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? :)

[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)

[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!

[djos]

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

[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!!

[djos]

I have gone and beat the entire King's Quest 4 game and encoded all musics in 320KBPS MP3.  Someone else did upload all the musics from the Roland, but they were I believe 160 or 192. I'm not saying there will be quality issues, just wanted to encode it in the best possible sound.  Though WAV would of been nice lol.  Havent uploaded all the MP3s yet. I was going to do the same for Amazon Queen.

Nice, links please!

[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.

Fired this up last night under dosbox, sound is quite quite good for soundblaster - prolly due to cramming digital samples onto the CD rather than Adlib "instruments".

must load up the miggy very to see if they took advantage of the miggy's bigger colour palette.

[djos]

I believe the site is sierrachest.com

Go to the Music Player, and then choose the game. You can right click and save either mp3 or ogg.  The mp3s were 192KBPS.

I haven't uploaded my versions yet.  Still put away in a folder on my HDD.  Only song I didn't capture without the sound clipping was the bad ending when you eat the fruit and lose.  Might need to change out some titling as well.  

Sometime I will upload it all somewhere.

I might just do that!

[djos]

but unlike many other styles of games you can save as often as you like and I will always save whenever I've collected something or completed a challenging task.

[djos]

This requires that you save every x seconds and/or before locations of previously failed reactions on "surprises". I don't consider saving a natural part of P&C adventure gameplay. SIERRA should at some point have learned from Lucasfilms,

A massive exaggeration!

[djos]

Lol, half the fun was getting stuck and asking your mates how they got past something and they'd go "oh you need to use x from y" which you'd totally missed!

[djos]

And not mention having to remember that the Yanks can't spell. Eg Vaporizer instead of Vaporiser (sq3).