StarTropics is an action adventure game released by Nintendo in 1990. It was developed in Japan, but was only ever intended for released in North America and Europe, which is kinda weird, but that was the plan all along apparently…
Tag Archives: 1990
Pilotwings, Super Nintendo
Nintendo‘s famous flying game, Pilotwings, first came out in Japan in 1990, then the following year was a launch title for the North American and European releases of the Super Nintendo.
Pilotwings uses scaling and rotation effects (known as ‘Mode 7’ in some circles) to give a visual representation of the ground, with regular 2D sprites making up everything else, and it works extremely well.
Xevious: Fardraut Saga, PC Engine
A conversion of an MSX2 remake of the classic arcade game, Xevious, published on the PC Engine by Namcot in 1990. And – like a lot of PC Engine shooters – it is a good experience.
Valis III, PC Engine
Initially released in 1990 by Telenet Japan, Valis III is a CD-ROM-only platform game for the PC Engine. It was released for the TurboGrafx-CD in North America in 1992.
Captive, Amiga
Captive is a classic Tony Crowther game, published by Mindscape in 1990. It is a futuristic, first-person RPG/action game in the style of Dungeon Master.
At first I didn’t really much like the game – I thought the graphics were dated and garish and the controls finicky – BUT… after a bit more reading/research I managed to get a foothold in the game and I really started to enjoy it.
Total Eclipse, Commodore 16/Plus4
A 1990 homebrew conversion of the classic Freescape game, Total Eclipse, by the Hungarian coder Soós Ferenc (aka “SF”). It requires 64K of RAM to run.
And Total Eclipse an excellent conversion – pretty much identical to its Commodore 64 parent (from which it was converted).
Driller, Commodore 16/Plus4
A 1990 homebrew conversion by Pygmy that requires 64K of RAM (which technically makes it a Plus 4 release). Driller is an impressive achievement on the 6502, even if it does run slowly.
Santa’s Christmas Caper, Commodore 64
Developed and published by Zeppelin in 1990, Santa’s Christmas Caper is a rarity: it is a Christmas-themed “Bullet Hell” shooter that is actually not too bad.
Mega Man 3, NES
There are over 130 Mega Man titles, and many are essentially the same formula. That is: choose a level based on one of a number of boss enemies (usually themed, with a unique name); run and jump your way through a tortuous series of platforms and ladders to reach said boss; then whup its ass in a boss fight.
Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, Atari ST
The Atari ST conversion of Ghouls ‘N Ghosts is pretty ugly.
The King of Grabs 