Backlash (Amiga)

First had this one on the Atari ST, identical to the Amiga version, here.
Simple shoot 'em up in the early days of fractals, Backlash is a remake of a yet earlier game called Encounter, released on 8-bit machines, designed by Paul Woakes of Mercenary fame.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Backlash
• Amiga
• Game
• Shooter
• Fractals
• Encounter
• Paul
• Woakes

[Slothfire]

I completely forgot about this game. was it sometimes packaged as a free game with the new amiga pack? (in the UK). Used to think it was amazing.

[odraconiandevil79]

@Slothfire Don't know. I remember having a small black plastic box of it in my teens but probably was on a pack. Look it up on the net, it's got it all!

[paulhunter123]

@odraconiandevil79 gee do you think considering its 1987

[uptocom]

yess I remember this game, fast loading, crazy and perfect to forget everything during an hour of playing like a real arcade gamer !! Runs perfect on WinUAE, but needs a joystick or die quickly.

[picnet]

@NotATube Yes, just the sound effects from the ST version.

[NotATube]

@picnet; I take it you mean they sampled your ST sound effects for the Amiga?

The sound effects are actually pretty decent by ST standards, decent noisy shoot-'em-up feel. Not saying they couldn't have been better if they'd got some proper samples for the Amiga, but they don't stick out as being below the expected standard like the music does. (And that, of course, isn't the fault of the guy who wrote the music for the ST... unless it was his decision to sample it! :-) )

[picnet]

@NotATube The music (I didnt write) and sound effects (I coded and created) were sampled for the Amiga version much to my annoyance.

[DevilMaster]

@NotATube Yes, Novagen developed their games on Atari ST and ported them to Amiga with little to no improvements.

[NotATube]

Apparently they later did a conversion of the *original* Encounter to the 16-bit formats (remember reading a review in New Atari User / Page 6 magazine).

Not sure why, as Backlash was already a de facto improved conversion of that game.

[NotATube]

@odraconiandevil79; even allowing for its age, the music is incredibly basic by Amiga standards.

Sounds like they simply lifted the tune from the Atari ST version. (The ST's internal sound being a much-criticised anbd very basic off-the-shelf square-wave chip that had already seen use in several low-end 8-bit computers).

Guess it was a straight port. Even the copyright text uses one of the standard ST fonts!

[PalebobUK]

the music is off the richter!