ScuzzBlog: Diaries September 2026
Entry 27th September 2026: Post 1: Amiga Pirates - and the value of empty boxes.
Amiga Pirates - and the value of empty boxes.
I generally store all my disks in disk boxes. I also place all
game manuals on shelves in alphabetical order. This avoids the
damaging of boxes by pulling them off shelves and lets me store
boxes in tubs so I don't need to access them. Where I can, I make
a copy of my disks and place in my Amiga vault. When a box has
a number of disks it avoids them laying flat and on top of each
other.
Imagine my surprise today when searching for a compilation box
of games to find disks rattling around in a Pirates game box.
Pirates was first conceived by Sid Meier and Arnold Hemdrick at
Microprose in 1987 for the Commodore 64. They are credited in
the 1990 Amiga game along with those responsible for the project.
The game is a fantasy adventure role playing game where you sail
the seven seas plundering along the way. Usual pirate stuff.
Back to my empty boxes. I was so aghast at the disks not being
in disk boxes I hot footed to the Amiga and fired up the game.
Sadly the 'disk a' would not boot instead it threw up checksum
errors. It got worse when I tried on another drive as it was
simply not recognised. I remember then using a couple of really
crappy old Amiga Format disks the other day that failed and
suspected I had contaminated the drive head and disk. I moved
the disk to three other Amiga's and it failed every time. On
my second drive I was able to see the file structure but it
simply wouldn't play ball... curses !
Nothing for it but to fire up the Repository and see if I had
copied the disks. Thankfully in 2017 I had made ADF images and
stored them in the game section of the vault under period games.
I dragged the files to the emulator and they ran without fault.
Not a particularly inspiring game though I did play until I was
needed to insert the second disk just to make sure they both
worked. Phew !! Not quite sure what happened between 2017 and
now but I am most suspicious of the drive on the Amiga and
have now given it a damn good thrashing.
As ever distracted from my original task and that was to find
the box art of the Virgin Beau Jolly compilation box set of
Cannon Fodder, The Chaos Engine, The Settlers and T2 the Arcade
Game. Undeniably a classic set of games for the Amiga. I was
most pleased to discover the box completely empty... 'just the
way I like it'. To quote a video I recently watched.. er hmmm..
better not go there.
Anyhoo box art recorded and all games still playable. I shall
have another go at retrieving the files off the disk though I
may need to call in a big box to see what is what. I guess in
truth disks will eventually give up on me. Thankfully I have
copied most.
For those wanting to read more about the game there is a game
review in Amiga Format issue 9 for April 1990.
Amiga Pirates - and the value of empty boxes.
|
