The sequel to the first Sword of Hope, The Sword of Hope II was developed and published by KEMCO in Japan in 1992, but wasn’t localized and released into North America until 1996. Europe (and the rest of the world) didn’t receive a release of the game at all.
Tag Archives: 1992
X, Game Boy
This game – called simply “X” – was a Japan-only release, in 1992, on the original black and white Game Boy, but its conception and development would later have a profound effect on Nintendo‘s confidence in producing 3D-based games.
X was created by British developer Argonaut Software (specifically, by Dylan Cuthbert, who was later infamously ‘poached’ by Nintendo from Argonaut), and was a demonstration of their ability to produce 3D-based games on home video game systems. This impressed Nintendo, who then tasked Argonaut with creating a new 3D game on their Super Nintendo console, which eventually became the classic Star Fox. And the rest is history… Sort of.
Chase HQ II, Megadrive/Genesis
The Megadrive/Genesis exclusive, Chase HQ II, was developed by ITL Co., Ltd. and published by Taito in 1992. It is an enhanced, multi-vehicle adaptation of the classic 1988 arcade game, with similar gameplay to its parent.
Paperboy 2, ZX Spectrum
Developed by Probe Software and published by Mindscape in 1992, the ZX Spectrum version of Paperboy 2 is not quite as bad as the terrible Amstrad version, which was written by the same two people (David Perry and Nick Bruty). That said: it’s not that much better either…
Paperboy 2, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Paperboy 2 was written by David Perry and Nick Bruty for Probe Software, and was published by Mindscape in 1992, and it is by far the worst version of Paperboy 2 available.
Paperboy 2, Game Boy
The Game Boy version of Paperboy 2 was developed and published by Mindscape in 1992. It is not a bad port overall, and doesn’t suffer too badly from having a small play screen (unlike the Game Gear version, which does).
Paperboy II, Megadrive/Genesis
The Megadrive/Genesis version of Paperboy 2 (or Paperboy II, as the title screen shows) is a real surprise, because it seems to be an attempt by developer Tengen to actually create a real sequel to the Paperboy arcade game. This game doesn’t strictly follow the rather lacklustre template of the Mindscape version of Paperboy 2, but instead does its own thing, which IMHO makes it special.
Paperboy 2, Amiga
The Amiga version of Paperboy 2 is pretty much identical to the MS-DOS version, except that the scoring and newspaper count are displayed outside the play area (in the PC version they’re overlaid over the play area), and the water in the game is bluer. The game was first published by Mindscape in 1992.
RoboCop 3, ZX Spectrum
Rainbow Islands, NES/Famicom
The NES version of Rainbow Islands was developed and published by Taito (it was published by Ocean Software in Europe) in 1992. It is a decent enough port of the classic arcade game but does have some deficiencies compared to the original.