Mmmm. Paradroid ’90 is one of those “classic” games that should have been great, but unfortunately was a big, fat missed opportunity.
Its parent – the Commodore 64 classic Paradroid, by Andrew Braybrook – is a perfect example of simple-but-amazingly-compelling gameplay.
This remake pretty much loses everything that made the original great, in spite of original author Braybrook‘s involvement.
Ranarama, by Steve Turner of Graftgold, originated on the ZX Spectrum in 1987, and was later converted to the Atari ST, Amiga and Amstrad CPC.
Andrew Braybrook‘s 1987 release, Morpheus, is a strange mix of space shooter and resource management. Management of your ship’s shield’s mostly, which can be prolonged by adding extra generators, or by building up the size of the hull.
Intensity was Andrew Braybrook‘s final Commodore 64 game (before moving on to 16-bit machines), and it’s a pretty good rescue the colonists type game, where you control a skimmer that has to contend with all manner of obstacles, all of which either want to kill you, or eat the colonists you’re trying to rescue.
Alleykat is a strange-but-enjoyable mix of vertical shooter and race game. Although – in this case – you ARE taking part in races, but not actually racing anyone.
There isn’t a great deal of information around about Uridium Plus. Like: whether this version has any technical enhancements (like Heavy Metal Paradroid does), or not. I have vague recollections that this version was somehow technically better, although I could be wrong. It’d be nice to know…
Here are a set of grabs from the original Uridium, by Andrew Braybrook. It was first published by Hewson Consultants in 1986, for the Commodore 64.
Arguably the best version of Andrew Braybrook‘s timeless Commodore 64 classic, Paradroid.
Paradroid Metal Edition (aka Heavy Metal Paradroid) is a suped-up version of Paradroid with faster scrolling and more responsive controls.
Steve Turner‘s 1985 sequel to Avalon is about as atmospheric and exciting as a fantasy adventure can get on a ZX Spectrum. It really is amazing that this game fits in to only 48K of memory.
The King of Grabs 