Steve Crow‘s classic Spectrum game, Starquake, was converted to the BBC Micro by Kenton Price and published by Bubble Bus in 1987.
Graphically, the game is rather chunky because it uses a low-resolution screen mode (presumably so that more colours can be used on-screen at the same time), but the gameplay is mostly the same as the original.
Developed by Compile and originally released for the MSX in 1987 Golvellius was converted to the Master System by Sega in 1988. It is an action RPG with overhead, flick-screen exploration, Zelda-like sword-based combat and scrolling sections through caves.
Continue reading Golvellius: Valley of Doom, Sega Master System
Pokémon Yellow (aka Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition) is a remake of Pokémon Red/Blue/Green that was released for the Game Boy Colour in 1998.
Pokémon Red Version was the very first Pokémon game and it was released for the original black and white Game Boy in 1996.
Like all subsequent Pokémon games it came as a pair of releases, so that players could have Pokémon exclusive to their version of the game and so that trading was required between versions – if you wanted to catch every single available Pokémon. Some might view that as cynical, but it wasn’t really intended to make people buy both versions, just to encourage link-up play and trading between them. It does however mean that you can’t catch all the available Pokémon if you only have one version of the game, and have no way of trading with someone else who has the other version.
In Japan, Pokémon Red (originally titled Pocket Monsters: Red) was accompanied by Pokémon Green (Pocket Monsters: Green), but in North America and Europe Pokémon Red was accompanied by Pokémon Blue, which is basically a remake of Green.
This 1985 release from Hewson Consultants is basically a futuristic variation of the classic Avalon/Dragontorc games by Steve Turner. It uses similar presentation and game mechanics to those games, with a central character moving around pseudo 3D rooms, exploring and solving puzzles.
Infiltrator is a classic helicopter action game designed and programmed by Chris Gray and published in 1986 by US Gold (in Europe) and Mindscape (everywhere else).
The aim is to fly a chopper (called the Gizmo DHX-3) to an enemy compound, then infiltrate the base on one of three separate missions. Each mission is split into two halves: a first-person flying game, then an isometric stealth/exploration game.
Known as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The 20th Anniversary in Europe, Interplanetary Mission is an isometric action adventure featuring the famous movie character, E.T. And, while the game is no classic, it is at least much better than the infamous Atari 2600 game from 1982. In fact: it’s not too bad at all.
Also known as Sid Meier’s Colonization, this turn-based strategy game is based on the European colonisation of the New World, starting in 1492 and lasting until 1850. It’s essentially an updated and more-developed version of Sid Meier‘s previous game, Civilization. Which is no bad thing since Civilization is a superb, classic strategy game.
Revelations: Persona is the first game in the Persona series, which is a spin-off from the Shin Megami Tensei series, and was first published by Atlus for the PlayStation in 1996. It was actually the first game in the entire Megami Tensei series to be officially released in the West.
This Amstrad CPC conversion of the classic ZX Spectrum game definitely benefits from having better use of colour than the original. It also runs a little faster than the Speccy version, which makes it slightly more playable.
The King of Grabs 