Tag Archives: Ghosts

Splatterhouse, FM Towns

The FM Towns version of the controversial Namco arcade game, Splatterhouse, was developed and published by Ving – in Japan only – in 1992. It doesn’t suffer from any of the censorship, that some versions of the game do, and is a completely uncut and almost perfect port of the arcade original.

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Gauntlet 4, Megadrive/Genesis

Gauntlet 4 (aka Gauntlet IV) was developed by M2 and published by Tengen in 1993, exclusively for the Megadrive/Genesis. In some respects the development of this game is just as interesting as the game itself.

Gauntlet 4 began life as a homebrew remake of Gauntlet, among a small group of friends in Japan, for the Sharp X68000 home computer. Atari Games, the developer of the original Gauntlet, eventually caught wind of the project and commissioned the group (now named M2) to produce a sequel instead.

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The Addams Family, Atari ST

Based in the 1991 film from Paramount Pictures, The Addams Family is a cute and colourful platform game, developed and published by Ocean Software. The Atari ST version, featured here, was first released in 1992.

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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, PC

Developed by Troika Games and published by Sierra On-Line in 2001, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a rich and complex RPG with isometric 2D graphics, set in a fantasy world undergoing an industrial revolution. The game mixes magic and technology in a Victorian-styled “Steampunk” setting; is completely open-ended, and features lots of different races (humans, orcs, gnomes, elves, dwarves), with complicated – even racist – societal themes developing as you discover the world and interact with its many characters.

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Xanadu Next, PC

Xanadu Next was developed by Falcom and published for Windows PCs in Japan in 2005. It is a continuation of the Dragon Slayer series and a spin-off from Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II. The game remained untranslated into English until a worldwide release by XSEED Games in 2016. And I have to say: it’s a wonderful game, and is arguably the pinnacle of the long-running franchise.

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Paperboy 2, ZX Spectrum

Developed by Probe Software and published by Mindscape in 1992, the ZX Spectrum version of Paperboy 2 is not quite as bad as the terrible Amstrad version, which was written by the same two people (David Perry and Nick Bruty). That said: it’s not that much better either…

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Paperboy 2, Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC version of Paperboy 2 was written by David Perry and Nick Bruty for Probe Software, and was published by Mindscape in 1992, and it is by far the worst version of Paperboy 2 available.

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Paperboy 2, Game Boy

The Game Boy version of Paperboy 2 was developed and published by Mindscape in 1992. It is not a bad port overall, and doesn’t suffer too badly from having a small play screen (unlike the Game Gear version, which does).

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Paperboy II, Game Gear

The Game Gear version of Paperboy 2 (aka Paperboy II) was ported by Manley & Associates and published by Tengen in 1993. While it does at least try to emulate the superior Megadrive/Genesis version (and not the inferior Mindscape ports), it falls flat for a number of reasons.

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Paperboy II, Megadrive/Genesis

The Megadrive/Genesis version of Paperboy 2 (or Paperboy II, as the title screen shows) is a real surprise, because it seems to be an attempt by developer Tengen to actually create a real sequel to the Paperboy arcade game. This game doesn’t strictly follow the rather lacklustre template of the Mindscape version of Paperboy 2, but instead does its own thing, which IMHO makes it special.

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