Tag Archives: American

Xybots, Atari Lynx

The Lynx port of Atari Games‘ 1987 arcade game, Xybots, was developed by NuFX, Inc. and first released by Atari Corporation in 1991. It is a futuristic third-person shooter where you explore a maze full of deadly robots, to ultimately confront the ‘Master Xybot‘ and defeat it.

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Swords and Serpents, NES/Famicom

Developed by Interplay Productions and published by Acclaim Entertainment in 1990, Swords and Serpents is a first-person, party-based RPG with tile-based movement for up to four players. You can either build a party of four characters yourself, in single-player mode, or up to four different players can control one party member each in multiplayer mode*.

*= An adapter, like the ‘NES Satellite‘, or another four-player expansion peripheral, is required if you’re going to play with that many players (but, let’s face it, very few will, although it’s nice – and fairly unique – to have the option to do that).

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H.E.R.O., Atari 5200

The Atari 5200 version of H.E.R.O. was ported by The Softworks and published by Activision in 1984. It is definitely a step up from the original Atari 2600 version and is more or less identical to the Atari 8-bit version, but with slightly richer colours.

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H.E.R.O., Apple II

The Apple II version of John Van Ryzin‘s classic H.E.R.O. of course lacks the colour of other ports, but it still plays well enough. The game was converted by Charlie Heath (of Microsmiths) and published by Activision in 1984.

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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.

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Trog, Arcade

Trog is an arcade maze game developed by Midway Manufacturing and distributed on their Bally Midway label in 1990. It caters for up to four simultaneous players and features “Claymation” characters and cut scenes (although they call it “PLAYmation” on the title screen, probably because the word “Claymation” is trademarked). Claymation is when all the characters are made of, and animated with, plasticine or coloured clay (think Wallace & Gromit and you’ll get it).

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Rocky Super-Action Boxing, ColecoVision

Developed and published by Coleco Industries in 1983, Rocky Super-Action Boxing is based on the 1982 film, Rocky III, and was the first licensed video game based on the smash-hit series.

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