In Stainless Steel you are Ricky Steel – a teenage superhero with a flying car called ‘Nightwind‘ – on a mission to defeat the android troops built and controlled by the evil Dr. Vardos. What that basically means is that you have to drive/fly and shoot your way through a variety of overhead scrolling levels, collecting fuel to constantly top-up your ever-diminishing life bar and avoiding bullets like the plague.
Tag Archives: 1986
Judge Dredd, Commodore 64
This 1986 adaptation of Judge Dredd – the infamous cop of the future who debuted in 2000AD comic – was developed by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House, and it’s a bit of a travesty to be honest.
Rogue Trooper, ZX Spectrum
Rogue Trooper on the ZX Spectrum was developed by Design Design and published by Piranha in 1986. It was the first showing in a video game of the blue-skinned soldier of the future, from 2000AD comic, and it is not a bad game at all. In fact: Rogue Trooper on the Speccy was probably the first decent video game to feature a character from 2000AD, as all the previous ones had been terrible.
Zombi, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Ubisoft‘s Zombi was the first version of the game released, in 1986, and also Ubisoft‘s first ever published game. And – considering the giant that Ubisoft is now – it’s pretty amazing to think that this weird movie rip-off on the Amstrad was the one that started it all for them…
Rogue, Atari ST
The Atari ST version of the classic dungeon-crawler, Rogue, is arguably the best conversion of the game out there. It was developed by A.I. Design and published by Epyx in 1986 and combines the best bits from the original with new graphics and a few new features of its own.
Boulder Dash III, Commodore 64
Boulder Dash III was developed and published in Europe only by a Swedish company called American Action AB in 1986 (it wasn’t released in North America at all). It was the first game in the Boulder Dash series not to be designed and programmed by original co-creator Peter Liepa, and it suffers as a result of that.
Boulder Dash, PC
The MS-DOS version of Boulder Dash uses CGA graphics, so doesn’t look the best, but – like the Apple II version – the lack of colour doesn’t affect the gameplay at all. In fact: just four colours seems to suit it well; if those colours are used a certain way.
Park Patrol, Amstrad CPC
Tony Ngo‘s classic Commmodore 64 game, Park Patrol, has a decent conversion on the Amstrad, courtesy of programmer Andrew Rogers and publisher Firebird Software. The Amstrad version was released in 1986 at a budget price (£1.99 if I remember correctly).
Donkey Kong, Amstrad CPC
Ocean Software‘s 8-bit conversion of the classic 1981 Nintendo arcade game, Donkey Kong, is considered to be close to perfect on the Amstrad CPC. All the screens; all the sound effects, and all the challenging gameplay elements are present and correct in this port.
Spindizzy, Amstrad CPC
I was always under the impression that Paul Shirley‘s classic Spindizzy originated on the Commodore 64 and was ported to other machines, but this interview with Shirley says that the game actually originated on the CPC and was ported to other systems. Since Paul Shirley coded the C64 version himself I had guessed that that was a logical assumption to make, but it now looks to be wrong.
The Amstrad version of Spindizzy – one of the best games ever made in my humble opinion – is pretty much perfect, with crisp, clean, detailed graphics and responsive controls.
The King of Grabs 