Smokin' Colts brings a 3D western to classic Amiga
Fliegeralarm Games has released Smokin' Colts, a fully 3D western shooter built for Amiga 1200 and 4000 systems.
Smokin' Colts is a new first-person western shooter for the Amiga 1200 and 4000, with the developer promising a fully 3D frontier town rather than a small collection of static screens. Fliegeralarm Games says the game is built for AGA machines with a 68030 processor, and the official game page lists the full release at $5.49 or more. 1
A classic Amiga western
The game drops players into Dusty Creek, where the local sheriff is struggling to contain Bart Hollis and his gang. The town includes a saloon, bank, sheriff's office, hotel and other buildings, with the developer describing them as enterable locations rather than decorative backdrops. Players can talk to residents, order a drink, investigate quests and take part in duels, gunfights and side activities such as poker. 1
Fliegeralarm Games says the full game contains two chapters, five weapons and a choice between an army captain and an Apache scout. Weather, day-and-night changes, trains, stagecoaches and reactive townsfolk are intended to make the frontier feel more like a living place than a linear shooting gallery. 1
Built for old hardware
The technical pitch is just as unusual. Smokin' Colts uses a sector-and-portal engine with sloped floors, multi-storey buildings, swinging doors and a 360-degree skybox, all rendered with fixed-point maths on a 68030 without an FPU. The listed minimum configuration is an Amiga 1200 or 4000 with AGA, 2MB of Chip RAM, 4MB of Fast RAM and Kickstart 3.x. 1
The developer also lists three screen sizes, four detail levels and support for English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. The game is distributed as an LHA download, with a separate demo available from the same page. 1
Our opinion
Smokin' Colts is newsworthy because it is aiming at a surprisingly ambitious target: a complete western adventure on hardware that predates modern 3D acceleration by decades. The official page is clear that this is a released version, while also noting that the project is still being refined. That combination makes the game's real-hardware focus more interesting than a simple nostalgia port. 1 The biggest unanswered question is how comfortably the larger systems and reactive world run in practice. For now, the confirmed release, unusual setting and unusually specific Amiga requirements are enough to make this a curious new arrival for retro players. 1