Tag Archives: Cult Game

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut, PC

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge originally came out on the Nintendo DSi in 2010, and the “Director’s Cut” – shown here – is a remake for the PC that was first released on Steam in 2014. It was developed and published by WayForward Technologies.

Continue reading Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut, PC

Confuzion, Commodore 64

Confuzion was written by Paul Shirley – of Spindizzy fame – and published by Incentive Software in 1985. It’s a sliding puzzle game where you have to re-arrange tiles so that a spark can reach a bomb before the timer runs out.

Continue reading Confuzion, Commodore 64

Law of the West, Commodore 64

Law of the West was developed and published by Accolade in 1985 (it was distributed by US Gold in the UK and Europe), and is a ‘Wild West’ style action game where you play as a sheriff in the frontier town of Gold Gulch.

Continue reading Law of the West, Commodore 64

M.U.L.E., Atari 8-Bit

M.U.L.E. (meaning: Multiple-Use Labour Elements) is a classic business-based strategy game that mixes turn-based and real-time gameplay, and supply-and-demand economics, with multiplayer competition for up to four players. It was designed by the late Danielle Bunten Berry of Ozark Softscape and first published for Atari 8-bit computers by Electronic Arts in North America in 1983. Later, Ariolasoft published the game in Europe, and Bullet Proof Software published the game in Japan. M.U.L.E. was also converted to a number of other systems and has become something of a cult hit since its original release.

Continue reading M.U.L.E., Atari 8-Bit

Castle Master II: The Crypt, PC

The sequel to Castle Master continues where the first game left off: you’re still trapped inside Eternity Castle and must escape to finally complete your quest.

Continue reading Castle Master II: The Crypt, PC

Castle Master II: The Crypt, ZX Spectrum

Castle Master II: The Crypt was the final Freescape game to be released for the Spectrum (or any system it found its way on to), and was only made available as a double pack with the original Castle Master, not long after the first Castle Master‘s release in 1990. It was again developed by Incentive Software/Major Developments and published by Domark.

Continue reading Castle Master II: The Crypt, ZX Spectrum

Castle Master, ZX Spectrum

I’ve written about a variety of Castle Master versions on this website (Amiga, PC, Amstrad CPC, and even Commodore 16/Plus4), but I haven’t yet covered the original ZX Spectrum version, which was developed by Major Developments (an internal team at Incentive Software) and published by Domark in 1990.

Continue reading Castle Master, ZX Spectrum

The Chaos Engine, PC

The MS-DOS version of The Bitmap Brothers‘ classic ‘steampunk’ shooter, The Chaos Engine, was first published in 1994 by Renegade Software in Europe and WarnerActive in North America. It features overhead, scrolling gameplay for one or two players.

Continue reading The Chaos Engine, PC

Star Fox EX, Super Nintendo

Star Fox EX is a recently-released ROM hack for the Super Nintendo classic, Star Fox, that takes ROM-hacking to another level. It was created by “kandowontu” (and a team of other contributors) and was first released in November 2022. The “EX” means “Exploration Showcase“.

Continue reading Star Fox EX, Super Nintendo

Defender 2000, Atari Jaguar

Developed by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft and published by Atari Corporation in 1995, Defender 2000 is a re-imagining of the classic Williams Electronics arcade game from 1981, but with more ‘realistic’ graphics. It was an Atari Jaguar exclusive and only appeared on Atari‘s ill-fated console, in cartridge form. It was released as a companion title to Tempest 2000 – also by Llamasoft – and which is arguably the better game of the two. Both are decent games, though.

Continue reading Defender 2000, Atari Jaguar