The Apple II conversion of Elite is arguably the slowest and ugliest of all the versions available. And that – I think – is me being charitable to it…
Ian Bell himself programmed this conversion of Elite in 1986, so its authenticity cannot be called into question and I shouldn’t really mock it.
The Amstrad CPC version of Elite (released in 1986) is a fine program – even though the play window is smaller than those seen in other versions.
The ZX Spectrum version of Elite was developed by Torus and published by Firebird in 1985. There were 48K and 128K versions made available and both are excellent.
Elite on the Commodore 64 is slow and flickery (just like the BBC original in fact) but at its core is a fantastic game that refuses to be ruined by the C64‘s limitations.
Published by Melbourne House in 1985, Gyroscope is an unashamed rip-off of Atari‘s classic arcade game Marble Madness.
The ZX Spectrum version of John Van Ryzin‘s classic rescue game, H.E.R.O., looks pretty basic when compared to other versions, but plays just as well as all the others.
Thanatos is an unusual side-scrolling action game designed by Mike Richardson and programmed by Rod Barrington for Durell Software in 1986.
The game is unusual because you play as a dragon… Yes, that’s right: a dragon! And not any old dragon, but as “Thanatos the Destroyer” – a fire-breathing behemoth with a heart.
Lazy Jones is a cult classic Commodore 64 game that tries to cram as many derivative minigames into 64K as is possible – stuff like Space Invaders, Frogger, and platform game clones (one minigame is called Eggie Chuck – a direct reference to the classic Chuckie Egg).
Written by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler, The Hobbit is a legendary text adventure, with graphics, that was published by Melbourne House in 1982.
I hate this game so much! 🙂 Phobia is one of the most difficult and unfair side-scrolling shooters ever made, and the surprising thing is: it’s a Tony Crowther game. I expected more from such a talented coder…
The King of Grabs 