Tag Archives: 8-bit

Big Trouble in Little China, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum version of Electric DreamsBig Trouble in Little China was the first released, coming out the same year as John Carpenter‘s famous film, in 1986. The Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 versions followed later, in 1987.

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Commando, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum version of Capcom‘s Commando was programmed by Keith Burkhill and Nigel Alderton, with graphics by Karen Trueman and Rory Green. It was first published by Elite Systems in 1985.

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Heartland, ZX Spectrum

Heartland is a platform action game developed and published by Odin Computer Graphics for the 48K ZX Spectrum in 1986. It features gameplay that is similar to previous Odin games, Nodes of Yesod and Arc of Yesod, with a well-animated protagonist exploring a maze-like platform world of doors and elevators.

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Rollaround, Commodore 64

Rollaround is an isometric action/puzzle game written by Tony Kelly of Mr. Chip Software and was published by Mastertronic in 1987. The gameplay is a combination of Marble Madness, Bobby Bearing, Spindizzy and Q*Bert, where the aim is to control a rolling ball that moves around a map of screens, rolling over tiles, activating switches, and collecting cross tiles for points.

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Flimbo’s Quest, Commodore 64

Flimbo’s Quest is a scrolling platform shooter that basically recycles the gameplay from the classic C64 game, Hawkeye. Designer/programmer Laurens van der Donk was a member of demo scene coders Boys Without Brains (who created Hawkeye), which explains the connection. From what I can tell, though, van der Donk was not involved in creating Hawkeye, so I’m not entirely sure how or why Flimbo’s Quest came to be.

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Mercenary: The Second City, ZX Spectrum

Mercenary: The Second City is an add-on for the classic game Mercenary that gives the player a new environment and new missions to solve. It was first released for the ZX Spectrum in 1988.

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Mercenary, ZX Spectrum

Paul Woakes‘ classic open-world cockpit exploration game, Mercenary, was ported to the 48K ZX Spectrum by David Aubrey-Jones and published by Novagen Software in 1987.

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Fist II: The Legend Continues, Commodore 64

Fist II: The Legend Continues is the sequel to the classic The Way of the Exploding Fist, and it plays quite differently to its predecessor. It was once again developed by Beam Software (mostly by the same people who made Fist One) and first published by Melbourne House in 1986.

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The Way of the Exploding Fist, Commodore 64

The Way of the Exploding Fist is a classic one-on-one martial arts fighting game, developed by Australian company Beam Software and published by Melbourne House in 1985.

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Revs, BBC Micro

Geoff Crammond‘s racing simulator, Revs, is an absolute classic on the BBC Micro. It was the first ever racing game made for home computers that focused on realism, and it still plays amazingly well to this day. Revs was first published by Acornsoft in 1985.

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