Road Avenger, Out Now On Amiga CD32

Pixelglass Games returns with yet another LaserDisc / SEGA CD FMV game port. Last year’s release, Time Gal, was a solid port and a genuinely unique experience on the Amiga.

Now they’re back with Road Avenger from Data East, marking the third entry in the ReImagine series — a label dedicated to unofficial fan projects and, more often than not, some truly fascinating releases. For us here at The AmigaGuru’s blog, this series has become something of a treasure trove.

There’s just something magical about seeing these old LaserDisc-era FMV titles revived and reworked for Amiga hardware. It’s niche, it’s ambitious, and it’s exactly the kind of project that keeps the retro scene exciting.

Road Avenger plays much like most other FMV arcade titles. You control the action by pressing a button or moving the joystick in the direction indicated by the on-screen prompt.

And this is probably where many gamers immediately go: “What? That sounds terrible!”

Well… FMV games definitely aren’t for everyone.

That said, they represent a very specific era of gaming — a time when developers were pushing optical media to its limits, trying to merge cinema and interactivity. When it works, it creates a unique, almost theatrical experience.

It’s no secret that there were countless FMV games that could — and arguably should — have been ported to the Amiga back in the day. For reasons we’ll probably never fully understand, that wave largely passed the platform by. We ended up with a handful of titles for the CDTV and later the CD32… and then the momentum simply stopped.

Which makes projects like this feel even more special today. They’re not just ports — they’re glimpses into an alternate timeline where the Amiga embraced the full FMV craze.

One of the main reasons we didn’t see more FMV games on the Amiga was, without a doubt, technical limitations. Even though the CD32 was more than capable — especially with the optional FMV Module — we still ended up with surprisingly few titles that truly took advantage of it.

It always felt like unrealized potential.

Interestingly, Road Avenger originally went by a different name: Road Blaster. That was later changed — for fairly obvious reasons — due to the existence of a certain Atari coin-op hit, RoadBlasters.

What makes this release even more impressive is that Pixelglass Games has essentially achieved something that was out of reach back in the day: a full-speed movie player running on a wide range of Amiga hardware.

That alone is a remarkable technical accomplishment — and a fascinating glimpse into what might have been if the platform had fully embraced the FMV era.

So, what about the game then?

First of all, I’ve only tested the CD32 version, so this review is based entirely on that release.

Now here’s something that completely threw me off at first: the CD32 version never shows the standard CD32 boot menu. Instead, as soon as the disc starts spinning, the system suddenly reboots.

Naturally, I assumed something was wrong. I thought the CD image was corrupted, the ISO was faulty, or I’d messed up the burn process. So what did I do? I burned another disc. And another. And another…

Let me save you the trouble:

THE CD32 IS SUPPOSED TO REBOOT.

Yes — that reboot is intentional. It’s how this particular release initializes. So if your CD32 suddenly restarts when the disc spins up, don’t panic. That’s not failure — that’s the game doing its thing.

The “Menu” (That Doesn’t Look Like a Menu)

Next up is the game’s “menu” — and I use that word loosely.

There’s absolutely nothing that tells you it’s a menu at all. No flashing cursor. No highlighted options. No obvious layout. Very much like Time Gal, it just kind of… exists.

What you do get is a brilliant intro song blasting away, and a small piece of text at the bottom that simply says:

“START”

That’s it.

But here’s the trick: flick the joystick left, right, up, or down and you’ll suddenly discover there are actually quite a lot of options hidden there. It’s just not visually communicated in any obvious way.

And honestly? That’s part of the charm.

Best of all, the game includes both Practice and Easy modes — which is fantastic for those of us who would prefer to actually play the game instead of repeatedly watching the Game Over sequence.

Because yes… the game is hard. Properly hard.

(Picture below shows the so-called “start menu.”)

Performance & Controls

Technically, the game runs beautifully.

The video playback is smooth and solid throughout. It never stutters, never glitches, and most importantly, it never breaks the gameplay flow. For a CD32 title, that’s a huge plus.

Controls are simple and limited — just two buttons, or you can play using only the joystick, which honestly works best for me.

If you configure it that way in the menu:

• Push forward for Turbo
• Pull back to Brake

Simple. Responsive. Effective.

And once you get used to it, it feels surprisingly natural.

I actually find Road Avenger to be the better game compared to Time Gal, mainly because of the setting.

The whole post-apocalyptic biker vibe just hits harder. The video footage looks cool, the action feels more intense, and dare I say it — it’s actually pretty immersive once you get into the rhythm of it.

That said, it is very much a standard FMV-style experience. You won’t exactly be blown away by what’s happening on screen today. The animation quality, the compression, the interaction — it’s all very much of its time.

But here’s the important part:

If this had landed in 1993, running on the same hardware?

It would have felt absolutely mind-blowing.

Back then, seeing full-screen animated sequences streaming off a CD on an Amiga would have felt like the future had arrived in your living room.

Sound & Compatibility

All audio is handled through the legendary Paula chip, which is great news for compatibility. In theory, this means the game should run on most Amigas, not just the CD32 — provided you’ve got a hard drive setup in place.

You don’t necessarily need a CD-ROM drive if the data is installed to HDD, which opens things up nicely for expanded A1200 setups and similar configurations.

(Though as always with Amiga hardware… “should run” and “will run” are sometimes two very different things 😉).

This time around, you’re treated to several different versions of the box art — just to make it even harder to decide which one you actually prefer.

And of course, that means you’ll spend far too long comparing them.

I ended up going with the DVD cover option for now, mainly because I had spare cases lying around. It’s a practical solution, and honestly, it still looks great on the shelf.

But if you’re the perfectionist type, you’ve got options. Plenty of them.

The full game can be downloaded directly from the Pixelglass website. Just make absolutely sure you grab the correct version — there are quite a few available, depending on your setup.

CD32.
HDD.
Different configurations.

It’s not complicated, but it’s very easy to grab the wrong build if you’re not paying attention.

(Here’s a direct download solution for you…)

Downloads

• RoadAvenger1.3-OCS-CD32.iso  (For CD32 and 2x Speed CD equipped OCS machines)
• RoadAvenger1.3/-AGA.iso (For 4x Speed CD equipped AGA machines – will not work on CD32)
• RoadAvenger1.3-OCS.lha (For HDD equipped OCS machines)
• RoadAvenger1.3-AGA.lha (For HDD equipped AGA machines)
• RoadAvenger-Covers.zip (Featuring covers by Tsak, AmigaJay, and SteveUK)

I have not tried it on my Indigo machine yet, but based on my TIME GAL testing showed that it worked after a small update from Pixelglass, more info as soon as we have tested the game.

I’ve also included a YouTube playthrough video, because let’s be honest — there are plenty of people out there who absolutely hate these kinds of games and would rather sit back and watch someone else take the hits instead.

And that’s perfectly fine.

So if you’re in that camp… grab a coffee, press play, and enjoy.

As for the game itself, Pixelglass has done an outstanding job here. I genuinely struggle to find anything meaningful to complain about — and that’s saying something.

Everything feels polished.
Everything works.
Everything runs the way it should.

And in our little Amiga community, we don’t exactly get high-quality, fully realized releases like this every single week. When something this solid appears, it deserves attention. It deserves discussion. Most importantly, it deserves to be played.

Now yes — Road Avenger might lean heavily into its Japanese anime roots, and that style won’t click with absolutely everyone.

But come on.

Give it a proper chance.

You might end up loving it just as much as I did.

So what are you waiting for?

AVENGE THEM! 🔥🏍️💥

Oh And let’s not forget to thank RoarTJ for his feature image for the blog post (Yes that’s me in the picture) :-).