mono plug to RCA adapters which I overpaid for....

[bbond007]

Sound is much better on Amiga, more musical and "less" fake sounding (including sound FX) despite PC ver supporting Adlib/SoundBlaster

For the most part Amiga had the better sound, but not if you had deep pockets.

A lot of those adventure games support the Roland MT32 which when combined but the SandBlaster really had great sound. I could not afford one back in the day, but my friend hard one and I had envy

LSL3
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/lsl3cd/track13.ogg

Silpheed.
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/Silpheed/SILPH_Track01.ogg

Police quest3 (JanHammer) title:
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/pq3digital/Track01.ogg

Police quest 2 title.
http://queststudios.com/2010/digital/pq2digital/Track01.ogg

Secret Monkey Island.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3dB0qEcG20

I picked up a MT32 off ebay a few years ago... Its neat with Dosbox. Many even support MT32 on Amiga. A lot of ther whdload versions of the games were missing the MT32 driver and I was able to get a few of them working by taking the driver of the ADF versions.

I'm hoping one day ScummVM AGA will support MT32

[NovaCoder]

I'm hoping one day ScummVM AGA will support MT32

Yep maybe one day I'll find the time to have a look at adding it BUT someone would have to lend me the necessary hardware before I even attempt this.

BTW using the new DosBox MIDI emulator with v1.4.1 of ScummVM it now sounds pretty good on my 1260 at 14bit stereo 22050Hz.   I'll do a new video one of these days to show people how good it sounds.

ScummVM sound

[djos]

Hmmm, might have to find a midi interface for my pc and amiga and keep an eye out for a cheap MT-32!

[XDelusion]

This should keep you salivating for a few hours.

Space Quest 0

http://wiw.org/~jess/replicated.html

Space Quest: The Lost Chapter (2.5)

http://frostbytei.com/space/about.html

Space Quest 2 remake (plus more)

http://www.infamous-adventures.com/home/index.php?page=games

Space Quest IV.5

http://spacequestiv5.pytalhost.at/page394.html

[djos]

This should keep you salivating for a few hours.

Space Quest 0

http://wiw.org/~jess/replicated.html

Space Quest: The Lost Chapter (2.5)

http://frostbytei.com/space/about.html

Space Quest 2 remake (plus more)

http://www.infamous-adventures.com/home/index.php?page=games

Space Quest IV.5

http://spacequestiv5.pytalhost.at/page394.html

Nice one, thanks! :cool:

EDIT: Damn the art for the SQ2 remake is really stunning!!