What I love about Jeff Minter‘s Gridrunner Plus Plus is that it combines the simplicity of the arcade hits of old, with modern, trippy visuals. And a good dose of humour.
Tag Archives: clone
Viva Mortis, PC
Released in 2015 by author Adam Strange, Viva Mortis is a brilliant tribute to the classic isometric Ultimate games.
Apocalypse II, Super Nintendo
***CANNED GAME***
Written by Simon Nicol for Psygnosis in 1994, Apocalypse II was almost complete when it was decided to not release it. This was, of course, a blow to everyone involved, but it was also probably the right thing to do…
Mega Apocalypse, Commodore 64
Mega Apocalypse is the sequel to Crazy Comets. It was programmed by Simon Nicol, with graphics by Bob Stevenson and music by Rob Hubbard, and was published for the Commodore 64 by Martech in 1987. It is a single-screen shooter in which you have to destroy a series of planets to complete each stage.
Crazy Comets, Commodore 64
Programmed by Simon Nicol, with music by Rob Hubbard, Crazy Comets is the beginning of Simon Nicol‘s preoccupation with the arcade game Mad Planets.
Crazy Comets was first published by Martech in 1985.
After Crazy Comets, Nicol then made Mega Apocalypse, and then Apocalypse II (which never got released). Each game a clone of Mad Planets, although with Nicol‘s own twist.
3D Starstrike, Amstrad CPC
Written by Graeme Baird, Ian Oliver and Andrew Onions, 3D Starstrike was the hit-outta-nowhere* from Realtime Software, in 1984. Well, actually, that was the ZX Spectrum version, which came out the year before this – the Amstrad CPC port. Which was released in 1985.
*= Aided somewhat by the success of Atari‘s famous Star Wars arcade machine.
Wizard’s Lair, MSX
Steve Crow‘s superb tribute to Atic Atac, Wizard’s Lair, was released for the MSX by Bubble Bus Software in 1986.
Super Hero, Amstrad CPC
Codemasters‘ 1988 release for the Amstrad, Super Hero, sounds innocuous, but it marked the return of pixel artist Bernie Drummond, after Head Over Heels and Batman, but before Monster Max. Which was always a cause for celebration, in my humble opinion. RIP Bernie.
Super Hero is similar to Ultimate Play the Game‘s Nightshade, or Gunfright, in that the isometric backgrounds scroll around on occasion. Not all the time. Some rooms are static, Knight Lore-style.
Kong, ZX Spectrum
Ocean‘s 1983 release of Kong was an unofficial clone of Donkey Kong, and not a very good one at that. Kong was another early ZX Spectrum game I bought and thought was crap, but was entertaining enough for a few hours at least.
Kosmic Kanga, ZX Spectrum
Kosmic Kanga is a bouncing, platforming, shooting game in which you play a large, yellow kangaroo that fires boxing gloves as bullets. The game was created by Dominic Wood and first published for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, by Micromania.
