Tag Archives: console

Frenzy, ColecoVision

Frenzy is a 1984 conversion of the 1982 arcade game of the same name, which in turn is a sequel to the maze shooter, Berzerk. The ColecoVision port was developed by Stern Electronics, who made the original arcade game, and is therefore very authentic to that game. In fact: it’s even better than the arcade game, because it’s less archaic, more playable, and is more varied.

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Fortune Builder, ColecoVision

Fortune Builder is a business simulation game that was developed by Circuits and Systems, Inc. and published by Coleco Industries in 1984. Alongside Utopia on the Intellivision, from 1981, it is one of the earliest examples of a resource management video game. Fortune Builder pre-dates SimCity by five years, and is more complex – at least in some respects.

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Donkey Kong Jr., ColecoVision

The famous sequel to Nintendo‘s classic Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. sees the roles reversed in this cute platform game, in that this time it’s Mario (aka Jumpman, as he was known back then) who is the protagonist, and Donkey Kong who has been kidnapped and must be rescued. This time, by his son, Donkey Kong Junior.

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Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park, ColecoVision

Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park is an action/platform game based on the Cabbage Patch Kids toys that were popular in the mid-Eighties (and are still available to this day). It was first released for the ColecoVision in 1984.

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Alcazar: The Forgotten Fortress, ColecoVision

Alcazar: The Forgotten Fortress is a dungeon-crawling action game, designed and coded by Tom Loughry with graphics by Keri Longaway (nee, Janssen), and first published by Activision for the Coleco Adam and ColecoVision console in 1985.

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Adventure Island IV, NES/Famicom

The fourth and final Adventure Island game for the NES/Famicom was only ever released in Japan, in 1994. Now – thanks to the magic of fan translation patching – the game can be played by people who don’t read Japanese. In fact: Adventure Island IV has been translated into more than just English. It’s also patchable into Spanish, Polish and Arabic, thanks to the efforts of various fan translation groups.

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Super Adventure Island II, Super Nintendo

Super Adventure Island II is the sequel to Super Adventure Island and was developed by Make Software, Inc. and first published by Hudson Soft in 1994. It is somewhat different to the first game, though, and has RPG elements, as well as also being more open-ended in how you play it.

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Adventure Island II, Game Boy

Adventure Island II on the Game Boy is actually a port of Adventure Island III on the NES/Famicom. The Game Boy Adventure Island numbering scheme ignores the first game in the series and this 1993 handheld conversion is the rather excellent part three for the NES/Famicom, but re-titled as part two for the OG Game Boy. Because it’s always fun to confuse people with mismatched titles in a series…

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