The 1988 MS-DOS version of the classic Freescape game, Dark Side, is arguably the best version of the game available, since it runs fast and the controls are very responsive.
Incentive Software published the game in Europe and Microprose published it in North America.
Dennis Caswell‘s classic Impossible Mission was released for the Atari 7800 in 1988 and it is a decent adaptation of the Commodore 64 original.
The sequel to Raffaele Cecco‘s 1987 Spectrum hit Cybernoid is more of the same devilishly difficult flick-screen shooting fun.
Zybex is a 1988 shoot ’em up from British developer/publisher Zeppelin Games. It’s a horizontally-scrolling progressive weapons blaster with a main character that looks a bit like the jetpack guy from Dropzone.
Developed by Compile and originally released for the MSX in 1987 Golvellius was converted to the Master System by Sega in 1988. It is an action RPG with overhead, flick-screen exploration, Zelda-like sword-based combat and scrolling sections through caves.
Continue reading Golvellius: Valley of Doom, Sega Master System
The second Gradius/Nemesis sequel developed and released exclusively for the MSX by Konami, Nemesis 3: The Eve of Destruction is another great ‘bullet hell’ progressive weapons shooter that really shows what the MSX is capable of.
There were two Wonder Boy sequels released in 1988 – both prefixed with the title “Wonder Boy III“. There was this game – Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair – released into arcades, and also Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap for the Sega Master System. Both were developed by Westone and published by Sega.
Developed by Dynamix and published by Electronic Arts in 1988, Project Firestart is a science fiction survival horror game set on a research station orbiting Saturn’s moon, Titan, in 2061. It is considered to be one of the first survival horror games ever made, and is often cited as pioneering many conventions of the genre.
The Sega Master System conversion of Bubble Bobble was converted by Taito themselves and published by Sega in 1988 in Japan and 1991 in Europe. Not only is it one of the best of the early console conversions, but it also differs from most of the other conversions in a significant way.
The original Japanese title for the game was “Final Bubble Bobble“.
The Nintendo Entertainment System conversion of Bubble Bobble features beautiful graphics, with some colour changes to the original, but in general it is a very authentic port of the classic Taito arcade game.
The King of Grabs 