It’s not often you get a game that’s based on a Beatles song, and Yellow Submarine for the MSX is one such rare example. Published by Takeru in 1987 Yellow Submarine is of course not an official license and was slipped out to the Japanese MSX market – on cartridge – in the hope that no one at Apple Records would notice. If they did, it appears that nothing was done about it.

Yellow Submarine is an underwater action game, where the aim is to avoid being destroyed by enemies, or natural phenomenon (like undersea volcanos), and – in turn – to destroy as many enemy subs and ships as possible.

Your submarine can drop bombs downward and also fire missiles upward. The bombs are used to destroy black enemy subs; the missiles take a U-shaped trajectory in the direction you’re facing and are used to take out ships on the surface. Every enemy unit destroyed awards you a flag, which is displayed at the bottom of the screen. When you’ve acquired the required quota, the level goes up by one and the difficulty increases.

You’re constantly under fire by depth charges and bombs from above, and torpedoes fired by enemy subs, so must keep moving to avoid being hit. In later levels the aforementioned volcanos become even more of a problem as they erupt randomly and will destroy you and enemy subs, if you’re caught in the plume.

Yellow Submarine is a simple but challenging game that isn’t too bad to play, but is frustratingly difficult at times. If you lose your concentration for just a second you’re likely to lose a life.

The only real connection to The Beatles (other than the tenuous name of the game) is the game’s intro music, which is a short, beepy version of “When I’m Sixty Four“. Which is a cheeky touch from the developers.

More: Yellow Submarine on YouTube