Tag Archives: British

Dr. Franky and the Monster, ZX Spectrum

Dr. Franky and the Monster is a 1984 platform game written by Martin Wheeler (who created the original Sorcery) and published by Virgin Games for the ZX Spectrum. It’s a cartoony, satirical take on the Frankenstein story, and – to be honest – it isn’t very good.

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Repton 3, Archimedes

The Acorn Archimedes version of Repton 3 is an excellent port of the 8-bit BBC Micro original, with enhanced graphics, responsive controls and a raft of extra levels not seen in the original. From what I can tell it was the only part of the Repton series that was ported to the Archimedes, which is fine because it’s probably the best game in the series.

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Thunderhawk, Sega CD

Thunderhawk is an action-based helicopter combat game developed and published by Core Design in 1993. It first came out for the Amiga and PC in 1992, although the Sega CD version is probably the most memorable.

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Arcadia, ZX Spectrum

Written by David H. Lawson and published by Imagine Software in 1982, Arcadia is another early Spectrum game that sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but has not weathered the sands of time well at all…

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Ah Diddums, ZX Spectrum

Written by David H. Lawson (co-founder of Imagine Software), Ah Diddums is a 1983 action game in which you play as a teddy bear trying to escape from inside a toy box (to comfort his crying baby owner) by arranging coloured blocks into a staircase the top of the screen. This allows him to climb up to the next level. And there are 99 levels in this particular toy box, so his journey is going to be a long one…

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WipEout 2097, PlayStation

The 1996 sequel to the original WipEout, WipEout 2097 was released as WipEout XL in North America and Japan, but I’m sticking with the name that the developers intended – not what the US marketing dingbats decided they would call it… WipEout 2097 was not initially intended to be a sequel to WipEout, but an add-on pack, but this was later changed as the game approached its release date.

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WipEout, PlayStation

Developed and published by Psygnosis in 1995, WipEout is a futuristic racing game, set in the year 2052, where you compete in an Anti-Gravity (AG) Racing League piloting dart-like vehicles that float above the ground and zip around tortuously-designed race tracks against similar opposition.

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Cobra, Commodore 64

The 1986 Commodore 64 version of Cobra – based on the Sylvester Stallone film of the same name – is infamous for its sheer awfulness. It is based on the more successful ZX Spectrum game, designed and programmed by the late Jonathan Smith, but has lost a great deal in translation to the C64.

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Worms, Atari Jaguar

The Atari Jaguar version of Team 17‘s Worms was developed by Ocean Software and first published by Telegames in 1998. It was the final Atari-licensed title to be released for the Jaguar. This port is based on the PlayStation version of Worms, which is a good thing because the PS1 version is arguably the best version of the game ever made.

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Syndicate, Atari Jaguar

Bullfrog‘s classic tactical action game, Syndicate, was published for the Atari Jaguar by Ocean Software in 1995, and while the game works well enough it does suffer a bit from the switch from mouse to gamepad controls.

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