Shadow of the Beast : your fave?

[Baseley09]

Ahh....

I have to pick the first one, the Amiga original too. Still looks like beyond a dream, and sounds it.....ok i give in that its stiff, the enemies awkward and collision detection off making it extreme gaming....I saw my cousin at the time get to the shoot em up bit, i couldnt even get to the tree lol.

IMO and im pretty assured that III is the best actual "game" of of the trilogy, bit more of a thinker and controlable...

I like the AST they used for the CD iterations, tho they screwed up the main theme imo, the rest of it is great, tho cant de-pirch the Amiga tunes still...

This one is a pure winner tho from the PCE SCD (and FM Towns I presume) http://sotb.free.fr/Fichiers/Musiques/SOTB_PCE_06.exe

One tidbit im sure a few of you know, of the megadrive versions (which like the PC Engine one, have better control), the Japanese version is a whole different conversion by Victor, the western version of EA produce.

[Yakumo]

I never knew that the Japanese version was different than the western Shadow of the beast for Mega Drive. I'm going to check out the roms to see which is better. THey have the Japanese one for sale near me for 1000 yen. May pick it up if it's any good.

Yakumo

[Rebelli0n]

As far as i can tell, the japanese MD version of SOTB isn't any different code wise, but has had a substantial graphical overhaul. The music appears to be the same in both (sadly).

The Western Port appears to use the amiga graphics, (although there are some pallate differences, as the MD has a smaller total pallate, 512 vs 4096 on the amiga) it also lacks the copper effects. The japanese version looks a bit more 'rounded' and shaded in, and takes advantage of the megadrives higher onscreen pallate (although, saying that, the amiga version manual boasts something like 128 colours on screen through hardware tricks).

AFAIK Both ports were coded by WJS design (W. J Smithson) who was a regular psygnosis dev. the PC engine version was actually handled by DMA design if i recall. So i think the Victor/EA difference is just the publisher, but victor may have contracted out the redone graphics.

Many of the SOTB ports seemed to be handled quasi-internally at psygnosis. I don't think that applies to the FM towns version, or 'super sotb' on the snes, (which is a slightly wierd re-working of the game). Nor the 8bit ports.

I think SOTB1 is my favourite, the music is just so great, the AudioCD versions never quite capture the magic of Dave Whittakers originals.and in it's time it was undesputibly one of the most visually impressive home games of that year, on any platform.

I agree that III is probably the best gameplay wise. Ii always found SOTBII a little disapointing, although the Audio CD soundtrack on the megaCD version is really good.

[dvdmike]

Just got this free with my lynx is the port worth a play ?

[Baseley09]

Many of the SOTB ports seemed to be handled quasi-internally at psygnosis. I don't think that applies to the FM towns version, or 'super sotb' on the snes, (which is a slightly wierd re-working of the game). Nor the 8bit ports.

Apparently the FM Towns versions were coded in the west by Psygnosis (or at least farmed but used the same people), think I read that in EDGE, there is a substantial catalogue of Psygnosis games on FM Towns including the original Planetside demo.

I dont know what happened to Super SOTB, i cant remember which wierdos ported it but imo its totally tragic when it could have been superb considering the hardware.

The only one I actually owned in the day was for Amstrad, which was pretty good, again considerinng.

[Yakumo]

I just tried the 2 MD versions. Yes, they are the same game coded by the same developer. The Japanese one however is better due to overhauled graphics, better music (same tunes but sounding a lot better) and an option screen. Still plays ****e though.

Yakumo

[Ratso]

"As the mist clears, the eerie image of a forest forms in front of you..."

I remember the start of this scrolling text from sitting through the teeth-grinding loading times on the original Amiga version. The only incarnation of Beast I've ever sampled, it played pretty damn poorly, but you wanted see what came next because those graphics were so awesome for the time.

Reflections as a developer throughout their history have been consistent in putting overly exacting, testy sections in games (eg Driver and Stuntman).

[Team Andromeda]

Used to have Part 1 and III onthe Amgia couldn't never for the life of me finish Pt 3. Still have Part II onthe Mega CD but thought Part II was the leakest inthe series. Still amazes me how good Part 1 looks and sounds even today

[eastyy]

Is the music available to download anywhere?

oh and did the same team do the shooter AGONY for the amiga? seemed to recall it having a similar look and music

[Rebelli0n]

Is the music available to download anywhere?

oh and did the same team do the shooter AGONY for the amiga? seemed to recall it having a similar look and music

Agony was published by the same publisher (psygnosis) but wasn't developed by Reflections.

Agony was by Art and Magic, a team made up from some of the guys who worked on the amiga game 'unreal', (which was similar to Shadow of the beast in some ways http://hol.abime.net/1819) and various amiga demoscene musicians/graphics artists.

Afaik Art and Magic didn't do anything else under that developer name, but unreal is worth a look if you've never seen it before, if just for the galaxy force style, into-the-screen dragon sections that were pretty impressive for the amiga.


The Shadow of the Beast tunes are up for download in various formats.

The original Dave whittaker versions in his custom format (the .dw file) are hosted on exotica.org: http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/unex...the_Beast.html
You need something like Deliplayer to play those.

However there's also this site:
http://sotb.free.fr/Fichiers/musiques_en.html

Which has the tunes from the amiga in .mod .dw and .mp3 format, as well as rips from some of the other versions, and the PC engine CD audio tracks.
Oh theres also some remixes on there too, it's a SOTB audio bounty.

finally; Theres also the remakes on the commerical CD immortal, that are the most amiga faithful audio CD arrangements i've heard.

http://www.lynnemusic.com/immortal.html

[adam_the_browndog]

Theres a video on youtube with some stupid kids, putting shadow of the beast megadrive cartridge in a microwave

[Lok]

Shadow of the beast = lovely parallax scrolling, the clouds man check the clouds

[SuperBeatBoy]

anyone know a good website to get the amiga roms of shadow of the beast. i feel like playing it myself.