Palace Software‘s Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior is a fondly-remembered and controversial one-on-one fighting game from 1987, where two gladiatorial combatants slug it out to the death in a variety of different locations. Actually, there are two different versions of this game, each with different backgrounds. The first version has a throne room and then a pit. The second version has a meadow and a clearing in a forest. I’m not sure why there are two versions of this game, but that definitely seems to be the case.
Tag Archives: 8-bit
Midnight Resistance, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum conversion of Data East‘s Midnight Resistance was created by Jim Bagley and Keith Tinman and was published by Ocean Software in 1990. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that it is probably the best run-and-gun shooter on the humble Speccy, and punches well above the machine’s weight.
Frankenstein, Commodore 64
Frankenstein for the Commodore 64 was developed and published by Zeppelin Games in 1992 and in it you play Egor, Professor Frankenstein‘s hunchback assistant, on a humorous and satirical quest to collect dead bodies for his master’s experiments.
Frankenstein, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Rod Pike‘s text adventure, Frankenstein, just about falls into the middle of the Commodore 64 and Spectrum versions.
Frankenstein, ZX Spectrum
CRL Group‘s 1987 release of Frankenstein is a text adventure based on Mary Shelley‘s infamous novel and takes a more serious approach than most other adaptations of the time.
Frankenstein, Commodore 64
CRL Group‘s 1987 release of Frankenstein was part of its text adventure series, based on classic horror stories including Dracula and The Wolfman (it also included Jack the Ripper, but that’s not a “classic horror story” – it is an exploitation of a series of real-life grisly murders perpetrated by an obscenely rich and demented Freemason, but I digress…).
Bride of Frankenstein, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Ariolasoft‘s Bride of Frankenstein could be the best version of this game available for 8-bit home computers (although that’s really not saying much). It looks slightly better than the C64 and Spectrum versions, and it’s also got fairly responsive controls, so is somewhat playable.
Bride of Frankenstein, ZX Spectrum
I’m not sure if the Commodore 64 version of this obscure 8-bit game was the target platform, or if it was the Spectrum version, but all versions of Bride of Frankenstein that I’ve played so far have been pretty awful.
Bride of Frankenstein, Commodore 64
Bride of Frankenstein is a cartoon action adventure game, based on Mary’s Shelley‘s classic Frankenstein story, written by Paul Smith and Steve Howard of Timedata Ltd. and published by Ariolasoft in 1987. And it is absolute rubbish. Yes: Bride of Frankenstein is a malformed, badly-designed abomination that is barely worth a mention here.
Frankenstein 2000, ZX Spectrum
Icon Software‘s 1985 release – Frankenstein 2000 – has the barest of premises when it comes to links to the Mary Shelley novel, but it does count as a ‘Frankenstein‘ game in my opinion. And it’s actually not a bad game either, which might come as a shock to some people.
The King of Grabs 