Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is the second SCUMM game from Lucasfilm Games (aka LucasArts), after Maniac Mansion, with game development led by David Fox, and with Matthew Alan Kane as co-designer and co-programmer. It was originally released for the Commodore 64 in 1988, and this enhanced FM Towns port was published in Japan in 1990 by Fujitsu. The game is playable in both English and Japanese.
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The FM Towns conversion of Taito‘s classic arcade game, Chase HQ, looks great and plays well, and is also considerably easier than the arcade original, which may appeal to some. It was published by Ving in 1991 in Japan only.
A conversion of the Sega arcade racer, Turbo Out Run was ported to the FM Towns by CRI (CSK Research Institute) and published by Sega in 1989. In truth, it’s not a particularly good version of the arcade game as it lacks a number of features, doesn’t look as good, and doesn’t play as well as its parent.
Originally released as an arcade game on Neo Geo MVS hardware, Viewpoint is an isometric bullet hell shooter originally developed by Aicom, ported by Sammy and published by Ving for the FM Towns in 1993. It obviously takes inspiration from Sega‘s Zaxxon, but its aesthetic owes more to Irem‘s R-Type.
The 1994 FM Towns version of Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is a port of the popular Capcom arcade fighting game of 1993. It is the fourth game in the Street Fighter II sub-series, with four new fighters, adding to the existing roster of twelve characters from The World Warrior.
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Shadow of the Beast on the FM Towns was first published in Japan only by Cross Media Soft – a brand of Victor Musical Industries (a subsidiary of JVC) – in 1991, and came on CD-ROM.
Tim Ansell, who programmed the FM Towns version of Shadow of the Beast (and Shadow of the Beast II), founded the famous British developer The Creative Assembly in 1987 and this was one of a number of contract ports that he did for Psygnosis in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Kirby’s Dream Land 3 was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo in 1997. It is the successor to Kirby’s Dream Land 2 on the Game Boy, and was the first and only Dream Land adventure on the Super NES.
This is a fan-made ROM hack, first released in May 2023 by “kkzero“, of the Super Game Boy-enhanced Kirby’s Dream Land 2 that converts the game for use on the Game Boy Color. And it certainly does this great game justice and really makes those colours pop! In fact: it is much more colourful, and looks even better, than the Super Game Boy version. So much so that it is definitely the best way to play Kirby’s Dream Land 2, IMHO.
The 1996 PlayStation version of Aicom‘s classic isometric shooter, Viewpoint, was ported by Visual Concepts Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It features updated graphics and music, with the same basic gameplay elements of the original.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes is a ‘crossover’ arcade fighting game developed and published by Capcom in 1998. It is the third instalment in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, which features characters from Capcom‘s video game franchises combined with characters from the Marvel Comics universe.
Continue reading Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Arcade
The King of Grabs 