Unreal is a pioneering first-person shooter developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes and first published by GT Interactive in 1998. It is the very first game in the Unreal series and was the first game to use the Unreal Engine, which was a ground-breaking 3D game engine at the time. Of course most gamers know about the Unreal Engine, and how it continues to innovate now, but this game is where Unreal first started.
Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Atari ST
The 1988 Atari ST conversion of Cinemaware‘s Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon has considerably better graphics than the Amiga original, even though the ST can’t quite display as many colours on-screen as the Amiga can.
Continue reading Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Atari ST
Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Amiga
I don’t know why, but the Amiga version of Cinemaware‘s classic Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon looks absolutely terrible. The graphics are appalling and the presentation overall is very rough around the edges. Compare it to the Commodore 64 version and it’s easy to see the disparity.
Rod Land, Arcade
Rod Land is a one or simultaneous two-player platform game created by Jaleco and first distributed into arcades in 1990. In it you control one of two fairies – Tam or Rit – each armed with a magic wand (or a ‘rod’, as the game’s title implies) which can immobilise monsters that chase you on each stage. The aim of the game is to rescue your ‘mom’ (and later, your dad) who has been kidnapped and taken to the top of a large tower.
Rollaround, Commodore 64
Rollaround is an isometric action/puzzle game written by Tony Kelly of Mr. Chip Software and was published by Mastertronic in 1987. The gameplay is a combination of Marble Madness, Bobby Bearing, Spindizzy and Q*Bert, where the aim is to control a rolling ball that moves around a map of screens, rolling over tiles, activating switches, and collecting cross tiles for points.
Venture, Arcade
Flimbo’s Quest, Commodore 64
Flimbo’s Quest is a scrolling platform shooter that basically recycles the gameplay from the classic C64 game, Hawkeye. Designer/programmer Laurens van der Donk was a member of demo scene coders Boys Without Brains (who created Hawkeye), which explains the connection. From what I can tell, though, van der Donk was not involved in creating Hawkeye, so I’m not entirely sure how or why Flimbo’s Quest came to be.
Marvel Land, Arcade
Marvel Land is a cute, colourful, scrolling platform arcade game, first released by Namco in 1990. The European version was called “Talmit’s Adventure“.
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, Amiga
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe is the 1990 sequel to The Bitmap Brothers‘ Speedball. The game makes several changes to the original Speedball, but the main change is that teams now have nine players on-field (eight outfield players and a goalkeeper), instead of the previous five.
Speedball, Amiga
Developed by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Image Works in 1988, Speedball is a violent futuristic sport game where two teams try to score goals by throwing a metal ball into openings at the top and bottom of an enclosed court.
The King of Grabs 