Afro Republican
Banned
So I know gaf is primarily console based but I'm sure there may be a few guys who actually played an Amiga or an ST.
Now with that said, the question is which of these two powerhouses (that collapsed into themselves and allowed Windows/PC's to dominate computers) of computer gaming do you prefer? Which had the better games overall?
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IMO, the Atari St is a vastly superior product. While Commodore had the C64 and some nostalgia may make people choose the Amiga becaue of that, it's really not the better machine imo. For one, the Amiga Library is filled with 9x more shovelware, and Amigas model compatibility issues from the early 80's models to the 90's models meant that several developers put out compromise games that were not much better than your average Apogee developed PC game, or worse. The review aggregates side with the ST by a 24% gap.
Atari ST had a more consistent library as well as more best sellers since everything wasn't spread so thin. The Atari ST also had better architecture for 3D, allowing the ST 3D games whether exclusive or cross-platform running at usually a significantly higher frame rate than the Amiga versions, even with unoptimized games the ST is usually 5fps ahead. But most of the time the differences were huge with the Amiga 3D games being slide-shows or having slowdowns that looked like time slowed down.
When you realize that the ST has more quality games and a lot of the Amiga library was shovelware, once the rose glasses are taken off, you'll find that the only real advantage the Amiga has over the ST is sound, and in some cases, 2D games can be better, depending on what the game does, however, while people will often bring up Amigas superior 2D. it only applies 2D games without much going on, once you start getting all those objects, parallax, and pseudo 3D effects, which granted weren't that common on Amiga, the Amiga would choke while the ST would run them smoothly. Amiga is best when there's not much going on, which put it behind the advancement of gaming at the time.
(skip to 2:50 in below video)
(As you can see as soon as polygons get on the screen after the race starts the Amiga chucks like a potato. While ST is smooth from the start.)
You also have around 200 exclusive ST only games not ported anywhere else giving better value, while a lot of Amiga games are also on PC, other computers, and sometimes consoles. In many cases the other versions are better which really hurts the library for those without rose-tinted glasses and didn't grow up with an Amiga.
If you wanted the top Hi-fi 2D and best 3D games optimization, you got the ST, Exclusives? ST, Wanted to start in gaming music and get a job doing music for a developer/publisher? ST. Wanted to use your computer for games and also take it seriously enough to actually be an alternative to a PC (at the time) for serious or business work? You chose the ST.
I mean of course don't take this as me saying the Amiga library doesn't have good games, it does, just if you had any other computers or consoles it's games most likely ran better not on the Amiga. This is something that was always a flaw with Amiga not "focusing" on games and Commodore not taking the Amiga as a gaming machine seriously. Rarely did Commodore publish games or put games on a pedestal, they made it easy to print games for the machine and then let things go, they never really had an ecosystem, which would effect their 2 attempts at trying to turn the Amiga into a home game console. How can an Amiga game console success with no real ecosystem, no real development/publishing platform, no developer relationships, and poor logistics? Not to mention they were behind the trends at the time, usually pseudo 3D games and actual 3D games were what was generating excitement, so the regions like NA, Korea, Eastern Euro, etc. the ST did well in, it dominated the handily. Of course, the Commodore 64 gave Amiga a good distribution network throughout the rest of Europe which prevented their slaughtering and gave them an advantage they otherwise would not have had.
All In all, this thread is asking which of the two you prefer. The Commodore Amiga (all models) or the Atari ST Line (all models) for gaming?
Now with that said, the question is which of these two powerhouses (that collapsed into themselves and allowed Windows/PC's to dominate computers) of computer gaming do you prefer? Which had the better games overall?
-------
IMO, the Atari St is a vastly superior product. While Commodore had the C64 and some nostalgia may make people choose the Amiga becaue of that, it's really not the better machine imo. For one, the Amiga Library is filled with 9x more shovelware, and Amigas model compatibility issues from the early 80's models to the 90's models meant that several developers put out compromise games that were not much better than your average Apogee developed PC game, or worse. The review aggregates side with the ST by a 24% gap.
Atari ST had a more consistent library as well as more best sellers since everything wasn't spread so thin. The Atari ST also had better architecture for 3D, allowing the ST 3D games whether exclusive or cross-platform running at usually a significantly higher frame rate than the Amiga versions, even with unoptimized games the ST is usually 5fps ahead. But most of the time the differences were huge with the Amiga 3D games being slide-shows or having slowdowns that looked like time slowed down.
When you realize that the ST has more quality games and a lot of the Amiga library was shovelware, once the rose glasses are taken off, you'll find that the only real advantage the Amiga has over the ST is sound, and in some cases, 2D games can be better, depending on what the game does, however, while people will often bring up Amigas superior 2D. it only applies 2D games without much going on, once you start getting all those objects, parallax, and pseudo 3D effects, which granted weren't that common on Amiga, the Amiga would choke while the ST would run them smoothly. Amiga is best when there's not much going on, which put it behind the advancement of gaming at the time.
(skip to 2:50 in below video)
(As you can see as soon as polygons get on the screen after the race starts the Amiga chucks like a potato. While ST is smooth from the start.)
You also have around 200 exclusive ST only games not ported anywhere else giving better value, while a lot of Amiga games are also on PC, other computers, and sometimes consoles. In many cases the other versions are better which really hurts the library for those without rose-tinted glasses and didn't grow up with an Amiga.
If you wanted the top Hi-fi 2D and best 3D games optimization, you got the ST, Exclusives? ST, Wanted to start in gaming music and get a job doing music for a developer/publisher? ST. Wanted to use your computer for games and also take it seriously enough to actually be an alternative to a PC (at the time) for serious or business work? You chose the ST.
I mean of course don't take this as me saying the Amiga library doesn't have good games, it does, just if you had any other computers or consoles it's games most likely ran better not on the Amiga. This is something that was always a flaw with Amiga not "focusing" on games and Commodore not taking the Amiga as a gaming machine seriously. Rarely did Commodore publish games or put games on a pedestal, they made it easy to print games for the machine and then let things go, they never really had an ecosystem, which would effect their 2 attempts at trying to turn the Amiga into a home game console. How can an Amiga game console success with no real ecosystem, no real development/publishing platform, no developer relationships, and poor logistics? Not to mention they were behind the trends at the time, usually pseudo 3D games and actual 3D games were what was generating excitement, so the regions like NA, Korea, Eastern Euro, etc. the ST did well in, it dominated the handily. Of course, the Commodore 64 gave Amiga a good distribution network throughout the rest of Europe which prevented their slaughtering and gave them an advantage they otherwise would not have had.
All In all, this thread is asking which of the two you prefer. The Commodore Amiga (all models) or the Atari ST Line (all models) for gaming?