I made fleeting reference to this in the lego post – and decided that since I’m waiting around for some approvals on some things before I do any work today I’d write about it now.
The Amiga CD32 was the most technologically advanced Amiga I ever played with – and I got to play with a few courtesy of dad’s freelance writing gig (reviewing computer games).
Released in 1993 the console was out a year and a half ahead of the PSone – and offered pretty much the same capabilities – just without the volume of games.
It was a last ditch effort to save the mother company – Commodore – which declared bankruptcy in 1994.
Pretty much the coolest thing about the console was the game it came bundled with – or vice versa – Diggers which probably inspired a generation of mining exploration in the same way that lego inspired modern architecture. It was a race to find valuable minerals – teams of five race(r)s all with unique racial characteristics – literally battled for underground supremacy. You could win by wiping out the other teams – or by reaching certain cash thresholds. Mining revenue could be spent improving equipment – with automatic drilling machines vital weapons in the battle to (un)cover the most ground.
I think I downloaded a Diggers ROM to play using the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator (UAE) and it was still fun years later. You can download it for PC here.