This tab is split into Game → Versions → Releases.
Game Information
This field records the various years of release or the intended year for unreleased games. Note that games usually display copyright years, which can be different from the year that they were released on the Amiga.
An indication if the game is an 'Amiga original'. The definition of an original Amiga game is one that was developed for the Amiga as opposed to being a conversion from another platform. A game may also have been developed in parallel on multiple platforms.
Relationships are links between games of the following types: Clone, Construction kit, Data disk, Demo, Exclusive Levels, Precursor/sequel, Remake and Sub-game.
This records if a WHDLoad install has been written for the game with details of the author and a link to the WHDLoad site.
This is the number of times the game has been viewed. Note: the previous Hall of Light only counted internal clicks but the current version counts all views.
The game genre is categorised using eight areas:
Category – a high level genre such as Adventure or Puzzler.
Subcategory – a lower level genre such as RPG – Dungeon Crawler or Wargame – Turn-Based.
Dimension – the various types of 2D and 3D graphics available with the game engine.
Viewpoint – how the player sees the game world.
Scrolltype – the types of scrolling available with the game engine.
Quickmatch – an easy way to see similar versions or clones of key games e.g. Doom or Gauntlet.
Origin – information about the game’s origin where it started in another medium e.g. film adaptations or board games.
Theme - the game's setting or subject.
When the same game has been released on other systems they are listed here. The releases for other platforms may been before or after the Amiga release. The conversion on another system should be essentially the same game as the Amiga version. In some cases the name will be identical on another platform but the game mechanics or game type can differ (e.g. Mr. Nutz on the SNES and Megadrive).
The various types of Amiga hardware: AGA, AmigaCD, Arcadia, CD32, CDTV, Cubo CD32, ECS, OCS, OpalVision, Pegasos (MorphOS), PPC, RTG, Unknown
OCS, ECS, AGA, RTG and OpalVision are graphic chipsets. OCS (Original Chipset) and ECS (Enhanced Chipset) cover most of the games in the database; the basic Amiga 500 game. AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture) is an updated chipset seen in the Amiga 4000 and 1200. RTG (Re-Targetable Graphics) covers graphics cards.
CDTV, CD32 and AmigaCD are CD-ROM formats. The CDTV was Commodore's early, ill-fated CD console while the CD32 was Commodore's later, ill-fated console. The AmigaCD category includes games released for Amiga computers with CD-ROM drives.
Arcadia and Cubo CD32 are two coin-op systems based on Amiga hardware.
Version Information
This indicates if the version was never released.
These two numbers list the player options. The maximum number of players shows how many can play, including turn-by-turn. The number of simultaneous players shows how many can play at the same time.
These are the entities involved in the creation of the game. Usually they are companies but can also be individuals.
These are the people involved in the game's development. This section is divided into coding, graphics, sound and miscellaneous artists.
Where an artist's nickname is known it is included in round brackets after the name.
Coder – the programmers.
Graphics – the graphical artists.
Audio – the musicians and sound effects artists.
Misc. – various other roles.
Specific roles may be listed alongside.
Features
These are special technical or hardware features.
Coding – the game’s programming language.
Enhanced Features – copy protection, controllers, save games etc.
Enhanced Graphics – Amiga graphical modes.
Enhanced Sound – Amiga sound modes.
This shows whether it is possible to run a game from a hard disk without the use of an external installer along with explanatory notes.
This lists commercial compilations that the game has appeared in.
Releases are listed with ten columns:
Year - the year of release or the intended year for unreleased games.
Name – the name that the release was published under.
Licence – whether the release was at a full or budget price.
Type – the many ways that Amiga games were published:
- Commercial : a standard commercial release, usually in a box.
- Coverdisk : a release on the cover of a magazine.
- Demo/Preview/Proof Of Concept
- Game & Mini Mag : a game release that also included a mini magazine.
- Hidden Sub-Game : hidden within another game.
- Interpreted : playable through an interpreter.
- PD/Freeware : gratis and freely distributable.
- Shareware : Freely copyable but requires a fee paid if played.
- Licenceware : a semi commercial/shareware release.
- Promotional : a game released to promote an organisation or product.
- Charityware : the developer asked for a donation to charity in lieu of payment.
- Giftware : the developer requested a gift rather than payment.
- Open Source Conversion : converted to the Amiga using Open Source code.
- Reverse Engineered Modification – usually a game from another system modified to run on the Amiga or an existing Amiga game with new features.
- Unknown : not yet placed in any of the other categories.
Country – the countries of the release or worldwide.
Publisher – the company that published the release. The publisher field may list multiple companies. Distributors are generally dealt with in the notes.
Languages – in-game languages that the game supports. The most common languages in Amiga games were English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Manual Languages – the manual languages included with the release.
Disks – the number of media (disks or CD) that the game was originally released on. In a few cases, this number can vary for a single game. For example, Ultima VI came on three install disks which needed to be installed to four game disks or to a hard disk.
Rarity – how rare this release is.
Information and context about the version.
When a game did not originate on the Amiga details of the original version can be included here. The format is:
Based on [YYYY] [developer]/[publisher] [machine type]
Although this field details information on non-Amiga versions of games it is useful to put the Amiga data into context.
This tab is a grid of extra screenshots at a size of 640x512 or above. These screens may show any graphics from the game, including non-gameplay sections.
The screens are not intended to preserve game graphics but rather to give a good overview of the variety and sections of the game.
There are three types of scan: box, disk and miscellaneous.
Box - the packaging of a game at a size of 1024 x *. Scans are reduced in size so click on them to view the full image.
Disk - floppy disks are included here. If a game comes on multiple floppies usually only one scan is displayed unless there is some benefit to showing multiple disks.
Misc - miscellaneous items are displayed here.
These are full game manuals in PDF format.
Cheats, codes and hints are included in this tab. The core set of cheats were imported from an external source; Keith Krellwitz's Sweet Cheater. Therefore the reliability of each cheat cannot be guaranteed. Sources have been included where known.
Some cheats, codes and hints have been added as they have been discovered by the HOL team and others have been checked.
This tab shows screens of other versions of the same game for comparison with the Amiga release.
Sometimes it's necessary to leave the safety of the HOL and venture out into the world. Links to external sites can be found here!
Where games include a telescopic limitation on the action game maps provide an overview. They come in various shapes and forms and are generated using HOL team member Codetapper’s own tool Maptapper. Other types are the full stadium of Speedball 2 or the pinball tables of Pinball Dreams.
This is a summary of magazine reviews and previews using the Amiga Magazine Rack (AMR) as a source.
This section allows you to rate each version of a game using a 10 point star system or individual elements (playability, graphics, sound, music) using a percentage. The Lore Score (out of 100) is also listed here.
User comments appear here.