First released on the 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST in 1991, this 8-bit Commodore 64 conversion came later, in 1992. And – considering that it is stepping down a generation – the programmers did a good job of retaining what made the originals so good.
Platform action – lots of swords! Leaping around like a lunatic! Climbing cliff faces. Killing monsters – discovering secrets! Atmospheric SID tunes. What more could you want? 🙂
Published by Image Works in 1991, First Samurai is a decent side-scrolling platform/action game that first came out on the Amiga and Atari ST, before being converted to others systems later.
Programmed by Raffaele Cecco, co-designed by Vivid Image and Mr. Cecco, with graphics by Teoman Irmak and sound by Nick Jones, it is a sterling effort.
The MSX version of Ultimate‘s classic isometric action adventure, Alien 8, is almost identical to the ZX Spectrum original – including slowdown caused by sound effects playing and lots of on-screen movement.
The PC DOS version of Castle Master was released in 1990. And, while the EGA 16-colour graphics are not quite a nice as those seen in the Amiga version, they are colourful enough, and move at a fast pace.
Written by Mike Richardson and released by Durell Software in 1983, Harrier Attack is a side-scrolling Scramble ‘tribute’, but with VTOL (Vertical Take-Off & Landing) military Harrier ‘jump jet’ aircraft instead of spaceships.
The Commodore 64 has a version of Design Design‘s classic Halls of the Things and it looks and plays very similarly to the original Spectrum version. Which is no bad thing, because this is a challenging and fun little action game.
The third Micro Machines was released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. In V3 the environments and vehicles are all 3D-modelled, and the action is displayed at a slightly tilted angle, rather than directly overhead.
The same excellent gameplay mechanics of the previous games have been retained though. Mostly revolving around getting ahead of your opponents in order to push them off-screen.
Out Run Europa is an interesting game in that it was designed and written by British developer Probe Software in 1991. Sega simply provided a license and Probe made the game. And: this wasn’t a conversion of an arcade game – it was a spin-off from Out Run, produced only for home computers at the time.
Following on from Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker, Archer Maclean’s Pool was published in 1992 by Virgin Games. It was of course designed and programmed by Archer MacLean.
And, because pool is much more simple to play than snooker, and because this game uses the same engine as the previous game, Pool is arguably more immediately playable and more fun overall than its predecessor.
Programmed and designed by Archer MacLean and published by Virgin Games in 1991, Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker was one of the first ever billiards simulations to use 3D graphics to represent the table, and it worked very well.
The King of Grabs 