Sega did a marvellous job of converting Bally Midway‘s classic Spy Hunter onto the ZX Spectrum in 1984.
Not only is the game colourful and beautifully-adapted to Sir Clive‘s diminutive machine, but it’s also very playable, fun, and challenging.
Tag Archives: 1984
Spy Hunter, Commodore 64
I remember buying this back in 1984 and enjoying it. Playing it now, though, I can’t help but think that it was a lot better all those years ago…
The Commodore 64 conversion of Spy Hunter is fast and smooth, but the graphics are very chunky. And there’s an annoying, flickery glitch at the bottom of the screen – where the black stripe meets the scrolling playfield – which is a pity.
Spy Hunter, ColecoVision
Coleco‘s 1984 conversion of Bally Midway‘s classic Spy Hunter is a bit of a pale imitation of the arcade parent.
Graphically, it’s a little bland, but the scrolling is fast (I won’t say ‘smooth’, but it’s not jerky) and the sprites and backgrounds are colourful.
Gateway To Apshai, ColecoVision
Gateway To Apshai is sometimes described as a Roguelike RPG, but it doesn’t have randomly generated dungeons – they’re set, in number order, and there are a lot of them.
Factory Breakout, ZX Spectrum
Steve Crow‘s second game, Factory Breakout, was published by Poppy Soft in 1984.
Quo Vadis, Commodore 64
Written by Steven T. Chapman and published by The Edge in 1984, Quo Vadis is a scrolling platform game with a large and varied cavern to explore.
BurgerTime, ColecoVision
Mattel Electronics produced this ColecoVision console conversion of BurgerTime in 1984.
It is arguably the most authentic – and most impressive-looking – of the early console conversions of BurgerTime and it retains the vertical screen-style design of the arcade game levels (which is most welcome).
Airwolf, ZX Spectrum
Based on the infamous 1980s TV show of the same name, Airwolf hit the top of the ZX Spectrum sales charts back in 1984, but – in reality – wasn’t a particularly good game.
Wanted: Monty Mole, Commodore 64
Wanted: Monty Mole on the Commodore 64 is somewhat different to the ZX Spectrum version, although it does try to follow the spirit of the original.
You play as Monty, a mole who must explore a huge mine in search of, well, coal.
Roland in the Caves, Amstrad CPC
Roland in the Caves is the Amstrad CPC conversion of the classic Bugaboo (The Flea).
Rather than it be a simple ‘rip-off’, Roland in the Caves was actually developed by Indescomp, the original developers of Bugaboo. So it is an ‘official’ conversion and plays pretty much the same as the original.
The King of Grabs 