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.
Tag Archives: 8-bit
Salmon Run, Atari 8-bit
Written by Bill Williams (the writer and designer of Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, among other games), for the Atari Program Exchange, and first released in 1982, Salmon Run is a clever, and uniquely different, video game based upon the life cycle of a fish – a salmon, specifically – that is trying to swim upstream to its spawning ground.
Combat School, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum conversion of Konami‘s arcade game, Combat School, was developed and published by Ocean Software in 1987.
Re-Bounder, Commodore 64
Re-Bounder is the 1987 sequel to the brilliant ball-bouncing game, Bounder. It was once again developed and published by Gremlin Graphics and this time features both horizontally and vertically-scrolling gameplay, whereas the previous game scrolled only vertically.
Flip and Flop, Atari 8-bit
Flip and Flop is an isometric action/maze/platform game designed by Jim Nangano and first published for Atari 8-bit computers by First Star Software in 1983.
RoboCop, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of RoboCop – based on the 1987 film of the same name – was developed and published by Ocean Software in 1988, and was such a hit that it went on to become the top-selling Spectrum game of 1989, according to Gallup (the company that used to collate and publish the UK’s music and video game charts). The Spectrum version actually remained in the sales charts for over a year and half – it entered the charts in December of 1988 and was still in the top five in February of 1991, which is insane… THAT is what you call a “big hit“!
Ghosts ‘N Goblins, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Ghosts ‘N Goblins was developed and published by Elite Systems in 1986, and it looks pretty rough, and seems to be missing a good chunk of the original game.
Rainbow Islands, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 port of Taito‘s classic Rainbow Islands was developed by Graftgold and first released by Ocean Software in 1990, and – gosh-darn it – it is a fantastic port of the arcade game!
Ghosts ‘N Goblins, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Capcom‘s arcade classic, Ghosts ‘N Goblins, was first released by Elite Systems in 1986.
There is some confusion about who programmed the game. The title screen says that it was coded by Keith Burkhill, yet some sources say that Nigel Alderton programmed it. It could be that both worked on the game, but it’s not entirely clear…
Vradark’s Sphere, ZX Spectrum
Vradark’s Sphere is a Roguelike fantasy role-playing game that was created by Aleksander Udotov, for 128K Spectrums, and first released in 2018. To me it is the epitome of what I would call “Modern Retro” (ie. a modern game, made to look old or be played on old hardware), and it looks and plays fantastically well.
