The Commodore 64 version of Konami‘s arcade hit, Salamander, was programmed by Peter Baron, with graphics by Bob Stevenson and music by Mark Cooksey. It was first published by Imagine Software in Europe in 1988, and Konami themselves in North America in 1989. It is considered by many to be the best 8-bit home computer version of Salamander, and it’s not difficult to see why…

In my opinion, pixel-pusher Bob Stevenson was arguably the best C64 artist around at that time, having risen up from a humble contributor to the Zzap!64 demo art scene, to one of the most sought-after graphic artists in the games industry. His style was both recognisable, and second to none, and his work on Salamander is probably one of his most well-remembered achievements. The only strange thing about Bob‘s work on Salamander, though, was that the game doesn’t seem to have a loading screen, which is what he was arguably best-known for. But that’s just me being picky, because his in-game graphics are pretty flawless.

And not to forget Peter Baron or Mark Cooksey, who both did a sterling job on Salamander, making it not only a great port of the arcade game, but also one of the best scrolling shooters on the Commodore 64.

That said, two of the game’s six stages are missing (stages four and five), which is a little disappointing, and the only real reason I can see for that is a limited development time. If you want to play Salamander with those stages intact, try the PC Engine version, which is pretty flawless.

Playing C64 Salamander now is still challenging, exciting, and fun, and this is one arcade port that has stood the test of time extremely well.

C64 Salamander was given a dust-off and a re-release by Nostalgia in 2002, which is probably the version to play now, if you fancy a seriously good blast from the past.

More: Salamander on Wikipedia
More: Salamander on CSDb