The Nintendo Switch 2 is the closest thing to a modern day Commodore Amiga
It's been a lot of fun to see the love for the Commodore Amiga this week, which I had no idea was 40 years old. As has been pointed out, probably nobody outside of Europe either knows or cares about it now but to me it was the most important games format when I was kid. Which is to say it's what I had, and I couldn't afford a Mega Drive or SNES. Or rather I couldn't afford their games.
Amiga games were a lot cheaper (and, well, you know) and they also seemed a lot more varied. To my eyes the vast majority of console games were just platformers of one kind or another. I never even heard of Zelda or Final Fantasy until the PlayStation era and while we never got anything as good as Sonic the Hedgehog on the Amiga I can honestly say I wasn't that bothered.
On the Amiga we had all kinds of crazy things, and lots of 3D games and games made in Europe and the UK which never appeared anywhere else. But as soon as consoles took over everything was made in Japan or the US and we've never really gone back from that, even with modern indie gaming on the PC.
PlayStation and Xbox aren't interested in anything but a small number of games from a small number of publishers. Heck, the whole point of Xbox is Microsoft wanted to make American companies dominate the games industry, so I can't say I'm too upset that didn't work out.
Thinking about what the modern equivalent of the Amiga is I guess you'd have to say it's the PC, but it doesn't feel that way to me. It's too unfocused and you have to use Steam to get anything out of it, which is very American focused.
Weirdly it's the Nintendo Switch 2 which feels the closest to the Amiga to me, assuming it works out similar to the original Switch. Although the fact that it has a mouse by default already increases the comparisons, so I hope it makes good use of that.
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
But it's really just how strange and varied all the games are, with no first person shooters or sad dad story games so far, just the crazy Mario Kart and Donkey Kong games and the promise that future games will be as weird as the Switch line-up was. Especially as Drag X Drive even looks a bit like Speedball 2.
It's not just Nintendo though but all the other, smaller Japanese developers that they encourage. Companies I'm sure probably wouldn't still be going if it wasn't for the Switch. Games are too expensive to make on PlayStation and Xbox now, for small companies, but the Switch is low-powered enough that it's still possible.
I'm not saying these sort of games aren't on the PlayStation as well, but there's not as many and they're certainly not as high profile. You'd never get Sony highlighting them in their equivalent of a Nintendo Direct.
I guess what I'm getting at is that gaming seemed a lot less corporate and more unpredictable in the Amiga days and now that I'm older I can see why things like where the games are made and how much they cost to make (and so how much risk they can afford to take) affect that. More Trending
There's no point dwelling too much on the past but it is useful to look back and see that not everything has changed for the better.
By reader Lester
The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email.
MORE: Star Wars Outlaws is Ubisoft's best game and you should get it now it's cheap - Reader's Feature
MORE: It is madness that Konami still hasn't made a new Castlevania - Reader's Feature
MORE: I had a Commodore Amiga as a kid and this is not the gaming future I imagined - Reader's Feature
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
4 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Major broadband firm with 100,000 customers axing free service in days
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MAJOR broadband firm with hundreds of thousands of customers is axing a free service in days. All TalkTalk email customers are being moved to a new provider called Everymail from Open-Xchange. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 TalkTalk is axing a free service for hundreds of thousands of customers in days Credit: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett The company began to email customers in June to let them know that if they do not sign up to the new provider then their email account will be closed. TalkTalk broadband customers will be able to continue to use the email service for free. But those who received a TalkTalk email when they first signed up to the broadband company but later switched to another provider will need to pay a £60-a-year fee. TalkTalk will gradually close the inboxes of customers who do not pay the fee over the next few months. It will start to restrict customers' email access after July 31, which means they will not be able to send emails but will still be able to access ones they have already received. Those who do not sign up by September 9 will have their mailboxes frozen. After October 31 their email address, inbox, contacts and calendar will be erased. Once the accounts are deleted they cannot be recovered. Any emails that are sent to the account will automatically return to the sender. TalkTalk told The Sun that it will contact users several times before it shuts their account. It will either ask them to take action to keep their email address or download important information that they can transfer to another email provider. This includes emails they have sent or received, saved contacts, calendar appointments and tasks. TalkTalk said the changes will give customers 'the best user experience'. It added: 'We are actively communicating with all those affected. We are providing several options and users are free to download and transfer their data.' Free email providers WORRIED about your email being tied to your internet provider? There are plenty of excellent free email services you can use instead. Here are a few popular choices: Examples include: Gmail: Google's offering is feature-rich, with plenty of storage and excellent spam filtering. Integrates seamlessly with other Google services. Google's offering is feature-rich, with plenty of storage and excellent spam filtering. Integrates seamlessly with other Google services. Microsoft's webmail service offers a clean interface and integrates with Microsoft Office applications. Good storage options are available. Microsoft's webmail service offers a clean interface and integrates with Microsoft Office applications. Good storage options are available. Yahoo! Mail: A long-standing provider with a large storage capacity. It includes a built-in newsfeed. Proton Mail: For those prioritising privacy, Proton Mail offers end-to-end encryption. Based in Switzerland, it has strong data protection laws (free but limited storage). For those prioritising privacy, Proton Mail offers end-to-end encryption. Based in Switzerland, it has strong data protection laws (free but limited storage). GMX Mail: Offers a good balance of features and storage space. Includes a spam filter and virus protection. What do I need to do? If you are happy to pay the £5 a month fee then you should sign up before July 31 to avoid any issues with your email inbox. But if you are unwilling to pay then you can download your emails now to avoid losing access to them. You can then upload them to a new account with a different company. Exactly how to do this varies depending on your email provider but you should be able to find help on its website. It is a good idea to set up an email address that is separate from your broadband provider to avoid being locked into the account. Once you have created a new email you should make sure to update all of your bank, supermarket, energy and utility accounts. Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@ Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories
Metro
13 hours ago
- Metro
The Nintendo Switch 2 is the closest thing to a modern day Commodore Amiga
A reader celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Commodore Amiga and suggests that the Switch 2 is its closest current equivalent. It's been a lot of fun to see the love for the Commodore Amiga this week, which I had no idea was 40 years old. As has been pointed out, probably nobody outside of Europe either knows or cares about it now but to me it was the most important games format when I was kid. Which is to say it's what I had, and I couldn't afford a Mega Drive or SNES. Or rather I couldn't afford their games. Amiga games were a lot cheaper (and, well, you know) and they also seemed a lot more varied. To my eyes the vast majority of console games were just platformers of one kind or another. I never even heard of Zelda or Final Fantasy until the PlayStation era and while we never got anything as good as Sonic the Hedgehog on the Amiga I can honestly say I wasn't that bothered. On the Amiga we had all kinds of crazy things, and lots of 3D games and games made in Europe and the UK which never appeared anywhere else. But as soon as consoles took over everything was made in Japan or the US and we've never really gone back from that, even with modern indie gaming on the PC. PlayStation and Xbox aren't interested in anything but a small number of games from a small number of publishers. Heck, the whole point of Xbox is Microsoft wanted to make American companies dominate the games industry, so I can't say I'm too upset that didn't work out. Thinking about what the modern equivalent of the Amiga is I guess you'd have to say it's the PC, but it doesn't feel that way to me. It's too unfocused and you have to use Steam to get anything out of it, which is very American focused. Weirdly it's the Nintendo Switch 2 which feels the closest to the Amiga to me, assuming it works out similar to the original Switch. Although the fact that it has a mouse by default already increases the comparisons, so I hope it makes good use of that. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. But it's really just how strange and varied all the games are, with no first person shooters or sad dad story games so far, just the crazy Mario Kart and Donkey Kong games and the promise that future games will be as weird as the Switch line-up was. Especially as Drag X Drive even looks a bit like Speedball 2. It's not just Nintendo though but all the other, smaller Japanese developers that they encourage. Companies I'm sure probably wouldn't still be going if it wasn't for the Switch. Games are too expensive to make on PlayStation and Xbox now, for small companies, but the Switch is low-powered enough that it's still possible. I'm not saying these sort of games aren't on the PlayStation as well, but there's not as many and they're certainly not as high profile. You'd never get Sony highlighting them in their equivalent of a Nintendo Direct. I guess what I'm getting at is that gaming seemed a lot less corporate and more unpredictable in the Amiga days and now that I'm older I can see why things like where the games are made and how much they cost to make (and so how much risk they can afford to take) affect that. More Trending There's no point dwelling too much on the past but it is useful to look back and see that not everything has changed for the better. By reader Lester The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: Star Wars Outlaws is Ubisoft's best game and you should get it now it's cheap - Reader's Feature MORE: It is madness that Konami still hasn't made a new Castlevania - Reader's Feature MORE: I had a Commodore Amiga as a kid and this is not the gaming future I imagined - Reader's Feature
Metro
18 hours ago
- Metro
Star Wars Outlaws is Ubisoft's best game and you should get it now it's cheap
A reader is disappointed to hear that Star Wars Outlaws will not be getting a sequel but recommends the original now that it's heavy discounted. I'm sure if I was in charge of Ubisoft I'd blame Star Wars itself for the failure of Outlaws, but I really don't think that's fair. I doubt they honestly think that season 3 of The Mandalorian being bad is the real reason for its failure, but I'm sure it didn't help so it's a convenient scapegoat that shifts the blame away from them. Either way I'm very upset to hear that there won't be a Star Wars Outlaws 2. I think there's a couple of reasons for the game's failure but it's a real shame because I think it's Ubisoft's best game of recent years and definitely better than Assassin's Creed Shadows, Far Cry 5, and any of their other games I've played lately. It's not massively different from their usual open world formula but it's got a lot of small things it does better, that really should have made it be a bigger hit. Although perhaps, and this is fair enough, it was just too little too late and by that point everyone had just had enough of it all. In terms of the Star Wars aspect of it all, I think the problem was that, as GC said, when you have Star Wars without Jedi it can just seem like a generic sci-fi adventure. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but I don't feel they pushed the Star Wars aspects as much as they could and the aliens were definitely underused in terms of making everything feel different but also familiar. I think everything to do with Jabba the Hutt worked the best and that's because it looked and felt the most like the movies. The bigger problem was that none of the main characters were that interesting. They had all that behind the scenes footage of the actress being all bubbly and excited but in the game she's just kind of quiet and a bit dull. She is absolutely not the female equivalent of Han Solo and her pet and that unlikeable robot friend is not a good stand-in in for Chewie. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. But really, that's relatively minor stuff. It's not like I particularly liked any of the characters in Assassin's Creed Shadows or Far Cry 5 either, and at least Outlaws had multiple different planets (Tatooine is amazing). What Outlaws does better than the average open world game though is that it combines its side quests and its skill tree together so that instead of doing random fetch quests you're actually working to unlock new skills and upgrades, which really makes a difference in terms of things not feeling like busywork. The open world is well designed and there's plenty of variety, with shooting, driving, stealth, and spaceship combat. And the best thing? It's not 100+ hours long. I don't think it would be even if you did everything, but you can definitely beat the main story in less than 20 hours, which for me is a definite plus. Not only does it mean I can beat it in the same year I start it, but it means the game never outstays its welcome, which all the Assassin's Creed games always do. More Trending There's never going to be another one but you can get it dirt cheap at the moment and I believe it's also coming to Nintendo Switch 2. I'd definitely check it out, as it's much better than its reputation and it's sad we're never going to get another one. By reader Tacle The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: It is madness that Konami still hasn't made a new Castlevania - Reader's Feature MORE: I had a Commodore Amiga as a kid and this is not the gaming future I imagined - Reader's Feature MORE: The biggest problem with the Nintendo Switch 2 is that it's too big – Reader's Feature
