Developed by Escape (who would later become Westone), Wonder Boy is a straightforward run-and-jump-left-to-right-to-reach-the-goal platform game featuring a blonde-haired, semi-naked cave-boy who is trying to rescue his girlfriend, Tina, from the clutches of the “The Dark King”.
Tag Archives: Cult Game
Slap Fight, Arcade
Slap Fight is a vertically-scrolling, progressive weapons shoot ’em up developed by Toaplan and manufactured by Taito 1986. It’s also known as “Alcon” in the US.
Project Firestart, Commodore 64
Developed by Dynamix and published by Electronic Arts in 1988, Project Firestart is a science fiction survival horror game set on a research station orbiting Saturn’s moon, Titan, in 2061. It is considered to be one of the first survival horror games ever made, and is often cited as pioneering many conventions of the genre.
The Lord of the Rings, ZX Spectrum
Developed by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House in 1986, The Lord of the Rings is a text adventure game made by essentially the same team who created the classic Spectrum text adventure, The Hobbit.
Was it the first official Lord of the Rings game ever made? Possibly. There were definitely many unofficial Lord of the Rings rip-off games on the market before this, but this is arguably the first properly-licensed Lord of the Rings game for home computers.
Arnie, Commodore 64
Written by Chris Butler and published by Zeppelin Games in 1992, Arnie is an isometric scrolling shoot ’em up featuring a one-man army (unsurprisingly called Arnie), on a mission to infiltrate an enemy base and assassinate a General.
Nonterraqueous, ZX Spectrum
A game with a strange name – actually the name of the planet you’re on: Nonterraqueous.
You control a robot ‘seeker drone’ on a mission to destroy the master computer that is threatening destruction of the entire planet.
Hamsters, Archimedes
Hamsters is a hilarious action game where the aim is to squash cute animals with a large wooden mallet and to collect the goodies that they drop as a result of being hit… Haha. Take that: cute animals!
Spheres of Chaos, Archimedes
Spheres of Chaos is a colourful and superbly-playable Asteroids tribute originally written for the Acorn Archimedes by Iain McLeod and Matt Black and self-published in 1993.
Fireball II, Archimedes
Fireball II is a garish but playable Arkanoid clone for the Acorn Archimedes, written by Simon Heather and published by Cambridge International Software in 1990.
Although the graphics look a bit amateurish, Fireball II does have a number of surprises under the hood, which make it fun to play.
Mr. Doo, Archimedes
Mr. Doo is an Archimedes clone of Universal‘s classic arcade game, Mr. Do!. And – like many Archimedes clones of existing games – it is only a partial success.
The King of Grabs 