Tag Archives: 1987

Gauntlet II, Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 version of Gauntlet II was developed by Gremlin Graphics and was published by US Gold in Europe, and Mindscape in North America, in 1987.

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Wonder Momo, Arcade

I first encountered Namco‘s Wonder Momo on the PC Engine, because it had received a fan translation, and I was curious to see what the game was about. I then discovered that it was a conversion of a 1987 arcade game, featuring a young girl called Momo, who can turn into a ‘superhero’ by building up her “Wonder Meter“.

This bizarre arcade game was only ever released in Japan, but has subsequently built up a cult following around the world, and has also inspired manga/anime, and resulted in a sequel that was released in 2014.

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Salamander, MSX

The MSX port of Konami‘s classic arcade shooter, Salamander, was first released in Japan – on cartridge – in 1987. And although it shares the name and certain elements from the arcade game, this is a completely new version of Salamander, with a new storyline, new characters, ships and levels. It is sometimes referred to as “Salamander: Operation X“.

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The Willow Pattern Adventure, Commodore 64

Published by Firebird in 1987, The Willow Pattern Adventure is an Asian-themed maze game that is actually an unashamed, almost carbon copy remake of the 1984 game, Treasure Island. Both games were created by Greg Duddle.

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Star Wars, ZX Spectrum

This port of the classic Atari arcade game, Star Wars, on the ZX Spectrum, was developed by Vektor Grafix and published by Domark in 1987.

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Action Force, ZX Spectrum

Developed by Gang of Five and published by Virgin Games in 1987, Action Force is a scrolling shooter set in the world of the Action Force toys by Hasbro/Milton Bradley (aka G.I. Joe toys in North America). Action Force was also released for the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, although the Spectrum version is notably different to those versions.

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Shadow Skimmer, Commodore 64

Published by The Edge in 1987, Shadow Skimmer is an overhead scrolling shooter set on a large, maze-like spaceship. At first glance, the game looks a bit like Andrew Braybrook‘s Paradroid, but it plays much differently.

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Commando, Intellivision

I’ve been wanting to add the Intellivision version of Commando for some time now, but every time I tried to play it, I could never get the controls to work properly. Until now…

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Choplifter, Atari 7800

The Atari 7800 conversion of Choplifter was developed by Ibid, Inc. and first released by Atari Corporation in 1987, and while it does at first glance look better than all the other Atari ports of the game, it unfortunately plays pretty poorly.

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Starglider, PC

The 1987 PC MS-DOS version of Argonaut Software‘s classic 3D shooter, Starglider, was ported by Realtime Games Software, who did the excellent Amstrad and ZX Spectrum ports. Unfortunately, the game is available only with four-colour CGA graphics, which does diminish the look of the game significantly.

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