CD32 Retrospective: ROADKILL

The Amiga CD32 had its fair share of good games, but there was a clear issue — most of them were simply straight ports from floppy to CD. In other words, Amiga 500 or Amiga 1200 titles slapped onto a CD with little to no improvements.

That said, the games that actually took advantage of the medium and the hardware turned out to be true showcase titles.

One of those titles was ROADKILL.

I’m not entirely sure which version came first — the A1200 or the CD32 — but the two are almost identical, with only a few minor differences.

So how can this be considered a showcase title with so few changes?

Well, the answer lies in the CD32-exclusive intro sequence. It features a highly entertaining opening movie packed with effects and slick visuals — the kind that made people back then go “wow” and want more.

There’s also an ending movie, which I suspect many players never got to see. The difficulty level in ROADKILL was simply too high for most non-hardcore gamers.

ROADKILL had everything it needed to impress. It featured a CD-exclusive video alongside a genuinely solid game. While technically impressive for its time and format, the CDXL movie format was quite demanding for the hardware. To achieve smooth playback, the video had to be heavily cropped — resulting in a small playback window surrounded by large borders.

I revisited the intro last week, both in real-time on the CD32 and in a sped-up version on YouTube. It’s still just as enjoyable today as it was back in 1994. In fact, it’s arguably best experienced at the original low frame rate it was designed for — that’s where the charm really shines through.

A pretty straightforward release. Sadly, there was no big box version for the CD32 — just the standard jewel case with a minimal manual. That said, the inlay/manual is at least in colour.

It’s a bit of a shame, especially considering that other titles from the same era — like Seek & Destroy, Out to Lunch, and Guardian — were released in cardboard CD cases. Those boxes were fantastic, and today they’re incredibly hard to find in mint condition — both the jewel-sized versions and the larger vertical A5 ones. (I’ll cover these in more detail in an upcoming CD32 article.)

And as always, I’ve picked up several versions of the game… next up is the standard A1200/AGA release.

There’s not a whole lot to say about the A1200 version, as it’s largely the same game — aside from a few missing screens and, of course, the absence of the video sequences.

This was actually the first version I played, and the one I spent the most time with. I always found it a bit odd that it lacks certain screens — like the car selection/view and some loading screens — especially considering that the data files seem to be roughly the same total size once you remove the movies from the CD version.

Funnily enough, the standard AGA edition came with a black-and-white manual rather than a colour one like the CD32 version.

And now, on to the final version I picked up… yep — I ended up with three versions of the same game.

I believe this is the rarest of the three versions I own. It’s largely identical to the standard retail release, aside from different floppy disk labels, and the manual being bundled together with the other game manuals in the compilation.

It’s a great-looking box set overall — featuring two fantastic games and one that’s… well, just okay.

ROADKILL didn’t necessarily bring much new to the table, but everything it did was so well optimised and slickly presented that it felt better than it had any right to.

The game features a combo system backed by excellent speech samples, making it incredibly rewarding — not just to hit the maximum combo, but to hear that glorious “SUPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH JACKPOT!” alongside the music.

ROADKILL really has it all when it comes to presentation. It can be quite challenging at first, but once you get the hang of it, that’s when the game truly starts to shine.

Thanks for your time.

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