A taste of game design past...

Ars Technica is running a series by Jeremy Reimer  that is focusing on game development for the Amiga. 
Shadow of the 16-bit Beast: an Amiga gaming retrospective talks about development tools and teams for the early years of Amiga game development.  The article isn't very deep from a technical viewpoint, instead focusing more on the attitudes of the publishers and development teams of the time.

By the time the Amiga came along, my game development days were behind me.  Instead I remember fondly playing some classic Amiga games like Ports of Call, Civilization, Defender of the Crown, and Master Of Orion.  While today's games and platforms have far surpassed those days, I don't believe that game play has progressed as quickly.  You can have all the fancy graphics in the world, but if it's not an interesting game, then you've wasted your money.