The Game Boy Advance version of Planet of the Apes is somewhat different, visually, to the Game Boy Color version, although it is basically the same game underneath. Graphically, the GBA version goes for a “digitised”, more realistic look, which I don’t think is as appealing as the pure 2D drawn look of the GBC version. It makes the game look more like an early ’90s Amiga game, which I think dates it significantly.
Tag Archives: Australian
Planet of the Apes, Game Boy Color
Planet of the Apes for the Game Boy Color was developed by Torus Games/Visiware and was first published by Ubisoft in 2001. It is based on the 1968 film of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1963 book by Pierre Boulle. Actually, to be more accurate, the game follows the plot of the 1970 sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, more closely than it does the first film, where Brent (played by James Franciscus) crash-lands on a post-apocalyptic Earth on a rescue mission to find Taylor (Charlton Heston), and eventually finds himself held prisoner in an underground city run by telepathic humans.
Aliens: Thanatos Encounter, Game Boy Color
Developed by an Australian company called Wicked Witch Software for Crawfish Interactive, and published by Fox Interactive in 2001, Aliens: Thanatos Encounter is an overhead shooter in the style of Team 17‘s Alien Breed. It was released exclusively for the Game Boy Color.
Judge Dredd, ZX Spectrum
Melbourne House‘s Judge Dredd on the ZX Spectrum was released slightly later than the 1986 Commodore 64 version, coming out in early 1987. It was again programmed by Australian software company Beam Software, and it plays similarly to the C64 original. That is: it’s a bit of a travesty.
Judge Dredd, Commodore 64
This 1986 adaptation of Judge Dredd – the infamous cop of the future who debuted in 2000AD comic – was developed by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House, and it’s a bit of a travesty to be honest.
Carmageddon TDR 2000, PC
Also known as “Carmageddon: Total Destruction Racing 2000” or “Carmageddon 3: TDR 2000” in North America, Carmageddon TDR 2000 was not developed by the same team who made the first two Carmageddon games, but an Australian developer called Torus Games. As you might have worked out from the game’s title, it was originally released in the year 2000.
Boulder Dash, Game Boy
The Game Boy version of Boulder Dash was programmed by Beam Software and is somewhat similar to the NES version (not exactly the same since it was developed by a completely different company). It is a jolly re-imagining with different graphics, but the same devious level designs as the original. And it is of course monochrome, rather than colour.
The Lord of the Rings, ZX Spectrum
Developed by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House in 1986, The Lord of the Rings is a text adventure game made by essentially the same team who created the classic Spectrum text adventure, The Hobbit.
Was it the first official Lord of the Rings game ever made? Possibly. There were definitely many unofficial Lord of the Rings rip-off games on the market before this, but this is arguably the first properly-licensed Lord of the Rings game for home computers.
Star Wars: Yoda Stories, Game Boy Color
Released in 1999, Star Wars: Yoda Stories is a procedurally-generated pocket adventure featuring Luke Skywalker, and – of course – Yoda, and is set in the time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi when Luke is still undergoing his Jedi training.
The Hobbit, ZX Spectrum
Written by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler, The Hobbit is a legendary text adventure, with graphics, that was published by Melbourne House in 1982.
The King of Grabs 