This week just gets better and better as another game has hit our news feeds and it's none other than Double Dragon for the Amiga, but as an AGA edition. First released way back in the 80's by Taito Corporation, Double Dragon in the Arcades was a fantastic beat 'em up game that featured high grade fighting two player fun on many different systems such as the Amstrad, Amiga and C64. But now thanks to JOTD, he is working on bringing the Amiga version more in line with the Arcade. In fact one person even said "I honestly thought that the original was the worst home conversion that could possibly exist."
The long-standing quest to bring a definitive, arcade-quality version of Double Dragon to the Amiga could be reaching its full potential. Legendary porter JOTD (Jean-François Fabre) has provided a significant update on the project, which is being developed specifically for AGA-equipped Amigas (such as the A1200 and A4000). After what JOTD described as "brutal debugging sessions," the developer has successfully stabilized the core of the game, with scrolling still to fix and a completable game. While the original 1980s Amiga port was often criticized for poor graphics and lackluster performance, this new AGA edition aims to leverage the advanced chipset to deliver a much more faithful recreation of the arcade original.
- This project follows JOTD’s successful track record of high-quality Amiga conversions, including recent releases like Dig Dug 2 (January 2026) and Bad Dudes vs DragonNinja. His ports are known for being "transcodes" that often use original arcade code (z80 to 68k assembly) to ensure maximum accuracy.
Links :1) Source
Now, a port to Amiga 500 OCS/ECS would be nice. Id like to see a better version than original game we had. And it could use 1 MB for more Arcade accuracy.
ReplyDeleteWell, some one was working on a proper OCS Amiga version a few years ago, using the Scorpion engine. The person never got further than making a "proof of concept" demo os the first level, but it really looks very good. It. actually compares very favourably with this AGA version and it's a pity it wasn't finished. Here's a link:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt_f7t8f_Qo
I like JOTD and his work but some of these ports being AGA only just because it is easier is like the same constructive criticism that is thrown at Scorpion Engine games for being overly demanding or not optimized. I feel like these are both wrongs, These ports should ideally be OCS and Scorpion Engine games will eventually be more optimized (which is an on going process to be fair to Scorpion Engine).
DeleteIt looked promising, however he was only willing to do it if it fitted within a 1mb of ram Amiga, which with the Scorpion is one hell of a challenge. Having hit a wall with this, he decided to continue the project with the Sega Megadrive instead.
Delete> I like JOTD and his work but some of these ports being AGA only just because it is easier
DeleteBoth rude, and incorrect. A quick google search says that the original game uses 384 colors out of a palette of 4096. Pretty obvious why AGA is prefferable, though if you'd read the EAB thread, an ECS version is also planned. Meanwhile, please do share links to your superior OCS conversions, thank you!
In all our enthusiasm, let's not forget what it's all about. A guy who port obsolete games to an obsolete computer system. For free. So you can play it for free. AGA or not, you can't really complain, can you?
DeleteHow does the conversion work? Do you take the original ROM and “transcode” the code to make it compatible with the Amiga? I’d like to understand more about this kind of conversion
ReplyDeleteLook up Reassembler on youtube, He did an outrun arcade to Amiga conversion and is currently working on Sonic Megadrive to Amiga conversion.
DeleteYes, it's is roughly the same process, except that Reassembler uses 68000 code, and here code must be converted from 6809 to 68000 first, which is no picnic.
DeleteI had the original Amiga port way back in the day, and it was pretty bad even then. A shame because the Amiga could surely have done much better.
ReplyDeleteI can’t decide whether the old Amiga port is more bad or hilarious. It’s so typical 80’s. A lot of the beat em up games had terrible controls which was always my main issue. The PC version I had on a 5 1/4 floppy disk looked far worse. Who would have known that decades later arcade perfect ports would be released not by the companies but by fans who care.
ReplyDeleteAmiga users, you've hit the jackpot with JOTD =)
ReplyDeleteAhhh! Finally the conversion we always dreamed of for the Amiga (perfectly capable to do a decent job at that time already...). Glorious DD probably received the worst computer/console conversions ever in the history of arcade conversions
ReplyDeleteRest in Peace, Yoshihisa Kishimoto, creator of Double Dragon and Renegade and all its River City sequels, who just died at the age of 64. His legacy will last forever.
ReplyDelete