One Amiga game at a time, tangents first.
Amigos: Everything Amiga builds each episode around a single Amiga game, from the rally driving of Celica GT Rally to the falling blocks of Minsky's Furballs. John, called Boat on air, and Aaron warm up with a tangent often sparked by the game's name, then get blunt about music loops, map screens and control quirks.
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Amigos: Everything Amiga gives each episode to a single Amiga game and talks it through from top to bottom. The regular pairing is John, whom Aaron addresses as Boat, and Aaron, who sometimes introduces himself as Amigo Aaron. Most episodes here open away from the game. One of them admits the pre-game topic sometimes arrives straight from the title, and the run bears that out. Drip leads to coffee and Aaron's aversion to hot drinks, soup excepted. Mind Walker brings up Sherlock Holmes and his mind palace, which Aaron says in his case is closer to an outhouse. Minsky's Furballs sets off a detour through tribbles and googly-eyed keychain toys. Transplant, in an episode billed as a retrospective, turns into a thought experiment about which two body parts to make bionic, and Aaron's pick of a bionic brain comes with a gag about his memory downgrading from hard drive to CD to floppy, then tape, then punch cards. Then the game gets its hearing, and the criticism is specific. Drip loops one stretch of music for the entire game; the two split on how much it grates, and Boat concedes a low threshold for goodness in video game music. Mind Walker's map screen shows only a slice of the map at a time, and the time lost there gets called out. Minsky's Furballs, which also goes by Minsky's The Abduction, is compared to Tetris for its quick-drop control and block preview, with four continue credits and characters who bring different play styles. Celica GT Rally draws a close look at the tool for marking where on the road a voice should call out turns, and the default calls, which arrive while the car is already turning, are judged no good. Praise flows just as freely. The bowling in Indoor Sports Volume 1 has a lot more character than an earlier bowling game the pair remember as generic and awful, and a hunt for alternatives finds that one to be the only standalone Amiga bowling game. The community is threaded through all of it. Discord members' views on Drip's music come up, a question from chat about steering a bowling ball after release gets an answer, and Patreon supporters help choose which games get played. Supporters are also offered magnets, Discord access and a Christmas card, and reviews left on Discord are read on the air. The lineup can bend: with Boat asked to speak at VCF East, the Vintage Computer Festival East, Aaron carries on beside a stand-in introduced as the Brent. Sign-offs are an exchange of adioses, once repeated far past the point of necessity. For a first listen, the Drip episode shows the pair holding a split verdict with good humor.
Made for: Suits a listener with a soft spot for the Amiga who wants one game at a time, judged on specifics like a looping tune, a clumsy map screen or badly timed turn calls. Also a fit for anyone who enjoys a detour through tribbles or bionic brains before the verdict.
What sets it apart: Instead of ranging across a platform in general, it gives each episode to one Amiga title and warms up with a tangent often drawn from the game's name, so Drip starts with coffee and Transplant with bionic body parts. Games are chosen with help from Patreon supporters, and Discord reviews get read on the air.
Do you have memories of all-night gaming sessions, falling asleep at the keyboard? Do you remember the thrill of calling into a local or (if you could intercept the phone bill before your parents saw it) long-distance BBS to chat or "acquire" some new software? Are you still part of the Amiga scene, and keep buying new hardware upgrades as soon as they come out, regardless of cost? Amigos: Everything Amiga is the show for you! Each week, Boat and Aaron run down the latest Amiga community and scene news and review a game chosen by our Patreon Game Selection Committee.
The bowling ball is gone; John and Aaron are still finding reasons for your next round.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A spare co-driver system turns this Amiga rally racer into a useful arcade-versus-sim debate.
Toyota Celica GT Rally gives Amigos: Everything Amiga a solid way into the blurry line between arcade racing and simulation. Amigo Aaron and the Brent begin with the appeal of an ordinary-car rally game, then dig into the co-driver system, where the built-in calls are…
A practical Drip review finds the maze game's charm, then follows the hazards until the friction shows.
Amigos: Everything Amiga approaches Drip as a maze game with an inviting surface and a stubborn question underneath: how much irritation can a design ask a player to take?
A focused look at Mindwalker's maze-like design, where mapping, form changes, and strange portals define the challenge.
Mindwalker lands as a game built around disorientation. Its screen-based maps, mouse-driven overview, shifting forms, wizard route, and crystal-container objective all make sense in pieces, but they rarely feel easy to hold at once.
A tough Puyo Puyo-like puzzler finds its footing through four continues, fast drops, and a run to about the seventh character.
Minsky's Furballs, also known as Minsky's The Abduction, gives Amigos a clean way into a Puyo Puyo-like puzzler built around furry, googly-eyed creatures that John and Aaron liken to tribbles and old Fry Guys.
Game Informer's editors review new releases and debrief hands-on previews from events like Summer Game Fest.
Amigos: Everything Amiga 547 reviews Toyota Celica GT Rally, the 1990 Amiga racer from Gremlin Graphics that puts a Toyota Celica into rally stages.
Amigos: Everything Amiga 546 reviews Drip, a 1989 Amiga public-domain game whose info screen expands DRIP into "Damp Rescuer of Interrupted Parties." John and Aaron explain a pipe-rusting maze where the player drops between pipe routes, dodges acid, plasma, ice cubes, electric bubbles, lasers, and chasing enemies, and survives with balloons, bubbles, and extra men.
Amigos: Everything Amiga 545 reviews Mind Walker, an early Amiga launch title built around a physics professor gone mad and an ego split into four archetypes.
John and Aaron review Space Gun, the 1992 Amiga port of Taito's 1990 light gun arcade game, which they describe as an Aliens knockoff.
["John and Aaron review Amigos: Everything Amiga 543, centered on Minsky's Furballs, and they spend the opening minutes debating whether the better title is Minsky's Furballs or Minsky's The Abduction.", "They compare the creatures to tribbles and McDonald's Fry Guys, then drift into a gag about googly eyes, keychain toys, and a YouTube channel that turns printers into music machines.", "The game is framed as a 1996 Binary Emotions release and a spiritual clone of Compile's Puyo Puyo, with ECS/AGA support, four discs, and a reported but unreleased DOS version.", "Their verdict is favorable but not uncritical: the chain-reaction puzzle loop, character callouts, and music earn praise, while the loose controls, busy backgrounds, and slot machine mechanic draw repeated complaints."]
John and Aaron discuss indoor sports, particularly darts and bowling, and Aaron shares his brief, unpleasant experience on the high school wrestling team.
Aaron and Boat review Transplant, a 1992 Amiga freeware shooter developed by Volker Wertich.
John and Aaron review The Pawn, a 1986 Magnetic Scrolls adventure published by Rainbird.
Amigos: Everything Amiga hosts John and Aaron review Xtreme Racing, a 1995 Amiga kart racer published by Black Magic and developed by Siltuna Software.
Aaron and Brent review Core Design's 1992 Amiga platformer Wolfchild, praising its cinematic intro, parallax graphics and music while noting a gray-and-brown palette.
John and Aaron discuss the Amiga game Super Bagman, its 1984 release by Stern, and Stern's role as a distributor for Konami.
John and Aaron discuss the pronunciation of Galaga and review Deluxe Galaga for the Amiga.