Splatterhouse is an infamous side-scrolling horror-themed action game that was released into arcades by Namco in 1988. It is known for its grotesque opponents and for its satirisation of well-known horror films of the 1980s.
Tag Archives: 1988
Treasure Island Dizzy, ZX Spectrum
Treasure Island Dizzy is the second game in the Dizzy series and was first released by Codemasters in 1988. It was again designed and coded by The Oliver Twins and once again features everyone’s favourite anthropomorphic egg, Dizzy.
River Raid II, Atari 2600
Based on Carol Shaw‘s classic vertically-scrolling shooter, but not created by her, River Raid II is a more challenging and slightly more complex take on the River Raid concept.
Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge, ZX Spectrum
The third and final of the Ocean-released Daley Thompson sports games is Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge, which was first published in 1988.
This one again features ten Olympic decathlon events, split over two days, they being: 100 metre dash, long jump, shot putt, high jump, 400 metres, 110 metre hurdles, pole vault, discus, javelin, and 1500 metres.
This time Daley is trying to beat the world record, rather than win a gold medal.
Continue reading Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge, ZX Spectrum
R-Type, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum conversion of Irem‘s classic arcade game R-Type is considered by many to be one of the best games ever made for Sir Clive‘s classic 8-bit home computer.
California Games, Atari 2600
Epyx programmed this 1988 conversion of California Games themselves, and – to be honest – it’s actually not that bad, considering the Atari 2600‘s limitations.
Draconus, Atari 800
Draconus is a 1988 release on the Atari 800 by British developer Zeppelin Games. It is a platform game with more than a hint of Metroidvania about it.
Sega Megadrive/Genesis Special
Known as the Megadrive in Japan and Europe, and the Genesis in North America, this was Sega‘s fourth generation home video games console and it was launched in 1988 in Japan (1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe).
The Megadrive/Genesis is a 16-bit console with a built-in slot for cartridges, which is how most games were played on it. It had backwards compatibility with its predecessor, the Sega Master System, and it also had a variety of important add-ons released for it, including the Sega CD and the 32X.
The unit came with two standard, three-button pads, then later (after Street Fighter II came out on the Megadrive) six button pads (like the one picture below) became more widespread.
The Megadrive sold more than 30 millions units worldwide, until it was discontinued by Sega in 1997 (although it was still being sold and supported by Majesco Entertainment until 1999).
Sega‘s console has a huge library of superb games and many are still being re-released to this day. So here’s our tribute to Sega‘s classic machine with a week of nothing but Megadrive games.
Here’s a full list of what was published:
Desert Strike
Jungle Strike
Urban Strike
Gunstar Heroes
Road Rash 3
The Immortal
Mega Bomberman
MUSHA
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Herzog Zwei
Flashback
Pier Solar and the Great Architects
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Toejam & Earl
Cosmic Spacehead
Phantasy Star III
Enjoy,
The King of Grabs
More: Megadrive/Genesis on Wikipedia
Ghostbusters, NES
The Nintendo Entertainment System version of David Crane‘s Ghostbusters is known for being a bit of a mess, compared to all the other versions.
It was initially released in Japan in 1986 and later in North America in 1988. Why the two year delay? Probably something to do with the fact that the game is terrible…
Herzog, MSX
This obscure Japanese action game is a prototype of one of the first ever real-time strategy games – Herzog Zwei on the Sega Megadrive – and it is also one of the best games you can play on an MSX.
Herzog was developed and published on disk for the MSX2 by Techno Soft (nee, Tecno Soft) in 1988.
