Autofire! Another round of catching up with Amiga game development.

Inviyya II : Hyperblaster

Great shoot-em-up game "Inviyya" by Tigerskunk is about to get a sequel: "Inviyya II: Hyperblaster" was announced in the first half of 2022, and updates on development progress have been posted on the internet since. 

"Hyperblaster" looks even better than its prequel, and interestingly a NeoGeo port is in the works, too. So far there's no sound in the Amiga version, but according to the author's YouTube channel, sound has just been added to the NeoGeo port - maybe the one we'll soon hear in the Amiga (CD32) version? Check out Tigerskunk's videos for more "Hyperblaster" previews!

Here's the latest work-in-progress video on Tigerskunk's YouTube channel (2022-10-01):

Gunsmoke

Erik "Earok" Hogan is working on an Amiga port of 1985 arcade game "Gun.Smoke", which is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up similar to "Commando", but western-style. 

"Gun.Smoke" is one of the arcade titles that got ported to a lot of consoles and 8-bit platforms, but strangely never to the Amiga. Well, obviously this is about to change. The upcoming Amiga port is in early development stage, but a video posted on Twitter looks very promising.

Screenshot from the arcade original

Additional sources:
https://twitter.com/earok/status/1507694146487988228
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/03/gunsmoke-1980s-arcade-cowboy-shoo...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun.Smoke

Depthcharge

Even deeper into the depths of retro computer gaming: The year is 1977, Gremlin Industries (later to become part of SEGA) releases "Depthcharge" to the arcades. It's quite a simple, but also quite an enjoyable game that wasn't the biggest hit ever, but good enough to produce a lot of clones and remakes for numerous platforms.

Fast-forward to 1994: An Amiga version of "Depthcharge" is released as pd/freeware. It looks beautiful, but different from the arcade version.

Fast-forward again to 2022: "Depthcharge" is being remade by AcidBottle. At version 0.2 it's far from finished, but it already plays nicely, and captures the feeling of the arcade original near-perfectly...

...Dive! Dive! Dive!

Here's a video from ISB's YouTube channel (2022-04-05):

Do you wanna know more? Check "additional sources" below for possible preview releases of "Depthcharge"!

Additional sources:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=110209
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/04/depthcharge-1977-arcade-game-as-work-in.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depthcharge (1977 Gremlin arcade game)
http://hol.abime.net/5923 (1994 pd/freeware Amiga game)

Blockman Gets

So Pacman has a strategist brother that goes by the name of "Blockman". Nice. In this cute, slightly trippy game Blockman has to find a well-thought-out path through several mazes filled with pills, making sure he gets enough of them. 

Not only does that sound tasty, it's also addictive.

Here's a video from author Jayenkai's YouTube channel (2022-05-21):

Go to the game's itch.io website for more information and download:
https://jayenkai.itch.io/amiga-blockman

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/05/blockman-gets-new-pac-man-inspira...

Flappadiddle

Finally for this issue, we have yet another neat little game by highly productive developer Jayenkai. "Flappadiddle", released in the second quarter of 2022, puts you in control of Flappy, a tiny yellow bird that has to avoid various obstacles on his way to the target platform, which transports him to the next level. The only protection he has are his flying abilities, and some intermediate landing platforms. 

So "Flappy Bird" meets "Space Taxi", kind of. It's a quick'n'clean production - graphics are simple but effective, sound is loud and quirky, it plays flawlessly, and the idea is a little stroke of genius. Great low-fi stuff!

Here's a video from author Jayenkai's YouTube channel (2022-04-24):

Go to "Flappadiddle"'s website for more information and download:
https://jayenkai.itch.io/flappadiddle

Additional sources:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/04/flappadiddle-this-amiga-game-is-b...

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