I mean, they took the ST as far as it could go graphically. To this day there are people trying to mod fully expanded STEs so it’ll run something close to Doom, but really I feel they just couldn’t cut it. 8mhz and a display limited to 16 colours (without special sync tricks) from a pallette of 512/4096 (depending on which machine you had) was a bit of a bottleneck. There’s proto-open world games like Hunter, but in general side/vertical scrolling shot-em-ups was pretty much it’s bag, and games like Turrican, Killing Gameshow and Xenon 2 all pushed the limits of what could be done as far as I recall.
I believe graphically both the ST and Amiga were used to their full potential, I just think the games available on them aren’t actually designed well, as in they had access to so much more memory, but for the most part didn’t know how to create a compelling gameplay or story experience with the additional creative freedom those better specs allowed.
As I say there are a few exceptions on both platforms, I think Another World on the Amiga is a good example of a developer using that extra power extremely well to create a truly novel and innovative experience that stands the test of time.
Hunter is definitely trying to be innovative, but the hardware wasn’t ready for a full 3D open world, and personally I don’t think it holds up as a ‘good game’ today.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that within the still existing limitations of that era of hardware, most Amiga and ST devs did not have the design chops or writing ability to create a compelling game within those restrictions that would make it a standout even today. Consoles from around the same period such as the Sega Genesis and SNES have pretty similar hardware restrictions to the Amiga and ST, but still have a fairly beloved library of games due to those seeming to attract more talented designers.
I take your point. I suppose it’s worth mentioning that a lot of games were either straight-up arcade conversions or derivatives. There are a few decent YouTube channels from former artists and coders that talk about the dev process. By today’s standards it was insanely restrictive and the teams were comparatively tiny. True game development was just at such an early stage then, which I guess is partly the point you’re making.
I mean, they took the ST as far as it could go graphically. To this day there are people trying to mod fully expanded STEs so it’ll run something close to Doom, but really I feel they just couldn’t cut it. 8mhz and a display limited to 16 colours (without special sync tricks) from a pallette of 512/4096 (depending on which machine you had) was a bit of a bottleneck. There’s proto-open world games like Hunter, but in general side/vertical scrolling shot-em-ups was pretty much it’s bag, and games like Turrican, Killing Gameshow and Xenon 2 all pushed the limits of what could be done as far as I recall.
I believe graphically both the ST and Amiga were used to their full potential, I just think the games available on them aren’t actually designed well, as in they had access to so much more memory, but for the most part didn’t know how to create a compelling gameplay or story experience with the additional creative freedom those better specs allowed.
As I say there are a few exceptions on both platforms, I think Another World on the Amiga is a good example of a developer using that extra power extremely well to create a truly novel and innovative experience that stands the test of time.
Hunter is definitely trying to be innovative, but the hardware wasn’t ready for a full 3D open world, and personally I don’t think it holds up as a ‘good game’ today.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that within the still existing limitations of that era of hardware, most Amiga and ST devs did not have the design chops or writing ability to create a compelling game within those restrictions that would make it a standout even today. Consoles from around the same period such as the Sega Genesis and SNES have pretty similar hardware restrictions to the Amiga and ST, but still have a fairly beloved library of games due to those seeming to attract more talented designers.
I take your point. I suppose it’s worth mentioning that a lot of games were either straight-up arcade conversions or derivatives. There are a few decent YouTube channels from former artists and coders that talk about the dev process. By today’s standards it was insanely restrictive and the teams were comparatively tiny. True game development was just at such an early stage then, which I guess is partly the point you’re making.