Amiga

Shadow of the Beast

Trivia

Shadow of the Beast was named #76 overall among the “150 Best Games of All Time” by Computer Gaming World Magazine (15th Anniversary Issue--November 1996).

Contributed by PCGamer77 (3025) on May 02, 2008.

There was a SNES port of the Amiga version, Super Shadow of the Beast, developed by IGS, shown on the Summer CES 1992, but it never made it to the shelves. There is a ROM floating around the net, and according to some sources it's completely playable. The main differences seem to be in difficulty, level design, and graphics.

Contributed by optrirominiluikus (112) on May 12, 2007.

According to the Amiga game manual, it took:

Fact Box -
• Total Size: 350 screens
• Total Memory Used: 3.5 megabytes
• Graphics Data: 2.2 megabytes
• Music and Sound Data: 850 kilobytes
• Music Sample Rate: 20 kilohertz
• Screen Update: 50 times a second
• Max. no. of Colours on Screen: 128
• No. of different monsters: 132
• Maximum Sprite Size: 220 by 150 pixels (over half the size of the screen)
• Levels of scrolling: 13 outside 2 large areas inside
• Project Duration: 9 months

The Japanese Mega Drive version of Shadow of the Beast, while essentially based on the original Genesis port, has a number of differences. It was released by Victor Musical Industries, which had previously published the PC Engine version (developed by Psygnosis for VMI). As a result, Victor borrowed some elements from the PC Engine version (like the larger character and the more balanced gameplay) and transplanted them into the Mega Drive one. Some backgrounds (like the trees) were also retouched to lessen the tiling pattern look of the Genesis version.

Contributed by Kaminari (1267) on Nov 22, 2006.

Like with Gods, another well-known Amiga game, the Mega Drive/Genesis port had the difficulty level increased when the refresh rate was increased from 50 MHz to 60 MHz (to match the NTSC console) without changing how long each frame was displayed, making the game faster. However, as the PAL console runs slower, the speed matches the original Amiga version more closely.

What about Japan? Well, they received an enhanced version with better graphics (closer to the original Amiga) and some gameplay tweaks (including the ability to choose between 18, 12 or 6 hitpoints, for those really insane).

The C64 version's cheat code is an anagram of the game's title, other than the number of spaces.

In 1999 a soundtrack with various Amiga game composers under the name "Immortal" was released. Aside from various Amiga themes, it primarily holds the entire "Shadow of the Beast" game soundtrack.

Shadow of the Beast tracks include:

Game Over

Contributed by MAT (35361) on May 09, 2003.

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