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Aminet CDs are, by now, a goldmine of shareware. Every month, another few hundred megabytes of software uploaded to the best-known online Amiga archive are saved on a shiny disc for posterity.
The latest disc to spring from the Aminet collection does little to banish the Amiga's reputation as purely a "games machine," containing as it does nearly one gigabyte of games and demos from the world's shareware authors and commercial developers.
The front-end for this collection is as polished as wwe've come to expect fro Aminet CDs, with Amigaguide files allowing you to browse the CD by directory and click links to read the .readme files which accompany each archive or decompress the LhA files to a destination of your choice. The 'Personal' database - a feature of other Aminet discs - also remains, allowing you to build up a list of your favourite archives which is saved to your hard drive, also as an Amigaguide file.
Containing more than 1500 archives, there's bound to be plenty here for any Amiga gamer, past or present. Browsing through the lists of archives is a joy, simply because there are so many games you will recognise and want to play again immediately. Due to their age, most will only run on a PAL screen, but hooking up your TV or splashing out on a scandoubler is a small price to pay for the nostalgia which awaits you on this unassuming shiny platter of digital delight.
Scanning through the list of archives, you'll find such delights as Paul Burkey's pre-Foundation puzzler Sneech; Edgar M. Vigdal's classic shoot-em-up Deluxe Galaga; Andreas Spreen's strangely addictive traffic sim Rush Hour; Vision Software's bloodthirsty Zombie Apocalypse II and Dave May's futuristic cabbie romp Air Taxi. Truly something for all tastes. If you remember any of these games, there will be plenty of other titles here that you'll enjoy too. If not, there's over 1500 more to choose from anyway, including a few classic commercial game demos - from Vulcan Software's Valhalla series to The Settlers and even as far back as First Samurai!
Furthermore, a few recent commercial offerings also make an appearance on the Aminet Games compilation: full versions of Max Rally, XTreme Racing, Gloom 3 and a bunch of titles from the Gamer's Delight 2 compilation. All in all, Aminet Games is a good collection of shareware with some nice commercial demos hidden within. If you've ever been into games - at any point in the Amiga's history - buy this disc. It's a gem! (sorry Vulcan).
Originally reviewed in issue 14
by David Stroud.
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