Based on a Steve Jackson board game called Car Wars, Autoduel is an early attempt by Origin Systems to create a Mad Max-type post apocalyptic, car-based RPG that borrows elements from Origin‘s own Ultima series, as well as from other games such as FTL‘s SunDog. It was first released in 1985.
Tag Archives: American
Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, PC
The MS-DOS version of Cinemaware‘s Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon was released in 1989 and it is not a bad game although the fighting sections – it has to be said – are a bit pathetic.
TIE Fighter, PC
TIE Fighter was first released in 1994 and is the sequel to the smash hit space combat game, X-Wing, which are both of course based on spacecraft from the Star Wars universe. This time, though, you get to fight on the side of The Empire, who are widely seen as the ‘bad guys’ in the Star Wars series, so in this game you are blasting Rebels and their collaborators out of space, and not the other way around.
Venture, ColecoVision
Venture is a conversion of Exidy‘s 1981 arcade game of the same name, and was a launch title on the ColecoVision in 1982.
Q*bert, ColecoVision
The 1983 Parker Bros. release of Gottleib‘s Q*bert was a reasonable success on the ColecoVision.
Dragonfire, ColecoVision
Dragonfire is a fantasy action game designed and coded by Bob Smith and first published for the Atari 2600 by Imagic in 1982. This ColecoVision port features enhanced graphics and gameplay over the Atari original and was first released in 1984.
Miner 2049er, ColecoVision
The ColecoVision port of Bill Hogue‘s pioneering and influential Atari 8-Bit platform game, Miner 2049er, was programmed by Mike Livesay and published by Micro Fun in 1983. It is an excellent game, but it is arguably way too difficult for its own good.
Frogger, ColecoVision
Konami‘s classic arcade game, Frogger, was first released for the ColecoVision in November of 1983 and it immediately became one of the console’s biggest-selling cartridges.
Frenzy, ColecoVision
Frenzy is a 1984 conversion of the 1982 arcade game of the same name, which in turn is a sequel to the maze shooter, Berzerk. The ColecoVision port was developed by Stern Electronics, who made the original arcade game, and is therefore very authentic to that game. In fact: it’s even better than the arcade game, because it’s less archaic, more playable, and is more varied.
Kaboom!, Atari 2600
Another simple Atari 2600 game with compelling gameplay: Kaboom! is a 1981 Activision game where you must catch falling bombs (dropped by what looks like a burglar, but we’ll call him The Mad Bomber) onto a set of bats, without allowing any bombs to hit the ground below you.