Tag Archives: 1989

Lords of the Rising Sun, Amiga

This 1989 release from Cinemaware is probably one of the least played Amiga games ever made.

It is based around historic (12th Century) Japanese warfare, with you playing one of two famous generals (Yoritomo or Yoshitsune) fighting to unify (pacify; subjugate) Japan under one rule.

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Cybernoid, NES

This console conversion of Raffaele Cecco‘s Cybernoid was released by Acclaim Entertainment in 1989.

It is just as difficult and frustrating as the original, if not more so.

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Gunhed, PC Engine

Gunhed is a classic vertically-scrolling. progressive-weapons shooter released for the PC Engine in 1989. It is based on the Toho film of the same name. In North America the game goes by the name of Blazing Lasers.

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Gregory Loses His Clock, ZX Spectrum

Playing Gregory Loses His Clock was a real treat for me, because I had never seen it before now. I love finding (and of course grabbing) good old games that have previously passed me by. Considering that Gregory Loses His Clock was released quite late in the life of the ZX Spectrum (1989), it’s no surprise that I missed it. Most people (myself included) had moved onto 16-bit computers by then.

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Federation of Free Traders, Atari ST

A space exploration and trading game from 1989 that was meant to rival Elite. And it almost did. Except for a fundamental problem… The problem was: travelling around; jumping from planet to planet was… To put it mildly: sticky.

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Laser Squad, Atari ST

Laser Squad was a great strategy game on early 8-bit home computers. This Atari ST 16-bit conversion retains the same excellent turn-based gameplay, but updates the graphics with extra colours and frame rates.

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Dark Side, Atari ST

Dark Side is the second Freescape game from Major Developments and was published by Incentive Software (Microprose in the US).

Freescape was one of the earliest (if not THE earliest) 3D game engine and was used to make a series of significant games in the mid Eighties.

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Maniac Mansion, Atari ST

The Atari ST does have an excellent conversion of the classic Commodore 64 LucasArts point-and-click adventure, Maniac Mansion on its books.

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H.A.T.E., Atari ST

H.A.T.E. is a pretty good conversion of a well-known ZX Spectrum shoot ’em up. It was published by Gremlin Graphics in 1989.

H.A.T.E. is subtitled “Hostile All-Terrain Encounter“, which it is, being a loose sequel to Vortex Software‘s classic Highway Encounter (H.A.T.E. was made by the same guy and uses the same viewpoint).

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Chaos Strikes Back, Atari ST

Chaos Strikes Back is to RPGs what The Empire Strikes Back is to movie sequels… It is simply one of the best – and toughest – real-time role-players ever made. Dungeon Master was incredible, but the sequel, Chaos Strikes Back, is just another dimension…

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