The 1984 Amstrad CPC conversion of the ZX Spectrum game, Technician Ted (aka The Chip Factory starring Technician Ted), is pretty much identical to the original, except that it has a rather garish colour palette.
Tag Archives: difficult
Double Take, Commodore 64
Created by Denton Designs and published by Ocean Software in 1987, Double Take is a weird fantasy shooter/puzzle game, and is one of those games where – even if you read the manual – you’re still unlikely to know about what the f**k is going on! I spent a few hours recently trying to work this game out, and came away just as confused as when I started…
Conan, Commodore 64
Datasoft‘s 1984 release, Conan, is a curious game. It doesn’t seem to be directly related to either of the two Conan films released in the early ’80s (although it does use artwork from the sequel, Conan the Destroyer), so my guess is that it was a quick cash-in on the popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger by the developers.
The game was originally written for the Apple II by Eric Robinson and Eric Parker, and the Commodore 64 version was created by Ron J. Fortier and John Butrovich.
Castlevania Chronicles, PlayStation
Castlevania Chronicles is a remake of Akumajō Dracula – the first Castlevania game – and it was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET) and first published by Konami in 2001. In it, you play as the vampire hunter Simon Belmont, who must defeat Dracula and save Transylvania from the vampire’s tyranny.
Nebulus, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum port of Nebulus was coded by John M. Phillips – the author of the original C64 version – and is therefore a very authentic conversion of this excellent platform/puzzle game. It was first published by Hewson Consultants in 1987.
Sorcerian: Dragon Slayer V, MSX
The fifth episode in the Dragon Slayer series – Sorcerian – was originally released in 1987 for the PC-88. The MSX2 version was ported by Tierheit and published – in Japan only – by Brother Industries (on their Takeru label) in 1991. A fan translation into English is available, but I did notice that there are still a few untranslated passages in the game.
Sorcerian: Dragon Slayer V, PC
Sorcerian is the fifth instalment in the Dragon Slayer series. It was originally released in 1987 – in Japan – for the PC-88, and the MS-DOS version was converted, localised into English and published by Sierra On-Line in 1990.
Legacy of the Wizard, NES/Famicom
Legacy of the Wizard is the North American localisation of Dragon Slayer IV, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Brøderbund in 1989. It’s a fantasy-based platform/action game featuring a family of four heroes – and their pet – on a mission to retrieve a mystical sword and slay a dragon, inside a sprawling dungeon.
Dragon Slayer IV: Draslay Family, MSX
Originally released in Japan as “Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family“, the version I’m showing here is the fan-translated MSX2 version of the fourth game in the Dragon Slayer series. The game was developed and published by Falcom in 1987, and the fan translation was released by “MSX Translations” in 2010 under the title of “Dragon Slayer IV: Draslay Family“.
Romancia: Dragon Slayer Jr., NES/Famicom
The Nintendo Famicom version of Romancia – aka Dragon Slayer Jr. – was developed by Compile and published by Tokyo Shoseki, in Japan only, in 1987. A fan translation makes the game playable in English (and Spanish), which is good because this version of the game is considerably better than the MSX version.