The 1984 Commodore 64 version of Metagalactic Llamas: Battle at the Edge of Time was converted by Aaron Liddiment for Llamasoft and is pretty much the same as the classic VIC-20 original, except with better graphics and arguably better sound.
Continue reading Metagalactic Llamas: Battle at the Edge of Time, Commodore 64
I would say that Hellgate is one of my least favourite Jeff Minter/Llamasoft games. While it is competently-programmed and nicely-presented, Hellgate is also a very difficult game to play effectively as a single-player.
Published by Salamander Software in 1984 the Spectrum conversion of Jeff Minter‘s Matrix: Gridrunner 2 is a decent enough game, with non-flickery graphics and responsive controls. The conversion was coded by Shaukat Ali Tenquist, who kindly commented below to let us know.
Wallie Goes To Rhymeland is the third and final game in the “Wallie” series, designed and programmed by Andrew Challis, with graphics by his sister, Claire. The game was first published by Interceptor Software in 1984 for the Commodore 64 and it is mostly forgotten now. Which is a pity because the game has some charm; it was made by a brother and sister team, and it also brought joy to the lives of everyday gamers back in the mid-Eighties.
Released by Interceptor Software in 1984, Trollie Wallie is a scrolling platform game featuring a weird mouth on legs, called “Wallie“. It’s actually the sequel to Wheelin’ Wallie which came out through Interceptor earlier that same year.
Wheelin’ Wallie is a side-scrolling Pac-Man-like game where the aim is to eat dots along a course that scrolls from left to right, while trying to avoid the many hazards being thrown at you.
You play as “Wallie“, a disembodied head floating on a wheel than rolls on the ground. Collision with any object loses you a life, as does falling down a hole in the ground. You can trundle left and right as the screen automatically scrolls, and you can also move Wallie‘s head up and down, and that’s about it. Moving objects sometimes fly across the screen and must be avoided at all costs.
Quicksilva‘s second attempt at a Strontium Dog video game in 1984 – released the same year as the awful Death Gauntlet on the C64 – is only marginally better than their first attempt.
The Killing, on the ZX Spectrum, was written by Paul Hargreaves and once again sees you playing mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, trying to survive a gauntlet of hostility on an alien planet. This time, though, he’s voluntarily participating in a contest where vicious murderers fight to the death for cash, in a tournament called “The Killing“.
Strontium Dog and the Death Gauntlet for the Commodore 64 was the first properly-licensed video game based on a 2000AD character. It was coded by Stephen Kellett; co-designed by Mark Eyles, and published by Quicksilva in 1984.
Continue reading Strontium Dog and the Death Gauntlet, Commodore 64
Boulder Dash on the Apple II was coded by Pat Montelo and published by Micro Fun in 1984, and it is arguably one of the best games on the system.
The Amstrad Colour Personal Computer (CPC) is a family of 8-bit home computers that were designed and manufactured by British company Amstrad (the infamous one led by Alan Sugar), and marketed as competition to the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum from 1984 onward.
The King of Grabs 