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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Jun 22, 2016 8:08 pm

From the outset, for me at least, one of the best print-based resources for researching Amiga games has been Amiga World. Now, I should probably disclose that I once worked for IDG, the company that owned all of the "worlds": PC World, MacWorld, Amiga World, InfoWorld and many others... with all of their various odd spellings and capitalizations. I worked at InfoWorld for about four years and the Industry Standard for three (all between 2002-2009). So, I'm probably a bit partial to Amiga World, as I am quite fond of the editorial format and quality the IDG brands always offered.

But it has come to my attention that Dragon Magazine is also an incredibly good resource for finding excellent reviews for Amiga games, and from the North American market in particular. Dragon was a favorite magazine of my brother who was - and still is - big into D&D for over 30 years. And, while I played, I never really got into the magazines "back in the day." I was always too busy playing RPGs and arcade games on my C64, Vectrex and ColecoVision and various future machines. Little did I know that Dragon had a section entirely devoted to computer games titled, "The Role of Computers."

And frankly, it's a sparkling gold mine of fascinating games not even blips on my radar screen - until now.

It's worth mentioning that Dragon editors did seem to have had a proclivity for giving most games glowing reviews. And they also seemed to oddly review some games a good year or two after their initial release. But in the case of an Amiga port, that's totally understandable. The folks at Dragon were obviously cross-platform, which is great and quite refreshing. Unlike many Amiga-only magazines, Dragon actually knew what the differences between ports were and would comment on that aspect of the games.

It's definitely interesting to find a game in Dragon given a full three columns of text and a 5-out-of-5 star review, then comparing it to Lemon's user reviews which gave the same game a 5 (out of 10!). Very interesting indeed how the passage of time, or cultural differences, can influence our judgements of what constitutes a good game or not on occasion.

If you've got 10 minutes to spare, check issue 120 out (jump to page 79 of the mag or do a "CTRL F" and search for "Amiga") and read the incredibly massive reviews for Bard's Tale I & II. It's simply unmatched by any other publication, and they literally drool all over the Amiga version.
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Dragon magazine, issue #156


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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu Jun 23, 2016 3:33 pm

I pay very little attention to how Lemon rates things, either from their user scores or genuine reviews from European magazines back in the day. They're interesting reads but it's blatantly clear to me the European Amiga market was damn near opposite to the American market. Having tastes similar to adult American's at the time with more involved simulations/strategy/rpgs/adventure I'm usually pretty sure if I see a low score for one of those types of games from Lemon then, in fact, it's probably a great game that one market simply had no interest in.

I delight in seeing one of my favorite games praised in Amiga World (which did not kiss ass) and talking about installing the game, the speed of the game, the manuals... where a European magazine would take the same game, never mention if it could be installed, blast the awesome detailed manual because they were forced to read, and because of PAL/NTSC speed differences say a game is too slow. - And what separates the two more than anything else: Money. Rarely was price mentioned (unless the game was bad) in an American magazine, where most games were much more expensive than in Europe. There a big price tag was enough to tell readers not to buy it... A "budget" release would be expected in a couple years anyway...

We're so very much the same and we're so very different at the same time... I'd find so much more enjoyment from the European magazines IF some sites would present scans of the American magazines when showing reviews of games that were made here. History can change opinions but a lot of the time the opinions haven't changed at all, it's just the culture...

Thanks for the Dragon Magazine shoutout, I'm always looking for more American reviews when I research the games I cover, but I just tend to love Amiga World so damn much compared to all others. Looking at some of the ads in this one I'm reminded of all the D&D books my father would buy and read. Sadly I gave most of them away to a friend who was in need of reading material (jail) but I did keep a select few like the book versions of Pool of Radiance/Darkness... They really do immerse you that extra bit.

However, looking at this particular magazine I'm not sure I'll be coming back to it. I love role playing games but I never did get into the board games area of it all... You had to be a nerd with "friends" to do that... I only had the computer. The magazine seems to focus mostly on the true board games DM stuff and almost nothing to the computer side. I paid very good attention to the first 40 pages, don't think I saw any computer stuff... Then I was so bored with the pages of full writing, no pictures, simple hand drawn b/w stuff if there was one... I started scrolling down faster and faster, still nothing... Finally near the end I saw a few computer game advertisements in full color... The color stood out rather nicely... No, that one is too much for me... I love detailed reviews but I need a little eye candy if you're going to call yourself a "magazine" as opposed to a book.

I have heard of another all games American Amiga magazine... I had the name at one point but I forgot it and I never got to looking it up. I'm really interested in finding the missing game reviews Amiga World never bothered with because they covered so much stuff. I want an American review of Lost Dutchman Mine for the Amiga, I want to see what they thought of it, because I don't give a crap about the reviews on HOL, they blow my mind.

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jun 23, 2016 4:41 pm

Definitely check out the Bard's Tale review in the OP when you get the chance. It's fantastic!

For Dragon, I just pull down an issue and do a CTRL+F for "amiga". If it has anything, I check it out. If it doesn't I move on. "The Role of Computers" was a kind of bad pun (roll of the dice) for their column. It's not in every issue.

If you remember the other mag, let me know! Amiga World is pretty awesome.

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu Jun 23, 2016 5:13 pm

Just found the Bard's Tale review, it's pretty damn good, especially considering it's not even their original review. Seems like they were only going into it because someone wrote in to them about it. And I love how in awe they are of the new Amiga versions... I've heard some people put the Amiga versions down... I have no idea why... As far as I'm concerned they're the best without a doubt. Probably the same people who put down Pool of Radiance on the Amiga... Because they used the Amiga's potential the side effect of slow loading took place... Too bad!

But I also like how they go into the other versions. I keep wanting to look up Computer Gaming World from that era and see if they've been scanned online. They were about "the game" but they would always mention the different versions and they loved the Amiga. Still think that's ALOT of magazine for only a few pages of stuff I'd be interested in.

We had a bunch of magazines, they were just like Amiga World in that they focused on software/hardware/games combined. We didn't have an all games Amiga magazine. Ahoy! seems to pop chords as one such magazine, that was just a "commodore" magazine though. It did the C64 before the Amiga and both after it. Had a lot of Basic programs you could type in.

I'll certainly let you know if I figure out the all games magazine. It was just a quick burst of information I happened to read while looking up something else, which is why I forgot to look it up further.

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jun 23, 2016 8:04 pm

I can't help but wonder if you're thinking of some BYTE mags. They didn't focus on one platform but all platforms (much like Dragon). Hm...





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