CD32 Retrospective: ROADKILL

The Amiga CD32 console had quite a few good games, but there was a problem as they were mostly straight copies/ports from Floppy to CD. In other words, Amiga500 or Amiga1200 games on CD with no changes what so ever.

That said, those games that used the medium and the console for what it was meant to end up being showcase titles. One of these titles was ROADKILL.

I am not sure which version came first of the A1200 and the CD32 but both games are almost identical except for a few minor changes in the game. So how come is this a showcase title if there are so few changes? , well that is because of the CD32 exclusive intro sequence. A highly entertaining opening movie with enough effects and cool graphics to make most people back them say wow and scream for more.

There is also an ending movie which many have not seen i guess as for the difficulty level in ROADKILL was a bit too much for most nonhardcore gamers.

ROADKILL had what it needed to impress. A CD only video and at the same time a quality game and while technically great for its time and format the CDXL movie format was too demanding for the console, so in order to get fluid playback one had to crop the video quite a lot and that meant a tiny playback window and huge borders around it.

I watched the video last week in both real-time (CD32) and speeded up version on Youtube and the intro is just as enjoyable today as it was back in 1994 when it came out. Most importantly is that it is best viewable with the low framerate that it was made for back in the day.

Pretty straightforward release, sadly no CD32 big box version of this game, just the usual Jewel case with minimal manual. The inlay/manual is at least in colour and while other games like Seek & Destroy, Out To Lunch and Guardian of the same era came in cardboard CD cases this one did not.  (The CD Cardboard boxes was awesome and very hard to find in mint condition today, both for the jewel-sized ones and for the Vertical A5 ones. (more about this kind of boxes in an upcoming CD32 article).

And as always, i got several versions of the game…  next up is the standard A1200*/AGA version.

Not much to say about the A1200 game really as it is the same game except for a few screens and the videos, this was the first version i tried and the one i played the most and i always found it funny how this version was missing some of the screens (car selection/view and loading screen) as the datafiles looks like is the same total size if you remove the movies from the CD version.

Funnily enough, the AGA standard editon came with a b/w manual/sheet and not coloured like the CD32 one.

And now over to the final version that i got… yep i got 3 versions of the same game…

I guess this is the rarest of the 3 versions i got, it is identical to the normal retail version except for the floppy stickers and manual is printed together with the rest of the game manuals. Great looking compilation box with 2 amazing games and one “ok” game.

ROADKILL offered very little new really but the everything in the game was optimized and done in such a slick way that it felt better than it actually was.  The game featured a combo system that was accompanied with great speech samples, it was a reward in both achieving the max combo as well as getting that wonderful SUPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH JACKPOT speech + music.

ROADKILL has it all and is very nicely presented, it can be quite difficult at first but you will eventually master it and when you do, that is when the game really shines.

thanks for your time.

Thanks to Hall Of Light For Screenshots.  Box shots are as always from my own Collection.