Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest is the sequel to the arcade classic, Joust, and was developed and manufactured by Williams Electronics in 1986. John Newcomer was again the lead designer of the game.
Tag Archives: 1986
Kid Icarus, NES/Famicom
Developed by Nintendo R&D1 (with assistance from Tose Co. Ltd.), and first released for the Famicom Disk System by Nintendo in 1986, Kid Icarus is a cult classic scrolling platform game that is known for its high level of difficulty. The original Japanese title for the game is “Hikari Shinwa: Palthena no Kagami“. An NES cartridge version, with a different ending, an English language title screen and staff credits, was released in 1987.
Big Trouble in Little China, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Electric Dreams‘ Big Trouble in Little China was the first released, coming out the same year as John Carpenter‘s famous film, in 1986. The Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 versions followed later, in 1987.
Heartland, ZX Spectrum
Heartland is a platform action game developed and published by Odin Computer Graphics for the 48K ZX Spectrum in 1986. It features gameplay that is similar to previous Odin games, Nodes of Yesod and Arc of Yesod, with a well-animated protagonist exploring a maze-like platform world of doors and elevators.
Fist II: The Legend Continues, Commodore 64
Fist II: The Legend Continues is the sequel to the classic The Way of the Exploding Fist, and it plays quite differently to its predecessor. It was once again developed by Beam Software (mostly by the same people who made Fist One) and first published by Melbourne House in 1986.
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Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back, ZX Spectrum
Palace Software‘s Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back is the sequel to the cult hit, Cauldron, released in 1985. Cauldron II was first released for the Commodore 64 in 1986 and this is a conversion of that game. It features gameplay that is quite different to the original Cauldron, although it is essentially still a platform game at its core.
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Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Atari 8-Bit
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar on the Atari 8-bit was ported by David Lubar (who created the excellent Pastfinder) and first published by Origin Systems in 1986. It is an excellent conversion of a brilliant game and is arguably the best Role-Playing Game on Atari‘s 8-bit home computer.
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Ultima III: Exodus, Atari ST
The 1986 Atari ST version of Ultima III: Exodus is pretty much identical to the Amiga version. In fact: it was ported by the same guy who made the Amiga version – “Banjo” Bob Hardy – so shares the same codebase. Since they’re almost identical I’d assume that the ST version was the primary target and the Amiga version was the port (since doing it the other way around would probably lead to features being dropped from the ST version as the machine had fewer custom chips). Ultima III was published by Origin Systems and is arguably the joint best version of the game available.
Ultima III: Exodus, Amiga
The Amiga version of Ultima III: Exodus was written by Bob Hardy and first published by Origin Systems in 1986. It’s actually a really good version of the game – maybe even the best – as it uses both mouse and keyboard controls to make playing the game faster and easier.
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, Commodore 64
Although the first Ultima game was an Apple II original, the Commodore 64 version of this early RPG is arguably the best-known. Re-made and released in 1986, the C64 version of Ultima [one] features colourful graphics and absorbing gameplay that is pretty much identical to the Apple II remake.
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