Phantasy Star II getting a fanmade port to the Amiga platform

These are interesting times for retro ports. First, we had folks porting games to Sega consoles from other platforms, then someone ported Shinobi and Golden Axe to SNK’s Neo-Geo platforms, and now someone wants to bring Phantasy Star II (1989) to the Amiga platform. I’m certainly not against it.

Homebrew developer RetroLover is now hard at work on an Amiga conversion of the seminal and very influential Genesis/Mega-Drive JRPG Phantasy Star II. That game is their favorite RPG of all time, and this is their way of paying tribute to it and the Amiga platform. The game is being rebuilt in Scorpion Engine, which is made for development of Amiga, Genesis, and even Neo-Geo games, but RetroLover is aiming to make this as faithful to the Genesis original as possible. They’ll still be adding enhancements to make it easier to play through, such as an improved battle system based on that of Phantasy Star IV (1995).

For now, though, the port is still early in development. However, RetroLover has released a demo for the public to try and is open to feedback. If you have a way to run Amiga games, I’d say give it a go. You can find a link to download it below the break.

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Analogue Mega SG to Include Unreleased Title Ultracore from Battlefield Developers

Analogue’s FPGA Mega Drive/Genesis console, the Mega Sg is giving would be owners an additional bonus built into the console. A pack in title! Hardcore, a side-scrolling shooter in the vein of other European shooters such as the Turrican series, was developed by Digital Illusions who have since changed their name to DICE. (Who went on to become famous for the Battlefield series.) Due to the impending arrival of disc based consoles in 1994, the publisher of the game, Psygnosis decided to cancel the title despite being slated for release on Amiga, Mega Drive, Genesis and SEGA CD, with the Mega Drive/Genesis version being nearly ready for shipment. However due to legal issues, Analogue states on their website the game will be renamed to Ultracore. The game content will remain the same.

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Aladdin and The Lion King video games get surprise release on Steam

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If you were a big fan of early Disney games in the 90s, you are in luck because we got two surprise releases on Steam. First up we got Aladdin, this one is actually a port of the Amiga version, which was also done by the same developer as the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive game. One of the biggest differences between each version is the change in the UI, which is much larger on the Amiga version. I also prefer the sound of the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive version, including the music since its different. You can check out a comparison here. You can pick up Aladdin here.

The other Disney game we got released was The Lion King, this version was developed by famed Westwood Studios for SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, Amiga, and a ton of other platforms. Of course this is the Amiga version, which I do not prefer. I know there are some big Amiga fanboys online but personally think the sound is the biggest drawbacks from these versions. You can check out the differences between each version here. You can get your Lion King fix here. The games are 33% off since they barely launched, deal ends on Christmas.