Tag Archives: 1984

Questprobe 1: The Hulk, ZX Spectrum

Text adventures, with graphics and complex command parsers, were very popular back in the early days of home computing.

You would sit there, typing instructions into a fantasy world on your computer, climbing imaginary trees, and walking imaginary north. It was all “imaginary” because you had to have an imagination to play these games. Your average moron with no imagination would never play a text adventure, like they would never read a book. Because they cannot read the text and construct a world in their imagination.

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H.E.R.O., Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 version of John Van Ryzin‘s 1984 classic H.E.R.O. plays just as good as the Atari 2600 original, although the graphics are a little messier.

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H.E.R.O., Atari 2600

John Van Ryzin‘s popular H.E.R.O. (Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation) first made its appearance on the Atari 2600 (aka Atari VCS), via Activision, way back in 1984.

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Break Dance, Commodore 64

Underneath the chubby graphics, and the cheesy tunes, is a half-decent game trying to get out…

You have to remember though: Break Dance is from 1984, and a) breakdancing was new and cool back then, and b) rhythm games hadn’t even been invented. So no one knew what a rhythm game even was…

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Lords of Midnight, ZX Spectrum

The late Mike Singleton‘s classic Lords of Midnight is a pioneering fantasy war game with strategy and RPG overtones. It was first released in 1984 on the ZX Spectrum by Beyond Software and immediately became a cult hit.

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Starstrike 3D, ZX Spectrum

More than just a clone of Atari‘s arcade classic Star Wars, Starstrike 3D (or 3D Starstrike, whatever you prefer) is a wireframe, shooter masterpiece on the humble ZX Spectrum that really set the gaming world alight, back in the early Eighties.

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Trashman, ZX Spectrum

Trashman – by Malcolm Evans – is an interesting and unique game in which you play the role of a refuse collector (bin man, or – if you’re American – a trash collector), collecting bins (or trash cans), and dumping them into a blue lorry that is creeping up the street as you work.

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Skool Daze, ZX Spectrum

Dave Reidy, and his wife Helen (a school teacher at the time), devised and made Skool Daze for Microsphere, way back in 1984.

This memorable ‘school simulator’ was an instant hit with gamers at the time.

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Kung-Fu Master, Arcade

Irem‘s Kung-Fu Master is a brilliant side-scrolling beat ’em up from the video game arcades of 1984. And it has lost little of its appeal over the years, because Kung-Fu Master is precise, violent and fun. Not to mention a huge challenge.

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