💾 Archived View for gem.amigausers.ie › aipod1557976190.gmi captured on 2022-04-28 at 17:18:05. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Italy’s Amiga scene with Alessandro Adamou

16 Beal 19

Episode Thumbnail

Download MP3 (68 MB)

We talk about the scene in Italy before and during Commodore's reign. Pre-Commodore game development in Italy Zaccaria produced a set of pinball machines between 1972 and 1988, eventually developing a handful of arcade games (e.g. Money Money, Quasar, Jack Rabbit). The pinball tables were so renowned that a PC game exists today, devoted to re-creating those tables in 3D.

Commodore era Commodore machines, starting with the C64, effectively enabled active game development in the country. Between 1988 and the early 90's, game development for home computers was in the hands of three software houses, who quickly made the move to the Amiga, and in some cases the Atari ST. These were Simulmondo, Idea and Genias. Other home computers like the Spectrum and Amstrad CPC had very little market penetration in the country and game development for them never took off. What these publishers all had in common, besides being all based in Nothern Italy (Bologna, Varese), was the scope of their production. All of them were hands deep into sports and racing games, especially Simulmondo, whose name hinted at their stated intent to produce sports simulations. Sometimes they were relatively niche sports, such as bowls, billiard and fishing! All of them also produced licensed adaptations of comic books, usually coming in the form of side-scrolling action platformers or action adventures. Some of the comics that received this treatment include Nathan Never, Sturmtruppen, Cattivik, Lupo Alberto, Dylan Dog and Tex. At the same time, the circulation of bootlegs extended to the C64 and Amiga and made its way to compilation/shovelware disks published at newsagents at a time where there was no regulation in Italy. I even ended up knowing some games not by their actual titles, but by the ones given to them on these bootleg disks! However, it was not uncommon for these software houses to experiment in other genres: for example, Idea made Swords and Galleons (their own Sid Meier's Pirates!) and Bomber Bob, a v-scroller a la Xevious; Simulmondo made Italian Night 1999, an investigational adventure game; and Genias published puzzle game Tilt, h-shooter Catalypse (on the C64) and choose-your-own-adventure Profezia. Sadly, I am not aware of any flight simulators ever produced in Italy for the Amiga. Game development studios These publishers originally operated in a similar fashion as British software houses like Ocean, mainly developing games in-house and hiring young, passionate programmers and graphic artists as contractors, sometimes as young as 14. Distinctions between publisher and developer were rarely to be found then. Around 1991-92 the tide starts to change and the identity of development studios begins to stand out. Examples include Holodream, Trecision (later also a publisher), Dynabyte (also a publisher) and Lightshock. Some of these studios begin to work with different publishers (also international, see Holodream with Team-17, Trecision with Cryo etc.) Episodic game production After the first few game adaptations of Dylan Dog and Tex, Simulmondo teams up with comic book publisher Bonelli to create several series of video games from comic books and available as monthly publications to be purchased at newsagents. They all followed the style of side-view action adventures with multiple-choice interfaces and dialogue. Between 1993 and 1994, approximately 85 titles were published in this form, including comic adaptations (e.g. Diabolik, again Dylan Dog and Tex, and also a few Spider-Man games due to Bonelli being the licensee for Italy) as well as original franchises (Simulman, Time Runners). These all came both on Amiga and on MS-DOS (early issue contained floppies of both versions). It was a very early example of episodic publishing of game content, what today is becoming the norm if you look at series like Life is Strange. Other publishers followed suit, but only for limited runs: Hobby&Work commissioned a 4-episode adaptation of The Ancestral Trail to Holodream in 1994, but eventually decided not to publish the (albeit completed) Amiga versions following the closure of Commodore. That was the year the few existing software houses backed out on the Amiga: Dynabyte cancelled the release of h-shooter T-Racer, and the remaining development teams who didn't make the move to the PC sought fortune in the shareware market or with foreign publishers. Italian Amiga applications Eyelight created the Tornado3D modelling software, later taken over by Haage & Partner Top Italian Amiga game recommendations from Alessandro

-> 0 1489491811.gmi 1491589066.gmi 1493933244.gmi 1495131418.gmi 1496591501.gmi 1497457848.gmi 1499328033.gmi 1500538424.gmi 1501830040.gmi 1502348425.gmi 1504765846.gmi 1505975420.gmi 1507064080.gmi 1508394128.gmi 1509604207.gmi 1510813858.gmi 1512624654.gmi 1513835947.gmi 1513950386.gmi 1514091727.gmi 1515038765.gmi 1515094839.gmi 1516250956.gmi 1516656206.gmi 1517463146.gmi 1521090924.gmi 1522300973.gmi 1525326457.gmi 1526535008.gmi 1528350738.gmi 1529556187.gmi 1531375164.gmi 1532582738.gmi 1533183457.gmi 1536213209.gmi 1536326551.gmi 1537416555.gmi 1538625955.gmi 1540911632.gmi 1544119913.gmi 1545468029.gmi 1547097236.gmi 1547574089.gmi 1548090119.gmi 1549439015.gmi 1549519253.gmi 1551944211.gmi 1552858955.gmi 1554351548.gmi 1556765301.gmi 1557976190.gmi 1559840254.gmi 1560955166.gmi 1562079188.gmi 1563561698.gmi 1565002936.gmi 1567716036.gmi 1570105963.gmi 1573239043.gmi 1575475105.gmi 1575734896.gmi 1576863197.gmi 1578600082.gmi 1579469904.gmi 1583786394.gmi 1587243523.gmi 1589056237.gmi 1591451737.gmi 1599770399.gmi 1600952184.gmi 1602682994.gmi 1604879165.gmi 1607357388.gmi 1608745817.gmi 1610117895.gmi 1610892479.gmi 1614861355.gmi 1617861651.gmi 1620302691.gmi 1622768458.gmi 1632992894.gmi 1633759191.gmi 1636129728.gmi 1637949207.gmi 1638393272.gmi 1638460937.gmi 1638812527.gmi 1638886319.gmi 1638897332.gmi 1638899348.gmi 1638900903.gmi 1638976007.gmi 1638988221.gmi 1638993603.gmi 1638997200.gmi 1639033203.gmi 1639035000.gmi 1639035569.gmi 1639040400.gmi 1639045800.gmi 1639051202.gmi 1639054800.gmi 1639054803.gmi 1639055077.gmi 1639057708.gmi 1639060094.gmi 1639062004.gmi 1639064286.gmi 1639064876.gmi 1639067174.gmi 1639067646.gmi 1639068029.gmi 1639068318.gmi 1639068974.gmi 1639069732.gmi 1639069987.gmi 1639070340.gmi 1639071294.gmi 1639073020.gmi 1639073170.gmi 1639073990.gmi 1639076355.gmi 1639076841.gmi 1639080000.gmi 1639081800.gmi 1639084713.gmi 1639086154.gmi 1639116000.gmi 1639117800.gmi 1639118700.gmi 1639118841.gmi 1639134870.gmi 1639135103.gmi 1639135770.gmi 1639137922.gmi 1639138523.gmi 1639151866.gmi 1639153878.gmi 1639154769.gmi 1639156238.gmi 1639160944.gmi 1639161021.gmi aipod1489491811.gmi aipod1491589066.gmi aipod1493933244.gmi aipod1495131418.gmi aipod1496591501.gmi aipod1497457848.gmi aipod1499328033.gmi aipod1500538424.gmi aipod1501830040.gmi aipod1502348425.gmi aipod1504765846.gmi aipod1505975420.gmi aipod1507064080.gmi aipod1508394128.gmi aipod1509604207.gmi aipod1510813858.gmi aipod1512624654.gmi aipod1513835947.gmi aipod1513950386.gmi aipod1514091727.gmi aipod1515038765.gmi aipod1515094839.gmi aipod1516250956.gmi aipod1516656206.gmi aipod1517463146.gmi aipod1521090924.gmi aipod1522300973.gmi aipod1525326457.gmi aipod1526535008.gmi aipod1528350738.gmi aipod1529556187.gmi aipod1531375164.gmi aipod1532582738.gmi aipod1533183457.gmi aipod1536213209.gmi aipod1536326551.gmi aipod1537416555.gmi aipod1538625955.gmi aipod1540911632.gmi aipod1544119913.gmi aipod1545468029.gmi aipod1547097236.gmi aipod1547574089.gmi aipod1548090119.gmi aipod1549439015.gmi aipod1549519253.gmi aipod1551944211.gmi aipod1552858955.gmi aipod1554351548.gmi aipod1556765301.gmi aipod1557976190.gmi aipod1559840254.gmi aipod1560955166.gmi aipod1562079188.gmi aipod1563561698.gmi aipod1565002936.gmi aipod1567716036.gmi aipod1570105963.gmi aipod1573239043.gmi aipod1575475105.gmi aipod1575734896.gmi aipod1576863197.gmi aipod1578600082.gmi aipod1579469904.gmi aipod1583786394.gmi aipod1587243523.gmi aipod1589056237.gmi aipod1591451737.gmi aipod1599770399.gmi aipod1600952184.gmi aipod1602682994.gmi aipod1604879165.gmi aipod1607357388.gmi aipod1608745817.gmi aipod1610117895.gmi aipod1610892479.gmi aipod1614861355.gmi aipod1617861651.gmi aipod1620302691.gmi aipod1622768458.gmi aipod1632992894.gmi aipod1633759191.gmi aipod1636129728.gmi amigaireland_podcast.index amigaireland_podcast.xml aminet.index.exclude aminet.index.tmp aminet_item_1638676229 aminet_item_1638676324 aminet_item_1638676327 aminet_item_1638711986 aminet_item_1638711989 aminet_item_1638711996 aminet_item_1638748341 aminet_item_1638748527 aminet_item_1638748587 aminet_item_1638748732 aminet_item_1638797704 aminet_item_1638797720 aminet_item_1638797723 aminet_item_1638797726 aminet_item_1638848683 aminet_item_1638932658 aminet_item_1638932670 aminet_item_1638932684 aminet_item_1638932693 aminet_item_1639023977 aminet_item_1639095547 aminet_item_1639095575 aminet_item_1639095642 aminet.xml ath_article athlone11639008000.gmi athlone21639008000.gmi athlone31639008000.gmi athlone41639008000.gmi athlone_headlines athlone.index athlone.index.tmp athlone_links athlone.xml awkfile bel_article bel_article_small belfastlive.index.tmp belfastlive.xml belfast_news.index.tmp bel_full_art bel_prob.html cb_article cb_article_small corkbeo.index.tmp corkbeo.xml corkbeo.xml.tmp cork_news.index.tmp debug.log delme dublin.html dublin.index dublin.index.tmp dublin_news_current_article dublin_news_headlines dublin_news_leadins dublin_news_links dublinnews.sh dublin.xml episode_html galwaydaily.index.tmp galway_news.index.tmp gd1638985321.gmi gd1639038658.gmi gd1639042206.gmi gd1639047329.gmi gd1639050068.gmi gd1639055268.gmi gd1639060034.gmi gd1639061147.gmi gd1639065623.gmi gd1639074425.gmi gd1639125058.gmi gd1639128621.gmi gd1639133561.gmi gd1639138695.gmi gd1639143677.gmi gd1639148407.gmi gd1639152163.gmi gd1639155994.gmi gd1639157273.gmi gd.xml gd.xml.tmp hourly_weather_athlone.json hourly_weather_belfast.json hourly_weather_cork.json hourly_weather_derry.json hourly_weather_dublin.json hourly_weather_galway.json hourly_weather_limerick.json hourly_weather_wicklow.json limerickleader.index.tmp limerickleader.xml limerickleader.xml.tmp limerick_news.index.tmp lo_article lo_article_small meetup.2cols meetup.2cols.deport meetup.csv meetups-date-heading meetups_date_temp meetups.gmi2 meetup-unbroken nos.xml nuachttg4_twitter.xml prob_page systemd-private-505406274cff43a3aa04d4859abcf39d-chronyd.service-b46p4K teams-illo-free-sidebar-promo.svg test test_file test_the_test_file.save tg4_twitter.xml tmux-1000 I Play 3D Soccer (sports)

http://hol.abime.net/2356

http://hol.abime.net/933

http://hol.abime.net/2335

http://hol.abime.net/106

http://hol.abime.net/5016

http://hol.abime.net/985

http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?find=dylan%20dog

http://hol.abime.net/3117

http://hol.abime.net/477

http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?find=arcade%20pool

http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?find=shadow%20fighter

http://hol.abime.net/204

http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?find=t-zero