Today I am taking a look at the newly released game Huenison for AmigaOS4 on the X1000.

BTW I should explain that work has been busy for the last few weeks including weekends, making it hard for me to spend much time playing with the X1000! Apologies for not updating the blog more often...but, enough of that, let's take a look at Huenison!

It was developed by Simone Bevilacqua for AmigaOS4 (and also available on Windows), released under the name "Retream". Simone also previously released the game BOH on AmigaOS4.

Their website is here if you want to learn more about the game! You can download the demo from there for free, and the full version is available for purchase for around $6 AUD.

Essentially the game is a shoot-em-up in the classic 8/16 bit era style, complete with Commodore 64 style SID music, spot speech effects, dot matrix display (similar to the scoreboard on Pinball Fantasies on the Classic Amiga.

There is a lot of variety in this game, with your Cannon able to rotate colours to fire that colour bullets. Kind of reminds me of switching colours on a BIC 4 colour pen! When you fire a bullet of a certain colour, it allows you to destroy blocks coming down that are of the same colour.

This is an interesting dynamic in the game which makes it differ a lot from most shoot em ups I have played on the Classic Amiga and other platforms in the past!

A Windows version is included in the AmigaOS4 version of the game too, which is a bonus if you want to try it on there too, but of course our focus is on the AmigaOS4 version! When you install the game you get the following folder:

The manual is in PDF format and explains the game much better than I can so here is some excerpts from the manual to explain the game (click to expand):

Once you launch the game, you get a similar audio sample from Impossible Mission on the Commodore 64 (which for those who don't recall it said "Another visitor, stay a while, stay forever") and a retro Commodore 64 style intro tune, setting the tone for the intentionally retro feel of this game as you navigate the Main Menu with the keyboard:

From the Main Menu you have the options, put in a password to start from a later level, and New Game to get started. The options allows you to alter whether the game runs in a window or full screen, and the dot level which is relevant on slower AmigaOne systems, but not needed to be adjusted on the X1000.

The first time you start the New Game, it gives you the option to put in an email address for submitting your high scores to a global high score table available for viewing on the ReTream website (you can also choose to just have local scores):

An activation is sent to your email address after this is done - you need to click on the activation link provided in the Email for your scores to be counted. When you close the game your high scores are sent to the ReTream website and displayed for the world to see how good you are!

You can use the keyboard to play the game too but definitely for me the usb Amiga Joystick was the way to go, allowing me to switch colours and fire easily.

Lets take a look at some screenshots from the game itself. The music is all retro and Commodore 64 style in feel, which suits the game perfectly:

Level 1 starts off simple enough but very quickly gets harder and faster. As the bricks come down and reach the bottom of the screen, they create an increase of the land that your ship moves left to right on, making it more difficult to shoot and quicker for enemies to increase the height even further:

The different brick types are important to getting rid of bricks quickly and efficiently. The manual explains all these types well, their characteristics and how they are deployed depending on the type of level being played in the game:

Didn't take long to be killed:

Ok, let's try again!

I felt more confident the next time through but it gets hard very quickly and a lot of action happens on the screen at the same time!

After a few more goes I managed to get a bit further into the game, and things continue getting harder:

It is hard to remember all the different blocks - I expect there is a strategy to dispatch these quickly but I admit I haven't worked it out yet - I just change colours and shoot like mad!

Some enemies require multiple shots to kill and others just a single shot. Some constantly change colour and can't be destroyed, and their are many other varieties as well as the game goes on.

I will be the first to admit I am not very good at this game but I will keep trying to get further into it!

The game costs around $6 AUD which is a bargain and the game has excellent sound, graphics and interesting gameplay that will ensure you don't get bored quickly and keep coming back for a higher score! I tried the demo first, and was very happy to buy the full version of the game.

Well done Simone, this game is original in concept, pays homage to the retro era of Classic Amiga and Commodore 64 gaming, and is a lot of fun to play too! I recommend it for X1000 owners!