Tag Archives: Cult Game

SimCity, Commodore 64

This classic city-building game was originally devised by creator Will Wright while he was working on the classic C64 shooter, Raid On Bungeling Bay. Wright found that he enjoyed making the overhead cities for the game – using his self-made editor – more than he enjoyed playing the game itself, so he set to work creating a game that would allow players to do the same.

SimCity was originally developed for the Commodore 64 and was initially released for that system in August of 1989, but was quickly ported to pretty much every video gaming system known to man at the time. It also spawned a long-running series, and provided a strong base from which developer/publisher Maxis would grow – specialising in “sim“-type games that would become its main market for decades to come.

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Bruce Lee, Apple II

Predictably the Apple II conversion of Bruce Lee isn’t that great. It’s nowhere near as bad as the awful BBC Micro version, but it does have its problems. It first came out in 1984 and was programmed by Rick Mirsky.

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Bruce Lee, Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC version of Datasoft‘s Bruce Lee, developed by Timedata Ltd., is excellent – not far off the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 versions, which are rightly regarded as retro-gaming classics.

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Bruce Lee, ZX Spectrum

Bruce Lee on the ZX Spectrum was developed by Ocean Software and is an excellent conversion of the Atari 8-bit original. It’s playable, solid, and remains great fun to play to this day. It even retains the simultaneous two-player mode from the original.

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Bruce Lee, BBC Micro

Bruce Lee on the BBC Micro is… well, let’s just say that it’s “different” to the classic Atari 8-bit or Commodore 64 originals. Not hugely different in terms of gameplay – more: different in terms of how it looks, and in the detail. The game was published by US Gold and Micro Power in 1986.

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Karnov’s Revenge, Neo Geo

This 1994 Neo Geo release from Data East is the second game in the “Fighter’s History” series. It is tentatively related to the Data East arcade game Karnov, in that it features the red-trousered, bald character of the same name, but it’s a fighting game, in true Neo Geo style.

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Ace of Aces, Atari 8-bit

Ace of Aces is a WWII-based air combat action game developed by Canada-based Artech Digital Entertainment and published by US Gold in the UK and Accolade in the USA. It first came out on the Commodore 64 in 1986 and was later released for other systems, including for the Atari 8-bit machines in 1987. The Atari version was developed by another Canadian company called Distinctive Software.

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