Commodore Amiga: a visual commpendium

Retronator Photo Review

This is a repost from Retronator Magazine on the Stampsy platform. I’ll be transferring those articles here for completeness sake. Original publish date of this review was May 10, 2015.

Just received Bitmap Books’ tome of Amiga pixel art goodness. The Commpendium (pun intended) puts visuals front and center with beautiful imagery that Amiga’s always been undisputed champion of (for its time, and in terms of pixel art, still up there).

I think I found an Easter egg. If you know what was on the inside of an Amiga case, you know what I’m talking about.

The hardcover Collector’s Edition is packed full of Amiga trinkets.

The book is the result of Sam Dyer’s second Kickstarter (the first one being about the C64, and the third one, with a campaign launching Friday (n.b. now already completed), about the ZX). I’m glad I backed it since the thing can hardly be more than what I was looking for. Even though I never had an Amiga, I’ve always admired its screenshots in 80s computer magazines. Now that I’m so involved in pixel art, this is an invaluable reference of great artistry.

Indy Heat is exactly what I’m talking about when I say artistry. So many details packed into so few pixels.

I mean look at this. It’s three pixels, but we all know it’s a person. That is the power of pixel art. And this is how beauti-fully sharp every pixel is printed.

Despite never owning an Amiga, I’ve played quite some of its titles on the PC. Probably years later, when the clunky ma-chines (that eventually took over the world) caught up from the fugly CGA and EGA palettes.

I’m glad I got a bookmark since the book has more than 400 pages. (Actually, the hardback also has that nifty string thingy — forgive me for not knowing the correct expression — in both red and white color to mark where you left off.)

I’m very happy that the book features not only one, but two Lotuses. Looking very forward to reading this interview.

I clearly remember this illustration from one of those computer maga-zines I used to browse as a kid. It’s nice to find out who the author is and read about him in a few pages long feature.

A prominent thing of the Collector’s Edition is a poster for Another World (a.k.a. Out of This World for you America, or Outer World アウターワールド if you read Katakana).

With the ZX Spectrum edition rounding up the trilogy, I’m looking forward to having all three on my bookshelf. After laying my eyes carefully on every page cover to cover.

Either you want it for the pixels or for the memories (in that case, I envy you), you can pick your copy in digital or material variants at: bitmapbooks.co.uk

I hope you’ve enjoyed another visual heavy article from Retronator Magazine! This was the second one I wrote when this project started on Stampsy and it solidified my “images first, text later” approach. As noted on top, I’ll be reposting old content over the next couple weeks. I’m starting a very busy and crucial month of my life (I’ll write about that soon too) so these reposts will come handy. The great thing about pixel art is that it never gets old.

— Retro