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As somebody who never owned an Amiga as a kid, there were a few times when I was insanely jealous of my Commodore-blessed chums, despite the fact that I viewed consoles like the Mega Drive and SNES as superior to the 16-bit home computer.
One of those times was when I witnessed Rob Anderson's Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight running on a friend's Amiga 500. While it looked like a four-player hack-and-slash action game, Moonstone featured a turn-based sub-mechanic that made it feel like an RPG, and it also had a surprising amount of blood and gore. As you can imagine, that only helped elevate the game's reputation with impressionable youngsters like myself.
Amazingly, we've never had a sequel to this cult classic – but now, 35 years later, it seems that Moonstone is rising once more thanks to the efforts of its fans.
"Led by long-time members of the Moonstone community with diverse development skills and video game industry experience, the project seeks to recreate and enhance the original experience for Amiga AGA systems while preserving the atmosphere, tension, charm, and brutal combat that made the original so memorable," says the team behind 'Moonstone AGA'.
Tony Landais, a long-time Moonstone fan and former Team17 developer, is leading the development. He is joined by Rob Taylor, former professional video game journalist (GamesMaster, Edge) and founder of The Moonstone Tavern. Original creator Rob Anderson isn't currently involved, but the team has reached out and hopes to convince him to take part.
Moonstone AGA will firstly be made available via the AmigaOS HD Installer and (if possible) WHDLoad on original Commodore Amiga 1200 systems equipped with FAST RAM, according to the team behind it. "It will therefore be playable on original Commodore Amiga 1200s, via WinUAE or software emulated products like THE A1200, and hardware emulation like the MiSTer FPGA."
Sadly, Amiga 500 owners will have to make do with the 1991 original. "Unfortunately, it looks like the popular A500 Mini (which can run some AGA titles) doesn’t have enough RAM which is a shame.. but then this IS for the A1200 and we want to maximise the experience for the advanced hardware."
This updated version of the game is expected to launch this year and will be free. "If in time, if the community was interested in added functionality (like online multiplayer), there may be a small voluntary charge to help with hosting costs," says an FAQ page. "This would not be to make a profit or to turn the project into a commercial entity, but simply [to] meet costs."
It has also been suggested that the game could eventually be ported to the Mega Drive and SNES as part of this venture.
This entire venture seems possible only because of the arrival of AI coding tools, something that has caused plenty of controversy in recent times. "AI has helped make Moonstone AGA possible; the project would have been unaffordable and incredibly time-consuming otherwise," reads the project's FAQ page.
"But AI is just one of many tools used, primarily to help analyse the original code and assist with artwork creation. However, every enhancement is reviewed, refined, and integrated by hand. To be clear; Moonstone AGA isn’t AI-generated; it’s Tony’s vision of what Moonstone might have looked like on the original A1200 AGA hardware."
It remains to be seen how much AI was used in "artwork creation", and I'd be quite disappointed to see the game's otherwise fantastic 2D art rendered with generative AI rather than hand-drawn, as it was back in 1991.