Old school video games list (Commodore Amiga)

old school video games list

Old school video games list of some of the best computer games through time. Commodore, Amiga, and Hi-Toro made some of my favorite games that impacted my childhood. 

Old school video games list my top20

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For my old school video games list, I have found a couple of reproductions and emulators to enjoy all the good old games again.

c64 Mini

old school video games list c64 Mini

NEOGEO Mini

old school video games list neogeo

Sega Genesis mini

old school video games list sega genesis mini

1. James Pond 2

Old school video games list nr. 1

The first game on my Old school video games list is non-other than James Pond 2. This is really something that brings back memories to me, I remember spending hours and hours playing this video game after school. It’s a joyful and imaginary videogame with a lot of fun little missions. 

James Pond info

James Pond 2 takes place immediately after its predecessor, James Pond. Although Acme Oil Co. has been destroyed by James Pond, Pond’s arch-enemy Dr. Maybe survived and has retreated to the North Pole where he has taken over Santa’s workshop.

Dr. Maybe is holding Santa’s worker’s hostage (in most versions of the game they are penguins, in some they are elves), and has turned many of Santa’s helpers into his own twisted and dangerous assistants.

James Pond is recruited to infiltrate Santa’s grotto, free the captive penguins, retrieve the stolen toys for the children of the world, and defeat Dr. Maybe once and for all. This time, however, due to the greater risks involved in this mission, Pond is given a robotic suit and the code name “RoboCod” (a play on RoboCop).

This suit gives Pond superhuman strength and agility as well as enabling him to stretch his midsection almost indefinitely and reach otherwise impossibly high areas.

Get it for video game consoles here James pond

2. Monkey Island

Monkey Island info

A youth named Guybrush Threepwood arrives on the fictional Island, with the desire to become a pirate. He seeks out the island’s pirate leaders, who set him three trials that must be completed to become a pirate: winning a sword duel against Carla, the island’s resident swordmaster, finding a buried treasure, and stealing a valuable idol from the governor’s mansion. 

These quests take Guybrush throughout the island, where he hears of stories of the Ghost Pirate LeChuck, who apparently died in an expedition to the mysterious Monkey Island, an act that was meant to win the love of the governor, Elaine Marley. 

Guybrush meets several characters of interest, including a local voodoo priestess, Stan the Used Boat Salesman, Carla the Sword Master, a prisoner named Otis, and Meathook, whose hands have been replaced by hooks.

You can get it for a lot of different video game consoles here Monkey Island

3. The Great Giana Sisters

I remember a creepy feeling when playing this game, almost like a horror movie, but hey I was 5 then 🙂

According to several urban legends, Nintendo opened a lawsuit case against Time Warp Productions and Rainbow Arts, because Nintendo saw a direct copyright infringement to its new game Super Mario Bros. But in fact, there has never been such a lawsuit.

Neither Nintendo nor the German programmers claim to be privy to any lawsuits. This myth was created shortly after the game was taken out of stores. Nintendo itself later admitted to having influenced the stop of sales directly, as it had before with other games.  

The Great Giana Sisters info

You take the role of Giana a girl who suffers from a nightmare, in which she travels through 32 stages full of monsters while collecting ominous diamonds and looking for her sister Maria. If the player wins the final battle, Giana will be awakened by her sister.

You can check out newer versions Giana Sisters

4. North & South

North & South info

North & South is an offshoot of the Belgian comic series Les Tuniques Bleues which is based on the American Civil War. The player basically acts out the Civil War, choosing to play as either the North or the South. 

The player may choose to start the game year from 1861 (the year the Civil War erupted) to 1864. Each year has a different array of armies and states that each side starts with.

North & South contains a lot of humorous elements. For example, it features parodies of national anthems, which are accessible when the player selects one of the different languages supported by the game: (English, French, Spanish, German or Italian). In addition, the game is filled with numerous comical situations and gags.

5. Cannon Fodder

Cannon Fodder info

Cannon Fodder is a military-themed action game with strategy and shoot ’em up elements. The player controls a small squad of up to five soldiers. These soldiers are armed with machine guns that kill enemy infantry with a single round.

The player’s troops are similarly fragile, and while they possess superior fire-power at the game’s outset, the enemy infantry becomes more powerful as the game progresses. As well as foot soldiers, the antagonists include vehicles such as Jeeps, tanks, and helicopters as well as missile-armed turrets.

The player must also destroy buildings that spawn enemy soldiers. For these targets, which are invulnerable to machine-gun fire, the player must utilize secondary, explosive weaponry: grenades and rockets. Ammunition for these weapons is limited and the player must find supply crates to replenish his troops.

Wasting these weapons can potentially result in the player not having enough to fulfill the mission objectives. The player can opt to shoot crates – destroying enemy troops and buildings in the ensuing explosion – at less risk to his soldiers than retrieving them, but again at a greater risk of depleting ammunition.

In other respects, reviewers highly praised the game, which widely achieved scores of over 90% in Amiga magazines. Amiga Action awarded it an unprecedented score, calling it the best game of the year.

6. Lotus Turbo Challenge 2

The best soundtrack on my old school video games list

I still to this day have remixes of the Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 intro song on my mp3 players 🙂 It’s without a dought one of the most iconic intro songs in the world.

Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 info

Lotus 2 was developed for the Amiga and then converted for the other platforms.

The intro music for Lotus 2 is often found on playlists of retro computer music web radio stations; it contains a subliminal message in the form of a sampled voice at around the 12-second mark (played through the left channel only) which says “you will not copy this game”.

The sample is played very quietly during the first few bars and can be easily accessed in any MOD tracker program.

The hi-hat and voice sample at the very beginning of the main theme is taken from Yello’s Oh Yeah, a song that became famous as the theme for another sports car (a Ferrari 250 GT California) in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Lotus 2 uses a password system to access different races – once the player qualifies for a particular race, the password is revealed. Additionally, a rendition of Shaun Southern’s early creation Kwazy Kwaks, originally published for the Commodore VIC-20 in 1984, is accessed by using the password DUX.

The Amiga and Atari ST versions are able to use the serial port and connect to another computer (you can link 2 Amiga, 2 Atari ST or an Amiga and an Atari ST) running Lotus 2. 

Thus making it possible for three or four players to play at the same time, or two players to play in fullscreen mode. This feature does not exists in other versions, nor in the two other episodes.

7. Rick Dangerous

Rick Dangerous info

The plot of Rick Dangerous is largely based on the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Set in 1945, British agent Rick Dangerous travels to the Amazon jungle to search for the lost Goolu tribe.

His plane crashes in the jungle, and Rick must escape from the enraged Goolu. When the game starts Rick finds himself in a cave running from a rolling boulder, a famous scene from the Indiana Jones movie.

Armed with a pistol and dynamite, Rick must fight hostiles and evade traps in three more levels. The second level of the game is set inside a pyramid located in Egypt.

On the third level, Rick must venture to the Nazi stronghold of Schwarzendumpf castle to rescue captured Allied soldiers. The rescued soldiers tell him that the Nazis are planning a missile attack on London. Therefore, in the last level, Rick must infiltrate their secret missile base.

8. Bubble Bobble

Of course i have Bubble Bobble on my old school video games list

Bubble Bobble info

Bubble Bobble is a platform game by Taito, first released in arcades in 1986 and later ported to home systems by Toei Company. 

The game, starring the twin Bubble Dragons Bub and Bob, tasks players with traveling through one hundred stages, blowing and bursting bubbles, jumping on and off blown bubbles to navigate level obstacles, dodging and eliminating enemies, and collecting a variety of items including some that carry power-ups and significant bonuses. 

For example, the red shoe allows Bub and Bob to move faster, while wrapped candies cause Bub and Bob to blow bubbles faster, and blow bubbles at greater distances. Other items, such as umbrellas, allow skipping numerous levels, moving closer to the final level. The game became popular and led to a long series of sequels and spin-offs.

The main goal of the game is to rescue Bub and Bob’s girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters. The game has multiple endings, which depend on the player’s performance and discovery of secrets.

Bubble Bobble is still very popular here Bubble Bobble

9. Lemmings

Lemmings info

The objective of the game is to guide a group of lemmings through a number of obstacles to a designated exit.

To save the required number of lemmings to win, one must determine how to assign a limited number of eight different skills to specific lemmings that allow the selected lemming to alter the landscape, to affect the behavior of other lemmings, or to clear obstacles to create a safe passage for the rest of the lemmings.

Lemmings were one of the best-received video games of the early 1990s. It was the second-highest-rated game in the history of Amstrad Action and was considered the eighth-greatest game of all time by Next Generation in 1996. 

Lemmings are also one of the most widely ported and best-selling video games and are estimated to have sold around 20 million copies between its various ports. The popularity of the game also led to the creation of several sequels, remakes, and spin-offs, and has also inspired similar games.

Get it for video game consoles here Lemmings

10. SuperFrog

SuperFrog info

The story of SuperFrog, present in the game’s manual but mostly conveyed through the introductory animation by Eric W. Schwartz, concerns an unnamed prince, who is turned into a frog by a jealous witch, in homage to the Frog Prince fairy tale.

His princess girlfriend is then abducted by the same witch. Subsequently, sulking by the “River O’ Despair”, the prince chances upon a floating bottle of Lucozade, which confers upon him superpowers. With his new powers, the prince heads off to fight the evil witch and save the princess.

SuperFrog was, along with other games by Team17, released as a legitimate digital download from GOG, this version being the first compatible with Windows.

That was the first 10 on my Old school video games list, read on or check out some of my other sites.

Let's continue with my old school video games list

11. Rod Land

Rod Land info

The player(s) control one or two fairies called Tam and Rit armed with a magic wand (rod). Following the concept of Taito’s Bubble Bobble, the rod doesn’t kill the monsters directly, but only leaves them immobilized, crying.

To kill them, the rod can grasp them in a magic force-field and the player can smash them down over her head until they disappear and leave a power-up behind.

Each level is only one small screen composed of monsters, platforms, ladders and, later, tunnels. Unlike other games of the genre, the players can never jump but have to use ladders.

They can conjure one custom ladder above or below them in order to go to the appropriate platform. There can be only one such ‘custom’ ladder; therefore if the fairy summons it again, it will disappear from its previous position in order to appear again next to the fairy. This can be beneficial for the player if a monster is climbing that ladder to approach her.

The fairies’ quest is to rescue their mother, trapped in a tower. In the sequel (part of the original arcade machine) they must venture into a pyramid, to stop an evil force that is building a mobile fortress.

The spirit of their departed father “guides” them at a couple of points. The ending implies that the evil in the pyramid was somehow responsible for their father’s death.

12. Dune 2

Dune 2 info

The player takes the role of a commander of one of three interplanetary houses, the Atreides, the Harkonnen or the Ordos, with the objective of wresting control of Arrakis from the two other houses.

The basic strategy in the game is to harvest spice from the treacherous sand dunes using a harvester vehicle, convert the spice into credits via a refinery and to build military units with these acquired credits in order to fend off and destroy the enemy.

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty is a loose sequel of the computer strategy game Dune (although it shared no storyline or gameplay). Both games were based upon David Lynch’s 1984 movie Dune.

While not the first real-time strategy (RTS) game, Dune II established a format that would be followed for years to come and is the first to use the mouse to move units, giving much fluid interaction. As such, Dune II is the founder of the RTS genre in its modern form.

Striking a balance between complexity and innovation, it was a huge success and laid the foundation for the coming Command and Conquer (which was nicknamed “Dune III” by some fans and detractors), the Warcraft series, and many other RTS games.

13. Alien Breed

Most creepy game on my old school video games list

Alien Breed info

The game was based heavily, and unofficially, on the Alien films, specifically Aliens, and also on the 8-bit-era games Laser Squad and Paradroid (although the game bears some gameplay similarities with Gauntlet, with which it has been compared, as well an obvious comparison with Sega’s Alien Syndrome). 

Alien Breed consists of the player or players having to find the lift down to the next level, occasionally setting the self-destruct sequence to blow up the level above them. The players collect or purchase a variety of weapons from the space station’s computer terminals.

In some versions of the game, these so-called Intex terminals provide additional features such as a clone of the classic computer game Pong.

Credits found on the ground have to be saved for these weapons and other enhancements, each giving the players an edge over the gradually more and more powerful Alien forces. In advanced levels, players are occasionally trapped in enclosed spaces with huge “boss” aliens, reminiscent of the Alien Queen.

14. Battle Chess

Battle Chess info

Battle Chess follows the same rules as traditional chess, with battles playing out so that the capturing piece defeats its target. Since there are six types of pieces for each color, and a king cannot capture a king, there are a total of 35 different battle animations. 

The rook, for example, turns into a rock monster and kills a pawn by smashing his head, and the rook kills the queen by eating her.

There are some pop-culture homages; the knight versus knight animation references the black knight fight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the king versus bishop fight pastiches the short battle between Indiana Jones and a swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

15. IK+

IK+ info

In the game, three karateka fight against each other on a beach, trying to be the first to score six points. After every two rounds, there is a bonus game that is either deflecting bouncing balls or kicking away bombs.

The C64 version of the game only has the ball bouncing bonus game, and not the bomb bonus game. The game can be played by one or two human players; at least one fighter is always controlled by the computer.

The Amiga, Atari and C64 versions of the game (and possibly other versions, unconfirmed) had a number of “background antics”, a Pac-Man would appear, a spider would descend, and a U-boat’s periscope would occasionally be seen in the harbor.

In addition, pressing a certain key or keys would cause the trousers of all three protagonists to fall down, after which they would do a double-take.

Additionally, it was possible (on the Amiga version, at least) to type in four-letter curse words; the game would respond first by rebuking the player for their use of such language, and upon the second offense would reset the game.

16. Banshee

Banshee info

Banshee is an Amiga original shoot-em-up, inspired to classic vertical scrolling shooters such as 1942. It was developed by Core Design and released for AGA only machines (Amiga 1200 and CD32) in 1994.

The theme is steampunk styled, with graphics and animations making use of the 256 color graphics. You are Sven Svardensvart and you control a heavily armored plane, trying to survive 4 large levels full of enemies, soldiers or vehicles.

17. Sensible World of soccer

Sensible World of soccer info

Sensible World of Soccer combined a 2D football game with a comprehensive manager mode. The game includes contemporary season data of professional football from around the world, with a total amount of approximately 1,500 teams and 27,000 players.

Although the gameplay is simple (eight directions and one fire button) a large variety of context-sensitive actions can be performed without any predefined keys.

The game was ranked best game of all time by Amiga Power. In 2007 Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science and Technology Collections in the Stanford University together with game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky, compiled a definitive list of “the ten most important video games of all time”. This list included Sensible World of Soccer

Sensible World of Soccers inclusion in this list is notable on three accounts: it is the only game in the list developed in Europe, it is the only sports game in the list, and it is the most recent game in the list

18. Turrican 2

Turrican 2 info

The game is divided into five distinct “worlds” each with its own theme music provided by Chris Huelsbeck, plus a final showdown with the boss known as “The Machine”. There is a music menu accessible by pressing the Space-Bar (AMIGA version), where all the ingame music is available to be listened to.

The music to Turrican II is widely regarded as one of Huelsbeck’s best compositions, and it was performed live by an orchestra at the second Symphonic Game Music Concert in 2004. In 2016 Chris Huelsbeck created a limited Collector’s Edition Box Set featuring new live orchestra recordings of music from Turrican II.

There are three primary weapons; Bounce, Laser and Multiple. Each weapon has several levels of firepower. In addition, there is a white laser “wall” which sweeps out from either side of the player.

The player starts off with only three of these at the start of each life. There is also a very powerful secondary weapon activated by holding down the fire button. This takes the form of a long segmented steerable laser beam which is essential for defeating Bosses.

19. Pinball Dreams

Pinball Dreams info

The game’s four tables each had a theme, as do most real-life pinball & Pachinko machines. The version of Pinball Dreams bundled with the Amiga 1200 had a bug that rendered most of Beat Box’s advanced features non-functional.

  • “Ignition”, themed around a rocket launch, planets, and space exploration. The Expert Software’s Pinball 2000 port of the game renamed this table “Rocket”.

  • “Steel Wheel”, themed around steam trains and the Old West.

  • “Beat Box”, themed around the music industry, charts, bands, and tours.

  • “Nightmare”, themed around a graveyard, ghosts, demons, nightmares, and generally evil things. Unlike the other tables in the game, the name of the table in the menu did not reflect the name displayed on the table itself—”Graveyard”. Some ports of the game (notably the GameTek port to the Game Boy) name this table “Graveyard” on the menu as well.

Last on my old school video games list

20. Worms

Worms info

Last, in my old school video games list is … dam daam daaaaam WORMS 🙂 everybody loves worms

Worms were the first in a series of artillery games mostly developed by Team17 and released in 1995. Though initially only available for the Amiga, it was later ported to several other systems. In 2011, Team17 did a re-release of this game on Steam.

Similar to other early artillery games such as Scorched Earth (the computer game), the game is set on a two-dimensional field. The players control a team of Worms, each team consisting of four members.

The objective is to kill every member of the opposing team(s) within a set time limit per round. Each turn, which lasts from 45 to 100 seconds, a player may move a selected Worm and use one or more of the available weapons and tools.

The game’s graphics and sound design are primarily “cartoon-like” (though less so than the later games in the series). Levels of designs are randomly generated by the use of alphanumeric strings. The object and landscape set used to generate the field are arranged into “themes” including forests, martian landscapes, beaches and “hell”.

That’s it for my old school video games list, I know that I have left out a lot of great games, but this is just some of the favorite games that I played. I loved all of them so that one game is at nr. 1 don’t mean that much.

To try out some of the games in an emulator, use this link: [File-Hunter/AMIGA] they have some of the games, and you can try them out online. For now, this is me signing out and wishing you a retro great day my old school friends. 

I hope this article helped you a little and if you’re interested in other Retro stuff and articles we have a lot of great ones in our posts section.