Category Archives: Systems

Video gaming systems.

Metro-Cross, Arcade

Metro-Cross is a scrolling race/action game in which you control a character known as “The Runner“, who must cross the finish line on a course full of obstacles, before the timer reaches zero. It was developed and distributed into arcades by Namco in 1985.

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Eric and the Floaters, ZX Spectrum

I find it pretty amazing that Hudson Soft‘s famous maze-based, bomb-blasting game, Bomberman, was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, but it was. It was developed by Hudson Soft themselves and published by Sinclair Research in the UK (much like Hudson Soft‘s other famous Spectrum game, Stop the Express). Even more bizarre is the name of the game, but there was a good reason for the change…

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Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters, Arcade

The second Lethal Enforcers, first released into arcades in 1994, goes in a different direction to the first Lethal EnforcersLethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters being a lightgun shoot ’em up set in the ‘Wild West’, in 1873. What hasn’t changed, though, is the fact that Konami used the same technology for digitising the graphics in this game as they did the first, and it still looks pretty dodgy as a result…

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Lethal Enforcers, Arcade

Lethal Enforcers is the first in a series of arcade lightgun shooters from Konami. It was initially released in 1992 and features digitised photos of people and places, which was relatively innovative back in ’92, but by today’s standards now looks pretty rough.

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Zzoom, ZX Spectrum

Written by John Gibson and published by Imagine Software in 1983, Zzoom is a simple first-person shoot ’em up where the aim is to protect refugees from attacking enemy forces.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Arcade

Based on the smash hit film of the same name, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a one or two-player lightgun shooter developed and distributed by Midway in 1991. In this game you’re flung into the future (post-1997), after the nuclear holocaust caused by SkyNet, to fight for The Resistance against ‘The Machines‘.

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Zombie Raid, Arcade

Zombie Raid is a first-person arcade lightgun shooter for one or two simultaneous players. It was developed and distributed by American Sammy in 1996.

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Bill & Ted’s Excellent Game Boy Adventure, Game Boy

Developed by prolific Aussie studio Beam Software, and published by LJN/Acclaim Entertainment, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Game Boy Adventure is a simple-but-playable platform game based loosely on the 1989 film, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. It was released in North America in 1991 and Europe in 1992.

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Breakout, Atari 2600

Brad Stewart‘s 1978 Atari 2600 conversion of the pioneering 1976 arcade game, Breakout, is a software-based cartridge version that most people who’ve played the game will be familiar with. Mainly because – as far as I know – the original arcade version of Breakout is currently un-emulatable, because it utilizes mechanical components that prevent it from being played as a ROM file in something like MAME.

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Devilish: Ball Bounder, Nintendo DS

Devilish: Ball Bounder (aka Classic Action: Devilish in North America; aka Devilish in Europe) is the third game in the Devilish series and was released thirteen years after its predecessor, Devilish: The Next Possession for the Megadrive/Genesis. It was developed by Starfish Kaihatsu and released for the Nintendo DS in 2005 in Japan and Europe, and 2007 in North America.

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