Tag Archives: 16-bit

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Atari ST

The Atari ST version of Richard Garriott‘s classic Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was ported by Bob Hardy (the same guy who converted Ultima III to the ST and Amiga) and first published by Origin Systems in 1987. It is an excellent conversion of a brilliant game and is arguably the best RPG on the ST (barring the mighty Dungeon Master).

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Ultima III: Exodus, Atari ST

The 1986 Atari ST version of Ultima III: Exodus is pretty much identical to the Amiga version. In fact: it was ported by the same guy who made the Amiga version – “Banjo” Bob Hardy – so shares the same codebase. Since they’re almost identical I’d assume that the ST version was the primary target and the Amiga version was the port (since doing it the other way around would probably lead to features being dropped from the ST version as the machine had fewer custom chips). Ultima III was published by Origin Systems and is arguably the joint best version of the game available.

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Ultima III: Exodus, Amiga

The Amiga version of Ultima III: Exodus was written by Bob Hardy and first published by Origin Systems in 1986. It’s actually a really good version of the game – maybe even the best – as it uses both mouse and keyboard controls to make playing the game faster and easier.

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Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress, Atari ST

Oh my goodness… This Atari ST conversion of Ultima II, by Robert Eric Heitman, uses a mouse-driven GEM interface as an “enhancement” over the original, and this – in my opinion – has turned the game into kitty litter…

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Defender II, Amiga

Defender II was programmed by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft and published by Arc Developments in 1990. It is a home computer-only sequel to Williams Electronics‘ classic arcade game, Defender. The game includes a version of the original Defender, and its sequel, Stargate – as well as Minter‘s own Defender II.

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Andes Attack, Atari ST

The Atari ST version of Andes Attack was developed and published by Llamasoft in 1989. It is a re-imagining of Jeff Minter‘s earlier Defender clone, first released on the VIC-20 in 1982. It is also a precursor to Minter‘s Defender II, which plays very similarly and was released the following year, in 1990.

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Operation Wolf, Atari ST

Taito‘s classic mounted gun arcade shooter, Operation Wolf, was ported to the Atari ST and Amiga by Ocean Software and first published in 1988. At the time it reviewed quite well, but my feeling has always been that it was never really any good to begin with. I had an Atari ST back in 1988 and remember not being that impressed with the game, even though magazines at the time were generally praising it.

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Operation Wolf, Amiga

The 1988 Amiga conversion of Taito‘s classic gun-based arcade game, Operation Wolf, was developed by Ocean Software and was reasonably well recieved at the time of release, but the fact is: it hasn’t stood the test of time that well, and it isn’t anywhere near as good as the original reviews made out. It’s just merely okay.

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Carrier Command, Amiga

Realtime Software‘s classic Carrier Command is an early real-time strategy game that first came out for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1988 through Rainbird. In it you control a futuristic aircraft carrier battling for domination of a group of islands with an AI-controlled enemy carrier.

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Mindroll, Amiga

Mindroll is a 16-bit conversion of Stavros Fasoulas‘ classic Commodore 64 ball-rolling maze game, Quedex. It was converted by Silent Software and published in North America for the Amiga and PC by Epyx in 1990. As far as I know it wasn’t released in the UK or Europe, which is strange considering that the game originated there.

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