Tag Archives: 1988

Paperboy, NES/Famicom

The Nintendo Entertainment System port of Paperboy was developed by Tengen and published by Mindscape in 1988. And it is not a bad conversion, all told. That said: it’s nothing special either. It’s certainly not as good as the excellent Master System version, which was its main competitor in its generation.

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Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax, Commodore 64

The sequel to 1987’s cult hit Barbarian, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax is a similar fighting game, but with more variety than the first game, and the possibility of exploring the actual world by moving from screen to screen (“wow! What a technological advancement!“). Barbarian II was first released in 1988 by Palace Software. The game was later licensed by Epyx for distribution in North America under the title of “Axe of Rage“.

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Forgotten Worlds, Arcade

Forgotten Worlds is a classic Capcom arcade shooter from 1988, with simultaneous two-player coop, a rotational aiming system, and intense bullet hell action set across a landscape of the desolate Earth in the 29th Century.

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Repton 3, Archimedes

The Acorn Archimedes version of Repton 3 is an excellent port of the 8-bit BBC Micro original, with enhanced graphics, responsive controls and a raft of extra levels not seen in the original. From what I can tell it was the only part of the Repton series that was ported to the Archimedes, which is fine because it’s probably the best game in the series.

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Haunted Castle, Arcade

Haunted Castle is an obscure Castlevania arcade game, developed by Konami and first released in 1988. Until recently, I’d never seen it before, and playing it now I have to say that it is pretty unsophisticated for a late Eighties arcade game, and it pales into insignificance compared to other Castlevania games, like Super Castlevania IV or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It’s also insanely difficult. Maybe unfairly so.

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Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Atari ST

The 1988 Atari ST conversion of Cinemaware‘s Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon has considerably better graphics than the Amiga original, even though the ST can’t quite display as many colours on-screen as the Amiga can.

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Speedball, Amiga

Developed by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Image Works in 1988, Speedball is a violent futuristic sport game where two teams try to score goals by throwing a metal ball into openings at the top and bottom of an enclosed court.

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Mercenary: The Second City, ZX Spectrum

Mercenary: The Second City is an add-on for the classic game Mercenary that gives the player a new environment and new missions to solve. It was first released for the ZX Spectrum in 1988.

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