Megalomaniac Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 If we're brutally honest, the ST was less suited to pure action games than the Amiga. When you look through lists of the most fabled Amiga action games, the ST version is normally noticeably inferior in terms of sound, scrolling and overall 'feel', if there was one. Lists of the best ST games seem to be dominated either by games with no 'action' such as Monkey Island, Dungeon Master and Civilization, or pure 3D games where the ST's slightly faster processor outweighed those issues, such as Stunt Car Racer or Frontier. Which games would people suggest to counter this perception? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoGamer Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 Dark Castle and the arcade port of Narc are fast action; they both play extremely well on the ST. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 Dark Castle is a turd that won't flush as far as either arcade style games go or pushing the STFM lol people made a fortune doing videos about how horrible those games are. I wouldn't play the ST version if it was running on a VIC-20 or VCS Wrath of the Demon is annoying to play but it shows what ST port of Shadow of the Beast 1 should have been like. Lotus II on the ST is better than 90% of into the screen driving games on the Amiga 500. Batman has nice 8 way scrolling and the driving/flying routines pretty good for the year (just makes sure you turn off Mr Dunn's pathetic 'broken pong console' ST soundtrack and have SFX only). Commando and Ghosts n Goblins are really good ports on the ST (I can't get either to work on NTSC machines though from my own disks). Trantor scrolls nicely if you like that sort of game. Xenon II is also pretty smart parallax scrolling shooter for the ST. Turrican II is pretty cool jump n gun shooter for the ST. Gauntlet 1 if you don't mind the choppy h-scroll, if you do mind the scroll then Gauntlet II with the downgraded 'shrunk in the wash' graphics. Depends on what you prefer. Another game similar to Gauntlet is Chaos Engine which scrolls OK and plays nice. Wings of Death is a nice v-scroll shooter too. really depends what you mean by 'action' games 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoGamer Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 I forgot to mention Gauntlet and Wrath of the Demon. As for Dark Castle - it’s frustrating to play, but I enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoGamer Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 (edited) Speedball II Brutal Deluxe is another good one. Edited September 21, 2022 by ColecoGamer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megalomaniac Posted September 21, 2022 Author Share Posted September 21, 2022 Wings of Death and Wrath of the Demon are particularly impressive. The Chaos Engine is a fantastic game, and from memory the only difference with the Amiga version is that there's no speech on the ST - but if all you knew was the ST version, you wouldn't say "it's alright, but it needs someone saying 'food.... power... special power' when you pick things up, that'd make it good". Xenon II is technically impressive, though I've never liked it as a game. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 On 9/20/2022 at 5:28 AM, oky2000 said: Lotus II on the ST is better than 90% of into the screen driving games on the Amiga 500. Oh golly. Thank god then it's on Amiga too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 16 hours ago, youxia said: Oh golly. Thank god then it's on Amiga too Indeed, but most Amiga racers run the same speed as Lotus III on an Amiga 500 class machine That's not taking anything away from the ST version, clearly the ST could handle a version of OutRun somewhere between PC Engine and Megadrive in frame updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 On 9/21/2022 at 8:23 PM, Megalomaniac said: Xenon II is technically impressive, though I've never liked it as a game. Yeah I know what you mean, it is very impressive considering the parallax and general speed but it's kinda samey to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 Rocket Ranger and Defender of the Crown impressed me too back then. I had an ST and Defender of the Crown before I got an Amiga and it is the better game and makes better technical use of the host hardware on the ST version. Couldn't find a decent video of Rocket Ranger on YT though, someone who knows how to play it hopefully will make one soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 Defender of the Crown really isn't a high-action game though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 Dark Castle ? 🤣 Smooth action certainly in general wasn't the STs forte compared to the Amiga, but take a look at something like Violator. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 On 9/23/2022 at 2:28 PM, zzip said: Defender of the Crown really isn't a high-action game though Hmmm you are right, it's only the Amiga and CDTV versions of the original where it is action action action and a tiny bit of trivial strategy. The ST version, along with the C64 was much more finished product and less about gawping at the graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 On 9/23/2022 at 3:16 PM, remowilliams said: Dark Castle ? 🤣 Smooth action certainly in general wasn't the STs forte compared to the Amiga, but take a look at something like Violator. Good call, just checked it out, better coding than many full price vertical scrollers on the STFM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megalomaniac Posted September 24, 2022 Author Share Posted September 24, 2022 Vertical scrollers were easier to get right than horizontal scrollers, but Violator is a pretty decent one, would've been well worth eight quid back in the day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 26, 2022 Share Posted September 26, 2022 I think it was something to do with 256 pixel wide game windows for vertical scrolling games aligning with the word boundary minimum setting for screen location pointer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoGamer Posted September 26, 2022 Share Posted September 26, 2022 (edited) On 9/23/2022 at 10:16 AM, remowilliams said: Dark Castle ? 🤣 Smooth action certainly in general wasn't the STs forte compared to the Amiga, but take a look at something like Violator. Have you ever played the original B&W Mac version of Dark Castle? The controls are NOTHING like the wonky controls Three-Sixty implemented in the Amiga and ST versions. I still have a place in my heart for Dark Castle, even the ST version. It’s technically arcade-like in how each room is represented. Oh well; to each their own. Edited September 26, 2022 by ColecoGamer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prog99 Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 On 9/24/2022 at 6:17 PM, Megalomaniac said: Vertical scrollers were easier to get right than horizontal scrollers, but Violator is a pretty decent one, would've been well worth eight quid back in the day. Don't remember that one but its running in 1 vbl.(At least the 5 minutes i had playing it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 15 hours ago, ColecoGamer said: Have you ever played the original B&W Mac version of Dark Castle? The controls are NOTHING like the wonky controls Three-Sixty implemented in the Amiga and ST versions. Yes I originally played it on a 512K Mac back in the day. I do actually have a strange affection for the game, it's just not something that comes to mind as a exemplar of fast action : ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 My fav' Macintosh game is Gauntlet, it looks really good in monochrome. Would have been nice if there was a mono/colour dual version for the ST but I guess that was asking too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 I submit F1 Challenge and Vroom. Even in 8mhz, both have a good framerate. RVF Honda is good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaddog Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 On 9/28/2022 at 5:30 PM, oky2000 said: My fav' Macintosh game is Gauntlet, it looks really good in monochrome. Would have been nice if there was a mono/colour dual version for the ST but I guess that was asking too much. Yeah, I'm very surprised that there were no ST mono versions of games like Test Drive 2 like there were on the orginal Macintosh. I guess you were expected to buy a Mac emulator for your ST to play the same games on a monochrome display... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 1 hour ago, MrMaddog said: Yeah, I'm very surprised that there were no ST mono versions of games like Test Drive 2 like there were on the orginal Macintosh. I guess you were expected to buy a Mac emulator for your ST to play the same games on a monochrome display... But on the other hand, I am surprised at some games that support mono that I had no idea. Still discovering titles even now that work in mono that I assumed were color only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 There's actually a very *long* list of mono games for the ST. I've posted it before in multiple places here at Atari Age... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 I'll add another really slick game I came across - Outzone. That sure does make the ST look like it doesn't have any scrolling difficulties : D 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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