Most popular in European nations throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, the Amiga hosted thousands of commercially released software titles over its 11-year lifespan, and many more games were produced by hobbyists. Fans can now experience the platform’s glory days free of charge via the Internet Archive’s collection.
Among the Internet Archive’s featured additions for this week are several Amiga ports of popular arcade games, including Irem’s horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-up R-Type, Taito’s bubble-bursting action game Bubble Bobble, and Technos Japan’s seminal beat-’em-up Double Dragon.
Amiga-original highlights include Ocean’s shooter Wizball and an action game based on Tim Burton’s 1989 superhero film Batman. Also up for free play this week is Frontier: Elite 2, an ambitious space trading sim that serves as a predecessor to its crowdfunded sequel Elite: Dangerous.
Fans of the hardware may also recall emulated classics like Core Design’s bite-sized platformer Rick Dangerous and Codemasters’ hyper-difficult, side-scrolling adventure game Treasure Island Dizzy, along with Sierra-published efforts like King’s Quest II and Police Quest.
While the Internet Archive omits full versions of many commercially released Amiga games, the collection includes demos of popular standouts like DMA Designs’ Lemmings 2: The Tribes, Rainbow Arts’ Turrican, and Simon the Sorcerer.
Also included are trial versions of Xenon 2: Megablast, Pinball Dreams, and Pinball Fantasies, among many other titles that will be familiar to the platform’s die-hard fanbase.
Along with its newly uploaded catalog of Amiga classics, the Internet Archive also hosts thousands of emulated arcade and MS-DOS games. All of the Internet Archive’s emulated games are free to download and play through web browsers, and many feature sound and controller support.
