Game 13: Wheel of Fortune (1986)

United States (probably)
Released 1986
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Hari Wiguna
Date Started: 26 June 2025
Date Ended: 26 June 2025
Total Hours: 0.5
Difficulty: -
Final Rating: 22

Wheel of Fortune is a fine adaptation of the popular TV game show of the same name for being a very early non-commercial Amiga game. It’s written in AmigaBASIC but feels pretty solid for what it is. I also like it makes it possible to create your own puzzles via data files, which is forward-thinking for the time. I’m giving it a 7 for Programming. The game is mainly mouse-driven, which works fine, but there are also optional keyboard shortcuts which is a nice bonus (and not something you see in every game, annoyingly), so I’m giving it a 6 for Controls. There is a certain nostalgic charm to this, though it’s very limited thanks to almost non-graphical nature, so for Vibe, it’s getting a 1. The Graphics are very simple and rely mostly on basic AmigaOS GUI elements with a few dashes of AmigaBASIC graphics. I have to say the game gets quite a bit out of that limited options and has some nice animations that make it feel alive. I’m giving it a 3. There is no Story, of course, so that’s a 0. The game has a few basic sound effects, but no music. You can also enable the Amiga Workbench’s text to speech system, but that’s very robotic and more like a gimmick. I’m giving it a 1 for Audio. I had a bit of fun for a quick session, and I can see how this would have been a fun game to play with up to 3 friends back then. There’s no computer opponent, though you can play alone. I’m giving it a 4 for Fun. This gives it a final rating of 22, which is pretty good for an early game like this.

Not much interesting I can add to this, seems Hari Wiguna didn’t release any other games for the Amiga. Well, at least in terms of TV game adaptations, there’s undoubtedly more to come, as this was a popular genre in the 80s and 90s, even if the vast majority of these are commercial products and not Freeware or Shareware.