DK’Tronics‘ 1985 release Popeye is notable for its use of large, colourful animated character graphics, the likes of which had not been seen before. At least not at the time of release on the humble ZX Spectrum.
Tag Archives: 1985
Time Bandit, Atari ST
Time Bandit was first released in 1983 for the TRS-80, but is far better known for its 16-bit versions on the Atari ST and Amiga. These were released later, in 1985, and featured vastly improved graphics.
Dig Dug II, Arcade
Namco‘s fairly unassuming 1985 release, Dig Dug II, is a fun sequel to the classic digging game, except in this game you are (the character) Dig Dug – on an island, with either your hose or your drill as weapons – and must defeat all the monsters to progress.
Commando, Arcade
Commando is a classic vertically-scrolling run-and-gun game, first released by Capcom into arcades in 1985.
Ghosts ‘N Goblins, Arcade
Capcom‘s 1985 arcade hit, Ghosts ‘N Goblins, is renowned for its difficulty. It is SO tough that grown adults weep when they play it…
Paperboy, Arcade
Atari‘s 1985 arcade hit Paperboy features an isometric road to cycle down and houses to throw newspapers at. It’s an attractive proposition for an arcade game. Especially when the game has real bike handlebars for steering, which the original arcade cabinets did.
Space Harrier, Arcade
Developed by a team led by Yu Suzuki at Sega in 1985, Space Harrier is a super-fast third-person, flying-into-the-screen fantasy blasting game, originally housed inside a hydraulic cabinet in arcades. This would jerk around as you moved the control stick, giving you a feeling of movement as you played the game.
Beach Head II, Commodore 64
Soooo much better than the first Beach Head… Beach Head II is a balls-to-the-wall, digitised speech-laden action game that sees “The Allies” versus “The Dictator”. The game was developed by Access Software and first published in 1985.
Wriggler, ZX Spectrum
A weird, colourful, original worm-based race game on the ZX Spectrum, released by Romantic Robot in 1985.
Actually, Wriggler is less of a “race” game and more of a “crawl” game. The pace is not very fast at all.
Gyron, ZX Spectrum
Gyron was developed by released by Firebird Software in 1985 and was something of a bolt out of the blue at the time. Nothing quite like it had been seen before.
You play as a Hedroid and roam a wireframe 3D maze, avoiding towers and spheres, while searching for the exit goal. In other words: you’re just trying not to get squished on your way out…
The King of Grabs 