Tag Archives: 1984

Activision, Atari 2600

Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Atari 2600

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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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Apple II, Datasoft

Bruce Lee, Apple II

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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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Ashby Computers and Graphics, BBC Micro, Canned, Ultimate Play The Game

Cookie, BBC Micro

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***CANNED GAME***

This BBC Micro conversion of Ultimate Play the Game‘s classic 1983 Spectrum game, Cookie, was programmed by Paul Proctor but was never officially released. Which is shame because it’s not bad.

It was, however, leaked onto the internet some decades later and we can still enjoy playing it now. Which is a damn sight better than the game having been lost forever…

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Dragon 32, Incentive

Back Track, Dragon 32

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Incentive Software‘s Back Track is a fun overhead maze game for the Dragon 32, first released in 1984.

It features a character called Eddie who has been captured by a mad professor who refuses to release him until he completes a sequence of five tests.

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Ocean Software, ZX Spectrum

Hunchback, ZX Spectrum

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Hunchback is a conversion of the 1983 arcade game by Century Electronics. It has been written that Hunchback is loosely based on the 1831 Victor Hugo novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because it features Quasimodo running along a castle wall, trying to rescue Esmeralda from a tower at the end, but that is disputed by some who claim that Robin Hood is the main influence. Regardless, at least in this conversion the main character does actually look like Quasimodo…

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Bug-Byte, ZX Spectrum

Rapscallion, ZX Spectrum

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Rapscallion is a bizarre and humorous action adventure written by Albert Ball and published by Bug-Byte for the ZX Spectrum in 1984.

You play an un-named king who has had his crown and castle seized by his arch enemy, Rapscallion the Rogue. Rapscallion has thrown you into the dungeon to rot, but you are saved by your friend, The Fairy Princess, who transforms you into a bird and grants you six lives. This allows you to begin your quest for revenge…

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Ocean Software, ZX Spectrum

Daley Thompson’s Decathlon, ZX Spectrum

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Daley Thompson’s Decathlon, developed and published by Ocean for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, was possibly the first home computer game to feature a celebrity, and a person of colour, as the star of the game – at least in the UK anyway.

If you don’t know: Daley Thompson is a British Olympic decathlon star, and was a gold medal winner at the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and as such was a household name in the UK back when this game was released in 1984. Younger readers might not know who Daley Thompson is, but they really should. Thompson is a legend and has been described as the greatest all-round athlete the world has ever seen. Look him up on YouTube if you want to see his Olympic achievements.

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Arcade, Bally Sente

Snacks ‘N Jaxson, Arcade

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Snacks ‘N Jaxson is one of the weirdest arcade games I’ve ever played in my life… It is beyond bizarre; it may even frighten children, or anyone who plays it, because it is so damn strange.

And it looks damn ugly too. The colours used in the game are unappealing, and the gameplay is also unnervingly jarring. Whoever designed it must’ve either taken a lot of acid back in the early Eighties, or been a John Wayne Gacy fanatic. Or both.

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