Tag Archives: Cult Hit

Maniac Mansion, NES/Famicom

The NES/Famicom version of Maniac Mansion was developed and published by Jaleco in 1990 and is still worth playing today. It’s a fine port of a great game and translates well enough to Nintendo‘s machine that it arguably plays even better than the C64 original (although many will cry “Sacrilege!” to that).

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The Oregon Trail, Apple II

The Oregon Trail is a classic Apple II strategy/adventure game where you play as settlers travelling in a covered wagon on The Oregon Trail in 1848. As you might imagine, the trail is hostile and survival on it is brutal, so you have to prepare for your trip in advance by buying food, clothes, ammunition, spare parts, and oxen to pull your wagon.

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Worms, Atari Jaguar

The Atari Jaguar version of Team 17‘s Worms was developed by Ocean Software and first published by Telegames in 1998. It was the final Atari-licensed title to be released for the Jaguar. This port is based on the PlayStation version of Worms, which is a good thing because the PS1 version is arguably the best version of the game ever made.

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Syndicate, Atari Jaguar

Bullfrog‘s classic tactical action game, Syndicate, was published for the Atari Jaguar by Ocean Software in 1995, and while the game works well enough it does suffer a bit from the switch from mouse to gamepad controls.

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Flashback, Atari Jaguar

Delphine Software‘s classic Flashback was ported to the Atari Jaguar and first released by US Gold in 1994. It is a close to perfect conversion of this superb platform adventure game.

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Batman, Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC version of Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond‘s classic isometric platform game is arguably even better than the ZX Spectrum original it is based upon. Mainly because of the extra colours, which make a big difference.

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Syndicate, Amiga

The Amiga version of Bullfrog‘s classic tactical action game, Syndicate, came out at more or less the same time as the original PC version, and – as good as the game is – I have to say that it is not as good as the MS-DOS version, and I’ll explain why…

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Kid Icarus, NES/Famicom

Developed by Nintendo R&D1 (with assistance from Tose Co. Ltd.), and first released for the Famicom Disk System by Nintendo in 1986, Kid Icarus is a cult classic scrolling platform game that is known for its high level of difficulty. The original Japanese title for the game is “Hikari Shinwa: Palthena no Kagami“. An NES cartridge version, with a different ending, an English language title screen and staff credits, was released in 1987.

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Rod Land, Arcade

Rod Land is a one or simultaneous two-player platform game created by Jaleco and first distributed into arcades in 1990. In it you control one of two fairies – Tam or Rit – each armed with a magic wand (or a ‘rod’, as the game’s title implies) which can immobilise monsters that chase you on each stage. The aim of the game is to rescue your ‘mom’ (and later, your dad) who has been kidnapped and taken to the top of a large tower.

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Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, Amiga

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe is the 1990 sequel to The Bitmap Brothers Speedball. The game makes several changes to the original Speedball, but the main change is that teams now have nine players on-field (eight outfield players and a goalkeeper), instead of the previous five.

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