BUT, the good news is, fellow-Atarians and game lurvers, this 16bit marvel has now shifted from stage right (and previously hidden beneath me gaming shelves) to centre court and is now wired up, fired up and red hot ready to this week showcase a load of great arcade classics that I've been itching to revisit again (ever since having a play with the C64 Mini really as you just can't beat the original hardware, imho), on the real deal and marvellous micro McCoy. So, this morning, Bev goes into seed planting / seedling growing mode and hoys me micros out the road bottom right in the Baz Cave so that she can free up a little bookcase/table unit for her trays, like so: So, once shifted, I gets out the oldest excuse in the book - ah right, love, so yer moving my old gear - I'll just test it out a little to make sure it all works, you know, just in case I decide to flog it etc, raise a few bob and treat you to a weekend break at Scunthorpe Baths, the last week in March 2029 etc... This ploy/plot is a sure-fire winner as it appears that you are reducing your collection when in actual fact, you just needed an excuse to get it all set-up again, have a play, relive yer formative arcade golden years and while away a few hours dodging deeds in the garden for something infinitely more desirable like a sesh on... PINBALL DREAMS! These simulated pinball tables are a joy to play and rattle up a score on. I've hooked a Samsung LCD monitor up (OK, I should use a CRT but just too much grief right now as they're all down in the garage and I'm MEANT TO BE clearing up a bit in the cave, remember? Hauling a big boxed barsteward into there will only antagonise the missus and destroy the illusion of "cleaning up a bit"!), and anyhow the image on the monitor is fine and it gives me the chance to run some powered speakers from the ear phone 3.5mm jack allowing the Amiga's stereo output to sound better than ever with a bassy boost. The gameplay of Digital Illusion's Pinball Dreams is, as mentioned, a wonderful experience - the physics feels spot on, the scrolling's uber silky smooth and the tables (four of them) provide enough of a different experience to keep you trying say Beat Box and then the train, graveyard and space theme etc etc as they're all cool schmule with their bumpers, features, ball runs and great great sound effects and the years go rolling back to when it was just me in me batchelor flat, back in 1993, and life when I was still young, Utd had just won the Prem League for the first time in 26 years and Amigas had finally won the 16bit wars and PCs were nothing more than a bland beige box which you might have a faff around with if you wanted a spreadsheet for work etc, but they were useless "beep boxes" for games so weren't much of a threat... we thought. LOL - who cares - the Amiga is still the BEST games machine of that era in my humble opinion and this week I hope to do a wee vid each night of some gameplay or another boot-up/blast off which still means the world to me and why. Why, I've even unearthed some disks which Paul kindly sent me which will also get a mini-review and I might even do a wee feature on PD disks as I've found some of those little beauties too PLUS some hard drive action - whoa, steady on Baz! OK, enough rambling on and expect some decent Amoeba Amiga 500 action this week courtesy of Bev's Growing Pains! Don't you just love planting a seed which comes to quick and beautiful arcade fruition, retronauts? ABOVE: Never mind "mini" editions - give me a full sizer Amiga 500 any day of the week and BELOW... wonder what else Baz might unearth and playtest this week...?
Well when I saw the partial subject heading on my browswer as "growing pains bevs seeds" I thought you were going to make another kind of announcement Pinball Dreams is a topper for sure Andy. I wasn't really a fan of pinball games in general back in the day, but playing Dragon's Fury on the Megadrive the last couple of years has given me a liking for the genre. Your post will encourage me to make sure I turn off Arcade Pool and Kick Off on the A500 Mini this week and give Pinball Dreams a go instead. And if you haven't tried it, download an Amstrad CPC emulator and try the homebrew PInball Dreams. Probably one of the most amazing looking 8bit games I have ever seen. Looking forward to seeing your video work Mr Speilberg
LOL! I thought that might well raise a smile or two, the thread title, matey! Hey, I think I recall Rich also flagging this cool Amstrad 128K conversion up, Al. I tell you what - for 8bit - it's bloody incredible and almost as good as the original which means it has no right to come even near! OK, the Amiga version is definitely higher res, smoother and features digitised speech etc etc but - I repeat - for an 8bit homebrew conversion, I doubt it is possible to outdo this, match or equal this game on any other 8bit micro so the programmers must be bloody geniuses. As you say, this genre is sometimes missed by gamers who perhaps might have come across earlier not so successful releases which were either a bit boring or didn't translate well from the real thing to the digital screen, but there are some which are outstanding, addictive and definitely have that "one more go" essential ingredient. Aye, Spielberg will sleep relatively easy in his cot tonight, mate - I don't know one end of my seed tray from the other, let alone my portastudio or clapperboard! Cheers for the Pinball Dreams clip, Al and more to come from Baz and the Amoeba 500 this week
Like Al, I thought that you had been playing with the Viagra too much and poor Bev was with child.....Phew..Dodged a late in life bullet Now, does anyone know Bev's social media page, we can grass up Andy's plan Seriously, nothing wrong with a bit of reorganising of the old stock, my poor old A500 is stuck in the cupboard and has been for too long but in my case I want to rehome it. The Amiga was my fave home computer of all, it was the first of mine to have a HD and the games were good to look at and sounded great. My Atari and C64 will still be my first go to machines because of their history with me, but the Amiga was the one I used the most. The one thing I wish the Amiga had was stereo panning, as it stood it had 2 completely separate channels that could not be mixed so you got sounds out of left or right and the only way to get a middle sound was to play the same thing through both channels at once, so you lost out on voices that way. It's a minor gripe. I loved just tinkering on the Amiga with the Action replay, ripping mods and samples and of course playing. The Pinball Dreams ranges were gem's, as you say, proper physics and looked / sounded the part. Hated selling the A1200 but the money was needed, now I can live without one as WinUAE is just spot on and until I decide what I'm doing with the a500mini then I have a form of real hardware, but I'm pretty sure it will be going to pastures new. If you like shooters then Hybris or Battle Squadron will fill your boots, don't forget to give Pang, Fire and Ice and the Rainbow Islands a go, so many little gems
Many many thanks for the thumbs up there, Paul, and some great game recommendations. I sure agree with all the points you make and there's no doubt at all that outside my Atari 8bit and Oric loves, the Amiga comes next as it has also provided me with a great deal of fun and enjoyment over the years. I was going to give it "some welly" tonight but when I do play a game I like to get that volume cranked up a bit and there's no way I want to: a) upset the student neighbours or b) get a kick in the clingle dangles from our Bev who's now in bed for her 5am starts so I hope to film an Amiga clip or two tomorrow night (didn't get in til late tonight either as I'd managed to lock mesen out over teatime... left me keys in a different jacket yesterday and didn't realise until 5pm tonight... DOH!) Any of you guys had similar senior moments of late?
Trust me, 'senior moments' become far too familiar as the years advance, well they are either senior moments or I'm just getting to be more stupid at an accelerated rate The number of times I've went to the local shop to get leccy and realise I've left the leccy key at home. And my glasses need to be on a bit of string, I leave them all over the place and then have to play Sherlock Holmes trying to hunt them down. Student neighbours, not wanting to disturb them???? Every student I've ran in to from Serena's uni time was a force majeure in the making noise department.
PMSL!! These student neighbours are a rare breed - they're actually all right (not like the previous two who specialised in sonic warfare not unlike those twats upstairs at yours, Paul), so I'm trying to repay their respect with some of my own. As you say, forgetful events seem to be happening all the more often these days - Al forgetting where he's left his cave and his Apple Lisa, CBM 128D, Jupiter Ace stash and Atari 1450XL etc and then you and yer bleedin specs, Paul. For god's sake, fella, staple em to yer forehead or get a tattoo done reminding yersen, when you look in the mirror, where to START hunting for em!!
My biggest, and most often forget, is not taking my meds and realising only after I'm riddled with pain. I's odd because I carefully make sure they are all rationed out into my pill box, but then the memory blanks Decent students eh, I have always thought they were only good for target practice...Ya live and learn...
Here we go then for a breakout release by Amoeba Action through the weird and wanton waters that are Bazza Retro Films. Please leave me a comment or two, fellas - do you like pinball games, what's your fave Amiga memory/title, what would you like to see reviewed on here (ie. topless Orics etc?!)
Nice one Mr Speilberg Loved the intro Andy, was that LWT or Thames backing track? Some quality graphics and music on the old A500 there. Sound in particular is good, even if you had the volume up a bit loud for my liking - couldn't hear the tones of the commentator all that well lol. Have you tried the Amstrad version yet to compare them properly? Amazing stuff. Although I think you have maybe convinced me to pop the A500 Mini on for a quick go. Think Pinball Dreams is one of the built-in games on it. Lastly, is that a Samsung LCD screen using just the Amiga scart? If so it's a really good picture. Thanks for the vid Andy, I'm off to get my game on for a quickie
Thanks, Al. It takes ages to render even an 8-9min video on my laptop though cos... it's a Celeron, 7-8 years old and clearly struggles to cope with video & sound editing and processing. However, on Thursday a guy is going to allow me a £40 allowance / trade in on my old Lenovo for a reconditioned Dell Vostro which he wants £150 for - so for £110 I'm getting the following specs, which I hope will help: MODEL: Dell Vostro P88G001 SPECS: CPU: Intel Core i5 8250U @ 1.80GHz RAM: 8GB DDR4 - 2666MHz STORAGE: 256GB SK.Hynix M.2 SSD OS: Genuine Windows 11 x64 Activated BATTERY: "Good Health" Comes with 90W Dell charger. Anyway, to answer your Qs, Al - yes, that was the old LWT sound track / ident at the beginning - well spotted! - yes, the ambient music sound was a little high and I'll turn it down for the next production. - I'm sure I have seen the Amstrad CPC version of P.D. before when Richie flagged it up to me and I'm staggered how very good it is when clearly the machine has no right to get anywhere near an Amiga with it's faster more powerful CPU and far more RAM etc. - yes, you are spot on - Samsung to Amiga via a SCART connection - it aint bad at all considering
Well you certainly went full tilt on the production Andy After 40 minutes of playtime I can report back that Pinball Dreams is indeed a rather good game on the Amiga! Once I figured out that the controls had been set up to use the flippers on the gamepad I was well on my way. All four tables are good, but Juke Box is probably my favourite. I think the only thing that lets it down for me is the fact it just tries to be a game of pinball rather than a video game. In comparison to something like Dragon's Fury on the Megadrive where you have little bonus games and multiple flippers that keep the interest going longer and allow more depth to the gameplay. The downside is of course that Fury only has the one table, whereas you get four in Pinball Dreams. The nice thing nowadays though, is that we can play both games whenever we feel in the mood for some flipping action. I have however saved my high scores from this session and will be revisiting the tables soon for that "one more go" experience. Tomorrow night I'll also load up the Amstrad (well emulator to be precise) and have a go at the CPC version to see how it compares.
That's a belter of a laptop Andy. Will be night and day compared to your current one with all those gigglybytes and megahertzes. It's exactly what I'd go for myself and a really good price. My desktop machine just now is a Dell pc that I bought refurbed (i5, 8g and 1tb hdd) for just under £100 and it's been great for the last 3 years. Now all you need to do is get that old mobile phone of yours swapped for something newer and you can join all us whatsappers and tiktokers in the modern world
LOL! Lurve it, Al. 100% agreed on the pinball tables reviews and the laptop feedback and the need to try out the Amstrad Pinball Dreams too - it's phenomenal how close they've got it on an "underpowered" 8bit micro!! Please do a wee review if you get chance, mate. Nice work!
WhatsApp, handy, Tiktok, mind numbing.. The Lappy looks ok, depends what Generation i5 and if it's an intel graphics on-board, will deffo be an upgrade from what you had, I'd drop it back to Windows 10 and 11 is very cpu hungry and needs at least 16gig of ram to be ok. Even Win 10 is better with 16gig. Trouble is, another 8gig of DDR4 will no doubt cost as much as the machine was with the discount. (I've not kept up on PC component prices in ages but the worldwide chip shortage is allowing many to over price old stock and get away with it. Amstrad Pinball Dreams? Surely just typing the loading name uses all the memory
Loaded up the Amstrad version of Pinball Dreams tonight and had a few games. For an 8bit game the graphics are pretty amazing and the majority of the playability is there as well, maybe the only thing it's lacking is a bit of the timing of the 16bit versions and it's a bit easier to lose your balls behind the paddles (oo-er). It contains all four tables and the chiptune soundtracks for each as well as all the hight score tables. If this had came out back in the 1980's people would have been astounded. As it is this must rank as one of the all time best 8bit game conversions ever
For me, the best conversion to an 8 bit has to be Space Harrier on to the Atari, where Pinball dreams trumps it is that the hardware to play it on was available back then, where as the carts needed for Harrier were new items of this time. Both technical wonders..
