For my final blog post of 2025, I wanted to cover the new release Amiga games I got in the post this past week - Phantom Leap, Freak-Out, and Master of Minefields!
So, with these three new release Amiga games in 2025, I got a platformer game, a breakout clone and a re-imagining of Minesweeper (on Windows 3.1) for Amiga....
In this modern era of Steam, Playstation store, Nintendo store and other digital software walled garden libraries which can decide tomorrow to revoke your right to play games you paid for, it is nice to see that the traditional physical box game release is still alive and well for Retro computer platforms like the Amiga.
Very happy for that, and very happy to support it.
I recognise that retro platforms also mostly release titles in 2025 via digital means like Itch.io, Github, AmiStore, and other websites too, not forgetting Aminet, OS4Depot, and MorphOS library websites.
I write these floppy adf files to real floppy disks, and use them the way we did back in the day. I know the floppy drives will fail eventually and force me to use Gotek floppy emulator solutions (and I am prepared for this), but while they work, I will use the real floppy drives and CD drives.
For me, physical box game releases with physical media are what using retro computers is all about - continuing to experience the original physical media experience we had in our younger days.
Also, new release physical box games means a new generation (our kids) can also hopefully discover what they are missing out on with more modern systems like Switch, PS5, Xbox, Steam, etc, and put more pressure on modern developers to release physical boxed games with physical media - not just a code in a box, or releasing a "game cartridge" that doesn't actually contain any game at all (cough - yes I am looking at you Nintendo).
2025 has been a great year for the Amiga, with a lot of new titles released as I covered here and here, and a number of physical boxed game releases.
I didn't buy all the Amiga physical box releases in 2025 as not all games released are of interest to me personally. I probably missed a bunch too, and I don't buy games to have them just sit in their original shrink wrap on a shelf. I buy them to play them and enjoy them.
Here are the physical box Amiga game releases I chose to buy in 2025 - 11 in total. Sky Shapers, Fast Food 2, Settlers 2, Phantom Leap, Master of Minefields, Yoomp!, Tony, AMI H.E.R.O, Freak-Out, Dr. Dangerous - Secrets of the Temple of Xu'Tan, and Dungeonette:
Let's take a look at the newest Amiga games I got this week, starting with Phantom Leap:
Phantom Leap's game box came with stickers, a poster, a full instruction manual and an Amiga floppy disk with professional label on it. It runs on a Amiga 500 with 1MB memory.
Phantom Leap is an interesting platform game, with a curious "leap" mechanic that drops or lifts the player into another area of the current level map when you jump onto a mechanism in certain points of the map.
The graphics are colourful, and the gameplay nice and fast.
The red spring launchers are brutal and it took me a bit to work out how best to position the character to avoid the spikes on the roof of the first screen. On the left side of the screen is the first "leap" which drops you down to the section below:
The backgrounds are great, and as mentioned the foreground graphics are very nice:
You need to collect a certain number of items to open the door to exit each level:
Even though the door was open at this point, I still had one more Apple to find, so I went back to get it!
Level 1 done, 100% completed. Level codes are provided to make it easier to pick up where you left off.
Things quickly get harder in level 2 and beyond.
I think Phantom Leap is a fun game - well worth picking up.
That said, I need a lot more practice at those spring jumps....
So next, let's take a look at Freak-Out.
The physical game box came with an Amiga CD32 CD in the package instead of a floppy disk, since the game was too large for floppy disks:
It also had an instruction manual and poster included, along with some balls which I guess represent the bat and ball genre of the game? No idea...
Despite the clear CD32 labels, this game works on ECS Amiga systems too, albeit with less colourful backgrounds.
To prove it works, I loaded the CD into my Amiga 3000/030 ECS system and installed the game onto the hard disk.
On launch it detects the 68030 CPU and tells me collision detection is more precise (?) and quicker loading:
The Freak-out title screen then appears:
You can play this as a two player game if you have two mice connected to the computer, or as one player (in which case the movement of the bats on each side of the game screen is in sync with a single mouse movement.
There is a story to follow along with as the game opens - a Retro game coder:
The game starts off easily enough, with a screen of various objects to remove with a ball that you control with your bats on the left and right side of the screen.
There are various power ups and bonuses to collect when certain objects are destroyed on the screen, that help (or hinder) your progress!
The story continues as you visit a friends place for inspiration as a retro game coder. He gets you to go to a factory next :-)
The levels are colourful and fun to play - if you like arkanoid style gameplay then you will like Freak-Out for sure.
The game is not just level after level of bat and ball action though.
As I progress, there are picture puzzles to solve - moving blocks around to form a picture with all the parts in the right place to a fixed timer.
Sadly I didn't solve it in the time allowed, but it does let you finish it (you can skip too), although you don't get any bonus time for that!
There is also a shop in the game, that allows you to upgrade your bat with various power ups if you have enough score. This is something to think about, since your score decreases when you buy stuff!
The backgrounds are colourful, and I like that there are sub-games to break up the usual arkanoid style gameplay. For this level, the background photo is the puzzle photo I solved earlier!
The levels do get harder as you progress, but I found it fun to play.
Freak-Out is a game worth picking up for sure.
Last, but not least is the Master of Minefields boxed Amiga game that came from K&A Plus in Poland, who also publish a regular Commodore 64 & Amiga focused magazine.
I chose to get the optional physical AGA version on floppy, physical ECS version on floppy, and the CD version, which includes the HD installer. The instructions are also included in the box.
On a personal level, it feels great to use physical media on the Amiga - it feels right. It's why I set up a ZIP drive on the Amiga 3000, and re-created the Demoscene series of 5 zip disks I used to have on my Amiga 1200/030 system as my hard disk wasn't big enough back then to store them all!
I kept the files as I moved away from zip disks in individual drawers on my bigger hard disk later on, so recreating the disks was easy! They now sit next to the A3000 in the photo below, ready to run demos whenever I want from zip disk. I can also use them on my A1200/030 system, Amiga 2000 and
Amiga 4000T, as I have a zip disk drive on those too.
I picked the SCSI/IDE/Parallel zip drives and zip disks during this year from Adelaide Retro computing group swap meet and on Ebay also. I had some that didn't work, but eventually I got enough working ones to make a useful data transfer device between my Amiga systems.
I also have a laptop removable ZIP drive module on my
Dell Inspiron Windows NT4 laptop I got this year, and an external Parallel port zip drive my late brother gave me to use on my period correct IBM 300GL Windows 2000 system. This opens up transferring data to that system from my Amigas too, since I can read PC formatted zip disks on the Amiga using CrossDOS. :-)
I wanted to install a USB Zip drive on my Mac Studio to transfer data from that too, but sadly I bought two of them from Ebay and both didn't work - they had hardware faults. If someone has a working usb zip drive (100/250) they don't need any more, please let me know!
Yeah, I could use USB sticks for data transfer on my Amiga systems given I also put USB controllers on some of these Amiga systems, but you know, why not? Because I can!
Sorry, off topic. I put in the Master of Minefields CD into my external SCSI CDROM drive on the Amiga 3000.
The installer works well.
Using my Magic WB enhanced Superkickstart Amiga 3000 system makes me very happy. This machine gave me nothing but trouble when I first got it, but I solved all the issues (you can read all about the build on my blog) and now it works great and looks great too.
With the game installed, I launched it:
There are a number of different modes to play this game. I need to spend some more time to explore them - for now I prefer to play it classic Minesweeper style, so its is Campaign mode for me.
I chose Easy, but there are much harder levels of difficulty if you want to!
1st level ready to try - let's dive in:
The game plays exactly like Minesweeper game on Windows 3.1 used to do - flag yet to be uncovered boxes where you think the bombs are. The numbers 1-6 show how many bombs surround that number (3x3)
Then click on the boxes you hope are "safe" to clear them. If you hit a bomb, then you lose one of 3 lives.
Have to admit, playing this on the Amiga in 2025 is very relaxing. I enjoyed the game on Windows 3.1, and was always surprised that we didn't get an Amiga commercial release.
Oops - I guessed wrong and hit a bomb too many times...
As you clear all the boxes for each level, your progress is shown, the next map is unlocked:
Usually you can work out the correct boxes to flag as bombs through logical deduction from the numbers on the screen, but sometimes it is just luck, as it was on the original Minesweeper too.
Clearing the levels is relaxing as I mentioned - I think the graphics are quite good and certainly a leap above the original Minesweeper on Windows!
It is worth picking up this game. It works perfectly booting off floppy disk also - I tested it on my Amiga 500 too.
I also wanted to talk about the setup of my Jaz Drive on the Amiga 4000T.
Back in the day, I really wanted one of these Jaz drives - I had the Zip drives, but each disk was 100MB (95MB formatted), and one Jaz disk was 1GB! I could fit ten zip disks on 1 Jaz disk!
Sadly I could never afford to buy one when they were around. Now in 2025, I got one to try out, and decided to get it working on the Amiga 4000T. The reason is because it has the higher speed SCSI port connector type, which doesn't connect to the older SCSI ports on the other Amiga systems. The Amiga 4000T though does have the right SCSI connector on the motherboard, so all good!
I got a few Jaz disks to go with it, although they were not new ones. Clearly the previous owner had used this drive on a Macintosh system, since the Jaz disks were preformatted for Mac.
I was surprised how big the Jaz disks were in person - I assumed they were slightly bigger than the zip disks I was used to, but actually they are a lot bigger.
Unlike Zip disks, which are structured internally as a floppy style disk with more capacity, a Jaz disk is more like a data tape in design.
The Jaz drive I bought was the 1GB SCSI model. I know there was a later 2GB model too, but this is the one I wanted when I was younger, so this is the one I decided to get, It is also more common, so a bit cheaper than the 2GB version, especially the media..
I connected the SCSI cable to the Scanner.
I then positioned Jaz drive under the shelf on my desk.
From a distance it is hard to know the Jaz drive is even there,
That is of course, until you put a Jaz disk in it.
When you put a Jaz disk in it, the drive noisily whirs into life, sounds every bit like a tape drive. It is definitely not as quiet as a zip drive.
I don't recall anyone mentioning how noisy it is in operation in the reviews back in the day. I guess compared to SCSI tape drives of the era, it is pretty normal.
Aminet has Jaz DOS Driver files and tools to download to use the Jaz Drive on the Amiga.
I extracted the archive, and get three DOS Drivers for the Jaz Drive - to read Amiga formatted Jaz disks (JAZ0), PC formatted Jaz disks (JPC0) and Macintosh formatted Jaz Disks (JMAC0).
I moved the JPC0, JMAC0 and JAZ0 dos drivers to the System DosDrivers drawer and edited the tool types of each, as I needed to update the SCSI device name and ID to match the location of the Jaz Drive on the Amiga 4000T:
The default setting is dkbscsi.device, ID 4. But I need to change it to 2nd.scsi.device (which is the internal SCSI device on the A4000T, as SCSI.device is for the internal IDE devices). I need to change the SCSI ID to 6, as it is set on the back of the Jaz drive.
With this done, I double clicked on the DOSDriver for JAZ0 and it mounted the Jaz disk I had inserted previously in the Jaz Drive! I needed to reformat the disk, since it was formatted for Mac. So I set to work on that:
After the warning to make sure I was ok to format it, it got to work formatting it. Naturally I selected Quick Format, as I don't want to be waiting all day....
With that done, I now have my first Amiga formatted Jaz disk! Very exciting:
I relabelled the Jaz disk I formatted as A4000TBackups, as I decided to use this Jaz disk to make a full backup of my AmigaOS 3.2.2 system partition, which is small enough to fit on a single Jaz disk!
I created a drawer with a date for storing the backup.
I then opened an Amiga Shell session to copy the files to the Jaz drive:
I then let it do it's thing and grabbed a coffee:
It was a bit quicker to copy the files than I expected. I guess the faster scsi cable connection type is the reason. Happy for that!
It is great to have a Jaz Drive on the Amiga 4000T, and using it to do periodic system backups seems like a great use case for me to use this drive to best effect. I tried to buy another one, but it was damaged in transit and unusable. Not sure if I want to get another one - I might keep it just for the A4000T at this stage. The Iomega zip drives are cheaper and easier to find.
With that, this is the last blog post I will do for 2025. It's been a tough year for me personally, and I am glad to see the end of it to be honest.
I wanted to cover more on the Checkmate Monitor in 2025, as I did test it on a lot of other systems and consoles in early 2025.
With my brother's death happening just as I received the s-video module for the monitor to try out more, it was not my priority to look at it for quite a while. With my work commitments being crazy this year, I have not had the time needed to disassemble a monitor to install the s-vdeo module, or to do a the released firmware update.
In addition, I heard recently that there is a hardware fix needed to fix the wiggle on SCART display output from the Amiga, which particularly impacts Workbench screens as I covered in my Part 1 post here. This requires sending part of the monitor internals to the UK to have it repaired and sent back. Something else I need time to do...So I will wait until I get that fix applied to my monitor so I can cover how it works with the fix in place.
There was a lot more I wanted to blog about in 2025 - detailed posts on some cool trains I rode in Japan, computer related projects and some other things I did too. But I have run out of time in 2025.
I came back in late November from a trip to Prague for work for several weeks, and have multiple office setups in multiple countries I am working on right now too.
If you can forgive the small train diversion, I did see some nice trams in action in Prague Old town area as below.
I also visited the Railway model museum in Prague on one weekend. Very impressive model train setup there, recreating Czech Republic, with a natural focus on Prague's railway setup, recreated in miniature:
The detail is stunning:
One day I want to see Miniature wonderland in Germany, the biggest model railway museum in the world. It's on the bucket list! For now though, I am glad to see this one in Prague:
As I write this I just returned from Brisbane where I attended a company strategy session! It's been crazy for me with travel recently.
Quickly though regarding trains in Japan I did back in April, here is the Hinotori train in Japan, along with the Blue Symphony train and Spacia-X.
The Blue Symphony train takes you to Yoshino, which is where the beautiful cherry blossoms cover the mountainside during cherry blossom season:
Blue Symphony is a beautiful train inside:
Some views for the beautiful cherry blossom trees in full bloom at Yoshino - I was lucky enough to be there for it:
I also rode a steam train called Taiju, which runs near Nikko, north of Tokyo.
I also enjoyed riding on Spacia-X, a new train that takes you to Nikko, which is where I rode the steam train Taiju above
The Spacia-X themed bento box lunch you can buy at Asakusa station before boarding Spacia-X is very cool - I had to get one:
The difficult to book compartments in the Spacia-X are also very nice, with the rather unique hexagonal windows to view the passing scenery. We were lucky enough to secure this one below for the trip back to Tokyo.
I hope to have more time in 2026 to blog about train journeys in a lot more detail, but for now this quick section is the best I can do! Sorry to the train fans out there. I'll try to do better in 2026 - I have plenty of train trips planned!
From now I will take a much needed break from my blog for a bit with my family. I have to travel for work commitments in January and early February. So likely the first blog post from me in 2026 will be in mid-late February.
The good news is I have hundreds of blog post articles I have written since 2012 to tide you all over until then! I hope you take the opportunity to explore them!
Finally, I thank you all for following my blog this year and I look forward to doing more blog posts in 2026. In the meantime I wish you, your families and friends a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
