Tag Archives: 8-bit

International Tennis (1985), Commodore 64

Commodore‘s go at tennis, as part of its series of C64 sports games, is a pretty poor game overall. It’s got a side-on view and the feel and presentation of the game are lacking.

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Urban Upstart, ZX Spectrum

Pete Cooke‘s graphical text adventure, Urban Upstart, was first published by Richard Shepherd Software in 1983. It’s a first-person game, where you use a text parser to move around and issue commands, and is set in the fictional English town of “Scarthorpe” – a rough place to live, by all accounts. So rough, in fact, that the aim of the game is to escape the place by any means possible.

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Beach Head II, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum of Beach Head II was developed by Platinum Productions and published by US Gold in 1985.

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Beach Head, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum version of Beach Head was developed by Ocean Software and published by US Gold in 1984.

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Strangeloop, ZX Spectrum

Written by Charles Goodwin and published by Virgin Games in 1984, Strangeloop is a maze-based action adventure for the ZX Spectrum with a surreal, futuristic vibe to it.

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Salamander, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum port of Konami‘s classic arcade shooter, Salamander, was programmed by Andrew Glaister, with graphics by Stuart Ruecroft, and was first published by Imagine Software in 1988. While aspects of the game are very good, it is unfortunately a good example of an unfinished and cut-down game being rushed to market…

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Shinobi, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum version of Sega‘s classic Shinobi was developed by Binary Design for The Sales Curve and published by Virgin Games in 1989. It is a relatively loose approximation of the arcade game, but is nonetheless playable and enjoyable.

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Bionic Commando, ZX Spectrum

Developed by Software Creations and published by GO! in 1988, this is the ZX Spectrum version of Capcom‘s classic arcade game, Bionic Commando. And it’s not bad, all considered.

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Moon Crystal, NES/Famicom

Released in Japan only for the Nintendo Famicom in 1992, Moon Crystal is a scrolling platform game in the style of Zelda II. The game was developed by Hector (aka “Hect“), and fan translations into English, Spanish, Polish and Indonesian exist, making the game understandable to players who don’t speak or read Japanese.

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