Unlike Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man was developed by Namco themselves in 1982, so could be considered the first ‘official’ sequel to Pac-Man.
The fact is: it is arguably inferior to both the aforementioned Midway Pac-Man games, which is a little embarrassing. That said: it is still a decent game in its own right; maybe not quite as ‘pure’ or ‘hardcore’ as Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, but good nonetheless.
Another American Bally Midway variation of Namco‘s Pac-Man, shipped out into arcades in 1982 to take advantage of the PM craze sweeping the globe.
The 1982 sequel to the smash hit Pac-Man originally started out as a third party modification kit for Pac-Man machines, developed by General Computer Corporation, and called ‘Crazy Otto‘.
After legal action from Atari, GCC was forced to present Crazy Otto to Midway, the North American distributor of Pac-Man, who bought the game and developed it into Ms. Pac-Man.
Further complicating the story, apparently Midway did this without Pac-Man‘s original owner Namco‘s consent, which caused some licensing issues later. The truth is by no means clear, but in the murky world of video game licensing it is sometimes the case that people sell and exploit rights to products they have no right to.
Developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts in 2009, Dragon Age: Origins is a hardcore, third-person Role-Playing Game in the style of Knights of the Old Republic (also developed by BioWare), Vampire: the Masquerade – Redemption, and Neverwinter Nights.
Published by Melbourne House in 1985, Gyroscope is an unashamed rip-off of Atari‘s classic arcade game Marble Madness.
The ZX Spectrum version of John Van Ryzin‘s classic rescue game, H.E.R.O., looks pretty basic when compared to other versions, but plays just as well as all the others.
Probably the best conversion of the classic Mitchell Corporation arcade game, Super Pang was released for the Super Nintendo in 1992. It was developed by Capcom and is arguably even better than the arcade original.
Thanatos is an unusual side-scrolling action game designed by Mike Richardson and programmed by Rod Barrington for Durell Software in 1986.
The game is unusual because you play as a dragon… Yes, that’s right: a dragon! And not any old dragon, but as “Thanatos the Destroyer” – a fire-breathing behemoth with a heart.
HeroQuest II: Legacy of Sorasil was developed and published by Gremlin Interactive in 1994. It is an isometric, level-grinding adventure based on the Milton Bradley board game, with simple, console-like controls and surprisingly absorbing gameplay.
Continue reading HeroQuest II: Legacy of Sorasil, Amiga CD32
Gremlin‘s Zool appeared on virtually every (capable) platform, back in the early ’90s when it was first released. And – having originated on the Amiga – porting it to the CD32 seemed like a no-brainer.
Which it was, and the CD32 conversion – in my opinion – is arguably the best version of Zool, outside of the SNES version. 🙂
The King of Grabs 