Tag Archives: Cult Game

Action Biker, Atari 8-Bit

Mastertronic‘s Action Biker was a well-known budget hit on the Commodore 64, and it was also released for Atari 8-bit home computers, in 1985. Both the C64 and Atari versions were bundled together as a dual release.

Continue reading Action Biker, Atari 8-Bit

Knights of the Round, Arcade

Knights of the Round is a three-player hack-and-slash arcade game, developed and distributed by Capcom in 1991. The fact that the developers – for whatever reason – neglected to include the word “Table” at the end of the title of their game hints at some hilariously bad translation, and plenty of terrible spelling mistakes, which is exactly what you get in this game…

Continue reading Knights of the Round, Arcade

Gauntlet, Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance version of Atari‘s classic Gauntlet was released as a double-pack, with Rampart, in 2005. It was developed by EC-Interactive and published by Destination Software, and is pretty close to the arcade original, but doesn’t offer a multiplayer option, in spite of the GBA‘s link-up capabilities.

Continue reading Gauntlet, Game Boy Advance

Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch, Game Boy Advance

Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch is a single-player boxing game developed by Inferno Games and Engine Software, and published by Destination Software, exclusively for the Game Boy Advance, in 2004.

The game takes a satirical, cartoony approach to the subject, with colourful, well-drawn characters and opponents, and humorous situations and dialogue.

Continue reading Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch, Game Boy Advance

Twinkle Tale, Megadrive/Genesis

Developed by ZAP Corporation and published by Wonder Amusement Studio (a subsidiary of Japanese record label Toyo Recording), Twinkle Tale is a scrolling ‘bullet hell’ shooter released exclusively for the Sega Megadrive, in Japan only, in 1992. Fan translations into English, Spanish and Korean exist, making the game accessible to a good proportion of the world outside Japan.

Continue reading Twinkle Tale, Megadrive/Genesis

Gauntlet, Apple IIgs

The Apple IIgs version of the arcade classic, Gauntlet, was first published by Mindscape in 1988. It’s a reasonable port, although it doesn’t have the variations in colour that most Gauntlet ports have. The levels in this version seem to be mostly the same colour – grey – with spot colours used for doors, items and monsters. Which is disappointing.

Continue reading Gauntlet, Apple IIgs

Gauntlet, NES/Famicom

The 1988 NES version of Gauntlet was developed and published by Tengen, and – surprisingly – it doesn’t feature the levels from the arcade original, but does its own thing instead.

Continue reading Gauntlet, NES/Famicom

Splatterhouse, FM Towns

The FM Towns version of the controversial Namco arcade game, Splatterhouse, was developed and published by Ving – in Japan only – in 1992. It doesn’t suffer from any of the censorship, that some versions of the game do, and is a completely uncut and almost perfect port of the arcade original.

Continue reading Splatterhouse, FM Towns

Gauntlet 4, Megadrive/Genesis

Gauntlet 4 (aka Gauntlet IV) was developed by M2 and published by Tengen in 1993, exclusively for the Megadrive/Genesis. In some respects the development of this game is just as interesting as the game itself.

Gauntlet 4 began life as a homebrew remake of Gauntlet, among a small group of friends in Japan, for the Sharp X68000 home computer. Atari Games, the developer of the original Gauntlet, eventually caught wind of the project and commissioned the group (now named M2) to produce a sequel instead.

Continue reading Gauntlet 4, Megadrive/Genesis

Gex: Enter the Gecko, 3DO

Gex: Enter the Gecko is a platform game developed by Crystal Dynamics and first released on the 3DO in 1995. In it, you play an agile gecko that can jump, whip with its tail, and walk on walls and ceilings.

Continue reading Gex: Enter the Gecko, 3DO