Already we've had so many Amiga game news stories, that at times I could hardly keep up! Games such as Cake Rush, Ghosts'n Goblins, Project Horizon, and Zippy Race, are just some of the ones I've featured already. Well the Amiga news just keeps on going. As I've been informed that 2Bit Combo, is not only still working on a mech platformer called 'Operation Steel Rain'. But the developer has announced with a demo 'Operation Steel Rain Prologue'. A prequel to the main game made with Earok's Scorpion Engine.
Here's the latest. "Operation Steel Rain Prologue is an old school mecha platform game from the snes, megadrive era, like Assault Suits Valken (Cybernator), Front Mission:Gun Hazard and Ranger-X. It's being developed for Amiga AGA computers using the excellent Scorpion Engine, which allow us to port it to other platforms like MegaDrive and NeoGeo later. I separated the two games, the main game is still under development in partnership with one of the best Amiga coders in existence, and this game is being made entirely by me, using the excellent Scorpion Engine and will be, as the name suggests, a "prologue" for the main game.
Links :1) Website
Nice work! And it's great to see people making Amiga games. I appreciate it takes a lot of work, and this one looks good.
ReplyDeleteOn a more general note - not referring to this game in particular - I've noticed a pattern with current Amiga development that is MIGHTY puzzling to me!
Whenever I watch a video of a newly-announced Amiga game, I say to myself, Yup, that looks like the equivalent of a basic, early-era OCS Amiga game running in 512K.
And then I see the hardware requirements - and they are staggering!
AGA only! Needs 2MB chip RAM! And 2 MB fast RAM! And a 68040 processor at least - or it won't run!
Uh, WHAT???
Games like X-Out, Battle Squadron, Blood Money, Speedball 2, Lotus 2, Turrican 2, Pac-Mania, The Killing Game Show etc etc... Those games are still stunning TODAY.
And yet they required only a basic OCS Amiga with 512K of RAM!
What the what???
Game developers back in the nineties were professionals, doing it for a living - forced to meet the requirements of an OCS Amiga. Most Amiga games these days are done by amateurs in their spare time. I get your point, but I think we'll have to accept that things are just different in 2026.
DeleteHi, I'm the dev here, thanks for your words and, about the requirements, well, this game is being developed entirely by me, using Scorpion Engine.
DeleteSE is a great development tool, possibly the best thing that happened to the Amiga community for a long time and it allows people like me with almost no background in programming to do cool stuff.
Of course, this game does not have the performance one could expect for a game made using a custom engine in lower level programming languages.
I'm also currently working withe a REAL Amiga programmer, one of the best available in a far more advanced game, it'll take time and, at the moment he's involved in his personal and professional life.
So, I decided to keep working on my own personal project until he's able to work again.
Anyway, the game he's coding is far more performanct than this one, but still, it'll require an AGA machine and some Fast RAM.
This one, however is limited by both Scorpion Engine performance (which, IMHO, is great) and my poor coding skills, there are tons of optimizations I'sd like to try in the future.
But, this game runs great on an accelerated Amiga, which, nowadays is just a matter of adding a Pistorm, buying a mini or using an emulator.
I, myself, sadly, do not own any "real" Amiga hardware anymore.
Keep up the good work!!! Despite what some might say, SE is the best tool for making Amiga games, the next best thing after real coding. If done right, SE is capable of amazingly good performance. For those who wants 512K OCS games: Pray that there are some souls out there willing to work their asses off - for free, in their spare time - to fulfill your wishes.
Delete"Game developers back in the nineties were professionals, doing it for a living". That isn't all that accurate, and even when it was, that often HURT development. Most development in the late 80s and early 90s were done by tiny development teams and bedroom coders that did things worthy of being distributed by bigger companies. And many games (especially ports), were given tiny budgets and fast turnaround demands, which led to rushed, cut-back games. In 2026, there are no big publishers paying someone to get an Amiga game out. They are labors of love, without demanding timelines. The quality of the games are limited by the skills of the coder.
DeleteThis game looks pretty. The gameplay looks good. The sound and music... well, that could probably use a bit of work.... not that I could do any better.
The point is that there almost no coders in 2026 willing or capable of squeezing the max out of an OCS Amiga for free. That's a fact. Those who do their best to make decent Amiga games in 2026 deserves respect. Even if the games do require more than an unexpanded A500. It's 2026, hardware is cheap and emulators are free!
DeleteIf you have today Amiga with only 512kb RAM, you can play original games from that era - if you want to play today games, you had 30 years to upgrade your hardware.
DeleteYou can also learn assembler and write games for your 512 kb Amiga.
ps. Commodore was also stupid releasing A1200 with more than 512 kB RAM xD
indeed, not worth spending £400 on an a1200 then several hundreds more on acceleration just to play a megadrive-spec game..!
DeleteThat title screen is straight up cursed-looking! In-game art looks okay, but the gameplay is busted - slowly walk forward and keep trading shots with enemies until one of you dies. No way to avoid damage or anything!
ReplyDeleteYou walk slowly forward and hold up your shield to block, rinse and repeat.
DeleteDefinitely needs major optimisation with all the slowdown on an A1200 with fast RAM.
Very promising. Is the graphics made for this, or taken from elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteDev here
DeleteI did everything myself, used a LOT of references from games like Cybernator or GunHazard.
But it's all original art.
The titel screen character was modeled by me and rendered in Daz Studio, after this I did a LOT of retouches in Aseprite (I'm not finished yet), some of her clothes were assets I got, like the cybernetic boots.
But the mecha were all drawn and animated by me, usign Aseprite and RetroAnimator.
this looks great. Totally reminiscent of one of my old, fave Snes shooters, Assault Suits Valken. Keep up the great work. The inclusion of music in the middle of the video made me very happy too. Lots of amiga games dont seem to bother with it. Music is a big part of the atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteThe in-game graphics are very professionally made, but I wish the dev dropped the creepy character in the title screens.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or does this game or at least this level shown have a Total Recall look and vibe to it? Which is a very good thing BTW. Hope it is finished and available to buy on Itchi.io :)
ReplyDeleteDo not like title screen, blatant rip off Capcom’s Pragmata.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the creepy Pragmataeque character in the title screen gives me Childs Play vibes (Chucky) to be honest. Nevermind that now, the game itself looks fricking impressive! :3
ReplyDeleteI tried this and can see it supports CD32 pads, but although main menu responds to directional pad and red button, in game I'm finding character does not fire weapon when pressing the Red button (keys work OK)
ReplyDeleteLove the vibes and the pixel work, but that title screen is nightmare inducing. I’m not seeing a heroine but a creepy doll.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of the game itself & the requirements of AGA, plus some fast RAM aren’t too bad.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I fairly recently watched the film M3GAN so I’m not a fan of the title screen!
Great looking game, but the title screen is... not so great.
ReplyDelete