Sega‘s classic ice-pushing arcade maze game, Pengo, is well-represented on the Game Gear, with this jolly conversion by Coreland Technology (the original developer of Pengo arcade). It was first released in 1990 in Japan, and 1991 in Europe. It doesn’t look like it had a North American release.
The Amstrad version of Steve Turner‘s Ranarama is every bit as good as the Spectrum original, although it is probably fair to say that it isn’t quite as colourful. It still looks good, though. And – even more importantly – it plays just as good, if not better, than the original.
Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000 was an attempt by Sega to update one of its most famous IPs onto the Sega 32X (a hardware add-on for the Megadrive/Genesis). In the process I think Sega forgot one of the main reasons Zaxxon was rated so highly…
Developed by Namco Hometek, Inc. and published by Namco in 1993, the Game Gear version of Ms. Pac-Man is arguably the best handheld version of the classic arcade game. Maybe even the best home version entirely.
The Game Boy conversion of the classic Ms. Pac-Man was developed by Namco Hometek, Inc. and published by Namco in 1993.
First published by Hit-Pak (the ‘budget’ label of Elite Systems) in 1988, the C64 version of the classic bat-and-ball action game, Batty, is more or less the same as the ZX Spectrum original, but with chunkier graphics. And, like the original, it is an excellent Breakout/Arkanoid clone.
Written by Mark Crane and first published by Hit-Pak (the budget label of Elite Systems) in 1987, Batty is a clone of the games Breakout, and Arkanoid, but with a few of its own unique features.
The game was a minor hit on the ZX Spectrum and was also released for the Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64.
Holy moley… I don’t know what happened with the Game Boy version of The Addams Family, but somebody, somewhere dropped the ball with it. The game was developed by Ocean Software (like most of The Addams Family games), and first released in 1991, but unlike most of the other versions of this game: it looks terrible and plays even worse…
I would have to say that David Lubar‘s Pastfinder is one of my favourite games of all-time. Not only does it have an interesting player craft, but there’s also a compelling game buried within this seemingly impenetrable shooter.
