Shadow of the Beast

Information

Genre

Arcade - Platformer (Scrolling)

Language

Machine Language

Controls

Joystick

Players

1

Resolution

Low

Programmer(s)

McCubbin, Mark

Graphic Artist(s)

[unknown]

Game design

Howarth, Paul, Edmondson, Martin

Musician(s)

Whittaker, David

Sound FX

[unknown]

Year

1991

Publisher

Sizzlers

Distributor

Psygnosis

Developer

Eldritch the Cat

Licensed from

-

Country

United Kingdom

License

Commercial

ST Type

ST, STe, 0.5MB

Version

[Re-release]

Number of Disks

2, Double Sided

Votes / Statistics

Rating: 5.1/10 · Votes: 58 · Downloads: 746 · Hits: 6,029

Additional Comments

Screenshots (28)

Cover Art (4)

Posters (1)

Tips (1)

Trivia (5)

Sound

This game features digital titlemusic
Music written with Quartet

Awards:

Golden Joystick Awards: Best 16-bit graphics 1990

Conversion - Atari Lynx

Conversion - Atari 8-bit

Preview

Charts

Top UK ST charts position: 3 (1/1991), 1 (12/1991, 1/1992, 2/1992 budget)
Months on charts: 7 between 1/1991 - 3/1992

Book / Magazine Reviews (1)

ST Format · December, 1990 · Rating: 83%

Comments (10)

• Megalomaniac — 16 Apr 2023

  A style-over-substance Amiga game, converted without the style. Unfortunately everything about this game was designed around showing off the Amiga's chipset, with no consideration for how it played, let alone how it would convert. Wrath of the Demon shows what could have been achieved with a similar gameplay style.

• Trophy — 31 Oct 2021

  Very average and boring game, which looks much better on Amiga 500 (and still is boring). The Atari ST loses nothing here.

• Steve — 11 Sept 2015

  What Christos says.. bang on!

• Christos — 5 Aug 2015

  Yes it is indeed a hard game to convert. It's not really the issue if a 1-1 conversion could have been made, it couldn't have but if with some trade offs it could have been much better, and the answer to that is YES. Of course it could never have been turned into a good game. It's a bad game so we didn't really miss much.

• Denis — 21 Jun 2015

  As the coder explained it, this game was VERY hard to convert on ST, because every trick and hardware effects needed to be converted as software routines, as well as preshift the graphics, this leading to insane memory requirements (2mb!) when the amiga release needed only 512kb to run. The ST to get in software the same result as the Amiga version would need a 68000 running at 20 Mhz...... The STE hardware scroll brings more problems than it solves, because there are no sprites hardware assistance on it. What's the point of having a scroll running at 50 fps when the computer has so many sprites to put on screen at high speed ? the STE (never mind the ST) was not made for that.

• Steve — 18 Jan 2015

  It's not the machine - it's the programmers. They obviously didn't care or wasn't given the chance to take time and effort to get a decent ST release done. I certainly don't blame the ST or hate the Amiga for their version. But perhaps it was their missed opportunity lost anyhow - imagine if they'd have done an STe release instead of an STf game. Imagine the public reaction - they'd have been heroes! Their loss........ hey ho ;) Stay clear of this game. The ST is far more capable and has tons and tons of quality titles. Enjoy those!

• racing gamer — 13 Jan 2015

  Maybe it was done badly on purpose to let the Amiga shine. I read somewhere that there was also 1MB version in the works but it was never released... Seeing many "Beast" demos it could have been possible to code it close to Amiga on ST too.

• Paul Cawley — 27 Dec 2014

  As a lover of Shadow of the Beast, and an ST owner before Amiga, I have to say this is probably the worst possible way a conversion of this title could have turned out - especially when so many Amiga owners were watching to see how it compared to their version!

• Auntie Pastie — 31 Jan 2014

  @Parsnip Function; Never played it myself, but I do know that the Amiga original was- even in the format's heyday- considered by many to be style over substance; technically brilliant, but punishingly difficult and lacking in playability.

• Parsnip Function — 22 Apr 2012

  I remember being in awe seeing this running at the (only) store in the Cleveland area to sell ST software. The intro, like all Psygnosis games, was pretty and dramatic. Too bad when I plunked down the hard earned $ and brought it home the game play sucked. Maybe I was just really bad at it? Lots of memorizing incoming enemy patterns and cheap one hit kills, if I remember.