Tag Archives: Cult Game

Shadow of the Beast, Atari ST

The Atari ST port of Shadow of the Beast was converted by Mark McCubbin and published by Psygnosis in 1990. While it’s not a bad conversion it does lack the graphical fidelity of the Amiga original and is also missing quite a few features.

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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Sega Saturn

Konami‘s brilliant PlayStation game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was released for the Sega Saturn in 1998, but it was only ever released in Japan (under the title “Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku“). Thankfully, an English translation patch is available to make the game playable to those who can’t read Japanese. The patch – created by ‘Knight of Dragon’ – also features numerous bug fixes and improvements.

For those who’ve never played Symphony of the Night before: it is a direct sequel to Rondo of Blood and is rightly regarded as one of the best Castlevania games in the long-running series (if not THE best).

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Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2: The Emperor Yie-Gah, MSX

The sequel to the classic Konami arcade game, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2: The Emperor Yie-Gah was only ever released for home computers and was never produced as an arcade game. It was first released for MSX compatible computers, on cartridge, in 1985.

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Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Arcade

Alongside Karate Champ, Konami‘s Yie Ar Kung-Fu had a profound effect on the beat ’em up genre and could be said to have contributed greatly to the establishment of modern fighting games. It was given a limited release in Japanese arcades in 1984 and was later rolled-out more widely – and internationally – in 1985.

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Shadow of the Beast, Atari Lynx

The Atari Lynx port of Shadow of the Beast was developed by Digital Developments and first published by Psygnosis in 1992. And it is surprisingly good.

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Shadow of the Beast, PC Engine

The PC Engine CD version of Shadow of the Beast is – in my opinion – the best version of the game available. For two reasons: it has the most responsive controls of any version of Shadow of the Beast I’ve played (even compared to the Amiga original), and it’s also the best-looking and best-sounding version of the game too. It was developed by DMA Design and first published in 1992. In Japan it was released by Victor Interactive Software as “Mashou no Okite“, and in North America it was released for the TurboGrafx CD by Psygnosis/Turbo Technologies.

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Shadow of the Beast, Megadrive/Genesis

The Megadrive/Genesis conversion of Shadow of the Beast was developed by WJS Design* and published by Electronic Arts in North America and Europe in 1991 (Victor Interactive Software in Japan in 1992). It’s arguably one of the best versions of Shadow of the Beast out there.

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Shadow of the Beast, Sega Master System

Shadow of the Beast for the Sega Master System was developed by TecMagik and published by Psygnosis in 1992, and this port has some differences to the Amiga original – arguably to its detriment.

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Ishido: The Way of Stones, Atari Lynx

Ishido: The Way of Stones is a puzzle/board game designed by Michael Feinberg; developed by Publishing International and published by Accolade for the Atari Lynx in 1991. And it is a really good game.

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Chimera, Commodore 64

Set on an uninhabited spaceship, Chimera is an isometric adventure/puzzle game where you control a robot* that must destroy the ship before it crashes into Earth. The game was written by Shahid Ahmad and published by Firebird in 1985. The music is by Rob Hubbard.

*= The player character looks like a robot, but does in fact require food and water to survive, so there’s a bit of a contradiction going on in the story, as far as who or what the player actually is.

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