Category Archives: Company

Video game companies.

Salamander, MSX

The MSX port of Konami‘s classic arcade shooter, Salamander, was first released in Japan – on cartridge – in 1987. And although it shares the name and certain elements from the arcade game, this is a completely new version of Salamander, with a new storyline, new characters, ships and levels. It is sometimes referred to as “Salamander: Operation X“.

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Atomic Runner, Megadrive/Genesis

A conversion of the 1988 arcade game, Atomic Runner Chelnov. Developer/publisher Data East dropped the “Chelnov” part from the title of the 1992 Megadrive/Genesis release, but the gameplay stays more or less the same.

You must shoot and jump your way through seven continually-scrolling stages, only stopping to fight bosses at the end of each.

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Legend of the River King, Game Boy Color

Developed by TOSE Co., Ltd. and published by Victor Interactive Software in Japan and Natsume in North America and Europe, Legend of the River King is a JRPG that is based around the sport/pastime of fishing. It was initially released for the Game Boy in 1997, and the Game Boy Color version (which is Super Game Boy enhanced) came out in 1999.

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Express Raider, Arcade

In Data East‘s 1986 Wild West-themed scrolling action game – Express Raider (aka “Western Express” in Japan) – you’re not trying to be the good guy; you’re actually the bad guy, trying to hold up a series of trains and steal as much gold and money as possible.

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Poogaboo: La Pulga 2, PC

Poogaboo: La Pulga 2 is the rather obscure sequel to the ZX Spectrum classic, Bugaboo (The Flea), aka La Pulga. It was written by the original author of La Pulga (Paco Suárez), and was published by Opera Soft, for PC MS-DOS, the ZX Spectrum, MSX and Amstrad CPC, in 1991.

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The Typing of the Dead: Overkill, PC

The Typing of the Dead: Overkill was developed by Modern Dream and published by Sega in 2013. It is a first-person shooter that fuses the gruesome and colourful horror of the House of the Dead series, with keyboard typing mechanics. A sort of: “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing with Zombies and Monsters“, if you will.

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Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure, Megadrive/Genesis

Developed and published for the Megadrive/Genesis by Interplay Productions in 1994, Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure is a humorous platform game starring a ‘superhero’ whose abilities are: burping, farting, and flicking ‘boogers’ at enemies to kill them… And, while that may sound puerile and stupid to some, this is actually a game with high production values and decent gameplay backing it up.

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Super Bomberman 5, Super Nintendo

The final entry in the Super Bomberman series, Super Bomberman 5 was released in Japan only in 1997, and was developed and published by Hudson Soft. A partial fan translation into English is available, but for some reason it has not been fully completed (at the time of writing, at least).

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Super Bomberman 4, Super Nintendo

Developed by Produce! and published by Hudson Soft – in Japan only – in 1996, Super Bomberman 4 thankfully does have a fan translation available, which makes the game fully playable in English.

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