Sega‘s 1985 arcade version of Choplifter is a rare beast indeed. It is a game that went from home computers, to the arcades, when usually the opposite is true. Dan Gorlin‘s helicopter shooter/rescue game was deemed good enough to be completely reprogrammed and put into an arcade cabinet.
Tag Archives: influential
Choplifter, Atari 8-bit
The Atari 8-bit home computer version of Dan Gorlin‘s Choplifter was published by Brøderbund in 1982. It came out not long after the Apple II original.
Starglider, PC
The 1987 PC MS-DOS version of Argonaut Software‘s classic 3D shooter, Starglider, was ported by Realtime Games Software, who did the excellent Amstrad and ZX Spectrum ports. Unfortunately, the game is available only with four-colour CGA graphics, which does diminish the look of the game significantly.
Starglider, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Argonaut Software‘s classic 3D shooter, Starglider, was developed by Realtime Games Software, who also coded the excellent ZX Spectrum version. It could be argued that it is even better than the Spectrum version, because it runs faster and also uses more colours in the polygons, although the game does have a smaller cockpit and play window than the Spectrum version.
Starglider, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Argonaut‘s classic Starglider is actually surprisingly good. Or, rather: the 128K version is very good (the 48K version plays well enough, but it lacks the digitised speech and other enhancements, so is a little plain). And the main reason Starglider on the Speccy is respectable, is because it was converted by Realtime Games Software, who were pioneers in the field of Spectrum-based 3D games, having created the legendary Starstrike, Starstrike II and Carrier Command (among others).
Starglider, Amiga
Argonaut Software‘s Starglider, when it first came out, was a flashy release. It came in a big blue box, with a novella, a manual, and a single floppy disk. Magazines were raving about it, and I remember buying it… for the ZX Spectrum. LOL.
Starglider, Atari ST
The Atari ST version of Argonaut Software‘s pioneering 3D shooter, Starglider, first came out in 1986 – a year before the Amiga version (for some reason – I don’t know why).
Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child, Atari ST
Developed by Dan Gorlin Productions and originally released for the Atari ST by Brøderbund in 1988, Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child is a simple but brilliant shooter/collect ’em up with analogue controls.
Continue reading Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child, Atari ST
Stunt Car Racer, Atari 8-bit
Geoff Crammond‘s classic Stunt Car Racer was converted to Atari 8-bit systems by homebrew coders Fandal and Irgendwer in 2018. And it is an excellent port that plays identically to the C64 version it is based upon.
X, Game Boy
This game – called simply “X” – was a Japan-only release, in 1992, on the original black and white Game Boy, but its conception and development would later have a profound effect on Nintendo‘s confidence in producing 3D-based games.
X was created by British developer Argonaut Software (specifically, by Dylan Cuthbert, who was later infamously ‘poached’ by Nintendo from Argonaut), and was a demonstration of their ability to produce 3D-based games on home video game systems. This impressed Nintendo, who then tasked Argonaut with creating a new 3D game on their Super Nintendo console, which eventually became the classic Star Fox. And the rest is history… Sort of.
The King of Grabs 