You've got your Firefox in my Fat Agnus!

August 7, 2016 9:42 AM

The Internet Archive's Amiga Software Collection -- runs emulated in the browser, so you don't even have to load Workbench!
posted by lkc (35 comments total)

Heh. I see X-Copy there.
posted by Artw at 9:57 AM on August 7, 2016

Blow Job Drifter?
posted by benzenedream at 10:34 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

I couldn't get Paradroid 90 to load, Nuclear War and Extase aren't there. But it's still quite a feat to emulate the Amiga in the browser!
posted by Catblack at 10:35 AM on August 7, 2016

Yeah, I'm trying to get a few old demos working and they seem to not want to. I'm guessing the trainers/demoscene stuff might rely on some hardware tricks that aren't being emulated.

There's also this one damn game that I can't remember the title of. I was thinking it was like "labyrinth", but its not. An overhead puzzle game, that had voice samples. The main character would say "i can't do that" constantly. I used to pull it out every couple years because I never beat the damn game as a kid. Oh well .. *grumbles*
posted by lkc at 10:38 AM on August 7, 2016

The Amiga demo scene is basically the golden age of hardware tricks, so really it's amazing that the ones that do work work as well as they do.
posted by Artw at 10:45 AM on August 7, 2016

"mom, can I play Blowjob Drifter? Please? You promised!"
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:09 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've tried a couple of things and they aren't working, it seems to be a bug. The game declares that game data didn't load if the game files haven't loaded the moment the CFG file finishes, but the other files are still downloading. When they're done, the emulator doesn't realize it and stubbornly continues to insist the files haven't loaded. Such a hassle.

If jscott were still around we could tell him here, but he bugged off some months ago. I do wish people wouldn't be so quick to disable their accounts.
posted by JHarris at 11:16 AM on August 7, 2016

Yeah, there are definitely some issues here. The full-screen doesn't work for me, and the mouse emulation is pretty wonky. I have a large monitor and keep my acceleration set pretty high, and the mouse seems to not track quite right. I have been able to get a few things to start, and passed the stage JHarris is mentioning, but there does seem to be some stuff that is ... suboptimal.

Really, though, compared to some of my attempts getting amiga emulation running with dedicated emulators, this is pretty impressive. I'd like a better breakdown on how exactly this gets compiled to asm.js and handles graphics/input.
posted by lkc at 11:26 AM on August 7, 2016

I got a pocket full of quarters, and I'm headed to the arcade.
I hope they got the hobo fellatio game Atari made.
I've got a callus on my finger, and my shoulder's hurting too.
I'm gonna blow drifters like I'm supposed to.
'Cause Im gonna play Blowjob Drifter;
Blowjob Drifter.
It's driving me crazy.
Driving me crazy.
Gonna play Blowjob Drifter;
Blowjob Drifter.
I'm going out of my mind.
Going out of my mind.
Gonna play Blowjob Drifter;
Blowjob Drifter.
I'm going out of my mind.
Going out of my mind.
posted by dr_dank at 11:34 AM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]

I tried to sing that to the tune of the Beastie Boys' "High Plains Drifter" but it didn't work.
posted by rhizome at 11:59 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Deluxe Paint is one of my all-time favorite programs. It had features I've never found in any other graphics program.

No Videoscape 3D though. In that program you could make primitives using the GUI, but if you wanted to make a custom model you had to use the command line to type in the xyz coordinates for every vertex in each triangle, and the order you entered them determined which face was the front and which was the back for rendering purposes. IIRC you also could specify a face color and outline color for each face. I made a gothic arch once when I was underemployed. It was a pain in the ass, but it also seemed like magic.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 12:31 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Well, Deluxe Paint IV loads OK in three different browsers I tried but you end up with just a blank menu bar and a crosshair, no menus or tools. B^\
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 12:58 PM on August 7, 2016

I still have an A500 somewhere about. Must get it out to show the kids. I loved a lot of those games - Robocod, Zool, Fire and Ice, Stardust, Project X, Bubba 'n' Stix, Paradroid 90, and especially Apidya.
posted by pipeski at 1:32 PM on August 7, 2016

If someone made an Amiga-themed case for my phone I'd totally buy one.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 2:09 PM on August 7, 2016

Blow Job Drifter?

Requires the rarely installed Fat Agnus chip.
posted by zippy at 2:10 PM on August 7, 2016

OK, I just had to look up a review of Blowjob Drifter.
posted by idiopath at 2:32 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

I can get to the AROS version of Workbench ("Workbook") when attempting to play Marble Madness but there aren't any files in the disk icon labeled "MarbleMadness!". Or, wait, now that I click, the icon appears (I always liked how Amiga icons sometimes changed when you clicked on them, but this might be a bug from that). With the mouse emulation (I don't remember using a trackball), I'd probably just watch the marble go over the edge repeatedly if I do manage to get it started, though.
posted by Gnatcho at 2:43 PM on August 7, 2016

Also, I need the chuddering emulated so I know it's doing something.
posted by Gnatcho at 2:47 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Where can I play Super Skweek? I used to love that. Also that really weird platform/beat-em-up/strategy game Onslaught, with the sorta spooky music.

This mood always results in me going to Project Aon and playing through a load of Lone Wolf books, too.
posted by howfar at 3:02 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

If anyone is having trouble or really wants to play title x, Amiga In A Box.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:20 PM on August 7, 2016

Aaargh!

In fact I see two versions of Aaargh! on the list, one of which runs. I can't figure out which button to press to eat the villagers and restore the fire breath, though. Much like in 1991 when I played this game at my uncle's house but there were no instructions and nobody had any idea what you were supposed to do.
posted by sfenders at 3:45 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not that I would recommend Aaargh! as a video game. It's not the best Amiga game. It may be close to the worst. But it's every bit the existential puzzle I remember it being. Who is this Ogre? Why does he breathe fire? What does he want? Will he forever be pestered by men and mosquitoes? What on earth is the egg for? Why on earth would I be playing this when Marble Madness is right over there?
posted by sfenders at 4:19 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

10pints
posted by lkc at 4:28 PM on August 7, 2016

what is my GURU MEDITATION

asking for a friend
posted by Sebmojo at 7:43 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

SOMETHING WONDERFUL HAS HAPPENED.

YOUR BROWSER IS ALIVE!
posted by Artw at 7:45 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Blow Job Drifter?

Wasn't he on the Venturre Brothers?
posted by juiceCake at 8:11 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

lkc: There is, as with all things, a subreddit for that. I also suggest asking /r/amiga.
posted by BiggerJ at 12:51 AM on August 8, 2016

Having a moment after hearing the R-Type intro music again
posted by 13twelve at 5:56 AM on August 8, 2016

Ah yes, R-Type. Amazing that after all these years and ports to so many systems I still suck utter balls at it.
posted by Molesome at 10:45 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Gah. No search hits for the Boing demo yet. An omission, I cry, an omission.
posted by wwwwolf at 3:42 AM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's also this one damn game that I can't remember the title of. I was thinking it was like "labyrinth", but its not. An overhead puzzle game, that had voice samples. The main character would say "i can't do that" constantly. I used to pull it out every couple years because I never beat the damn game as a kid. Oh well .. *grumbles*
posted by lkc at 6:38 PM on August 7

That rang bells, but more for the reason that I hated the demo (the perspective, the voice) - but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called. A GIS quickly showed me the screen that I was thinking of, and I think it's what you were remembering: Valhalla and the Lord of Infinity perhaps? (And no, unfortunately it's not on the browser emulator library)
posted by Chunder at 10:06 AM on August 9, 2016

I was always a bigger fan of the sequel, Handjob Hitcher, for its cutting edge force feedback controller
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:10 PM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wow, it's already been taken down, presumably because too few things actually worked:

After a beta-testing period, the emulated Amiga programs at the Archive have been taken down for further development. Thanks to everyone for testing the Amiga In-Browser emulation package during the beta period, and especially a thank you to the Scripted Amiga Emulator project, as well as db48x and bai, for all the hard work with this experiment.

posted by Gnatcho at 10:40 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

It wasn't drift compatible.
posted by Artw at 3:24 PM on August 11, 2016

Chunder: That's it! I think it kind of embodies Amiga gaming in that era: beautiful graphics, cool sounds, clunky gameplay, and irritatingly repetitive.

Alright, time to give it another pass.
posted by lkc at 4:32 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]