Strontium Dog and the Death Gauntlet for the Commodore 64 was the first properly-licensed video game based on a 2000AD character. It was coded by Stephen Kellett; co-designed by Mark Eyles, and published by Quicksilva in 1984.
Continue reading Strontium Dog and the Death Gauntlet, Commodore 64
2000AD is a famous, British science fiction comic that was first launched in 1977 (26th February 1977 to be precise), and I distinctly remember getting and reading the first issue and being hooked from that moment on. 2000AD pulled no punches, with its hard-hitting fantasy storylines and stand-out characters, and it made a big impression on anyone who read it.
Ubisoft‘s point-and-click Dawn of the Dead rip-off originally came out for the Amstrad CPC in 1986, and this ZX Spectrum version followed four years later, in 1990. It was converted by a three-man team: Geoff Phillips, Colin Bradshaw-Jones, and S. Chance and is a faithful recreation of the Amstrad original, with the same clunky controls and zombie-bashing combat.
The Amstrad CPC version of Ubisoft‘s Zombi was the first version of the game released, in 1986, and also Ubisoft‘s first ever published game. And – considering the giant that Ubisoft is now – it’s pretty amazing to think that this weird movie rip-off on the Amstrad was the one that started it all for them…
Quedex is scrolling action game programmed by Stavros Fasoulas and published by Thalamus for the Commodore 64 in 1987.
The sequel to Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 is more of the same 3D running and platforming, with everyone’s favourite blue hedgehog (and friends), although this time there’s a bit more to the game than just blasting through the courses.
Sega‘s first attempt to make a fully 3D Sonic game was first published on the Dreamcast on December 23rd 1998, and while it’s not a bad game – it’s not a great one either.
Syndicate is a classic isometric action game with point-and-click gameplay. It was developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1993.
I was hoping that the Atari 8-bit version of Rogue might be better than the other 8-bit versions (or at least a balance between the awful C64 version and the half-decent Amstrad version), but I was hoping for too much – especially as it’s another Mastertronic “special” (ie. a good example of a publisher not giving a sh*t about what they released).
The Amstrad CPC version of Rogue is arguably the best of the 8-bit conversions from Mastertronic, although it’s not without its problems. It was developed by Icon Design and first published in 1988.
