The Snowman by Quicksilva is based on the Raymond Briggs novel of the same name, but bears about as much relation to it as a penguin does to an albatross…
Tag Archives: early
Bank Panic, Arcade
Sega‘s 1984 arcade hit Bank Panic is a simple reaction game where you play the role of a bank clerk who must answer the various doors in a bank to serve customers, some of whom are genuine and some of whom are bandits.
Antarctic Adventure, MSX
Konami‘s Antarctic Adventure was first released on the MSX in 1983 in Japan – coming to Europe and North America later, in 1984.
Juno First, Arcade
Juno First is a kind of overhead shoot ’em up, but with a three-quarters perspective into the screen.
Adventure, Atari 2600
Adventure – designed and programmed by Warren Robinett and released for the Atari 2600 in 1979 – broke new ground at the time, on a number of different levels.
Food Fight, Arcade
Atari‘s Food Fight is an interesting arcade game. It was initially developed by a ‘rival’ company, GCC, who were involved in a legal battle with Atari. The legal dispute was settled out of court, leading to an agreement that GCC would produce games for Atari, and Food Fight was one of the games made for that deal. It was released into arcades in March 1983.
Looping, Arcade
Looping is an old arcade game first released in 1982 by Venture Line.
In it you fly a plane across a horizontally-scrolling cityscape, doing loop-the-loops and trying your hardest not to hit the buildings.
Wanted: Monty Mole, ZX Spectrum
Back in 1984 in the UK there was an infamous, historic miner’s strike that lasted for over a year and caused hardship for many communities. Rather than sit and spectate, young Peter Harrap wrote a satirical platform game about a mining mole and published it, with all the profits going to help the struggling, striking miners. That game was Wanted: Monty Mole, and it launched Pete Harrap on his career making video games, and also the Monty Mole ‘franchise’. Although I can’t really call it a franchise because it wasn’t. It was simply a series of games.
Tutankham, Arcade
Konami‘s 1982 arcade game Tutankham is a weird horizontally-scrolling shooter where you play a gun-toting archaeologist, fighting off snakes, mummies, and other meanies, inside a maze-like Egyptian tomb.
Tron, Arcade
The 1982 arcade version of Tron is well-remembered by many gamers. It was developed by ENCOM International and manufactured and distributed by Bally Midway.
It features a four-stage video-gaming challenge via some of the scenes from the famous film (ironically, about video games).
The King of Grabs 