Category Archives: Lists

100 Best Level-Grinders Of All-Time

September 16, 2019 Mallo 8 Comments

Level-Grinders; Dungeon-Crawlers; Role-Playing Games – whatever you want to call them – they are my (and many other people’s) favourite type of video game.

They allow you to build up your characters via the process of levelling. That is: by gaining experience, which in turn increases your character’s power levels.

Level-Grinders also allow you to hoard virtual items that don’t exist in the real world; accumulate unimaginable wealth in an imaginary world, and solve mysteries while you’re doing it.

Over and over again. For the love of the grind…

So here we go… The 100 Best Level-Grinders Of All-Time…

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Celebration, Lists, Programmers, ZX Spectrum

Jonathan Smith’s Classic ZX Spectrum Games

June 23, 2019 Mallo 10 Comments

A British programmer/developer who made a name for himself with his very first game, Pud Pud, which was published by Ocean Software for the ZX Spectrum in 1984. Smith was just 17 at the time Pud Pud was released, but was fortuitous in that his pitch to Ocean, and them signing him up as ‘talent’, was all filmed and later broadcast on television in an episode of BBC TV’s Commercial Breaks, which gave him an instant profile to an appreciative audience. Bob Wakelin‘s ace cover art also did Smith‘s early games a lot of good.

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Beamdog, BioWare, Celebration, Interplay, Lists, Overhaul Games, PC

To Infinity And Beyond: The Infinity Engine Games

May 21, 2019 Mallo 1 Comment

The Infinity Engine by BioWare is synonymous with great RPGs. You think Infinity Engine, you think Planescape: Torment, or Baldur’s Gate. Or Icewind Dale. All great level-grinding adventures and all published by Interplay in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

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Brøderbund, Lists

10 Best Prince of Persia Conversions

May 18, 2019 Mallo 7 Comments

LISTS: as decided by His Majesty The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:

1. Super Nintendo (1992)
2. PC Engine/Turbografx-16 (1991)
3. Commodore 64 (2011)
4. PC MS-DOS (1990)
5. Atari ST (1990)
6. Amiga (1990)
7. Sega CD (1992)
8. Sharp X68000 (1991)
9. ZX Spectrum (1996)
10. Megadrive/Genesis (1993)

And of course there’s always the Apple II original, which is ‘The Daddy’ of them all.

All Hail The Prince of Persia, and all hail Jordan Mechner!

More: Prince of Persia on Wikipedia

All versions of Prince of Persia on The King of Grabs:
Apple II, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-Bit, Atari ST, PC MS-DOS, SAM Coupé, Sharp X68000, PC Engine/Turbografx-16, Sega Master System, Sega CD, Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Nintendo Entertainment System, Megadrive/Genesis, Game Boy Color, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum

Bethesda, History, Lists, PC

The Elder Scrolls Series, PC

May 10, 2019 Mallo 6 Comments

There’s been approximately four years on average, between episodes of The Elder Scrolls series, and we are currently long overdue an announcement on a follow-up to 2011’s Skyrim. At the time of writing, it’s been eight years since Skyrim, and three years since the remaster.

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Lists, Software Projects

10 Best Manic Miner Conversions

May 9, 2019 Mallo Leave a comment

LISTS: as decided by The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:

1. XBox 360
2. Game Boy Advance
3. MSX
4. Commodore 64
5. Amstrad CPC
6. SAM Coupé
7. Amiga
8. BBC Micro
9. Oric
10. Dragon 32

Of course, nothing beats the ZX Spectrum original.

See also:
Manic Miner in the Lost Levels – a homebrew download for the Nintendo DS

All hail to Miner Willy and to Matthew Smith.

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Miner

Bally Midway, Lists

10 Best Spy Hunter Conversions

May 3, 2019 Mallo 5 Comments

LISTS: as decided by The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:

These are just an opinion, but please do feel free to comment with your opinions. Unless you’re a comment spammer. In which case: do feel free to f*ck off…

Bally Midway‘s classic Spy Hunter is a brilliant overhead race game with guns and bumping cars and speed boats and chasing helicopters, and general high-speed excitement. It is such a good game that it has been converted to pretty much every gaming system known to man.

Here’s our rundown of the top 10 Spy Hunter conversions…

1. Nintendo Entertainment System < Probably the most fun
2. Atari 800 << Better than most
3. Commodore 64 <<< Entertaining
4. ZX Spectrum <<<< A fun conversion
5. ColecoVision <<<<< Pretty good
6. Amstrad CPC <<<<<< Reasonable
7. Atari 2600 <<<<<<< Basic
8. BBC Micro <<<<<<<< Forgettable
9. Apple II <<<<<<<< Rubbish
10. PC MS-DOS <<<<<<<<< Utterly terrible

And, of course, not forgetting the utterly brilliant arcade original.

More: Spy Hunter on Wikipedia

Bubble Bus Software, Designers, Graphic Artists, Hewson, Lists, Poppy Soft, Programmers, ZX Spectrum

Steve Crow’s Classic ZX Spectrum Games

April 30, 2019 Mallo 1 Comment

Game designer Stephen J. Crow made some seminal games for the ZX Spectrum, starting with Laser Snaker in 1983 and Factory Breakout in 1984 for Poppy Soft.

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