“As we were Psygnosis fans at the time, we thought having a beautifully animated owl in the game would be really cool, and who knows, maybe would help convince them to sign our game. It worked and I think the owl and the three-plane parallax scrolling engine were key factors in us signing the game with the famous publisher. Agony is certainly recognised as a technically accomplished game and of all the games I worked on, I consider it to be one of the most personal pieces of artistic work. The freedom we had to create those worlds was unprecedented, and Psygnosis was always very supportive. Ah, those were the days.” -- Franck Sauer (graphic artist - Agony, Amiga)
A suberb demo of the Amiga's graphics and sound abilities. Everything but the kitchen sink thrown in there. Also, the full-screen fantasy illustrations that punctuate the game are exquisite (using 64-colour halfbrite mode, I believe). Unbelievably, this game runs in only 512K!!! VERY simplistic gameplay, however - but I accept that there are people who would be perfectly happy with that.
I honestly don't know what's more impressive, those stunning graphics or the breathtaking soundtrack by both Tim Wright and Jeroen Tel. One of Psygnosis best titles on the Amiga if you ask me.
I can’t believe what I’ve just seen.... That was pure brilliance. Doing that entire level without losing a life and not using any special weapons. I take my hat off to you.... 🎩 🤓 👍🏼
The boxart makes you think it'll be a Conan like RPG. "AGONY." It's a flying game, and you're a largish bird. YES I loved this game!! But the box art man....Was so beautiful and amazing. Captured your imagination!!!! Just differently then expected somehow.
“When Franck Sauer heard my soundtrack for Agony he loved it, but offered to improve upon the piano samples. At the time I didn’t have access to many great samples, so I naturally agreed. It was only after the game was released that I realised Franck’s samples were in the wrong octave, so the tune wasn’t 100% correct. As things turned out this didn’t seem to matter much, as it became one of the most popular Amiga tunes I’ve ever written. It was even covered (illegally) by Norwegian Band Dimmu Borgir as a track called Sorgens Kammer on their album Stormblåst.” -- Tim Wright (musician, Cold Storage - Agony, Amiga)
:D More like "Stolen" than "covered illegally" because the music is almost the same with some different notes (a bit simpler). The keyboardist also "covered" a piece of Accept's song for the intro track on the same album, and later was fired from the band.
To finish this game, you have to do it with one life, because after the 3rd or 4th level it's very difficult to recover the full weapon if you die and you can't kill enemies with the basic shot. Very nicely done !
The first stage track sounds like music that would tear the skin off your skull and blast it across the room. SO... DRAMATIC! MUST... LOWER... VOLUME!!!
Looking back from the visually stunning Shadow of the Beast and back here as well, this gives graphics even Metal Slug is jealous of! This is a really great contender for arcade games.
Yep - that's exactly what it says. I don't think there's anything malicious about it, but I'm guessing it was Psygnosis/the developers taking a dig at the Bitmap Brothers.
Ugh what an amazing game this was. Bot only did it demo the amazing graphical capabilities of the Amiga but was also the best shoot em up on the system together with Apydia. I still load this up on my Amiga now and then and play it.
Such a beautiful game, with perfect music, my brain changed when I heard the intro tune. Life-changing stuff. But that end was so disappointing - just one picture of scenery, not even the most beautiful one (my vote is split between the one with a burning tree and the one with morning sun shining through a bare tree) with no sense of story closure. An image with one scene from the final text. And credits music was so out of game context it hurt.
wow, so the game used a custom copper alternating-frame background to simulate more colors by flickering. CRT phosphor persistence blended it, but you can see it here.
Probably the most stunning bird animation ever made in pixel art, in a time when pixel were placed one by one without using all the MF tools of the MF pixel hipster of today. It's just sad they spent all the effort for graphic and sound and left the gameplay absolutely pointless, with infinite waves of random enemies with no animation frames. unfortunately It was a very common issue in Amiga games...
LOL! One by one? That shit went out in about 1986! DPaint, PPaint, and Brilliance were proper art packages and not much different than what we have today. Besides, you still need artistic skill no matter what tools you use, so let's have less of the boomer-tier gatekeeping.
Seems to be particularly a problem with this developer. Shadow of the Beast had the same issues. Beautiful graphics and incredible music, but uninspired gameplay.
Will assume no irony, there's a story about that, but I haven't looked into it really. Suffice to say this was first and some legal action involved. :)
Look at it today, I think it would be even better game if all game sprites were quarter the size.. It seems to me that visual ideas are great, but the presentation is overwhelming.. Size of those objects goes againt gameplay..
The game has a great atmosphere and music but some of the graphic effects are not ok, like for example the bullets fired by the owl or the explosions of the enemies, some sprites are a disaster like the yellow enemy bullets which are slow and few in number
I always thought of this title like the shoot'em up version of Shadow of the Beast II: visually stunning, very atmospheric tunes, but also kinda shallow story/engagement (only one weapon, the spells do little to add complexity), unforgivingly difficult to the point of forcing you to memorise everything just by countless trial and error ordeals. Not to the levels of the first Shadow of the Beast - which was in the opinions of many more like an interactive demo than a proper game -, but still neither a title that would set major milestones in gaming per se.
Some people claim this is the best looking Amiga of all time (at least the best looking shooter). I don't see it. The main sprite and backgrounds are quite nice despite the Amiga not being able to out out more than max 32 on-screen colors at the same time. But the enemies are all just a single color (often a not very attractive shade of brown), looks very plain and are hard to distinguish from the background. Apono Sin, Z-Out and Battle Squadron looks a lot better to me.
This game is a very pretty cluttered mess. Those bird enemies that briskly run in place at the bottom of the screen are extraordinarily silly. Why don't they move, if their legs are working so busily? That enemy could just as easily have been drawn as a plant or something. Why does the falling bonus item thingy make a completely out-of-place cash register sound, instead of some mystical magical synthesizer vroowwr or chime or something like you'd expect in such a fantastical setting? And what in the world is that dragon in the background endlessly shooting fire at? This is a striking mixture of beautiful imagery and kitschy excess.
And I loved it for that, shameless and original, compared to most other shooters that just tried to copy arcade games and failed utterly in understanding the gameplay anyway.
![Shadow of the Beast III Longplay (Amiga) [QHD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uAGeZmnZK8A/mqdefault.jpg)
One of the most visually stunning Amiga games ever made, and not a bad shoot 'em up either!
See the description for time codes!
i agree with you, it still in my mind after 30 years
“As we were Psygnosis fans at
the time, we thought having a
beautifully animated owl in the
game would be really cool, and
who knows, maybe would help
convince them to sign our game.
It worked and I think the owl
and the three-plane parallax
scrolling engine were key factors
in us signing the game with
the famous publisher. Agony
is certainly recognised as a
technically accomplished game
and of all the games I worked on,
I consider it to be one of the most
personal pieces of artistic work.
The freedom we had to create
those worlds was unprecedented,
and Psygnosis was always
very supportive. Ah, those
were the days.”
-- Franck Sauer (graphic artist - Agony, Amiga)
I've always wondered if that background somehow used XOR mode to stamp over the copper a two colour background.
I never enjoyed playing this game, but it was always worth loading up just for that music. And the amazing graphics.
Same here. Jump'n Runs just aren't for me, but the music and the artwork in general were absolutely amazing.
The best horizontal shoot'em up for me, with Saint Dragon arcade.
A suberb demo of the Amiga's graphics and sound abilities. Everything but the kitchen sink thrown in there. Also, the full-screen fantasy illustrations that punctuate the game are exquisite (using 64-colour halfbrite mode, I believe). Unbelievably, this game runs in only 512K!!!
VERY simplistic gameplay, however - but I accept that there are people who would be perfectly happy with that.
I honestly don't know what's more impressive, those stunning graphics or the breathtaking soundtrack by both Tim Wright and Jeroen Tel. One of Psygnosis best titles on the Amiga if you ask me.
Is kind of amusing that the Company logo has his own game, and a good one!
Astonishing music and images. I'll never forget this piece of art.
I can’t believe what I’ve just seen.... That was pure brilliance. Doing that entire level without losing a life and not using any special weapons. I take my hat off to you.... 🎩 🤓 👍🏼
Still a visual marvel. Great memories.
it wasn't just a game, it was a gorgeous training in patience
The boxart makes you think it'll be a Conan like RPG. "AGONY."
It's a flying game, and you're a largish bird.
YES I loved this game!! But the box art man....Was so beautiful and amazing. Captured your imagination!!!! Just differently then expected somehow.
Agony: Really beautiful, fluid animation and wonderful sprites
Apydia: NIGHTMARE
“When Franck Sauer heard my
soundtrack for Agony he loved it,
but offered to improve upon the
piano samples. At the time I didn’t
have access to many great samples,
so I naturally agreed. It was only
after the game was released that
I realised Franck’s samples were
in the wrong octave, so the tune
wasn’t 100% correct. As things
turned out this didn’t seem to
matter much, as it became one
of the most popular Amiga tunes
I’ve ever written. It was even
covered (illegally) by Norwegian
Band Dimmu Borgir as a track
called Sorgens Kammer on
their album Stormblåst.”
-- Tim Wright (musician, Cold Storage - Agony, Amiga)
:D More like "Stolen" than "covered illegally" because the music is almost the same with some different notes (a bit simpler). The keyboardist also "covered" a piece of Accept's song for the intro track on the same album, and later was fired from the band.
@@mhenning2345 😲
To finish this game, you have to do it with one life, because after the 3rd or 4th level it's very difficult to recover the full weapon if you die and you can't kill enemies with the basic shot. Very nicely done !
The first stage track sounds like music that would tear the skin off your skull and blast it across the room. SO... DRAMATIC! MUST... LOWER... VOLUME!!!
Very mortal Kombat 😂
one of the best graphics, sound and music on an amiga. This game even ran on hi res!
I remember first seeing it as a teenager. Beautiful art and music.
Still can't understand why they kept the enemies one-frame still and then animated a full size dragon on the background...
"You know guys, it's 1992. I think the Amiga has just about run out its lifespan in the consumer market."
Psygnosis: "COWABUNGA IT IS"
91/92 were the golden years for the Amiga, plus some great titles in 93. All down hill after that though.
First ever recording that is very close to perfection in frames as the flicker of the interlaced backgrounds is camptured.
Looking back from the visually stunning Shadow of the Beast and back here as well, this gives graphics even Metal Slug is jealous of! This is a really great contender for arcade games.
It was mild and calm intro and then... all of a sudden... the level one music came up! I almost fell off the sofa! 🤣 It fockin' rocks! 🤯
it pleases me to see people still remember gems like these
also headcanon: alestes(the games protagonist) went on to become the psygnosis mascot
No. The owl was already established as the publisher's mascot. The devs used it as an hommage to Psygnosis.
Very atmospheric!
Amiga games had some of THE best opening title soundtracks, Ever!
very nice graphics ever made in Amiga, especially level posters... its so bad we couldnt see Agony-2 release because of Amiga's last years.
When you look at Psygnosis' games, it's clear that their aesthetics had an inspiration on Draenor in World of Warcraft.
It was made by Art and Magic. Psygnosis is the publisher.
@@magicjohnson3121Yes, but you would agree it looks similar to Shadow of the Beast, right? They were also the publishers as well.
30 ans après je redecouvre ce jeu 😭😍😍👍👏
A l'époque c'était une tuerie. L'ambiance était atypique des shoot'them'up(qui étaient surtout spatiaux). La bande son est magnifique.
I'v been playing amiga 500 since early 90's and only now in 2023 i ran into this game on youtube and now i want it. Looks so cool 😎
16:58
Does the grave say "Here lies the Bitmap Brothers?
Is there some rivalry between Psygnosis and the Bitmap Brothers that I'm not aware of?
Yep - that's exactly what it says. I don't think there's anything malicious about it, but I'm guessing it was Psygnosis/the developers taking a dig at the Bitmap Brothers.
man those loading screens .... I wanna frame them and hang onto my wall. if only I could frame the music as well :)
Ugh what an amazing game this was. Bot only did it demo the amazing graphical capabilities of the Amiga but was also the best shoot em up on the system together with Apydia. I still load this up on my Amiga now and then and play it.
Efsane oyunlar , gençliğimizden.
A game as an art.
altikirkbes. and magic!
Such a beautiful game, with perfect music, my brain changed when I heard the intro tune. Life-changing stuff. But that end was so disappointing - just one picture of scenery, not even the most beautiful one (my vote is split between the one with a burning tree and the one with morning sun shining through a bare tree) with no sense of story closure. An image with one scene from the final text. And credits music was so out of game context it hurt.
oh hell yeah!
wow, so the game used a custom copper alternating-frame background to simulate more colors by flickering. CRT phosphor persistence blended it, but you can see it here.
Who is here because of Dimmu Borgir?
Me
Me, Stian "Stolen" Aarstad
Me
Me
Nobody
Probably the most stunning bird animation ever made in pixel art, in a time when pixel were placed one by one without using all the MF tools of the MF pixel hipster of today. It's just sad they spent all the effort for graphic and sound and left the gameplay absolutely pointless, with infinite waves of random enemies with no animation frames. unfortunately It was a very common issue in Amiga games...
LOL! One by one? That shit went out in about 1986! DPaint, PPaint, and Brilliance were proper art packages and not much different than what we have today. Besides, you still need artistic skill no matter what tools you use, so let's have less of the boomer-tier gatekeeping.
Seems to be particularly a problem with this developer. Shadow of the Beast had the same issues. Beautiful graphics and incredible music, but uninspired gameplay.
Icon.
Pure & simple💘
I never finished level 6. This games was haaaard!
I never played but looks good...
great "restoration" thank you so much
One thing I never understood - what were those scroll things ( 13:29 ) for?
Probably spells.
Great job!!!!Like man!!!!
My favourite intro music on any game I think, would love to learn it on piano
Some great gameplay there, I find the game rock hard from level 4
Ambiant Black Metal 💧🤘😈🌲🌲
This needs porting to the Mega Drive/CD via the Scorpion engine.
where the Dimmu Borgir fans at?
Here, Sorgens Kammer ;p
BAHAHA here. I wanted to hear how similar the two tracks truly were. They are twins.
Where is the remake???
With the same soundtrack of course...
I always get a Guru Meditation after I beat the wizard at the end of the last stage. Anybody knows why?
Intro sounds like Dimmu Borgir - Sorgens Kammer. Hear the difference, but it is very similar
Will assume no irony, there's a story about that, but I haven't looked into it really. Suffice to say this was first and some legal action involved. :)
Sorgens Kammer 🤘🏼
Look at it today, I think it would be even better game if all game sprites were quarter the size.. It seems to me that visual ideas are great, but the presentation is overwhelming.. Size of those objects goes againt gameplay..
stormblast ;)
Is that some legend of the guardians game?
The game has a great atmosphere and music but some of the graphic effects are not ok, like for example the bullets fired by the owl or the explosions of the enemies, some sprites are a disaster like the yellow enemy bullets which are slow and few in number
I always thought of this title like the shoot'em up version of Shadow of the Beast II: visually stunning, very atmospheric tunes, but also kinda shallow story/engagement (only one weapon, the spells do little to add complexity), unforgivingly difficult to the point of forcing you to memorise everything just by countless trial and error ordeals.
Not to the levels of the first Shadow of the Beast - which was in the opinions of many more like an interactive demo than a proper game -, but still neither a title that would set major milestones in gaming per se.
Ma l'audio che fine ha fatto
Aii ese dimmu borgir es todo un pillo con ese plagio
Creo que hay un término que no es Plagio si no un sampleo.
mmmMmm huele a Dimmu Borgir
Agony Longplay (Amiga) [QHD]
lmao if you don't know the secret of cosmic strength and world creation
I came here because it’s basically more SOTB.
The level 1 music sounds more like a boss music, very hectic. Rather annoying to my ears unfortunately.
❤❤❤😁👍
What's up with the soft core porn music at the end of this game? 0_o
The elements don't blend together graphically speaking. Not a fan.
In a crt 1084 monitor look much better.
Some people claim this is the best looking Amiga of all time (at least the best looking shooter). I don't see it. The main sprite and backgrounds are quite nice despite the Amiga not being able to out out more than max 32 on-screen colors at the same time. But the enemies are all just a single color (often a not very attractive shade of brown), looks very plain and are hard to distinguish from the background.
Apono Sin, Z-Out and Battle Squadron looks a lot better to me.
This game is a very pretty cluttered mess. Those bird enemies that briskly run in place at the bottom of the screen are extraordinarily silly. Why don't they move, if their legs are working so busily? That enemy could just as easily have been drawn as a plant or something. Why does the falling bonus item thingy make a completely out-of-place cash register sound, instead of some mystical magical synthesizer vroowwr or chime or something like you'd expect in such a fantastical setting? And what in the world is that dragon in the background endlessly shooting fire at? This is a striking mixture of beautiful imagery and kitschy excess.
And I loved it for that, shameless and original, compared to most other shooters that just tried to copy arcade games and failed utterly in understanding the gameplay anyway.
So in other words, classic Psygnosis.
Shame that after all that bombastic music you end up getting treated a cheap 80’s porn track...
this drawing looks very good even nowadays