The Commodore 64 version of Lucasfilm Games‘ The Eidolon came out just after the Atari 8-bit original, in 1985. The game divided critics, but in my opinion it is an atmospheric and unusual cave exploration game, with weird-looking monsters and scary-looking dragons, and is still worth playing today.
Tag Archives: Cult Hit
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, FM Towns
LucasArts‘ classic point-and-click adventure, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, was released for the FM Towns by Victor Musical Industries in 1993, and although it was a Japan-only release it does include the English language version, which makes it perfectly playable to Westerners.
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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, FM Towns
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is the second SCUMM game from Lucasfilm Games (aka LucasArts), after Maniac Mansion, with game development led by David Fox, and with Matthew Alan Kane as co-designer and co-programmer. It was originally released for the Commodore 64 in 1988, and this enhanced FM Towns port was published in Japan in 1990 by Fujitsu. The game is playable in both English and Japanese.
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Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, FM Towns
Origin/Blue Sky Productions‘ classic MS-DOS RPG, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, was released for the FM Towns in 1993 by Electronic Arts Victor, Inc.*
*= Electronic Arts Victor was a joint venture between Electronic Arts and the Victor Musical Industries subsidiary of JVC, established in September 1992 in Tokyo. Electronic Arts Victor‘s mission was to translate Electronic Arts‘ library of games to Japanese language and to distribute them in Japan, as well as to create original titles for the Japanese market.
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Syndicate, FM Towns
Although the FM Towns port of Bullfrog‘s classic Syndicate is in Japanese, it’s still a great game to play if you know what you’re doing. Of course this is not the right version of Syndicate to play if it’s your first time (unless you can read Japanese), but it is a sharp port with crisp high resolution graphics and responsive controls.
Marvel Super Heroes, Arcade
Marvel Super Heroes is a one-on-one fighting game developed by Capcom and distributed into arcades in 1995. It is the second Capcom beat ’em up based on characters from the Marvel Comics line and is loosely based on “The Infinity Gauntlet” storyline from the Marvel Universe. The gameplay follows the Street Fighter II template for fighting games and uses six buttons and a joystick for each player. The game can be played in either normal or ‘turbo’ mode.
The Sentinel, Amstrad CPC
Geoff Crammond‘s classic The Sentinel was first released for the Amstrad CPC by Firebird in 1987, and it is one of the best 8-bit versions of this weird and wonderful game.
The Eidolon, Atari 8-Bit
Using an enhanced version of the fractal engine created for Rescue On Fractalus, The Eidolon is a first-person action game – developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by Epyx in North America in 1985 and Activision in Europe in 1986 – that divided critics when it was first released. While Zzap!64 magazine gave it 97% and a gold medal; raved about the game, and said that it was “not to be missed“, the reviewers of Computer Gaming World disliked it, describing it as “one of the worst games of 1986“… There’s no accounting for taste…
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, NES/Famicom
The third game in the Castlevania series, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, was first released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1989 in Japan (under the title of “Akumajō Densetsu“). A North American NES release followed in 1990, and a European release in 1992.
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Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, NES/Famicom
The second game in the Castlevania series, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, was originally released in Japan (as “Dracula II – Noroi no Fuuin“) for the Famicom Disk System in 1987, and in North America for the NES in 1988. Europe had to wait until 1990 for a release of the game.
The King of Grabs 