Realtime Games‘ 1988 hit, Carrier Command, is a compelling mixture of 3D simulation and real-time strategy.
In it you take control of a futuristic, robotic aircraft carrier and must work your way through an island archipelago, taking control of each island and competing against a rival carrier.
Developer Paul Woakes takes the Mercenary series much further in Damocles (1990) – the second game in the series.
What is interesting about Demon’s Crest – a 1994 Super Nintendo release from Capcom – is that it is a spin-off from the Ghosts ‘N Goblins series.
Eagle-eyed gamers will recognise the red-skinned, demonic lead character – called Firebrand – as an enemy from the original Ghosts ‘N Goblins arcade game. In fact: Demon’s Crest is actually the third game featuring Firebrand, after Gargoyle’s Quest (Game Boy), and Gargoyle’s Quest II (NES).
Sega‘s tremendous 1987 arcade hit, After Burner, used powerful sprite scaling technology in its cabinets back in the day, to create the mind-bogglingly fast on-screen visuals.
Williams Electronics‘ 1982 arcade classic Joust sees you atop a flying bird, trying to knock other riders off their flying birds.
Considered by many to be the best game on the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon Saga is a level-grinding RPG set in a world where people fly dragons (so God knows why it is called “Dragoon” – other than bad translation!).
It was first released in 1998 and was in development for two years.
Novagen‘s classic 3D exploration game, Mercenary, was first released for the Commodore 64 in 1985. It was designed and coded by Paul Woakes.
Manchester-based Vortex Software first published Cyclone on the ZX Spectrum in 1985.
A colourful helicopter action game, Cyclone was created by Costa Panayi – an early pioneer of ZX Spectrum games design, and an alumni of The University of Salford – and is a challenging race to pick up crates from a series of islands that are caught in the grip of a powerful weather system.
Sega‘s brilliant Super Monkey Ball series reaches its pinnacle with this Nintendo GameCube sequel.
The King of Grabs 