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[waltc]

Here's a link to the free version of the VGA game (2.08mb)...in case anyone is interested. The free download is very slow (~5k/s) but the game is only a couple of megs...so it doesn't take long...

No doubt about it, the VGA version is the one to have...!

http://www.old-games.com/download/3932/drakkhen

I've spent several days comparing them, and the 256-color VGA version is decidedly superior to the Amiga version of the game (so far)...which is unusual for the period. Highly recommended. The sound tracks are different, but thankfully the VGA DOS version actually uses a soundblaster16 (emulated under Dosbox) instead of the PC speaker beeps so common to the period..! The soundtracks are different as are the sound effects, but it's a toss up as to which is better...

Also, I recommend the Jan-2014 version of DOSbox-SVN-daum as the 2015 version of dosbox_x64.exe doesn't seem as robust as the Jan '14 version (so far.) This is the true gamer's version of dosbox, implementing shader effects and more. Prior to the Jan 2014 versions, there is no 64-bit dosbox.exe (which works splendidly, btw.)

http://ykhwong.x-y.net/

*EDIT: Wanted to come back and add that the Amiga version includes wonderful weapon/fighting sounds that the VGA version lacks--in the Amiga version you can hear the swords clang as they meet, etc. Very nice. Sound in the VGA version looks to be something added to the game after the manuals and documentation were finished because even in "minimum config" there is no sound card of any kind listed...Lol... Too bad they couldn't manage to squeeze in the weapon/fighting sounds..! The VGA music sound track is as good as the Amiga's, imo, even though the two are completely different--but no real sound effects in the VGA version, even though in the game's controls under disc/music, sound & music are separated with separate volume controls--strange, but no matter how I config the dosbox soundblaster I cannot get sounds to work--even assuming they are there.

Also, I found a slightly better installation (than installing the VGA version by itself) to be:

Use 7zip to copy .IMA floppies 1-5 (here) to a folder you've named Drakken. Then decompress the VGA version I link to above and copy all the unzipped files to your Drakkhen Folder, overwriting all. Through dosbox, from your DRAKKHEN folder, run TATOU.com to run the game without sound; run Drakkhen.com to run the game with sound (which so far I've found to just be music tracks.) What's "better" is that before the game begins you can now choose EGA mode just to see how horrible the EGA version of the game looks...--EGA doesn't work at all when installing the VGA version by itself.

Another plus for the VGA version: The VGA version of the game does not use disk-based copy protection, as does the Amiga version--indeed the official VGA/PC manuals state that the preferred way to play the game is with *copies of your game disks*...! They must've had a lot of trouble with the Amiga disk-based copy protection as the VGA version shipped ~1year after the Amiga version, and with no disk-based copy protection.

Even to this day the Amiga version (which I run under WinUAE 3.0 on top of Win8.1x64) has serious problems running copies of the original copy-protected disks! As was common to disk-based copy protection in ~1990, the game can recognize when it has been copied and keep you from continuing to play with the same disk. My original Amiga floppy bit the dust long ago--very common with Amiga floppy games of the period--C='s FAT file system for formatting floppies was horrible--in hindsight, of course. I've been through ~15 Amiga 880k disk images so far and *all* of them thus far are affected by the copy protection. Still hunting for a bit-perfect copy of the original Amiga game disk.

Best play: VGA version, hands down--the *only* exception being the Amiga version's superior rendering of fighting sound effects.