Developed by Saurus and first distributed into arcades on the Neo Geo MVS system by SNK in 1997, The Irritating Maze might seem like an innocently humorous title for a video game, but it is in fact one of the mostly aptly-named video games of all-time…
Category Archives: Systems
Video gaming systems.
Super Dragon Slayer, ZX Spectrum
Converted by John F. Cain, from an original Commodore 64 game by John Ferrari, Super Dragon Slayer is a platform shooter featuring an agile magician who must jump, climb and shoot his way – left to right – through four large, scrolling levels. It was first published for the ZX Spectrum by Codemasters in 1989.
Super Dragon Slayer, Commodore 64
Designed and programmed by John Ferrari, with music by Barry Leitch, Super Dragon Slayer is a platform shooter first published for the Commodore 64 by Codemasters in 1988. In many ways this game reminds me of the early days of C64 software, with unforgiving gameplay and instant death if you put a foot wrong. That said, this is still a pretty good game. Just a very difficult one.
Pu-Li-Ru-La, Arcade
I don’t really know if Taito‘s 1991 arcade game, Pu-Li-Ru-La, is obscure, or if it’s a ‘cult game’, or if it’s based on an existing anime or not, because I’d never even heard of it until recently. It’s a cartoony, one or simultaneous two-player beat ’em up featuring a boy and a girl who are given magical sticks to fight enemies in order to restore the flow of time in a place called “Radishland“…
The Eidolon, Atari 8-Bit
Using an enhanced version of the fractal engine created for Rescue On Fractalus, The Eidolon is a first-person action game – developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by Epyx in North America in 1985 and Activision in Europe in 1986 – that divided critics when it was first released. While Zzap!64 magazine gave it 97% and a gold medal; raved about the game, and said that it was “not to be missed“, the reviewers of Computer Gaming World disliked it, describing it as “one of the worst games of 1986“… There’s no accounting for taste…
Marble Madness II, Arcade
***CANNED GAME***
Marble Madness II is the unreleased sequel to the classic Marble Madness. It was developed in 1991 by Atari Games and underwent market testing in a variety of locations, but these were deemed a failure so the game was cancelled and never released.
Marble Madness, FM Towns
The FM Towns version of Marble Madness is pretty damn special. Not only does it have a unique symphonic rendition of the game’s famous soundtrack, but it also has a Time Trial mode, and you can also choose the colour of your marble! It was only ever released in Japan, and – like the excellent X68000 version – it was ported by Tengen and published by Home Data Corporation in 1991.
Marble Madness, Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance conversion of Marble Madness was released as part of a double pack with another classic Atari Games arcade game, Klax, in 2005 by DSI Games. It was developed by Italian Frame Studios Interactive, and the truth be told: they did a utterly dismal job of porting the game to Nintendo‘s capable handheld.
The Amazing Adventures of Mr. F. Lea, Arcade
The title of this obscure 1982 arcade game from Pacific Novelty Manufacturing is bad enough, but the gameplay is hilariously “wacky” too. Well, it is kinda crappy, but does have some curiosity value. Mostly because some of the minigames found within are derivative of other famous video games.
Continue reading The Amazing Adventures of Mr. F. Lea, Arcade
Marble Madness, Apple IIgs
The Apple IIgs port of Marble Madness was coded by Will Harvey of Sandcastle for Electronic Arts and was first published in 1988.
The King of Grabs 