Lucasfilm Games’ brilliant futuristic sports sim, Ballblazer, was converted to the Atari 7800 in late 1984.
As a ‘no-nonsense’, one-on-one ball game there is little better, in terms of video games, and this Atari 7800 version is one of the fastest and smoothest around.
The ZX Spectrum original of Ant Attack was so good that it spawned a decent 1984 Commodore 64 version, by Paul Fik and Bitterne Software.
The Amstrad CPC version of Combat Lynx looks a bit like the BBC version (ie. chunky), but is thankfully more colourful – and more playable.
Combat Lynx on the BBC Micro is a bit gaudy, compared to other versions, and that’s probably down to the fact that – in this screen mode – the BBC can only display four colours.
Ron Jeff‘s Commodore 64 conversion of Mike Richardson‘s ZX Spectrum helicopter sim is actually pretty good.
Mike Richardson‘s Combat Lynx is a very effective helicopter combat sim, first released for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Durell Software in 1984.
A conversion of the obscure Jetsoft arcade game, Cavelon is a simple but challenging maze game where you play a knight trying to collect the pieces of a door to create the exit to the next level.
Steve Turner‘s 1984 release Avalon is a groundbreaking adventure game with pseudo 3D graphics, released only for the ZX Spectrum.
Sega‘s 1984 arcade hit Bank Panic is a simple reaction game where you play the role of a bank clerk who must answer the various doors in a bank to serve customers, some of whom are genuine and some of whom are bandits.
Back in 1984 in the UK there was an infamous, historic miner’s strike that lasted for over a year and caused hardship for many communities. Rather than sit and spectate, young Peter Harrap wrote a satirical platform game about a mining mole and published it, with all the profits going to help the struggling, striking miners. That game was Wanted: Monty Mole, and it launched Pete Harrap on his career making video games, and also the Monty Mole ‘franchise’. Although I can’t really call it a franchise because it wasn’t. It was simply a series of games.
The King of Grabs 