Single-click Amiga games from TheCompany.pl

[Shoonay]

Just something we've been working on with the folks from TheCompany.pl, preconfigured Amiga games stored in a single EXE file ready to use right after start.

http://thecompany.pl/game

The request queue is currently on hold, but there will be more and more game releases soon and every request filled.

There's also a forum-place you can drop a hi or two.
http://forum.thecompany.pl

Now that we released 100 games, we also uploaded a whole pack on Undeground-Gamer:
http://www.underground-gamer.com/details.php?id=51874
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"I used to be an Amiga user like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."

[Chuckles]

[EvilCensor]

Great stuff Shoonay, didn't realize you were involved in this - saw some of these ages ago.
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Please refer all site and database related matters directly to me - incl. missing games, links, screenshots and suggestions.

[a_three_headed_monkey]

This really is very cool. I'm going to have a good nose around it now. Already tried the Pinball 19 in 1 & it worked great. Top stuff!
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[Graham Humphrey]

Very clever and all but I trust they still don't use hacked/modified Kickstart ROMs and WHDLoad like they did when these were posted on EAB almost a year ago...
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Lemon/EAB Super League 2013: Round 6 - Arcade Pool
Round 7 - Cast your votes...

[Shoonay]

Why don't you see for yourself GH?

Official TheCompany statement is this: we DO NOT provide direct access for anyone to anything that isn't available already "freely" all over the net. As a matter of fact, the contents of each and every EXE file is well protected from most people and they're none of your concern.
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"I used to be an Amiga user like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."

[lifeschool]

Thanks for the post. I checked out a few games. First of all; and to avoid any confusion; these EXEs are for PCs only. They will work on any windows compatible system without the need to install an emulator. Each one may take around 15-20 seconds to load, and there may be a small pause before the first logo screen kicks in. Each file appears to auto-configure itself, and there are a few tweeking options available by pressing F12 - including controller options, sound and display, as well as a handy load/save state feature. The launcher is also compatible with a large range of graphics card options, including Eaglevision and Direct3D, through the use of a 'filters' menu; where the player can tweek the output display to their hearts content.

Ruff 'n Tumble
The first thing to notice is the size of the screen. The game auto-configures to full screen in all resolutions; which means the intro graphics look decidedly 'blown up', and the title screen looks similarly stretched. To fix this, there are a number of screen options in the 'filters' menu to update the display. The sound is also auto-configured to full volume, so if you have an amped system you may wish to manually turn it down using the slider in the 'sound' menu. Playing the game, we find it runs quite smoothly on the PC as long as the sound and display options remain close to their default counterparts. For example, avoid altering the audio buffer as this will cause problems.

Lotus Turbo Challenge
This archieve comes with Lotus 1,2 and 3 all built-in. A menu will appear on first boot to ask which one you wish to use, but once the game loads it isn't possible to switch without a quit and a reload. Looking at Lotus 1. Again the default full screen mode is a little wierd to begin with, but I managed to reach a compromise by selecting an 800x600 display mode (which creates a little blank border around the screen), or by selecting 'Null filter' (or similar) from the filters panel. The default full-screen mode is a novel feature if, like me, you've never seen the game running at 100% screen width before, or if you want to port it to an LCD TV, but otherwise it makes the cars and tracks look very blocky.

The Settlers
The first issue comes as we browse the main Settlers title screen. Selecting to input a password appears to do nothing as this game (unlike the two above) seems to reject input from the keyboard. This means the player can no longer skip levels with the appropriate password. The 'Load' option doesn't work either, and trying to 'Save' within the game comes up with errors, so it's 'Save State' mode or nothing. The game itself runs very smoothly and with all the extra large layout sizes of an A4000+ setup. The scrolling is smooth and this game is actually enhanced a little by having the graphics full screen width.

Overal, all three games tested ran at full amiga speeds, and at the native amiga resolutions (using the Null filter), and of course with full interactivity and sound. There were no screen tearing, blanking or jitter problems except when testing some pretty wild menu options. I encountered no problems when testing various joysticks, and the launcher happily utilises a hardware parallel port adapter and 'PPJoy' to allow x4 joysticks to be plugged in at once.

There are over 100 games listed on the web site, with a heavy chunk of those titles being pinball games thanks to a neat '19 in 1' pinball archive. The benefits are obvious; in that the games can be banded about on a selection of old and new PCs without the need to install or understand how an emulator works. It's basically Plug and Play. Each game is also very small and can be emailed (if nesessary) or even stored on an old floppy disk. However, serious amiga gamers may still prefer the depth and the tweekability of a dedicated emulator such as WinUAE, and there are at least a few advantages to emulators over EXE launchers - such as ADF support.

@ Shoonay - Thanks for the update! I've made the appropriate changes.

[Shoonay]

@lifeschool: that's one huge review you did there, we appreciate all suggestions
you can enter the filters menu and change the aspect ratio to TV maybe, that might help in your case.

perhaps you'd like to join us at http://forum.thecompany.pl
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"I used to be an Amiga user like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."

[a_three_headed_monkey]

These exe's are awesome, but definitely a few of my favourites are missing atm. Is there some sort of copyright/license issue & that's why the Monkey Island games & Bitmap Brothers games are missing?
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[Shoonay]

The only copyright issue we had was with that awful pinball game from APC&TCP reported by our beloved friend AndreasM.

The missing case of other games is simple: lack of time and a LOT of work needed to be done.

Behind the scenes we're at the end but still in the process of updating ALL current releases, so patience my friend

The request queue is LOOONG, but I can promise more games will come...
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"I used to be an Amiga user like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."

[Shoonay]

Monkey Island (2in1) online.
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"I used to be an Amiga user like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."

[a_three_headed_monkey]

[CTOJAH]

[Shoonay]

LOL you guys, you gonna get me fired from TheCompany!

The list of requested games is already H-U-G-E! and you'll have to wait, some of these will popup in the near future:

[Shoonay]

Lands of Genesis online in 3... 2...1... (including a trained version )
_________________
"I used to be an Amiga user like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."