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**Rebelli0n** · 16-04-2006, 12:10

You read my mind. I was considering starting this thread, after the Xenon 2 one.

Hybris, is clearly terracresta inspired, but i love it for it's amazing ingame music. The electric guitar style lead synth is just so good. I still put it on just to listen to it today. Considering how early it was released, in 1988/89 it's really impressive.

Battlesquadron is probably the most technically accomplished vertical shooter on the amiga, and a good way to show people the amiga was capable of approaching console levels of gameplay in the hands of the right developers. It also has great synthy amiga music. It's a shame there wasn't a few more games of this quality released on the amiga. Maybe it would have earnt a bit more respect in comparison to consoles today if there had been.

As with Xenon 2, Battlesquadron was ported to megadrive, gameplay and graphics survived more or less intact, but the sound... again very disapointing

.

It also worth noting that neither of these games saw an ST port. The Amiga suffered a fair bit from cross development with the inferior ST. Quite often the rubbish amiga games you play are rubbish because they are ST games ported over, where they totally ignore the amigas custom chips.

It's no surprise that the games that do stand out from a technical standpoint, tend to be amiga exclusive.

definately 2 of the very best amiga vertical shooters.

**Team Andromeda** · 16-04-2006, 12:34

Battle Squadron Onthe Mega Drive is one of my all time fav shooters

**MonkeyWrench** · 16-04-2006, 12:49

My god...I had totally forgotten about these two. Battle Squardron got a lot of play on my old Amiga, just pipped by SWIV as my fave shooter on the system.

**Team Andromeda** · 16-04-2006, 13:13

Battle Squadron on the MD was hard a hell too, I remember phoning a mate at 11 PM inthe night telling him I beat BS (I was so chuffed). Also the soundeffects are still to this day , some of the best onthe MD.

In Parts Battle Squadron reminds me of RSG (the way the floor scrolls) . What a classic shooter

**JazzFunk** · 16-04-2006, 15:46

Completely forgot about Hybris! Kicked the arse of Xenon 2 in my very humble opinion - I never did get on that well with most of the 'shiny metallic' amiga shooters so I passed on Battle Squadron but I might check it out on MD when I next see it at the car boot for about a quid.

Sidewinder was another pretty decent Amiga vertical shooter.

**Rebelli0n** · 16-04-2006, 15:49

Originally posted by Team Andromeda

Also the soundeffects are still to this day , some of the best onthe MD.r

I have to say i don't recall the effects, I was probably so obssessed with the music i didn't pay attention I 'm gonna have to re-check it out now.

**David GP** · 16-04-2006, 16:55

For those of you who like Hybris, I highly suggest you give Nichibutsu's Dangar UFO Robo a try. Made by the very same guys who brought us Terra Cresta but released a year later, Dangar is quite clearly the source of insipiration for Hybris.
I was so much in love with that coin-op that I eargerly waited each month for Imagine/Ocean to announce its conversion to my 64... That never happened though.

**Team Andromeda** · 16-04-2006, 16:58

Originally posted by Rebelli0n

I have to say i don't recall the effects, I was probably so obssessed with the music i didn't pay attention I 'm gonna have to re-check it out now.

When the Bullets hit a heavy metal object , you get a great sound effect. One of the best I've heard from that soundchip

**Team Andromeda** · 17-04-2006, 10:26

Battlesquadron was ported to megadrive, gameplay and graphics survived more or less intact, but the sound... again very disapointing

Only the title music lost out, In every other aera the MD version is better. Full screen, faster , smoother scrolling (with multi Parallax ) and like I said much better sound effects and controls (non of that moving the joystick 360) , to let off bombs

**Rebelli0n** · 17-04-2006, 12:00

Originally posted by Team Andromeda

Only the title music lost out, In every other aera the MD version is better. Full screen, faster , smoother scrolling (with multi Parallax ) and like I said much better sound effects and controls (non of that moving the joystick 360) , to let off bombs

I had a play on both versions this morning. I agree with you on almost all counts, You're definately right about it being faster/smoother on the MD, but i do have to wonder if the amiga version (which runs at 50hz usually), would catch up somewhat if run at 60hz (Which would also fill the screen more). not all european amiga games tollerate running at 60hz however, especially ones like battlesquadron which use various low level hardware tricks. I don't have an action replay to hand to test it out

I have to say though, i don't agree about the sound effects, the megadrive version just comes off as inferior in all aspects of the sound to me. The metal clang of your shots hitting enemies is quite good, but the rest is pretty weedy. That said, one thing i'd totally forgotten about the amiga version, is how intrusive the FX are in that game, the music is constantly cutting out to play an explosion sample or something. At least the MD version is a little more consistent.

Personal preference at the end of the day, I'm a sucker for the amiga chip style music.

**Leon Retro** · 17-04-2006, 16:36

I've never been a fan of Amiga ports to the MD. The music is the first thing that suffers; which isn't entirely the MD's fault. I think most devs didn't really put enough effort in, but then again the Amiga sound-chip was and is pretty amazing.

Hybris is my favourite out of the two. It has a sharp clean look, and the colourful environments look much more captivating. The music is a work of genius, and one of those tunes that will haunt your mind forever.

I really like Battle Squadron. It has great graphics and sound, but it's the gameplay that shines; especially in 2-player!

Both games are part of an elite few Amiga games that console fans would play and enjoy. In the early 90's I had mates that only owned consoles and they didn't think much of 90% of computer games, but Hybris and Battle Squadron opened their eyes, and ultimately made them realise that computers could play host to graphically effective immensely playable arcade\console style experiences.

As Rebellion mentioned, it really is a shame the Amiga didn't play host to more arcade style games of this quality. Both titles show that in the right hands the Amiga could not only deliver on a technical level, but also when it came to the crucial playability factor.

**David GP** · 17-04-2006, 20:08

Is it me, or did I play a version of Battle Squadron on my Amiga that ran fullscreen? I am pretty sure two versions of the game were released: one in NTSC (hence that ugly black square filling the bottom of the screen); and another in PAL that, much like Tekmagic's glorious conversion of Pacmania, used every single pixel of my TV.

**Leon Retro** · 17-04-2006, 21:48

Originally posted by David GP

Is it me, or did I play a version of Battle Squadron on my Amiga that ran fullscreen? I am pretty sure two versions of the game were released: one in NTSC (hence that ugly black square filling the bottom of the screen); and another in PAL that, much like Tekmagic's glorious conversion of Pacmania, used every single pixel of my TV.

I have no idea, because I used a monitor. I never started thinking about NTSC/PAL until I bought an MD and used it with my tv.

Does anyone else have the answer?

**charlesr** · 18-10-2010, 10:48

Cope-Com

http://cope-com.com/

Battle Squadron returns. For iPhone and Android.

Announcement

Hybris & Battle Squadron ( Amiga )

Hybris & Battle Squadron ( Amiga )

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