The cancelled Amiga and Atari Falcon ports of Raiden are now playable

Playable preview builds of the cancelled Commodore Amiga and Atari Falcon ports of Raiden have been recovered and released online. The preservation site Games That Weren't published the files this week, giving players their first hands-on look at two computer conversions that never made it to store shelves.

Seibu Kaihatsu originally released Raiden into arcades in April 1990. The vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up was a massive hit. It was known for its relentless difficulty, wide spread-shot weapon upgrades, and massive boss encounters. Players piloted the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter against an alien invasion. They had to dodge dense bullet patterns that laid the groundwork for the bullet hell genre that would follow.

The game's arcade success prompted ports to almost every console of the era, from the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis to the PC Engine. In 1993, UK-based developer Imagitec Design began working on official computer conversions for the Amiga and the Atari Falcon.

Reviewed but never released

Imagitec Design is best known for developing Tempest 2000 and The Humans. The studio's Amiga port of Raiden targeted Advanced Graphics Architecture machines. Commodore introduced the AGA chipset in late 1992 with the Amiga 1200 and 4000 computers. The upgraded hardware allowed for a 256-color display, which was crucial for replicating the vibrant, detailed sprite work of the arcade original.

Development went smoothly enough that the game was reportedly finished. It even received coverage and full reviews in several Amiga magazines at the time. The project was ultimately shelved anyway. The mid-1990s market was shifting rapidly toward 3D consoles like the PlayStation, and publishers were losing interest in 16-bit computer ports. The Amiga preview build that just surfaced is a one-level demo. It appears this specific build was being prepared for a release on the KIXX budget label before the plug was pulled.

The Atari Falcon port suffered a similar fate. Atari released the Falcon in 1992 as a high-end multimedia computer. It featured a Motorola 68030 CPU and a dedicated digital signal processor, making it a capable machine for arcade conversions. However, Atari discontinued the computer just a year later to focus entirely on the Jaguar console. That short lifespan killed off dozens of in-development games. You can now download the Atari Falcon preview build to see how far Imagitec got before the hardware died.

Somewhere on a DAT tape

The history of these ports is still being pieced together. Developer Andrew Seed recently provided new details about the production pipeline. While Seed had indicated that both the Amiga and DOS versions of Raiden were ported from an initial Atari build, it now appears the Amiga version was largely based upon Imagitec’s DOS conversion. The full origin of these ports may be more complex than initially understood.

There is still a chance the complete Amiga version will see the light of day. Former Imagitec developer Adrian Hirst reportedly possesses the finished game on a DAT tape. Relying on an over 30-year-old magnetic tape for software preservation is a terrifying prospect, but it is better than nothing.

For now, these preview files are the only playable evidence of Imagitec's work on the Commodore and Atari platforms. The studio eventually moved on to other projects before Gremlin Interactive acquired them in 1996. These specific ports remain a strange footnote in the history of a very famous arcade shooter. They are preserved just enough to prove they existed.

Raiden Legacy is available on Humble Bundle for $1.99 (80% off).

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