Galaxian is an iconic video game from the golden age of gaming history.
In fact, Galaxian was Namco‘s response to Space Invaders. It came out in 1979 and enthralled gamers with its hypnotic but brutal gameplay. Which it still does, to this day.
Galaxian is an iconic video game from the golden age of gaming history.
In fact, Galaxian was Namco‘s response to Space Invaders. It came out in 1979 and enthralled gamers with its hypnotic but brutal gameplay. Which it still does, to this day.
Released into arcades in 1980, Stern Electronics‘ Berzerk is a simple multi-directional shooter where the aim is to rack up as many points as possible by shooting robots in a maze.
Space Invaders, owned and manufactured by Taito, is the best-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product of all time.
I have a fondness for old arcade shoot ’em ups. Particularly the first colour arcade shooters of the early Eighties. Just hearing the sound effects takes me back to my childhood… Playing Space Invaders at the local leisure centre. Galaxian at the video lending library. Phoenix at the seaside…
I’ve covered a few old arcade shooters already on here, but this ‘special’ is meant to fill in a few gaps. Particularly with regards to pioneering video games of the early ‘colour era’ of arcade machines.
***CANNED GAME***
Lode Runner on the Atari Lynx was developed but never officially released. A prototype version was leaked onto the internet in 2008.
It’s pretty much complete in terms of gameplay – all 150 original levels have been verified as being in there and the game plays as it should, without any real problems.
Lode Runner on the Amstrad CPC is a strange one: it’s like a monochromatic version of the Atari ST version.
Lode Runner on the 16-bit Atari ST is an interesting European take on this classic American platform game. It was developed by French company Loriciel in 1989 and may only have been released in France. Well, the only version I could find was in French.
There isn’t a great deal of information available about Lode Runner on the MSX. From what I can tell, Broderbund themselves developed it, with some Japanese help. Sony published it in Japan in 1984.
Lode Runner on the BBC Micro was part of the Software Projects conversion releases of 1984 and is another fine release on the Lode Runner franchise train.
Part of the later Software Projects UK releases, Lode Runner was first made available on the ZX Spectrum in 1984.
The small graphics and precise gameplay are perfectly suited to the Spectrum and as a result the game enjoyed some success on the system.