Choplifter, ColecoVision

I’m not quite sure what’s up with the 1984 ColecoVision version of Choplifter, but the game seems to run faster than any other version I’ve played. Arguably too fast…

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Choplifter, Atari 5200

The Atari 5200 version of Choplifter – first published by Atari, Inc. in 1984 – is more or less identical to the Atari 8-bit version released for home computers. Which is a little disappointing, as you’d maybe hope that it’d be enhanced in some way.

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Choplifter, Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 version of Choplifter was ported by Dane Bigham and first published by Brøderbund in 1983. While the game is definitely smoother and more playable than the earlier Apple II and Atari 8-bit versions, it’s still not without its problems.

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Choplifter, VIC-20

The 1982 VIC-20 version of Dan Gorlin‘s Choplifter was coded by Tom Griner for Creative Software, and it has to be said that it is by far the worst version of Choplifter out there.

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Battletoads, Arcade

Battletoads is a humorous side-scrolling beat ’em up, developed by Rare Coin Games and distributed into arcades by Electronic Arts in 1994. It satirises the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, turning them into muscular toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

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Battletoads, NES/Famicom

Battletoads is a scrolling action game, developed by Rare and published by Tradewest in 1991. It satirises (and takes advantage of the popularity of) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and features a group of cartoon toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

Two of the toads – Zitz and Rash – are on a mission to rescue their third member, Pimple, and Princess Angelica, both of whom have been kidnapped by the evil Dark Queen and taken to her planet. The toads fly to the planet in their spaceship and lower themselves down to the surface using their ‘Turbo Ropes’. From there they begin the fight to free their friends.

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Castlevania ReVamped, PC

Castlevania ReVamped is a homebrew remake of the original Castlevania, for Windows and Linux, by Lv.4 Games. It was initially released in March of 2024 and was inspired by the developer’s love of the Castlevania series (“it’s something I have wanted to do for many years,” he says, and “it took about four/five months to create“).

The game was made in Game Maker Studio 2 and is based on the first NES Castlevania, and Akumajō Dracula on the X68000 (and the remake in Castlevania Chronicles), and in it you play as the iconic Simon Belmont, with his trusty “Vampire Killer” whip.

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Gods, Amiga

Developed by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Renegade Software for the Amiga in 1991, Gods is a stylised platform game in which you play as Hercules, on a quest to make his way through five large stages, themed with Greek mythological motifs.

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Starglider, Apple II

The Apple II version of Argonaut Software‘s classic cockpit shooter, Starglider, was ported by Solid Image, the same developer who made the flawed C64 version. And – unsurprisingly – it retains all the flaws of the C64 version, and brings a few problems of its own to the party, just for good measure…

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