Retro gaming fans are quite prolific in supporting things they enjoy. Not only classic games but classic hardware. While Sega was quite open to licensing out their arcade games to others for publishing on other platforms, their home exclusives were another story. While we got computer ports of Altered Beast, Outrun, etc, as far as I know, we never saw computer ports for the Phantasy Star franchise, Sonic would eventually jump to PC years later, and I can’t remember a port of any of the Golden Axe games. Well, a fan of Phantasy Star 2 is working on their own port for the Commodore Amiga computer.
Image Source - itch.io
Currently this port of Phantasy Star 2 for the Commodore Amiga is limited to the Amiga 1200 computer. This is a slight bummer as the Amiga 500 is arguably more readily available, but if you are emulating, why not emulate the more powerful hardware?
This limitation is partially due to itch.io member Retrolover using the Scorpion Engine to handle the behind the scenes technical stuff. For anyone that is unfamiliar, the Scorpion Engine is mostly known for powering 2D action games, this port of Phantasy Star 2 is the first RPG that I am aware of using the engine.
Phantasy Star 2 for the Commodore Amiga is still early in its development cycle. Retrolover has stated that their goal is to port the game over as faithfully as possible. This means little to no changes to the graphics and sounds, unless obviously forced by the platform.
I do hope we are able to see some graphical highlights using the power of the Commodore Amiga versus what the Sega Genesis was capable of.
They do go on to say that they plan an enhanced edition that will feature slight changes to battles, experience/money earned, etc. This sounds like it will be a remix mode of sorts, same basic game but with slight changes to look out for.
Head over to itch.io to download Phantasy Star 2 for the Commodore Amiga. While there, say hi to Retrolover and give them some support. It could mean the world to them as developing games is often a reclusive practice.
