When I first played Back Track, my instincts screamed at me that this was a terrible game. The graphics are messy; the enemies look awful; the explosions have a really bad horizontal raster-style visual effect; health packs are called “Band-Aids“; the weapons are unimpressive; the draw distance is masked with a solid black shadow, which is disconcerting; the environments appear flat, empty and uninteresting, and the premise of the game – to rescue kidnapped humans from inside tubes – doesn’t seem very exciting. BUT… I persisted with it and found Back Track to actually be quite absorbing and challenging, when I eventually got into it.
Tag Archives: futuristic
Return of the Jedi, ZX Spectrum
Developed by Consult Computer Systems and published by Domark in 1989, the ZX Spectrum port of Atari‘s Return of the Jedi is an okay attempt to bring the fair-to-middling arcade game to Sinclair‘s diminutive home computer.
The Empire Strikes Back, ZX Spectrum
A port of the arcade sequel to Star Wars, released into arcades in 1985; converted to the Spectrum by Vektor Grafix and published by Domark in 1988.
Star Wars, ZX Spectrum
This port of the classic Atari arcade game, Star Wars, on the ZX Spectrum, was developed by Vektor Grafix and published by Domark in 1987.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Arcade
Based on the 1983 film of the same name, Atari‘s Return of the Jedi was first released into arcades in 1984, and the game uses 2D, rasterized graphics, instead of vector-based graphics, like the Star Wars arcade game does.
RoboCop, PC
The 1989 MS-DOS version of RoboCop is part conversion of the Data East arcade game, and partly does it own thing, with level structures that connect rooms above and below, with staircases that instantly flip the screen, rather than scroll it. The majority of levels do scroll horizontally, though, although the scrolling is very jerky.
Shadow Skimmer, Commodore 64
Published by The Edge in 1987, Shadow Skimmer is an overhead scrolling shooter set on a large, maze-like spaceship. At first glance, the game looks a bit like Andrew Braybrook‘s Paradroid, but it plays much differently.
Star Wars Episode I: Obi Wan’s Adventures, Game Boy Color
Developed by HotGen and published by THQ and LucasArts for the Game Boy Color in 2000, Star Wars Episode I: Obi Wan’s Adventures presents you with the opportunity to play as Obi Wan Kenobi, the young Jedi apprentice, during the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Continue reading Star Wars Episode I: Obi Wan’s Adventures, Game Boy Color
RoboCop, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad version of Ocean‘s RoboCop came out in 1989, and it is much like the Commodore 64 version, but with a smaller play window and chunkier graphics.
Total Eclipse, 3DO
Developed and published by Crystal Dynamics for the 3DO in 1994, Total Eclipse is a third-person space shooter with impressive graphics (for the time), but two major flaws…
The King of Grabs 