issue 3 - november 2008 - an abime.net publication dedicated to the amiga amIga poInt of vIew amiga britannica the history of britain through amiga games game on amiga soccer arte? demoscene AMIGA reviews tips w chartsw news apov issue 3 regulars 8 editorial 10 news 16 who are we? 120 charts 121 letters 123 the back page reviews 18 disposable hero 20 navy seals 23 lord of the rings 26 war in middle earth 28 tiny troops 30 rock star ate my hamster 34 barbarian 36 paperboy 38 onslaught ap o 40 total carnage v 3 42 pd games 45 round up 5 features 48 this sceptered isle Birthplace of Shakespeare, Isaac Newton and Benny Hill. The British Isles have a long and rich history and Amiga games reflect the lasting impact of all things limey. “Conquests of the Longbow features admirable detail including a sub-game of an ancient boardgame.” 66 pianeta calcio Football is great. The Amiga is great. Are football games on the Amiga always great? We compare ten and find out. (Hint: they're not). “The graphics are excellent and you can score some spectacular goals.” 87 nice strides Our series on WHDLoad continues with a step-by-step masterclass in the art of installer coding. “The important registers for disk accessing are $bfe001 and $bfd100.” wham the final battle 104 It will be the final battle with these tips. zak mckracken 108 The ultimate instalment of our walkthrough. Ready to save the world from stupidity? v 3 o ap 6 98 livin for the city Does Sim City match up to reality? A burning issue, for sure. And one that we stomp to cinders by examining all manner of scenarios. “A monster is approaching the city and if it's not Godzilla then it's certainly one of his friends.” 74 sound and motion Some of the most creative and evocative pieces of software ever written for the Amiga aren't games. APoV takes a look at some of the scene's varied output over the years. “You have minimalistic stuff, crazy stuff, technically impressive stuff and visual bombast - and way more.” 96 weather with you Old folks will tell you that we don't get proper seasons any more. Well, you do in Amiga games. “The golden autumns of crispy leaves can transport us to the springtime of our memory.” 112 titanic Blinky Sunk? Then check out this map and guide. 114 elvira: arcade Vamp it up with our titillating guide to all things gothic. ap o v 3 7 Hello and welcome back! This is issue 3 of APoV (as you have no doubt ascertained - sharp lot, our readers) and I must confess that I am mightily surprised to have made it this far. For anyone who has been holding their breath: you can let it out now. The reasons for the hiatus are manifold, but foremost is the simple fact that our time has to be divided between the magazine and the essentials of life. Sleeping, eating, dancing and making love to lusty Amazonian women. Really takes it out of you, that last one. The delay in the release of this issue was also, of course, a deliberate effort to make the previous issues increasingly retro. As Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark says of a common- place trinket: "Look at this. It's worthless - ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless. Like the Ark." He might easily have been speaking of APoV. Hold onto those PDFs, folks. The good news is that this is a bumper issue or one that, in the halcyon days of the British Empire, might have been described as having some pluck. Our cover article is an epic one that covers a millennium of British history and related Amiga games. Why just British history? The article's approach does omit historical games such as the American Civil War game Gettysburg and the Middle Eastern strategy title Khalaan. We felt that covering the history of the world was somewhat too ambitious and would have taken us beyond subjects that we were familiar with. We are still covering a large chunk of historical Amiga games. This might be because of the varied and interesting settings that were attractive to developers, from medieval jousting between knights to naval battles under sail and tank warfare in the desert. Additionally, the British tended to head outward and become involved in history across the globe, probably because it rained a lot at home. The striking cover image of that most iconic of British symbols, Excalibur, is the work of talented Brazilian artist Rene Saraiva. More of Rene's work can be found at http://roxrio.deviantart.com. With the recent Euro 2008 tournament and Spain's victory we decided it was time to cover some Amiga football games. In this article we've matched the games to football teams. The article is not intended to be comprehensive but if there is interest we'll cover more in a future issue. Other articles of note include a retrospective of the Amiga demo scene, an examination of the accuracy of Sim City, and a journey through the seasons via Amiga games. In the review section we cover a batch of games that cover a variety of themes. There are those that cover various occupations in the modern world: Navy Seals, Paperboy and Rock Star Ate My Hamster. Incidentally, for those non-UK readers who might find Rock Star's title peculiar, it comes from an infamous headline in the tabloid newspaper The Sun. In a piece of dubious veracity it reported that comedian "FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER." The days of yore and sword-swinging are represented by Barbarian, Onslaught, War in Middle-Earth and the Lord of the Rings. Barbarian is, of course, a sword-clanging single combat hack-em-up famous for its decapitation move whilst Onslaught features a whole battlefield of destruction. Rounding off the reviews (with varying degrees of acclaim) are Tiny Troops, Total Carnage and Disposable Hero. On the Amiga, where game endings are often a low priority, these three games at least have reasonable conclusions. We also have walkthroughs, hints and maps in the section of the magazine that takes its acronymic title therefrom, plus news, charts, letters and more screenshot caption gags than you would want to shake a stick at. So what are you waiting for? Go, read! And I promise that issue 4 won't take four years to v 3 reach you. o ap 8 Adrian Simpson, Editor To the ancient Egyptians, the cat was a sacred and respected beast. In Japan, the Maneki Neko is a symbol of good fortune. Top Cat is the indisputable leader of the gang. Here at APoV, the Newskitten brings us Amiga stories. Plus we have yet to have a problem with mice in the office. ALL YOUR (GAME) BASE Since the last issue of APoV there have been several notable developments for Amiga enthusiasts. One that makes your gaming life that much sweeter is the very nifty Gamebase Amiga. Gamebase Amiga has just hit version 1.6 but also checks and provides emulating gamers with a for problems sterling bunch of practical features. Its later in the primary function is to act as a frontend game. With for launching games through WinUAE. many ADFs it's WinUAE already provides its own GUI and not obvious that some generic Quickstart configurations they only work which set up various machine types. up to a point and However, GBA goes beyond this with its then crash at own configurations and, crucially, it some later level. knows which changes are required to the GBA attempts to solve this by thorough testing. The Gamebase system provides a browser with basic game information APoV highly recommends Gamebase and additional material such as scans Amiga for new and experienced users and screens. This Gamebase frontend is alike. It helps new users get WinUAE up also used in similar projects for other and running and provides useful features systems. for veteran gamers. The creator of GBA, Belgarath, has exciting but closely-guarded plans for the Visit http://gbamiga.elowar.com for the base setups to get individual games to future. These do not, we have been latest version of GBA. run. This is important in the Wild West of asked to point out, include creating a Amiga game programming where stan- giant lizard army in order to conquer the dards are non-existent. Two or three con- world. What we can confirm is that a new figurations can't cover all games. frontend is being developed by eLowar, v 3 The second major benefit of GBA is its team member and host of the GBA web- o selection of the best available disk site and files. This new frontend - Mage - images. Most games exist in the form of should provide new features and do away ap multiple ADF versions but a disturbing with some of the restrictions of the cur- proportion of these are faulty. GBA does- rent Gamebase system, such as the fixed 10 n't simply test games to see if they load screenshot size. news ON THE RACK Fancy a trip down memory lane? Regret taking all your old mags to a car boot sale in 1994? Good thing they invented that Internet, eh. The Amiga Magazine Rack is a historical covered. In addition the AMR dips into record. A vast archive. A multitude of dis- less well-known magazines that weren't courses enabling the past's re-evaluation as widely read (like Commodore in the present in a process that draws Horizons), and magazines from around attention to the constructed, provisional the world (like French title Amiga Dream).