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.
The Nintendo Game Boy version of Qix was developed by Minakuchi Engineering. It was first published by Nintendo in 1990.
Originating on the Amstrad CPC, Spindizzy is a genius piece of coding and game design. It is an isometric exploration game, where you play as a spinning gyroscope (called GERALD) trying to collect gems across a large map of screens. It was designed by Paul Shirley, and the Spectrum port was handled by Phil Churchyard. Spindizzy on the Spectrum was published by Electric Dreams in 1986.
Wee Ninja is a homebrew scrolling platform game for Atari 8-bit home computers (with 32K of RAM). It was written by Paul Lay and first released by Playsoft in June 2025, to rapturous applause.
My jaw nearly hit the floor when I first saw Venom Wing on the Amiga. It’s a late release from legendary software house Thalamus, coming out in 1990, and it’s a real stinker…
Developed by The Code Monkeys and published by Accolade in 1991, Turrican on the Game Boy is a decent scrolling run-and-gun shooter.
