A game not often mentioned in online ‘Christmas video game’ lists, The Official Father Christmas Game is one of the better Christmas-themed video games that I’ve found so far. It was developed by Enigma Variations and published by Alternative Software for the Amstrad, Spectrum and C64 in 1989. All proceeds from the game went to the famous children’s charity, Save The Children.
Continue reading The Official Father Christmas Game, Amstrad CPC
Although you may laugh at the title of this Christmas-themed game, it’s not called that because the publisher (Alternative Software) went to Lapland to buy an official license from Santa… It’s called that because it is an official tie-in with the famous children’s charity, Save The Children. The game was sold (for a reasonable £2.99, for the Spectrum, Amstrad and C64) in 1989 and all profits went to Save The Children.
Continue reading The Official Father Christmas Game, ZX Spectrum
Created in association with Save The Children, The Official Father Christmas Game was developed by Enigma Variations and published by Alternative Software for the C64, Spectrum and Amstrad in 1989. Profits from the game went to the aforementioned children’s charity.
Continue reading The Official Father Christmas Game, Commodore 64
E-Type is an impressive Out Run-style racing game on the Acorn Archimedes where you drive out across various courses with the objective being: to cover as much distance as possible before the timer runs out. You can earn extra time by passing checkpoints and can play the game with either automatic or manual transmission.
The Archimedes has a flawless version of Populous – Bullfrog‘s seminal God sim – that was programmed by Richard Walker and published by Krisalis Software in 1992.
The PC MS-DOS port is actually one of the better Bubble Bobble conversions, with graphics that don’t flicker and are more or less the authentic experience. The play area is slightly wider than the arcade original, but it doesn’t affect gameplay, which is excellent overall.
The Atari ST conversion of Bubble Bobble is very similar to the Amiga version, except with slightly muted colours. It was programmed by the same guy who made the Amiga port (David Broadhurst), so no surprises there.
Bubble Bobble on the Amiga was developed by Software Creations and published by Firebird in 1989. It’s an authentic port of the arcade original and is a very playable conversion.
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti is a spin-off from the infamous Splatterhouse series and was a Japan only release, published by Namco for the Nintendo Famicom in 1989.
Rather than take the gruesome approach of the original game, in Wanpaku Graffiti the characters are “super deformed” (and made cute) and the game takes a comical approach to the presentation and gameplay, which was obviously deemed to be more fitting to a Famicom audience.
The third Dizzy adventure, Fantasy World Dizzy, was again designed by The Oliver Twins with graphics by Neil Adamson. It was published by Codemasters in 1989, initially for the ZX Spectrum, but also later for all the major formats at the time (Amstrad CPC, C64, Amiga, ST, and MS-DOS).
The King of Grabs 