Tag Archives: First-Person

Star Raiders II, Atari 8-bit

Released by Atari in 1986, Star Raiders II was initially designed as a video game based on the film The Last Starfighter. When that idea was eventually dropped the game was re-modelled into Star Raiders II.

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Mercenary, Atari 8-bit

The Atari 8-Bit version of the classic Mercenary is the original, published by Novagen in 1985.

From the opening sequence onwards you know that you are in for a special ride with Mercenary, and exploring the wireframe world of Targ (the name of the planet you’re trapped on) is a video-gaming joy – especially with the easy-to-use controls.

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Koronis Rift, Atari 8-bit

A number of classic Lucasfilm Games‘ titles originated on Atari 8-bit home computers and Koronis Rift is one of them, first released in 1985.

You play a scavenger hunting for lootable scrap on the surface of hostile alien planets.

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Rescue On Fractalus, Atari 8-bit

The Atari 800 version of Rescue On Fractalus was released in 1984 and was the first version available. It was a critical success and drew quite a lot of attention to Atari 8-bit home computers (jealous Commodore 64 owners had to wait almost a year before they got a conversion).

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Codename MAT, ZX Spectrum

Derek Brewster‘s Codename MAT (Mission: Alien Termination) is what I would call a ‘Star Trek’ game, with a liberal ‘borrowing’ of elements from Star Raiders. It was published in 1984 by Micromega.

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Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, PC

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II – as the title says – is a direct sequel to the Star Wars-based shooter, Dark Forces. It was published by LucasArts in 1997.

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Dark Forces, PC

Dark Forces is LucasArts‘ attempt at Doom, with a Star Wars make-over. It was first released in 1995 for MS-DOS PCs.

Looking at it now: it hasn’t aged too well, although it’s still fun to play if you get the controls set up correctly.

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Braxx Bluff, ZX Spectrum

Braxx Bluff was released by Micromega for the ZX Spectrum in 1984. It was written by Tony Poulter.

It’s a weird game – of space exploration – well, the exploration of a planet and its surface.

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Battlecruiser 3000AD, PC

A controversial release from Gametek in 1996, this complex space sim is notorious for having a long and troubled development history.

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