Back in the day I was jealous of the Amiga sound in games. But that was because it used samples in almost every game. Today these games and systems are all about nostalgia, and I actually prefer the ST:s chiptunes in many cases, because it sounds so retro. The ym2149 sounds really good, I think, holds it's own against the SID. The Atari STE had better sound than the A500 - it sounded more "hi-fi", wider frequency spectrum. But almost no games used the enhanced sound of the STE. Something that always annoyed me with the Amiga/STE was that the four channels were fully separated left-right, wonder why they didn't make them able to pan between left-right. Sounds like an old Beatles "stereo" record. For those who can't understand why the Atari had the music production industry. It's got nothing to do with the machines sound generating capability. I mean, the records from that era didn't sound like an Amiga 500 or Atari ST game, did they? No, the reason why is a combination of built in midi ports with really good timing and low latency, the hi-res ergonomic monochrome monitors and the best software. Both Cubase, Logic as well as Pro Tools had their ancestors released on the ST. And the computers used for professional music production in the 80's and early nineties were used to send notes to and sync external equipment only. In general, no audio was processed by computers. Analog and digital tape machines and sound generating instruments/drum machines/samplers were used. The computers of the time were too lo-fi sounding and lacked the CPU power, RAM and disk space to be able to handle high quality sound. Just listen to the sound in this video and you'll understand.
STe only has 2-channel digital sound chip that could play 8-bit stereo samples in hardware at up to 50 kHz. Amiga Enhance Chipset (ECS) with double scan mode can double the standard 28 kHz to 56 Khz with four 8bit channels. All Amiga's audio chip can support 2 channel 14 bit via AHI.
The STE and Amiga had left/right channels for sound with no panning hardware. You could mix the panning in software though. Best demo is probably this 8 channel software synth for the STE, quality at 25khz is pretty good m.ruclips.net/video/OlspnqVcJho/видео.html
First time I saw this game was on the ST and I loved the intro with its short but aggressive loop in the music and when I got it on the Amiga I was a bit taken aback when I got a whole song rather than that aggressive loop. But I got over that pretty quickly as the in game effects are better than the ST's. Don't get me wrong the ST version is great but the Amiga for me was always that little bit better in some games and a lot better in others.
I always thought the ST had better sound than the Amiga probably because they were used in studios for MIDI work etc but I realise now the onboard Amiga sound was much better. Atari was also not that big over here but commodore was known by everybody since c64 days. Glad my folks got me the A500.
Word is that the MIDI port was added because there was supposed to have been an upgraded POKEY sound chip (from the older Atari 8-Bit computers) It was being developed but Atari decided not to pay for it, so they used a cheap off the shelf sound chip that they knew was substandard for what they wanted.
Owning and played both, I can say the following. The Amiga has better intro sound, but the in game music is so annoying as it changes volume every time you fire your weapon which quickly becomes very annoying. I know you can turn the music off, but why they made it so you cannot turn off the FX is crazy. As others have said on here, sometimes it is good to hear the ST's chip tunes. Considering the limitations the ST has compared to the Amiga, these versions are pretty comparable.
Couldn't have married an Amiga owner. STE owner would have been pushing it. No my missus was the proud owner of an Atari 520STFM back in the day. These playground rivalries run deep, man.
GuruMediator I suppose its just a matter of opinion really as everyone is different, you say you prefer the Amiga version of Turrican 2, but I myself prefer the Atari ST version and reason being is cause on the ST version you don't get that annoying squeaky guy's voice telling you what you have picked up like you do on the Amiga version of the game, cause the guy's squeaky voice saying power up, laser, multiple every time you pick them up... is just so really fucking annoying (scuse my french) I would just end up turning the game off after five minutes cause its so annoying, but on the ST version you don't get that and its such a relief to, cause I don't need some stupid squeaky voice telling me what I have just picked up, when I know what I have just picked up as my eye's do work lol... so why they decided to put that annoying squeaky mans voice into the Amiga version telling you what you've picked up is beyond me, cause in my opinion there's just no need for it if you ask me, cause to me I personally think it ruined the Amiga version of the game for me, so I stuck to the ST version and was very happy with it and played till I completed it.
" cause the guy's squeaky voice saying power up, laser, multiple every time you pick them up.." sorry dude, but this stinks of Project X, an Amiga side-scroller. There was never any in-game speech in this :P
The thing is the Amiga is built with sampled audio in mind, given it’s 4-channel 8-bit DMA audio. The Atari ST also had 4 channel audio, but three were PSG tone and one was PSG noise, the PSG was a Yamaha YM2149F, a clone of the General Instruments AY-3-8910. If it were to do sampled audio, audio would have to be mixed in software then a hack to produce PCM audio would need to be used on the PSG to produce output- very CPU consuming on a 68k, and even then the output would have a bit of noticeable “static” as a side effect of the hack. Why they limited the sampled audio to only the opening screens. If they were to continue using sampled audio into the game, it would slow the game down tremendously, perhaps to the point of unplayability.
I prefer the ST's intro as it 'explodes' onto the screen and gets you pumped they got the timing bang on. However once you get in game the Amiga edges it.
love some of the ST comments on vids like this . Clearly the Amiga was a vastly superior machine in EVERY sense but it didn't stop people including myself enjoying their ST immensely. I moved onto the Amiga when it was my dad very kindly purchased me one at the age of 17 I think. A very exciting time experiencing this vastly better machine but I still have very fond memories of the Atari ST and the fun I had playing Star Glider, Oids and the Pawn etc. Great little machine that gets a lot of respect still. I too like the cute more punchy sound you get from the chipsound of an ST and would agree that some of the music does indeed sound more suited pehaps or just better handled on that system at the time- Wanderer 3d music for example is a much better version on ST. But to outright say that for all ST music of the same game just shows a bitterness still eating away in some people. Kidding yourself is a very hard thing to realise
Keep in mind, ST was release 2 or 3 years before amiga, amiga price was around 150 euros higher. Mainly the games were 100% the same on atari and amiga. In the Last years, yes some games were optimize for amiga.
The Amiga was originally launched in 1985. So, you're saying that the Atari ST came out in in 1982 or 1983, I think I'm going to doubt you there. The reason that Amiga and ST games tended to be exactly the same is because you were looking at the ST version and a port of the ST version that didn't take advantage of the Amiga's own hardware capabilities.
@@johns6265 i speak about amiga 500, released in 87. Yes it is what i wanted to say, few games used amiga chip so the result was close. A bit like atari ste, few games used its own capabilities
The A500 is the same base hardware as the A1000, regardless the Amiga has been around since 1985, not 87. It's like claiming that the PS2 came out in 2004 because that's when the slim version launched.
@@johns6265 the point is for sure they was other computer before, but very expensive, here I speak about computer with a decent price. When it was possible for almost every body to buy them. It was thé big strength of atari, deliver à high level computer with à small price
According to Wikipedia the Amiga came out in 1985 same time as the ST. In 1987 the Amiga 500 came out and that was an upgrade and best selling Amiga. I think the most commonly owned Amiga was 2 years ahead of the most commonly owned Atari ST. It sounds like we are comparing the XBOX S (or is that pro too?) with the regular PS4.
Awesome vid!!! I had an ST and was really jealous of my Amiga owning friends due to the sound. Odd how ST's were used for music production back then (with hardware plug ins no doubt), shame they didn't hold up out the box. Perfect vid to show it off with xenon 2. They were good times....
***** Nope I dont think it had a cleaner crisper sound at all. I played around with the chip sound on the Amiga and found it to be very versatile and had a lovely clean sound to it. The Atari ST's chip is very good but only really comparable to other AY chip computers such as the MSX, Amstrad CPC and Spectrum 128. As for samples, yes the Amiga used samples because it could whilst the ST struggled with them. To make fun of a computer than could use samples better seems a little odd to me.
GuruMediator hehe and here I am as someone who listens to both Planet Rock and ClassicFM. I say it again I like the ST sound chip, and when you compare it to the old Beeper of the Speccy it is superb. I just favour the Mig.
The fact that they look identical in-game shows that the Amiga was using just 16 colours rather than 32. Somebody in another vid said there were 8 colours in the background and 8 in the foreground and I laughed. Dude was right 0_0.
For me I can't separate them. IMO the Amiga has the better intro and in game music, but the weaker sound effects. Also the drums and sound effects share the same channel so it can only play one or the other, not both (I had owned an ST and played with the music off anyway). What really annoyed me with the Amiga was the extra loading. The ST could load the whole level at once, while the Amiga had mid-level loading which ruined the flow of the game.
Ok guys, some real facts now. I had the two computers and here, Amiga wins for the main objective of this game : play on a house music. Of course Atari ST can play mods with its "powerful" 68000 but it takes lot of CPU usage to do that so it was not possible for the Bitmap Brothers to play this brilliant song on ST while playing, even the light version without speaches used on Amiga during play. Now why they just composed this little loop rather than a complete chiptune? That's complete mystery for me. Maybe lack of time or they discovered belatedly that they could not integrate ingame music mod. I think only Martin Day (coder) or David Whittaker could give an answer to this question if they remember. But apart from that, like many games of the time, ST and Amiga versions are graphically identical, only SFX and musics give victory to the CBM computer. That's not always true as lot of game musics of late 80's have been created for chipsound and are not so good when adapted to Amiga mods (I think here about "Batman The movie" and its great YM/AY chiptunes that are massacred by the conversion in module format) but here the main goal is to play a conversion of a real soundtrack composed by a house music artist so there is no debate ;-)
While I do agree the Amiga is superior, I always felt that Atari ST sound always had its own uniqueness. I grew up with the machine, so I was pretty much used to it.
I played the demo on my ST and liked what I saw. Some months later I got an Amiga and rushed out to buy this game. Um, I felt disappointed with the scrolling, sure its ok but I was expecting super smooth hardware usage from a machine that boasted about its capabilities. :(
I have to agree with that, the Amiga hardware should be able to do smooth scrolling with that game, I also think they could've added more colours as it looks about the same as the ST version.
Atari ST version is in coding side, absolutely stunning. Atari ST version does dual playfield and does massive amount of sprites on screen without amiga's chipset.
I have the Atari ST version of Xenon 2 The Megablast, and I have to say that when it comes to the intro music while the game is loading up, the Atari ST version of Bomb The Bass The Megablast pisses all over the Amiga version in my books, but I will admit that when playing the game the sound fx on the Amiga do sound better than the ST version.... but I suppose both ST and Amiga versions have their good and bad sides.... but still at the end of the day it is a very good game and a lot of fun to play, I myself still play it and never get bored of it and completed it many many times =)
But in this video the Amiga music is much better. I had both an ST520 and an Amiga 500 and I found that, despite the ST's fame as music platform, game music was much better on the Amiga. The Amiga was just better. The only thing better on the ST was the disk drive and the loading times. I had Cadaver on both - the ST loaded faster and the game looked identical (for once).
The Atari ST intro music. - I love it. Yes it is rough and in your face, but for this particular game it suits it so well. Bomb The Bass and this big harsh riffs like you get from electric guitars, it just suits the genre so well. The Amiga sounds is cleaner, I agree, but too clean and it actually cheapens and cutens it up when it shouldn't be so.. it *should* have rough hard riffs.When I heard the Amiga version for the first time I was just straight out disappointed. It wasn't big and in your face, but almost meek and mild instead. It just didn't impress. For the in game music, I did like the way the Amiga handled music better though (even if it was a bit too clean, I still like the rough chip sounds in ST version). The Amiga track was longer, and it didn't get silenced by FX of explosions and guns.
Another good comparison. Here the Amiga might have very slightly smoother scrolling, and be a bit brighter graphics wise. Sound wise during game play the Amiga wins hands down; I think the ST would have been much better if they had an option to lower the FX volume. Into side I would not say the sounds are better on one over the other, but different, and they both sound great. Once again an STE version would have hammered the Amiga version. :-)
STE would not hammer Amiga version. STE only has 2 channel digital sound chip that could play 8-bit stereo samples in hardware at up to 50 kHz. Amiga Enhance Chipset (ECS) with double scan mode can double the standard 28 kHz to 56 Khz for each of the four 8bit channels. *All Amiga's audio chip can support 2 channel 14 bit via AHI.*(Amiga's MS DirectSound middleware like solution)
I don't know. The AMIGA one lasted the full track and the ST one sounds like a shite loop. I think both of them used the same version and the ST was an AMIGA music port imported badly because the ST decided to go the Mono and looped like crap approach and took out the intro and half of the music before the sample they used from it kicked in and the AMIGA the used the Stereo and non looped version straight from the start of the track. I've played the AMIGA version in 60hz for the fun of it and it sounded like the ST's but a better quality and fuller. So yeah, ST was definitely a dogey AMIGA port of that versions intro music which sounded worse than the AMIGA because they didn't re-record it on the sound chip. But then I admit I'm an AMIGA man so would say that when something sounds remotely like a 60hz AMIGA to ST port music to me. Don't worry though as there have been crap ST to AMIGA music ports that suffered the same fate.
This game was horrible on the Amiga. It used the awful 16-colour orange/grey palette that was the standard of many ST ports; it ran at a slow frame rate - instead of the normal 50 fps - and had terrible music. The Bitmap Brothers made a lot of lazy, underpowered games for the Amiga.
even if the intro is more sophisticated on Amiga I much prefer the ST version and this saturated "guitar". the game is identical on both machines but yes the in game music is better on Amiga, on the other hand the sound effects are better on St
Funny how, because they used a very rubbish MOD tune attempt on the Amiga zooming logos title screen vs software sample playback of clip from the tune on ST, the only negative about the ST version of this game is the actual in game music which is a bit plinky plonk even for the AY/YM sound capabilities lol
As per usual the supposedly superior Amiga sound is actualky a case of it struggling with low frequency samples that mean it feels like you are wearing ear muffs while listening to it. In contrast the ST uses punchy crisp square waves that really deliver a tune. I used to accept the received wisdom off Amiga sound being better back in the day but with the benefit of RUclips and hindsight I just find the ST chip tunes so much more pleasing than the samples on the Amiga.
There are so many Amiga tunes (including the first generation of shoddy Atari ST conversions) which feature your beloved, "punchy crisp" square waves. The Amiga can reproduce them perfectly, but is not limited to them. Struggling with low frequencies? You mean "not producing an aliased mess of crackly lo-fi sound".
Hahah yes that Atari ST sounds is rough, but I like it in this game. Works so well with it. The Amiga versions sound is sweet and timid in comparison. Not saying the Amiga couldn't pull it off with a different team though.
Draw, Amiga was muffled the Atari lacked sample sound all chip music but was brighter in sound effects, would of been perfect with sample background music and chip sound effects, for both Amiga and Atari
A boring and overrated shoot'em up. I never liked this one. I hated the reverse scrolling idea, the collision system with the background and the very slow vertical scrolling (this was necessary to hide the low framerate, I think). Ah, I hated the music too: very boring after 5 minutes you listened to it. The only thing I liked from this game was the beautiful graphics (it was incredible with only 16 colors on screen!) with its 3 parallax layers (very unusual in a vertical shooter).
Almost a "Shadow of the Beast" of schmups, in it's disparity between graphical and technical achievement vs gameplay. The gameplay was no Hellfire/Thunderforce III/M.U.S.H.A, but the 'next level graphics' factor back in the day was crazy. Those games were something you really had to see and hear running, back then. It was like a foreshadowing of the PS1 generation in 1989/90. Bitrate of sampling aside, the average Amiga kicked the Atari ST's arse all up and down the street all day everyday. This (again like Shadow of the beast) was an example.
I had both machines and enjoyed playing games on both machines ...
Back in the day I was jealous of the Amiga sound in games. But that was because it used samples in almost every game. Today these games and systems are all about nostalgia, and I actually prefer the ST:s chiptunes in many cases, because it sounds so retro. The ym2149 sounds really good, I think, holds it's own against the SID. The Atari STE had better sound than the A500 - it sounded more "hi-fi", wider frequency spectrum. But almost no games used the enhanced sound of the STE.
Something that always annoyed me with the Amiga/STE was that the four channels were fully separated left-right, wonder why they didn't make them able to pan between left-right. Sounds like an old Beatles "stereo" record.
For those who can't understand why the Atari had the music production industry. It's got nothing to do with the machines sound generating capability. I mean, the records from that era didn't sound like an Amiga 500 or Atari ST game, did they? No, the reason why is a combination of built in midi ports with really good timing and low latency, the hi-res ergonomic monochrome monitors and the best software. Both Cubase, Logic as well as Pro Tools had their ancestors released on the ST. And the computers used for professional music production in the 80's and early nineties were used to send notes to and sync external equipment only. In general, no audio was processed by computers. Analog and digital tape machines and sound generating instruments/drum machines/samplers were used. The computers of the time were too lo-fi sounding and lacked the CPU power, RAM and disk space to be able to handle high quality sound. Just listen to the sound in this video and you'll understand.
STe only has 2-channel digital sound chip that could play 8-bit stereo samples in hardware at up to 50 kHz.
Amiga Enhance Chipset (ECS) with double scan mode can double the standard 28 kHz to 56 Khz with four 8bit channels. All Amiga's audio chip can support 2 channel 14 bit via AHI.
nixpix2 now thats an informative comment, thanks!
Just to keep the show going, I still use an 1040 as my prime MIDI controller with KORG workstations!
The STE and Amiga had left/right channels for sound with no panning hardware. You could mix the panning in software though. Best demo is probably this 8 channel software synth for the STE, quality at 25khz is pretty good
m.ruclips.net/video/OlspnqVcJho/видео.html
Ah, super nostalgia :) I only had the ST so I was blessed with the "inferior" version, but it still rocked. Thanks for the comparison GM!
First time I saw this game was on the ST and I loved the intro with its short but aggressive loop in the music and when I got it on the Amiga I was a bit taken aback when I got a whole song rather than that aggressive loop. But I got over that pretty quickly as the in game effects are better than the ST's.
Don't get me wrong the ST version is great but the Amiga for me was always that little bit better in some games and a lot better in others.
I always thought the ST had better sound than the Amiga probably because they were used in studios for MIDI work etc but I realise now the onboard Amiga sound was much better. Atari was also not that big over here but commodore was known by everybody since c64 days. Glad my folks got me the A500.
Word is that the MIDI port was added because there was supposed to have been an upgraded POKEY sound chip (from the older Atari 8-Bit computers) It was being developed but Atari decided not to pay for it, so they used a cheap off the shelf sound chip that they knew was substandard for what they wanted.
Owning and played both, I can say the following. The Amiga has better intro sound, but the in game music is so annoying as it changes volume every time you fire your weapon which quickly becomes very annoying. I know you can turn the music off, but why they made it so you cannot turn off the FX is crazy. As others have said on here, sometimes it is good to hear the ST's chip tunes. Considering the limitations the ST has compared to the Amiga, these versions are pretty comparable.
Couldn't have married an Amiga owner. STE owner would have been pushing it. No my missus was the proud owner of an Atari 520STFM back in the day. These playground rivalries run deep, man.
I started off with an Atari St but it was but a year before I had traded it in and got an Amiga, the sound alone was worth it as this vid shows.
GuruMediator I suppose its just a matter of opinion really as everyone is different, you say you prefer the Amiga version of Turrican 2, but I myself prefer the Atari ST version and reason being is cause on the ST version you don't get that annoying squeaky guy's voice telling you what you have picked up like you do on the Amiga version of the game, cause the guy's squeaky voice saying power up, laser, multiple every time you pick them up... is just so really fucking annoying (scuse my french) I would just end up turning the game off after five minutes cause its so annoying, but on the ST version you don't get that and its such a relief to, cause I don't need some stupid squeaky voice telling me what I have just picked up, when I know what I have just picked up as my eye's do work lol... so why they decided to put that annoying squeaky mans voice into the Amiga version telling you what you've picked up is beyond me, cause in my opinion there's just no need for it if you ask me, cause to me I personally think it ruined the Amiga version of the game for me, so I stuck to the ST version and was very happy with it and played till I completed it.
" cause the guy's squeaky voice saying power up, laser, multiple every time you pick them up.." sorry dude, but this stinks of Project X, an Amiga side-scroller. There was never any in-game speech in this :P
Cant believe people actually like the ST music, it all sounds very 8-bit and naff tbh, the Amiga sound was so much better.
The thing is the Amiga is built with sampled audio in mind, given it’s 4-channel 8-bit DMA audio. The Atari ST also had 4 channel audio, but three were PSG tone and one was PSG noise, the PSG was a Yamaha YM2149F, a clone of the General Instruments AY-3-8910. If it were to do sampled audio, audio would have to be mixed in software then a hack to produce PCM audio would need to be used on the PSG to produce output- very CPU consuming on a 68k, and even then the output would have a bit of noticeable “static” as a side effect of the hack. Why they limited the sampled audio to only the opening screens. If they were to continue using sampled audio into the game, it would slow the game down tremendously, perhaps to the point of unplayability.
I prefer the ST's intro as it 'explodes' onto the screen and gets you pumped they got the timing bang on.
However once you get in game the Amiga edges it.
Yes, exactly. The ST music was big and in your face in a way that suited the game, and like you said it really got you pumped to fight.
love some of the ST comments on vids like this . Clearly the Amiga was a vastly superior machine in EVERY sense but it didn't stop people including myself enjoying their ST immensely. I moved onto the Amiga when it was my dad very kindly purchased me one at the age of 17 I think. A very exciting time experiencing this vastly better machine but I still have very fond memories of the Atari ST and the fun I had playing Star Glider, Oids and the Pawn etc. Great little machine that gets a lot of respect still. I too like the cute more punchy sound you get from the chipsound of an ST and would agree that some of the music does indeed sound more suited pehaps or just better handled on that system at the time- Wanderer 3d music for example is a much better version on ST. But to outright say that for all ST music of the same game just shows a bitterness still eating away in some people. Kidding yourself is a very hard thing to realise
My progression was Atari 2600-->TI-99/4A-->Commodore 64-->NES, but this was still quite interesting to me. Thanks!
Keep in mind, ST was release 2 or 3 years before amiga, amiga price was around 150 euros higher. Mainly the games were 100% the same on atari and amiga. In the Last years, yes some games were optimize for amiga.
The Amiga was originally launched in 1985. So, you're saying that the Atari ST came out in in 1982 or 1983, I think I'm going to doubt you there.
The reason that Amiga and ST games tended to be exactly the same is because you were looking at the ST version and a port of the ST version that didn't take advantage of the Amiga's own hardware capabilities.
@@johns6265 i speak about amiga 500, released in 87. Yes it is what i wanted to say, few games used amiga chip so the result was close. A bit like atari ste, few games used its own capabilities
The A500 is the same base hardware as the A1000, regardless the Amiga has been around since 1985, not 87. It's like claiming that the PS2 came out in 2004 because that's when the slim version launched.
@@johns6265 the point is for sure they was other computer before, but very expensive, here I speak about computer with a decent price. When it was possible for almost every body to buy them. It was thé big strength of atari, deliver à high level computer with à small price
According to Wikipedia the Amiga came out in 1985 same time as the ST. In 1987 the Amiga 500 came out and that was an upgrade and best selling Amiga. I think the most commonly owned Amiga was 2 years ahead of the most commonly owned Atari ST. It sounds like we are comparing the XBOX S (or is that pro too?) with the regular PS4.
Awesome vid!!! I had an ST and was really jealous of my Amiga owning friends due to the sound. Odd how ST's were used for music production back then (with hardware plug ins no doubt), shame they didn't hold up out the box. Perfect vid to show it off with xenon 2. They were good times....
***** Nope I dont think it had a cleaner crisper sound at all. I played around with the chip sound on the Amiga and found it to be very versatile and had a lovely clean sound to it. The Atari ST's chip is very good but only really comparable to other AY chip computers such as the MSX, Amstrad CPC and Spectrum 128.
As for samples, yes the Amiga used samples because it could whilst the ST struggled with them. To make fun of a computer than could use samples better seems a little odd to me.
GuruMediator hehe and here I am as someone who listens to both Planet Rock and ClassicFM. I say it again I like the ST sound chip, and when you compare it to the old Beeper of the Speccy it is superb. I just favour the Mig.
Das war ein geiles Spiel das hab ich bis zur Vergasung gezockt schöne alte Zeiten :-)
The fact that they look identical in-game shows that the Amiga was using just 16 colours rather than 32. Somebody in another vid said there were 8 colours in the background and 8 in the foreground and I laughed. Dude was right 0_0.
nice work on St. I prefer xenon 1 fantastic gameplay and sprite collison.
For me I can't separate them. IMO the Amiga has the better intro and in game music, but the weaker sound effects. Also the drums and sound effects share the same channel so it can only play one or the other, not both (I had owned an ST and played with the music off anyway).
What really annoyed me with the Amiga was the extra loading. The ST could load the whole level at once, while the Amiga had mid-level loading which ruined the flow of the game.
Nice work, man
Ok guys, some real facts now. I had the two computers and here, Amiga wins for the main objective of this game : play on a house music. Of course Atari ST can play mods with its "powerful" 68000 but it takes lot of CPU usage to do that so it was not possible for the Bitmap Brothers to play this brilliant song on ST while playing, even the light version without speaches used on Amiga during play.
Now why they just composed this little loop rather than a complete chiptune? That's complete mystery for me. Maybe lack of time or they discovered belatedly that they could not integrate ingame music mod. I think only Martin Day (coder) or David Whittaker could give an answer to this question if they remember.
But apart from that, like many games of the time, ST and Amiga versions are graphically identical, only SFX and musics give victory to the CBM computer. That's not always true as lot of game musics of late 80's have been created for chipsound and are not so good when adapted to Amiga mods (I think here about "Batman The movie" and its great YM/AY chiptunes that are massacred by the conversion in module format) but here the main goal is to play a conversion of a real soundtrack composed by a house music artist so there is no debate ;-)
RIET Julien wow! Such an informed comment, thanks!!
While I do agree the Amiga is superior, I always felt that Atari ST sound always had its own uniqueness. I grew up with the machine, so I was pretty much used to it.
I played the demo on my ST and liked what I saw. Some months later I got an Amiga and rushed out to buy this game. Um, I felt disappointed with the scrolling, sure its ok but I was expecting super smooth hardware usage from a machine that boasted about its capabilities. :(
I have to agree with that, the Amiga hardware should be able to do smooth scrolling with that game, I also think they could've added more colours as it looks about the same as the ST version.
Atari ST version is in coding side, absolutely stunning. Atari ST version does dual playfield and does massive amount of sprites on screen without amiga's chipset.
Yes they did a great job on the ST, I actually prefer the sound on the Atari, apart from the title music. This could be nostalgia talking though... :D
I have the Atari ST version of Xenon 2 The Megablast, and I have to say that when it comes to the intro music while the game is loading up, the Atari ST version of Bomb The Bass The Megablast pisses all over the Amiga version in my books, but I will admit that when playing the game the sound fx on the Amiga do sound better than the ST version.... but I suppose both ST and Amiga versions have their good and bad sides.... but still at the end of the day it is a very good game and a lot of fun to play, I myself still play it and never get bored of it and completed it many many times =)
But in this video the Amiga music is much better. I had both an ST520 and an Amiga 500 and I found that, despite the ST's fame as music platform, game music was much better on the Amiga. The Amiga was just better. The only thing better on the ST was the disk drive and the loading times. I had Cadaver on both - the ST loaded faster and the game looked identical (for once).
***** Ah, it's all clear now! Thanks.
KANE RedMonster are you deaf?
Jethro Rose YEP!... From the AWESOME Atari ST version of The MEGABLAST Intro music I play 24/7 ..... Why?.... You Mad Darlin??? :)
The Atari ST intro music. - I love it. Yes it is rough and in your face, but for this particular game it suits it so well. Bomb The Bass and this big harsh riffs like you get from electric guitars, it just suits the genre so well.
The Amiga sounds is cleaner, I agree, but too clean and it actually cheapens and cutens it up when it shouldn't be so.. it *should* have rough hard riffs.When I heard the Amiga version for the first time I was just straight out disappointed. It wasn't big and in your face, but almost meek and mild instead. It just didn't impress.
For the in game music, I did like the way the Amiga handled music better though (even if it was a bit too clean, I still like the rough chip sounds in ST version). The Amiga track was longer, and it didn't get silenced by FX of explosions and guns.
Just hooked up my Atari 1040stfm and loaded this fantastic game :) Still fun as it used to be, but boy, oldscool gaming was hard stuff. :)
Another good comparison. Here the Amiga might have very slightly smoother scrolling, and be a bit brighter graphics wise. Sound wise during game play the Amiga wins hands down; I think the ST would have been much better if they had an option to lower the FX volume. Into side I would not say the sounds are better on one over the other, but different, and they both sound great. Once again an STE version would have hammered the Amiga version. :-)
STE would not hammer Amiga version.
STE only has 2 channel digital sound chip that could play 8-bit stereo samples in hardware at up to 50 kHz.
Amiga Enhance Chipset (ECS) with double scan mode can double the standard 28 kHz to 56 Khz for each of the four 8bit channels. *All Amiga's audio chip can support 2 channel 14 bit via AHI.*(Amiga's MS DirectSound middleware like solution)
I don't know. The AMIGA one lasted the full track and the ST one sounds like a shite loop.
I think both of them used the same version and the ST was an AMIGA music port imported badly because the ST decided to go the Mono and looped like crap approach and took out the intro and half of the music before the sample they used from it kicked in and the AMIGA the used the Stereo and non looped version straight from the start of the track.
I've played the AMIGA version in 60hz for the fun of it and it sounded like the ST's but a better quality and fuller.
So yeah, ST was definitely a dogey AMIGA port of that versions intro music which sounded worse than the AMIGA because they didn't re-record it on the sound chip.
But then I admit I'm an AMIGA man so would say that when something sounds remotely like a 60hz AMIGA to ST port music to me.
Don't worry though as there have been crap ST to AMIGA music ports that suffered the same fate.
Couldn't tell the difference if it wasn't for the sound.
Amiga version obviously is better but can I just say I prefer the ST's music to the Amiga's? Chip tunes sound cool
This game was horrible on the Amiga. It used the awful 16-colour orange/grey palette that was the standard of many ST ports; it ran at a slow frame rate - instead of the normal 50 fps - and had terrible music. The Bitmap Brothers made a lot of lazy, underpowered games for the Amiga.
good vid as usual.... Amiga wins again!
Did you know that Bitmap Games were first developed on ATARI ST then ported to AMIGA ?
even if the intro is more sophisticated on Amiga I much prefer the ST version and this saturated "guitar". the game is identical on both machines but yes the in game music is better on Amiga, on the other hand the sound effects are better on St
Funny how, because they used a very rubbish MOD tune attempt on the Amiga zooming logos title screen vs software sample playback of clip from the tune on ST, the only negative about the ST version of this game is the actual in game music which is a bit plinky plonk even for the AY/YM sound capabilities lol
The Amiga version of the music Is way better, It was built with that In mind, massive gamer from the Atari 2600 upwards, but Amiga wins x
Atari St forever
As per usual the supposedly superior Amiga sound is actualky a case of it struggling with low frequency samples that mean it feels like you are wearing ear muffs while listening to it. In contrast the ST uses punchy crisp square waves that really deliver a tune. I used to accept the received wisdom off Amiga sound being better back in the day but with the benefit of RUclips and hindsight I just find the ST chip tunes so much more pleasing than the samples on the Amiga.
There are so many Amiga tunes (including the first generation of shoddy Atari ST conversions) which feature your beloved, "punchy crisp" square waves. The Amiga can reproduce them perfectly, but is not limited to them.
Struggling with low frequencies? You mean "not producing an aliased mess of crackly lo-fi sound".
Hahah yes that Atari ST sounds is rough, but I like it in this game. Works so well with it. The Amiga versions sound is sweet and timid in comparison. Not saying the Amiga couldn't pull it off with a different team though.
Both machines have huge lags comparing to PC version.
Draw, Amiga was muffled the Atari lacked sample sound all chip music but was brighter in sound effects, would of been perfect with sample background music and chip sound effects, for both Amiga and Atari
intro sound os better on ST!
I thought so. It's really big and in your face like it should be.
Amiga always
Can someone please tell me again why Amiga vs ST has *ever* been a thing?
For the same reason there was SNES vs Mega Drive or C64 vs Spectrum etc I guess.
Great game. Atari 1040 STe
Amiga was always and will be, the only queen!
We had Atari St vs Amiga. In Japan Sharp x68000 vs Fm Towns. What a shame.
Well, it's different when you compare three times more expensive than an ST or an Amiga.
I am sooooo glad I got an Amiga back then. That Atari was bloody awful...
You are shit
ST sounds little similar to C64 (SID sounds much better..). Ami sound is fantastic !
A boring and overrated shoot'em up. I never liked this one. I hated the reverse scrolling idea, the collision system with the background and the very slow vertical scrolling (this was necessary to hide the low framerate, I think). Ah, I hated the music too: very boring after 5 minutes you listened to it. The only thing I liked from this game was the beautiful graphics (it was incredible with only 16 colors on screen!) with its 3 parallax layers (very unusual in a vertical shooter).
Almost a "Shadow of the Beast" of schmups, in it's disparity between graphical and technical achievement vs gameplay. The gameplay was no Hellfire/Thunderforce III/M.U.S.H.A, but the 'next level graphics' factor back in the day was crazy. Those games were something you really had to see and hear running, back then. It was like a foreshadowing of the PS1 generation in 1989/90. Bitrate of sampling aside, the average Amiga kicked the Atari ST's arse all up and down the street all day everyday. This (again like Shadow of the beast) was an example.
Wrote on the ST ported to amiga