Gaming on AmigaOS 4.1: Pang!

Hi guys,

In this post we are going to have a look at a true classic in terms of gaming, namely Pang. This is a video game that was originally released back in 1989 by the Mitchell Corporation. It proved very popular and was ported to many systems like the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, PC and Atari ST. Even AmigaOS 4 does have this game in its library thanks to the porting efforts of Spot/Up Rough!.

So what is Pang all about? The gameplay is pretty simple; You are in control of a character on the screen whose aim it is to destroy giant bouncing balls. Once you’ve managed to clear the screen of the dangerous balls (you die if they hit you), you advance to the next level. These balloons are terrorizing the Earth’s landmarks and cities, so a geography lesson can be learned while playing. This is a good excuse for letting your kids play it, hehe.

Many of you are probably familiar with the original Amiga version of the game. I’ve also seen a remastered edition available on Steam lately, so some might have spotted that one too. Here we’re naturally going to have a look at the AmigaOS 4 version and how it plays. As you can see from the intro-screen above, the game runs in a nice window in Workbench. I did not manage to get a full-screen mode, so it might be restricted to a window size.

To get started with Pang, follow these steps:

First you need to download the game from OS4Depot, the number one site for AmigaOS 4 related files. You can click here to grab it directly. To install the game, just unpack it to a location of your choice. Then you double-click on the icon to launch the game. Very easy!

Now, how does the OS4 version play? The game starts of with an intro-screen and you must click on the “C” button to start. You then enter the first level. You control your character with the arrow keys moving left and right, while using “C” to shoot ropes up in the air.

The gameplay is pretty smooth and like the original. Graphics looks good and the sound is fine as well. Nothing to complain about here. Upgrades are also present, which can make you invincible or provide you with different weapons.

As you can see from the screenshot above, this is what you are greeted with when you’ve completed a level. 🙂 It gets worse for each level, so hang in there!

There is really not much more to say about Pang, than that the OS4 version is pretty good. It has all the elements included, except the full-screen mode. If someone knows how to make it full-screen, please let me know. 🙂

Since the game is freely available for download and quite a bit of fun to, I recommend you try it if you have some minutes to spare for some old-school gaming. It’s also good for getting your kids to share your Amiga passion.

Thanks for reading this post about Pang, a game for AmigaOS 4, and hope to see you in another post. This was the first attempt at writing about a game on this blog, but fortunately not the last. 🙂

See you!