Tearaway Thomas Longplay (Amiga) [4K]

Developed by David Hanney and Nick Frampton and published by Global Software in 1992
If there’s one game certain to obliterate your blitter and crush your copper, it’s Tearaway Thomas.
Often touted as the Amiga’s answer to Sonic by gaming magazines at the time, this hypersonic parkour-styled collect ’em came pretty much out of left field, and remains the only game (to my knowledge) that Nick Frampton and David Hanney produced.
Each of the game’s levels is essentially an obstacle course of platforms, ropes and moving platforms, covered with a liberal scattering of gems - which you must collect before time runs out - and baddies determined on obstructing progress. Enemies don’t hurt you as such, but stun Thomas when collided with, robbing the player of precious seconds.
Magazine reviews rightly praised the blistering speed and smoothness of the scrolling when this was released, a showcase for the aging OCS/ECS Amiga chipset. The artwork and animation (Laura Graves) are to a high standard, and the multi-coloured gradients (something of an Amiga stable) and background scenery are easy on the eyes.
While the quest the for raw speed was undoubtedly a success, the pace is so intense it makes controlling the Thomas incredibly difficult. Executing the kind of precision jumps and fine control needed to get through the levels becomes virtually impossible, especially in the later stages. It was hard enough tackling this in the prime of youth, let alone now, when old age and decrepitation has started to take their toll on the reflexes.
I tackled the game once before back in 2014, but I barely managed to scrape through most of the levels on that attempt. This time, I decided to aim to collect all gems and earn a ‘Perfect’ bonus on each of the game’s standard levels: no star skips, no excuses - an impossible feat?
Credits
Coding: David Hanney, Nick Frampton
Graphics: Laura Graves
Music: David Hanney
#amiga
#retrogaming
#commodore

[@noobdave]

I remember as a kid I thought this was the Amiga’s version of sonic. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Still enjoyed it though

[@wydafca]

This is it!!!

[@robertwilson3866]

II does remind me of the worst points of Amiga games - Just make a superficial versions of popular game without copying the great gameplay and using the copper to make a cheap looking background

[@gerasmus]

You must've played this game dozens of hours before recording the video, the old C64/Amiga games was rock hard.

[@SendyTheEndless]

If you're gonna scroll the screen that quickly, at LEAST center the character on screen, if not offset the screen so he's on the opposite third of the screen to the direction of travel.
Also, the toyland level felt like pure filler. No real character to it like the other worlds.

[@jhonmontes6426]

It may be the music, but the game reminds me of Mayhem in Monsterland.

[@wolfgang5186]

Thank you for this video. I love retro games and pixel art at all. Do you know No one lives in heaven from Sur Entertainment? It is a retro game, but new^^ I don´t know the release date but when it is released, maybe you could play it :)

[@deceiver444]

A cheap but fun Sonic-like

[@OldNerdPlayingOldPCGames]

Good job 👍 big like for ya 👍

[@Antonio-hx7yh]

cheap and squalid sonic wannabee. It's fast ok, but the levels are rather empty and simplified. And again that horrible copper bars to make believe there is a good amount of colours. Neither parallax nor good backgrounds. Gameplay is very repetititve. Nothing like even common console platform games

[@877cms]

Awesome game, I played this a lot on the original Amiga A600 back in the early 90’s. Never could finish that last level!

[@Midwinter2]

Cripes, does it need to be that fast?

[@TheRealKaiProton]

Was this made with AMOS?

[@AL82RetrogamingLongplays]

I don't think so - think this was ASM

[@robertwilson3866]

Burn!