NEONnoir
A downloadable game
The acid rain washed the city's neon blood into the Gutter; home for those who ran out of options.
The Gutter wasn't just a cliche metaphor, it was the city's most ruthless and dangerous district. Few chose to live there willingly; when your credits ran dry, there was nowhere else to go.
When Danni Ashton went missing, her worried father came to you for help. Can you find her before it's too late?
Description
NEONnoir is a hybrid point-and-click adventure/visual novel game for the Amiga 1200.
This game was created over 5 months for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam whose purpose was to bring new faces into that community and help share knowledge of Blitz Basic programming.
I'd never heard of Blitz Basic before, but the community was so supportive and uplifting that I could not help but participate. This is my flowery way of saying, "reader beware, my code is crap." I would do things completely differently now that I've learned so much.
Five months sounds like a lot, but it's the longest I've ever worked on a game. This is the most complex story I've ever made and while it's silly and full of tropes, I'm pretty proud of it.
Your time is precious, here's a walkthrough!
Hardware Requirements
Amiga 1200 with 2MB of Chip RAM, 4MB or more of Fast RAM, a hard drive with at least 5MB of free space.
Installation
In order to play the game you need an Amiga 1200 with a hard drive or an emulator, such as WinUAE. Unfortunately, in order to emulate an Amiga, you will need the system ROMs. Those can be purchased at https://www.amigaforever.com/
Once you have a working environment, you need to download the NEONnoir.lha file and extract it on your hard drive. Find the NEONnoir executable and double-click it. You'll be solving mysteries in no time!
In case you're having problems installing here's what I hope is a comprehensive installation guide.
PAL and NTSC
If you want to force the game to run in NTSC mode regardless of your hardware or display, you can do so by adding a new ToolType to the "neonnoir.info" file. Simply add "FORCE_NTSC" and save. Next time you run the game it will force itself into NTSC mode.
How to play
The game is point-and-click and it has a very minimal inventory system. You won't need to try every object on every surface in order to advance. However, here's how you control the game.
The game is entirely mouse driven. As such you will see 4 different types of mouse pointers:
 | The regular mouse pointer. |
 | Will tell you something interesting when hovered over a part of the scene |
 | Will use of otherwise engage what ever is under it |
 | Leaves the current scene. A lot of times, the edges of the screen contain an exit |
 | Please wait, the game is loading. |
You can access the game's menu to look at your inventory, save the game, or quit the game by clicking on the PDA icon on the bottom right of the screen. It looks like this:
Code and License
To make the game, I've build a few tools for myself that run on Windows: palette editors, image converters, an assembly like language that runs user scripts inside the game, and of course a game editor. This code is also crap. I was throwing together things as quickly as possible. Good luck running the editor not attached to a debugger.
Since this was meant to be an educational tool, the source code has a dual license:
- All the Blitz Basic and C++ source code is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license. That means that you can use, remix, change, and update the code as you see fit. You just need to give me attribution.
- All other assets are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. You can use them for educational purposes but you cannot make any derivative works from it. In other words, please don't use my assets for your games.
The source code in Amiga friendly format is found as one of the downloads, or for the development environment, you can see my Github: https://github.com/steamknight/NEONnoir
Credits
Programming, Story, and some Art: me :)
Additional art by SandySketches
Music by Matías Sosa
Special thanks to all the new friends I made on the https://discord.gg/eu7vRzYPXd who have not only helped me learn this new language, supported me in my longest project to date!
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- PAL/NTSC fixJan 07, 2023
- NEONnoir v1.1Jan 03, 2023
- Making NEONnoirNov 09, 2022
- Installation GuideNov 06, 2022
- NEONnoir WalkthroughNov 01, 2022
Comments
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This was a really enjoyable game, love the atmosphere and music track. Hope to see more Amiga Games from you in the future. (Longer gameplay and bigbox release would have made this a future classic)
Really enjoying this! It reminds me of Snatcher and I guess you enjoyed that game, too. I never owned an Amiga and I'm really impressed a system of that age can produce visuals like this. Please keep making stuff like this if you still enjoy it, I will certainly buy from you again.
Just wanted to say I really enjoyed the game and also donated for your work. I really like the ambience, the sound effects, the music, the story driven cyberpunk visual narrative, and in particular, it is on the best computer in the world, the Amiga, I hope for a follow up sequel. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words and generosity!
Plans are currently in the works for a sequel, so stay tuned! :)
Excellent game! Its atmosphere and artwork is superb.
I think I've found a game breaking bug. If you choose to load a game without having previously saved one, an zero byte 'save.neon' file is created in the game's drawer. Then when you actually start a new game, the PDA icon doesn't work. Instead of showing the game's options, it rushes through some character dialogues without the player's participation.
I believe that this is something that can easily be fixed.
Thanks for a great game!
I’m glad you liked it!
Thanks for reporting that bug. I’ll add it to my list of improvements for the game.
Thank you!
Now that my A1200 is finally fixed, I had the pleasure to play the game from start to finish in one day. I really liked it a lot, and I hope to see more of the likes in a near future. Thanks for coding it.
Best regards
Gianluca
Thank you, Gianluca! I hope to have more stories in the future!
I hope so too. I'll keep in touch.
Would you be able to make an amigacd32 iso out of this game? It would be much easier (or possible) to then play on an emulator. Thanks and be well!!
Exceptional game, loved it! The combination of narrative and graphics is great.
It'll initiate a new interest on the Amiga platform :)
Thanks so much! I’m really glad you loved it :D
Finally got round to playing this, and completed it, a fantastic game, very compelling and not too difficult. Making amazing use of Blitz. Well done.
Thanks so much!
Thank you, this is quite an entertaining game! I wrote about it here: https://www.goodolddays.net/game/id%2C1516/Neon-Noir.html
Thank you so much for the generous review! I’m glad you enjoyed it :)
Hello and thank you for making this game! I am a huge fan of point-and-click adventure games. I have seen youtube reviews and I am very interested in playing it. I have an Amiga 500 mini. Before I purchase, can you please let me know if it will work on my system and if yes, where can I find some sort of guideline for installing it?
Thanks!
Hi!
I was able to get the game running on an A500 mini, but not through the regular WHDLoad channel.
I might make a small guide for it, but basically you need to get Aminimiga (free download) and set it up on a USB stick. This creates a working desktop environment. If you then un-archive the game in the Shared hardfolder, the game will show up and is totally playable.
You can download the game for free, so it might be worthwhile to give this a shot.
I already have Aminimiga on a USB so this solution seems great to me! I will give it a shot and let you know. Thank you so much for your answer!!!
Hello @steamknight!
It worked like a charm! I only checked out 2 minutes of the game as I am quite busy today, but you have done a fantastic job! I will make a donation!
Thank you very much!
Thanks so much! I’m glad it worked and I hope you enjoy it. And thank you for your donation!
I am happy to donate! I hope you make more games for the Amiga! Have a good one!
The Game has really great atmospheric so far,
BUT ;)
there are quiet a few spelling mistakes and
some of them are really odd. (T_T)
Otherwise i really enjoy the game and i want to thank & congratulate for making it !
btw, i tried it on FPGA Mist/er and WinUAE,
just to make sure.
Greetings and BIG RESEPCT !!!
Torti the Smurf
PS:Are other languages planed ?
For example, German ?
I could help if you want.
Take care mate,
Torti
Thanks Torti for your kind note.
I’m finalizing a new version that has (hopefully) a lot fewer spelling mistakes, but I likely won’t be able to release it until after the holidays.
After I’m 100% sure that the English version is complete and it won’t change anymore, I’ll be looking to translate it in other languages. Two people reached out to help translate to Italian and French. I would love to also have German and would welcome you help if you’re willing to give it. I’d happily put your name in the credits of the game.
Hi Knight. (T_T)
Please; take your time ; don´t rush it. ;)
Enjoy the Xmas season with your familiy & friends.
About the German version tho.
How exactly will we do that ? :)
( I can edits scripts but i am too stupid for REAL programming;) )
How will the process work ? Can i do it on the spot (maybe like a simple "text file" that i open up in Blitz ?)
or will you send me the whole text in a "word" like document ?
or you will send me the tool/s that i need and i simply change the text ?
Sorry for that (maybe) stupid questions,
but i only helped once with a Fan translation and there we where a whole team. (we got the tools and simply changed the text)
I am confident that i can translate the language, but i am not sure how the workflow will be.
PS: I am brand new to itch.io ; and i did not find the option to write you a PM ;)
Is there a option like that ?
Sorry for the maybe stupid question/s :)
We stay in touch ok, Knight ?
PS:If you are on EAB AMIGA you could add & PM me there (T_T)
Have a wonderful XMas Season Knight.
Yours truly,
Torti
I'm having trouble running the game on an A1200 with a TF1230 accelerator. The game launches, I get the developer logo and the music plays. However I then get a black screen. The music continues but there is nothing on the screen. Grateful for any ideas on how to get this running!
Interesting, my testing machine was a PAL A1200 with a TF1230 with the game installed on the CF card.
Is your Amiga PAL or NTSC? (I’m not sure that it should make a difference, but if we can figure out how our systems differ, maybe it will give me an idea of what the issue is) How much chip RAM do you have free when you start the game? NEONnoir is pretty hungry and I believe it can peek at over 1MB. Is it possible that you have some utilities that are eating into it?
That is interesting. I'm not aware of any utilities running, though I am running OS3.2.1 if that helps?
I'll check what the memory situation is later when I stop pretending to work :)
You were spot on, it was a RAM issue. I removed the OS3.2 wallpaper and it now works perfectly! Thanks for your help!!
Yay! I’m glad you got it working. Sorry it’s so memory hungry :)
Just downloaded and got to play this game, it's an interesting visual novel... However, there's a point I think it's a dead-end here, maybe a bug. Not making any spoilers, but it's something regarding the inventory.
Thanks again for helping me find this issue. I have a fix that will go live early next week when I’m allowed to upload again.
Amazing game so far :) I love the atmosphere and the game runs great. Perfect mix of visual novel and point 'n click adventure.
Thank you, I’m glad you’re liking it!
Very nice game and awesome graphics! More information about our German-language review can be found here (switch on automatic subtitles, if necessary). Subscription to our YouTube or Twitch channel is welcome!
Thanks for playing the game! I’ve subscribed and followed! :)
Hi I have WinUAE but I can't get it to work. Do you have Youtube for installation?
Hi, I’m sorry that you’re having issues trying to get the game to run. Unfortunately I don’t have a video showing the installation, but I’ve gone and made an installation guide that you can find here. Hopefully it will help you out.
Let me know if that fixes it.
Thank you and I am going to give it a try and get back to you soon!
It Works!
I learn how to do a Harddrive, installed Work Bench and run your game!
Great game!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it and that you were able to get the emulator setup to run it!
Hi, having trouble getting the game to work. I have a Mac with FS-UAE emulator. Where's the exe file? Thanks.
Hi! Thanks for downloading the game!
Since I don’t know know how much experience you have with Amiga emulation, I’ll try to explain things in detail, I hope it doesn’t come across as patronizing.
The game and the assets are in the NEONnoir.lha file in the downloads page. This is like a zip file that was popular on Amiga.
In FS-UAE, you’ll need to set up Amiga 1200 emulation. If this is your first time, I would recommend checking out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq7VUxVKwcA, he uses a Linux system, but it should be the same for Mac. Basically, you’ll be getting the Amiga ROMs, creating a virtual hard drive, installing the Amiga operating system on it, and you should have a working Amiga. Unfortunately this process take a while to do it it’s your first time. However, you’ll only have to do this once, ever.
Once you have a working Amiga system in FS-UAE, you’ll need to copy the NEONnoir.lha file onto a virtual hard drive. You’ll then need to unpack the game using the lha tool at the command line (inside the Amiga emulator, not on your Mac’s command line) like this “lha x NEONnoir.lha”
Doing that will create a new directory called NEONnoir and it it is the game, double-click it and it should run.
Oh, and you’ll need to make sure you’re emulating an Amiga 1200.
I hope this helps.
I’ve created an installation guide that hopefully you will find helpful. You can find it here.
Bought, downloaded a completed the game. I really appreciate a rather adult cyberpunk story. Graphics and music is excellent. Here is LemonAmiga link https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=4766
Thank you for your game in this pretty unusual genre.
Thank you so much! I’m glad you liked it! And thanks for setting up the page, when I saw it, I lost my mind!
You are missing some ways for people to tip you / offer you a beer. This definitely deserves a donation. Love the atmosphere!
Thank you so much :)
Great game and incredible graphics! We will definitely show it on saturday in our RetroVision Livestream on Radio PARALAX: https://www.twitch.tv/radio_paralax
OMG, thats great!! When does your stream air on Saturday?
It's planned for 8:30 p.m. and could be delayed up to 9:00 p.m. CET. The Amiga Part will be shown later between 10:00 p.m. until 12:00 am. https://www.radio-paralax.de/event/retrovision-plug-play-118-mit-paralax/
The stream will be in german language.
Thanks!
Cyberpunk! I love it!
Thank you!
Will there be a RTG for all Amigas?
Unfortunately not. If that means what I think it means, I would have to rework all the graphics.
Wow, this game looks amazing and right up my alley! Looking forward to playing it! Thank you so much!
Thanks for the kind words! I hope you enjoy it!
The game looks damn good.
Text adventures are unfortunately not my thing, but maybe I'll buy it anyway.
Will there be more languages to choose from ?
Unfortunately, I don't have the capability to localize the game in different languages at the moment.
Maybe there will be time in the future. The A1k forum is often very helpful as well.
Awesome game!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!