Tag Archives: 1984

Wheelin’ Wallie, Commodore 64

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.

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Strontium Dog: The Killing, ZX Spectrum

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“.

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Strontium Dog and the Death Gauntlet, Commodore 64

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.

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Boulder Dash, Apple II

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.

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Amstrad CPC Special

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.

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Fred, ZX Spectrum

Written by famous Spanish software house Indescomp, Fred is a scrolling platform/maze game where you control a cartoon Indiana Jones-type character plundering treasures from an Egyptian tomb, while avoiding contact with ghosts and mummies.

Fred was first released in 1984. In its native Spain the game was published by Investronica, while in the UK and other parts of Europe the game was published by Quicksilva.

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Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Atari 8-bit

This Atari 8-bit conversion of David Crane‘s classic Atari 2600 platform game is subtitled the “Adventurer’s Edition” because it contains a whole new second level that becomes available after you complete the first.

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Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Atari 2600

Activision‘s 1984 sequel to Pitfall!Pitfall II: Lost Caverns – was again designed and programmed by David Crane. This time, though, the cartridge had a custom display processor chip inside, which allowed for improved visuals and continuous four channel music (the Atari 2600 is normally only capable of two channel sound).

Gameplay is similar to Pitfall!, although in this follow-up the world you can explore is much bigger than previously and is made up of eight screens in width, by 27 screens in height, making 216 screens in total. When you walk from one screen to another the new screen scrolls smoothly into view.

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Bruce Lee, Apple II

Predictably the Apple II conversion of Bruce Lee isn’t that great. It’s nowhere near as bad as the awful BBC Micro version, but it does have its problems. It first came out in 1984 and was programmed by Rick Mirsky.

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