Originally debuting on the Famicom Disk System in 1986, Castlevania has been released on countless other consoles and computers over the years, but not every port was created equal.
In 1990, the Hungarian developer Novotrade released a disappointing version of the Famicom classic on the Commodore Amiga, provoking a fair amount of confusion over how the game somehow managed to look and feel much worse than its 8-bit counterpart.
Now, though, thanks to Dante Retro Dev, it seems that Amiga fans are finally getting a brand new version that they can be proud of, with the hobbyist developer taking advantage of the Scorpion Engine toolset and tiles/sprites from the Sharp X68000 version to create an enhanced remake of the original (thanks IndieRetroNews!).
Here's a description of the game published on the project page:
"A remake of the 1987 original but with visuals inspired by Castlevania Chronicles and other non-8-bit titles in the series. The goal was to provide a playable and pure version of the original Castlevania but with an Amiga flavor. Not a port of the Sharp X68000 or PlayStation "Castlevania Chronicles" game, it only happens to use many level tiles and sprites from that game because it's a practical rendition of how OG Castlevania would look in 16-bit or 32-bit."
The latest demo of the game is available for free now from itch.io, just in time for Halloween. It adds levels 10-15 of the game as well as a bunch of new enemies and bosses that were missing from earlier demos. It can be played in an emulator or on real hardware (it requires a base Amiga 1200 or equivalent). You can watch a video of it in action below: