The Spanish town of Saragossa (Zaragoza) was the scene of a battle during the War of the Spanish Succession and two sieges during the Peninsular War. Amiga gamers might also be familiar with the name through a short preview in Kineticas The Gold of the Aztecs. This preview featured a robotic figure in a darkened room, who pressed a switch and sent a current flowing through the Saragossa logo.
This slightly mysterious animation was out of place in The Gold of the Aztecs jungle setting but was actually a quick look at Kineticas next game, a futuristic platformer. This theme produced a completely different look.
Saragossa was fairly well advanced in its development, especially in the graphical department. Both of Kineticas games used a Mac-based system called Animator which was used to produce the animated graphics. This approach called for thousands of frames of animation and necessitated plenty of graphical work.
The Gold of the Aztecs had a fiddly control system but its likely that Saragossa would have improved on this, especially if as the main character was able to walk up some vertical surfaces. In the game the players ship is stuck in a spaceship graveyard and in order to escape, four other ships must be explored. The idea was that each ship was completely different, in style and environmental properties.
Saragossa would remain unfinished and be Kineticas second and last Amiga game. Amiga Games That Werent talks to artists Ray Coffey and Jack Wikeley about their extremely promising game that wasnt to be.
