Tag Archives: 1985

Roland on the Ropes, Amstrad CPC

Just like Amsoft‘s Roland in the Caves was a re-titling of Indescomp‘s ZX Spectrum classic Bugaboo the Flea, Roland on the Ropes is a re-titling of Indescomp‘s ZX Spectrum game, Fred.

In Roland on the Ropes you play a cartoon-like tomb raider type character exploring a scrolling maze of platforms and ropes, looking for treasure and also trying to stop ghosts, mummies, and other creatures from killing you by shooting them with a gun. Your bullets are limited but you can find more ammo littering the cave to top up your gun. Ultimately your aim is to find the exit to the next level, as well as score as many points as possible.

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Dragontorc, Amstrad CPC

I didn’t know that Dragontorc existed on the Amstrad until recently and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it did. Dragontorc is one of my all-time favourite ZX Spectrum games and it translates well to the CPC, flickery graphics included.

Dragontorc was designed and programmed by Steve Turner (of Graftgold fame) and is a sequel to the game Avalon, both of which feature a levitating mage called Maroc on a quest to defeat the forces of evil.

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Sorcery Plus, Amstrad CPC

Sorcery Plus is an expanded version of the best-selling Amstrad game Sorcery, catering for 128K disk-based machines and featuring new rooms and other enhancements. It was developed by Gang of Five and published by Virgin Games in 1985.

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Moon Cresta, ZX Spectrum

The Spectrum conversion of Nichibutsu‘s classic 1980 arcade game Moon Cresta was published by Incentive Software in 1985 and it is considered to be very good, considering the machine’s limitations.

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Bruce Lee, ZX Spectrum

Bruce Lee on the ZX Spectrum was developed by Ocean Software and is an excellent conversion of the Atari 8-bit original. It’s playable, solid, and remains great fun to play to this day. It even retains the simultaneous two-player mode from the original.

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The Arc of Yesod, ZX Spectrum

The Arc of Yesod is the sequel to Nodes of Yesod and was actually published the same year as Nodes, in 1985. The game was again developed by Odin Computer Graphics, but this time was published by Thor Computer Software.

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Nodes of Yesod, ZX Spectrum

Nodes of Yesod is a platform exploration game created by Liverpool-based Odin Computer Graphics and first published for the ZX Spectrum in 1985.

At the time it was a critical hit – mostly because the presentation is top notch – but playing the game now you really have to wonder what all the fuss was about, because it really is one of the most frustrating Spectrum games ever made…

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The Great American Cross Country Road Race, Atari 8-bit

This simple but playable road racing game was written by Alex DeMeo for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and was first published by Activision in 1985.

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Nightshade, MSX

The MSX conversion of Nightshade was first published by Ultimate Play the Game in 1985. It is identical to the original Spectrum version, barring a few small differences.

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