Watch out...
It's Alive
Background
Alive Mediasoft are a new company, releasing and programming new Amiga games aimed at the high end gamer, which only a few years ago would have been a contradiction in terms.Their first project is Blade, a low end RPG which has full speech on an 030 1200 with 4 megs. They are also porting Phantasmagoria, the hugely succesful Mac game, and Haunted, the Lightwave rendered extravagangza.
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| Chris: | 1. What assurances can you give me that Phantasmagoria and Haunted aren`t going to be all gfx no gameplay turkeys? |
| Andy: | Well Phantasmagoria has already been released on the MAC and PC formats to
great reviews. We are only making the MAC version run on the Amiga, we have
not coded a new version.
Haunted on the other hand is our own and the only assurance I can give you is,
that I will not allow it to be released if I though it was a turkey for the
following reasons;
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| Chris: | How exactly is this Mac "stub emulator" going to work then, eh? And how do you plan on getting Mac ROMs when Apple has recently done a full turn on licensing? I imagine buying a Mac, ripping the Rom out and supplying it with each game wouldn`t be that cost effective :-) |
| Andy: | Basically it provides the vital systems of the MAC that, the game it has
been written for needs. That way you can't buy Phantasm, for example, and use
its emulator on another MAC game you may have. ROMs, we are currently dealing with this. You are right it is a problem and that is why Phantasm is not released as yet. |
| Chris: | Do you think the current rush of games being ported to the Amiga
instead of written especially could: a) damage home grown talent and b) result in games that have over excessive reqs. (I think you know the direction I`m coming from here)? |
| Andy: | a) No it will make them more determined to make a quality game to be noticed. b)I believe games will start requiring high specs, but if the Amiga is to evolve and not be left in the evolutionary cess pool, this has got to happen. It should pursuade people to upgrade and get rid of those A500's. Buy upgrading the companies making the upgrades will continue to support and develope hardware which in turn allows us to make better games. |
| Chris: | What do you think of Vulcan`s decision to concentrate on their Mega Series and Clickboom`s decision to shortly go PPC only? |
| Andy: | Vulcan; Good for the reasons I have stated in 3b. Click Boom; Risky as no decision has been made whic way the Amiga is going to go. |
| Chris: | Which chip would you prefer to see on a next generation Amiga: a DEC Alpha or a PPC? |
| Andy: | Either |
| Chris: | Which gfx card are you targetting your games at: Cybergfx or Picasso? |
| Andy: | Haunted has been written using the Picasso, but it also supports Cybergfx. |
| Chris: | How did your company come about? |
| Andy: | Basically I was fed up of people saying the Amiga was dead etc.. Steven (my partner) was working for a now deceased Amiga company. I told steven my idea and asked him to join me, and Hence ALIVE. |
| Chris: | What would you say are your fave games for the Amiga (barring your own !) |
| Andy: |
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| Chris: | What with both Phantasmagoria and haunted coming on multiple CD ROMs, and RSI an ever present danger, you must be counting the days till a DVD player appears on the Amiga? |
| Andy: | Yes |
Comments: |
One thing I noticed from talking to Alive was that they are currently [knee deep] in negotiations with Sierra, principally about the Mac Rom "thing", but also about the possibility of porting other Sierra games. Sierra had done Phantasmagoria, and the feeling is that if that does well, then the gates will open, bringing "new" Sierra games to the Amiga.
One of their new Amiga only games was Blade, which you can get a demo of from AmigaFlame if you follow the link above, although I'm not still sure if that link is unbroken
My first thoughts after loading up the game, after the magnificent intro, with a quite stonking mod, that take away the burning flame sounds, could easily be an intro for a news program, were that it didn't look brilliant. It looked better than average, but you could tell that the characters had been rendered down and left without a slight touchup which would have made quite a difference.
The text area was a bit small too, but after I had played it a while, it had a certain addictive quality, which was only stifled when I got into the dungeon and seemed to be aimlessly wandering fighting monsters.
I am sure though, that Blade will be quite a bit better in the full game. They might even be able to sort out the one and only spelling mistake I found (look for it in the temple of the monks, when you come in)
When I spoke to Alive again, they asked me to send them this article, so that when they are " big and famous" they can remember their roots. It's nice to see an Amiga company with some ambition again, and also I hope that if they do become big and famous, they will remember that they started on the Amiga, and it was only with the talent of dedicated Amiga coders that they (might) flourish.
Also, when I spoke to them, Andy mentioned the possibility of porting from Amiga to PC. That should show a few people.
As an exclusive to the Lair!, Andy mentioned details of a new game called Archangel, which will be a 3D isometric viewed from slightly above and to the left wargame, which is heavily geared to multiplayer Internet gaming!!! Cool or what?
While seeming to be a Command and Conquer clone, Andy tells me that the gameplay will be very different. But how many times have we heard that before? Anyway, it seems to be coming from Warhammer, in that custom sets (scenarios, armies, etc.) will be made available.
He also mentioned that the people they had been speaking to from Sierra were Amiga people, that they were up to speed with the current situation, and had a lot of goodwill for the Amiga. This is something I have noticed among clued up industry people, Gateway proved it buy buying the Amiga. It certainly helps to have friends!