Tag Archives: 1988

Salamander, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum port of Konami‘s classic arcade shooter, Salamander, was programmed by Andrew Glaister, with graphics by Stuart Ruecroft, and was first published by Imagine Software in 1988. While aspects of the game are very good, it is unfortunately a good example of an unfinished and cut-down game being rushed to market…

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Bionic Commando, ZX Spectrum

Developed by Software Creations and published by GO! in 1988, this is the ZX Spectrum version of Capcom‘s classic arcade game, Bionic Commando. And it’s not bad, all considered.

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Salamander, Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 version of Konami‘s arcade hit, Salamander, was programmed by Peter Baron, with graphics by Bob Stevenson and music by Mark Cooksey. It was first published by Imagine Software in Europe in 1988, and Konami themselves in North America in 1989. It is considered by many to be the best 8-bit home computer version of Salamander, and it’s not difficult to see why…

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Shinobi, Sega Master System

The Master System conversion of Sega‘s 1987 arcade game, Shinobi, is arguably the best of its type on the console. The developers have obviously taken care to make the game play well and look as good as possible on Sega‘s 8-bit system.

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Bionic Commando (US version), Commodore 64

This is the US-developed port of Capcom‘s Bionic Commando. It was created by Pacific Dataworks International and published by Capcom in 1988. If you want to see the (IMHO vastly superior) British version of the game: click here.

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Bionic Commando, Commodore 64

There are two versions of Bionic Commando for the Commodore 64 – a British version, developed by Software Creations and published by GO!, and a US version, developed by Pacific Dataworks International and published by Capcom. Both were released in 1988.

The game shown here is the British version, which – in my humble opinion – is by far the better of the two releases.

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The Empire Strikes Back, ZX Spectrum

A port of the arcade sequel to Star Wars, released into arcades in 1985; converted to the Spectrum by Vektor Grafix and published by Domark in 1988.

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Action Force II, ZX Spectrum

The sequel to the first Action Force, Action Force II is a game that I knew had reviewed well at the time of its original release (in 1988), so I was expecting good things from it. Having never played the game before, I sat down and gave it a go, but was disappointed with what I found…

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Gauntlet, Apple IIgs

The Apple IIgs version of the arcade classic, Gauntlet, was first published by Mindscape in 1988. It’s a reasonable port, although it doesn’t have the variations in colour that most Gauntlet ports have. The levels in this version seem to be mostly the same colour – grey – with spot colours used for doors, items and monsters. Which is disappointing.

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Gauntlet, NES/Famicom

The 1988 NES version of Gauntlet was developed and published by Tengen, and – surprisingly – it doesn’t feature the levels from the arcade original, but does its own thing instead.

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