Golden Axe Longplay (Amiga) [50 FPS]
178Developed by Dementia/Probe Software and published by Virgin Games in 1990
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As many of you will be aware, conversions of arcade games for home computers varied wildly in terms of quality. It was not uncommon for the developers to have to recreate the game from scratch without access to the original source code, artwork or other assets - all they got was a few afternoons with the arcade machine and that was it. I imagine this process was rather like being shown a picture of a car and being asked to build a copy of it without knowing how it works, or what tools to use.
Even with the Amiga's custom chipset and CPU, the machine lacked the memory and raw horsepower that dedicated hardware boards possessed, so it's unsurprising that so many conversions ended up being poor quality. However, there are exceptions to this rule and, as far I'm concerned, the Amiga port of Sega's classic coin-op is a rare example where he end product not only looks and sounds like it's arcade counterpart, but also plays like it too!
You can debate and argue the merits of gameplay over graphics all you like, but the fact of the matter is that first impressions count and the first thing anyone notices about a game are the visuals. The game's graphics and artwork in the Amiga version are pretty much arcade perfect, with just about everything from the arcade is included, including background artwork, sprites and animations, including the various magical spell effects for each of the three playable characters. What's more, the actual colours used are vivid, bright and excellent reproductions of the arcade version and not some pale, washed out derivatives as seen in other conversions. According to a development diary included in Amiga Action magazine, the artists had to painstakingly recreate all of the artwork pixel-by-pixel in DPaint, so the quality of the final product is a real testament to their work.
Fortunately, the game is blessed with more than just accurate visuals. David Whittaker was on hand to create the game's music and sound effects and, as with the graphics, everything is as good as you could wish it to be. Thanks to it's sample-based sound chips, the Amiga was still capable of producing music that sounded better than many of the sound chips included on the genuine arcade hardware. Whittaker's arrangement of the game's music has a distinctly dance-like quality thanks to some subtle of drum and synth effects - it's fair to say that I spent quite a long time humming along to the music whilst recording this!
It's also worth mentioning that the sound effects from the arcade version have survived in tact, even down to the various thwacks as you hit the enemy with the pommel of your weapon. This gives me the impression that the developers were definitely pushing for this port to be as close to the arcade version as the Amiga could allow and not just a case of lazy shovelware.
Translating control schemes to a platform with only a single fire button was always a challenge, but the coders managed to implement all of the moves from the arcade version here, as well as make them relative easy to execute. I was pleased to note that even the reverse spin attack was included (pulling down and pressing fire to execute), as are the running attacks, mid-air slice and pile-driver. Even the combo attacks that change depending on the player's proximity to the enemy, including the kick (far) and throw (close) finishers are included!
As if all of this wasn't enough, the team managed to include simultaneous two-player coop as well! It might seem like a no-brainer that the game should include it, but you only have to look at other conversions to see that developers occasionally had to cut features due to memory, performance and/or time limitations. In this case, the inclusion of coop play means the game is as feature-complete as you could hope for.
Despite it's obvious successes, the game isn't quite perfect. The scrolling can be somewhat lethargic, requiring the player to keep moving left and right in an effort to coerce the screen to keep moving in the right direction and the characters feel a little too 'floaty' when they're knocked down, but these are just inaccuracies rather than genuine criticism.
I think it's fair to say that the Amiga version of Golden Axe is, unequivocally, an example of a conversion done right. With brilliant graphics, sound and gameplay, Amiga owners were treated to a true arcade experience in the comfort of their own homes - highly recommended!
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