Then, at a demo party in Aars in Denmark, I was walking around and I spotted some guy who must have been developing this exact piece of software because I saw what was definitely Turrican 2 running on what certainly looked like a PC (they were quite easy to spot). At the time, I was pretty well aware of what you could do with the PC and VGA in assembly language (The Copper demo particularly occupied me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KeMtiYi808), and I knew that remaking this game would be close to impossible.
I stared at his monitor from afar for a good 20 minutes but I didn't have the courage to approach this god-like developer (I must have been 14) so sadly, I never found out where his magical skills came from or whether or not he was a nice guy.
I think for a long time PC games had a rough problem; 'What is the 'lowest common denominator' that you can code your game to so that it reaches the largest audience possible in a semi-nascent industry?'
The 386 was introduced in 1985, the 486 in 1989, but it took a while for games to require a 386, let alone a 486.
On the flip-side, the Amiga benefited from a very good 'standard' video chipset and sound setup. There's a few 'interesting' PC releases that are hard to run nowadays because they were bundled with non-standard 3d hardware.
To say nothing of dealing with segmented arch of the 286[0]. Dos4G(/W) was a godsend for a lot of developers, I am sure. Same for Mode X.
Turrican 2 is indeed impressive for it's time from the videos I've seen. It took a while for PC's to catch up[1] and I would say Jazz Jackrabbit is the first DOS game that comes to mind that could best what I see in Turrican 2[2]. But that was 1994 (3ish years later) and needed a 486 to really sing with sound and all.
Factor 5 is a really talented set of devs. Nintendo folks know them for some of their N64 work, where they were able to push the limits of that system too.
[0] - I never learned segmented arch. Even back in 2003 or so when I took X86 Asm in college it was a footnote of "yeah we don't do that anymore for reasons".
[1] - Monster Bash, FWIW, is pretty smooth and fast (even though the art is limited by EGA) and runs on a 286. But even that was a 1993 release.
[2] Yes I know Doom came out in 1993 and changed my life. But it's still a different comparison to a fast-paced 2d platformer.
http://www.nemmelheim.de/turrican/news/duke/
(joke because of all the stolen/similar sprites used in Duke)
FT(link in the)A:
>SonicSloth, developer: I rewrote the code from scratch attempting to recreate the original as close as possible just by playing the original (and by watching longplay videos). I didn't have any access to the original source code. [0]
Amazingly it was also on C64. I’d love to see the source code for that bit of Wizardry.
Also, there's a ton of conventions and meetups with Amiga fans everywhere in the world. Especially n places like Germany, Ireland, Poland, USA.. maybe others.
But I loved the game. I liked the premise you were this human in a robotic exoskeleton that was exploring strange planets with exotic ETs and could also turn yourself into a rollerball that could annihilate anything in its path.
The music was epic too. I listened to a Spotify playlist of all the Turrican II music and it instantly brought me back.
This fan remake looks good, but it will never beat the original.
So I've been trying for the longest time to figure out the name of this game my older brother used to play. The game mechanics are similar to Turrican, kind of, 2D, left to right or bottom to top. It's not futuristic, I think there were jungle themes, maybe the hero used a whip or a hook but not sure. There might have been lots of blood. I keep thinking the name is "Heretic" but that's a different game! Maybe it sounds similar?! Anyone got an idea what I could be thinking of?
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Turrican II remains one of my favourite platform games on the Amiga, so I was quite excited when I learned of the project to create an enhanced version for the AGA chipset. Essentially a conversion of the 1994 PC DOS release, the principle developer behind the endeavour is Alastair Murray (AKA Sonic Sloth). Various demos and pre-release versions have been available, but I wanted to wait until the final release before trying it for myself.
The obvious change between this new AGA version and the OCS release is the graphics. It incorporates the art assets from the PC DOS release which, being a VGA title, supported more colours and higher detail. The redesigned player sprite, with it's bulbous helmet and wedge-shaped boots, represents one of the more divisive changes from that version, so it's cool to see Alastair also included an option allowing players to choose between the PC and Amiga versions of the Turrican suit.
Of course, looks aren't everything, so I'm pleased to report that the game plays exactly as I would expect. I don't know how much of the original code was used, or to what degree of re-engineering was required to get this running, but it plays exactly like Turrican II should. I used an A1200 WinUAE config to play this and, aside from a few occasions where the framerate dips when things get really busy, it's pretty much flawless. There are also some quality-of-life improvements, including the ability to look down (reduce the need for blind jumps), sound enhancements and optional control tweaks
Perhaps my favourite addition is the inclusion of new secrets. Each of the platforming levels contains three special crystals, which can only be retrieved by finding hidden drones. The little blighters are invisible and only appear when shot, although they do emit a noise when you're in the vicinity. This is gives seasoned Turrican II players who already know the game inside out another reason to revisit the game and do battle with The Machine and it's space-faring minions.
Overall, Turrican II: AGA Edition is a great release. The strapline for the game over on Alastair's itch.io bills the game as "The best way to play the PC version of Turrican 2 is on the Amiga", and I couldn't agree more!
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Note: Cross-posted from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljzIDjyWhzY. Review not written by me.
